Radiotracer effective for detection and assessment of lung fibrosis Reston, VA (Embargoed until 4:30 p.m. EDT, Saturday, June 12, 2021)--Positron emission tomography (PET) using a 68Ga-labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) can noninvasively identify and monitor pulmonary fibrosis, according to research presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2021 Annual Meeting. By binding to activated fibroblasts present in affected lungs, FAPI-PET allows for direct imaging of the disease process. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) causes substantial scarring to the lungs, making it difficult for those impacted to breathe. It is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, with more than 40,000 deaths annually. A major challenge in diagnosis and treatment of IPF is the lack of a specific diagnostic tool that can noninvasively diagnose and assess disease activity, which is crucial for the management of pulmonary fibrosis patients. "CT scans can provide physicians with information on anatomic features and other effects of IPF but not its current state of activity. We sought to identify and image a direct noninvasive biomarker for early detection, disease monitoring and accurate assessment of treatment response," said Carolina de Aguiar Ferreira, PhD, a research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. In the study, researchers targeted the fibroblast activation protein (FAP) that is overexpressed in IPF as a potential biomarker. Two groups of mice--one group with induced pulmonary fibrosis and one control group--were scanned with the FAPI-based PET/CT radiotracer 68Ga-FAPI-46 at multiple time points. Compared to the control group, the mice with induced pulmonary fibrosis had a much higher uptake of the radiotracer, allowing researchers to successfully identify and evaluate areas of IPF. "Further validation of 68Ga-FAPI-46 for the detection and monitoring of pulmonary fibrosis would make this molecular imaging tool the first technique for early, direct, and noninvasive detection of disease. It would also provide an opportunity for molecular imaging to reduce the frequency of lung biopsies, which carry their own inherent risks," noted Ferreira. "This development will demonstrate that functional imaging can play an invaluable role in evaluation of the disease process." Abstract 10. "Targeting Activated Fibroblasts for Non-invasive Detection of Lung Fibrosis," Carolina Ferreira, Zachary Rosenkrans, Ksenija Bernau, Jeanine Batterton, Christopher Massey, Alan McMillan, Nathan Sandbo, Ali Pirasteh and Reinier Hernandez, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, Wisconsin; and Melissa Moore, Frank Valla and Christopher Drake, Sofie Biosciences, Dulles, Virginia. ### All 2021 SNMMI Annual Meeting abstracts can be found online at https:/ / jnm. snmjournals. org/ content/ 62/ supplement_1 . About the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, vital elements of precision medicine that allow diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. SNMMI's members set the standard for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine practice by creating guidelines, sharing information through journals and meetings and leading advocacy on key issues that affect molecular imaging and therapy research and practice. For more information, visit http://www. snmmi. org . This story has been published on: 2021-06-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: Saudi Arabia bans non-residents from hajj Saudi Arabia announced Saturday it will allow 60,000 residents vaccinated against Covid to perform this year's hajj, but Muslims from abroad will be barred for a second straight year. The hajj a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lives typically packs millions of pilgrims into congested religious sites and could be a major source of contagion amid the coronavirus pandemic. This year it would be "open for nationals and residents of the kingdom, limited to 60,000 pilgrims", the hajj ministry said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency. The pilgrimage, scheduled to be held in July, would be limited to those who have been vaccinated and are aged 18-65 with no chronic illnesses, it said. Only up to 10,000 Muslims took part in last year's hajj, a far cry from the 2.5 million who participated in the five-day annual pilgrimage in 2019 before the pandemic. "In light of what the whole world is witnessing with the coronavirus pandemic... and the emergence of new variants, the relevant authorities have continued to monitor the global health situation," the ministry said. Saudi Arabia said those wishing to perform the hajj would have to apply online, without specifying how many foreign residents would be among the 60,000 pilgrims. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-06-13. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: Nato need to frame a 'stronger policy on China' Leaders of Nato countries should forge a stronger common policy toward an increasingly dominant China, the alliance's secretary-general said Sunday on the eve of a Nato summit in Brussels. In an interview with Canadian public network CBC, Jens Stoltenberg emphasized that China has the second largest defence budget in the world, the biggest navy, and is investing massively in new military materiel, which "affects our security." "China does not share our values. We see that in the way they crack down on democratic protests in Hong Kong, how they oppress minorities like the Uyghurs" in western China, as well as how they use modern technology to monitor their population "in a way we have never seen before," Stoltenberg said. "So all of this makes it important for Nato to develop a policy, to strengthen our policy, when it comes to China." His remarks came as the just-ended G7 summit in Britain took a stronger collective stance toward China than ever before, calling on Beijing to "respect human rights and fundamental freedoms" and allow free navigation in the South China Sea. Stoltenberg, in his interview, acknowledged that it was important for other countries to deal with China on common problems like climate change and arms control. But he denounced Beijing's continued detention of two Canadian nationals, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on espionage charges as "absolutely unacceptable." Ottawa has called the men's detention "arbitrary," viewing it as reprisal for Canada's arrest, at US request, of an executive of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. "When a country does something they don't like, they react in aggressive ways," Stoltenberg said of China. The secretary-general acknowledged that there had been some "challenging discussions" among Nato allies during the Trump administration. But he said the alliance remained "extremely robust and strong." Trump often complained that other Nato members were not paying their fair share of the common defence load and even reportedly spoke of leaving the alliance. But now, Stoltenberg said, "we have a US president, President Biden, who is strongly committed to Nato, to European security, and is ready to invest more in Nato." Biden arrived in Brussels from Britain on Sunday, as leaders of the 29 other Nato member countries were converging there for the Monday summit. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-06-14. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. China making plans for future space exploration: official Xinhua) 08:58, June 13, 2021 The China National Space Administration released new images on June 11, 2021 taken by the country's first Mars rover Zhurong. The photo shows China's national flag unfurled from the glistening landing platform on the red planet. (Photo provided to Xinhua) BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- China is making plans for the future development of its space program, including exploring asteroids and the Jovian system, collecting samples from Mars and exploring the polar region of the moon, said an official from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Saturday. Xu Hongliang, a spokesperson of the CNSA, said at a press conference held in Beijing that about the year 2025 China plans to launch a probe to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid and explore a comet in one mission. China plans to launch a Mars sample-return mission and a Jovian system exploration mission sometime about 2030, Xu said. In addition, China plans to launch the Chang'e-6 and Chang'e-7 lunar probes in the coming five years to explore the environment and resources and collect samples from the polar region of the moon, Xu said. By the end of 2022, China will have completed the construction of its space station, in which astronauts can stay for prolonged periods to carry out scientific experiments, Xu said. "We should coordinate space science, space technology and space applications, in accordance with the principle of being technically realizable, financially affordable and scientifically contributive," said Xu. The development of heavy-lift launch vehicles, reusable space transportation systems and satellite internet will also be the focus of future development plans, according to Xu. The CNSA released new images taken by the country's first Mars rover Zhurong on Friday, signifying the complete success of China's first Mars exploration mission. Xu said that China has seen new breakthroughs in the country's Tianwen-1 mission. The probe has, for the first time, successfully completed the interplanetary flight, soft-landing and roving on an extraterrestrial planet. The completion of the orbiting, landing and roving on the red planet in one mission indicates that the country has come to the forefront of the world in Mars exploration, Xu said. He also noted that this is the first time that the country has carried out monitoring and communication activities over a distance of 400 million km and obtained first-hand scientific data on Mars. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Director of central gov't liaison office in HKSAR stresses CPC leadership in advancing "one country, two systems" Xinhua) 09:06, June 13, 2021 Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, speaks during a forum under the theme of "the Communist Party of China (CPC) and 'one country, two systems'" to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, in Hong Kong, south China, June 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Gang) HONG KONG, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday stressed the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in advancing the cause of "one country, two systems." The CPC has pioneered, advanced and upheld the cause of "one country, two systems," Luo said when delivering a speech at a forum here. Steady progress has been made in the practice of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong under the leadership of the CPC since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Luo said. The constitutional foundation of "one country, two systems" has been further consolidated as the central authorities made five interpretations of the Basic Law of the HKSAR, promulgated the national security law in the HKSAR and improved Hong Kong's electoral system, Luo said. With the solid support of the mainland, Hong Kong's economy withstood two financial crises and two major epidemic outbreaks and remained strong amid challenges, Luo said. Hong Kong has been encouraged to give full play to its advantages, enhance exchanges and cooperation with the mainland while participating in international cultural exchanges, and its international influence is on the rise, he said. Those who are still bad-mouthing Hong Kong and claiming the "death of two systems" will be proved categorically wrong yet again by history, Luo said. While "one country, two systems" has been a world-recognized success, misconceptions and distortions have also emerged in the process as a result of propaganda by anti-China forces, Luo said, noting that it is the decisive actions of the central authorities that set things right and helped Hong Kong return from chaos to order. "One country" is the precondition and foundation of "two systems," he said. Facts will continue to prove that upholding the leadership of the CPC is actually upholding "one country, two systems" and the constitutional order of the HKSAR as stipulated by the national Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law, and safeguarding the bright future of Hong Kong and the fundamental well-being of Hong Kong people, Luo said. The forum, under the theme of "CPC and 'one country, two systems,'" was held in Hong Kong to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. More than 650 people from various sectors in Hong Kong attended the forum, including Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying, vice chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, as well as HKSAR chief executive Carrie Lam. Enditem (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) U.S. should stop shilly-shallying by moving decisively to sanction-lifting: Chinese envoy Xinhua) 09:16, June 13, 2021 Wang Qun (2nd L, Front), Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, attends a meeting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria, on June 12, 2021. The United States should stop shilly-shallying by moving decisively to complete and thorough sanction-lifting, Wang Qun said Saturday as a new round of talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), started. (EU Delegation Vienna/Handout via Xinhua) VIENNA, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States should stop shilly-shallying by moving decisively to complete and thorough sanction-lifting, a Chinese envoy said Saturday as a new round of talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), started. Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, made the remarks after the latest meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, chaired by European Union (EU) official Enrique Mora and attended by representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran. The talks have entered the 11th week and are in the final stages, but negotiations over sanction-lifting and related issues have been dragging on and yet to be resolved, Wang said. "Iran's concerns about this issue are legitimate and reasonable," Wang said, noting that in order to resume full compliance with the JCPOA, the United States should first lift its unilateral sanctions against Iran, including "long-arm jurisdiction" against third-party entities and individuals. The U.S. conventional arms embargo on Iran, which is inconsistent with the JCPOA and relevant resolutions of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, should also be completely removed, said the Chinese diplomat. The United States lifted some sanctions on Thursday, but it looks somewhat like they were "shilly-shallying," Wang said. Now that the United States has made the political decision to return to the JCPOA, all relevant sanctions should be lifted "in a complete, clean and thorough manner," he added. At the same time, through negotiations, practical and effective measures should be taken to prevent the relevant parties from arbitrarily withdrawing from the JCPOA again and re-imposing sanctions, noted the Chinese diplomat. In the current final stage of the negotiations, it is hoped that all parties concerned will redouble their efforts, maintain a rational and pragmatic attitude and reach a package of solutions as soon as possible, he added. Alain Matton, an EU spokesperson, told journalists on Saturday that the EU will continue with the talks with all the participants to the JCPOA and separately with the United States "to find ways to get very close to a final agreement in the coming days." Matton quoted Mora as saying a few days ago at a UN Security Council meeting that they are "working non-stop to revive the JCPOA in all its aspects, specifically the nuclear activities and the sanction-lifting." "We are making progress but the negotiations are intense on a number of issues including on how steps are to be implemented," said the spokesperson. The U.S. administration under former President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and unilaterally reimposed sanctions on Iran. In response to the U.S. moves, Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its JCPOA commitments from May 2019. The JCPOA Joint Commission began to meet in offline format on April 6 in Vienna to continue previous discussions in view of a possible return of the United States to the JCPOA and on how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA. Enditem (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) China's migrating elephants linger by township in Yunnan Xinhua) 09:17, June 13, 2021 Aerial photo taken on June 12, 2021 shows a herd of wild Asian elephants in Shije Township of Yimen County, Yuxi City, southwest China's Yunnan Province. The wandering wild Asian elephant herd were seen lingering by Shijie Township in Yimen County. (Xinhua) KUNMING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The wandering herd of wild Asian elephants that has caught global attention is lingering in the Shijie Township in the city of Yuxi, southwest China's Yunnan Province, authorities said Saturday. A male elephant, which broke free from the herd seven days ago, is now about 14.3 km away in Kunming's Jinning District, after leaving Anning, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of the provincial capital Kunming at 5:40 p.m. on Friday. All the elephants are safe and sound, according to the headquarters in charge of monitoring their migration. Continuous rainfall is complicating efforts to monitor the elephants and take safety precautions. Authorities have dispatched emergency staff, vehicles and drones to help evacuate and protect local residents, while ensuring the safety of the elephants. They fed 2 tonnes of food to the animals on Saturday. The herd traveled approximately 500 km from their forest home in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture before reaching Kunming late last Wednesday. For over a month, authorities have sent police to escort the herd, evacuated roads to facilitate their passage and used food to distract them from entering densely populated areas. Asian elephants are under A-level state protection in China, where they are mostly found in Yunnan. Thanks to enhanced protection efforts, the wild elephant population in the province has grown to about 300, up from 193 in the 1980s. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) China-donated COVID-19 vaccines handed over to Afghanistan Xinhua) 09:22, June 13, 2021 KABUL, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A handover ceremony of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been held at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul. Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Acting Minister of Public Health Wahid Majrooh, senior officials from the Afghan government and Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu attended the event on Saturday. "Vaccine is a gift of life and we thank China for its help," President Ghani told audience at the handover ceremony. Welcoming the expansion of Afghanistan-China relations in various fields, especially economic, trade and transit relations, the Afghan leader said the donation of medical supplies and vaccines of China would help Afghanistan defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Wang said China would provide more assistance to Afghanistan to help Afghans contain the pandemic. The ambassador noted that as a friendly neighbor living in harmony, a close partner taking the same journey and a good brother sharing weal and woe, China would continue to join hands with Afghanistan to fight the pandemic in solidarity and help Afghanistan in this regard to the best of its ability. China would continue to support the Peace and Reconciliation Process in which the Afghan government and people play an important role and all parties participate widely. The batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived in Kabul on Thursday. (Web editor: Bianji, Hongyu) Chinese Embassy in Romania opposes abuse of "national security" concept to exclude foreign companies Xinhua) 09:23, June 13, 2021 BUCHAREST, June 12 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes excluding any country or enterprise via non-technical standards and discriminatory terms, as well as the abuse of the "national security" concept to undermine the principle of fair competition and the spirit of the rule of law, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Romania said late Friday. The spokesperson made the statement soon after the Romanian president on Friday signed the country's 5G law passed earlier by the parliament. Many in Romania believe that although the law does not mention Chinese companies, it actually excludes Chinese companies from participating in the building of Romania's 5G network. China respects Romania's right to legislate on cybersecurity, but it is also highly concerned about whether Chinese companies can obtain a fair, just, open and transparent business environment in the country, said the spokesperson. "Judging cybersecurity in isolation from industry norms and technical standards is against scientific common sense, denying the principles of market economy and fair competition," said the spokesperson, stressing that "this is typical political discrimination and repressive behavior," as it abuses the concept of "national security" to exclude specific countries and enterprises. "We call on the Romanian side to firmly uphold the spirit of the rule of law, treat Chinese enterprises in a fair, just and non-discriminatory manner, and take practical actions to safeguard the overall situation of practical cooperation between the two sides," said the spokesperson, stressing that the Chinese government will continue to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Romanian Parliament passed the bill on 5G network construction on May 19 and June 7 respectively. (Web editor: Bianji, Hongyu) Commissioner's office of Chinese foreign ministry in HKSAR firmly upholds anti-foreign sanctions law Xinhua) 09:26, June 13, 2021 HONG KONG, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the Commissioner of China's Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Saturday said it firmly upholds and supports the anti-foreign sanctions law. The law was adopted at the closing meeting of a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China on Thursday. A spokesperson for the commissioner's office made the remarks in response to media inquiries about the office's view on the law. The law is an urgent necessity in order to counter the hegemonism and power politics of some Western countries, the spokesperson said. The law is also an urgent necessity to safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and development interests, and to coordinate both the domestic and overseas-related rule-of-law, adding that the legislation has important practical and long-term significance, the spokesperson said. For a long time, some Western countries interfered in China's internal affairs by imposing illegal sanctions on related state organs, organizations and individuals on the pretext of upholding democracy and human rights, with the aim to curb China's development, which is a serious violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, the spokesperson said. With reference to international common practice, China has formulated and implemented the anti-foreign sanctions law, aiming at safeguarding China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, and protecting the lawful rights and interests of the Chinese people and organizations, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the countermeasures stipulated in the law are essentially different from the "unilateral sanctions" and hegemonic behaviors by some Western countries, as the law does not target any specific country but only aims at an extremely minority of foreign entities and individuals damaging China's sovereignty, security and development interests. Rather than hampering the legal operation of foreign companies, the law will facilitate China's further opening-up, the spokesperson said. China will as always welcome foreign businesses, provide them with a predictable legal environment and a stable business environment, and protect their legitimate rights and interests, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said any external interference in China's internal affairs will be hit back by the Chinese people including Hong Kong compatriots, and any attempt to damage China's sovereignty, security and development interests by illegal unilateral sanctions and hegemonic actions is doomed to fail. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Advanced technologies play vital role in Guangzhous response to COVID-19 resurgence 09:47, June 13, 2021 By Du Yifei ( People's Daily Photo shows air-supported structures for COVID-19 test in the Guangzhou Gymnasium in Guangzhou city, south Chinas Guangdong province. (Photo/Guangzhou Daily) Since it found new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in late May, Guangzhou, capital city of south Chinas Guangdong province, has launched the most extensive nucleic acid testing campaign among all cities in the world. From June 4 to 6, the city collected nearly 18.7 million nucleic acid samples. Research institutes and sci-tech companies in Guangzhou have provided a vast quantity of advanced technological products and greatly supported the city in epidemic prevention and control, said Sun Xiang, deputy head of Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, at a news briefing on June 9. Guangzhou is home to more than 5,500 bio-pharmaceutical enterprises, ranking third among cities in China. Of these bio-pharmaceutical enterprises, over 1,000 are high-tech companies, and many are leading companies in niche markets of the biomedicine industry. KingMed Diagnostics, a Guangzhou-based medical diagnostic information services provider, is able to test over 350,000 tubes of nucleic acid samples in this city on a daily basis, setting a new record in the world. The company has accumulatively tested a total of over 80 million samples so far, becoming the worlds highest ranked institution in terms of the number of tests completed. It has been confirmed that the recent resurgence of local COVID-19 infections in Guangzhou was triggered by mutated virus strains first found in India, which feature a shorter incubation period, faster transmission and higher viral load. For the mutated virus strains, Guangzhou sci-tech companies have efficiently completed the research and development of more accurate testing kits. Daan Gene, a biomedical high-tech enterprise in Guangzhou, developed a testing kit that can accurately identify the coronavirus variant first discovered in India based on point mutations in gene sequences with high sensitivity and specificity. Wondfo, a Guangzhou company focusing on the research and development, production, and sale of point-of-care testing products, has rolled out a testing kit which can detect a wide variety of COVID-19 variants, including the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants. To further improve the efficiency in nucleic acid testing, an air-inflated lab was put into operation at the Guangzhou Gymnasium in the city on June 1. It is the first of its kind in Guangdong province. Operated by KingMed Diagnostics, the air-inflated lab, together with mobile testing vans and other facilities, has formed a highly efficient testing model, with the daily testing capacity reaching 350,000 tubes. If employing a 10-in-1 mixed testing approach, which means put swab samples collected from 10 people in one tube for nucleic acid detection, and then inform the 10 people to undergo separate isolation and testings to further identify the carrier of the positive sample if a 10-in-1 sample is positive, the air-inflated lab and its complementary facilities can test a maximum of 3.5 million samples on a daily basis. After the COVID-19 resurgence, Guangzhou has locked down many neighborhoods for epidemic prevention and control, which poses a challenge for guaranteeing the supply of daily necessities. As one of Chinas new generation of national AI innovative development pilot zones, the city has given full play to AI companies in supplying daily necessities. Many companies, including WeRide, Pony.ai, Baidu and JD.com, sent their autonomous vehicles to locked-down areas, effectively tackling problems in the transportation of supplies. Meanwhile, relevant government departments in Guangzhou have adopted robots that can take elevators to bring supplies upstairs to residents in time, thus solving the problem of manpower shortage in the delivery of living materials to residents. This is the first time that China, and even the world, adopts autonomous driving technology in anti-epidemic emergency, said Chen Jianhua, chief economist at the Guangzhou Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau. Driverless vehicles have been used in Baihedong and Zhongnan subdistricts, both high-risk areas in Guangzhou. As of June 8, a total of 23 autonomous vehicles and 13 self-driving logistics vans had been used in the locked-down areas of Guangzhou, accumulatively transporting 64.2 tons of supplies. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) From tiny to shiny, China's construction industry grows amid innovation Xinhua) 10:52, June 13, 2021 BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Chang Benhong felt thrilled as he stood on a parking apron at the top of the China World Trade Center (CWTC). He could not help but look back on all the impressive changes he has witnessed over the years. "In those days, China's construction industry was far behind the developed world, and even behind some developing countries," said Chang, one of the construction workers who built the landmark complex located in Beijing's bustling central business district. He recalled that when China started seeking bidders for the CWTC construction in 1985, no domestic construction firm qualified for the bidding. "We didn't even know how to handle many of those engineering devices foreign workers had brought here then," Chang said. Two decades later, when the complex was about to kick off construction of a new tower in 2005, which was once the Chinese capital's tallest building, all bidders were Chinese. The decades-long story of CWTC is the epitome of China's rapidly-growing construction industry. Official data showed that the total output value of the industry was 26.4 trillion yuan (about 4.1 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, while in 1952 the figure was only 5.7 billion yuan. The expansion of the industry also generated job opportunities. The number of employees in the construction sector was less than 1 million in 1952, and by the end of 2020, the number had reached around 54 million, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Behind such progress were the country's continuous efforts in technological innovation to transform and upgrade the traditional construction sector. The recent proof is the guideline released last July by 13 central departments to coordinate the intelligent transformation and industrialization of the construction industry. It calls for efforts to integrate intelligent construction technologies into the whole industrial chain, and sets short- and long-term targets for the industry's high-quality development. To promote the digitalization of the industry, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council also issued a guideline last year, which urges the use of digital construction models and artificial intelligence technologies. Through years of persistent efforts in carrying out similar measures, various technologies in China's construction industry have reached world-leading levels, with high-standard projects continuing to go abroad. Construction projects launched by Chinese companies, such as the Mohammed VI Bridge in Morocco and the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, are gaining international recognition. According to a 2020 list of top 250 international contractors released by Engineering News-Record, an information provider for the engineering and construction industries, 74 Chinese companies were on the list. They ranked as the largest in terms of business volume, which accounted for over a quarter of the 250 contractors' total. Fang Qiuchen, chairman of the China International Contractors Association, said the international infrastructure projects contracted by Chinese contractors are rapidly improving in terms of scale, technology and added value. The role of Chinese contractors has been transformed from solely a contractor to a comprehensive service provider of infrastructure, Fang said. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) China deny late comeback from Netherlands to win second straight match in Volleyball National League Xinhua) 10:54, June 13, 2021 RIMINI, Italy, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Lang Ping's Chinese team denied a late comeback of the Netherlands to claim their second victory in a row at the women's Volleyball Nations League here on Saturday. The reigning Olympic champions wrapped up the straight-set victory of 25-12, 25-18, 33-31, thanks to a tight angle spike from star middle blocker Yuan Xinyue and an error from the opponent side in the dying seconds. Li Yingying, who scored match high 19 points, combined with Gong Xiangyu's 17-point collection to lead the Chinese team's box score, while Nika Daaderop was the Dutch team's top scorer with 11 points. With the victory, China temporarily moved to the eighth place from the tenth before three other matches of the same round kick off late on Saturday. Enditem (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Exhibition of Chinese traditional handicrafts held in Shanghai Xinhua) 10:58, June 13, 2021 An intangible cultural heritage inheritor shows the skills of making sandal fans at an exhibition held on the occasion of China's Cultural and Natural Heritage Day in Shanghai, east China, June 12, 2021. An exhibition of Chinese traditional handicrafts was held on Saturday, this year's Cultural and Natural Heritage Day. Since 2006, China has celebrated cultural heritage day on the second Saturday of June. In 2017, it was renamed Cultural and Natural Heritage Day. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Cambodia receives new batch of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine Xinhua) 10:58, June 13, 2021 Photo taken on June 12, 2021 shows boxes of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines arriving at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodia Saturday received another batch of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, boosting the Southeast Asian nation in its inoculation drive. Cambodian health ministry's secretary of state Yok Sambath, who welcomed the vaccine's arrival at the Phnom Penh International Airport, said the vaccine was purchased from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia Saturday received another batch of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, boosting the Southeast Asian nation in its inoculation drive. Cambodian health ministry's secretary of state Yok Sambath, who welcomed the vaccine's arrival at the Phnom Penh International Airport, said the vaccine was purchased from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm. "It's a new testament to the unbreakable ironclad friendship between Cambodia and China," she said. Cambodia has so far acquired more than 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China and the World Health Organization's COVAX Facility. The kingdom launched an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb. 10. Health ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said that to date, some 5.22 million vaccine doses have been administered in the kingdom, with 2.39 million people having been fully vaccinated with two doses. The country is targeting to inoculate at least 10 million out of its 16 million population by the end of this year or early next year at the latest, she added. Cambodia registered 638 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, pushing the national caseload to 37,959 with 320 deaths and 31,222 recoveries, according to the health ministry. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Interview: Iran-China cooperation under BRI mutually beneficial -- Iranian business leader Xinhua) 11:05, June 13, 2021 TEHRAN, June 12 (Xinhua) -- It is mutually beneficial to advance Iran-China cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which could accelerate both Iran's development and the China-proposed initiative's implementation, a senior Iranian business leader told Xinhua in a recent interview. The deepening of cooperation between Iran and China under the BRI could help promote "the country's infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector, such as roads, railways, ports, airports and means of transportation," said Majidreza Hariri, president of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ICCCI). "Such collaborations would also help boost employment in Iran, which is among the problems faced by the country's youths as well as educated and skilled workforce," he added. In addition, Iran's participation in the BRI helps develop the country's mining sector, thus increasing their share in the domestic economy, he said. "Iran's ideal geographical position is the first and most important advantage," which makes the country's participation in the BRI beneficial for the China-proposed initiative, as it appropriately connects West Asia to East Asia through land and sea, Hariri said. Among Iran's other advantages include the country's good political and economic relations with its Eastern and Western neighbors, he said. "If these advantages are used appropriately and maximally, they can help accelerate the BRI's implementation," Hariri added. Despite the shadow cast by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICCCI has gradually learned to take part in online exhibitions and hold virtual meetings with their Chinese partners to increase its presence in the Chinese market, he said. The Iranian business leader, who has interacted with the Chinese people for roughly 40 years and visited China regularly for almost three decades before the pandemic, said that "the Iranian and Chinese people, owing to their behaviors and characteristics, can work together" and make friends with each other. As this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), he said that the Chinese ruling party "has helped considerably improve the quality of people's lives in China. " "The present level of development and progress witnessed in China could not be possible without such a CPC-led united country," he noted. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Panama, China hold film day to celebrate 4th anniversary of bilateral ties Xinhua) 13:11, June 13, 2021 PANAMA CITY, June 12 (Xinhua) -- A movie that depicts the centennial history of the well-known Panama Canal was broadcast on the movie channel of China's national television (CCTV-6) on Saturday to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the establishment of China-Panama diplomatic relations. The broadcast of "Stories of the Canal" was a result of the Panama-China Film Festival Day co-organized by the Chinese embassy in Panama, Panama's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Canal Affairs, as well as CCTV-6 to celebrate the anniversary that falls on Sunday. In a pre-recorded video speech, Minister for Canal Affairs Aristides Royo briefly introduced the film, which was made by five Panamanian directors in 2014 to mark the waterway's centennial, saying the Panamanian people are happy that the Chinese audience have the chance to watch the film. Chinese Ambassador to Panama Wei Qiang said the canal's history reflects how the world has evolved in modern times. Noting that China is currently one of the largest users of the canal and an important economic and commercial partner of the Central American country, the ambassador said he hopes more exchanges would promote the mutual understanding and friendship between the people of the two countries, and also help expand their practical cooperation. The canal is an artificial 82-km waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the two oceans. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Enchanting pastoral village prospers with the development of rural tourism People's Daily Online) 13:36, June 13, 2021 By engaging in rural tourism, villagers in Azheke village, Yuanyang county of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Chinas Yunnan province have lifted themselves out of poverty and have turned their enchanting village into a prosperous rural enclave. Photo shows Azheke village in Yuanyang county of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Chinas Yunnan province (Photo courtesy of the publicity department of Yuanyang county) The 166-year-old village, situated in the core district known for its millennium-old Hani Rice Terraces, a UNESCO-listed world heritage site, boasts traditional thatched houses and offers visitors a tranquil abode during their stay. However, due to the villages remote location, outdated farming practices, and substandard infrastructure, the villagers in the community have been living in an impoverished state for a long period of time. In order to make a living, most of the young people have opted to find work in places outside of their hometown. In an effort to improve local conditions, Yuanyang county invited an expert to formulate a development plan for the village, focusing on striking a balance between environmental protection and the development of a local tourism industry. In 2019, a tourism company was established in the village. Collectively operated by the village, with the revenues generated by the company being distributed back to the local villagers. Meanwhile, the households in the village have been encouraged to preserve their traditional dwellings, continue plowing their rice terraces and maintain their identities as rice farmers. The villagers will be provided with a portion of the tourism companys dividends only if they have put in enough of an effort to maintain such traditions. Gao Yanmiao, a manager of the company, disclosed that the enterprise generated more than 7,000 yuan ($1,096) in payments for each household in 2020. Photo shows Azheke village in Yuanyang county of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Chinas Yunnan province (Photo courtesy of the publicity department of CPC Yuanyang county committee) Gao himself, who had been working as a migrant worker, returned to Azheke in 2019 and became a manager in the company. He now earns more than 2,000 yuan a month and his wife, who also works for the company, earns 1,700 yuan. Thanks to the localitys hard work in protecting the terraced fields and promoting local development, Azheke soon transformed into a popular tourist destination. Meanwhile, with an eye to further boosting their incomes, some villagers decided to launch an agritainment business. Gao opened up his own business in 2019. During the five-day May Day holiday this year, Gao earned between 7,000 and 8,000 yuan in total. The enterprising man hopes to earn 100,000 yuan all told this year when the earnings generated from all the various income channels are added up together. Photo shows the terraced fields in Azheke village in Yuanyang county of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Chinas Yunnan province (Photo courtesy of the publicity department of CPC Yuanyang county committee) The story of Azheke was used in the test paper on the subject of geography during the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, this year, indicating its significance to the countrys recent exploratory attempts at developing a rural tourism industry. I think this indicates that our village has become known by more and more people and our efforts have paid off, said Gao. With such valuable assets left by our ancestors, were sure to live a better life while protecting them, Gao expressed. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) 12 killed, multiple people injured in central China's gas explosion Xinhua) 15:00, June 13, 2021 WUHAN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A gas explosion in central China's Hubei Province on Sunday morning has left 12 people dead and more than 100 people injured, including 39 seriously, local authorities said. As of 12 p.m. the searchers had found 150 people from the blast site in the city of Shiyan and rushed them to hospitals, according to the rescue headquarters. The accident occurred in a residential community in the city's Zhangwan District at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, trapping a large number of people. The exact number of casualties is still being verified as the search and rescue is under way. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) From students with dreams to PRC founding fathers, footsteps of early CPC revolutionaries traced in Europe Xinhua) 15:01, June 13, 2021 -- Under the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, Chinese students began arriving in Western Europe more than a century ago, seeking a way out for the war-torn, poverty stricken China. -- In October 1920, the 16-year-old Deng Xiaoping, who later became a Chinese leader and chief architect of China's reform and opening-up drive, arrived in France. -- Memories of Chinese communist pioneers are kept in city squares, statues, and universitiy libraries across Western Europe. BRUSSELS, June 12 (Xinhua) -- A hundred years after the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded, there are those who continue to cherish their collective memories of the early communists as young students in Europe in the early 20th century. These students, under the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, began arriving in Western Europe in 1919. They worked a variety of jobs to finance their studies and meanwhile were eagerly seeking a way out for China, a country then torn by war, poverty and imperialist invasions. Some of them, inspired by Marxism, established the earliest Chinese communist groups in Europe and became pioneers to save the Chinese nation in the decades to come. Today, their pioneering spirit continues to motivate a new generation of Chinese. EARLY SEEDS IN EUROPE Montargis, a city with some 15,000 residents about 100 km south of Paris, was one of the places where the dream of the Chinese communists began. Memories of the early Chinese communists are kept in a 300-year-old townhouse at 15 rue Raymond Tellier. The former residence of the Chinese students in the 1920s has been renovated into a museum and houses a collection of nearly 1,000 photos, documents and other exhibits, an illustration of the friendship between China and France. "Visitors to the museum often marvel at these young students' ambitions and perseverance in their pursuit of dream and faith," said Wang Peiwen, head of the museum and president of the China-France Friendship Association in Montargis. Deng Xiaoping, the former Chinese leader widely regarded as the chief architect of China's reform and opening-up drive, was only 16 when he first arrived in France in October 1920. He moved to Montargis in 1922 and worked at the Hutchinson rubber factory while pursuing his study, where his communist faith took root. Photo taken on April 8, 2021 shows Deng Xiaoping Square in front of the railway station of Montargis, France. (Xinhua/Gao Jing) To commemorate the Chinese students' work-study movement, Montargis named the square in front of its central railway station after Deng in 2014. In 2019, a massive centenary monument was inaugurated on the square to mark the 100th anniversary of the movement. "The monument depicts the young Chinese, who, having stood out as the best students from their respective provinces, came to France to explore ways to advance their country," Mayor of Montargis Benoit Digeon told Xinhua. "They were inspired by Communism and worked for the founding of a communist party peculiar to China." France, well-known for the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment and the spirit of the French Revolution, was one of the major destinations for Chinese students in their work-study movement. Historical documents kept at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and other institutes show that approximately 1,600 students left Shanghai for France between March 1919 and the end of 1920. The first group of 89 students boarded a ship from Shanghai on March 17, 1919, making headline news. A CHANCE TO LEARN A small room on the ground floor of Hotel Neptune in downtown Paris witnessed the life of Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) who lived a meagre life here between 1922 and 1924 as a young student. In the small room which could barely accommodate a bed, a desk and a chair, Zhou studied and worked, writing for a newspaper based in north Chinese city of Tianjin to promote new ideas he learned in Europe and organizing communist activities. Nearly 100 years later, the hotel is now run by Chinese-French Li Jianle, who felt it his obligation to protect the historic building and present it to Chinese and foreign guests when he bought the hotel in 2001. Photo taken on April 11, 2021 shows a memorial plaque outside the Hotel Neptune commemorating Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) who lived here between 1922 and 1924 as a young student, in Paris, France. (Xinhua/Gao Jing) Today, with a bronze statue of Zhou carved by noted French sculptor Paul Belmondo in 1979 on its wall facing the street, the roughly 160-year-old building on rue Godefroy in Paris remains intact, telling the story of its former tenant. The Chinese students, who worked hard to eke out a living, had acquired through their experiences in Europe a profound understanding of the plight of the working class and defects of capitalism before they came to know Marxism. Cai Hesen became one of the first Chinese students to follow Marxism after a close reading of the works of Karl Marx. He translated many of Marx's work into Chinese and actively kept Chinese people informed of the October Revolution of Russia in 1917 and other worldwide movements of the working class. In Lyon, the third largest city in France, some Chinese students had to fight for their right to study in 1921, after they were rejected by the Franco-Chinese Institute, a school created exclusively for Chinese students. The school, built with funds from China, rejected the work-study students that year who were unable to make ends meet and only accepted better-off students. After a failed attempt to occupy the institute, many students were arrested and 104 were repatriated to China in October 1921. "It was a fight for equality and justice, as the students were fighting for their own rights to study," said Alain Labat, head of the Federation of Franco-Chinese Associations and vice-president of the New Franco-Chinese Institute. "Despite their failure, they grew and gained experience. Some of them played a leading role in promoting Marxism and Communism in China," Labat said. MEMORIES KEPT ALIVE The university town of Goettingen in central Germany guards the distant memory of Marshal Zhu De, another founding father of the PRC who entered the University of Goettingen in 1923 in his 30s. Today, the university library still keeps a registration paper in Zhu's own handwriting, showing that this native of southwest China's Sichuan Province was studying sociology in the philosophy department. Zhu met Zhou in Berlin in 1922, and joined the CPC through Zhou's introduction. "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." A pedestrian walks past the former residence of Marshal Zhu De, one of the major founders of the People's Republic of China, in Goettingen, Germany, June 26, 2015. (Xinhua) The city archive shows Zhu's residence registration paper from the local police, a yellowed document with his photo. He lived with a local family at Planckstrasse 3. The red brick house has attracted many 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. Memories of the Chinese communist pioneers were also kept at the Charleroi University of Labor, 60 km south of Brussels. Founded in 1903 as a polytechnic school for the working class, it hosted many Chinese students in the 1920s, including one of China's marshals Nie Rongzhen, a then chemical engineering major who came to know communism and became a member of the CPC on the campus in Belgium. Through their time in Europe, several of the students realized that only socialism could save China. Photo taken on March 22, 2021 shows a monument marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese students' work-study movement, in front of railway station of Montargis, France. (Xinhua/Gao Jing) Experts have said that the movement played an important role in history and contributed to the founding of the CPC in 1921 and the PRC in 1949, leaving behind a heritage that continues to inspire younger generations today. For Duanmu Mei, a historian from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, these outstanding representatives of the movement played an epoch-making role in China's future revolution, development and reforms. "Their experience in Europe gave them a far sight, a broad vision and an open heart -- three important qualities that enabled them to stand out as leaders of the revolution, of the party and the country," she said. In the run-up to the CPC's 100th founding anniversary, more than 40 Chinese and French teenagers joined a virtual conference on Zoom to review the lives of the early Chinese communists in Europe a century ago. For French-language student Wang Ziyan, the revolutionaries are a source of hope. "There's so much we can learn from those role models of the past century -- their ability to adapt rapidly to a new environment, their passion to learn, and more importantly, their patriotism and desire to repay their country with what they learned." (Video reporters: Jin Jing, Liang Xizhi, Li Xiaopeng, Liu Fang, Tang Ji, Xu Yongchun, Chen Chen, Hu Xue, Xiao Yazhuo, Gao Jing, Ren Ke, Zhang Yuan; video editors: Peng Ying) (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Chinese railway becomes trade artery between China, Europe amid pandemic: media Xinhua) 15:08, June 13, 2021 TOKYO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- China Railway Express has become "a cheaper and quicker alternative to ship everything from cars to household goods from China to Europe" amid major disruptions to global maritime and air logistics chains due to COVID-19, Nikkei Asia has reported. The railway, which has been operating for about a decade, has now become the "backbone" of the Belt and Road Initiative, as it "is quickly transforming into a major artery for trade between China and Europe," Nikkei Asia said in a report on Friday. Shipping goods is much faster and cheaper by combining air and rail service, the report elaborated, adding that it normally takes about 40 days to ship goods from Japan to Europe by sea. In contrast, flying them to China's Changsha or Xi'an, then loading them on the China Railway Express, takes 20 to 30 days and less than half the cost of flying them the entire way. The report also mentioned that Japanese global logistics company Nippon Express leases space on the China Railway Express to transport appliances, auto parts and other products made by Japanese and European companies in China to Europe. Owing to the pandemic, demand for cargo has surged in the United States and Europe as consumers turned to online shopping. The report found that maritime container shipments from Asia to Europe jumped 71 percent on the year in February to roughly 1.16 million twenty-foot containers, according to the Japan Maritime Center. Meanwhile, traffic across the entire China Railway Express surged 75 percent on the year to 3,398 trains in January-March, after topping the annual record in 2020 with 12,406 trains, the report quoted the China State Railway Group as saying. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Within the framework of the very high concern of His Majesty King Mohammed VI May God assist Him that has always surrounded the members of the Moroccan community residing abroad, and of the permanent Royal attention to the continuity of their attachment to the motherland, His Majesty the King May God glorify Him has kindly given His very high instructions to the competent authorities and to all stakeholders in the field of transport, in order to work towards facilitating their return to the country at affordable prices. In this regard, His Majesty the King May God assist Him has ordered all stakeholders in the field of air transport, in particular the company Royal Air Maroc, as well as the various actors of maritime transport, to ensure reasonable prices that are within everyones reach, as well as to ensure a sufficient number of rotations, in order to allow Moroccan families abroad to return home and reconnect with their families and loved ones, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, His Majesty the King has urged all tourism operators, both in the field of transport and the hotel industry, to take the necessary measures to welcome the members of the Moroccan community living abroad in the best conditions and at the best prices. Shukruti village activists end hunger strike, reach an agreement with Georgian Manganese By Veronika Malinboym Residents of the Shukruti village ended their hunger strike in protest of Georgian Manganeses activity after the company has agreed to compensation.In its statement released earlier today, Georgian Manganese noted that the compensation that the residents of the village and the company has agreed on will be paid in accordance with the assessment of the damage conducted under the memorandum signed between the village and the company or the assessment of the Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau, the activity of which will also be compensated by Georgian Manganese:As a result of constructive negotiations, the sides have agreed to have two alternatives for the conducting of the assessment of the damage. The assessment will either be carried out based on a model which is outlined in the existing memorandum signed by the company and the village, or, upon the request of the village residents, the assessment can be carried out by Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau. The agreement reached between the two sides is confirmed by a document and is legally binding. Individual contracts are also signed by the special manager of Georgian Manganese and the protesters, the companys official statement reads.Three residents of Shukruti village in Chiatura of Imereti region of Western Georgia have previously sawn their mouths shut to protest against the environmental damage caused by the Georgian Manganese mine, which produces and exports ferroalloy and manganese ore. The activists then protested in front of the US Embassy in Tbilisi to have their voices heard.Residents of the Shukruti village demanded that the company compensate for the damage it had caused, while the companys official position revolved around the claim that the damage was caused during the Soviet period and had already been 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.Residents of Shukruti village also protested in September 2019 and blocked the road leading to the mines, which ended up stopping their operations.Back then, a special commission was set up to assess the damage and process compensations to the villagers, but in vain. According to information released by the Iranian Press Agency FARS News on June 11, 2021, Sahand destroyer and Makran ship from the Iranian Navy, left Iran for the Atlantic Ocean for the first time without mooring in other countries' ports, Deputy Army Commander for Coordination Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said. Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link Iran has deployed for the first time Sahand 74 Mowj-Class frigate in the Atlantic Ocean. (Picture source Tehran Times) The 77th strategic naval fleet of the Navy, comprising of Sahand destroyer and Makran ship, is present in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time to demonstrate the capabilities of Iran in the maritime arena, said eputy Army Commander for Coordination Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari. The Iranian fleet departed from Bandar Abbas on May 10 and after a long journey after thirty days of navigation and crossing the Cape of Good Hope, traveling 6,000 nautical miles (nearly 12,000 kilometers), is currently in the Atlantic Ocean. Sayyari emphasized that the mission of the strategic Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to defend the water borders and protect the resources and interests of the country in the high seas. In relevant remarks in February, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said that deployment of the country's warships in international waters has foiled enemies' plots to foment insecurity in high waters. The Iranian Navy is now present in the Red Sea powerfully and escorts Iranian oil tankers, threatened by proxy terror groups, and gives them safe passage through the Bab al-Mandab Strait toward the Red Sea. The Sahand is a Moudge-class frigate in the Southern Fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, The ship was commissioned in December 2012. The ship has a length of 95 m with a displacement from 2,000 - 2,500 tons. The Sahand is armed with one 76 mm naval gun, two 20 mm anti-aircraft automatic guns, one Kamand 30 mm CIWS (Close-In Weapon System), 2 8 tube chaff launchers Sayyad-2, six torpedoes, and four Qader anti-ship cruise missiles. The IRINS Makran (441) is an ex-oil tanker named the Persian Gulf, now converted sea base for the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy. The wide deck lets it easily deploy five helicopters simultaneously, which Includes the combination of two Bell-212 helicopters, two Sea-King helicopters and an RH-53D (Sea Stallion) helicopter. Your browser does not support the video tag. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has voiced dissent against the GST Council's decisions to levy taxes on COVID essentials such as vaccines, PPE kits, masks and other relief materials. Mitra alleged that the GST of 5% on such items was forced upon states. Opposing the decision, he took to Twitter and called it "an anti-people move" However, Minister of State For Finance Anurag Singh Thakur disputed his allegations stating that technical glitches marred the West Bengal Finance Minister's speech. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presided over the 44th GST Council meeting on Saturday wherein it was decided to cut the tax rate on COVID drugs such as Remdesivir and Tocilizumab as well as on medical oxygen, and oxygen concentrators but ignored demands for a reduction in taxes on vaccines. Also Read: GST Council meet: No tax on Black Fungus drugs, 5% rate on COVID-19 vaccines unchanged In the evening, Mitra tweeted: "GoI-led the anti-people move & imposed GST on vaccine, mask, hand sanitizer, oxygen, PPE, oximeter, Covid test kit, Remdesivir, RT PCR machine. Since my voice ignored, I have recorded my dissent by letter. Unprecedented. Slow death of the only body of cooperative federalism". Mitra had suggested zero rating or 0.1 per cent GST on Covid essentials. In the letter to Sitharaman, Mitra said the decision to continue to levy GST on COVID-related items is "anti-people" and "draconian" which will hurt millions of people. "I tried my best to repeatedly raise my objection after your announcing this decision, but unfortunately, I was never given the floor and my voice was muzzled, as the Secretary brought the meeting to a close and the virtual link was cut off. Whither GST Council!" Mitra wrote. Taking to Twitter, Thakur said he would like to "set the record straight", and went on to add that in his over two years of attending the GST Council, Sitharaman has never cut off anyone during the Council discussions. "During the GST Council discussions today (June 12), it seemed as if the Finance Minister from West Bengal did not have a stable VC connection. Revenue Secy repeatedly informed him his line was breaking, that he was not properly audible & to turn off his video for better connectivity," Thakur tweeted. Also Read: GST Council Meet Highlights: Import of COVID relief items, Amphotericin-B exempted from IGST He said that during the speech made by the Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister, nobody heard Mitra speak, nor did he ask to have his opinion heard. "Other members can attest to this". "At the end of the discussion, when FM @nsitharaman ji asked the Council whether anyone would like to speak & add their comments, Dr Mitra ji again remained silent and did not speak up," Thakur added. Stating that Sitharaman has patiently given every speaker as much time as they needed, Thakur said "the Finance Minister has never stifled dissent in the GST Council. It is unbecoming of a senior member of the Council to suggest that this has happened. The GST Council embodies the collective spirit of all states towards debate in a healthy manner; it has been & shall continue". Mitra said that instances in Saturday's GST Council meeting have dealt a major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism undermining the very ethos of the GST Council. "In your remarks near the end of today's GST Council meeting, you referred to several of my observations by name and yet I was not given the floor despite repeated requests to respond to your comments. Instead you gave the floor to the Minister from UP, who sought deletion of some of my comments by name and shockingly you agreed. "I could never imagine that this would come to pass in a GST Council meeting where my voice is muzzled, despite the restraint and decorum that I have maintained in the 44 meetings of the GST Council-- truly unprecedented. Obviously, this and other instances in today's GST Council meeting have dealt a major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism undermining the very ethos of the GST Council," Mitra added. The Council cut to nil GST on COVID-19 drug Tocilizumab and black fungus medicine Amphotericin B, from existing 5 per cent. Hand sanitiser, pulse oximeters, BiPAP machine, testing kits, ambulances and temperature check equipment were among the 18 items on which GST rates were lowered. (With inputs from PTI.) The head of the World Health Organisation has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says "we need more, and we need them faster." "The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the world's population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday at the summit in southwest England. Also Read: India's coronavirus situation 'hugely concerning', says WHO chief "To do that, we need 11 billion doses," Tedros said, adding that it was "essential" for countries to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit's host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year. Tedros reiterated his target of vaccinating 30% of the population of every country by the end of 2021. He said that reaching the goal requires 100 million doses in June and July, and 250 million more by September. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: PRESS RELEASE 06.12.21 We are not encroachers, we are victims. Instead of detaining residents, administration should provide a transit camp. State government should fulfill its duties and provide rehabilitation. Dialogue not Detention! In the case of Sarina Sarkar v Government of Haryana, the Supreme Court issued an order for eviction of the residents of Khori village settled on forest land. According to this order, about 10000 houses have to be removed within 6 weeks from June 7, 2021, for which the Faridabad Administration and Municipal Corporation have geared up. The administration has planned to implement this order of the Supreme Court and how they are to be evicted, but after the eviction, what about those little minor children who are not touched by the third wave of corona epidemic. There is no planning for this. Also, what relief will the government will give to those 5000 pregnant and lactating mothers and single mothers. Yesterday on the midnight of 10th June 2021, the Crime Branch officials detained about 15 people of Khori village while sleeping in their homes at night. After this, at 5:00 am today, the residents of Khori village started a sit-in demonstration on Surajkund Shooting Range Road. Protesting against what the court has ordered and that the administration should also tell what role the state will play to implement this order. What relief is the state going to give them in the form of rehabilitation in lieu of the people who have devoted their lives in Khori village for the past few decades and have protected this entire Khori village and this forest. What is the preparation of the administration to implement this order of the Supreme Court and what kind of participation will the people of Khori village play in it? Nirmal Gorana, General Secretary, Bandhua Mukti Morcha, requested the Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Faridabad and the Chief Minister, Haryana Government, on behalf of several peoples organizations that are involved in housing rights across the country, to shift all the people of Khori village to a transit camp. And through a letter by the people working on a large scale, there was a demand to provide shelter to the families of Khori in the transit camp and then rehabilitation. In this sequence, a letter was sent to the Childrens Commission and the Minister of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, with the help of all the mass organizations in the interests of about 25000 children who are below 18 years of age, who can be saved from the third wave of corona epidemic. Nirmal Gorana also told that about 15 people of Khori village were detained by the police, out of which 6 people - Gowada Prasad, Mohammad Salim Ansari, Pappu Pradhan, Imamuddin, Keemkhan and Ramdas were produced before DCP Faridabad and sent to jail. Human Rights Advocate Siyaz and Advocate Vinod have reached the DCP office for the bail of these laborers. In this sequence, a letter was sent to the Childrens Commission and the Minister of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, with the help of all the mass organizations in the interests of about 25000 children who are below 18 years of age, who can be saved from the third wave of corona epidemic. Nirmal Gorana also told that about 15 people of Khori village were detained by the police, out of which 6 people - Gowada Prasad, Mohammad Salim Ansari, Pappu Pradhan, Imamuddin, Keemkhan and Ramdas were produced before DCP Faridabad and sent to jail. Human Rights Advocate Siyaz and Advocate Vinod have reached the DCP office for the bail of these laborers. Nilesh, a social worker of Basti Suraksha Manch said that there is a need for a dialogue between the administration and the residents of Khori, which can be done well by the District Magistrate, Faridabad and the Municipal Corporation, Faridabad. Mala, a resident of Basti, said "that electricity and water have been switched off from today and it looks like well die of thirst and eviction from this heat before it happens. We are the victims, not the accused, why is this government showing this indifference to all of us. We all supported this government, but today we have become beggars in front of the government. Nirmal Gorana, General Secretary, Bandhua Mukti Morcha, , 9899823286 o o [See also: [Faridabad Khori Gaon demolition] Evict occupants on forest land, clear encroachments within six weeks: Supreme Court says "no compromise" https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/faridabad-demolition-evict-occupants-forest-land-six-weeks-supreme-court Demolition of Faridabad colony in Aravalli forest area suspended: MC | Tribune News Service - Faridabad, June 8) https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/demolition-of-faridabad-colony-in-aravalli-forest-area-suspended-mc-265874 Why the Haryana Govt Must Not Evict One Lakh Residents of Khori Gaon by Manju Menon and Ishita Chatterjee https://thewire.in/urban/khori-gaon-haryana-urban-poor-eviction] Seguin, Texas (78155) Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. SpaceCast Weekly is a NASA Television broadcast from the Johnson Space Center in Houston featuring stories about NASA's work in human spaceflight. They include the International Space Station and its crews and scientific research activities, and the development of Orion and the Space Launch System, the next generation American spacecraft being built to take humans farther into space than they've ever gone before. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Brady Corporation, a global leader in safety, identification, and compliance solutions, is hosting a webinar on `Efficient data center inventory and asset management with RFID labels on June 17, 2021 at 13.00 14.00, Dubai time. The online event will focus on complete data center inventory audits in a few clicks from a central location with RFID labels and scanner gates. The speakers are: Farah Montenegro, Product Expert Identification Solutions and David Verloes, EMEA Senior Product Marketing Manager Materials, Brady Corporation. The main topics of the webinar are: - Easily print and apply on-metal UHF RFID labels to your servers; - Monitor server movement with scanner gates linked to your ERP-system; - Enhance maintenance, inspections and reporting with NFC RFID wire labels; - Increase and simplify server installation and maintenance; - Data center challenges; - How can Brady cater for your RFID smart label needs? - Use cases on RFID within data centers. Book your seat and discover how in the webinar! Register now > The joint venture between Nissan Motor Co, Ltd and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, NMKV Co, Ltd, has marked ten years since its founding. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors established NMKV on June 1, 2011 as a 50/50 joint venture engaged in product planning and project management for mini vehicles sold in the Japan market. NMKV, with the combined strengths of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors in fields such as product planning and development, design, and purchasing, aims to consistently deliver competitive products to customers. As of May this year, combined sales of vehicles produced under the joint venture have reached a cumulative total of 1.52 million units. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors collaborate closely from the product planning stage while pursuing distinct designs that embody the two brands. This results in models with a high level of competitiveness that fuse the knowhow and advanced technologies of the two companies. Models from both brands have earned high acclaim, with many winning prestigious awards. The latest Nissan ROOX and Mitsubishi eK space and eK X space were awarded K Car of the Year in the 2020-2021 Car of the Year Japan awards. Mitsubishi Motors Mizushima Plant has made an investment of around eight billion yen, which is the first collaboration between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors toward starting production of new electric minivehicles, and NMKV is working with both companies to promote this project. Going forward, NMKV will continue to contribute to strengthening the domestic competitiveness of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors through the planning of new and attractive products and project management. Commenting on NMKV's 10 years of operations, Nissan President Makoto Uchida said: The minivehicles planned and developed through NMKV have evolved greatly over the past 10 years. The latest models from Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors feature many Nissan advanced technologies and are designed to make customers' lives more comfortable and exciting. We will continue to adopt electrification and autonomous driving technologies to further strengthen the appeal of our products, and we will significantly advance our business collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors." Mitsubishi Motors President Takao Kato said: "The latest model in the eK series, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is a reliable, comfortable mini-wagon that combines Mitsubishi Motors' 60 years of expertise in minivehicle manufacturing with Nissan's advanced technologies under the project management of NMKV. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen cooperation with Nissan and NMKV to provide products that delight our customers." NMKV President Junichi Endo said: "NMKV is combining the best of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors to create appealing vehicles for Japan's national car, the minivehicle. Going forward, the three companies will continue to strengthen the source of their strength, Japanese manufacturing capabilities, and cross- company and cross-functional collaboration to promote even better vehicle manufacturing through the teamwork of the Alliance. -- TradeArabia News Service The House of Baylandi, a French fashion brand, has opened its newest store in Dubai in the iconic Habtoor Palace, indulging the gulf region with its exquisite and timeless collections. Each Baylandi is an accessory that can be used in any way you see fit: a safe face covering, a neck scarf, a headband, a tie, a pocket square, a bandana, purse charm or even a belt. The only limit is your imagination. The House of Baylandi accessories are designed with function in mind, featuring countless different possible uses. When used as a face mask, these iconic pieces offer a tailored-like fit to any man or woman, complimenting any facial structure. In the purest tradition of French couture, each Baylandi piece is handmade with the savoir-faire of its small team of highly skilled seamstresses. Every pattern, every cut, every stitch is revisited with a perfectionist approach that can only be found in the top-tier Maisons de couture. It takes no less than fifteen separate steps and a clock-like, precisely coordinated atelier to develop these show-stopping collections. Passionately produced in Paris in their bespoke ateliers, all Baylandi pieces are made from sustainably sourced and recyclable luxurious silks and fabrics. In the midst of this global pandemic, it is in Paris that Caroline Bayle, the founder, was inspired to create colourful collections that would light up the current mood. Driven by a passion for functional fashion, she came up with groundbreaking creativity. Her obsession for Parisian chic and timeless designs from around the world gave birth to accessories that combine purpose and couture. She was made famous by her audacious take on distinguished face masks before putting her inspiration to good use on a prolific collection of accessories. Baylandis environmentally conscious collections are always multi-purpose and free the imagination of the men and women wearing them. These iconic pieces are liberating everyone's inspiration when it comes to complimenting their outfits with Baylandi. Caroline Bayles eye for exceptional and uncompromised couture might be inherited from her mother, an accomplished French seamstress. It is together that they crafted their first Baylandi prototypes, the House of Baylandi was born. The House of Baylandi Dubai is located within the legendary Habtoor Palace, in Al Habtoor City on Sheikh Zayed Road, as well as the Four Seasons Hotels across Dubai. TradeArabia News Service Iraq has awarded a key contract for the construction of a civilian airport in the capital of the southern oil-rich Dhi Qar governorate to a Chinese group. The new Nasiriyah airport will replace the military base, reported the official Iraqi news agency. The foundation stone for the project was laid by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, who termed it as an attractive tourism and investment project for the Opec member Iraq. The Nasiriyah Airport, which will be able to handle 750,000 passengers per annum, is set to be completed within a three-year period, stated the report. The scope of work includes the construction of a cargo building as well as roads linking the airport to the citys town centre, it added. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, the capitals first low-cost carrier, has announced the introduction of a new service to Tbilisi, capital city Georgia with direct flights from Abu Dhabi starting on July 14. The new route, which will be operated three times a week (on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) will become the airlines 13th destination from Abu Dhabi and the only direct connection between both cities. Around three and a half hours flight time from the UAE, Tbilisi is a destination for any tourist looking to experience fine cuisine, ecclesiastic art and a fusion of striking architecture. Customers can now book their direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Tiblisi by visiting Air Arabias website, by calling the call centre or through travel agencies. Ensuring the highest standards of safety at every step of the journey by following all health and safety protocols, Air Arabia has also added to the convenience and confidence of passengers by introducing free Covid-19 insurance coverage. The insurance is automatically included as part of the booking and no additional documents are required from passengers. - TradeArabia News Service Mauritius will be welcoming international travellers from July 15. The island will be opening in phases during 2021 and the first phase, from July 15 to September 30, will enable vaccinated travellers to enjoy a resort holiday on the island. Holidaymakers will be able to enjoy facilities within their chosen resort premises, including the swimming pool and beach. If guests stay over 14 days and have negative PCR tests during their stay in the resort, they will be able to explore the islands attractions. However, for shorter stays, they may leave the resort earlier and travel back home. A list of pre-approved Covid-19 safe resorts will be available from June 20 at www.mauritiusnow.com Travellers to Mauritius aged 18 years or over must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. They must undergo a PCR test between 5 and 7 days before departure and a negative result is required to travel to the island. Travellers will also have a PCR test on arrival at the airport in Mauritius and on day 7 and 14 of their resort holiday, as applicable. For Phase 2, from October 1, vaccinated travellers will be allowed entry without restrictions upon presentation of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before departure. Unvaccinated travellers will be subject to 14 days in-room quarantine for both Phases 1 and 2 until further notice. The announcement follows the acceleration of the vaccination campaign and the progress made towards herd immunity by the end of September. Frontliners of the tourism industry were prioritised during the vaccine rollout. This enables a prompt and safe restart of the Mauritius tourism industry. The countrys response to the pandemic ranked among one of the best in the world, as the Mauritian Government responded promptly with stringent control measures and protocols. The safety of Mauritians and visitors has been a top priority since the outbreak of Covid-19 and the success is a result of a joint effort by the Mauritian Government and the islands population. - TradeArabia News Service You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close In the Angelus, Francis made a strong appeal against child labour and for the people of Tigray, afflicted by violence and famine. The confidence in the mustard grain can bring a precious lesson on how to recover from the pandemic. Vatican City (AsiaNews) The Church should not let herself be overcome by the weed of doubt because God is always at work in the world as a good seed. This means that everyone is always called to start again with patience and perseverance, said Pope Francis today before the Angelus prayer, which included a strong appeal against child labour and for the people of Ethiopias war-torn Tigray region. Addressing the physically distanced faithful who crowded St Peter's Square, the pontiff cited the two parables in today's liturgy, that of the mustard seed (the smallest seed, which becomes the tallest tree when thrown into the ground) and that of the seed that grows without the farmer's knowledge. In the parables, he noted, Jesus teaches us that even everyday things, all those that sometimes seem the same and which we perform distractedly or with difficulty, are inhabited by Gods hidden presence. It is precisely the mustard seed that reveals that God is at work, in the manner of a good little seed, which silently and slowly germinates. With this parable, Jesus wants to give us confidence, Francis said. In fact, in many situations in life, we can be discouraged because we see the weakness of good against the apparent strength of evil. Instead, the Gospel calls for a new look at ourselves and reality; it asks for eyes wide open that know how to see beyond appearances to discover the presence of God, who is always at work as humble love in the soil of our life and that of history. For the Pope such an attitude is particularly needed in order to recover from the pandemic. This means nurturing confidence in being in God's hands as well as committing ourselves to rebuilding and starting again, with patience and perseverance. However, such a gaze is also precious in the life of faith because even in the Church, Francis warned, the weed of doubt can take root, especially when we witness the crisis of faith and the failure of various projects and initiatives. For this reason, the Pope urges us to remember that the results of seeding do not depend upon our capacities, but upon God's action. It is up to us to sow, to sow with love, commitment and patience. But the power of the seed is divine. After the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis made an appeal for the people of Tigray, who are going through a serious humanitarian crisis that exposes the poorest to famine and hunger. Let us pray together that the violence cease immediately and that everyone be guaranteed assistance. The pontiff also mentioned World Day against Child Labour, celebrated yesterday. It is not possible to close our eyes to the exploitation of children, deprived of the right to dream and play. About 150 million children are victims of this problem, Francis noted, which is the equivalent of the populations of Spain, France and Italy put together. Francis spoke about the tragedy of migrants dying in the Mediterranean in connection with the arrival in Augusta (Sicily) of a boat that sank on 12 April 2015. The pontiff also mentioned World Blood Donor Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, in order to encourage people to engage in this precious work of generosity and free giving. As a descendant of one of the families who was moved out of this area there is always a fire inside of me, a fire that always keeps me fighting, a fire that always makes sure that I never close my mouth when I see any wrongdoings, Lloyd said. Because I have a moral obligation to ensure that each and every one of us gets some type of equality. During the course of my educational career, I was exposed to teachers and other influences that expected us to do well, Ms. Toomer told The Baltimore Sun in a 1999 interview. In fact, we were taught that we had to be better because of racism and the discrimination we would face in society. In addition to serving on a variety of surface ships during his naval career, Del Toro was a White House fellow at the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration, according to his Naval Academy bio. He was also the senior military assistant to the director of defense programs analysis and evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prosecutors in the State of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, suggested the grisly finds may not end there. In excavations carried out since May 17, authorities have dug up the floors of the house where the suspect lived. They now plan to extend the search to the soil beneath several other rooms he rented out on the same property. Our family moved to Annapolis in 1967 and lived here for 10 years including the opening of the bridges second span in June 1973. From the day it was opened, we learned it was not enough to keep up with the increase in traffic, ironically a byproduct of the new span. When the FDA changes the status of the vaccines to full approval, Luminis might follow the other hospitals and make it mandatory the same way it currently requires employees to get flu vaccines. It could do it sooner, Bayless said, or not at all. The Tribal Council elections are coming up and Char-Koosta News has new election logos. We can't decide which is the best. That's where you come in. Check out the logo options below and then vote. Which logo do you prefer? Answer below! You voted: Biden also fought for the leaders joint statement to include specific language criticizing Chinas use of forced labor and other human rights abuses as he worked to cast the rivalry with Beijing as the defining competition for the 21st century. The president declined to discuss the private negotiations over the provision, but said he was satisfied with the tough rhetoric, though difference remained among the allies about how forcefully to call out Beijing. The sergeant was undeterred. He tried a different approach. Over the months that followed, Anzilotti cultivated an unusual relationship with Cottingham, sometimes testy, sometimes closer to a sort of warmth. Anzilotti would arrange to have the inmate transported to his office more than an hours drive from the prison. Hed order pizza and play cards with the older man and other detectives. Then hed clear the room until only he and Cottingham faced each other, and begin with his questions. He had his list of names, each one a dead girl and a crime long unsolved. There were no witnesses. No one would talk to us about what happened. And now, two days later, theres a mass shooting at the same location. We dont think it was a coincidence that the same area was targeted Tuesday and then targeted again on Friday. * Also in Bronzeville, around 9:48 p.m., a 43-year-old man and his dog were both shot while they were in front of their home in the 4600 block of South Drexel Boulevard. The man suffered a graze wound to his hand, and was treated at the scene. Additional details including the type of dog, where it was struck or the dogs condition were not available Sunday, a police spokesman said in an email. The gunman had fired the shots from an open rear door of a black Nissan Maxima, which fled north on Drexel. Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune. "The first step is for them to take their knees off us. Because we are kneeling to stand"-- as Alexandra Smith finished reciting the concluding lines of her poem, the silence in the room erupted into a thunderous applause from the packed audience. A tribute to the late George Floyd, the African-American who fell victim to police brutality in Minneapolis, Smith's poem was read on the second floor of a filmhouse-cum-bar in downtown Beijing. Smith, 33, an expat from the United States, is one of the regular participants in Spittoon, the organizer of the "Poetry Night" event. It is a Beijing-based arts collective giving space to expats and locals alike to unleash their creative talent. "Before coming to China, I had no idea what to expect, but I have been pleasantly surprised. And I become more impressed every day," said Smith, dwelling on Beijing's vivid literary space and artistic aura. Started by a British expat in Beijing in 2015 as a monthly poetry night, Spittoon has burgeoned into a regular affair in the Chinese capital before sprawling to other Chinese cities, including Chengdu, Shanghai, and Xi'an. It also took off in countries like Ethiopia, Sweden, Portugal and Latvia, hosting various events across genres. In China, the initiative has five core sections -- poetry reading, non-fiction storytelling, fiction storytelling, book club and poetry workshops. It aims to bring together Chinese and foreign writers, artists, and literary enthusiasts. "The name Spittoon has a punk-rock and unpretentious element to it, which is how we conceived the name initially," said Matthew Byrne, the brain behind the arts collective. The British poet added that Beijing is a very multicultural city housing numerous stories for unraveling, and Spittoon is helping "publicize Chinese voices to the rest of the world." Earlier this year, Spittoon teamed up with a UK-based publisher and an English-language magazine on Chinese language and culture to host a conversation between Chinese author Li Juan and many expat readers. The writer from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region spoke about her latest book, Distant Sunflower Fields, a non-fiction narrative that chronicles her family's life on a sunflower farm. "Domestic readers may be more interested in the text itself, such as expression skills and aesthetics. And foreign readers want to explore the issues of writing motivation and attitude," Li said, calling this interaction with an international audience a "different" experience. She added that the enthusiasm of the expat audiences "somewhat surprised" her. "It may be because of the subject. Telling stories about remote and barren land, too far from reality, makes everyone curious, right?" Spittoon recently celebrated its sixth anniversary. The arts collective is now attempting to bring the city's student population on board through SpittoonU, a university outreach idea. The initiative has gone into a collaboration with Beijing Normal University. Behind Spittoon's journey is its closely-knitted member community, propelling the initiative forward voluntarily, noted Amy Daml, the host of Spittoon's non-fiction storytelling. It is a place where there is "something for everyone," said Daml, adding that she expects to see more events added to the roster. Calling the idea of Spittoon an embodiment of individual perspectives and their cultural heritages, Smith said that she believes such diverse platforms help deepen the role between many different cultures. "I've heard poetry in Chinese, Spanish, and English, and listening to people from other cultures read stories has been an amazing experience," she said. Anthony Tao, the coordinator of Spittoon's Beijing chapter, said the arts collective is a torchbearer of creativity in Beijing. "Creativity is universal, and the idea of internationalism is one of the foundations of Spittoon. People who share their creative works through this forum bring their own cultures and experiences. It is diverse but also signifies that we are all cut from the same cloth," he said. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always cared about the interests of Hong Kong compatriots and supported the development of the global financial hub, Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said on Saturday. The groundbreaking concept of "one country, two systems," proposed by the CPC and the Chinese government, has allowed Hong Kong people to maintain the system they are familiar with and keep their way of life as much as possible after Hong Kong returned to the motherland, Lam said in her speech at a forum in Hong Kong. Only the CPC, which puts the people at heart and cares about the well-being of Hong Kong compatriots, can implement such an enlightened system, Lam said. Back in the 1960s, the central authorities arranged special cargo trains to provide daily necessities for Hong Kong residents and channeled water from Dongjiang River to Hong Kong, she said. An array of favorable policies have also been put in place after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, which has boosted Hong Kong's status as an international finance, trade and shipping center, she added. The 14th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development supports Hong Kong in developing into an international innovation and technology center and a hub for arts and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world, Lam said. As Hong Kong faced unprecedented political chaos and a major national security risk over the past two years, the central authorities, under the leadership of the CPC, resolved Hong Kong's problems in accordance with the Constitution, the Basic Law of the HKSAR, and the "one country, two systems" principle, Lam said. Lam added that the implementation of the national security law in the HKSAR has helped Hong Kong return to order from chaos, while the improvement to Hong Kong's electoral system ensures "patriots administering Hong Kong." The forum, under the theme of "CPC and 'one country, two systems,'" was held in Hong Kong to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. More than 650 people from various sectors in Hong Kong attended the forum, including Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying, vice chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, as well as Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR. Flash UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday expressed his sadness over the death of William Swing, a former leader of the UN migration agency. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend William Swing, the former director-general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and past leader of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," he said in a statement. "A true humanist, Bill Swing dedicated his life to serving the most vulnerable of the vulnerable in our world. I will never forget his dedication and compassion as we worked together side by side in the face of some of the worst displacement crises," he said. "To his wife, his family and his former colleagues, I send my deepest condolences and profound solidarity." Swing, an American diplomat who had served as U.S. ambassador to various countries, died on Saturday at the age of 86. He was IOM director-general between 2008 and 2018. Flash More than 1.18 million overseas Chinese in more than 150 countries have been inoculated with Chinese or foreign vaccines against COVID-19, a foreign ministry spokesperson said recently. "Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak, the safety and health of overseas Chinese nationals have been close to the heart of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government," Wang Wenbin told a press conference on Thursday. "On March 7, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the launch of the 'spring sprout' program," he noted when asked about the progress of the vaccination program targeted for overseas Chinese nationals. "In the meantime, the Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safety and health of foreign nationals in China," he said, adding "so far, more than 200,000 foreign nationals have been vaccinated in China." Flash China firmly opposes excluding any country or enterprise via non-technical standards and discriminatory terms, as well as the abuse of the "national security" concept to undermine the principle of fair competition and the spirit of the rule of law, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Romania said late Friday. The spokesperson made the statement soon after the Romanian president on Friday signed the country's 5G law passed earlier by the parliament. Many in Romania believe that although the law does not mention Chinese companies, it actually excludes Chinese companies from participating in the building of Romania's 5G network. China respects Romania's right to legislate on cybersecurity, but it is also highly concerned about whether Chinese companies can obtain a fair, just, open and transparent business environment in the country, said the spokesperson. "Judging cybersecurity in isolation from industry norms and technical standards is against scientific common sense, denying the principles of market economy and fair competition," said the spokesperson, stressing that "this is typical political discrimination and repressive behavior," as it abuses the concept of "national security" to exclude specific countries and enterprises. "We call on the Romanian side to firmly uphold the spirit of the rule of law, treat Chinese enterprises in a fair, just and non-discriminatory manner, and take practical actions to safeguard the overall situation of practical cooperation between the two sides," said the spokesperson, stressing that the Chinese government will continue to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Romanian Parliament passed the bill on 5G network construction on May 19 and June 7 respectively. Flash Seven civilians were killed and six others wounded after two explosions struck public mini-buses along a busy road in western part of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Saturday, the capital police confirmed. The explosions occurred in Sari Pul and Mahtab Qala localities in Dashti Barchi, in Police District 13 and Police District 6 at midday, causing panic among the residents in the neighborhood, which has witnessed serial explosions in recent weeks, Basir Mujahid from Kabul police told reporters via a text message. One woman was among the killed and one woman was among the wounded. One of the targeted buses caught fire and was destroyed while several other vehicles driving along the road were also damaged by the force of the blasts. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. This was the second such explosion that hit Kabul this month. On June 3, nine civilians were killed and 10 others wounded after two public mini-buses were struck by bomb explosions in the western part of Kabul. Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Overview: Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing is the combination of development and manufacturing of pharma products by different companies on a contractual basis which are bind by a certain set of rules and standards which each company must follow. All the pharma companies act as outsourcing companies that deal with the development and manufacturing of drugs that lead to business scalability and revenue that gives space for the discovery of other drugs. Majorly marketing of drugs is led by government authorities or the source companies paving way for manufactures to build new drugs and testers to test these drugs as per market standards. also read @ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pharmaceutical-contract-manufacturing-market-size-2020-global-trends-industry-analysis-top-companies-merger-regional-outlook-revenue-2021-01-17 Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Top Boosters and Restraints Benefits such as saving of cost and time associated with outsourcing have boosted the demand for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing worldwide. More and more vendors are spending heavily on personnel, technology and infrastructure to up their outsourcing revenue. The surge in patent cliff for biologic drugs and the growing presence of end-to-end service vendors engaged in offering value added services for a risk sharing business model also bolsters the markets global position. Adding to the market revenue is the slew of novel drug delivery mechanisms as well as new product launches, which fuel the outsourcing demand. Expanding product pipeline has also driven advancements in service based market, in line with the increasing significance of generics, biosimilars and biologics. Companies are expending significantly on outsourcing their burgeoning biologics pipeline aimed at treating chronic disorders. One of the reasons for companies growing interest in outsourcing could be the One-stop-shop aspect provided by CMO as a way of promoting their diversified product portfolio. Also, consolidation and differentiation strategies increasingly being taken up by Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market firms can foster the projected growth in the following years. One of the major trends among pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms is the consolidation of industry outsourcing, parallel acquisitions and mergers. Adding on to this, service providers, in order to fortify their market position, are engaging in business profile upgradation by variegating their product range or business units. Continuously indulging in technological advancements to enhance the quality of their services, in terms of design and more, players are exhibiting their competitive streak at every opportunity. For instance, in August 2020, Bushu, a renowned contract manufacturer in Japan, is set to allocate close to USD 100 million to boost its packaging, fill-finish and cold storage capabilities at its plant in the coming five years, with the intention of drawing in more number of global pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Regional Analysis Europe, the Middle East and Africa/MEA, the Americas and APAC/Asia Pacific are the key markets for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing. The Americas is currently the leading market for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing and can touch USD 40,041.5 million by 2023, thereby maintaining its top position in the coming years. The market lucrativeness in the region is the result of the massive pool of vendors outsourcing their projects to emerging countries. The continuous advancements in the U.S. healthcare sector and the consistent growth in the geriatric populace also lead to high revenue generation. The fast surging uptake of biologics, rise in researches by leading biotechnology firms and the augmented demand for generics also contribute to the market growth in the region. Europe remains at the second position as the pharmaceutical contract manufacturing market has been advancing rapidly in recent years in the region. The increasing support from various government bodies in terms of large funds for research & development is cited to be the top growth inducer in the market. Touted to procure a CAGR of 7.7% between 2017 and 2023, APAC can be the fastest progressing market. Technology-based improvements along with the burgeoning patient pool in the region have sparked immense market growth over the years. Colossal investments by leading CMOs have also resulted in exponential advancement of the regional market. Development of the healthcare infrastructure and the feverously expanding capacity of API manufacturing in China combined with Indias growing clout as a hub for formulation manufacturing and development also favor the APAC market. Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Leading Companies Some of the top companies in the global industry include Vetter, Pharmaceutical Product Development, S.A, Patheon Inc., Catalant, Lonza AG, Grifols International, Boehringer Ingelheim, AbbVie Inc, to name a few. Obtain Premium Research Report Details, Considering the impact of COVID-19 @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/pharmaceutical-contract-manufacturing-market-1532 RELATED REPORTS Global Digestible Sensors Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 Global Blood Glucose Test Strip Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 Global Urology Devices Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact: Market Research Future NOTE: Our team of researchers are studying Covid-19 and its impact on various industry verticals and wherever required we will be considering covid-19 footprints for a better analysis of markets and industries. Cordially get in touch for more details. Market Highlights The integration of IT and healthcare is being widely hyped to possess the potential to reshape the medical care sector and its quality without compromising on the cost. This will help patients especially those who have diabetes and other chronic diseases. The medical device connectivity services and solutions are easy to access and can be used by anyone beyond the barriers of age, class, or country. The medical device connectivity solutions are cost-effective as they save frequently visiting costs in clinics, consultation fees of doctors, and transportation costs, among others. Furthermore, they use real-time health information and provide convenience to patients to avail their benefits and services while sitting in their comfort zones. Based on this platform, future projections for the medical device connectivity markets growth trajectory over the forecast period are provided in the report. The report also profiles the leading players in the global medical device connectivity market and gives readers a comprehensive analysis of the leading players in the global medical device connectivity market. The report also profiles the major drivers and restraints affecting the global medical device connectivity market. The factors making the market tick and those holding the market back are studied in detail in the report. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the medical device connectivity market is also assessed in the report. also read @ https://www.medgadget.com/2020/07/covid-19-outbreak-impact-on-medical-device-connectivity-market-2020-global-trends-size-estimation-industry-share-top-companies-merger-regional-outlook.html Medical device connectivity has become an important technology for the medical sector due to the widespread implementation of electronic health record systems, which has elevated the importance of digital technology in the healthcare sector. The growing demand for storing various device-related data in secure storage sites is likely to be a major driver for the global medical device connectivity market over the forecast period. The increasing incorporation of health information exchange systems in healthcare organizations is also likely to be a major driver for the global medical device connectivity market over the forecast period, as medical device connectivity tools play a vital role in enabling strong, capable health information exchange programs. Medical Device Connectivity Market Competitive Leaderboard: Leading players in the global medical device connectivity market include eDevice Inc., Stryker Corporation, Nuvon Inc., iHealth Lab Inc., True Process, Lantronix, Infosys, Nanthealth, Cisco Systems, Medtronic, Bernoulli Enterprise, Koninklijke Philips NV, GE Healthcare, Cerner, and Qualcomm. In 2016, Allscripts Technologies signed a ten-year strategic agreement with Optumcare to deploy Allscripts TouchWork suite as its exclusive electronic health record (EHR) and practice management (PM) solution for physicians. The strategic agreement will provide physicians with the clinical, health plan, and analytical data, which will further enhance the high-quality care they provide to their patients. Moreover, in 2016, Cerner and Sharp Healthcare came together to extend the formers electronic health record (EHR) system to the Sharp Community Medical Group. Through the expanded relationship with Cerner, Sharp will utilize an integrated platform to create consistencies by streamlining physician workflows and care team communications for transitions of care. All such instances are expected to boost the medical device connectivity market. Medical Device Connectivity Market Regional Analysis: North America accounts for the Global Medical Device Connectivity Market, followed by Europe. Asia Pacific is also expected to be an important regional market over the forecast period. Medical Device Connectivity Market Segmentation: The global medical device connectivity market is segmented on the basis of products and services, technology, end user, and region. By products and services, the market is segmented into medical device connectivity solutions and medical device connectivity services. Medical device connectivity solutions are further segmented into medical device integration solutions, telemetry systems, connectivity hubs, and interface devices. Whereas, medical device connectivity services are further segmented into support and maintenance services, implementation and integration services, and training services. Based on technology the market is segmented into wired technologies, wireless technologies, and hybrid technologies. Wireless technologies are likely to grow at a rapid growth rate over the forecast period. By end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, home healthcare, ambulatory care centers, diagnostic centers, and others. Hospitals account for the largest share in the global medical device connectivity market. Obtain Premium Research Report Details, Considering the impact of COVID-19 @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/medical-device-connectivity-market-6041 related reports related reports Pharmacy Benefit Management Services Market Research - Global Forecast 2027 Laparoscopy Devices Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 Gene Expression Analysis Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. As Harris walked back to her desk, she thought about why she had been so eager to connect with this stranger. She had been the only Black woman in her department for so long, as she had often been the only Black girl in her classes growing up in Hamden, Connecticut. She found her first group of Black female friends in college and has often felt anxious with other Black people about just not feeling Black enough. Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi held a meeting with officials of Haj Committee of India two days ago and maintained that they would go with the decision of the government of Saudi Arabia. ANI HYDERABAD: Saudi Arabias announcement of not allowing foreign pilgrims has sent shockwaves among Muslims. The Coronavirus pandemic once again upended the plans of millions of believers to make the pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia has barred foreign travellers from performing Haj for the second consecutive year. A total of 60,000 vaccinated pilgrims residing in the kingdom will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage this year, according to Saudi Ministries of Hajj and Health. About 4,000 persons from Telangana state had applied for the journey this year. Every year about 10,000 pilgrims from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu fly to the two holy places. Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi held a meeting with officials of Haj Committee of India two days ago and maintained that they would go with the decision of the government of Saudi Arabia. Shaheen Sultana of Falaknuma said I am not shocked but sad. To ensure pilgrimage we are following every instruction of the Saudi Arabian and Indian authorities. We have already taken vaccines. It is the dream of every Muslim believer to visit Mecca and Madina and do Haj but the pandemic has taken away our dream. Mohammed Dastagir Khan of Vattepally said he had planned for the pilgrimage this year and was hopeful that this time Saudi Arabia would allow pilgrims from other countries. Indian villagers have erected a shrine to goddess corona and are offering her prayers in the hope that divine intervention can banish the deadly virus. Devotees in Shuklapur village, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, have been offering prayers, holy water, and flowers at the bright yellow shrine where they have placed their idol of "Corona Mata", since they erected it this week. "Maybe with her blessings the villagers, our village, and everyone else get some relief," one villager, who gave her name as Sangeeta, said on Friday. India was hit hard by a surge of coronavirus infections in April and May but there are signs the worst could be over. Authorities reported 84,332 new cases on Saturday, the lowest daily tally in more than two months, health ministry data showed. read more COVID-19 has killed 367,081 people in India, according to government data. The Shuklapur villagers prayers have not been fully answered - there are sill some cases in the district - but the numbers are also sharply lower than they were at the height of the pandemic. VIJAYAWADA: The era of YSR Congress is going to start in AP Legislative Council for the first time. As it is set to grab majority in the 58-member Council soon, the party seems to have given up its insistence on its abolition. Faced with humiliation in the TD-dominated House in respect of the passage of various bills, the government had sought its abolition through a unanimous resolution in the Assembly on January 27, 2020. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy would remind the Centre of the issue during his visits to Delhi. But, during his just-concluded visit to Delhi, the CM did not urge the Centre to cooperate for the Council abolition. Barring this, he pleaded for Centres help in all key issues such as the three capitals, Polavaram, special category status. It appears the CM has decided on the continuation of the Council. His recent action also lends credence to this view. He selected Moshen Raju, Lella Appi Reddy, R.V. Ramesh Yadav and Thota Trimurthulu for the recently vacated four MLC posts under the Governors quota. The ruling party leaders take it as a clear sign towards the continuation of the Council. The total MLC seats in the AP Legislative Council is 58 in which opposition TD has 22 MLCs, YSRC 13, PDF 4, BJP 1, independents 4 and nominated 8. There are six vacant MLC posts that would be grabbed by YSRC and another 10 MLCs are going to retire on June 18. Among them, nine belong to TD and the other is Ummareddy Venkateswarlu of YSRC. The ruling party would get all 16 MLC seats which would give it a majority in the Council. TD would be limited to a dozen seats. Earlier in January 2020, the Jagan government faced humiliation in the AP Legislative Council when the AP Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 and APCRDA (Repeal) failed to pass due to severe opposition from TD and both the bills were referred to the select committee by TD. The ruling party which had only nine MLCs was greatly upset. The CM decided to abolish the Council and AP Assembly on January 27, 2020, unanimously passed a resolution, requesting the Centre for abolition of the Council. YSRC allocated the Assembly Speaker post to BCs. As such, it may now consider Council Chairman post for either minorities or SC community as part of social engineering concept which gave big success to YSRC during elections by way of preference to BCs, SC, minorities and other backward castes. Earlier TD gave the Chairman post to M.A. Sharif before elections to appease minorities, but they supported YSRC. So, the ruling party may appoint retired IPS officer and MLC Shaik Mohammed Iqbal as the Council Chairman. There is another speculation. SCs are also die-hard supporters of YSRC hence they too stand a good chance. If Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to give the post to SCs, then MLC Dokka Manikyavaraprasad Rao or Moshen Raju would be chosen. Sources also informed that as Kapus also hugely supported YSRC, even neglecting Jana Sena Party, there are bright chances of re-electing Ummareddy Venkateswarlu belong to the Kapu community as an MLC and further offering the Deputy Chairman of the Council post for Kapus as part of social engineering. According to the new system, the property tax is levied based on the market price of the property as against the earlier method of levying tax based on the rental value of the property. Representational image ANANTAPUR: The Federation of Anantapur District Residents Welfare Association has demanded the state government withdraw the decision to hike property taxes. It has also raised objections to the draft notification for levy of property tax on capital values of both building and land. According to the new system, the property tax is levied based on the market price of the property as against the earlier method of levying tax based on the rental value of the property. The state government seeks to raises its revenues as part of the reforms proposed by the central government. The GO Ms.No 198 issued by the municipal administration and urban development department changed the system of property tax assessment from Annual Rental Value to Capital Compared to the old structure, there would be a 10 to 15 per cent increase in the property tax with the newly revised tax structure, said Dr M. Virupaksha Reddy, the president of Federation of Anantapur District Residential Welfare Association. They submitted a memorandum to the Municipal Commissioner to withdraw the decision. He demanded that the state government withdraw its recent amendments to the municipal laws and restore the earlier system of levying taxes. The property tax has been raised in an undemocratic manner, when there was no elected council and even public opinion was not taken into account. We will form a state-wide united action committee to intensify the stir until the new reforms are taken back, said Dr M. Suresh Babu, a representative of the Federation of Residential Welfare Associations. In May last year, the central government enhanced the borrowing limits of the states from 3 to 5 per cent of their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as a COVID-19 special package. However, the 1 per cent of the increased limit was linked to four reforms in the universalisation of One Nation One Ration card, ease of doing business, power sector and reforms in urban local bodies. Both the associations demanded that the corporation defer the entire process relating to the property tax mentioned in the said draft notification. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Get 25% off of the regular $65 annual All Access rate. With this subscription you will get: Digital access to ElPasoInc.com and archives (value $45) Print subscription home or business delivered (value $65) Book of Lists (annual rate only, value $50) El Paso Inc. Magazine (value $20) El Paso Kids Inc. Special sections - OR - Get 15% off of the regular $45 annual Digital-only rate. With this subscription you will get: Complete digital access to ElPasoInc.com. This image released by Gravitas Ventures shows Ann-Margret, left, and Loretta Devine in a scene from "Queen Bees." AP-Yonhap There are two genres I tend to approach with extra caution: Slashers and retirement home comedies. Both have found me covering my eyes for not entirely unrelated reasons. Yes, the dismembering is more metaphorical in the latter, but sometimes it's equally hard to stomach seeing a great group of actors reduced to incontinence jokes. Also, I'm still recovering from the Diane Keaton movie ''Poms.'' The latest retirement home comedy is '' Queen Bees,'' about Helen (played by the majestic Ellen Burstyn), who reluctantly moves into a senior community while her beautiful suburban house is being fixed up after an accidental kitchen fire. Helen is still sharp and active and capable of living alone, but her real estate agent daughter (Elizabeth Mitchell) just seems to want to get the inevitable transition to out of the way. Helen, for her part, suspects her daughter just wants to sell her home and she may not be wrong. For as lovely as Helen's house is, the retirement community is pretty nice and full of active and social seniors. It's also stacked with talented actors: Alongside Burstyn in this senior home is James Caan, Ann-Margret, Jane Curtin, Loretta Devine and Christopher Lloyd, all of whom it's a delight to simply see on screen and none of whom are subjected to tasteless gags (although some are borderline). ''Queen Bees,'' directed by Michael Lembeck and written by Donald Martin, isn't exactly a bad movie, but it's not exactly good either. It has a decent heart and some lovely moments, but it also has many of the cliches that we've come to expect: An incontinence joke, a marijuana scene, stroke gags, a truly horrendous score and an appalling lack of curiosity about the characters we're asked to spend a few hours with. Even the title seems carelessly thrown at the movie as an attempt to peg it as a senior citizen ''Mean Girls,'' which it only sort of is. Curtin's Janet is the Regina George of the home and keeps her bridge and walking group small (just Ann-Margret's Margot and Devine's Sally are members). But aside from that and a slow-motion walk into the lunchroom to claim their designated table, they don't seem to yield much power or envy among the other residents. And it's not too long before Helen, who is apathetic to their exclusivity, is invited to the bridge table. If you're looking for a comedic, anthropological study of cliques in a retirement home, ''Queen Bees'' isn't it. ''Queen Bees'' also has the bones of a much better movie and is frustrating because of it. There is a sitcom blandness to the whole endeavor any edge or personality has been flattened out. Characters get at most a single bit of background: One had five husbands, one had cancer, one sleeps around. In one jaw-dropping scene Helen tells Sally about her days protesting with Dr. King and has zero follow-up questions for her Black peer about HER experience during that time. Instead they pivot to talking about hair extensions, which Helen is just learning about. And for all the comedic talent in the film, from Curtin to Lloyd, who seem game for anything, there are precious few genuine laughs to be had. Perhaps the script should have allowed for more improvisation. Yet mercifully everyone emerges with their dignity intact. Burstyn even finds ways to make her character deeper than what's on the page and there's a moving tenderness to her little flirtation with Caan's Dan, who is blandly sweet and charming. Helen's most meaningful relationship in the film is with her very kind and attentive grandson (Matthew Barnes), who, when attempting to explain all the nuances of his 80-something grandmother to her potential suitor, reduces her to a Twitter bio: Likes famous quotes, ballroom dancing and neatness. Surely there must be more to her than that, you think. ''Queen Bees'' has the same problem: It's a film that seems to have been dreamt up by a reverent grandchild who assumed they knew everything there was to know and never thought to ask the grandparent themselves. ''Queen Bees,'' a Gravitas Ventures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for ''for drug use, suggestive material and some language.'' Running time: 100. Two stars out of four. (AP) By Lee Min-hyung Hanwha General Insurance is feeling uneasy over Kakao's move to launch a digital insurer, amid fears that its own subsidiary Carrot Insurance will lose more ground to the big tech firm. The non-life insurance arm of Hanwha, together with a group of Korea's leading tech firms such as SK Telecom and Hyundai Motor established Carrot Insurance in 2019. Hanwha General Insurance owns a 51.6 percent stake in the nation's first and only digital insurer. Carrot is expanding its influence rapidly in the Korean car insurance market by winning more than 200,000 subscribers for its pay-as-you-go service, although it has only been 15 months since its launch. But with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) granting preliminary approval last week to KakaoPay's plan to establish a digital non-life insurer here, Hanwha and Carrot are paying keen attention to what could be Kakao's next plan. Kakao is Korea's dominant mobile messenger app operator and operates dozens of platform-related subsidiaries in various areas, such as a mobile payment service, a ride-hailing service and a mobile-only bank. The company is viewed as an unparalleled mobile platform operator in the Korean market. It intends to widen its revenue streams in the financial sector, an area that it has not yet tapped. After the successful launch of KakaoBank back in 2017, Kakao submitted an application last December for a license to start its own insurance business. Kakao is set to get final permission from the FSC by 2021, which will mark the first time for a big tech company to expand its business into the insurance sector. The company will then start offering insurance products in the first half of 2022. Industry sources have said that existing insurers that rely heavily on young customers in their 20s and 30s could be hit hard after the launch of Kakao's insurance business. "Given that Kakao's financial units KakaoBank and KakaoPay are positioned to win more backing from younger age groups, the same should be the case for the firm's digital insurance subsidiary," an insurance industry source said. Against this backdrop, Carrot Insurance will likely be hit hardest by Kakao's move, as the two firms' user bases will overlap, in that their target customers tend to be comfortable and savvy with digital transactions, according to the source. This situation is shown in the movements of the two companies' stock prices. Following the FSC's announcement to grant preliminary approval for Kakao's insurance business, Kakao's stock price has continued to soar to record highs. The company closed at 135,500 won Friday, up by 2,000 won or 1.5 percent, from the previous trading day. However, Hanwha General Insurance's stock price has been on a downward trend during the same period. The firm's stock price closed Friday at 4,565 won, down by 30 won or 0.65 percent. Another source in the insurance industry also said that Kakao's insurance business could make a soft landing due to KakaoPay's rich customer base. By April this year, KakaoPay's number of subscribers reached 36 million, exceeding that of conventional, big non-life insurance players, most of whom have less than 10 million users each here. "Kakao will likely start by launching unconventional insurance products, such as for travelers or those who need insurance for protecting their smartphones from damage," the source said. "The company will then expand the coverage area into more diverse sectors, such as car insurance. In this case, Carrot Insurance will be exposed to the risk of losing its customers to Kakao." "Kakao will have to expand its insurance business eventually into conventional sectors, as the aforementioned mini-insurance products do not guarantee high returns and are not lucrative enough to drive the firm's sustainable growth." Last year, KakaoPay started expressing strong interest in opening a car insurance business. The company and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance were in talks to establish a joint digital insurer, but the plan fell through. "Other non-life insurers in Korea will have to set a specific strategy to minimize customer turnover, after Kakao makes inroads aggressively into a wide range of insurance areas based on its unrivaled platform power," the source said. Jun Bae-seung, an analyst at eBest Investment & Securities, also said that existing non-life insurers should brace for tough competition with Kakao. "Kakao will start its insurance business with the focus on mini-insurance products in the short run, but is also capable of tapping into the car insurance sector," the analyst said. "Existing insurers should keep making investments in their digital sales channels and enhancing expertise in that area." A fishmonger poses in front of Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market in Seoul in this photo, taken by activist-photographer Choi In-gi. A banner hanging on the blue building to the left announces that the building will be destroyed and that entry is forbidden without approval from the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives. Courtesy of Noonbit Publishing A tale of Korean and Japanese activists who teamed up to improve the lives of the urban poor By Kang Hyun-kyung Activist Choi In-gi's camera was damaged and broken during a photo project in Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market on Oct. 29 of last year. At that time, he was shooting photos of dozens of fish merchants who were protesting the closure of the old market space where they used to sell fish, refusing to move into a brand-new building that was built a few years back. Suddenly, people hired by the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives shot high-velocity water out of a water cannon, deployed there to control and disperse protestors. The blast completely broke Choi's camera, worth some $5,000. A deep sense of loss hit Choi when he looked at the broken camera, which was a symbol of his decade-long friendship with his mentor, Japanese pastor Motoyuki Nomura, as it was a gift from him. "Having such an expensive professional camera was a luxury to people like me who can barely make ends meet," Choi said. Activist Choi In-gi / Courtesy of Choi In-gi Choi, 55, called the 90-year-old Japanese pastor, "Grandpa Nomura." "To me, Grandpa Nomura is a living saint," said Choi. "I came to understand why people are motivated to have a religion. After I met him, I felt that I had someone whom I could rely on whenever times got tough. His financial support, kind words and encouragement helped me keep working for the urban poor." While doing advocacy for the poorest of the poor, Choi went on to say that he sometimes found himself in situations where he feels confused about his mission. "I have become introspective as I have gotten older. I am as poor as the people I am fighting for. My health is declining. Such realistic issues haunt me, making me confused about my cause-driven work. When such skepticism holds me back, Grandpa Nomura contacts me and encourages me to stay focused on saving the lives of the urban poor." Choi's photography book, "Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market: Old Market Vendors' Endangered Lives and Their Struggles," which was released last week, is part of his effort to live up to his commitment to keep fighting for a better future for the urban poor. He zooms in on dozens of fishmongers who were evicted following the closure of the old covered market, but have refused to move into the new building nearby, mainly because they are unable to pay the higher rental fees. When they sold fish in the old market building, they paid some 200,000 won in monthly rental fees. However, if they move into the brand-new market, they need to pay some 700,000 won. As the author of five books, Choi has captured the daily lives of the urban poor, including people who were ousted from their homes or businesses due to gentrification, the homeless and street vendors. He was able to finance his photography projects, thanks to Nomura's generous donation of professional cameras several times. Japanese pastor Motoyuki Nomura poses next to a statue of Jeon Tae-il (1948-1970), who committed suicide by self-immolation at age 22, to draw attention to the need to improve the human rights of fellow garment workers. Courtesy of Choi In-gi Since they got to know each other through a mutual friend a decade ago, Choi and Nomura have helped each other. "Some 10 years ago, I got a phone call from a novelist. She said that Grandpa Nomura had seen a photo I had taken at Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul before it underwent the urban beautification project in the mid-2000s, and wondered if the man featured in that photo was a friend of his that he had met in Korea," said Choi. After checking with the man in the photo in person, Choi figured out that the man was not the one Nomura was looking for. He wrote an email to Nomura explaining the situation. Unable to speak or write in Japanese, Choi used Google Translate to translate Korean to Japanese. Impressed by Choi's effort to get back to him, the Japanese pastor sent Choi a file saved on a USB drive containing hundreds of Nomura's old photos, featuring people and the landscape of Seoul's Cheonggye Stream taken in the late 1960s and 1970s. Via a hand-written note, the Japanese pastor said he hoped Choi could use his photos for "some good purpose." Choi, who has been taking photos since 2002, instantly recognized the value of those photos. He took the USB drive to Lee Kyu-sang, the founder and publisher of Noonbit Publishing, which has released hundreds of photography books since it was founded in the late 1980s. The Japanese pastor's photos were published in 2013 by Noonbit under the title, "Nomura Report." Following the publication of "Nomura Report," the Japanese pastor published two more photobooks about Korea: "Memories of Yushin" (2019), featuring "a repressed Korea" during the military dictatorship of the 1970s, and "Gangchon in Korea," a 2020 photography book that captures people living in the namesake eastern city in 1968. Grateful to Choi for serving as a bridge between him and the Korean publisher, Nomura has given professional cameras to Choi several times. The one that was damaged during Choi's photo project in Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market was Nomura's newest gift to him. His financial donation has strings attached though, according to Choi. "Grandpa Nomura always told me, 'Keep addressing issues about the urban poor, so that society can pay attention to them and find solutions. Stand with the poorest of the poor.' He encouraged me to keep doing the right thing," he said. A fishmonger looks up in the old Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market building in Seoul. Courtesy of Noonbit Publishing President Moon Jae-in, left, and U.S. President Joe Biden, right, listen to Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a working session at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, June 12. AP-Yonhap South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a Group of Seven (G-7) summit Saturday and unveiled plans to help lower-income nations procure COVID-19 vaccines. He stressed the importance of swiftly expanding vaccine supply to ensure "equitable access" in order to overcome the pandemic, while attending a plenary session on health on the second day of the summit, his office said. "President Moon emphasized that an early expansion of vaccine supply is the most necessary short-term prescription to ensure equitable access to vaccines," his office said in a press release. He explained Seoul's plan to offer US$100 million in grants for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) this year. The COVAX AMC is a financing mechanism intended to make COVID-19 vaccines available at low cost for more than 90 developing countries with relatively low incomes. The president also said that Seoul would provide cash or materials worth $100 million in additional aid next year. President Moon Jae-in, right, and U.S. President Joe Biden, left, smile as they greet each other during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, June 12. Yonhap South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and U.S. President Joe Biden, as they attended a Group of Seven (G-7) summit here. Moon "exchanged greetings" with Suga just before the start of an expanded session of the summit at Carbis Bay Hotel & Estate in Cornwall, Britain, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. The leaders of the G-7 member countries walk toward a meeting room after a photo session in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England, June 12. Yonhap The leaders of South Korea and Germany agreed Saturday to work together for the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines, Cheong Wa Dae said. President Moon Jae-in met with Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G-7) summit under way in the southwestern British county of Cornwall. Moon said it is meaningful that South Korea has an opportunity to discuss major international issues along with Germany and other G-7 member states. Merkel welcomed Moon's participation in the session as a guest and expressed hope for close cooperation in addressing such global challenges as a health crisis and climate change, according to Cheong Wa Dae. President Moon Jae-in, front row second from right, poses with leaders participating in the G7 Summit, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, front row center, and U.S. President Joe Biden, front row right, at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Cornwall, U.K., Saturday (local time). Yonhap By Jun Ji-hye, Joint Press Corps President Moon Jae-in has stressed Korea's willingness to become a new global hub for COVID-19 vaccine production during his talks with leaders attending the G7 Summit, raising the need for equitable access to inoculation throughout the world to overcome the public health crisis together. President Moon held talks with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Saturday (local time), on the sidelines of the summit, which had opened the previous day in Cornwall, U.K., emphasizing that expanding vaccinations has become more important than carrying out antivirus measures. "It is necessary to supply vaccines stably and fairly to developing countries," Moon was quoted as saying by presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. "Europe's capability of developing vaccines should be combined with Korea's production capacity to expand vaccine production. Korea will faithfully fulfill its role as a global vaccine hub." While attending an expanded session on health at the G7 Summit, Moon said Korea will seek to form partnerships with G7 countries in vaccine cooperation, as it did so with the Unites States, to contribute to the expansion of the vaccine supply around the world. Moon and U.S. President Joe Biden had agreed to establish a comprehensive global vaccine partnership during their summit talks held in Washington, D.C., in May. During the G7 Summit, Moon also unveiled plans to help developing countries secure COVID-19 vaccines, vowing to offer $100 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) this year. The COVAX AMC is a financing mechanism aimed at providing doses to less-developed economies. Moon noted that Korea will provide additional cash or materials worth $100 million next year. Earlier in the day, Moon met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the summit, agreeing to work together to produce vaccines and expand supply. "Germany is an advanced country in terms of vaccine development, while Korea has its strength in vaccine production. The two countries' cooperation will make it possible for vaccines to be supplied throughout the world more stably and fairly," Moon was quoted as saying by Park. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, back row right, talks with heads of states during the Climate and Nature plenary session at the G7 Summit in Cornwall, the U.K., Sunday. From left in the back row are South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Johnson, and in the front is Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo The Group of Seven (G7), a bloc of the world's wealthiest seven democracies, has stepped up efforts to counter China's growing influence, agreeing on the need for a joint approach to China's trade and human rights issues. This puts Korea, which has been balancing between China and the U.S., in a difficult position. During the G7 Summit at Carbis Bay in Cornwall, U.K., from Friday to Sunday, leaders of the participating nations discussed the China issue, mainly in the fifth plenary session titled "Open Societies," held Sunday (GMT). Korea has been participating in the summit as a guest country along with Australia, India and South Africa, with President Moon Jae-in trying to position Korea among the world's wealthiest democracies. Along with imminent issues such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, China's re-emergence as a superpower was a major theme of the summit. China's growing leverage propelled the G7 leaders to talk about issues sensitive to China, including human rights abuses and forced labor allegedly taking place in China's Xinjiang region. According to a draft version of the G7 Summit communique seen by Reuters, Sunday, the G7 called on China to respect human rights in its Xinjiang region and allow a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong, while underscoring the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The leaders also agreed to provide more financial support to developing nations, focusing on their fight against climate change, but it is believed to be a part of plans to rival China's "debt diplomacy." This scheme is apparently a campaign to counter China's "Belt and Road Initiative," a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, involving development and investment projects in over 100 countries, from Asia to Europe. Lim Jong-sik, right, superintendent of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education, and Guatemalan Ambassador to Korea Marco Tulio Chicas Sosa, hold a textbook for elementary school students in Guatemala, at Lim's office in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, June 7. Courtesy of Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education By Bahk Eun-ji Most Koreans know the traditional folk tale, "Heungbu and Nolbu," a story about two brothers which contains the moral lesson that good people are blessed and greedy ones become unhappy. Now the famous folk tale is also being printed in a state-published textbook for elementary school students in Guatemala, a Central American country with a population of 18 million. The story is written in Spanish in the textbook for Guatemalan fifth-graders. Some other Korean folk tales are also provided for students in other grades there, including: "The Rabbit and the Turtle," "Two Good Brothers" and "The Brother and Sister Who Became the Sun and the Moon." Even the story of Dangun, the mythical founder of the first Korean kingdom, is in the textbook for sixth graders, according to the Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education (GBE). The natural science textbook for middle school third-graders also introduces Korea and the Korean alphabet of Hangeul, its traditional dress known as hanbok and its economy. The Korean folk tale "Two Good Brothers" is written in Spanish in a state textbook for elementary school students in Guatemala. Courtesy of Gyeongsangbuk-do Office of Education By Anne-Marie Slaughter and Kazumi Hoshino-Macdonald Anne-Marie Slaughter Kazumi Hoshino-Macdonald By Gwynne Dyer There is a great anomaly in China's modern history, but it isn't the late, unlamented one-child policy. That policy is endlessly discussed and debated as if it really mattered, while China's three lost decades of economic growth and their unintended consequences for the climate crisis go almost unmentioned. There was great excitement among journalists in late May when China announced its new three-child policy. Some even dared to ask why, if changing the one-child policy to a two-child policy in 2016 did nothing to fix the plunging birth-rate, does Beijing now think it can solve the problem by letting the people who already didn't want a second kid try for three instead? The media run interviews with appealing young urban professionals (they used to be called "yuppies") who explain that the pressures of life and the cost of housing make a second kid, or even a first, unthinkable. Charts show how fast the Chinese population is going to shrink. They even hint that it's a phenomenon peculiar to China. The only reason that the news out of China is getting this special treatment is that the regime had that punitive and futile one-child policy in the first place. Everybody (or almost everybody) knows that if you really want to lower the birthrate, educate young people and urbanize the population as fast as possible. So a little criticism is certainly in order. The one-child policy inflicted a lot of pain, it led to the abortion of tens of millions of girl babies and a potentially destabilizing surplus of boys, and it probably didn't change China's population trajectory much at all. In fact, the three main countries of East Asia China, Japan and South Korea have almost identical trajectories of past rapid population growth and future decline over the 150 years 1950-2100. Japan's population in 1950 was 82 million. It peaked at 128 million in 2015 and on current trends will be back below 80 million by 2100. South Korea's population was 20 million in 1960. It is peaking right now at around 52 million, and will be back down to 26 million by 2100. And China's population was 550 million in 1950. It is peaking this year at 1.45 billion (that's 1,450 million), and will be back down to 730 million by 2100. So no big deal. The younger generation will have to support a much bigger elderly population in all three countries, but one way or another they'll manage. Where they diverge radically is in when their "economic miracles" got started. China was 30 years behind the other two, and that simple fact may save us from a climate disaster. There was no profound political or cultural reason why China should have lagged so far behind, but it completely missed the boat. Its per capita GDP was not significantly higher in 1980 than it had been in 1950. In the 1950s, all three countries were recently shattered by war, with their per capita GDPs under $100 per year. But then the "miracles" kicked off in Japan and Korea, and by 1985, per capita GDP was $10,000 for Japan and $7,000 for Korea. In China in 1985, it was still only $300 per year. The Chinese economy did finally start to grow in the 1980s, and by now it has caught up a lot. Per capita GDP is now $10,000 a year in China, compared to $33,000 a year in Korea and $40,000 in Japan. But those long decades of almost no growth in China have spared the world the immense carbon dioxide emissions that a rapidly industrializing China would have produced. A fully industrialized China now produces more than a quarter (26 percent) of the world's CO2 emissions. If it had kept pace with its neighbors and reached full industrialization in the 1980s, the extra emissions it would have added to the atmosphere as a result would amount to around ten years' worth of current global emissions. In that case, the world would already have gone past the recommended threshold of no more than 1.5C higher average global temperature, and would probably be condemned to cross the "never exceed" +2C limit as well. Indeed, we might already be trapped on the pathway leading to "Hothouse Earth." Without noticing it, we have had a very narrow escape and we owe our good fortune to just one man. Mao Zedong, or Mao Tse-tung, as it was written during his lifetime, single-handedly prevented the Chinese economy from taking off for a quarter-century with his ceaseless, furious political campaigns, from the "Great Leap Forward" (1958-62) to the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-76). Tens of millions of Chinese suffered grievously as a result, but perhaps we should put up a modest statue somewhere to the "Man Who (Inadvertently) Saved The World from Climate Change." Gwynne Dyer (gwynne763121476@aol.com) has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years. He is the author of "Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work)." Young PPP leader should usher in new politics The election of Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician, as the chairman of the main conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP) is surprising but welcome. He has become the youngest-ever leader of a mainstream party since the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948. This signals a generational change not only in his own party, but also in the country's politics. On Friday, Lee won 43.8 percent of the votes in the leadership race, defeating four senior rivals, including Na Kyung-won, a former four-term lawmaker and floor leader who received 37.1 percent of the ballots. Five-term lawmaker Joo Ho-young ranked third with 14 percent. Seventy percent of the total votes were cast by party members, while the remaining 30 percent were cast by citizens. Lee scored 58.8 percent in the citizens' vote, compared to 28.3 percent won by Na, the runner-up. This means that Lee won the victory with the help of non-party voters calling for drastic change and reform of the PPP. It also can be said that Lee's triumph reflected young voters' frustration with the political establishment marred by partisan struggles and corruption. In fact, Lee, a former member of the PPP's Supreme Council, has been basking in the spotlight since the preliminary leadership contest began in late May. He led the race by stirring up a strong wind of generational change in his party. His strategy worked by appealing to young voters in their 20s and 30s who are fed up with old-style politics and want to see far-reaching political reforms. Now he should comply with their aspiration for change. First of all, the new chairman with no experience as a lawmaker needs to exercise his leadership to the best of his ability. As he said in his acceptance speech, Lee's foremost task is to steer the party toward a victory in the next presidential election set for March 9, 2022. He should bring all of its members together to rebuild the conservative party which has been reeling from the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, ex-leader of one of the PPP's predecessors. It is necessary for him to ensure fair and free competition to choose the party's presidential candidate. He must work hard to attract strong presidential favorites, including former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, into the PPP. He also needs to address the issue of merging with the minor conservative opposition People's Party, led by Ahn Cheol-soo. Lee's ascent to the PPP's leadership came after the party won a landslide victory in the April 7 mayoral by-elections in Seoul and Busan. The win, however, was not because the PPP performed well, but because the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) made a set of policy mistakes and lost the public's trust. For this reason, the opposition party should make concerted efforts to win over the hearts and minds of the people, especially the young generation, by presenting new visions of the future. Most of all, Lee and his party must do their best to promote the values of fairness and justice which have been undermined by the Moon Jae-in government and the DPK, especially due to rampant property speculation by civil servants and lawmakers. Fort its part, the DPK should also go all-out to regain public trust by abandoning its unilateralism and hypocrisy. We hope that Lee's election will usher in a new era of politics in Korea. None of the parties and politicians can survive unless they change and end outdated politics characterized by partisanship, regional animosity and ideological division. We have many reasons why Lee's political experiment should produce successful results. By Jason Lim This past week, Lee Jun-seok, 36, became the youngest ever to take the leadership of a main political party. Lee will now lead the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP), as it tries to win back the presidency next year. While Lee's been around for about 10 years ever since he was recruited by former President Park Geun-hye basically as window dressing for her appeal to younger voters, he has held his own since then against much more experienced and well-heeled politicians. Nevertheless, nobody expected a Lee victory this time around, especially against two well-entrenched veterans of party politics. His meteoric rise can be seen as an extension of the narrative that brought defeat to the ruling party during the April mayoral by-elections, and overwhelming disapproval of the status quo by the young male electorate against the current system. It was this same demographic that propelled Lee's victory this time around. It's almost as if the "Hell Joseon" that has been brewing over the last decade has come home to roost and caused this seismic disruption in the political landscape. If you recall, "Hell Joseon" was the term popularly coined several years ago to describe the hopelessness of Korea's young people in which, as Se-Woong Koo wrote in Korea Expose, "being born in South Korea is tantamount to entering hell, where one is immediately enslaved by a highly regulated system that dictates an entire course of life. Onerous education and service in the abusive military are the norm, and the only goal for the young is to become servants of the mighty corporations that rule the realm from its heart." Koo further wrote, "The Hell Joseon discourse embodies despair and hopelessness of the most extreme variety, the idea that the South Korean state cannot be redeemed through effort. In fact, effort 'noryeok' in Korean is one of the most hated words in the Hell Joseon lexicon, seen as part of an insidious tactic of the ruling class to trick the population into continuing to believe that work is meaningful, mobility possible, and justice alive." Koo's take is not the only definition of Hell Joseon, but it's interesting to juxtapose the younger generation's distaste of noryeok against Lee's main and successful message in this election, and also the name of his book: "Fair Competition." Lee has been quoted as saying that the role of politics is to create a playing field where everyone gets to compete in a perfectly fair environment. So, young people are not against the idea of noryeok per se; they just believe that their noryeok is wasted against a system that has already picked its winners and losers based on family background. They want a world where their noryeok matters again and will be rewarded fairly. This imagined world is what Lee is promising, and it's difficult to argue against it in a free and capitalistic society. It's also not new. It has another, older name: meritocracy. It's a system of social hierarchy in which privilege, status, wealth and power are allocated not by social origins but by individual merit. And in the modern era, especially in Korea, individual merit has traditionally been measured by academic achievements. This system also has a more familiar Korean name: Park Chung-heeism. The link to Park Chung-hee is ironic in that some pundits are declaring Lee's victory as a complete and final break from the original Park's spiritual hold on the conservative party. But actually, it's a full embrace. Lee is peddling basically the same upward mobility narrative that gave meaning to the Miracle on the Han River era, where everybody who worked hard could get ahead, especially if you studied hard enough to get into college. The underlying premise of meritocracy held during this era until its inevitable dissolution. As wealth increasingly reflects success based on talent and effort (merit), and those possessing them marry each other, then society will eventually and inevitably split between the haves and have-nots, and skew the originally level playing field. The field gets even more skewed and aristocratized when rich parents use their wealth and privilege to gain unfair advantages for their children, which is, after all, human instinct. Lee is now promising to bring back the level playing field so that the meritocracy narrative is valid again. His enormous challenge is that Korea is not a devastated country in the aftermath of an all-out war, after which everyone started out pretty much the same. Wars and disasters have a way of leveling the playing field. Today's Korea already has an aristocracy that is a well-entrenched social class and will resist being made into a scapegoat or sacrificial lamb as a part of Lee's attempts to revive the validity of the meritocracy narrative. So, it is essentially a creative destruction problem for Lee. Is he up to the challenge? Who knows. But one thing is for sure. At least a significant portion of the electorate is desperate enough to give the new, young guy a try. Jason Lim (jasonlim@msn.com) is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun stands next to a high-performance N brand series race car. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group Agnes Chow, center, a prominent pro-democracy activist who was sentenced to jail last year for her role in an unauthorized protest, is released in Hong Kong, June 12. AP-Yonhap Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from prison on Saturday after serving nearly seven months for her role in an unauthorized assembly during anti-government protests in the city in 2019. The 24-year-old activist had been convicted together with her long-time activist colleague, Joshua Wong, for their involvement in an illegal rally near police headquarters in the Chinese-ruled city. Wong remains in prison and the reason for Chow's early release after being sentenced to 10 months in jail was not clear. The Correctional Services Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chow was released from the Tai Lam Correctional Institution in Tuen Mun, in Hong Kong's New Territories district, at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT). She did not speak to media before she was ushered into a car with friends and fellow democracy activists. Supporters shouted "Agnes Chow add oil", a Cantonese-language expression of encouragement that was widely used at the protests that roiled the city. Some supporters wore black T-shirts and yellow masks and one held a yellow umbrella, a symbol of protests in the former British colony dating back to 2014. She later thanked her friends in an Instagram post for braving the rain and said her next plan was to rest properly. "The painful half year and 20 days, it's finally over," she wrote. Chow, along with Wong and Nathan Law, who has since been given asylum in Britain, came to prominence as teenage activists during the 2014 protests to demand universal suffrage. The three founded the democracy group Demosisto in 2016, which dissolved hours after Beijing passed a contentious national security law for the city last year amid fears it could be targeted under the legislation. The law has stifled the pro-democracy movement and raised concern about prospects for the autonomy Hong Kong was promised under a "one country, two systems" formula when it was handed over to China in 1997. Chow was also arrested last year on suspicion of "colluding with foreign forces" under the security law but has not faced any charges related to that. Fluent in Japanese, Chow has a sizable following in Japan, particularly on social media and had travelled to the country frequently before her arrest. She often posted on Twitter in Japanese and Japanese media has dubbed her a "goddess of democracy". (Reuters) In this June 10 aerial photo, a migrating herd of elephants gather near the Shijie Township in Yimen County, China. AP-Yonhap China's famed wandering elephants are on the move again, heading southwest while a male who broke from the herd is still keeping his distance. The group left a wildlife reserve in the southwest of Yunnan province more than a year ago and has trekked 500 kilometers (300 miles) north to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming. As of Saturday, they were spotted in Shijie township in the city of Yuxi, more than 8 kilometers (5 miles) southwest of the Kunming suburb they had arrived at last week, according to state media reports. The lone male was 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, still on the outskirts of Kunming. The direction of their travel could be a good sign, since authorities are hoping to lead them back to their original home in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture southwest of Kunming. Authorities have been attempting to keep a distance between them and local residents, while blocking roads into villages and seeking to lure them away with food drops. Despite that, the herd of 15 have raided farms, strolled down urban streets and foraged for snacks in villages and even a retirement home. All of the animals are reported to be healthy and no person has been injured in encounters with them. Officials have issued strict orders not to gawk at them or seek to drive them off using firecrackers or other means. China's roughly 300 wild elephants enjoyed the highest level of protected status, on a par with the country's unofficial mascot, the panda bear. However, extra precautions are being taken amid steady rainfall in the area and crowds of onlookers expected around the Dragon Boat festival on Monday. Additional emergency workers, vehicles and drones have been deployed to monitor the elephants' movements and protect local residents, the reports said. Some 2.5 tons of food were laid out for the animals on Friday. It remains unclear why the elephants embarked on their trek, although Evan Sun, wildlife campaign manager with World Animal Protection, said possible reasons could include lack of food supply, a rise in the elephant population and, most importantly, loss of habitat. ''The increase of human-elephant conflicts reflects the urgency for a more strategic policy and plan to protect these endangered wild animals and their natural habitats,'' Sun wrote in an email. ''This also poses a great opportunity to educate the public about the challenges that wild animals face for survival and the need for better protection from a government, industry and society level,'' Sun wrote. ''These animals belong in the wild. We need to keep a safe distance from them, which is good for us and the wild animals.'' (AP) Anti-junta protesters flooded Myanmar's social media with pictures of themselves wearing black Sunday in a show of solidarity for the Rohingya, a minority group that is among the most persecuted in the country. Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a February 1 coup, an anti-junta movement demanding a return to democracy has grown to include fighting for ethnic minority rights. The mostly Muslim Rohingya long viewed as interlopers from Bangladesh by many in Myanmar have for decades been denied citizenship, rights, access to services and freedom of movement. (AFP) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos / AP-Yonhap A seat on a spaceship ride with billionaire Jeff Bezos went for $28 million during a live auction on Saturday, concluding the month-long bidding process for the sightseeing trip on the Blue Origin's maiden voyage next month. Within four minutes of the open of Saturday's live phone auction, bids reached beyond $20 million. The bidding closed seven minutes after the auction began. The identity of the winner presumably an ultra-wealthy space aficionado was not immediately disclosed. The July 20 launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard booster from West Texas would be a landmark moment as U.S. firms strive toward a new era of private commercial space travel. Blue Origin's founder and Amazon.com executive Bezos, the world's wealthiest man and a lifelong space enthusiast, has been racing against fellow aspiring billionaire aeronauts Richard Branson and Elon Musk to be the first of the three to travel beyond Earth's atmosphere. "To see the earth from space, changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity," Bezos said in a video before the final bidding took place, adding that his brother Mark will join him on the trip. As the month-long bidding process leading up to the live auction closed on Thursday, the winning figure stood at $4.8 million, fueled by entries from more than 6,000 people from at least 143 countries, Blue Origin said. "Putting the world's richest man and one of the most recognized figures in business into space is a massive advertisement for space as a domain for exploration, industrialization and investment," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas told clients earlier this month. While the funds raised from the event are earmarked for charity, Blue Origin is hoping to galvanize enthusiasm for its nascent suborbital tourism business. However, Branson, who founded Virgin Galactic Holdings, may attempt to steal Bezos' thunder by joining a possible test flight to the edge of space over the July 4 weekend aboard Virgin's VSS Unity spaceplane, one person familiar with the matter said. The race is fueled by optimism that space travel will become mainstream as nascent technology is proven and costs fall, fueling what UBS estimates could be a $3 billion annual tourism market by 2030. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as Musk's SpaceX, have also discussed using their rockets to link far-flung global cities. UBS says that long-haul travel market could be worth more than $20 billion, though several barriers such as air-safety certification could derail the plans. Blue Origin has not divulged its pricing strategy for future trips. Reuters reported in 2018 that Blue Origin was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for the ride, based on a market study and other considerations, though its thinking may have changed. (Reuters) Darnella Frazier, third from right, records the deadly arrest of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis. AP-Yonhap The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a "special citation" on Friday to the teenager whose video of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer sparked worldwide protests against racial injustice. Eighteen-year-old Darnella Frazier was honored as New York's Columbia University announced the 2021 prestigious journalism awards in a virtual ceremony. Frazier was being recognized "for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice," the citation said. Frazier was also among the witnesses who testified at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April of Floyd's May 25, 2020 murder. In the video taken by Frazier, Chauvin is seen kneeling for more than nine minutes on the neck of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, as bystanders urge him repeatedly to get off and Floyd says that he can't breathe, before losing consciousness. The staff of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis was awarded the Pulitzer in the breaking news category for its coverage of Floyd's death and its repercussions. The New York Times was honored with the public service prize for its "courageous, prescient and sweeping coverage" of the coronavirus pandemic. Online outlet BuzzFeed won its first Pulitzer in the international reporting category for coverage of prison camps built by China for mass detention of Muslims. Ed Yong of The Atlantic received the prize for explanatory reporting for a series of "lucid, definitive pieces" on the COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters was honored in the same category for an examination of the legal doctrine of qualified immunity and how it is used to shield police from prosecution. The Associated Press won the Pulitzer for breaking news photography and an AP photographer, Emilio Morenatti, was honored for feature photography. "The Night Watchman" by Louise Erdrich was awarded the prize for fiction while "Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy" by David Zucchino was honored for non-fiction. The biography prize was given to "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X" by the late Les Payne and Tamara Payne. "Postcolonial Love Poem" by Natalie Diaz was the winner in the poetry category; "The Hot Wing King" by Katori Hall won the drama prize, and "Stride" by Tania Leon won for music. (AFP) A commercial lobster diver who got caught in the mouth of a humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod on Friday morning said he thought he was going to die. Michael Packard, 56, of Wellfleet, told WBZ-TV after he was released from Cape Cod Hospital that he was about 45 feet (14 meters) deep in the waters off Provincetown when ''all of a sudden I felt this huge bump, and everything went dark.'' He thought he had been attacked by a shark, common in area waters, but then realized he could not feel any teeth and he wasn't in any pain. ''Then I realized, oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth ... and he's trying to swallow me,'' he said. ''And I thought to myself OK, this is it I'm finally I'm gonna die.'' His thoughts went to his wife and children. He estimates he was in the whale's mouth for about 30 seconds, but continued to breathe because he still had his breathing apparatus in. Then the whale surfaced, shook its head, and spit him out. He was rescued by his crewmate in the surface boat. His sister, Cynthia Packard, originally told the Cape Cod Times that her brother broke a leg, but he said later that his legs are just bruised. Charles ''Stormy'' Mayo, a senior scientist and whale expert at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, told the newspaper that such human-whale encounters are rare. Humpbacks are not aggressive and Mayo thinks it was an accidental encounter while the whale was feeding on fish, likely sand lance. (AP) Magnolia, AR (71754) Today Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Malibu, CA (90265) Today Mostly clear. Low 62F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph, becoming ESE and decreasing to less than 5 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 62F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph, becoming ESE and decreasing to less than 5 mph. Following a pre-Series A round of USD 3 million, Webrock, the investment company that brought the number one digital health app in Brazil to South America, and Healthforce, a digital health company majority-owned by South Africas leading retail pharmacy chain Dis-Chem, will be taking the cutting-edge technology behind the second most downloaded doctor app in Europe, Doktor.se, to Africa. Doing so will provide the continent with a complete digital primary care platform. It will first be launching in South Africa, with a further continent-wide roll-out planned. The platform, which makes use of a freemium model and innovative approaches to reduce data costs, offers on-demand and scheduled consultations with nurses, general practitioners, and mental health professionals, while also providing ongoing wellness management. Its design ensures a fully integrated end-to-end healthcare system that allows for a holistic and comprehensive view of each patient across different cadres of healthcare workers in order to allocate the most appropriate resource to meet the needs of the patient. Additionally, it will be incorporated into Healthforces network of 450 primary care clinics across South Africa where hands-on care will be provided if needed. The solution is set to reduce the cost of quality care while measurably improving health outcomes, reach patients in remote areas, and alleviate the pressure on the traditional medical support systems. Currently, only 16% of South Africans[i], 9% of Nigerians[ii] and 1% of Ugandans[iii] for example have medical scheme cover since the costs remain out of reach for the majority of the African population. While governments on the continent are attempting to make quality health services more accessible via national health insurance schemes, universal healthcare provision has not proven feasible seeing that there are people living in rural areas with little to no access to facilities, while others reside in urban areas and have these on their doorstep. But this new platform, to a large extent, ensures everyone can enjoy the same quality care from the same group of healthcare professionals, no matter where in Africa they are situated, as long as they have a cellphone and internet connection, says Saul Kornik, CEO of Healthforce. Given the speed at which telehealth has grown over the past few years globally, coupled with our experience from successfully building Brazils largest digital health company, ViBe Saude, there is a window of opportunity to transform access to healthcare on the African continent. With a large population and rapidly increasing smartphone and internet penetration, Africa is an obvious and attractive healthtech market opportunity. Using data is infinitely cheaper than having to spend time and money traveling to and from clinics, not to mention paying for the clinic visit itself, adds Joshin Raghubar, Partner at Webrock Ventures Africa. The partners believe that it is the perfect time to launch such a platform due to the digital adoption that accompanied the COVID-19 crisis which has made South Africans more comfortable with using tech to access services. We are happy to be a part of unlocking the potential of telemedicine in Sub-Saharan Africa. Weve done this before with Webrock Ventures in Brazil and are proud to form a strategic partnership to repeat this success in a new market. Thanks to Healthforces impressive infrastructure, we believe that it will be possible to launch better and more accessible healthcare for everyone at a record pace., concludes Martin Lindman, Co-Founder & CEO at Doktor.se. The newco aims to care for 75 million people in the next 10 years Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn 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. Sayre, PA (18840) Today Cloudy. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable. International Afghan forces repel Taliban attack, 27 militants dead Heavy fighting started when hundreds of heavily armed Taliban militants stormed Khan Abad district. KABUL, JUN 12 (IANS) | Publish Date: 6/12/2021 1:05:43 PM IST Afghan security forces have repelled an overnight attack by Taliban on two districts in Kunduz province, killing at least 27 militants and injuring 15 others, the police confirmed on Saturday. One member of the security forces was also killed in the operation, Xinhua news agency reported. Heavy fighting started when hundreds of heavily armed Taliban militants stormed Khan Abad district, 25 km east of provincial capital Kunduz city and neighbouring Ali Abad district, 15 km south of the city, the police said in a statement. The security forces repelled the militants from Ali Abad and efforts are underway to clear Khan Abad from the enemies, the statement said. Sporadic clashes continued on Saturday morning in Khan Abad as the militants were using civilian properties as shields during the counter-attack, deputy district chief Qudratullah Safi told Xinhua. The militants tried to take control of Khan Abad as they advanced to the central areas of the district early Saturday when security forces were responding to the assailants, he said. Since the official withdrawal of the US and other NATO troops in Afghanistan on May 1, the Taliban have intensified attacks on provincial capitals, districts, bases and checkpoints. Tens of thousands of Afghans have been displaced in the past few weeks. The withdrawal of international troops is due to be completed by September 11 at the latest. State Naga musicians release song Various Naga artistes involved in the project. DIMAPUR | Publish Date: 6/12/2021 12:55:51 PM IST An original song titled (FOR) EVER JOY, a song of hope, by Naga musicians was released Saturday evening. The music of the song was composed by Yamaha Artiste Nise Meruno, and lyrics by Theja Khate and Nise Meruno. The other artistes involved in the project are -Iuli Yepthomi, Tokaholi Chishi, Abdon Mech and Imliakum Aier. The production was done by Violinist Nourhe Khate. In a press statement, the musicians said as the people across the globe are going through a difficult time, they hoped that the song would be a source of hope and encouragement that all was not lost. Renowned musician Nise said it was truly a dream to do a collective project with the amazing artistes. Abdon Mech said coming together of different artists, brushing aside their artistic preferences, for art was refreshing. Astronomers have discovered a massive 'blinking' star at the Milky Way's center, which is more than 25,000 light-years distant. VVV-WIT-08 Star The star VVV-WIT-08 was spotted by an international team of astronomers to be dimming by a factor of 30 and practically disappearing from the sky. While many stars alter in brightness when they pulse or are overshadowed by another star in a binary system, it's extremely unusual for a star to dim over several months before brightening again. VVV-WIT-08 is thought to be part of a new type of "blinking giant" binary star system, in which a massive star 100 times the size of the Sun gets obscured every few decades by an as-yet-undiscovered orbiting partner. The companion, which might be another star or planet, is encircled by an opaque disc that obscures the huge star, causing it to vanish and reappear in the sky. The research was published in the Royal Astronomical Society's Monthly Notices. Dr. Leigh Smith of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy headed the research team, including scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh, Hertfordshire, Poland's University of Warsaw, and Chile's Universidad Andres Bello. "It's incredible that we just saw a dark, huge, and elongated object pass between us and the distant star, and all we can do now is conjecture," said co-author Dr. Sergey Koposov of the University of Edinburgh. Related Article: Powerful Radio Bursts to Distant Galaxies' Spiral Arms Tracked Down by the Hubble Space Telescope Was it Obstructed? Because the star is in a congested part of the Milky Way, the researchers wondered if an unknown dark object may have accidentally passed in front of the massive star. However, simulations revealed that for this scenario to be plausible, there would have to be an implausibly vast amount of dark bodies drifting around the galaxy. Epsilon Aurigae Another similar star system has been known for a long time. Every 27 years, the big star Epsilon Aurigae is partially overshadowed by a massive dust disc, though only by around 50%. A second example, TYC 2505-672-1, was discovered a few years ago and presently holds the record for the longest orbital period in an eclipsing binary star system-69 years-a record that VVV-WIT-08 is vying for. In addition to VVV-WIT-08, the UK-based team discovered two more of these strange massive stars, indicating that this might be a new class of "blinking giant" stars for astronomers to examine. Space Research VVV-WIT-08 was discovered by the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea survey (VVV), a project that has been observing the same one billion stars for nearly a decade to look for examples with varying brightness in the infrared part of the spectrum using the British-built VISTA telescope in Chile and operated by the European Southern Observatory. Professor Philip Lucas of the University of Hertfordshire, one of the project's co-leaders, said, "We occasionally come across variable stars that defy categorization and are labeled as 'what-is-this?' or 'WIT' objects. We have no idea how these flashing behemoths came to be. After so many years of planning and accumulating data, it's thrilling to witness such breakthroughs from VVV." While VVV-WIT-08 was identified using VVV data, the star's dimming was also noticed by the University of Warsaw's Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), a long-running observation effort. OGLE makes more observations, but they are closer to the visible spectrum. These frequent observations were crucial for modeling VVV-WIT-08, as they revealed that the huge star diminished in both visible and infrared radiation by the same amount. Star Systems There seems to be roughly a half-dozen known possible star systems of this sort, all of which feature huge stars and enormous, opaque discs. "There are undoubtedly more to be discovered," Smith said. "The question now is determining what the secret partners are and how they got to be ringed by discs despite circling so distant from the huge star." "We could learn something new about how these sorts of systems grow as a result of this." Also Read: Potential Faster-Than-Light-Space Travel Facts: Alcubierre's Warp, the Key To Interstellar Travels? For more Space news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! The egg, a remarkable finding from the Islamic period, had been in a toilet all these years. At least its internal organ can contribute to a DNA study of early chickens. The Egg A chicken in Yavneh laid an egg one day a thousand years ago. That egg was never to hatch, unfortunately for that chicken's future generation. For some ground, it wound up in a cesspit in the industrial zone of the ancient city - and it sat there. Until archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority came along, carrying out a salvage unearthing in the ancient industrial zone of the central Israeli city before construction, and discovered it. Seasoned in the collection of extremely delicate matter, they managed to take out the egg from the cesspit, still intact. IAA archaeologist Alla Nagorsky, head of this part of the salvage dig told Haaretz: "We were amazed to find it, from time to time we discover fragments of eggshells, but a complete egg is extraordinary." Also Read: Prehistoric Dinosaur Eggs: Differing Shell Porosity Highlights Evolution Of Nests DNA Analysis All these years, the egg had evidently been preserved - don't bother cracking, it didn't decompose and rot - because it had been placed or dropped in the toilet, and was enclosed in soft waste, which produced anaerobic conditions. And then it broke in the lab; a little crack in the base, according to the IAA's Dr. Lee Perry Gal. He said they won't get into it but on the upside, some yolk has lingered in the shell and will assist in DNA future analysis. And maybe at some stage, it would have had to be broken anyway in order to study inside of the egg, Nagorsky comforts the world. Conservationist Ilan Naor has reinstated the shell of the egg that was laid a thousand years ago in Yavneh, the IAA added. How are you aware that the chicken lived during the Islamic period? Due to other finds in said cesspit, which was not large: 1.20 meters (around 4 feet) by 80 centimeters, and approximately 1.3 meters in height. Eggshell Fragments The other discoveries include three dolls comprised of bone, typical of the entire Abbasid period from the seventh century to the late 11th century, and an oil lamp. Nagorsky explains that lamp was of a kind that was only made in the late Abbasid period - around 1,000 years ago. And thusly, the chicken egg was dated to that time. IAA's Gal, a leading expert on poultry in the ancient world said fragments of eggshell are known from ancient periods - for instance, in the City of David and at Caesarea and Apollonia. But because of the fragile shells of the eggs, hardly any complete chicken eggs have been preserved. Even at the global level, this is a very rare discovery. Related Article: Scientists May Have Cracked the Secret Behind Different Egg Shapes For more news, updates about ancient discoveries and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! THE trial of a Plumtree car dealer accused of stealing an imported vehicle was postponed last week after a prosecutor, who was dealing with the case requested to be recused from the matter claiming she is now conflicted. Plumtree car dealer Sharmaine Mlambo (33) appeared before Plumtree regional magistrate Innocent Bepura last Wednesday for the start of her trial on charges of stealing a Honda Fit vehicle belonging to Marita Mangani (36) who had imported it from neighbouring South Africa. Mlambo, using her links with clearing agents at the border post and at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), reportedly cleared the vehicle and paid all duty fees without Manganis knowledge. The offence, which was committed between March 20 and 23 only came to light when Mangani went to the Plumtree Border Post to collect her new wheels only to find it had been cleared and taken away. Police recovered the vehicle in Harare at Tafadzwa Chidewes residence. In November 2019, Chidewe was cited in a ZIMRA public notice as among other individuals, who had imported a total of 433 cars under unclear circumstances. On Wednesday, Mangani was the first to take to the witness stand before Bepura while Dorothy Kanengoni prosecuted. However, after lunch the prosecutor in charge of Plumtree Robin Mukura told the magistrate that her junior had recused herself from the case as he sought a postponement of the trial, a development that the accuseds lawyer described as strange. Due to latest developments, it is the states application that the matter be postponed as (developments) came as a matter of urgency. She has suddenly fallen ill and she has also highlighted to authorities that she has found herself conflicted in this matter; that she cannot proceed with it anymore, Mukura said in his application for postponement. The accuseds lawyer Thamani Ncube was not amused. We are amenable to postponement, but the explanation preferred does not make sense on the part that the prosecutor is now conflicted with this matter, Ncube said. In what way, maybe if we can get some clarity on why this prosecutor is now conflicted? We understand that she has fallen ill as no one has control over health matters, but on the conflicted part thus where we seek clarity, but in any case we are amenable to postponement. No reasons were cited as to why Kanengoni is conflicted. According to the states case, Mlambo is accused of having obtained a proforma invoice pertaining to Manganis vehicle that she bought on March 1 at CarMax Africa, a private company based in Durban, South Africa to facilitate its clearance. Mlambo later fixed the pre-clearance of the vehicle at Zimra Plumtree Border Post and paid duty before driving away with it, leading to the matter being reported to police, leading to her arrest. On March 23, the accused did import pre-clearance of the complainants motor vehicle at Zimra Plumtree Border Post and paid duty in that regard. On 30 March, complainants motor vehicle arrived at Plumtree border post under the complainants name according to the customs and excise cargo manifest and was altered by the accused into her name. The accused went on to process the final clearance and took into her own possession complaints motor vehicle without her consent. Mlambo is facing theft charges as defined in section 113(1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act). Cases of vehicle smuggling are rampant with Zimbabwe seen as a transit route for vehicles stolen in South Africa for re-sale in countries such as Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and other regional countries. Standard MDC-T vice-president Elias Mudzuri is facing arrest for the murder of a 23-year-old-man, who died from injuries sustained after an assault by the veteran politician and accomplices. The former Harare mayor, who is also an MDC-T senator, allegedly teamed up with accomplices and assaulted the victim Ronald Mukumbira (23) at Duriro bar in Harare on June 7. The Zimbabwe Republic Police confirms that a report was made by Clephas Mambara at ZRP Harare Central on June 11, 2021 in connection with the death of Ronald Mukumbira (23) after an alleged assault by suspects who include Leonard Mudzuri, Elias Mudzuri and others who are yet to be identified at Duriro Bar opposite Colcom Industries along Rotten Row Road, police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said. Mudzuri, who is believed to be the owner of Duriro Bar, was not picking up calls yesterday. However, reports say that Mukumbira was drinking at Duriro bar in the Workington industrial area in Harare when he was assaulted. Police said Mukumbira, who had a deep cut on the head and injuries on the ribs and knees, was taken to Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, where he was treated and discharged. At home, Mukumbira reportedly told his mother about the assault at the hands of Mudzuri and the other accused persons. He later died in the evening of June 10 but a post-mortem is yet to be conducted. Mudzuri is currently vice-president of the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T where there are reportedly embroiled in the fight to control the party following a disputed chaotic December, 2020 extraordinary congress. Mwonzora emerged victorious despite claims of rigging. Mudzuri has reportedly been pushing for the MDC-T leaders arrest over allegations of abuse of millions of dollars of party funds that were availed to the party by government through the Political Parties Finance Act. Newsday President Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora on Friday held their first formal meeting since the Manicaland senator became the governments preferred leader of the opposition amid murmurs of disapproval from his party. Some MDC-T leaders say Mwonzora kept them in the dark about the meeting held at State House in Harare. Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga also attended the meeting that was curiously not covered by the state-controlled media, which usually follows Mnangagwas engagements with the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) religiously. Polad is a platform where the president engages leaders of fringe political parties that took part in the 2018 presidential elections, including MDC-T. Thokozani Khupe represented MDC-T in Polad before her ouster by Mwonzora in December last year. The new MDC-T leader had said he would not take part in Polad meetings as he preferred broader dialogue to resolve Zimbabwes multiple political and economic problems. Mwonzora yesterday told The Standard that he had gone to State House to pay a courtesy call on Mnangagwa. There were two things, he said. The thing was that I went to pay a courtesy call as leader of the opposition in Parliament to the president and head of state. The second one was to deliver the MDCs concrete proposals for dialogue as I was instructed by the congress. The meeting was cordial and respectful. The president, who was accompanied by the vice-president undertook to reply to our proposals after which we would have formal discussions on the matter. He, however, refused to disclose the MDC-Ts proposals, saying he was waiting for Mnangagwas response. Currently I am not at liberty to disclose the proposals because they are yet to be responded to, but they were procedural matters as well as substantive matters, he added. A senior MDC-T official accused Mwonzora of going to State House clandestinely as the matter was never discussed during the partys recent meetings. We are all asking ourselves what was really so important about this meeting, which was kept away from everyone, the official said. Something could really be fishy here. But Mwonzora defended himself, saying he was mandated by the MDC-T national council to pursue dialogue with Mnangagwa. He said some of his partys leaders were not available for the meeting on Friday. Well, leaders of my party were away on parliamentary business, the opposition leader claimed. This is criticism coming from people who have failed to execute their mandate. I was directed by the MDC national council to pursue dialogue for the benefit of the people of Zimbabwe and I did just that. Some Polad members are also unhappy that Mnangagwa is seemingly going back on his word not to hold any talks outside the controversial Polad platform. We did not have a meeting today and if what you are saying happened, it had nothing to do with Polad, said a Polad member, who requested to remain anonymous. That then raises questions on why Mwonzora, if indeed he is keen to dialogue, would secretly meet Mnangagwa who is also a principal under Polad? What then is the role of Polad? We suspect there is an unholy alliance going on here and parallel arrangements are- coming up. We will wait and see, but this is not what we expected from the two. We expect people to be transparent and to do things in good faith. Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa referred questions about the meeting between Mnangagwa and Mwonzora to the presidents spokesperson George Charamba. Charamba was not picking calls yesterday. Mwonzora and MDC-T deny allegations that they are being used by Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to fight the mainstream MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa. The MDC Alliance says Zanu PF is using state institutions such as the courts and the police to aid MDC-T in its bid to position itself as the main opposition party in Zimbabwe. Standard Though there are no income eligibility restrictions, only 2,750 people can get the $100 $50 for each of the two doses administered for Pfizer or Moderns jab as there is only $275,000 is available to dispense, according to the outlet. Last week, the CEO of Houston Methodist said 27 suspended employees had received the first dose of a COVID vaccine. They will keep their jobs if they become fully vaccinated, he said. What sticks in my mind now is the more unique things, said Toby, recalling a meal of apple sauce and pudding that was the first he was able to keep down following an intense bout of chemotherapy as maybe the best meal of my life. I said to my partner Scott [on Friday] when we were heading home [that] we just have to find joy in these last days because who knows exactly how this is going to go, and whether well ever do anything like this again? What a joy to be able to have the privilege of asking people to get behind me and support the things I believe inThat joy is part of the note-writing process, to remind me about the human connection. These are sites where some of the most important civil rights victories of the 20th century took place. Where amazing shifts in the culture, whose reverberations are still being felt today, were first manifest in the arts, in literature and in painting, Berman told the Daily News. Tragedy: A Queens man watched in horror as his 10-year-old son took his last breath after getting shot at a relatives home over the weekend. Albert Wallace, 57, and his boy Justin were about the leave his sisters Edgemere home when gunshots pierced the front door of the home on Beach 45th St. near Rockaway Beach Blvd. Saturday night. Justin and his 29-year-old cousin, Kyle Forrester were shot. The boy didnt make it. He didnt get to live his life yet, Wallace told The News through tears. This [will] tarnish my life for the rest of my life. The accused gunman, Jovan Young, 29, was arrested on what would have been Justins 11th birthday. At least 106 people have died in car crashes this year through June 8, NYPD data show. Thats up from 80 during the same period last year, when COVID-19 restrictions kept many people home entirely, and up from 99 during the same period of 2019. The male victim, 42, got into an argument with an unidentified gunman outside St. Anthony of Padua church on Prospect Ave. near E. 166th St. in Morrisania about 2:35 p.m., cops said. Some kids came outside, wanting to take him out of the car but someone else said, No, no, no, dont touch him. . . . He was injured very badly, a woman who lives near the crash scene said. Since we moved here 10 years ago, its maybe the fifth or sixth accident. This ones probably the worst. The events of the last 24 hours have caused a lot of fear and anxiety throughout the community, Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson said at the press conference. Our community is trying to send a message that were not going to tolerate senseless violence. An argument with an employee then ensued at the pick-up window, and the customer was said to have spit on the employee through the pick-up window, Jefferson Police said. They would like the family and the community to know that their thoughts and continued prayers are with the Murdaughs. It is their most sincere hope that someone will come forward and cooperate with authorities so that the perpetrator of these senseless crimes can be brought to justice. If you know something say something because if not, well be doing this again tomorrow night, and I do not want to do this again tomorrow night, Mayor Van Johnson said in a press conference. If youre sick and tired of it, then do something about it. You could have one great teacher thats in one of our specialized high schools to teach 300 to 400 students who are struggling with math, Adams said in the video posted Friday by YouTube host Matt Skidmore, who supports rival candidate Andrew Yang. America is back at the table, Biden said in Carbis Bay, England. The lack of participation in the past ... was noticed significantly not only by the leaders of those countries, but by the people in the G-7 countries. And Americas back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values. Recent cyberattacks on key U.S. infrastructure are expected to be at the top of Bidens agenda. Those include the ransomware attack in May on the Colonial Pipeline, which caused fuel shortages and panic buying in the U.S. Southeast. Russian-based hackers were paid a ransom, though it was partially recovered. His major finding: Two out of three (66%) parents believe we must rethink how we educate students, coming up with new ways to teach children. What new ways? Ive been open to myself and my close family for some years now that I am not sure about my own sexuality, Archuleta continued. I came out in 2014 as gay to my family. But then I had similar feelings for both genders so maybe a spectrum of bisexual. Then I also have learned I dont have too much sexual desires and urges as most people, which works I guess because I have a commitment to save myself until marriage. Which people call asexual when they dont experience sexual urges. The tragic tale of an angry man driven to murder may have been long forgotten if not for a detail that emerged at his sentencing: The evil he inflicted on Jackson and her daughter that cold winter day, not to mention the lifelong trauma the other kids suffered, was hardly the first time he would shatter a family. If Anthony were alive, he would be dancing and giving it his all on those platforms. He had a dream of opening his dance school. He was a tremendous choreographer. Disla even said that her son was in Pulse celebrating a new dance opportunity that had come his way. He never saw his dream come true, she lamented. In Florida, especially, where May 20 and Jan. 1 both have a long history of commemorations about the end of slavery, in addition to the Texas favorite, June 19, which date is correct? Its a question posed in an essay on Juneteenth and Emancipation Day at the State Archives of Florida website, FloridaMemory.com. Well agree with the conclusion noted there theyre all good. When it comes to celebrating freedom, you cant go wrong. Television was new, and before Orlando had its own station, Dad would look forward to catching shows from a distance if the weather or the stars were right. Hed scramble up on the flat roof of our stucco house to adjust the TV antenna, turning it to catch the signal better. On many Saturday nights, we would watch Jackie Gleason, but it was Art Carney as his sidekick, Ed Norton, who made my dad laugh out loud. We have fought many battles together and I promise to continue working for the benefit of the people, Cooper wrote on his campaign Facebook page. Please continue to hold each of the council members accountable and participate in the process as much as you are able. You can always count on me to be here to defend the rights of the citizens. Both events have been celebrated as turning points in popular American public opinion toward racial justice, yet there is still little evidence of meaningful systemic reforms. A year after Floyds murder, Congress still hasnt passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. And the few remaining survivors of the Tulsa massacre have yet to receive reparations from their federal, state or local governments. Thats a line from the song that opened the recent rally outside the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, where Floridians of every color and creed, and from every walk of life, joined forces to denounce the anti-Jewish graffiti that had been scrawled on the museums outer wall. The gathering reflected one of Floridas core strengths diversity in race, gender, religion, and political philosophy. Public officials and private citizens alike should emulate this example by standing up and speaking out against antisemitism. Because the hard truth is that too many Jewish Americans feel unsafe right now and they need to know their fellow Americans have their back. So to any parent, grandparent or guardian that has to sit in front of your young children today and tell a 4-year-old, a 7-year-old, that they cant go on the big boat at the moment, Im thinking of you because I know. I know how difficult that is. I really do, Heald said. But at the same time, I hope you understand we have to do this right. We have to get it correct. We have to make this very difficult decision. We dont want the kids we dont feel that children can run around all day having to wear a mask by the pool and going down the slide. Its just not what the children would want or expect. Oswego, NY (13126) Today Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 62F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 62F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. New York, US (PANA) - As the world marks International Albinism Awareness Day on Sunday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his solidarity with persons with albinism "It is essential as a scientist that you evolve your opinion and your recommendations based on the data as it evolves. ... And that's the reason why I say people who then criticize me about that are actually criticizing science. That's the way science works. You work with the data you have at the time." Dr. Anthony Fauci A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. A leading scientist advising the Government has said the vaccine rollout should be widened to include school children. Professor Peter Openshaw, who teaches experimental medicine at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4s Today Programme on Saturday: Originally, with the Wuhan strain, it did not seem there was much amplification of the epidemic going on amongst people who were at school, in contrast to what we know about influenza where schools are often a major driver of spread. But with more transmissible variants, it is evident they are being transmitted much more amongst young adults and school children and even younger children and that seems perhaps to be down to a biological quality of the infection. It is still fortunately not causing very high disease rates among those kids but it does strengthen the argument for extending vaccination [to children]. Ive been rather sitting over the fence on this one but, on balance, I am coming to the view that [for] vaccination of children, there is a very strong argument that we should go there. New evidence has come out about the safety and efficacy in terms of generating an antibody response in children and it looks like it is pretty safe and there are no really adverse signals, he added. Prof Openshaw is a member of Nervtag, which advises the Government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory diseases. Other notable Nervtag members include Professor Peter Hornby, who was knighted for his work in developing Covid-19 treatments; Professor Neil Ferguson, the Imperial academic whose modelling forced the Government into the first lockdown in March 2020, and Professor Wei Shen Lim, a Nottingham-based consultant respiratory physician. Prof Shen Lim is also the head of the Covid arm of the Joint Committee for vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) which is currently deciding whether to extend the vaccine rollout for children. Pfizers Covid-19 vaccine was recently deemed safe for use in children by the UKs drug and vaccine watchdog, the MHRA, and the decision from the JCVI is pending. Latest UK vaccine numbers: rollout figures Public Health England (PHE) data published on Friday showed that the delta variant, first identified in India, is approximately 60 per cent more transmissible than the alpha variant, which itself is more than 40 per cent more infectious than the original strain which broke out in Wuhan more than 18 months ago. PHE found that the delta variant is also behind 149 outbreaks in primary and secondary schools. More than 90 per cent of all Covid cases are now of the delta variant and the hardest hit age group is people aged between 10 and 19, according to PHE stats, which showed these school-aged people account for 23.4 per cent of all cases, more than any other cohort of the population. Benjamin Netanyahu's ( Bibi) record-breaking term as prime minister ended on Sunday night, when the Knesset voted to approve the new government formed by Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. The new government passed with the support of 60 MKs, while 59 opposed it. Ra'am (United Arab List) MK Sa'eed Alharomi and five Joint List MKs absented themselves from the vote. Earlier, Bennett defiantly presented his new government's ministers and guidelines in an address at the Knesset plenum on Monday, while MKs who will be in the opposition heckled him constantly. At the moment when Bennett started his speech introducing his government, Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich and other MKs shouted "Shame" and waved posters of victims of terror. They were removed from the plenum. "I am proud that I can sit in a government with people with very different views," Bennett told his hecklers in the Knesset plenum, saying that they seemed to have a problem with losing power. Bennett called on all sides of the political spectrum to display restraint. He complained that in recent years, Israel had stopped being managed as a country. "The loud tone of the screams is the same as the failure to govern during your term in office," Bennett snapped back at the Likud members. Shas and United Torah Judaism MKs heckled Bennett, calling him a liar and a cheat. But Bennett promised to help the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector, even though its MKs would not be part of his government. He pledged to build a new haredi city for the sector's growing population. "This is not a day of mourning, Bennett said. "There is no disengagement here. There is no harm being caused to anyone. There is a change of government in a democracy. Thats it. And I assure it is a government that will work for the sake of all the people. We will do all we can so that no one should have to feel afraid. We are here in the name of good, and to work. And I say to those who intend to celebrate tonight, dont dance on the pain of others. We are not enemies; we are one people." In the address, Bennett said his government would prevent the nuclearization of Iran and would not permit rocket fire on Isaeli citizens from the Gaza Strip. Bennett thanked the administration of US President Joe Biden for its support during the war in Gaza and pledged to maintain bipartisan support in the US. Bennett made a point of starting his address by praising outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his hard work over the years for the State of Israel and his wife, Sara, for her dedication. He said Netanyahu deserved credit for his outreach to Ra'am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas. The new government would take unprecedented steps to reach out to the Arab sector, Bennett vowed. Lapid canceled his planned speech and merely said that the behavior of MKs in the outgoing government reminded him, his mother and all citizens of Israel why it was so important to replace them. While Netanyahu spoke, MKs in the coalition being formed were completely silent, making a point of showing him respect. The only MKs who heckled him were from the Joint List, until Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz recalled the criminal charges against Netanyahu near the end of the address. A crisis was avoided earlier, when Ra'am MK Saeed Alharomi said he would not oppose the new government, following a threat. Ra'am head Mansour Abbas told reporters at the Knesset that "nothing" can interfere with the swearing in of the new government Sunday night, adding that "we will all vote in favor of the government." In return for his support of the new coalition, Alharomi demanded that a clause in the coalition agreement regarding illegal construction in the Negev be cancelled. Netanyahu and Interior Minister Arye Deri pressured Alharomi and offered him assurances, including on the topic of the Kaminitz Law that addresses illegal construction, in an attempt to get him to vote against the government. Netanyahu would remain in power if the prospective new coalition's razor-thin majority were to lose the support of even one MK in a vote of confidence in the Knesset. If Alharomi abstains in the confidence vote, Joint List MKs could come to its rescue and vote in favor. The Likud responded that it would be shameful if the government were formed through the backing of MKs who support terrorists and do not recognize Israel as a Jewish-democratic state. In a separate vote, the MKs voted to replace Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin with Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy. Levy received the support of 67 MKs. 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Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbffb73e048)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb77f9f8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbffb73e048)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb77f9f8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbffb795808)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb77f9f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb77f9f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffae3b5f8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7fbffb805700)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7fbffb805700)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbffb30e988)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb846d48)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbffb30e988)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb846d48)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7fbffb31df58)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb846d48)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffb846d48)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7fbffae3bdf0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7fbffb8a8810)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7fbffb8a8810)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 * CORRECTION - This map corrects the previously published map which highlighted the incorrect property. The property highlighted here is the acreage that the Treo Group owns and hopes to have rezoned for single family homes. ZS4BFN from the Franklin Game Reserve The Franklin Game Reserve (ZSFF-0127) is located on Naval Hill in the centre of Bloemfontein and is the only game reserve to be found in the middle of a city. On Wednesday 16 June, the Friends of Franklin will be painting the well-known White Horse on the eastern side of Naval Hill as well as the BLOEMFONTEIN sign near the planetarium. Both of these were made by the British soldiers stationed on Naval Hill during the Anglo-Boer War. ZS4BFN will be on the air from 09:00 CAT on 16 June operating on 40 and 20 metres as well as 2 metres from the Franklin Game Reserve Occupied El Aaiun, 13 June 2021 (SPS) President of the Sahrawi Body against the Moroccan occupation (ISACOM), Aminatou Haidar welcomed, Friday, the decision of the European Parliament which unanimously condemns Morocco for blackmailing Spain by exploiting minors in "a purely inhuman and immoral collective immigration." Despite this decision, "the Europen Parliament has not shed light on the real reasons behind the Moroccan obstinacy," due "to the negligence and complicity of the EU with the Moroccan occupiers system. The European Union tends to be "indulgent" towards Morocco in more ways than one, adding that "this will encourage Morocco to violate the international law." She called on the European Parliament and Union to put "pressure on the Moroccan system" to end occupation of the Sahrawi Republic. The European Parliament had adopted, Thursday, a resolution in which it reminded Morocco that the immigration issue could not be used for political purposes, especially when the immigrants are minors. (SPS) 062/090/700 Alexandra Warwick and Lizara Garcia laugh together before kissing during the second annual FLoatarama in honor of Pride month next to the New River on Saturday, June 12, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. FLoatarama featured over 40 boats ranging from 10 to 65 foot in a parade along the New River ending in Sunrise Harbor in honor of Pride month. This event benefits Pride Fort Lauderdales (a 501(c)3) GED/Scholarship programs for the LGBTQ+ community and to raise awareness to others within the LGBTQ boating community. (Chris Day / South Florida Sun Sentinel) I have been through a lot, but this is the most shocking thing that ever happened, Carr said. Im not at all surprised that she fought back. If something needed to be done on the street, she is the one who would get it done. Jeff Bezos in a mockup of the crew capsule of his space company, Blue Origin, during the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., on April 5, 2017. Bezos said last week that he would be on board when his rocket company, Blue Origin, conducts its first human spaceflight next month, shortly after he steps down as chief executive of Amazon. (Nick Cote/The New York Times) Many are out of reach for the typical renter. The average rent for complexes with more than 50 units in Lake Worth increased by 5.4% over the past year to $1,553. Rent in Boca Raton increased by 7.6% to $2,177, and rent in Fort Lauderdale increased by 3.1% to $2,059, according to data from RentCafe.com, a nationwide apartment listing service. Apparel TUs to enter MOU with JAAF View(s): Apparel industry worker-related issues are to be discussed between the factory owners and trade unions once they reach agreement through an MOU in the wake of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. We have agreed to discuss a possibility of entering a MOU to resolve the disputes through social dialogue, FTZ and General Services Trade Union General Secretary Anton Marcus told the Business Times on Wednesday. The draft of the MOU is yet to be considered by the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF). He noted that the items on the agenda were to set up the COVID bipartite health committee; take up issues pertaining to non-payment of bonus, wages and other issues. Discussions on entering into an MOU is a result of the recent statement issued by the trade unions international alliance on Sri Lanka relating to the issues pertaining to those working in factories in the country. At the outset of the pandemic crisis in Sri Lanka factories closed for one month in March 2020 and some factories had refused to pay workers for which the trade unions insisted that payments must be made as the lockdowns imposed then were beyond their control. Later, as a result of slow orders the factories faced issues and had requested for a lower salary payment for those workers at home as factory staff were asked to report to work on rotation. As a result the payment for those workers during the period they were at home was agreed at half the salary or Rs.14,500. But in spite of this some factories continued to lay off workers as well. In October the second wave of the pandemic commenced with an outbreak from a factory in Minuwangoda. Now with the third wave a spike in cases was seen recently when the MAS factory in Thulhiriya closed after it recorded 400 cases. Similarly a number of other factories too had seen an increase in COVID cases during this wave. Meanwhile, the non-payment of wages to workers had previously been calculated from March to May but now the trade union is calculating the wages gone unpaid for the whole of last year. Mr. Marcus also said that the tripartite task force committee met for the first time after several months with Labour Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva on June 2. During the meeting, Mr. Marcus had raised concerns that the spread of the disease was a result of factories working at full capacity. In addition, he pointed out that some factories were paying their COVID positive workers now, away from work, only half their salaries. He has also proposed that workers be paid compensation for those having died of COVID-19, which he believes the number has risen to six employees. However, this had been shot down by the minister pointing out that there was no legal provision for companies to do so. Mr. Marcus notes that COVID-19 has not been considered a health hazard when working in factories. (SD) Corporates will have to embrace green technology in future progress By Jayampathy Jayasinghe View(s): View(s): The Paris climate summit convention declared that countries should have legally binding instruments to address the sustainability goals, and in this context Sri Lanka too proposed a 50 percent reduction in nitrogen gases at a convention held in 2019 in Colombo. The Colombo declaration in 2019 specified a 50 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emission which is 300 percent more than carbon dioxide gas emission, said Prof. Ajith de Alwis, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the Moratuwa University speaking at a webinar hosted by Brandix Sustainability Summit last week. He said for sustainability development goals to be meaningful it is necessary to have a 50 percent reduction in carbon emission to the environment by 2030 and the country has to act urgently as it is facing a crisis situation in the world, Victoria Burrows, Director Advancing Net Zero, World Green Building Council, said that the World Building Council is a global network that works for several countries including India and Sri Lanka to create sustainable buildings for every one and everywhere. It is important for the corporate sector to invest in green buildings to achieve sustainability development. Green buildings are developing different tools, training programmes and resources to achieve this goal to help policy makers to develop long term goals by changing existing regulations in the regions. We have to have a radical approach the way we operate. We cannot wait till the policy makers amend existing legislation and the corporate sector should proceed ahead to achieve these goals, she said. Ms. Naadia Buhary Sustainability Lead, Brandix Apparel Ltd, said as the private sector they have a collective responsibility to ensure that they lead forward towards a sustainable future. Sustainability is not a short term fix but needs a long term solution with a lasting impact. We started our sustainability goal almost 14 years ago and set up our platinum-rated factory in Seeduwa. As far as energy was concerned we reduced 84 percent carbon foot print in energy. The water consumption too has improved by 30 percent and 91 percent of the waste is recycled. Over a period of 14 years we invested a lot in energy to ensure our operations are energy efficient. In 2019 we set up the first natural carbon garment facility in Batticaloa. We ensured that whatever energy we used came from renewable sources, she said. Rathika de Silva -Network Representative /Executive Director, UNGC Sri Lanka and Vinura JayawardenaEngineer, Sustainability Brandix also spoke. Customs seizure of organic fertiliser containers creates controversy View(s): Sri Lanka Customs seizure of three 40 ft containers of organic fertiliser imported from Madurai, South India by an unregistered company without considering strict quarantine laws in the island, has created another controversy raising many questions. The imported consignment consisting of three containers is listed in Customs Department documents as organic fertiliser products imported from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The classification number used to import the consignment is doubtful while the address of the importer is also suspicious, a senior Customs official said. The Agriculture Department has not issued any license to import the stock of organic manure which is currently under investigations by Customs, a top official of the department told the Business Times He added that they have not received any sample of the questionable manure stock for testing and under the Plant Quarantine Act no import license has been issued up to now. According to Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage, organic fertiliser stocks are being imported by 20 companies at present and there was no plan to import more in the future. Of 27 licensed domestic organic fertiliser producers, 10 could supply sufficient stocks for 224,000 hectares, he added. These questionable containers weighing 77,881.41 Kg imported by Taian Organic Fertilizer Pvt. Ltd, located at 333 1/16, Old Moor Street, Colombo 12 from a company in Tamil Nadu have arrived at the Colombo Harbour on June 2, Customs documents revealed. Custom officers have seized the three containers under the prevailing quarantine regulations and it is now lying at Gray line Yard Orugodawatta, the Customs official said. This incident took place the day after the decision taken by the Cabinet to import required carbonic fertiliser and natural mineral through the government owned fertiliser company for 500,000 hectares of paddy cultivation for 2021/2022 Maha Season. It has specifically stipulated that the procurement should be carried out in accordance with the international competitive bidding process and distributing manure through the Department of Agrarian Services. The President last month directed the officials to enhance organic manure production locally and if they are not pleased with the quantity of fertiliser produced, he asked them to import the appropriate quantity of high-quality organic fertiliser. Under the Plant Protection Act of 1999, importing organic fertiliser is prohibited as it has micro organisms and various other fungi harmful for local use. (BS) Four new state-owned businesses to be listed in the CSE By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): Four new state-owned business enterprises (SOBEs) are to be added to the existing 52 strategically important state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as limited liability companies, and these four will be listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange soon. These enterprises are now functioning under the Ministries of Finance, Urban Development and Technology with the Secretary to the Treasury being the sole shareholder. The government is in the process of fully operationalising these four new state owned companies Selendiva Investments Pvt Ltd, Sahasya Investments, Centre for Robotics (CERA) Pvt Ltd and Sri Lanka Biotechnology (SLIBTEC) Pvt Ltd with foreign or local investor ownership jointly with the state. This will be a major step of the government towards reviving the countrys loss-making state-owned enterprise sector and create diversified conglomerates capable of competing in the global business arena, Finance Ministry sources said. Restructuring SOEs under public private partnerships will separate government administration from management of day-to-day business operations, a major step toward efficiency, a top official of the ministry disclosed. Out of the 287 SOEs, 52 SOEs have been identified as strategically important state enterprises that play a catalytic role in transforming the countrys economy to a high growth trajectory. Of these 52 entities, the ministry is pushing ahead with these four companies by allowing private capital investments while retaining the key shareholder stake, he explained. At a time the SOEs and public companies are running at a loss, the task of these Public Private Partnership (PPP) ventures are to brighten the prospects for private sector-supported development with non-debt creating foreign investment. However the government will still be required to fund these PPP ventures, including through availability payments and minimum revenue guarantees. Selendiva Investments Ltd is a holding company of the government, tasked initially with the listing of the key real estate assets of the country - Hotel Developers (Lanka) Ltd (Hilton Hotel); the Canwill Holdings Ltd (Grand Hyatt) and Grand Oriental Hotel. This company has also expanded its portfolio with the Cabinet of Ministers deciding to vest other key properties in Colombo and the suburbs, according to a Finance Ministry report. The second new entity, Sahasya Investments Ltd was also established to own and operate expressways and other ancillary assets such as quarries and is in the process of structuring its operations. Sahasya is also due to list its shares in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Governments policy priorities also emphasise the importance of supporting advanced technologies such as genetics, robotics, IT and nanotechnology with assured competitive advantage over contemporary technologies for economic growth and national development. It is in this context that the Centre of Excellence for Robotics Applications (Pvt) Ltd (CERA) was established and now functioning under the Ministry of Technology. CERA currently supports the private sector in particular to access solutions to enhance productivity in industries through encouraging lean management and AI applications. Similarly, Sri Lanka Institute of Biotechnology (Pvt) Ltd (SLIBTEC) was established to build an environment conducive to high-end biotech innovation through the continued adoption of cutting-edge technologies, the ministry report revealed. Latest petroleum sector liberalisation set to break CPC monopoly By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): Sri Lanka is to liberalise the fuel refining, selling and distributing petroleum products in Sri Lanka amending the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Act No 28 of 1961 by revising it for the second time after 2002, the Ministry of Energy announced. This amendment will provide provisions to allow an investor to enter into the oil refining business with the investment of US$ 3 billion in the new project taking over the monopoly enjoyed by the CPC, Minister Udaya Gammanpila said. According to the present Act, the CPC has the sole authority in maintaining an oil refinery and this will end with the new amendment, he said adding that it will pave the way for other players to carry out the fuel importation and distribution as well. However a Finance Ministry official pointed out that the selected investor will have to sell the refined fuel only to the CPC under the buy-back agreement. The government will also be able to save $300 million per annum as local refining costs; he said adding that this will be a Built Operate and Transfer (BOT) project. According to the feasibility study report, the present capacity of Sapugakanda refinery will be increased to 45,000 barrels from 38,000 per day while a new refinery will be built with a capacity of 100,000 barrels at Sapugaskanda. The Government is also calling bids to select potential investors to build another refinery in Hambantota at an estimated cost of around $2.5 billion. Another aspect of the amendment of this Act is to extend the time period of the 20-year license given to Lanka IOC to operate in Sri Lanka in 2003 which will expire in 2023. The proposed new amendment will also vest the power in the subject minister to hand over Trincomalee oil tank farm to a new investor or to extend the current agreement with Lanka IOC, the official added. An Energy Ministry official said the Trincomalee Oil tank farm would be managed under a company to be formed with LIOC with a majority stake for the CPC. He said there are 99 tanks used during World War II with a capacity to store 10,000 tonnes of fuel in each. New CSE dispute resolution mechanism in the works View(s): A new dispute resolution mechanism between investors and the stockbrokers is in progress. Now, dispute resolution is carried out at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and often, is seen as biased and not independent. The CSE appoints a panel for the initial hearing and if the parties involved are not satisfied, the dispute will go to a 3-member independent committee of the CSE board. The issue many investors have with this is that as the CSE board has a majority of stockbrokers, this committees independence is also questioned. Now we are working on something in the lines of an arbitration where theres a panel of arbitrators picked by the two parties involved, Viraj Dayaratna, Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told the Business Times. The model is that after the dispute is heard by the stockbrokers and the parties are not satisfied, it goes to the CSE Secretariat. If not resolved, the dispute will go to a panel of 10 members of which one or three members can be chosen to hear the dispute. There is another tier where the parties can appeal and there is only one hearing in this instance, Mr. Dayaratna said. He added that the two parties are granted the autonomy of selecting the panel and the hearing will not be protracted as specific timelines will be set. (DEC) Prioritising the priorities View(s): Did the government use Sri Lankas Investment Forum organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) this week to restart its development agenda, more than a year after the pandemic hit Sri Lanka? Thats what my good friend and know-all neighbour Haramanis of broken-English fame seems to think. We were on a call this Wednesday morning when he posed the question whether government leaders used the 3-day investment forum to promote investment and development in the country within the space of five years, arguing that he thought it was aimed at developing as much as possible before the next election. You may be right, I said in response adding: The speeches by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had similar sentiments of inviting investors to the country and that Sri Lanka was more aligned to non-debt inflows (foreign investments) than loans. I say..even ministers like Ali Sabry and Ajith Nivard Cabraal spoke of improving the justice system to make it more efficient and accessible and bringing improvements to Sri Lankas current rules to start a business or invest, he said, but pointed out whether all this development should go ahead at the expense of not paying too much attention to COVID-19. To some extent State Minister Cabraal answered this question during his presentation at this virtual investment summit which was attended by participants from over 80 countries. Mr. Cabraal said that some people may question why Sri Lanka was paying attention to attracting investment and development when it is facing many challenges, foremost being the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. Why not, he asked, adding: You continue to handle the challenges but dont lose sight of the long term goal and vision (of developing the country). I concluded my conversation with Haramanis, who had followed more of the speeches at the virtual investment forum, after discussing many other points made at the event. Soon after that I was drawn to another discussion at the gate where the trio Kussi Amma Sera, Mabel Rasthiyadu and Serapina were engaged in conversation with Aldoris, the choon-paan karaya. It was also an opportunity for the trio to have their regular discussion under the pretext of buying buns and maalu paans from the modified tuk-tuk vendor as gatherings are banned under COVID-19 rules. Mata kata-kathawak ahuna mulu rata-tama andiri neethiya danna yanawa kiyala (I heard some rumours of an islandwide curfew being imposed), said Kussi Amma Sera. Eka aththa-nam, mage paan bisness eka karanna beri-wei (If that is true, then I wont be able to do my bread business), grumbled Aldoris. Mokakda andiri neethiya saha sancharana seema athara venasa (What is the difference between a curfew and travel restrictions?) asked Serapina. Matath e-deke venasa gena therumak-ne (Even I cannot understand the difference), said Mabel Rasthiyadu. Mama hithanawa seema-neethi wedi kiyala andiri neethiya yatathe (I think there will be more restrictions if a curfew is imposed), said Kussi Amma Sera. Mata loku prashnayak mathuwenna yanne, mage kaema vikuna ganna (I will have a serious problem selling my bakery items), said a worried Aldoris. While the travel restrictions have allowed essential services to function, the worst affected are the daily wage earners who are not permitted to work unless they belong to an essential service. In most cases, these daily wage earners dont have food on the table for their families. They dont have the money to purchase food from takeaway restaurants and hotels which middle-class families are doing at the moment, in addition to cooking at home since they have some income from the work-from-home environment. While government leaders used the investment forum to proclaim that Sri Lanka is back in business, there were more development projects initiated this week giving some indication that the government is on a huge development drive to woo back voters, many of whom have been disillusioned with the authorities. Government popularity is at a low ebb these days due to farmers being confronted with the human-elephant conflict and the unavailability of fertiliser (the government says there are enough stocks, but farmers are quoted in the media daily, complaining that there is no fertiliser available for the current season) and delays in the COVID-19 vaccination of communities outside Colombo and the Western Province, among a plethora of other issues. This week the government launched work on 5-6 overhead bridges, announced plans to redevelop 100 cities and spoke of industrial expansion plans outside the capital with investments of Rs. 100 million each at Divisional Secretariat levels. National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak Head Army Commander Gen. Shavendra Silva also gave an assurance at the investment forum that Sri Lankas entire population will be vaccinated by early next year, which would help spur development work. But are we getting our priorities right? On the priority agenda of the government is building elevated highways (with a Chinese company in a build, operate and transfer mechanism); flyovers; school car parks; and offering long leases to develop several heritage sites in Fort, among other developments. The government has also gone back on its announcement to suspend the import of luxury vehicles for 225 parliamentarians which it did following widespread protests that importing vehicles for MPs was not a priority at all during the pandemic crisis. This week, reports said that the government would go ahead with the imports as Letters of Credit have already been opened and Sri Lanka risks getting black-listed in the international financial markets where LCs once open are not withdrawn. Some of these vehicles were cleared this week from the port. This is at a time when the country is in dire financial straits and importing luxury vehicles should be the furthest in its priorities. Also in terms of priority, the government needs to seriously consider providing funding and concessions to students who are forced to rely on online classes. How many rural students have access to a computer or for that matter the funds to pay for mobile phone data to access the Internet to follow classes? There is also a need to improve the coverage of mobile phone providers in these areas. We earlier reported an instance where students in a remote village in the Puttalam district would climb a water tower to get a better mobile phone signal to listen to online classes. Who looks after their needs? The peoples representatives (MPs) who are complaining that they dont have luxury vehicles to meet the people! There was also a news item stating that the Education Ministry had refused to pay for data used by teachers for online classes as it didnt have enough funds. Isnt this totally unfair? Teachers need to be reimbursed and a part of that investment could have come from the import costs of luxury vehicles which amounts to billions of rupees. As I wound up my column, a beaming Kussi Amma Sera came into the room with my second mug of tea. Ah..yaluwo hamu-wuna neda (Ah you met your friends), I said. She laughed and as she walked out, I reflected on the governments need to prioritise on its list of priorities instead of spending haphazardly. Sri Lankas tourism industry crisis worsens By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s): With the no signs of recovery for tourism in Sri Lanka in the first two financial quarters the industry is banking on hopes for a revival by winter later this year from risk averse markets and by controlling the pandemic situation within the country. It will not be easy for the industry stakeholders to sustain the businesses as a recovery is not expected to take place in the first two quarters of the current financial year, Aitken Spence Travels Managing Director Nalin Jayasundara said in an emailed interview with the Business Times this week. The industry is counting on the vaccination drive for its frontline staff and the country to ensure travellers will feel safe to come back to Sri Lanka and that other markets will remove the restrictions placed on the country following the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in April this year. What looks a potential source market today might not be the same tomorrow as the situation globally is changing rapidly, he said. Under the current circumstances markets that have conducted successful vaccination programmes like the UK, Germany and West Asia need to be considered, he explained. And though China and Australia are potential markets it is hard to tap them today due to the travel bans imposed on their nationals. In this respect, it is the more risk averse countries such as Russia and CIS that can bring the numbers in during this period, Mr. Jayasundara noted. An industry in crisis The pandemic situation also needs to be brought under control to improve Sri Lankas image among potential travellers, he pointed out. He noted out that with the growing pandemic crisis a majority of the registered travel companies in the country will find it extremely difficult to survive if the pandemic continues as most are sustaining themselves with loans and moratoriums. The tourism industrys downward trend started with the Easter attack in April 2019 and with no signs of any future business there is a risk of more travel companies closing down or scaling down their operations further, he said. Given the current financial crisis the industry is facing the industry is now looking at obtaining a credit facility from an international donor on attractive terms and conditions to sustain the tourism industry, especially the SME sector, he said. Timely action is required now as there are almost three million direct and indirect beneficiaries from this industry, Mr. Jayasundara pointed out. Aitken Spence role Queried on how the company was able to sustain in these difficult times, Mr. Jayasundara noted that as a leading travel firm they were able to retain their staff and as a result of the drastic reduction in tourist arrivals they have focused on the local market and generated a substantial volume of business to their suppliers. Though the tourism industry is going through an extended period of uncertainty, it is important to look at the future with hope and optimism and continue to train their staff, he said. In addition, the Aitken Spence Travels MD pointed out that their joint venture partner TUI, the worlds largest tourism company, has already signed up the agreement for the winter season 2021/22 which is a valuable endorsement for the destination. Ensuring they retain their competitiveness in the markets, the company in January this year was able to have a strategy in place to attract charters from Kazakhstan which is a new market for Sri Lanka. In addition, they were able to handle a number of travellers from traditional and other source markets as well, he said. He pointed out that his company always strives to look out for new opportunities and take well calculated risks to explore the potential in new markets. As a result of these efforts the company was able to secure the largest market share in inbound travellers this year. Competitive edge Retaining its competitiveness with other markets, Sri Lankas offerings have the ability to target different segments including the niche markets. However, Mr. Jayasundara pointed out that certain authorities tend to talk about making Sri Lanka an upmarket destination forgetting the fact that there are stakeholders who offer different products in tourism ranging from homestays to luxury boutique properties catering to different segments of travellers. In this respect Sri Lanka should be able to balance its product offering in relation to price and offer a unique experience to all segments of travellers. Changing Act Moreover with the tourism authorities keen on changing the existing Tourism Act the industry is faced with another issue as their contribution through the Tourism Development Levy is a substantial portion extended to drive the economy of the country. Following Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatungas assurance that the change of the Tourism Act will be carried out through dialogue and in consultation with the industry as it is for the betterment of the industry, they have decided to submit proposals for the new Act within a period of three months. Tourism generates income for a number of key government institutions like the Wildlife Department, the Central Cultural Fund and airport and aviation. Mr. Jayasundara also explained the importance of tour operators in the industry as they have the capacity, reach and market knowledge to attract travellers to the destination. He noted that following the reopening of borders in January this year the tour operators and DMCs proved they are able to make a major impact in reviving and sustaining the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. In this respect the industry expects due recognition to be given to the tour operators in developing the sector. Crisis on all fronts: Govt. on the back foot By Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s): Facing controversies on multiple fronts, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)-led Government would surely have been glad that this weeks Parliament sittings were limited to just Tuesday (8) owing to COVID-19 concerns. Nevertheless, for much of the day, the Government was forced to defend itself against attacks by the Opposition over its handling of key issues such as the pandemic, vaccination, the fertiliser crisis and the X-Press Pearl disaster. Making a statement at the beginning of proceedings, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage mounted a vigorous defence of the Governments controversial decision to do away with chemical fertiliser. Chemical fertiliser usage in this country has risen by 300% within four years. This is a dangerous situation. Yet, there has been no corresponding increase in production or cultivated land, the Minister said. There are some 20 organic fertiliser importing private companies in the country. The Government has no intention to import organic fertiliser itself, but will import liquid nitrogen fertiliser if required, he said. Moving an adjournment motion for the Opposition on the Prevailing Situation of the Country, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) frontliner Ranjith Madduma Bandara said the country had been plunged into a massive crisis. The Government is directly responsible for allowing the COVID pandemic to spread and putting the peoples lives at risk. It is also indirectly neglecting its responsibilities to vaccinate the people, he alleged. Besides the failure to procure enough vaccines, even the process of administering the vaccines it had acquired was beset by irregularities, he pointed out. He warned that shortsighted and arbitrary decisions taken to immediately halt chemical fertiliser imports and proceed with organic fertiliser imports could lead to the collapse of the agricultural economy and would place the livelihoods of farmers in jeopardy. The policy has resulted in a fertiliser shortage. There are signs it could lead to food shortages in the near future, he added. The Government had failed on all fronts, Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella stated, seconding the motion. It has failed to control the pandemic, failed in vaccination, failed in agriculture and education and every other field, he said. The Government also only remembers local production when it has no money, he charged. It initially said it would give the fertilizer subsidy. Now that it has no money, it is talking about local production. The pandemic has caused immense harm to the education of children in the country, National Peoples Power (NPP) Gampaha District MP Vijitha Herath pointed out. Online education is not a successful method. It only benefits a certain segment of the student population. The vast majority of Sri Lankan children are suffering today as they dont have the facilities to pursue online education. They have no smartphones or laptops. Even those who have these items suffer as they have no proper coverage in their areas or cant purchase data cards since the shops are closed. In some households with several children, they have only one smartphone, he observed. Responding to these charges, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said the adjournment motions real objective was to cripple the Governments move to ban chemical fertiliser imports and produce agricultural crops using organic fertiliser. She claimed that 30,000 new cancer patients were being reported each year in the country while 46 cancer patients die each day. Moreover, 164,000 kidney patients are reported each year. About 500 die every month and 6000 perish each year, she claimed. Scientists and medical experts have repeatedly linked these illnesses to the usage of chemical pesticides and fertiliser. We have questions whether the SJB is bringing this motion on behalf of the multinational companies that are involved in chemical fertiliser imports. State Minister of Coast Conservation and Waste Disposal Dr Nalaka Godahewa and State Minister of Fisheries Kanchana Wijesekara spoke of the issues surrounding the X-Press Pearl fire. This was a natural disaster that some are trying to portray as something else, Dr Godahewa told the House, adding that coast conservation operations and cleanup efforts had begun on May 21, the day after the fire started on the ship. We have already collected 1075 tonnes of debris from the ship and placed them in 43 containers to show the insurers. Dont fall for doctored pictures shared on social media. Go to the beaches and see how well they have been cleaned thus far, he told Opposition MPs. State Minister Wijesekara said it was not just fishermen who have been affected. We have identified 23 other professions that are linked to the fishing industry. We will document all of them and have asked that they be compensated for lost daily wages as well. The Government acknowledges that environmental damage has been caused by the disaster, but Mr Wijesekara urged the Opposition not to mislead the public by stoking rumours that it was now unsafe to eat fish. A highlight of the days proceedings was the speech of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam. He apologised to the people for the lives lost due to COVID-19 and not being able to do more to help control the spread of the pandemic. Parliament will reconvene at 10 a.m. on June 22. Exports threatened by resurgence of COVID View(s): Merchandise exports are likely to decline this year despite a revival of global demand. The resurgence of COVID, travel restrictions and the island-wide lockdown from May have restricted the capacity of industries to meet export orders. Consequently, merchandise exports that were expected to increase this year, are likely to fall. It is indeed unfortunate that our capacity to export is stifled just as the global economy is reviving and there is a growing demand for the countrys manufactured exports. Trade deficit The reduction in exports, together with increased import expenditure on fuel, food and other essentials, are likely to widen the trade deficit and strain the balance of payments this year. Pre-condition The containment of COVID in the country is a vital pre-condition for reviving export growth. The success of the current restrictions and the extent and speed of coverage of the vaccine to contain the pandemic will determine the export revival. Global revival There is a global revival of trade and the demand for our manufactured exports has also increased. This setback to the countrys export production due to the resurgence of COVID is therefore unfortunate. The uptrend in global export growth and revival of demand for our exports led to expectations of merchandise export earnings exceeding the EDB target of US$ 15 billion for this year. This was owing to the revival of international demand for the countrys pre-COVID exports of apparel, ceramics, electrical goods and other exports that were severely affected by the global recession. While there are increased export orders for these, the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) too continued. Therefore, there was a prospect of export earnings reaching about US$ 17 to 18 billion in 2021. Furthermore, there was the prospect of a revival of global demand for solid tyres, boats,electrical goods and other manufactures that were affected by the global economic disruption later this year and in 2022. Export performance 2021 The export performance in the first four months of the year, before the new wave of COVID and restrictions, led to an expectation of exports achieving and even exceeding, the Export Development (EDB) target of US$ 15 billion this year. This was especially so as exports increased by nearly 200 percent in April this year when compared to that of the poor export performance of April 2020. Exports In the first four months of this year, merchandise exports were about 30 percent higher than in the same period of last year before COVID. Merchandise exports were US$ 3.7 billion in the first four months of this year compared to US$ 2.85 billion in the same period last year. The surge in exports in April this year was as much as 183 percent to reach US$ 799 million. Export industries, especially apparel, had a revival of export orders. There was a prospect of merchandise exports expanding in the next eight months of the year as there was a resurgence of demand for the countrys manufactured exports from the main markets in the US, UK and the European (EU) countries. Reversal These expectations of increased exports have been severely shaken by the resurgence of COVID, travel restrictions and lockdowns from May. The severity of the restrictions and the spread of the infection has disrupted factory production in several regions of the country. Supply constraints The export performance this year will be severely affected by supply constraints rather than global demand. With the rapid resurgence of COVID in most parts of the country and the travel restrictions, export manufacturers are finding it difficult to continue production at full capacity and some have had to even close down. Constraints The constraints to export growth this year is not depressed international demand for our exports, it is the inability to meet the demand due to factory closures and limited production capacity. Factory closures The worst affected by the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the countrys premier export: the apparel industry. The current spread of COVID, travel restrictions and lockdown have reduced their production capacity resulting in delays in meeting orders. Business Times According to the Business Times article of May 30 by Sunimalee Dias, the apparel industry may be unable to deliver on the US$ 5.1 billion target and may go down to about US$ four billion should the current pandemic conditions continue. The Business Times reported that large numbers of factory workers in various parts of the country were infected with the virus and factories in these areas were functioning at about 65-70 percent capacity. There have also been closures of factories in the Koggala Free Trade Zone due to a widespread outbreak of COVID. According to reports, factories are running at 40-50 per cent capacity in other areas too due to the rise in COVID-19 infections, travel restrictions and related difficulties. Consequently, orders are delayed and there is a possibility of the next seasons orders being reduced. Summing up The resurgence of COVID, travel restrictions and the island-wide lockdown from May have stifled the capacity of industries to meet export orders just as global demand for our exports was reviving. Consequently, merchandise exports that were poised to increase has been thwarted. The apparel industry in particular has had a setback with factory closures and reduced production. The expectation of exports achieving the EDB target of US$ 15 billion this year is unlikely. In fact the EDB is in the process of revising its target downwards. The reduction in exports together with increased import expenditure on fuel food and other essentials are likely to widen the trade deficit and strain the balance of payments this year. It is indeed unfortunate that our capacity to export is stifled just as the global economy is reviving and there is a growing demand for the countrys manufactured exports. Conclusion Although the government is trying to keep the essential economic activities, especially export manufacture going, this does not appear feasible. The significant curtailment of the pandemic in the country by a large proportion of the population being vaccinated is crucial for the economic recovery. The undue early relaxation of the health restrictions and imprudent policies like permitting tourists could postpone the countrys revival from Covid-19 and even aggravate it. The containment of COVID in the country is a vital pre-condition for reviving export growth. The success of the current restrictions and the extent and speed of coverage of the vaccine to contain the pandemic will determine the export revival. Crisis within the largest opposition grouping continues as Premadasa seeks unwavering support EU Parliament adopts Sri Lanka resolution which portends the withdrawal of GSP plus tariffs Foreign Ministry misses another opportunity to present Sri Lankas viewpoint just like the UNHRC in Geneva COVID-19 pandemic takes a catastrophic turn with more deaths and afflictions as Government scurries for more vaccines; contradictory remarks continue From a private hospital in a crowded part of the city, Sajith Premadasa, leader of the countrys main opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), then recuperating from an attack of COVID-19, had to fight another threat the fear of losing his leadership. He has overcome the deadly virus attack but not the other. Other than SMS messages to thank those who had wished him a speedy recovery, he was telephoning stalwarts in his party. He had been fortunate enough to receive a hard intelligence brief about the activities of a few. He urged their support in the wake of what he called were conspiracies. One of those whom he spoke to was Lakshaman Kiriella, former UNP Minister and now a frontliner in the SJB. The result the SJB parliamentary group met at the parliamentary complex last Monday and adopted unanimously a vote of confidence in Premadasa. Only 36 of the SJBs 54 MPs were present. Premadasa has held office for just ten months after a sizeable faction of the embattled United National Party (UNP) broke away to join the SJB ahead of the August 2020 parliamentary elections. In essence, the parting was due to Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Premier and UNP leader, not conceding the leadership to Premadasa. Kiriella, a lawyer in Kandy, told the Sunday Times, I moved the resolution since there were several reports in the social media about divisions within the SJB. These were fictions. We wanted to put an end to wild speculation. Even the partner parties endorsed our decision. Champika Ranawaka (former leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem, All Ceylon Makkal Congress leader Rishad Bathiuddin and Tamil Progressive Alliance leader Mano Ganesan agreed to include in a statement that they endorsed the confidence motion, on which there was no head count. Making a point in this regard, SLMC leader Hakeem said, We are not members of the SJB. However, we do support Premadasas leadership, and we endorsed it. When the parliamentary group meeting began, Kiriella, who proposed the vote of confidence, said there was a conspiracy against Premadasa. He said the idea behind the resolution was to set the record right. He said it was to re-iterate that Premadasa was the leader so the malicious campaign in the social media would end. The most pertinent point was raised by onetime Health Minister, Rajitha Senaratne. We have accepted him (Sajith Premadasa) as our leader. Why should we give credence to rumours or fiction? He argued that if claims of such a conspiracy were true, there was justification for a resolution. That would give a message to those behind the move that the SJB was united, he said. Harin Fernando, another frontliner, declared, Re-affirming Sajith Premadasas leadership is a foolish act. If there is a conspiracy against him, I am the one who would lead it. It wouldnt happen. He was speaking to the media after receiving his vaccination for COVID-19. Contrary to the SJB frontliners assertions that they have renewed their confidence in Premadasa of what they themselves admit are fictional threats, or conspiracies, the alliance is torn with divisions over the conduct of the leader. To that extent there is unease within. What has heightened fears is the proposed entry of United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to Parliament. The partys Working Committee, the policy making body, made up of his own nominees, decided on his name for the bonus seat which the party won for gaining two percent of the votes at the last parliamentary elections. He is due to take his oaths on June 22 but sections in the UNP claim it could be delayed. One seemingly credible version doing the rounds is about an SJB frontliner working a possible deal for a key UNP position in return for his and the support of 19 others a story that is still being challenged. One SJB stalwart, who did not wish to be named, conceded that the talk is in the air, but we are still checking. What hit a strong nerve in Premadasa was the intelligence information which seemed credible. However, SJB General Secretary Ranjit Madduma Bandara told the Sunday Times, There have been rumours (kata kathaa) about divisions within us. Everyone voted expressing confidence in Sajith Premadasa. In this situation, we need everyone to move together for the sake of the people and the country. This notwithstanding, one SJB frontliner, who did not wish to be identified, said, If Ranil Wickremesinghe does enter Parliament ending the on/off guessing games, he is not going to back the SJB or our leader. He has his own political scores to settle though inevitably he will come under the Opposition Whip. The question, he raised, was whether Wickremesinghe would give tacit backing to the Government to further weaken the main opposition party and its leader Premadasa. On the other hand, Wickremesinghe loyalists say that leader is willing to forgive and forget those who want to close ranks. Yet, the prospects of him taking up an entirely opposing role in Parliament to the leadership of his friend and Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the ruling alliance, remains a puzzling question. There are differing views. It is no secret that politics apart, Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa have remained personal friends. So much so, he placed a Sri Lanka Air Force Mi-17 troop transport helicopter at the former Presidents disposal to fly from Colombo to his home in Medamulana after he was defeated at the 2015 presidential election. Months earlier, he visited Wickremesinghes residence at Fifth Lane, Kollupitiya, to see a family member who was then unwell. They exchange occasional telephone calls. Talking about the oppositions role, Premier Rajapaksa told a party backer, We are not worried about Sajith. However, we are indeed concerned about Ranil. Those remarks are being interpreted by ruling alliance members in many ways. Some say it is to prophesise that Wickremesinghe and his party may re-emerge as the main opposition. However, detractors among them claim the remarks may be a smokescreen. The reason Premier Rajapaksa has stood for the return of Wickremesinghe to Parliament and has done his bit towards it. In fact, during the visit to his residence, he told Wickremesinghe he should seriously think of re-entering Parliament on the bonus seat. Yet other detractors kite fly over a possible joint approach to key political issues by Premier Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe. Of course, there are no indications to confirm this. It is true that Premadasa was inducted the SJB leader and thereafter the office of the Leader of the Opposition during a stormy period. The COVID-19 pandemic had taken hold of the country throughout his dual roles. There were some laudable aspects. An example is how he campaigned outside the Kanatte Cemetery protesting the Governments decision making it mandatory to cremate Muslim victims of COVID-19. The move did raise eyebrows among sections of the majority Sinhala community. It was after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans visit to Sri Lanka that the rule was rescinded. The Janaza (burial) grounds in Ottamavadi in the east where burials are allowed is now almost full. On the other hand, Premadasa did offend the Tamils, particularly the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) by taking part in the eleventh Victory Day celebrations near the parliamentary complex last month to mark the military defeat of Tiger guerrillas. His own backers concede that he had thus alienated a sizeable segment of the Tamil community. In the days and months during his tenure as the SJB leader, one area where Premadasa is being faulted is the way he had been appointing persons without consulting other leaders. One is the position of a Senior Advisor, who handles foreign policy issues. Sections within the party complain, that the person concerned has thrust his own personal foreign policy agenda as that of the SJB. A case in point, articulated by none other than Premadasa, is how the UN Human Rights Council won a resolution in Sri Lankas favour in 2009. The reason this spokesperson was Sri Lankas envoy in Geneva and had seen through with it. One was the quid pro quo deal he reached with the then Indian Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. This was for the inclusion of a pledge to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution; India would not only help seek passage of the resolution. It would also lobby other member countries to vote for the resolution. It became a reality. In the recent months, in public speeches he made, Premadasa has been articulating this position to suggest it was a victory. What he did not say is that the victory is for the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency. Therefore, they put up billboards in the city. Some party members are also livid that the senior advisor had spoken about a huge SJB victory at the next parliamentary elections in 2024. He likened it to the one where the UNP received five sixth of votes in 1977. However, Premadasa is either unaware or failed to realise that this was the first time Sri Lankas 13th Amendment to the Constitution found its way into the UN Human Rights Council resolution. A commitment was made by the Rajapaksa administration to an international body over its implementation. Another, who was forced to leave the UNP and return to the SJB fold with considerable clout, has also come under heavy criticism. An allegation, which he strongly denies, is that he continues a dialogue with politicians in the ruling alliance and acts as a conduit. Though the issues are often raised by SJB frontliners, they are hesitating to raise issue publicly fearing reprisals. In the light of this, a mere resolution expressing confidence in Premadasa alone will not evaporate the dissension within. False or otherwise, the parliamentary group has by its decision acknowledged that there exists a conspiracy. If allowed to fester, Premadasa is aware, that would be his biggest challenge. This is particularly when he is both confident and believes in the intelligence information he receives periodically. This is in marked contrast to his late father, Ranasinghe Premadasa, who developed his own mechanisms that helped him learn what is going on at the grassroots or top levels in the party. He did not depend on another outside source at any time. This comes at a time when a group of SJB newcomers who were local councillors have found themselves stranded. They quit the UNP which in return sacked them. The Supreme Court this week dismissed an appeal by 69 UNP local council members who contested under the SJB in violation of the party (UNP) constitution. The Supreme Court without hearing the appeal dismissed it after taking into consideration the preliminary objections raised on behalf of the respondents. The bench comprised Justices Vijith Malalgoda, L.T.B. Dehideniya and S. Thurairaja. When the petitions were taken up, Ronald Perera, PC raised preliminary objections that the petition had not been filed properly. Faiz Musthpha appearing for the petitioners argued that permission be granted to refile the petitions. Among the respondents were Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Working Committee members. Earlier the Court of Appeal had dismissed a writ application by former UNP members challenging their expulsion from the party. Among the petitioners was the Gampola Urban Council Chariman Anura Sampath Kumara who had been expelled by the UNP for contesting the August 2020 Parliamentary election as a member of the breakaway SJB. The Supreme Court ruling will effectively allow the UNP to replace the members who have been expelled from the party. That gives the UNP at least some representation in local councils. European Parliament resolution The lack of an aggressive opposition has not been all that easy for the ruling alliance. There are more serious issues cropping up against Sri Lanka. This time, in Luxembourg on Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution raising fears that the GSP Preferential tariffs on Sri Lanka would be withdrawn. This seems a replay of the events that occurred before GSP Plus was halted and later re-introduced. However, there is a difference this time. On the previous occasion if a resolution required to go before the European Union headquarters in Brussels, this time it will not be necessary. Since then, the EU Parliament has been conferred with much wider powers to act on its own. The resolution was adopted with 628 members of the 704-member Parliament voting in favour which means by a two-thirds majority. The question is whether the Foreign Ministry was aware that such a resolution was coming up before the EU Parliament. According to a Foreign Ministry source, Sri Lankas diplomatic mission in Brussels had reported that the resolution was the handiwork of the Tamil diaspora something as obvious as night following day. This again is after the resolution was adopted. What measures did the mission take to lobby members? It is also relevant to note that the Embassy had not taken steps to re-activate the Friends of Sri Lanka caucus in the EU Parliament. The one that ceased to exist was made up of Geoffrey van Orden and Niranjan Deva Adittiya, a backer of successive governments in power in Colombo. It was the responsibility of the Sri Lanka diplomatic mission in Brussels to have taken early steps. That again speaks for the grave situation in the Foreign Ministry which is becoming increasingly inefficient and ill informed. The preamble to the resolution has different reasons. Among them: Having regard to its resolution on the situation in Sri Lanka of 11 December 2013. Having regard to the resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council on promoting reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka of 23 March 2021. On 13 April 2021 President Rajapaksa promulgated new regulations to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA); Rights groups consider the new regulations as vague and overbroad and have warned the law is being used as a weapon targeting dissidents and ethnic and religious minorities in the country. There are clear signs of accelerating militarisation of civilian government functions in Sri Lanka, while the military continues its involvement in economic activities, such as in agriculture, transport and tourism sectors; Since 2020, at least 28 serving or former military and intelligence personnel were appointed to key administrative posts; those appointments including at least two senior military officials who were implicated in United Nations reports in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the final years of the conflict; Reportedly there has been an increasing number of checkpoints and military presence in the former war affected regions. There are signs that progress achieved in investigations into some high profile cases of killings and disappearances, as well as commitments made by the previous government to address war time abuses, as well as pre-war and post-war issues to address reconciliation, would be rolled back as the new government had formally announced it will no longer support the UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 and there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of the two domestic offices established under the last government to trace, fate and whereabout of the disappeared and to provide remedies. The UN Human Rights High Commissioner in a most recent report on Sri Lanka has re-iterated the cause for a moratorium in the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act for new arrests until it is replaced by legislation that adhere to international best practices; The resolution from 17 members: 1. Expresses concern at the developments over the past year, which show a deteriorating situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, including the accelerating militarization of civilian government functions, the erosion of the independence of the judiciary and key institutions responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights, ongoing impunity and political obstruction of accountability for crimes and human rights violations and policies that increase the marginalization of persons belonging to ethnic and religious communities, surveillance and intimidation of civil society, restrictions on media freedom, and shrinking democratic space; 2. Expresses serious concern over the new regulations to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which refer people who have surrendered or have been arrested on suspicion of an offence under the PTA or the Emergency Regulations No. 1 of 2019, to a so called rehabilitation programme; recalls that such de-radicalization, rehabilitation, and reintegration centres, regulated under similar legislation, have in the past been rife with serious human rights violations such as torture and other ill-treatment including, sexual and gender-based violence; encourages the Sri Lankan government to amend the Prevention of Terrorism Act and bring it in line with international standards; 3. Calls on the Sri Lankan Government to take the necessary measures to reverse these trends, as the recent developments threaten to reverse the limited but important gains made in recent years, to prevent a recurrence of policies and practices that gave rise to the grave violations of the past. 4. Regrets Sri Lankas withdrawal from its co-sponsorship of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 and related resolutions; urges the Sri Lankan Government to act on the calls for accountability for alleged wartime violations of international human rights and humanitarian law; emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive, impartial and transparent approach to dealing with the past, to ensure accountability, to serve justice, to provide remedies to victims, to avoid the recurrence of violations of human rights and to promote healing and reconciliation; underlines in that regard the important role of the independent institutions established in recent years; 5. Encourages the Government of Sri Lanka to foster freedom of religion or belief and pluralism by promoting the ability of all religious communities to manifest their religion, and to contribute openly and on an equal footing to society. 6. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the European External Action Service, the Commission, the governments, and parliaments of the Member States and to the government and Parliament of Sri Lanka. In 2017, when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was in the yahapalana Government, an assurance was given to a visiting European Union delegation that the Government would replace the PTA and take other measures the EU set out. A diplomatic source said that the resolution is the result of such assurances being not fulfilled. A debate in the European Parliament followed. Within months the GSP Plus was withdrawn. The source, however, added that the period this time could be shorter. It is not immediately clear whether the Foreign Ministry in Colombo has initiated any measures in this connection. The only report so far has been about an envoy representing Sri Lanka in a European countries with concurrent accreditation to another suggesting to officials that the social media operated in those countries by Tamil groups should be monitored and called for a mechanism for it. The response was mild laughter. Obviously, the envoy was not familiar with different issues, and it brings more embarrassment. Another significant feature is in paragraph 18 of the resolution which reads expresses concern about the growing role and interference of China in Sri Lanka. All this while the misgivings of the west on China-Sri Lanka relations were in hush tones. However, this resolution now openly demonstrates the unhappiness of this relationship as it is described as growing role and interference, the latter aspect being a new observation. Earlier, a group of United States Congress members had handed in a Resolution to the US Congress. The Governments thrust in this case appears to be to prevent it being taken up, but the move is unlikely to be successful. In terms of the US Constitution, all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. On how laws are made, it states that First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated, or amended. If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated, and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill. What is required for the motion to go before the Congress is the signatures of 20 members. One of those who has placed his signature is confirmed to be Tom Malinowski, diplomat, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. He is now Congressman representing New Jerseys seventh district. Ambassador Ravinatha Ariyasinha has told the Foreign Ministry that the prime mover is a Congresswoman from North Carolina where there is a large Tiger guerrilla rump. Yet, did the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington learn of the Congress resolution from the Tamilnet website? Evidently they were unaware that the resolution was in the making. The move before the US Congress and the one adopted Thursday by the European Parliament is clear proof that since the UN Human Rights Council adoption of a resolution, there has been a unified effort by western nations to move against Sri Lanka. Such a situation is unprecedented. One is not sure whether the Foreign Ministry, in its current disposition, will be able to cope with them. too? COVID-19 front These developments come in the wake of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the usual misleading official denials, the Government on Friday extended the current lockdown officially called travel restrictions. The reason is the unexpectedly rising number of deaths and those afflicted. Sri Lanka crossed the 2,000 marks of total deaths on Friday morning whilst also recording the highest declared deaths in a single day; 101. Other medical sources said that the figure was much higher. Sri Lankas COVID 19 death toll stands at 2,011 by noon Friday, June 11 as the number of total infected since the pandemic started in Sri Lanka stands at 216,134. At least 1,403 deaths have been recorded in Sri Lanka since the third wave of the COVID 19 pandemic which officially began on April 15. Around 26% of total deaths reported since last week until mid this week were either from homes or when patients were admitted to hospitals, due to non-availability of beds. By Friday, Sri Lanka had closer to 32,000 active cases. It was on May 21 that the countrywide lockdown came into effect. From that date until Friday, there have been 922 deaths and 61,325 new cases. This clearly shows that there has been no significant progress in containing the spread of COVIO19 despite the measures adopted during the third wave. This is both in terms of deaths and those afflicted. Whether the free movement of traffic, particularly in the streets of Colombo and the suburbs, is a major contributory factor to the recent spread, cannot be ruled out. This week, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa strongly reprimanded a senior Police officer for allotting colours for different motor vehicles. There were near kilometre long queues before Police checkpoints to obtain such coloured stickers for easy and free movement. Just days earlier, the Police required persons visiting supermarkets and retail outlets to purchase food items to walk to such places. Some did so for well over two kilometres whilst others rolled wheelbarrows to carry their stocks. Such moves came in for severe criticism from the people since they caused immense hardships to them. In marked contrast, lorries purchasing old iron, unused aluminum pots and pans were freely moving around in the streets. So were lorries selling flowerpots. Those carrying fish or vegetables were rare. When they did come, the prices had almost doubled. Locally the biggest challenge for the Government remains the COVID-19 pandemic. The rise in deaths and cases of those afflicted continues amidst mishandling of various issues. This includes the vaccination programme and health care measures. Added to that, the Government has been forced to cope with landslides and floods that have left at least 18 people dead and rendered thousands homeless. Amidst this, on Friday night the Government announced a steep increase in fuel prices a move that will push living costs to an all time high. All essential food items, including the common mans packet of rice, would increase in price. Such a move could not have come at a worst time like this week. Now the European Parliament has adopted a resolution which portends the withdrawal of GSP Plus. That may lead to the closure of apparel factories in particular resulting in huge loss of revenue. That will deal a major blow to the deteriorating economy. More importantly, it will leave thousands unemployed. When the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Sri Lanka, it became a glaring exposure of how the countrys foreign policy and the diplomatic missions are run. Now, further proof has come in the form of the resolution from the EU Parliament. It is high time the authorities take a closer look and rectify the recurring colossal blunders. That is imperative for the sake of the country and the wellbeing of the people. BASL calls on police not to abuse hate-speech laws to stifle free speech, right to dissent View(s): The authorities must ensure that laws relating to hate speech and incitement to violence are not used to stifle genuine expressions of dissent and criticism, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) stressed. The BASL Executive Committee made the remarks in a statement expressing concern over the contents of a recent Police circular titled Circulation of fake news, photographs, videos causing disunity, hate and obstructing the Covid-19 programme. The BASL pointed out that the police circular contained a warning that the Criminal Investigation Department and the Computer Crimes Division of the Sri Lanka Police would, as part of their investigation, monitor the internet for violators to enforce the law. The police warn the public to refrain from spreading fake news and aiding or abetting the same. Whilst the BASL has no objection to enforcing laws relating to hate speech and incitement to violence, it is important to ensure that the authorities do not use such laws to stifle genuine expressions of dissent and criticism, the statement noted. Furthermore, the BASL is apprehensive of members of the executive, including the police, being allowed to decide on what is or is not fake news and on the basis of their subjective decisions to cause arrests and detention of persons. The BASL also expressed deep concerns over the possibility of the provisions of the laws mentioned in the circular, being misused by police officers to stifle the freedom of speech and expression which is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution. At the time where the country remains under travel restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is essential that the freedom of speech and expression of the people and their right to dissent and disagree are protected, the BASL stressed. It also drew attention to Supreme Court judgments in this regard, pointing out that the SC has repeatedly recognised the right to comment on public issues and criticise public officials, public institutions, Governments and political parties, policies and programmes. It has also ruled that such criticism is a permissible exercise of the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution. Given that the very prospect of being arrested for expressing harsh criticism or dissent can itself have a chilling effect that would erode the citizens freedom to openly share critical views or freely comment on important matters as members/stakeholders of society, utmost care and restraint should be exercised in causing the arrest of any person for an offence pertaining to alleged fake news prior to a full investigation of any complaint, the statement observed. It would be consistent with due respect for democratic values and freedoms, for any decision to arrest without warrant to be resorted to keeping in mind the spirit of preserving fundamental freedoms and the need to avoid suppressing or oppressing the right to free expression of views, the association further stressed. In our view this would be better achieved, if any decision to arrest or charge any person is taken only after careful due consideration and professional assessment that there is a real and reasonable prospect of an alleged offence in law being committed, with advice from the Attorney General as may be warranted in the relevant context. The enforcement of the law must be fair, even-handed and non-selective in its application, the importance of which the association urged the police to consistently uphold. The BASL said it had already brought these concerns to the attention of the Inspector General of Police by a letter dated June 10. The BASL will continue to monitor any violations of the Fundamental Rights and the Rule of Law in respect thereof and will make further legal interventions where necessary, the statement stressed. While the country has been placed under lockdown, making newspaper distribution impossible, the Sunday Times team produced your favourite Sunday newspaper in digital format to bring you the latest news, feature stories and political commentaries. We are happy to announce that we are giving you free access to our digital paper. Click here to access the free epaper. If you like to be a subscriber to our regular epaper please click here. Gas companies also seek price hike, CoL likely to soar With yesterdays fuel price increase, several sectors seek permission to increase fares By Chris Kamalendran View(s): View(s): While the cost of living is likely to soar in the wake of yesterdays fuel price hikes, a government-appointed ministerial committee is due to study a proposal to increase gas prices. Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena told the Sunday Times that the committee would meet tomorrow to discuss a request made by the two companies Litro Gas and Laugfs seeking permission to increase gas prices. He said the companies had requested that the price of a cylinder of domestic gas be increased by Rs 700, but the Government was not agreeable to a high increase. The minister said gas company representatives too had been invited for the talks and the committee would call for alternative proposals. The Sunday Times learns the Government was considering an increase of about Rs 300 a cylinder. In addition to Mr Gunawardena, the other ministers in the committee are Vasudeva Nanayakkara. Mahinda Amaraweera, Udaya Gammanpila and Keheliya Rambukwella. The moves come as the Government increased petrol, diesel and kerosene prices from yesterday. According to the new price scheme, petrol 92 was increased by Rs 20 with the new revised price now at Rs 157 a litre. The petrol 95 price was increased from Rs 161 to Rs 184. Auto diesel was increased by Rs 7 a litre thereby the new price has gone up to Rs 111 while the super diesel price has gone up by Rs 12 a litre and will now cost Rs. 144. The kerosene price has been increased by Rs 7 a litre and will now cost 77. The fuel price increase has sparked off a chain reactions with transport sectors claiming that they would be compelled to increase fares. The Bakery Owners Association yesterday sought permission to increase prices of bakery products, because of the increase in transport charges and the price hike of palm oil. Private Bus Owners Association President Gemunu Wijeratne said they would be severely affected by the diesel price increases and would be forced to cut down their services, pending a revision of the fares. Three-wheel associations are due to meet next week soon after travel restrictions are lifted to discuss a revision of fares. A spokesman said an increase of Rs 20 for a litre of petrol litre was too high and he also pointed out that in September 2019, the previous government had reduced the price of petrol by Rs. 5 a litre before the Presidential election. How the X-Press Pearl sailed into catastrophe By Ranjith Padmasiri and Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s): Heads were turned away, solutions were blocked then it was too late CID questioning reveals story of a reluctance to act Both the X-Press Pearls chief engineer and second engineer have told the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) they were not informed about an acid leak in one of the containers on the vessel responsible for one of Sri Lankas worst maritime disasters. According to the CID, Chief Engineer Oleg Sadilenko told investigators he first became aware of a problem in the cargo after seeing email exchanges to and from the vessel while it was en route to Port Hamad in Qatar (the ship started from Malaysia on April 29, docked in Jebel Ali, UAE on May 9 and arrived in Qatar on May 11). Since he had not been officially informed of the problem, however, the chief engineer had opted not to pursue the matter. He told the CID that while he had been aware that the vessel was transporting dangerous goods, the responsibility for their handling was that of the deck officer, among whose duties it is to ensure the safe handling and delivery of cargo. The dangerous situation onboard remained the same when the X-Press Pearl docked at Port Hazira in India on May 15, the chief engineer has further said. Nevertheless, no solution was found at that port either. Chief Engineer Sadilenko claims he did not look into precisely what was amiss since he had no expertise in handling dangerous cargo or resolving such problems. Hundreds of litres of toxic chemicals and billions of plastic pellets have polluted Sri Lankan seas following the accidents on the X-Press Pearl. The vessel laid anchor in the outer harbour of the Colombo Port on May 19. At 2am on May 20, the CID was told, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission sensor on board sounded an alarm from Cargo Hold No. 2. An inspection conducted over 10 minutes had found nothing unusual. A further 40 minutes later, the fire alarm had gone off. The chief engineer had gone to the location again with the second engineer, where they had observed and smelled smoke that seemed to be from a chemical substance from Hold No. 2. There had been no fire. The captain had been notified. At 10.30am, after smelling burning rubber, the chief engineer and second engineer had again inspected Hold No. 2, whereupon they had seen that the rubber seals on the door in the hold was on fire. They had managed to douse the burning rubber with fire extinguishers. Since the location was too hot for closer inspection the crew had closed the doors to the hold and activated the CO2 flooding system to extinguish the fire. They had also pumped seawater to the location in a bid to cool the deck down. At 2.30pm, orange smoke and a strong smell of chemicals began emanating from the hold. A group of Sri Lanka navy personnel came aboard at about 4.30pm to look into the report of chemical smoke from the vessel but were unable to do anything to remedy the situation and left after about two hours. The ships general alarm sounded at 11pm. An inspection this time revealed that a large fire had started on deck. Seawater was pumped on deck to prevent containers that did not contain dangerous goods from catching fire but CO2 firefighting equipment was now useless as the fire had become too large, making it difficult to get near its source. Strong winds at the time worsened the situation, allowing the fire to spread rapidly through the ship. Tugs arrived to attempt to douse the fire but failed. Twelve sailors were taken off the vessel on May 23 to make way for a 12-member team of firefighting experts from the Netherlands-based salvage company, SMIT Salvage, and the rest of the crew helped them. At about 3am on May 25, a large explosion occurred near the engine room, scattering debris all over the ship and destroying the vessels air compressor. The captain ordered the ships engines to be shut down. A second explosion from near the engine room forced the remaining crew to abandon ship on the advice of the expert team, the CID was told. Second Engineer Samar Balraj Singh had only boarded the X-Press Pearl at Port Hazira on May 15, taking over duties from the previous second engineer on May 19. He had told investigators that he was informed on May 20 by the chief engineer that there was a fire on a container in Cargo Hold No. 2. Second Engineer Singh has stated that no-one on board had informed him that there was a leak of dangerous chemicals from the container at the time he boarded the vessel. While he had been among the crew members who tried to assist the firefighting team to douse the fire, he and his fellow crew members had to abandon ship and were evacuated by rescue teams to Colombo Port on May 25. It has already been revealed that the vessels skipper, Captain Tyutkalo Vitaly, had been aware of the acid leak from a container while the ship was docked at both Port Hamad and Port Hazira. The ship had made requests to offload the container at both ports but the requests had been turned down by authorities at those ports. Officials from the Merchant Shipping Secretariat who were interviewed by the CID had noted that the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), of which Sri Lanka is a signatory, has laid out clear criteria to be followed when transporting dangerous goods, while the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code), notes that special security arrangements must be made when transporting such dangerous goods in containers. Chapter VII of SOLAS (Carriage of Dangerous Goods), requires that a ships captain inform the nearest country immediately and in detail if there is a risk of dangerous goods falling or leaking into the sea or if such a mishap has already taken place, the officials pointed out. The X-Press Pearls captain, chief engineer and second engineer are already listed as suspects in the case. The Attorney-Generals Department has informed the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court that investigations show the ships local agent, Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, had deleted some emails between the firm and the fire-stricken vessel. The court has ordered the local agent to provide data and logs of the original emails. When the case was taken up again at the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court this week, the CID, acting on the Attorney-Generals instructions, requested the court to list a further seven suspects in the case: these are Sea Consortium Lanka, four of the companys officials, and two more officers aboard the X-Press Pearl. Additional Magistrate Shalani Perera, however, rejected the CIDs request. The magistrate is not bound to give reasons for the decision. Sarath Jayamanne PC, who appeared for Sea Consortium Lanka, argued that the Magistrates Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. He said a case against the suspects could only be filed under the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) Act and pointed out that this must be done in the High Court. Mr Jayamanne charged that the CID had laid charges against the suspects under the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance solely with the aim of keeping the case in the Magistrates Court. Attorney-at-Law Nipuna Wijesekara, who appeared for the ships captain, chief engineer and second engineer, told the court his clients were sorry for what had occurred and would like to apologise, although they emphasised the catastrophe had been due to an accident. The attorney said his clients could not appear in court as they were still in quarantine but would make an appearance at the next court date. Deputy Solicitor-General Madhawa Tennakoon, along with Senior State Counsel Fazly Razeek and State Counsel Lahiru Jayamanne, appeared for the Attorney-General. Distressed ships agent says no emails were deleted The fire started after the ship was in achorage for 23 hoursX -PRESS FEEDERS are among the worlds largest feeder operators handling more than 600,000 containers per year through the Port of Colombo. Its local agent, Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd., has been in the business for the past 30 years and is itself now in the eye of a storm following last fortnights fire and capsizing of one of its vessels X-Press Pearl off the Colombo Harbour. The following is a Question and Answer interview the Company spokesman had with the Sunday Times this week. ST: Why are the emails between the ship, yourselves and the Harbour Master supposedly erased from your computers. SCL: At the very outset, we can categorically assure you that there has been no erasure of any e-mails by our company. This allegation has been made by various parties purely to insinuate that the company has deleted e-mails to destroy evidence of the chain of events prior to the arrival of the vessel X-Press Pearl into our waters. This is absolutely false and can be established by the computer records that have been handed over to the CID. I can therefore categorically assure you that all of the relevant emails are available. ST: What do you mean by relevant emails? SCL: We handle more than 30 vessels a month. Different staff members are given different vessels to handle. Every staffer gets a copy of all operational mails through a common domain address directly to their individual email address even though they do not handle that particular vessel. They are also copied to the Group id ops@x-pressfeeders.com.lk. Staffers who do not handle the vessel routinely delete the emails that are not applicable to their vessels to save capacity and for house-keeping management on their laptops. The Operations staffer handling X-Press Pearl has handed over the relevant emails to the CID. Nothing has been deleted from his, or the Group email id. All correspondence is therefore available completely intact. So, the allegations that have been made of deletions are based on the superficial examination that had been initially conducted by the authorities. ST: When did the crew of the X-Press Pearl inform SCL regarding the nitric acid leak in one of the containers? Was it before or after the ship entered Sri Lankan waters? SCL: The ship captains email to the agent was on the 19th May at 18.42 hours saying, Smoke in container no risk of fire. The vessel was then in international waters. ST: And what action did you, the agent take once informed and when was that? SCL: We informed the Port Authoritys Harbour Master by email the next day (20 May) at 10.19 hours. Our email read Leaking of a container and smoke as well as requesting permission to discharge the container and rehandle this unit. ST: But the vessel entered Sri Lankan waters in the early hours of 20 May before your email about the smoke. Who then asked for permission to enter Sri Lankan waters and who allowed the vessel to enter Sri Lankan waters? SCL: First and foremost, there was no need for any special permission for the vessel to enter Sri Lankan waters since it was a regular caller to Port of Colombo. It was to be berthed at the CICT terminal as per berthing plan. It was in anchorage till it got a berth. In any event, even when the Port Authorities boarded the vessel after midday on the 20th after the receipt of our email and remained on the vessel for their inspection till around 18.00 on that day there was no fire on board. The fire occurred only at 11.10 pm. ST: Did you and/or the vessels Captain alert the Harbour Master to the presence of easily inflammable Dangerous Cargo on board the vessel? SCL: We did inform the authorities in Colombo that there was such cargo on board the vessel. This was at 16.45 on the 19th. The SLPA acknowledged receipt of this at 20.08 also before the vessel entered our waters. ST: So, could they have discharged the leaking container between midday on the 20th and before it caught fire later that night? Wouldnt that have avoided a fire breaking out on the ship? SCL: Unfortunately, there was no alongside berth available at the time the vessel caught fire. The vessel had to wait until a CICT berth was free to berth and discharge cargo. Had a berth on arrival been available this could have been averted. ST:Dont vessels like this carrying consignments of Dangerous Cargo have sufficient firefighting equipment to douse a fire in mid-sea? SCL: Yes, they do. However, this fire started while at Colombo anchorage after sitting there for almost 23 hours. ST: Have you as a frontline shipper and/or the Shippers Association raised concerns over the inadequacy of firefighting equipment at the Colombo Port If so, from about when have these concerns been raised? SCL: The Association of Ceylon Steamer Agents (CASA) which represents all agents of general cargo vessels, car carriers, tankers, bulk carriers, containers etc., has discussed these concerns. It would seem that in this instance, the Port Authority genuinely felt they could handle the fire. In fact, there have been much larger fires that have been very successfully dealt with in the past. However, in fairness to them this was an exceptional situation because there was extreme bad weather for four continuous days with high swell of the sea and gusty winds blowing at over 80 kmph. All these combined increased the fire to uncontrollable levels. ST:Is your parent company willing to engage in providing compensation to the damage to the environment and livelihoods of the fishermen or do you feel it is the responsibility of the Government of Sri Lanka to sort out these issues? SCL: We have linked the Sri Lankan State agencies here like MEPA, NARA, SLPA, Merchant Shipping and the Navy with the International Tanker Operators Federation which has worked in major disasters in New Zealand, Australia, North Sea, Baltics, Venezuela etc., to help in the process of assessing and quantifying the damage. There are established procedures to deal with such situations. Importers who made billions in profit reluctant to provide sugar at lower prices for three months View(s): Sugar importers who made massive profits due to a tax concession given by the Government have expressed reservations to a Trade Ministry request to provide sugar to the state-owned Lak Sathosa franchise at lower prices for the next three months. Sugar importers expressed their reservations during a meeting attended by Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena. At the meeting, a request was made to make available sugar to be sold at Rs 98 through the Lak Sathosa franchise for the next three months. Accordingly, the Ministry asked the local importers to ensure 4,000 metric tonnes of white sugar stocks be distributed via the Lak Sathosa franchise due to increasing demand in the local market. At present, white sugar is sold at Rs 116 a kilo. The importers expressed reservations on the urgent request by the ministry, citing difficulties in financing, while pointing to the depreciating rupee value and the condition of settling the payment within seven days. Most importers were beneficiaries when sugar taxes were cut to 25 cents from 50 rupees a kilo, thereby depriving the government a revenue of Rs 15 billion. A Sugar Importers Association official said local sugar importers had been curtailed from importing sugar from May 25, following a directive issued by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Sunday Times learns that the Association had circulated a letter among importers that they were expected to adhere to the requirement of the Trade Ministry as they were beneficiaries of the reduction of the tax. The letter said they would be reported to the President if they failed to adhere to the request. Trade Ministry Secretary Bhadranie Jayawardhana told the Sunday Times that a final decision in this regard was yet to be taken by the General Treasury though the Trade Ministry facilitated the discussions. Meanwhile, three gazette notifications were issued on Friday instructing individuals who stock corn, sugar, powdered milk, paddy and rice to register themselves with the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) with the stock details within seven days. In March, a Parliamentary Oversight Committee declared that Sri Lanka incurred a massive loss of Rs. 15.9 billion in taxes as a result of tax reduction to 25 cents from Rs. 50 per kg. The parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) noted that a handful of companies benefited by making a profit of Rs. 15.9 billion or a portion of it, indicating they had imported a large quantity of sugar ahead of tax reductions. The Trade Ministry is also in finalising the bidding process through the state-owned State Trading Corporation (STC) for the import of 6000 metric tonnes of Basmati rice from Pakistan under Pakistan- Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. Earlier, the Ministry decided to revoke licences issued to local importers to import Basmati rice citing irregularities. Later, the Ministry secured Cabinet approval to import through the state entity the STC. Nearly 60 percent of the procurement process has been completed so far and we are looking forward to finalising it in the coming weeks, the ministry secretary said. Landslide warnings continue to be in place for many areas By Jayani Madawala View(s): View(s): With the floods receding, and other risks posed by the torrential rains fading, people evacuated from high-risk zones are slowly returning home. About 22 persons were killed in the recent floods and landslides, and over 250,000 affected. The Ratnapura, Galle, Colombo, Kalutara and Kegalle Districts were the worst affected. Assistant Director Disaster Management Centre, Kegalle, Anushka Chamila said in that district, where the highest number of casualties (6 deaths) were reported due to landslides, that they were conducting ground inspections. Landslides caused by the recent rains are being identified and marked. The landslide early warning red alert issued for the Warakapola Divisional Secretariat in the Kegalle District was extended by the National Building Research Organisation. Meanwhile, Level 2 landslide warnings were issued for Ratnapura, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Kalutara, Kegalle, Colombo, and the public were advised to be watchful of possible slope failures, rock falls, cutting failures, and ground subsidence, following continuous rain in these areas. Senior Scientist at the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO), Dr Wasantha Senadeera said: As the Met Department predicted that a number of areas around the country could experience heavy rainfall, we have extended the red alerts issued. However, if there is a threat of a landslide, the NBRO would alert the area of the possibility. But people are not being cautious following the warnings. The recent incident in Warakapola is the best example. We cant undo what has already happened. A majority of these earth slips occur as a result of manmade activities the blocking of downstream waterways and construction in water retention areas, have been attributed to prolonged flooding. Recovery and reconstruction may also pose threats to the environment. Mainly 14 districts have been declared as being vulnerable to earth slips and landslides in Sri Lanka. Kegalle, Ratnapura, Kalutara, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Matara, Colombo and Gampaha are districts where lanslides are most frequent. Kalutara Divisional Secretariat, Disaster Relief Services Officer, Mr Krishan said: We have provided food and other essential items for those in need during the flooding. He added: Although some areas are now safe to return to, many houses in the district have been greatly impacted by the floods and landslides. Those who were in disaster shelters have shifted to live in their relatives places. Ms Illukkumbura, Divisional Secretariat of Ratnapura said funds have been allocated in the affected areas for distribution of cooked foods and dried rations to flood victims. In addition, the District Secretariat has requested for allocations for chemical explosions in Midigama Division due to a hazardous rock that poses a danger to pedestrians and 15 houses and 60 people. Eight temporary shelters are still functioning in the Ratnapura District as landslide warnings were extended. The Meteorology Department forecasts showers in the Sabaragamuwa Province and in the Nuwara Eliya and Kandy Districts. Livelihoods of fishermen sink deep in troubled waters By Nadia Fazlulhaq View(s): View(s): While the ship disaster has left small and medium scale fishermen in the western and northwestern coasts struggling to keep their livelihoods afloat, the demand for deep sea fish has triggered a price increase in some varieties. Prices of deep sea fish such as tuna, snapper, seer fish (thora), paraw, thalapath (sailfish) continue to soar due to short supply and increased demand while smaller fish such as herrings, sardines, small mullet, prawns, crabs and other crustaceans are seeing a price drop. In the retail market, paraw is sold at an average of Rs. 1350 per kilo whereas in June, last year a kilo was about Rs. 1250. Mullet is presently sold at Rs. 1375 a kilo an increase from last years Rs. 1230. A kilo of kelawalla is Rs. 1140 whereas it was Rs. 1107 last year. A kilo of thalapath is presently about Rs. 1392 , close to a hundred rupee increase from last year. A kilo of mora is now Rs. 1213 whereas last year it was Rs. 1018. Prawn prices came down from last years Rs.1290 to Rs. 1250 a kilo and in some places sold at an even lesser rate. Balaya, small mullet, saalaya, linna fish prices are seeing a drop in prices. A kilo of Balaya is presently Rs. 620 a kilo, whereas it was Rs. 760 in the retail market. The seas are rough, during (warakan) season and maa-del fishermen are reluctant to go deep sea fishing . The ship incident has resulted in people being wary about consuming fish. Therefore the livelihoods of small-scale fishermen have been severely affected, said All-Ceylon Fisherfolk Trade Union secretary Dinesh Fernando. Fishermen are jobless, they cannot go to sea. In some cases their fishing gear is damaged by the plastic pellets from the sinking ship. Due to the lockdown, shops that sell fishing gear are closed. Travel restrictions have left them unable to even engage in other daily paid jobs on land, he said. He said the Government should take immediate measures to compensate fishermen affected by the ship disaster and also purchase fish from northern and eastern fishermen and ensure fish is available all over the country at reasonable prices. This is the fishing season in the seas of Kalpitiya, Mannar and northern and eastern seas and fish there are mostly safe to consume as well, Mr. Fernando said. At the wholesale fish market in Peliyagoda, fish traders complained of a drastic drop in the demand for fish. We have fish supplies, but few buyers. The Fisheries Corporation should step up to promote and distribute fish. They need to initiate an effective programme to purchase our fish, a vendor said. Meanwhile, the consumption of fish still remains a debatable topic. Dr Lanka Wickremasinghe, Head of the Department of Aquaculture and Seafood Technology at the Ocean University of Sri Lanka, said consuming fish, especially fish caught in the seas off the coast affected by the pollution from the ship, should be avoided. One can argue that cleaning the gills and intestines will make the fish safe. But some chemicals can be absorbed into the flesh. Unless the chemicals released from the ship are thoroughly investigated, it is safe to stay away from consuming fish especially from the area exposed to plastic pellets and other chemicals. If people really want to consume fish, deep fried is recommended, she said. Thushan Kathurusinghe, Project Leader of the Turtle Conservation Project, said that consuming deep sea fish caught in multi-day trawlers in international waters is safe for consumption while fish caught close to the coast should be avoided for some time. Polluting soils lead to greater havoc than polluting oceans By Prof Chandi Rajapaksha View(s): View(s): The consequences of wastes released from the burned ship to our ocean have become the priority in many news bulletins of all media during the last few days. The immediate impacts of waste on aquatic living creatures were evident and heartbreaking. However, damages caused by wastes on the delicate network of marine food webs of our western ocean and smoke drifted away with polyaromatic hydrocarbons along with other toxic substances are yet to be evident, perhaps after latent periods of weeks to decades. Besides, immediate negative impacts on the accessibility for toxin-free seafood, local and foreign seafood market, and livelihood of all those in the value chain will be inevitable. Although there is a discussion on seeking compensation for the damage done, it may not be estimated in monetary terms. The consequences of introducing organic fertilizers produced withcontaminated wastes onto agricultural fields would lead to greater chaos than witnessed in the ocean. Over more than a month, mass media has allocated significant time on banning the importationof chemical fertilizers and other agrochemicals on 29th April 2021 by the cabinet of Sri Lanka. This decision towards an abrupt paradigm shift in the agriculture sector had terrified all concerned professionals in the agriculture sector. They had appealed from the government for a gradual phase-out plan following a scientific approach pointing out that the long-term repercussions would be unbearable to the economy, environment and society 1 otherwise. They also tried their best to make the public aware of thepros and cons of this decision through a range of communication modes, but those seemed to beorchosento be unheard of by the government. As a follow up action, cabinet approval has been granted on 31st May 2021 to import organic fertilizers to satisfy the nutrient requirements of crops grown in the forthcoming Maha season. Although this decision is clearly contrary to the rational of feeding the nation with healthy food and saving foreign currency by the said ban, developing regulations are in progress to import organic fertilizers. Application of a wide range of organic materials including crop residues, animal manure and compost to agricultural soils is not neweven in conventional agriculture across the world. They have been recommended as a soil amendment and sometimes as a nutrient supplement depending upon theirnutrient contents and quantities available. Thenatural substances containingcarbon makes soil doall wonders for our living includingkeeping soil live and supporting 25% of the earths biodiversity, providing food for human and other organisms, retaining and cleaning up water and regulating the earths climate,to mention a few. The decline of soil C would deprive soils of providing ecosystems services and functions vital for life on earth. Therefore, any soil scientist, agriculturist and environmentalist would encourage the practice of adding good quality organic materials to agricultural soils,aiming to strengthen theservices offered. However, such good quality materials are not abundant for the usage of agricultural lands due to various reasons. Therefore,abundant wastes are processed and used as a soil amendment. The best examples arecompost prepared with municipal wastes, and sludge. Such inputs may not offer intended benefits always if they contain substances harmful to living organisms such as heavy metals, pesticide residues, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, radionuclide etc., and a group of emerging pollutants including pharmaceutical, endocrine disruptors, hormones, biological pollutants, e-wastes and plasticizers. Due to difficulties in visually perceiving the pollutants in soil or assessing them and their impacts on and off-site, the Food and Agriculture Organization has acknowledged that soil pollution is a hidden danger. Sincethe threatsimposed by soil contaminants on soil organisms, quality of food, water and air, and the whole ecosystem are increasing at an alarming rateworldwide, the Environmental Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution in 2017 urging all governments to establish regulations to limit accumulation of contaminants in soils and to facilitate remedial measures. Agricultural scientists claim that the application rates of agrochemicals in Sri Lanka is much lower than other countries in the region. In my opinion, such comparisons are meaningful if interpreted along with types of crops, yields and use efficiencies. It is not a secret that a considerable proportion of local farmers apply chemical fertilizers often and animal manure sometimes in excess. Indiscriminate use of pesticides,occasionally mixing in dangerous ways, is also a common practiceof particularly those grow vegetables. Research conducted at the Department of Soil Science, University of Peradeniyaover about two decades hasrevealedthat soil microbial communities have been affected severely due to pesticides such asmancozeb and elevated levels of hazardous heavy metals in soils. However, the detrimental impacts of adding chemical fertilizers like urea and TSP on soil microorganismsareunlikely except for the temporary suppression of beneficial functions such as nitrogen fixation. Soils with imbalanced nutrients and low microbial diversity often make soils unhealthy and crops grown in such soils will be prone to pests and diseases. The response of famers to such risks is to applyhigh doses ofpesticides indiscriminately making the scenario worse. Further, emerging threats were also identifiedon food chain contamination with heavy metals in a few locations. Therefore,we have initiated official discussions with the Central Environmental Authority to develop guidelines to control soil pollution. As such,incorporating imported organic fertilizers having toxic substances and alien organisms to our agricultural soils would further jeopardize the existing networks of soil biota. If the toxic substances becomesoluble in soil water, those will be taken up by plants or leached down to the ground water thus exposing organisms to contaminated food and water. Besides, some sensitive populations of soil organisms will also be killed,resulting in perhaps irreversible changes in biological communities.Some toxic organic substances may persist but keep accumulating in soils slowly and reach threshold levels later. There will be more serious consequences of introducing alien organisms to soils. There are research evidence that a few species of microorganisms are found in many soils of all continents but a vast majority is unique to each soil ecosystem. Some of the keystone species, who are responsible for performing ecosystem services and functions, may be unique or endemic to each soil ecosystem.Alien microorganisms live in wastes are usually fast growers and adapted to live with contaminants therein. Adding such opportunistic microorganisms to agricultural soils willbe a threat toindigenous microbial communities. The outcome of such threats would become visible after months or years in terms of increase in incidents of crop diseases, yield reduction, water pollution and a general reduction in essentialecosystem services. Plant, animal and human pathogens may also be available in organic fertilizers and no need to explain the consequences of introducing them to our soils. Irrespective of imposing such long-lasting threats to our biodiversity and health by imported organic fertilizers, the Minister of Agriculture very confidently said, only sterilized organic fertilizers without any microorganisms will be imported. Although this could be ignored as another bluff but it seems that the regulations have been developed aiming for this purpose. A concerned researcher shared a document developed by Sri Lanka Standard Institute(SLSI) on specifications for sterilized solid organic fertilizers SLS-1704: 2021 with me. Thepurpose of this document is to set guidelines for approving sterilized solid organic fertilizers for agricultural purposes. It is interesting to know that thousand to million kilograms of bulky sterilized solid fertilizers are availablein international markets. Yet, none of them will be free of microbes, because common methods used for sterilizing purposes such as heat, chemicals or UV cannot completely kill them in a solid material as they hide or remained dormant. Such hidden organism could even escape from drastic changes in pH in a solid material carried out aiming for sterilization. How about the contamination occurs during the processing, packing and shipping of such bulky materials? What would happen to organic and inorganic forms of nutrients and toxic substances available in the processed product during sterilization? Some of the simple substances are more likely to be denatured and new complex molecules will also be formed perhaps combining with contaminants. The product will be then another synthetic material unknown to the natural soil ecosystem. The SLSI committee, which set standards for solid organic fertilizers, has identified limits for potentially toxic elements to assure that the solid organic fertilizers will be safe.However, they will be more meaningful if limits on loading rates are also recommended along with the concentration limits. It is has been said that the product should be free from any persistent organic pollutants, but aliphatic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, antioxidents and radioactive traces etc.have not been included. It is essential to include themethods that will be used to assess the antibiotics or their residues, all organic pollutants and microplastics. The SLSI has also developed draft standards for liquid fertilizers. The biogenic sources of liquid fertilizers are plant and fresh animal manure. Epiphytic and air-born microorganisms are found in liquid fertilizers in addition to those added deliberately to enhance the fermentation process. The absence offecal coliform and Salmonellahas been included as a criterion. It is also essential to include absence of plant pathogens and alien microbes in case of importation,as standards, and methods to detect their presence. All in all, it seems that these guidelines have been prepared either in a hurry or without the inputs of experts. It is crucial to amend themaddressing the highlighted gaps and legislations in effect, if the committee wishes to safeguard the biodiversity of the country and health of soils and living organisms. Then the issue arises on testing organic fertilizers owing to their heterogeneity even within one and between consignments. I am certain that laboratory facilities and methods are not available at present for certain analysis and implementing the guidelines therefore will be questionable. If solid or liquid fertilizers are made available in commercial scale, then recommendations must be made for crops by respective responsible research institutes. So far,practice is to conduct research in the fields of research institutes and thencarryout adaptive trials in farmer fields representing different soil types and agro-climatological regions. Government has taken steps to facilitate scale up the production of organic fertilizers locally aiming to make them available in the Maha season. Accordingly, it is obvious that existing procedures to approve organic and other fertilizers will not be in effect. There are calculations done for supplement rates of organic fertilizers based on nitrogen removal by crops. In my opinion, such calculations could be used for designing experiments. Even for such, nitrogen derived from soils and nitrogen fixing bacteria should be included. Theonly option left out for the research institutes isto make blanket recommendations disregarding the variability of soils in general or at site specific manner based on soil tests.Farmers will be not have any directives and risks of crop failure will be significant. There are also claims that biofertilizers and biostumulantsetc could do marvellous without chemical fertilizers. Only nitrogen fixing bacteria could bring nitrogen into soils, fulfilling about 30% and 50% of the crop nitrogen requirements by free living and symbiotic bacteria, respectively. All others either make unavailable forms of nutrients available or increase nutrient accessibility of the plant either improving root growth or directly connecting to roots. Over a decade of our field research providesevidence that biofertilizersare crop-specific and become successful only in soil types that they could survive. The yield increases varied depending upon optimum soil conditions provided in terms of soil moisture, pH and availability of carbon and other nutrients. Nevertheless, research evidence collected on the success of biofertilizersin fields added with chemical fertilizers in the past would have little relevance in fields under organic farming practices unless retested and proven. Under any circumstances, biofertilizers should not be imported and introduced to our soils. Those alien microbes could be aggressive and may possess genes detrimental to indigenous organisms. Once introduced, there is no way of taking them out or stop their activity. We are a country blessed with incredible soil diversity, climatic zones and biota, and good quality water and air. Soils are the foundations of all these treasures and citizens will enjoy these benefits only if the soils are protected. The addition of low-quality wastes and alien organisms to our agricultural soils will make themon the verge of destroying forever.Remediatingpolluted soils is very expensive and perhaps impossible. That is the very reason for introducing UN resolution urging governments to clean up soils that have already been polluted. It takes 100 to 1000 years to generate top soil that enables the establishment of suitable vegetation. Healthy soils assure healthy food and healthy life. Our decedents will lose the right to a healthy life if our arbitrary actions lead to barren lands and polluted water. A former President of the USA, Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945), once said that The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself. No one else but only H E president could read between the lines of this statement as a former USA citizen of several decades and as a responsible president. By amending the first cabinet paper and withdrawing the second, he could demonstrate to the world that he is not a failure but a saviour of a nation largely irrational and deaf and dumb to scientific facts. The decision to move to organic farming appeared to be appreciated by a vast majority of consumers because the over use of agrochemicals during crop production and managing postharvest losses are well known to the public. This common practice is due mainly to a poor extension service resulted by an abrupt decision taken in the early 90s by the then president to transfer KVS positions to gramasevaka. Eventually, the role of extension officers was taken over by the agrochemical companies. Belief in heavy metals in agrochemicals as the leading cause of CKDU prevailing in the North central province is the other contributing factor for the wide acceptance of the proposed change. This misconception was propagated by a group of pseudoscientists without having concrete scientific evidence on food and water contamination with residues of such metals. Many deliberations were made by soil scientists at that time to make all stakeholder categories aware of scientific data on heavy metal levels in our soils and food but failed in convincing the majority that the levels are safe. Responding to the demand of those pseudoscientists backed by medical practitioners and other social groups, perhaps with selfish motives, glyphosate was banned by the previous government, but illegal formulations became available shortly after imposing the ban. With the involvement of a group of patriotic and opportunistic businessman who heavily involved in the propaganda campaign against the agrochemicals, a liquid formulation was introduced as an alternative to chemical fertilizer in selected Mahaweli systems but ended up as an utter failure. The ongoing discussion on cabinet decision is no different to previous discussionsthat led to banning of glyphosate. Those who do organic farming on-ground are rarely taking part in these discussions and therefore practical realities of practicing organic farming in the country have not beenrevealed adequately. Lack of such information hinders developing a road map to address issues that might arise in future. It is not fair to put the farmer in further troubleas he is struggling to pay loans, overcome the shortages of labour, protect the crop and their own lives from numerous pests and elephants etc. As a society, neither we have learned from the past mistakes nor make decisions based on scientific evidence. In order to avoid repeating the same mistake, it might be useful toimpose strict guidelines on getting the service of experts by ministries for nationally important assignments and introduce provisions to appoint an expert committee to grant approval for scientists to make public statements based on their research findings. I also believe thattrade unions should refrain from making official statements on issues out of their periphery. For example, medical practitioners better refrain from making statements on issues in agriculture and agricultural professionals making statements on controlling Covid-19. These measures would at least assure addressing nationally important issues following scholarly conversations and scientific approaches with the participation of knowledgeable stakeholders. 1. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210613/ http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210523/sunday-times-2/why-soil-science-society-is-concerned-about-organic-fertiliser-imports-444557.html (The writer is Professor of Soil Science at the University of Peradeniya.) SLMA recommends extension of lockdown till June 28 View(s): The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) has urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to extend the lockdown (travel restrictions) for two weeks more (till June 28) and ban tourists from countries that have an ongoing COVID-19 transmission. On Friday, the Government extended the lockdown by a week till June 21. In a letter to the President on Friday, the SLMA also requested more stringent implementation of movement restrictions; increased surveillance for COVID-19 in factories and workplaces that continue to function during the lockdown period; an increase in the number of PCR tests done randomly; and an improvement in the communication strategy to get better compliance from people during the lockdown. It said the travel restrictions so far have prevented the health system, which was running at full capacity at the time, from collapsing. The timely implementation of the movement restrictions prevented a major disaster to the healthcare system and the country as a whole, the letter said. We find that the number of new cases, though still high, have remained fairly stable. This is a major improvement compared to the time before the lockdown when the COVID incidence was rising exponentially, it said. The SLMA noted that it will take two to three weeks for the lockdown to have an impact on case numbers, and even longer, on deaths. This is because of the incubation period of the disease, the time it takes for the disease to progress and for people to seek healthcare. Very early information we are receiving from the health system suggests that the number of cases in the community, wards and ICUs may be showing the first signs of decreasing. But if the current lockdown measures are lifted at this point in time, we are certain that the number of cases will exponentially start rising again, the SLMA said in recommending an extension of the lockdown till June 28. A date with Jane Goodall for the young ones WNPS lecture View(s): View(s): The world famous conservationist Dr Jane Goodall will deliver this months Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) lecture on Empowering young people to make the world a better place by caring for the world they inhabit and living sustainable lifestyles. The lecture is on June 17 at 7 p.m. via Zoom and FB Live. The WNPS public lecture series is hosted in collaboration with Nations Trust Bank (NTB). Please register online https://forms.gle/8esbeh7SXbKdGuAK6 Dr Jane Goodall the legendary scientist, conservationist and humanitarian, was named a UN Messenger of Peace in 2002, honouring her for a remarkable career that demonstrated her dedication to what is best in mankind. Through detailed observations of chimpanzee behaviour in Gombe National Park in Tanzania in the 60s, she revolutionized what it means to be human and challenged conventional theories held at the time, including tool use by chimpanzees and that chimpanzees are omnivores, not herbivores and have complex emotional lives and social constructs. At heart she has always been a primatologist and it was her love for apes that thrust her career into conservation, in an effort to help protect their habitat and to preserve Earth for all species. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute to ensure that her vision and lifes work continue to mobilize the collective power of individual action to save the natural world we all share. Jane Goodalls Roots & Shoots programme for youth which began in 1991 has inspired millions of young people around the world and focuses on empowering young people to care for the world they inherit. Today the Roots & Shoots programme is flourishing in over 100 countries. Through Roots & Shoots, participants identify and address problems in their communities, while becoming the compassionate citizens that our planet needs. Dr. Goodall has received many awards and honorary degrees, authored many books for adults and children and been featured in numerous documentaries and films. She is currently working virtually from her family home in Bournemouth, UK during the pandemic. You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. www.janegoodall.global www.rootsandshoots.global Appreciations View(s): My grandfather, the quiet gentleman and faithful fisher of men CAPTAIN PETER NEVILLE LESLIE MENDIS If my grandfather were alive, tomorrow- June 14, would be his 106th birthday. It is in June, when many mark Fathers Day, we remember my Seeyas remarkable life. His birthday, every year was a milestone when we his grandchildren were growing up. If my grandfather were alive, tomorrow- June 14, would be his 106th birthday. It is in June, when many mark Fathers Day, we remember my Seeyas remarkable life. His birthday, every year was a milestone when we his grandchildren were growing up. Peter Neville Leslie Mendis was born in 1915. His father Peter Calvin was a station master. He lived the early part of his life in Moratuwa, attending S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia with his two brothers Peter Florizel and Peter Granville. He entered the University of Colombo but did not complete his degree due to compelling reasons. He took up his first employment with the Survey Department. In 1938, when the forerunner to the present Sri Lankan Navy, the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force was formed, Neville was one of its first 28 recruits. The next year, World War II broke out and the unit was mobilized for war duties in the Royal Ceylon Navy. Neville served as a Signalman Gunner in Trincomalee and was there when the Japanese airplanes bombed Ceylon on Easter Sunday, 1942. He did not see much action in the war, but in 1944, while patrolling about 20 to 30 miles offshore they saw a huge ball of fire in the sky, and upon investigating, found the wreckage of a downed airplane and the bodies of Japanese pilots, which they handed over to intelligence. In late 1943, he married Lynette Fernando of Richardia, Moratuwa. The following year his first son, Peter Lalith, was born and by 1947, his daughter, Shiranee, and his second son, Peter Mohan, had followed. After the war, he left the regular navy but continued as an officer in the Ceylon Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (CRNVR) and held the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He joined the Fisheries Department taking up an offer by Captain Mitchell to pioneer the new Deep Sea Trawling unit of the government of Ceylon. After some time as a crew member of the SS Raglan Castle he was sent in 1951 to the UK to study navigation. After a short spell in Hull, he returned accompanying a British captain with the steam ship Braconglen, a 338-ton fishing trawler. As he was very keen to complete his studies and the Colombo Plan gave him a break, he returned to Hull, but two weeks after his arrival, he fell and broke his arm, but continued for his examination, which was two months ahead, with his arm strapped up. He managed to get through all the drawing and charting that was required of him. On January 17, 1953, there was bad news from Ceylon. His wife, Lynette, had died under tragic circumstances and he was called home to arrange the funeral and the care of Lalith, Shiranee and Mohan aged eight, six, and four. The British Council helped him get an air passage home. He returned to Hull in February and passed his Skippers examination. He captained the Braconglen for many subsequent years. He travelled to Yugoslavia to bring back the newly purchased 108-foot, 150-ton fishing motorized trawler, Gandara- the first of a few more to follow. During the 1958 riots, he was called back for duty as a member of the voluntary reserve and stationed in Kotahena. Also during this time, he was put in charge of evacuating refugees by ship from the camps in Colombo to the safety of Jaffna. After his retirement from Ceylon Fisheries in 1972, he served as a director at Cornel & Company and continued to serve this firm even well into his eighties. Although he did not have an easy life, his unwavering faith in God helped him to get through difficult times. It was many years later, in his seventies, that he became involved in Christian work, but I believe he carried his faith with him throughout his lifetime, or rather, his faith carried him. He married my grandmother, Rukmini Samaraweera in 1960, and they lived happily together at the Bambalapitiya Flats for 45 years. My grandmother still maintains our Flat in this housing complex. Together, they were instrumental in introducing Selwyn Hughes ministry to Sri Lanka. Captain P.N.L. Mendis was, to me, the epitome of a gentleman. I never heard him raise his voice or speak ill of anyone. He was slow to anger and quick to forgive. Many of his good deeds passed unnoticed. After his death, several people visited my grandmother and told her of how he had helped them consistently in quiet ways. He had little regard for conventional wealth and material possessions, but found it easy to acquire a wealth of friends from all walks of life. He never engaged in conspicuous consumption. He used to always say Never incite the envy of the poor. He was a man who could walk with rulers as well as amongst beggars with equal ease and command the respect of both. He disliked conflict and avoided it unless it was absolutely necessary. However, when necessary, he acted with resolve. Once, during a storm his crew had panicked and headed for the lifeboats, and the ship was in danger of capsizing because of the weight of all the men on one side of the ship. He had pulled out his revolver and threatened to shoot if they tried to get into the lifeboats. When I was in my teens, Seeya introduced me to one of his favourite books The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It is the story of a fisherman who, in his old age, goes out to sea one last time and catches the biggest fish he has ever caught in his life. This, in a sense, is also true of my grandfather. Seeya saw himself as performing his lifes most important work during his old age when he became involved in ministry and became a fisher of men. Seeya once told me that when he went to England to study fishing, he was told by his captain, an Englishman, that no man could be a fisherman and a gentleman at the same time. This had upset him, but he had replied that, in that case, he would be the first gentleman fisherman. I believe that in exemplifying the qualities he did, he kept his word to the end. Peter Jehan Mendis He always did his duties at the Cathedral with a smile Liyanage Anthony Perera We walk into the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour for the morning service. The doors are wide open and everything is neatly arranged the hymn books and Bibles ready for the congregations use. We relish the sight of shining brass vases filled with beautiful flowers and potted palms around the altar area. The altar table is neatly laid out and the sacred vessels and elements are ready for the offering of Communion. We hear the ringing of the large bell at the entrance which indicates the beginning of the service. We stand up to sing the opening hymn and the cross bearer, who is the Sexton of our Cathedral, dressed in pristine white leads the clergy and those participating in the service along the centre aisle from the entrance to the altar. The Sexton is Anthony! And it was Anthony who has been responsible for all these flawless arrangements. I first recall meeting Anthony when my husband Simon and I attended the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour in Colombo in the mid-1980s. I got to know him really well as I was involved in the tea making for the congregation after the Sunday service and would visit the church during the week to check on the supplies. Anthony would greet me with a smile and immediately take over the items I had brought and place them in a cupboard in a very systematic way. His wife Wimala also helped us very much in the tea making. I used to keep in touch with him and Wimala even after he retired. As the Sexton, Anthony had a wide array of duties. He lived within the Cathedral premises and began his work early morning when he had to unlock the Cathedral doors and was responsible to see that the doors were locked at night and the Cathedral was safe! He was in charge of looking after the vestments of the clergy and the sacred vessels and elements. A dynamic worker, he took all this in his stride. In addition he was in charge of the arrangements for the special services and all other major events held at the Cathedral. For Palm Sunday he would collect the palm leaves and cut them to the correct size to be made into palm crosses. He was also present at the various meetings held in the Cathedral and saw that everything required was arranged to perfection. At the annual pola, Anthony was of enormous assistance. When my children got married Anthony was of immense help with the arrangements in the Church! He also had to overlook the general maintenance of the premises. As the congregation numbers increased so did the activities in the Cathedral and Anthony had the assistance of Darsan who proved to be a very loyal and hardworking partner. When Rev. Fr. Sydney Knight was appointed Dean of the Cathedral, he recommended that Anthony should join in administering communion to the congregation which he did with great devotion. We shall always remember Anthony for the wonderful helper he was to all of us. May he rest in peace in the safe arms of Jesus and may his family continue to be blessed by the Lord. Anthea Senaratne Beloved aiya, the livewire at any family function PARAKRAMA HERAT GUNARATNE We were greatly saddened when our beloved cousin Parakrama Aiya passed away on the eve of the Sinhala New Year after a prolonged illness at the age of 78 at his Punchi Borella residence. Parakrama was a son of our oldest uncle, the late P. P. Herat Gunaratne JP who was a prominent personality in our ancestral village of Galmuruwa. Parakrama was a livewire among our first cousins and was always in the forefront of organizing and coordinating any family event, be it the annual Munneswaram family perahera, family alms giving or the regular get-togethers. He was very fond of his uncles including my father and whenever the uncles sought his assistance on any matter, Parakrama responded speedily. An old Anandian like all of us, Parakrama graduated from the then Vidyalankara University and worked at the Petroleum Corporation for a short period. Thereafter, he joined the Labour Department, in 1970 and was fortunate to work under superiors of the calibre of G. Weerakoon, Labour Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners David Soyza, Felix Wijesinghe and Mr. Navaratne. He specialized in the fields of Industrial Relations, Manpower Planning and Training and Labour Standards. When the Foreign Employment Bureau was established in 1985, he was handpicked by the Ministry of Labour to be its first employee in the capacity of Board Secretary which he served for 20 years getting an extension even beyond the retirement age of 60. He served many Chairmen of the Bureau with absolute dedication and commitment and had an excellent command of both English and Sinhala. I remember in the mid 60s when we lived opposite Ananda College, Parakrama as a University student, lived in the famous family home at Punchi Borella and he was a regular evening visitor to our home along with his late brother Gilbert. They used to have enjoyable evening chats with my father, which sometimes went late into the night. I also recall that after I joined the ETF in the early 90s, he used to always visit me in office whenever he came to the Ministry of Labour on official business from his Jawatte Road Bureau Office. During his long illness, he was lovingly cared for by his wife Lilani, son Kelum, step children and in-laws who did their utmost to make him comfortable. May Parakrama Aiya attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana. Mangala Herat Gunaratne My grandfather who took on lifes challenges for the sake of his children S. Pathiraja He was short in stature, but had a towering personality. He was a super hero during the early 1940s. He fought for his survival with ten children; six sons and four daughters alongside his wife. It was a challenge to take care of such a big crowd. Starvation and poverty were two crucial issues to be addressed. Of course, the majority of his contemporaries had to face the same situation. It was a tough time. He did not have any alternatives except the land and water. He got involved in farming with the unstinted support of his wife and worked both day and night to be a winner. Life had always been a challenge for him but he didnt give up at any cost. He was in the fields whether rain or sun and had many sleepless nights. His sole concern had always been his family and he was willing to do everything possible to take care of them. Education was always given prominence and he had realized that life would be unsuccessful without it. When one of his sons was reluctant to go to school one day, he had personally taken him to school. The boy learnt his lesson. He would go to Anuradhapura to buy the childrens exercise books and he didnt forget to buy certain sweets for the family. Sometimes he had to walk back home with those heavy bags. It took him over two hours. He was not troubled because he knew he was making the sacrifice for his children. He was neither a smoker nor meat-eater. He loved animals and trees and took care of his cattle with a great sense of love and affection. He discouraged the consumption of meat. He observed sil, and when he was free, he used to visit the Chief Incumbent of the temple. He worried over his children and grandchildrens welfare. Whenever a child wanted his help, he was not hesitant. But he had never stayed at his childrens homes for long periods because he didnt want to trouble anyone. Even though he had made an immense sacrifice for the betterment and progress of his children, he expected nothing at all from them. He did not have ulterior motives. He was a simple, genuine person. He loved his children. He loved mankind. He lived life to the fullest. He was one of the most exemplary characters I have ever come across. He was a real gentleman who believed in humanity. He was my late grandfather. Saumya Aloysius The familys ray of hope is no more Sarojini Kumaraswamy My cousin Saro Sarojini Kumaraswamy nee Sitharam, passed away in April. She leaves behind her son Niranjan, daughter Rukshy, grandson Aadhit, and son-in law Thangarajah Briyanthan. Her father, late Mr. Sitharam was an advocate in the 1940s and her mother was Amirrthamma, my late father T. Karalasingams sister. I am from a family of ten children and after my mother passed away at the age of 35, I along with two of my brothers lived in Saros parents home in Batticaloa to continue our studies at St. Michaels College Batticaloa. I remember her from her schooldays as a humble, courteous, sincere and helpful young girl. She pursued her studies and became an English Trained Teacher. She married Mr Kumaraswamy and lived in her ancestral home in Batticaloa until her demise. Saro was a ray of hope for her family and the meritorious deeds she left behind were woven into the lives of others. Our silent tears flow for her. We pray to Lord Siva to receive her in heaven and as Hindus believe, to be reborn as a noble lady again among our circle. Karalasingam Sivalingam He believed he was responsible for all those around him Karu Wijeyanayake Karunasena Wijeyanayake was born to Amaris and Baby Nona Wijeyanake on December 16, 1941. His siblings were Kanthi, Ranji, Rupa and Ajith. Karu married Asoka Caldera in May 1981 and they were blessed with two children and one grandchild. He passed away on May 10, this year, after a brief illness and is survived by his wife Kanthi, children Lahiru and Asiri and grandchild, Nethuka. He was last employed as Company Secretary of Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC). Karu was Honorary Treasurer of the Retired Managers Association of CTC for many long years and managed the finances well during his tenure. He continued his practice after retirement but spent most of his time with his grandchild. Karu was a devout Buddhist and an amazing man, who believed that he had a responsibility towards all around him. As colleagues we extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the family. Chelvam Ariaratnam Chandi, the star and countrys evergreen athamma is 94 By Yomal Senerath-Yapa View(s): View(s): Irangani Roxanna Serasinghe celebrated her 94th birthday on Wednesday, June 9. It is hard to think of an actress more iconic, having begun with the stage and then conquered the screen with the aplomb and grace of a Kandyan heiress. Apart from her legendary career in acting, she is an ardent environmentalist known for her many battles for our trees and fauna. Born a Meedeniya (her grandfather was the Adigar John Henry, and her father John Hercules a Rate mahatmaya) she was brought up in Moodugowmua in Ruwanwella, in a rambling walawwa where kith and kin would often drop in; these including many of the country gentry and leading Colombo clans. The genesis of her acting was in the humorous mimicking and imitating she was often called upon to perform to entertain visitors. A village upbringing, Irangani insists, was a great boon- it made her sensitive to nature and made her the artist she is. Schooling was at St. Bridgets, Bishops and finally the Kandy Girls High School- when she was something of a poet too, preferring scribbling verses to poring over textbooks. It was with great persuasion that Iranganis cousins managed to convince her father that a university education would be an asset for her. Despite being an Oxford graduate, his conservative Kandyan stance was that that den of iniquity would not do for his daughters. At Colombo University Irangani came into her own, doing justice to the nickname her grandmother had given for a tomboyish streak- Chandi. Here they would have what she would call good, innocent fun, and in the process would get sucked into the theatre world with dons like Cuthbert Amerasinghe and Lyn Ludowyk, doing plays like The Second Mrs. Tanqueray and Antigone, often travelling to Kandy and Jaffna for performances. In 1948, as the country gained Independence, Irangani appeared in the memorable Pageant of Lanka as Sita to Chitrasenas Rama (Vajira was a deer and Ena de Silva the spirit of Lanka), though that tryst with dancing was short-lived. Her dalliance with communism (with cousins like Sama Ellawala) also didnt survive beyond university. Married to the well known dentist S. B. Dissanayake, Irangani left for England where she studied drama at Old Vic Theatre School and the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. After returning to Colombo their marriage ended, and Irangani married Winston Serasinghe, a ruggerite and actor, a kindred soul Irangani had known for a long time. Together they were amongst the first to cross over to the Sinhala theatre- from the Lionel Wendt to the Lumbini. There was a period when, determined to earn her own bread and butter, Irangani joined the Times of Ceylon under Tori de Souza, where as womens page editress she strived to make more space for serious reading amidst fashion spreads of Yvonne Gulamhussein, Sundari Rockwood and prominent socialites. Irangani, in those young and heady days, also worked for the SLBC and Walkers Tours. It was with Lester James Pieriss Rekawa (1956) that Irangani made a uniquely triumphal entree to the Sinhala cinema. Lesters films, the first realistic Sinhalese films not to be set in studios in the South Indian style, were all the more appealing for her acting skills. Afterwards she went on to star in Sandeshaya, The God King, Bak Maha Deege, Avaragira, Loku Duwa, Wekande Walawwa, Delovak Athara, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Machang amongst others. Amidst her teledrama credits are Yashorawaya and Doo Daruwo, those family sagas which reached the apogee of popularity a teledrama could, with Irangani playing the grandmother. Today, Chandi Meedeniya would wish for nothing better than an evening sitting relaxed in the verandah of a dry zone bungalow set in a wild area as she said in an interview with Kumar de Silva. I drink like nectar the sights, sounds and smells of the jungle and hold my breath when a leopard, elephant or bear beautifies the landscape. Not that other animals and birds are not welcome. A well-earned rest indeed it sounds, for our nations favourite athamma. Engrossing tales and compelling message on future of medicine Letters to a Young Doctor- by Hilali Noordeen Reviewed by Rajiva Wijesinha View(s): View(s): Amongst recent reading was something very different to everything else that kept me going during this time of coronavirus. This was Letters to a Young Doctor by Hilali Noordeen who came up to Oxford in my last term there. But I did not know him then, and only met him for the first time when he was back in Colombo the following summer. It was then I think that one of my friends, told me he thought Hilali who was involved by then in the Oxford Union would fulfil my longstanding hope of another Sri Lankan President. Hilali did succeed, and has the distinction or otherwise of having been the President who gave Boris Johnson his first paper speech, the first step on the political career of yet another Balliol man. Hilali however, did not go into politics but became a doctor, changing to this while at Balliol, an unusual move he describes in the book. He then settled in England to what seems a very successful practice, combined with an academic position too. And then, though he always kept in touch when he came to Sri Lanka, there was another reason for bonding for he married the daughter of my fathers great friend Mr Sahabdeen, an intellectual who has endowed awards for social contributions. But it is a few years now since I heard from him so I was pleasantly surprised when he called up a few weeks back and wanted to see me. He dropped in for lunch and we talked as though we had parted just a few days ago. He had also, he said, wanted to give me a book he had just published, and I was delighted then to read it over the next few days. It was written when his elder son thought of becoming a doctor and asked his advice. He decided then to set this down on paper, and the result is an informative excursus into his career, with reflections on where medicine is heading. The glimpses of his training are fascinating, covering lessons of different sorts learned from a host of teachers he admires, lessons in thoroughness and understanding in addition to technicalities. He also knows how to tell an exciting story, as of when he had to deal with an emergency on a plane, which led he relates to an upgrade to first class when he travelled for a year thereafter. But even more compelling are his reflections on what he thinks is going wrong with the medical profession, where adherence to systems has taken over what should be the primacy of sympathetic care. I will not attempt to synthesize the points he makes, but his oppositioning of what he calls a culture of command and control to the primacy of care indicates what he feels has gone wrong. And his critiques of the increasing power of administrators obsessed with paperwork, which turns often into simply the ticking of boxes, is devastating. I was aware that there has been much concern in recent years as to what was happening to the National Health Service in England, a marvellous achievement when it was set up as I found when I benefited from it as an undergraduate. As in Sri Lanka the Thatcher determination to cut waste in public service, an admirable ideal in itself, led to the cutting of the service too. We are not yet as bad as England where as Hilali shows success is increasingly judged by presentation not achievement. And there still seems to me magnificent professional commitment on the part of many of our medical personnel, though not all as I found in the years when I took my father to various doctors, most of them devoted and helpful, one or two racking up patients without sufficient time with them. Where we will end up I do not know. But as Helena Kennedy puts it in a blurb, the book is not only a lively guide for young doctors, it is also a serious message to our society, not only British but Sri Lankan too. Anti-Muslim hype has relegated the more dangerous LTTE war into insignificance By M M Zuhair View(s): View(s): Twelve years since the end of Sri Lankas war, the sacrifices made by the nations armed forces and related State institutions were remembered in May. Tamils overseas too, meanwhile, remembered those who died in the 30-year war. But why have the Muslims, the only community to stand on the side of the territorial integrity of the country and heavily paid for that stand-point, failed to give expressions to their patriotic roles in the war? The Muslims never wanted to bring up the questions relating to the destructions and killings at the hands of the LTTE. Why should they have remembrances now? The Easter Sunday attacks of April 21, 2019 and the extensive and unceasing anti-Muslim publicity given locally and globally to the massacre of Christians and foreign tourists appear to be erasing memories of the communitys contributions during the war. These were roles played primarily in the national interest of the country but also in the long-term interests of the community. But the highly disproportionate 21/4 anti-Muslim hype has relegated the far more dangerous LTTE war to pale into insignificance. Thus the need has arisen to remind the country of the Muslims role in both the Eelam war and the Easter bombings. What were some of these roles? 1) The LTTE drive, post-1983, to recruit Muslim youths, was prevented by the emergence of SLMC in 1986! Following the 1983 anti-Tamil riots, and the failures of the 1984 All Party Conference (APC) and the 1985 Political Parties Conference (PPC), LTTE intensified recruiting Muslims in the East with some Muslim youths being appointed LTTE area leaders. The effective emergence in 1986 of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by the 36-year-old lawyer, better known for his Tamil oratory, M H M Ashroff absorbed these deviant Muslim youths into the SLMC fold, crippling the LTTE recruitment drive amongst Eastern Muslims. 2) The SLMC didnt support the merger of 85% minority populated NE offered on a platter by JR in 1987! The three Tamil-speaking minorities of the North-East, the Hindus, the Christians and the Muslims comprised 85% of the NE population and the merger of the East with the North was offered on a platter to the minorities by President J R Jayawardene following the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987, though allegedly not supported by the SLMC as the LTTE, which too opposed the Accord,was firmly committed to a separate state in the NE with long-term adverse effects on the community and the country. 3) Prabhakaran successfully got the IPKF out of Sri Lanka in 1989, but failed to get Ashroff into the LTTE boat! The LTTE succeeded in getting President Ranasinghe Premadasa to order the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to leave the country, but failed to get Ashroff onto the separatist boat. Muslims believe that if Prabhakaran had succeeded, Eelam would have been nearly achieved long prior to the celebrated defection of the LTTE Eastern Commander in 2006, and then very likely the Eastern Commander would never have defected! Following the exorbitantly excessive anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim responses of the authorities to the Easter Sunday attack, giving the impression of both foreign and local vested interests taking revenge, there is rethinking within the Muslim community whether Ashroffs SLMC was right in not supporting the Tamils aspirations for self-determination, or at the least to address long standing Tamil grievances. 4) Over a thousand Muslims were killed in 1990 for supporting the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, of which over 250 were from Kattankudy, the epicenter of unprovoked killings of unarmed civilians by the LTTE! Because the Eastern Muslims stood on the right side of history, in support of the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, over a thousand Muslims paid the supreme price. According to the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR-Jaffna) headed by Prof Rajan Hoole during the 32 days from July 12, 1990 to August 12, 1990 alone, 386 Muslims were done to death in five massacres committed by the LTTE. Of this number, 147 Muslims were shot in four mosques while at prayers, while another 121 Muslim men, women and children while sleeping in their homes were cut, chopped and axed to death. Of the total 386, nearly 250 Muslims were from and around Kattankudy, the epicenter of unprovoked murders of unarmed civilians. 5) Many Malay Muslim intelligence officers in the armed forces were selectively killed by LTTE! Many Malay Muslims who served in the Deep Penetrating Units of the armed forces did yeoman service to the country with several of them getting killed by the LTTE. 6) The Iranian interest-free US$ 700 million facility in 2008, a critical year in the war, helped Sri Lanka pay for arms required for the forces! During 2008, the Islamic Republic of Iran, headed by President Dr Mahmood Ahmadinejad, provided Sri Lankas then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, an invaluable oil credit facility on interest-free, deferred-payment terms of a sum that shot up to US$ 700 million by September that year. This helped Sri Lanka to pay for essential arms and ammunitions that the forces required, to maintain the upper hand that they had already acquired in the pre-final rounds of the highly intense war, concluded in May 2009. As Sri Lankas then Ambassador to Iran, I did play a key role in securing this facility with the support of Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and Secretary Finance Dr P B Jayasundara. 7) Muslims gave advance warnings as early as late 2014 of some emerging radicals! Muslims must also draw attention, time and again to the advance warnings given to the authorities by the community as early as late-2014, long before the alleged RAW reports in April 2019 of the emergence of some radicals within the community. Muslims also complained to then-IG Police and the Attorney General through the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) to take action on matters that were contributing to the perceived radicalisation. That authorities since then were continuously monitoring most of those elements are entirely true! But how the Indians got ahead of the Sri Lankan detectives and how the RAW had access to the Easter bombers are beyond our understanding! Pakistan assisted Sri Lankan forces in multiple ways, while Libya also helped! Pakistan played a very significant role in assisting the armed forces in many ways, while the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya also reportedly assisted. Many other Muslim interest groups also facilitated the then-government and the armed forces in too numerous ways to be included here. On the other hand, Lord Michael Naseby addressing the House of Lords as recently as May 19, 2021 alleged the LTTE war in Sri Lanka was partially conducted from London led by UK citizen Dr Anton Balasingham, while another British citizen, his wife Adele was fighting in Sri Lanka and was closely involved in recruiting over 5,000 child soldiers as stated by UNICEF. This is a war crime by any yardstick. The United States in the final stages of the war in April 2009, attempted to get then-President Mahinda Rajapaksas clearance, which he ignored, to rescue Prabhakaran and his top aides from the war front. Norway and Israel played Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde around the war. These are the countries, yesterdays conspirators, that are being invited with the support of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to conduct illegal investigations on the Muslims role in the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka! Lets pray for the country! (The writer is a former MP and was Ambassador to Iran) Public service: Law outside courts View(s): Public service (PS) in law is a puzzling concept. It is not easily fathomable for its role, unlike judicial service (JS) which is well founded in law. PS is not even an appendage of the criminal justice system (CJS), although it consists of a whole body of competent learned officials. Thereby PS, in relation to the courts, is not much different from witnesses in court who have no say in the proceedings. This is because a sharp distinction is drawn between the JS and the PS. The prevailing notion of rule of law (RoL) is confined to the JS. This exclusion means PS officials do not exercise judicial power (JP). JP is taken to mean a power which by definition cannot be exercised by others than judges. But this perception of JP is only a matter of practice. Through history RoL has become the one court, the one court administration and the rules made by this one court. Such is the observation by A V Dicey, an internationally recognised expert on law in all its aspects. Prof Jensen of Stanford University, in a Lecture at the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) on Jan 4, 2019 said: RoL has for long been considered only in a limited legalistic sense, devoid of other considerations deemed extraneous to law. These are political, social and economic circumstances. They give a new dimension to the legal RoL. Scarcity, low capacity and other impediments affect the clear understanding of RoL. Outside circumstances are of a wide nature. Thus, legal niceties are ineffective in disturbed social conditions, particularly in public order situations. The idea of reasonable suspicion comes under severe strain in current conditions such that the courts cannot now cope with this concept and leaves it to public officers to make that interpretation. Prof Jensen noted further: RoL is a multi-variable phenomenon that requires coordination across multiple institutions, both formal and informal. Jensen speaks further of two types of RoL, the constitutional RoL and the citizen RoL. Constitutional RoL is that which focuses on distribution of power at the top of the political system. The citizen RoL variety is concerned with the distribution of power, its effectiveness, and equal application at the bottom of the political system. Rol is thus weakened for many practical reasons. The citizen RoL is concerned with distribution of power, its effectiveness, and equal application at the bottom. This type of RoL is focused on the daily life problems of citizens, ranging from disputes, debts, bribery and the like. This is, in essence, administration of the law under RoL. In delivering the common good under RoL, a valid consideration is that bureaucracies are critical decision-making bodies and are part of the legal system. Bureaucracies make many more decisions that are critical to the lives of citizens each day than do judiciaries. Jensen adds there is no bright demarcation either between judicial and bureaucratic decision making. If at all, judicial decision is formal; bureaucratic decision is informal. The formal/informal separation is not a clash, neither a contradiction. For either formal or informal, both entail a process of decision making. In both cases, that process incurs sagacity, judgement, and prudence. For, in any judicial or bureaucratic decision these qualities are inherent in the process. Provision of the informal process allows the RoL to include the pubic officials and the judges together even in their respective tasks. The effort is then collective and it is shared RoL. Such may well be the objective of RoL, originally conceived, that the people will be served all the better. To this end, it is necessary that the capacities of government officials be likewise enhanced to deliver services and to contribute to the judicial and administrative norm of RoL. The Public Service Establishment Code (EC) can eminently supply this need. But over the years the prevailing RoL concept has swallowed all other rules, including the EC, to near extinction. Examples are replete. Only a single illustration is given here: The EC provision for bribery and corruption control, including the Police Disciplinary Code, framed under the EC, has been taken away to the Bribery Commission. EC responsibility of PS has been simply handed over to the Bribery Commission. We, in the Police service, have put aside laid-down laws, rules and regulations and used our discretion many-a-time in matters of law and discipline, for better end-results. When I was OIC Hiniduma Police, I was informed by subordinates that recruit constable X (RPC X) had taken a bribe stating it was for the OIC. When confronted, RPC X admitted the allegation. I gave him a choice of facing an inquiry where he would face cancellation of his enlistment for the offence; or return the money, take leave and send his resignation giving his reason as seeking better prospects, thereby keeping his record clean. He opted for the second. Years later, I ran into him working as a ticket inspector in the CTB. By practice, RoL has weakened the potential for informal processes to work alongside the formal process. Public order handles a huge volume of minor cases to be administered informally as by conciliation, mediation, compounding of cases etc. In these cases,the method requires enlistment of the energies of the disputing parties for conciliatory solution, rather than allowing adversarial posturing of law professionals. It is a fact of life that the more disputes, better the earnings of law professionals. Community elders, priests, etc are better equipped for this particular task than judges. Lawyers are otherwise inclined and should be kept out from these initiatives. Social standing of the interveners to influence reconciliation for maintenance of order is all the more profound than of professional judges, however they may be equipped. This assertion is not to detract from the competence of judges to deal with serious cases. The effect of judicial decision ends in the court house; the settling influence of the informal interveners continues into the village. Therefore, an imaginative review of RoL outside courts, will help advance RoL within courts. Courts can then deal with serious cases expeditiously. A review of RoL on the lines asserted above is commended to the President Rajapaksa who is presently bent on RoL for the country. (The writer, a retired Senior Police Officer can be contacted at seneviratnetz@gmail.com, 077 44 751 44) When DRW swayed life at Lake House By E C B Wijeysinghe The following article first appeared in The Sunday Observer of June 11, 1978 and is reproduced to mark the 71st death anniversary of D R Wijewardene. View(s): View(s): The thirteenth day of June, 1950, was a sad day for Lake House. On that day, D R Wijewardene, its founder, died, but the momentum that he generated is still felt when the rotary presses begin to roll. In 1912 when he returned to Ceylon after graduating in Cambridge and being called to the Bar in London, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in Colombo. He was so elegantly dressed that people used to call him Dandy Dick. The fact is that he was a perfectionist, even in the matter of clothes, and the neatness of his appearance was only the mirror of a well-ordered mind ready to answer the countrys call. He was born on the banks of the Kelani Ganga, but he received his passport to immortality on the banks of the Beira Lake. The roots of his family were, however, traced by J H O Paulusz, the former Government Archivist, to distant Uva, which was noted for producing men of action, Even the rebels from the province did their bloody job thoroughly. Ancestor Wijewardenes ancestor, according to Paulusz, was Tudugala Madduma Rala, who was Dissava of Uva in 1656. He headed the family group which commanded armies in the field and led victorious campaigns three hundred years ago. It is therefore not at all surprising that his illustrious descendant, Don Richard, should have inherited some of old Tudugala Ralas qualities of leadership and made his employees at Lake House feel that life is one great battle, and their motto should be to do or die. I was one of the survivors of the Wijewardene era, chiefly because it was wiser to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than to take arms against a sea of troubles. For this bit of valuable advice I was beholden not to Hamlet but Herbert Hulugalle and Hilaire Jansz, two of the most lovable figures that ever trod the corridors of Lake House. Jansz is dead. He was a rare fellow, a quaint, gaunt figure, who edited The Observer for over twenty years. When he retired in 1954 after 36 years of active journalism, a gossip writer in the rival paper, The Times of Ceylon, who I suspect was Tori de Souza, paid him this generous compliment: Hilaire Jansz has been one of the most consistently humorous and brilliant writers in the newspaper business and its most wicked versifier It would probably take a research staff some months to unravel the mystery of his prolific pseudonyms: he wrote under many, but never without distinction Hulugalle Hulugalle (whom God peserve) is still alive, despite the fact that for seventeen of its most difficult years, he edited The Daily News. Like C P Scot of the Manchester Guardian, he made righteousness readable. In his young days Hulugalle bore a strong physical resemblance to Jansz, which led to amusing complications. Even the great Crowther, the then editor of The Daily News found it difficult to tell them apart and once reprimanded Jansz for an alleged lapse of Hulugalle. Their wives, however, were not amused when they were told that one husband was very much like the other. They knew better. Wijewardene was lucky that he had two such men on the editorial side. On the managerial side, too, he had three pillars of wisdom to hold up the mighty edifice which he had constructed. They were George V Perera, P C A Nelson and E E C Abayasekara all good churchmen. G V Perera was a short, well-built advocate who was manager of The Daily News for many years. He was a busy man in normal times, but during race days he worked overtime trying to spot a winner. He rarely did. The only time he got the wind up was when Wijewardenes personnel peon, Martin, darkened his doorstep. Martin, to most of us, was a harbinger of bad news. He was always spotlessly clad in white, and a tortoise-shell comb rested on his head, giving him the appearance of having horns usually associated with Lucifer. A jet black belt completed the ensemble. Martin was really a dear fellow, but he had the bad habit of transferring the wrath of his master to his own physignomy. Martin When Martin came upstairs and told the editor, sub-editor or reporter concerned that he was wanted downstairs by the Boss, his eyes bulged, his nostrils quivered and took on a shine they did not possess earlier, and in a voice that spelt doom he merely said: Kathakaranawa. The sentence was short, but fateful and had all the elements of a Greek tragedy. In other words, when Wijewardene cried, Martin wept. Talking of Martin reminds me that most people regarded Wijewardene as a martinet whose very name evoked a feeling of awe. But the human side of his character never had a chance of getting full play within the walls of the vast organisation he created. Dhanapala D B Dhanapala with whom I worked both at Lake House and later for a short and happy spell at the Independent Newspapers Ltd always had a kind word for Wijewardene. Dhanapala was a master of Oriental imagery and his writings were like a purana temple fresco. He it was who said that journalists are a peculiarly interesting tribe who can put a halo round a man with a headline or fell him with a phrase. Hulugalle extricated him from the recesses of a newspaper office in Calcultta and invited him to join Lake House. Dhanapalas colourful English style and interest in Sinhala Art appealed greatly to Wijewardene who treated him very well. Dhanapala used to say that there was an impression that Wijewardene was a ruthless kind of slave-driver, but very few men had treated him so fairly. Now and then Wijewardene would take him to Arcadia, his holiday home in Diyatalawa, a house as beautiful as its name. There he would spend an idyllic week-end with the Boss and his family. Friends Though all the cereals from Quaker Oats downwards were available in the pantry, Wijewardene preferred polkiri kenda for breakfast. That delicacy is, of course, a rice gruel made with coconut milk and flavoured with burnt mustard powder. Which all goes to show that Wijewardene was a simple man with simple tastes. He did not smoke, and drank only the occasional sherry, but his cellar contained the finest French wines and the best Scotch Malt Whiskies. The trouble with Wijewardene was that he had no vices, and his virtues which were based on plain living and high thinking did not make an instant appeal to his vast circle of friends. As time went on this circle became smaller and smaller, but there was an inner core which stood by him to the end. Wijewardene was an ardent Buddhist but he did not make a fetish of religion. It is a curious thing that, with the exception of D S Senanayake, almost all his intimate friends and advisers were non-Buddhists. Frequent callers in the office or at home were Canon W E Boteju, Father S G Perera, Dr Andreas Nell, Dr S C Paul, E W Perera, L M D de Silva, S Mahadeva, Sir H M Macan Markar, A R H Canekaratne and Aubrey Maartensz. Caste, colour and cread never entered into his mind when choosing the persons he could trust. His best friend B F de Silva, his personal physician Sir Frank Gunasekera, and his legal adviser E J Samerawickreme KC were all devout Christians. He even married a charming Christian maid named Ruby Meedeniya, while his eldest daughter, became the spouse of Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghes brother. Corbet The only photographs that adorned Wijewardenes study were those of his father and F H M Corbet, an Englishman who was born in Ceylon, but practised as a barrister in London. He appeared in many Privy Council appeals from the island. Corbet had influential friends and acted in loco parentis to many a Ceylon student. Wijewardene never forgot his many acts of kindness while he was in England. Wijewardenes brother-in-law Justice E W Jayawardene, the father of the President, was also a fervent admirer of the great English gentleman, and named his second son Corbet after him. One thing that Wijewardene learned from Corbet was that the path to freedom could not be paved without a free and independent press. He went so far as to cable to Sir Hector Van Cuylenberg, the proprietor of the Ceylon Independent inquiring whether he would sell the paper to Wijewardene. Sir Hector refused. He was the leader of the Burghers and wanted an organ for his own community. Later the Ceylon Independent became too dependent on the government and as the subscribers dwindled it came on the market. Wijewardene bought it and killed it. Erica Russell-Watson collected a donation of 1,250 euros on behalf of Asociacion Esperanza last Saturday from the Chapel Bar in Nerja. Erica is a member of the Velez-Malaga based not for profit organisation, which provides support to women with breast cancer. She said, "The association is overwhelmed by the donation especially after such a tough year." The Chapel Bar's owner, Sharon Stevens, explained that she had raised the money through various raffles and quiz nights and "thanks to the generosity of the clients". Sharon decided that she wanted to raise money for Asociacion Esperanza because she lost her own mother to breast cancer. The bar owner added, "This is a cause close to my heart." A website service to help older Britons and other foreign residents reach local help last week took a major step to establishing itself as a national association in Spain. The legal documents for Support in Spain were signed in a notary office in Malaga, with British Consul for Andalucia, Charmaine Arbouin, project coordinator, Neil Hesketh, and other representatives attending. Hesketh said: "We are very pleased to reach this stage because it helps build on the success so far for the longer term." Support in Spain is an online directory that provides details of Spanish government organisations as well as many others in the voluntary sector run by local residents. It is designed to help users find support in health care, emergency advice, social care and from local charities and organisations. The web was the result of an initiative between the UK Embassy and the University of Birmingham. When fully registered the independent website will be able to widen its fundraising. Saudi Arabia has restricted the annual Hajj pilgrimage to its own citizens and residents for the second year running in response to the coronavirus pandemic, while limiting the number of pilgrims is 60,000, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has reported. Only people aged between 18 and 65 who have been vaccinated or immunised from the virus, and are free of chronic diseases, will be able to take part, said the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah that manages the Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah, said in a statement carried by SPA. The Ministry affirms that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia always places great care and attention on the safety, health and security of pilgrims, and places this at the forefront of its priorities. In compliance with the purposes of Islamic Sharia in preserving the human soul, while providing all the necessary facilities that facilitate pilgrims to perform the rituals of Hajj and Umrah, and enable them to reach the holy places smoothly and easily, as the Kingdom has had the honour during the past ten years serving more than 150 million pilgrims, SPA reported, citing a ministry statement. Washington, Jun 12 (UNI) US President Joe Biden named retired naval commander Carlos Del Toro as his nominee for US Navy Secretary, the White House said. "Biden announced his intent to nominate... Carlos Del Toro... for Secretary of the Navy," the White House said in a statement. "Carlos Del Toro is a retired Commander in the US Navy with nearly 40 years experience in national security and naval operations, budgeting, and acquisition." Born in Havana, Cuba, the release added, Del Toro immigrated to the United States with his family as refugees in 1962. As founder of SBG Technology Solutions, he has supported Navy programs, including shipbuilding, AI, cybersecurity and space systems, according to the statement. UNI XC GNK 0605 SC junks PIL seeking direction for separate funds for judiciary 01 Jul 2021 | 10:43 PM New Delhi, Jul 1 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a PIL seeking directions for allocation of separate and adequate funds for smooth and impartial functioning of the Judicial system. see more.. Seventh Indian Ocean naval symposium concludes in France 01 Jul 2021 | 10:16 PM New Delhi, Jul 1 (UNI) The 7th edition of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a biennial event, was hosted by the French Navy at La Reunion from 28 June to July 1 concluded on Thursday. see more.. NIA raids 9 locations in Punjab, UP in Khalistani terrorists extortion case 01 Jul 2021 | 10:12 PM New Delhi, Jul 1(UNI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday informed that it conducted searches at nine locations in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in connection with a case of May 2021 relating to threat and extortion of money by Khalistani terrorists at Mehna area of Moga in Punjab. A senior NIA official said, the searches were conducted at Beehla area of Barnala, Dala of Moga, Ghall Khurd and Satiawala areas in Ferozepur in Punjab, and Hastinapur and Udyawali in Uttar Pradesh. see more.. NIA conducts raids in Hyderabad in connection with Darbhanga blast case 01 Jul 2021 | 9:50 PM New Delhi, Jul 1 (UNI) The anti-terror probe agency NIA on Thursday said that it has conducted search at the residence of arrested accused persons Md Nasir Khan and Imran Malik in New Mallepally under Habib Nagar, police station in Hyderabad in connection with Darbhanga Railway station blast case on June 30 and made recovery and seizures of various incriminating material and multiple digital devices. see more.. New Delhi, Jun 13 (UNI) Veteran Uttarakhand Congress politician and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Dr Indira Hridayesh passed away due to cardiac arrest here at the Uttarakhand Sadan on Sunday. The 80-year-old Haldwani MLA was in the capital to attend a party meeting on Saturday and just two days ago, she was seen vociferously protesting against the fuel hike in Haldwani. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was saddened by her demise. "Dr. Indira Hridayesh Ji was at the forefront of several community service efforts. She made a mark as an effective legislator and also had rich administrative experience. Saddened by her demise. Condolences to her family and supporters. Om Shanti," the Prime Minister's office said quoting Mr Modi. The state wing of the grand-old party termed her demise as extremely painful and unfortunate for the party. "The sudden demise of Dr. Indira Hridayesh ji, a senior member of the Uttarakhand Congress family, who devoted her entire political life to the Congress party from UP to Uttarakhand for the last four decades, in Uttarakhand Sadan, Delhi is extremely painful," the party said in a tweet. The deceased Congress leader was first elected from the Haldwani constituency in 2012. Under former chief minister Harish Rawat-led government from 2012-2017, Dr Indira served as the state Finance Minister. She also held the portfolio of Parliamentary Affairs, Higher Education, and Planning in the Uttarakhand government. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while expressing his condolences, said that Dr Indira worked till the end for the welfare of the public and the party. "Her social and political contributions are an inspiration for all of us," he said. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat echoed similar sentiments. He said Dr Indira always remained at the forefront to raise issues of public importance. "I express my condolences to her family and supporters during this difficult time," Mr Rawat said. UNI JAL RHK1436 Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-11 05:28:13|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close British Minister for Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly speaks during a press conference in Tripoli, Libya, on June 10, 2021. James Cleverly on Thursday stressed the importance of the upcoming general elections in Libya. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua) TRIPOLI, June 10 (Xinhua) -- British Minister for Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly on Thursday stressed the importance of the upcoming general elections in Libya. "The Libyans now have a real opportunity to write the next chapter in the history of their country, by holding elections next December," Cleverly told a press conference following his meeting with Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Al-Mangoush in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Cleverly praised the progress made in the Libyan political process following the ceasefire agreement, the outcomes of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), and the relevant UN Security Council's resolution. Al-Mangoush praised the UK's support for the Libyan government, stressing that Libya "will not be a base, either officially or factually, to destabilize security in the region." She also called for the return of the British embassy in Tripoli and the reopening of a consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi. The UN-sponsored LPDF recently selected a new executive authority of a unity government and a presidency council, of which main task is to prepare for the national elections on Dec. 24, 2021. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-12 15:27:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Afghan security force members stand guard at the site of a bomb attack in Mazar-i-Sharif, capital city of north Afghanistan's Balkh province, June 12, 2021. At least one civilian was killed and five others were wounded in a bomb attack outside a local bank in Afghanistan's northern province of Balkh on Saturday, the provincial police confirmed. (Photo by Kawa Basharat/Xinhua) MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, June 12 (Xinhua) -- At least one civilian was killed and five others were wounded in a bomb attack outside a local bank in Afghanistan's northern province of Balkh on Saturday, the provincial police confirmed. An improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a bicycle was detonated in front of New Kabul Bank branch in Police District 6 of provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif city roughly at 10:20 a.m. local time, the police told reporters via a text message. The casualties were transported to hospital. An investigation is still on. The security forces members, who were visiting the bank, may have been the likely targets of the attack, according to local residents. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Afghan officials blame the Taliban militant group for bomb explosions in recent years. The province has been the scene of heavy clashes between security forces and Taliban militants in recent months. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-12 21:04:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Afghan security force members inspect the site of an explosion in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, June 12, 2021. Seven civilians were killed and six others wounded after two explosions struck public mini-buses along a busy road in western part of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Saturday, the capital police confirmed. (Photo by Sayed Mominzadah/Xinhua) KABUL, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Seven civilians were killed and six others wounded after two explosions struck public mini-buses along a busy road in western part of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Saturday, the capital police confirmed. The explosions occurred in Sari Pul and Mahtab Qala localities in Dashti Barchi, in Police District 13 and Police District 6 at midday, causing panic among the residents in the neighborhood, which has witnessed serial explosions in recent weeks, Basir Mujahid from Kabul police told reporters via a text message. One woman was among the killed and one woman was among the wounded. One of the targeted buses caught fire and was destroyed while several other vehicles driving along the road were also damaged by the force of the blasts. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. This was the second such explosion that hit Kabul this month. On June 3, nine civilians were killed and 10 others wounded after two public mini-buses were struck by bomb explosions in the western part of Kabul. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-12 23:26:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on June 12, 2021 shows a herd of wild Asian elephants in Shije Township of Yimen County, Yuxi City, southwest China's Yunnan Province. The wandering wild Asian elephant herd were seen lingering by Shijie Township in Yimen County. (Xinhua) KUNMING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The wandering herd of wild Asian elephants that has caught global attention is lingering in the Shijie Township in the city of Yuxi, southwest China's Yunnan Province, authorities said Saturday. A male elephant, which broke free from the herd seven days ago, is now about 14.3 km away in Kunming's Jinning District, after leaving Anning, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of the provincial capital Kunming at 5:40 p.m. on Friday. All the elephants are safe and sound, according to the headquarters in charge of monitoring their migration. Continuous rainfall is complicating efforts to monitor the elephants and take safety precautions. Authorities have dispatched emergency staff, vehicles and drones to help evacuate and protect local residents, while ensuring the safety of the elephants. They fed 2 tonnes of food to the animals on Saturday. The herd traveled approximately 500 km from their forest home in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture before reaching Kunming late last Wednesday. For over a month, authorities have sent police to escort the herd, evacuated roads to facilitate their passage and used food to distract them from entering densely populated areas. Asian elephants are under A-level state protection in China, where they are mostly found in Yunnan. Thanks to enhanced protection efforts, the wild elephant population in the province has grown to about 300, up from 193 in the 1980s. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-12 23:39:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, speaks during a forum under the theme of "the Communist Party of China (CPC) and 'one country, two systems'" to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, in Hong Kong, south China, June 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Gang) HONG KONG, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Saturday stressed the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in advancing the cause of "one country, two systems." The CPC has pioneered, advanced and upheld the cause of "one country, two systems," Luo said when delivering a speech at a forum here. Steady progress has been made in the practice of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong under the leadership of the CPC since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Luo said. The constitutional foundation of "one country, two systems" has been further consolidated as the central authorities made five interpretations of the Basic Law of the HKSAR, promulgated the national security law in the HKSAR and improved Hong Kong's electoral system, Luo said. With the solid support of the mainland, Hong Kong's economy withstood two financial crises and two major epidemic outbreaks and remained strong amid challenges, Luo said. Hong Kong has been encouraged to give full play to its advantages, enhance exchanges and cooperation with the mainland while participating in international cultural exchanges, and its international influence is on the rise, he said. Those who are still bad-mouthing Hong Kong and claiming the "death of two systems" will be proved categorically wrong yet again by history, Luo said. While "one country, two systems" has been a world-recognized success, misconceptions and distortions have also emerged in the process as a result of propaganda by anti-China forces, Luo said, noting that it is the decisive actions of the central authorities that set things right and helped Hong Kong return from chaos to order. "One country" is the precondition and foundation of "two systems," he said. Facts will continue to prove that upholding the leadership of the CPC is actually upholding "one country, two systems" and the constitutional order of the HKSAR as stipulated by the national Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law, and safeguarding the bright future of Hong Kong and the fundamental well-being of Hong Kong people, Luo said. The forum, under the theme of "CPC and 'one country, two systems,'" was held in Hong Kong to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. More than 650 people from various sectors in Hong Kong attended the forum, including Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying, vice chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, as well as HKSAR chief executive Carrie Lam. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 00:34:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), speaks during a forum under the theme of "the Communist Party of China (CPC) and 'one country, two systems,'" to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, in Hong Kong, south China, June 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Gang) HONG KONG, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always cared about the interests of Hong Kong compatriots and supported the development of the global financial hub, Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said on Saturday. The groundbreaking concept of "one country, two systems," proposed by the CPC and the Chinese government, has allowed Hong Kong people to maintain the system they are familiar with and keep their way of life as much as possible after Hong Kong returned to the motherland, Lam said in her speech at a forum here. Only the CPC, which puts the people at heart and cares about the well-being of Hong Kong compatriots, can implement such an enlightened system, Lam said. Back in the 1960s, the central authorities arranged special cargo trains to provide daily necessities for Hong Kong residents and channeled water from Dongjiang River to Hong Kong, she said. An array of favorable policies have also been put in place after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, which has boosted Hong Kong's status as an international finance, trade and shipping center, she added. The 14th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development supports Hong Kong in developing into an international innovation and technology center and a hub for arts and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world, Lam said. As Hong Kong faced unprecedented political chaos and a major national security risk over the past two years, the central authorities, under the leadership of the CPC, resolved Hong Kong's problems in accordance with the Constitution, the Basic Law of the HKSAR, and the "one country, two systems" principle, Lam said. Lam added that the implementation of the national security law in the HKSAR has helped Hong Kong return to order from chaos, while the improvement to Hong Kong's electoral system ensures "patriots administering Hong Kong." The forum, under the theme of "CPC and 'one country, two systems,'" was held in Hong Kong to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. More than 650 people from various sectors in Hong Kong attended the forum, including Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying, vice chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, as well as Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 00:53:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The first joint rehearsal for the celebration activities of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) ended early Sunday morning in Beijing, according to the media center for the celebrations. The rehearsal was held from 9 p.m. Saturday to the wee hours on Sunday in the Tian'anmen area, with more than 14,000 people involved in the rehearsal and related supporting services. A total of four parts of the celebrations were rehearsed, including a warm-up, a grand gathering, entry and exit process, as well as emergency response. The rehearsal was well organized and reached the expected results, according to the media center. Beijing municipal authorities expressed appreciation of local residents for their understanding and support of the rehearsal. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 01:18:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the Commissioner of China's Foreign Affairs Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Saturday said it firmly upholds and supports the anti-foreign sanctions law. The law was adopted at the closing meeting of a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China on Thursday. A spokesperson for the commissioner's office made the remarks in response to media inquiries about the office's view on the law. The law is an urgent necessity in order to counter the hegemonism and power politics of some Western countries, the spokesperson said. The law is also an urgent necessity to safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and development interests, and to coordinate both the domestic and overseas-related rule-of-law, adding that the legislation has important practical and long-term significance, the spokesperson said. For a long time, some Western countries interfered in China's internal affairs by imposing illegal sanctions on related state organs, organizations and individuals on the pretext of upholding democracy and human rights, with the aim to curb China's development, which is a serious violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, the spokesperson said. With reference to international common practice, China has formulated and implemented the anti-foreign sanctions law, aiming at safeguarding China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, and protecting the lawful rights and interests of the Chinese people and organizations, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the countermeasures stipulated in the law are essentially different from the "unilateral sanctions" and hegemonic behaviors by some Western countries, as the law does not target any specific country but only aims at an extremely minority of foreign entities and individuals damaging China's sovereignty, security and development interests. Rather than hampering the legal operation of foreign companies, the law will facilitate China's further opening-up, the spokesperson said. China will as always welcome foreign businesses, provide them with a predictable legal environment and a stable business environment, and protect their legitimate rights and interests, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said any external interference in China's internal affairs will be hit back by the Chinese people including Hong Kong compatriots, and any attempt to damage China's sovereignty, security and development interests by illegal unilateral sanctions and hegemonic actions is doomed to fail. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 03:56:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ROME, June 12 (Xinhua) -- When the coronavirus pandemic hit Italy last year, the well-being of young people was put on the back burner, as community and government leaders focused on slowing the spread of the pandemic and caring for those infected. But since then, they have been making up for the lost time. A series of studies released in recent months have shown that Italian adolescents have been hurt particularly hard by the lockdowns and quarantines. Without the routine of school and social engagements, youths are more likely to be depressed and feel anxiety, resulting in sleep loss, binge eating, and even the risk of suicide, the studies showed. "We are just beginning to understand the complex impacts the pandemic is having on our adolescents," Antonella Gritti, president of the Cognitive Psychology program at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples and the architect of one of the recent studies, told Xinhua. Others, including a study from United States-based Harvard University in conjunction with Italy's Gaslini Pediatric Hospital and the University of Genoa, found that a broad majority of young people are showing symptoms of "psychological regression" during the pandemic. Another study, from Cesvi, a child welfare advocacy group, noted a marked rise in the need for psychological assistance for young people during the pandemic, especially during the second wave that started in October 2020. In January, a series of news reports indicated that adolescent suicide and suicide attempts had risen to levels that had not been seen in recent memory. Maura Manca, a member of the Lazio chapter of the Order of Psychologists, told Xinhua it was understandable that at the start of the pandemic, the government did not necessarily focus on the psychological well-being of young people, who were forced to switch to at-home learning. But she said she is encouraged that authorities appear to be catching up. "The Ministry of Education and the Order of Psychologists are working together to come up with guidelines and processes for making sure those in need of help can get it," said Manca, who is also president of the National Adolescent Observatory. "The efforts include close monitoring of well-being at school and away from school and encouragement to those suffering to seek help." Last month, the government's coronavirus decree made big steps to strengthen child and adolescent neuropsychiatry services, creating incentives for schools, regions, and local officials to coordinate with the National Health Service. Gritti applauded those efforts and others, but she warned that the need to focus on adolescent welfare will not end as the pandemic fades. "The things that happen during our adolescent years will stay with us forever," she said. "The adolescent's brain is still in development. We cannot yet know what the effects will be, but we can say they will stay with these young people in some form for their entire lives." Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 06:13:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad (R) casts his ballot for the parliamentary elections at a polling station in Algiers, Algeria, on June 12, 2021. The parliamentary elections in Algeria kicked off on Saturday. More than 24 million people are eligible to vote for their 407 representatives at the National People's Assembly, or the lower house of parliament, for a five year term. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Algeria held on Saturday its parliamentary elections, with a turnout of only 14.47 percent by 4 p.m local time (1500 GMT) as the polling stations closed at 8 p.m.. The votes counting has begun in the presence of representatives of the candidates and members of the National Independent Elections Authority (ANIE), with the final results due to be announced on Sunday by the ANIE head. The elections, the seventh since the introduction of multi-party system in Algeria in 1989, will produce the first parliament under incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. More than 24 million people voted to elect their 407 representatives at the National People's Assembly (the lower house of parliament) for a five year term, from the 1,483 lists of candidates, or 646 parties and 837 independent lists. The elections were marked by a wide participation of national and Islamic parties and a broader participation of young independent candidates, while the left wing and secular parties boycotted them. The outgoing parliament is dominated by former ruling parties the National Liberation Front and the National Democratic Rally, with the Islamists as the major opposition force. On Feb. 18, President Tebboune dissolved the parliament and called early elections. Saturday's polls were the third organized under Tebboune's rule, after the presidential elections he won on Dec. 12, 2019, and the popular referendum on the new constitution on Nov. 1, 2020. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 08:57:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SANTIAGO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Chile forward Alexis Sanchez has been ruled out of the Copa America group stage because of a foot problem, the Chilean FA said on Saturday. The 32-year-old Internazionale forward injured a plantar muscle while training with the national team on Friday and will need at least two weeks to recover, the entity said in a statement. It added that Sanchez would undergo treatment in Chile under the supervision of the national team's medical staff. Chile will begin their Copa America campaign against Argentina at Rio de Janeiro's Olympic Stadium on Monday. Martin Lasarte's team will also meet Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay in the group stage. The Copa America was moved to Brazil last month, having originally been slated for Argentina and Colombia. Colombia was stripped of its host status due to civil unrest while Argentina was dropped because of rising coronavirus cases. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 09:41:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In an interview with Xinhua, former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema hailed China's extraordinary development under the leadership of CPC. "China has made an extraordinary leap towards modernity and progress, which would surely be considered as the great historical credit of the Communist Party of China," said D'Alema, who has played a major role in Italian politics as a political heavyweight of center-left forces. D'Alema also hailed China's great achievement in poverty alleviation. "In human history, no one has ever been able to achieve such a huge transformation for the people's lives," said D'Alema. During the interview, he also voiced concerns about the current state of dialogue between the East and the West. The pandemic and the post-pandemic problems ... " All require strong international cooperation, (and) I would even say a 'qualitative leap' in international collaboration," he noted. "To use an old saying," he explained, "today's big problem is how to rebuild the conditions for a peaceful coexistence between different systems, in order to face common challenges most effectively." Produced by Xinhua Global Service Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 11:06:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Somalia, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) said Saturday that they have agreed to scale up efforts to end child labor in the African country. On the occasion of the World Day against Child Labour, they said in a joint statement issued in Mogadishu that ending child labor can only happen through a collective systematic approach with a strong understanding of the root causes and a legal framework that prohibits children from entering the workforce at an early age. The Somalian government has made efforts to eliminate child labor in the country. However, there is a long way to go to fully change the situation. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Abdiwahab Ugas Khalif said many families are forced to send their children to work due to economic hardship and lack of decent employment opportunities for family heads. "Even more concerning, children who are recruited by militias or groups are forced into dangerous life-threatening roles such as soldiers, cooks, and cleaners," Khalif said, calling for a well-developed national policy against child labor. The UNICEF and ILO said even though there are different reasons behind child labor in Somalia, the government is working hard in close partnership with the international community to identify and eliminate child labor from Somalia. Alexio Musindo, ILO director for Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan as well as special representative to the African Union, said his organization is supporting Somalia to conduct a child labor assessment in order to better understand the key drivers of the situation in the country. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 12:15:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. - - - - HARARE -- Zimbabwe has decided to strengthen anti-COVID-19 measures from Monday, banning all social gatherings and enforcing mandatory testing of travelers from hotspot countries, following a surge in infections and deaths in recent weeks. "The last seven days have seen 596 new cases and 26 deaths as compared to the same period in May 2021 when we had 132 new cases and 6 deaths," said Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, also minister of health and child care, on Saturday night. "This is a more than three-fold increase in new cases and deaths." - - - - PRAIA -- Cape Verde on Saturday received 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses provided by China. During the handover ceremony for the vaccines and over 50,000 syringes at the Nelson Mandela International Airport in the capital Praia, Cape Verdean Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva expressed gratitude for China's support, saying his country would fulfill its vaccination plan to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by the end of this year. - - - - BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina reported 18,057 new COVID-19 infections and 447 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the accumulated total caseload and deaths to 4,111,147 and 85,075, respectively, on Saturday. Meanwhile, 16.23 million vaccine doses against COVID-19 have been administered in the South American country to date. - - - - OTTAWA -- Canada reported 1,115 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday, bringing the cumulative total to 1,400,827, including 25,910 deaths, according to the CTV. With the considerable decline in infection rates nationally, the overall number of people experiencing severe and critical illness is also steadily declining. - - - - RAMALLAH -- Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila announced on Saturday that Palestine has recently witnessed a collective recovery from COVID-19. "The West Bank and the Gaza Strip witnessed a decline in the (daily) positive cases and fatalities," al-Kaila told state radio Voice of Palestine. - - - - LIMA -- Peru began a vaccination campaign on Saturday against the COVID-19 pandemic that focuses on pregnant women over 18 years of age, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte announced. "Today we are starting with pregnant women and that will be a very important protection for all future mothers," the minister said during the start of the campaign in Lima. - - - - YANGON -- About 88 percent of basic education schools have reopened in Myanmar's regions and states since June 1, spokesperson of the State Administration Council told a press conference on Saturday. As many as 42,080 out of over 47,000 schools in the country reopened and over 3.2 million students attended the schools as of June 10, Major General Zaw Min Tun said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 12:22:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PANAMA CITY, June 12 (Xinhua) -- A movie that depicts the centennial history of the well-known Panama Canal was broadcast on the movie channel of China's national television (CCTV-6) on Saturday to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the establishment of China-Panama diplomatic relations. The broadcast of "Stories of the Canal" was a result of the Panama-China Film Festival Day co-organized by the Chinese embassy in Panama, Panama's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Canal Affairs, as well as CCTV-6 to celebrate the anniversary that falls on Sunday. In a pre-recorded video speech, Minister for Canal Affairs Aristides Royo briefly introduced the film, which was made by five Panamanian directors in 2014 to mark the waterway's centennial, saying the Panamanian people are happy that the Chinese audience have the chance to watch the film. Chinese Ambassador to Panama Wei Qiang said the canal's history reflects how the world has evolved in modern times. Noting that China is currently one of the largest users of the canal and an important economic and commercial partner of the Central American country, the ambassador said he hopes more exchanges would promote the mutual understanding and friendship between the people of the two countries, and also help expand their practical cooperation. The canal is an artificial 82-km waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the two oceans. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 16:45:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Wilson Lee Flores, a Philippine bakery owner, never thought his longing for the taste of "Mama's Zongzi" could become a way of earning livelihood amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past one and a half year, the pandemic has hit the Philippine catering industry hard, and Lee's bakery, a time-honored brand which was established in 1939 in Quezon City in Metro Manila, is no exception. "Business is not good following a series of lockdown measures against the pandemic. One day, for no reason, I missed the taste of "Ma Zhang", namely Zongzi or glutinous rice dumpling with seasoned meat stuffing in the Minnan dialect, made by my mother in my childhood," Lee, 54, whose ancestors came from Jinjiang, a city in China southeastern Fujian Province, told Xinhua. Zongzi, pyramid-shaped traditional Chinese delicacy wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, is a kind of special food derived from the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese traditional lunar calendar. And, this year it will be celebrated on June 14. For Lee, recalling and reproducing Mama's recipe for Zongzi is like completing a gastronomic jigsaw puzzle. Having spent months of constant testing, he finally wrapped up delicacies and specialties such as glutinous rice, seasoned streaky pork or chicken stuffing, mushrooms, dried shrimp and salted egg yolks into green leaves, making them sell like "hot pies" during the pandemic. "It has become a unique best seller in my bakery, increasing our sales dramatically," Lee said. "Some politicians, movie stars and food writers in the Philippines would come and buy Zongzi, posting the pictures in social media, which really helped our entire bakery business." Mark Nilo Odiaman, a regular customer of Lee's bakery, has become a big fan of Zongzi ever since it hit the shelf. Odiaman described this delicious snack, with a distinct flavor of the Chinese culture, as "economical and easy-to-carry." Interestingly, Lee followed the principle of "buy one and get one story free" for Zongzi selling. A slice of paper is wrapped around each Zongzi, with a brief introduction of Quyuan, a famous Chinese ancient statesman and poet, written on it. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 17:50:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Matthew Cheung, Chief Secretary for Administration of the government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said Sunday that the country is the strongest backing of Hong Kong and is where its confidence comes from. In an online article, Cheung said the national five-year plan and the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will bring enormous opportunities to Hong Kong and create a solid foundation for it to move forward after the COVID-19 epidemic. The 14th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development supports Hong Kong in reinforcing its competitiveness, he said. Cheung in particular said the plan encourages Hong Kong to develop into an international aviation hub, an international innovation and technology hub, a regional intellectual property trading hub, and an East-meets-West center for cultural exchanges. As long as Hong Kong keeps the original aspiration of "one country, two systems," treasures and makes good use of its hard-won stable environment, and goes all-out to address problems concerning people's livelihood, it will seize the opportunities in national development and achieve new development, he said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 17:57:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam on Sunday called on residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine to let daily lives in the global financial hub return to normal at an early date. Hong Kong must work to raise the vaccination rate so that people can make trips for businesses, tourism or family reunions as before, Lam said on her social media account. The vaccine rollout has picked up pace as some 54,000 doses were administered in the region of a 7.5-million population on Saturday, a new high in daily vaccination since the government inoculation program started in late February. More than 1.7 million Hong Kong residents have taken at least one shot of the vaccine, accounting for 26 percent of eligible groups, with 1.18 million people fully vaccinated. With zero increases in both local and imported cases on Sunday, Hong Kong has reported no locally transmitted cases for six consecutive days and the COVID-19 tally remained at 11,877. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 18:06:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close On the occasion of the CPC's 100th founding anniversary, Party leaders and politicians in various countries hail the Communist Party of China's success as it puts its people first. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:07:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BANGKOK, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's capital Bangkok is going to ease some restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic as the national vaccination program is accelerating. Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said in a social media post late Saturday that from the upcoming Monday onwards, five types of places are allowed to reopen as the situation in the capital is deemed more controllable and more residents have been vaccinated. Places that he referred to include public parks, museums, beauty clinics, foot massage and nail salons. On Sunday the country reported 2,804 new COVID-19 cases and 18 deaths, raising the total caseload and the death toll to 195,909 and 1,449 respectively, according to the figures released by the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). More than 80 percent of the nation's total cases have been reported since April 1, when the latest surge in infections started and put heavy economic pressure on many domestic businesses. Thailand kicked off its mass vaccination campaign on June 7 and helped accelerate significant inoculations nationwide. A total of 6.08 million doses have been administered so far in the country, with 1.6 million people, or 2.45 percent of the population, fully vaccinated. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:11:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A staff member checks the quality of wheat grains at a local noodle factory in Xingtai, north China's Hebei Province, June 9, 2021. With the summer wheat harvest underway, farmers in north China's Xingtai have been busy in the fields to reap the year's premium grains. In Xingtai, a total of 65 farmers have joined the Jinshahe specialized cooperative that provides them with technical guidance in crop harvesting. The cooperative will sell freshly harvested crops to a local noodle factory where staple products are made and sold to customers. (Xinhua/Jin Haoyuan) Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:09:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close File photo taken on Nov. 16, 2015 shows posters of U.S. "Black Friday", a day that Americans go shopping after celebrating Thanksgiving Day, at the office of a cross-border e-commerce platform in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- China saw growing demand for talent in the field of international trade in the first quarter of 2021, a recent report said. In the January-March period, the country's demand for such talent grew 11.2 percent year on year, according to the report from job-hunting website Zhaopin.com. In particular, demand for talent in cross-border e-commerce operations almost doubled in the period. The southernmost province of Hainan, which is being built into a free trade port, was the frontrunner nationwide in terms of the increase in demand for international trade talent, the report said. China's total imports and exports expanded 28.2 percent year on year to reach 14.76 trillion yuan (about 2.31 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first five months of 2021. This marks an increase of 21.6 percent from the same period in 2019, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:24:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday that more than 1,000 illegal migrants were returned to Libya. "Record number in returns of refugees and migrants to Libya today. Over 1,000 persons were returned in two operations in Zawiya and three others in Tripoli," the UNHCR tweeted earlier Sunday. "UNHCR & IRC have provided medical aid, food and water to all survivors before being taken to detention by the authorities," the UNHCR said. The IRC is short for the International Rescue Committee, a non-profit organization in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Libya has been plagued by a state of insecurity and chaos since the fall of its leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, making it a preferred point of departure for illegal migrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores. Rescued migrants end up in over-crowded reception centers across Libya amid repeated international calls to close them. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:27:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA -- The Philippine security forces killed four suspected terrorists in a before-dawn shootout on Sunday in Sulu province in the southern Philippines. Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said the shootout broke out around 2 a.m. local time when a team of soldiers and police swooped down on the suspects' hideout in Jolo town. (Philippines-Clash-Suspected Terrorists) - - - - LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan -- Eight policemen have been confirmed dead in an alleged insider attack at a police checkpoint in Qalai Bast locality outside Lashkar Gah, the capital of the troubled southern Helmand province on Sunday, head of the provincial council Attaulah Afghan said. The incident took place early Sunday when "a Taliban infiltrator disguised himself as a police" opened fire on the policemen inside the checkpoint in Qalai Bast area, killing eight on the spot, and escaped quickly, Afghan said. (Afghanistan-Attack-Taliban) - - - - BEIRUT -- Three people were killed and 11 others were seriously injured on Sunday in a traffic accident on the Ablah highway in the Zahle district of the Bekaa governorate in eastern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported. The accident happened when a truck rammed into an automobile repair shop. (Lebanon-Road-Accident) Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:49:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAGHDAD, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said Sunday that its commando forces have killed 13 militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group across the country so far this month. Spokesman of CTS Sabah al-Numan told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the commandos, backed by Iraqi aircraft, carried out several security operations in June, killing 13 IS militants and arresting many others, in addition to the destruction of some caves and hideouts. The CTS forces will continue their operations to hunt down IS militants, al-Numan said. The operations were part of efforts to eliminate the extremist IS militants who intensified their attacks on security forces and civilians in the formerly IS-controlled provinces, resulting in the killing and wounding of dozens. The security situation in Iraq has been improving since the Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS militants across the country late in 2017. However, IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 20:17:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close An advertisement of Zongzi, sticky rice dumplings wrapped up with bamboo or reed leaves, is seen at a Chinese restaurant in Sydney, Australia, on June 12, 2021. Zongzi is a kind of special food derived from the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. And, this year it will be celebrated on June 14. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) CANBERRA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The dragon boats were racing and people queued to buy traditional Chinese rice dish zongzi. The scene looked similar to what happened across China annually, except for the foreign faces and winter backdrop in the Southern Hemisphere. On Sunday, a sunny day good for outdoor events, celebrations for the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival were held by the Chinese community beside Lake Burley Griffin in the Australian capital Canberra. Hundreds of people gathered to enjoy performances including songs, music, dances and Taichi, and try different snacks. Jola Samoc, who arrived with her husband and seven-year-old son, queued for candy floss. "I've lived in Canberra most of my life, and it's the first time I made it to the festival," she said, beaming. "I knew there's gonna be lion dancing and dragon boats, and that was the main reason why I came out." Francisca Cascillo just bought a big zongzi to share with her partner and daughter. She told Xinhua it was the first time she joined in celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival. "This morning we saw it and we got really excited," she said. "You can see the boat on the lake, you can eat the food, you can see some dances and you really get to learn a little bit more of the culture. So I think it is really good." According to John Corcoran, President of Dragon Boat ACT (Australian Capital Territory), it's also the first time that the organization has participated in the festival. "I was asked to come along to see if we could provide some demonstration racing. And we're very happy to do it because it's a good community day, and we'd like to take every opportunity to promote dragon boating." Corcoran joined the sport about 12 years ago, when he got to know about its connection with the festival as well as its origin. "It relates back to the legend of a government advisor during China's Warring (States) Period," he said. "The legend has it that he gave some advice to the emperor, but the emperor didn't like his advice and exiled him. Later he proved that the advice he gave was correct, but because what he foretold would happen had happened, he was so sad (that)... he threw himself into the river and drowned. So the villagers would throw rice into the river every year to appease the spirit. That's how dragon boating was born." Visitors were invited on Sunday to sit in two boats on the shore to get a feeling of the sport, and the Dragon Boat ACT had demonstration racing. Rebekah O'Meagher, from the Griffins Dragon boat club, just disembarked after finishing racing. She said that she enjoyed the festival, and looked forward to going around and having a look at the displays at the stalls. According to the organizer, there were 18 stalls at the festival, many of which showcasing Chinese culture. Some children learned how to wrap zongzi with colorful paper, and some were attracted to try Chinese calligraphy at the stall by the Australian School of Contemporary Chinese. Zhang Zhenliang was a teacher from the school. "We are here to promote the Chinese culture, so that the descendants of overseas Chinese could inherit the cultural legacy, and Australian locals learn more about the essence of our culture," he said. "People here are interested in our culture," he added. "That makes me feel proud as a Chinese." The Chinese Embassy in Australia also had a stall at the festival, where there were books, paper-cutting artworks, miniature kites, clay and wooden sculptures, etc. Song Yanqun, minister-counselor for culture at the embassy, said it was a large-scale event after the COVID-19 pandemic in Canberra held by the local community to celebrate a traditional Chinese festival. "We have many visitors at our stall," he said. "It is our aim to take the festival as a platform to have more people understand our culture." "Australia has a multi-cultural society, where the Chinese groups made a great contribution," he added. "By showcasing our culture, we would like to acknowledge the contribution of the Chinese groups, and boost friendship between Chinese and Australian people." Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 20:22:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Security officers stand guard at an entrance to the Villa La Grange, the venue for the upcoming Biden-Putin summit, in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 15, 2021. U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to meet in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday, which will be the two leaders' first face-to-face meeting since the Biden administration took office on Jan. 20. (Xinhua/Guo Chen) by Martina Fuchs GENEVA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- While the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is unlikely to lead to a significant detente in the two countries' strained relations, the resumption of dialogue between the two carries significance, analysts have said. As scheduled, Biden and Putin are set to meet in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday, which will be the two leaders' first face-to-face meeting since the Biden administration took office on Jan. 20. Although the summit to take place at the 18th-century Villa La Grange offers an opportunity for the two countries to reduce tensions, find common ground and facilitate cooperation between the White House and the Kremlin, a real rapprochement is unlikely to happen from one day to the next. "We are today experiencing a level of unprecedented polarization since the Cold War. Relations between Russia and the West have been steadily deteriorating and the levels of mutual trust are at their lowest," Thomas Greminger, director of the Geneva Center for Security Policy, told reporters at a virtual press briefing. "It is therefore high time to resume the dialogue between the two leaders, particularly considering all the global challenges that cannot be addressed successfully in a unilateral manner," he added. "I believe, this summit presents indeed an opportunity to resume a sober dialogue," said Greminger, who is also a Swiss ambassador and held numerous senior positions in the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. "During June's bilateral summit, President Joe Biden has an opportunity to set down markers on critical issues with his Russian counterpart," Mathieu Boulegue, research fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, wrote in an article published on the website of the Center for European Policy Analysis. "There is little hope the summit will achieve tangible results. Having low expectations and preparing to be disappointed is sound statecraft," the article reads. Such a prediction came as in March, the United States announced fresh sanctions and restrictions against Russian individuals and entities. U.S. actions against Russia also included export and visa restrictions. "Still, I would argue that the fact this summit is taking place and that Presidents Biden and Putin will speak with each other is already a positive outcome," Greminger said. "At the same time, it is premature to expect a normalization of relations. I would expect co-existence of dialogue and selective cooperation against the backdrop of a continued confrontation," he added. THORNY ISSUES The summit would take place amid sharp divisions and disagreements between the two countries over election interference, cyberattacks, human rights and Ukraine. Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, professor of international history and politics and chair of the International History and Politics Department at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, said there could be "a period of de-escalation in which the two sides realize their inevitability and potential cooperation on some of these aspects. But we should really hold our breath." "We should not have unrealistic or too high expectations. Both sides are coming to the table with a sense of stasis," said the professor. The U.S. side has previously said the goal was to restore "predictability and stability" in the relationship, while Russia said items on the table would likely include bilateral ties, problems related to strategic nuclear stability, cooperation in the fight against COVID-19, and regional conflicts. "We need, however, to manage expectations. The confrontational environment will continue. President Biden himself has been quite tough in his position on Russia so far, and President Putin not much less so," Greminger stressed. "However, if we can identify select issues for dialogue and cooperation, where interests of the two sides converge, this could be a valuable beginning that could be built upon thereafter," he said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 20:23:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. - - - - ADDIS ABABA -- Ethiopia registered 136 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 274,028 as of Saturday evening, according to the country's Ministry of Health. The ministry said two new deaths and 618 more recoveries were reported, bringing the national death toll to 4,237 and total recoveries to 250,089. - - - - BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Brunei reported one new confirmed COVID-19 case on Sunday, bringing the national tally to 250. According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, the patient is a 42-year-old woman who arrived in the country from Indonesia on May 30, and has no symptoms of infection. - - - - KABUL -- Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry has registered 1,597 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 91,458. The pandemic has so far claimed 3,612 lives in Afghanistan, including 85 deaths in the past 24 hours since the outbreak of the disease in February last year, a statement of the public health ministry released here said. - - - - KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia reported another 5,304 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said on Sunday, bringing the national total to 657,508. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that five of the new cases are imported and 5,299 are local transmissions. - - - - KAMPALA -- The Ugandan army has started producing oxygen for state-run hospitals to ease burden of the existing plants as COVID-19 cases keep rising, an army spokesperson said Sunday. The army's commercial arm, the National Enterprise Corporation, has started supplying oxygen cylinders to a number of military- or government-run hospitals, Brig Gen Flavia Byekwaso, spokesperson for the Uganda People's Defense Forces, told Xinhua by telephone. - - - - MANILA -- The Philippines' Department of Health reported on Sunday 7,302 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,315,639. The death toll climbed to 22,788 after 137 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said. - - - - NEW DELHI -- The Indian government would soon be delivering COVID-19 vaccines and drugs by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in areas with difficult terrains, officials said Sunday. HLL Infra Tech Services Limited, a subsidiary of state-owned HLL Lifecare which is procuring all COVID-19 vaccines in the country for the government, has on behalf of the Indian Council of Medical Research invited an expression of interest for delivery of medical supplies (vaccines/drugs) by UAVs at selected locations in India. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 21:20:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- China's spending on information technology (IT) will grow 10 percent year on year to reach over 2.21 trillion yuan (about 346.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, according to an industrial report. The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has propelled the upgrade of the internet economy and promoted the development of tele-medicare and tele-education in the country, a report released by global market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) said. The Chinese government started implementing its 14th Five-Year Plan this year, which will drive growth in its spending on IT in the coming years, the IDC said. The Yangtze River Delta region, home to the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui as well as Shanghai Municipality, will see their IT spending reach over 518 billion yuan in 2021, the data showed. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 22:28:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will become the leader of Israel's opposition late Sunday, as he has been forced out of office after 12 consecutive years, making him the country's longest-serving prime minister. Netanyahu, aged 71, has been the most dominant figure in the Israeli political scene in recent decades. For most of his term, Netanyahu took a hardline approach towards Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. Settlement expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem continued largely uninterrupted, especially during the fours years of the Trump administration. Under Netanyahu, Israel fought three short wars with Hamas. Throughout his tenure, Netanyahu was the loudest voice against the Iranian nuclear program on the international stage. In 2015, he went against then U.S. President Barrack Obama and addressed the U.S. Congress in an attempt to torpedo the Iranian nuclear deal, which he failed. During Trump's years in the White House, Netanyahu enjoyed a friendly U.S. administration which not only turned a blind eye to settlement expansion but also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The majority of the international community does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the whole city, viewing the contentious matter as one to be settled in negotiations with the Palestinians. Also under U.S. auspices, Netanyahu signed a series of peace accords with Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and Oman. In his last year in office, Netanyahu faced a global pandemic. Criticized for his handling of the health and economic repercussions of COVID-19, he has been hailed as extricating Israel from the crisis quickly by conducting a highly efficient mass vaccination drive. Israel resumed pre-pandemic life several months ago, with its economy largely bouncing back. Netanyahu's recent years have been marred by scandals. He is currently on trial on several charges of corruption. Netanyahu has denied wrongdoings and the trial is expected to last for years. It is his personal handling that led the country to four consecutive elections and an unprecedented political paralysis which has finally resulted in a government without the Likud or Netanyahu. Netanyahu was also prime minister for a term between 1996 and 1999. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 22:54:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out efforts to rescue the injured after a gas explosion in central China's Hubei Province on Sunday morning. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, asked authorities to console the families of the victims and investigate the accident in a timely manner. The gas explosion at about 6:40 a.m. in a community trade market in the city of Shiyan left 12 people dead and 37 seriously injured. "Those responsible must be held to account," Xi stressed in the instruction. As several work safety accidents and incidents related to campus safety have occurred recently in a number of places, Xi instructed local authorities and relevant departments to learn the lesson, shoulder all responsibilities earnestly, develop a keen political sense and tighten safety hazard checks thoroughly. Xi called for efforts to ward off major emergencies, ensure the safety of people's lives and property, maintain overall social stability, and create a good atmosphere for celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. Premier Li Keqiang, in a separate instruction, demanded maximum efforts to organize the rescue work, treat the injured and reduce casualties. Li ordered to earnestly find out the cause of the accident, ensure strict accountability in accordance with the law and regulations, and urged efforts to strengthen supervision in key areas and identify potential dangers to prevent serious accidents. Following the instructions, working groups from the central departments have been sent to guide the handling of the accident, while a national medical team has also been dispatched to Shiyan. Rescue and treatment of the injured are underway. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 23:14:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday expressed his sadness over the death of William Swing, a former leader of the UN migration agency. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend William Swing, the former director-general of the International Organization for Migration and past leader of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," he said in a statement. - - - - LONDON -- British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called for "a bit of respect" from the European Union (EU) leaders as he claimed the bloc's senior figures "serially" talk about Northern Ireland "as if it were somehow a different country from the UK", Sky News reported Sunday. "We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it were somehow a different country from the UK," Raab was quoted as saying. - - - - PHNOM PENH -- World Health Organization Representative to Cambodia Li Ailan said Sunday that the Southeast Asian country is at a pivotal moment in its combat against COVID-19, calling for collective actions and wider community participation to curb the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. "We must do everything we can to prevent the spread of the virus, devastating health, and social and economic effects," Li said in a statement. - - - - MOGADISHU -- Somalia has called on Kenya to reopen its diplomatic mission in Mogadishu following the normalization of ties between the two neighboring countries. "The resumption of full diplomatic relations will be a positive start to the commencement of bilateral discussions between the two nations," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said in a statement issued on Saturday evening. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 23:14:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU -- Somalia has called on Kenya to reopen its diplomatic mission in Mogadishu following the normalization of ties between the two neighboring countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said Mogadishu will reciprocally re-open its embassy in Kenya to resume full diplomatic relations. (Kenya-Somalia-Flights) - - - - BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said Sunday that its commando forces have killed 13 militants of the extremist Islamic State group across the country so far this month. Spokesman of CTS Sabah al-Numan told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the commandos, backed by Iraqi aircraft, carried out several security operations in June, killing 13 IS militants and arresting many others, in addition to the destruction of some caves and hideouts. (Iraq-IS-Death) - - - - BEIRUT -- Three people were killed and 11 others were seriously injured on Sunday in a traffic accident on the Ablah highway in the Zahle district of the Bekaa governorate in eastern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported. The accident happened when a truck rammed into an automobile repair shop. (Lebanon-Road-Accident) - - - - JERUSALEM -- Israel's designated new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett presented his coalition government on Sunday while being incessantly heckled by supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lawmakers with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party loudly interrupted Bennett, accusing him of betraying them by joining forces with centrist Yair Lapid to form a unity government. (Israel-PM-Government) Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 23:33:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen during the Israeli parliamentary elections in Jerusalem on March 23, 2021. (Marc Israel Sellem/JINI/Handout via Xinhua) Netanyahu, aged 71, has been the most dominant figure in the Israeli political scene in recent decades. JERUSALEM, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will become the leader of Israel's opposition late Sunday, as he has been forced out of office after 12 consecutive years, making him the country's longest-serving prime minister. Netanyahu, aged 71, has been the most dominant figure in the Israeli political scene in recent decades. For most of his term, Netanyahu took a hardline approach towards Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. Settlement expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem continued largely uninterrupted, especially during the fours years of the Trump administration. Under Netanyahu, Israel fought three short wars with Hamas. Palestinians are seen at a house destroyed during the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas-led militant groups in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, on June 7, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) Throughout his tenure, Netanyahu was the loudest voice against the Iranian nuclear program on the international stage. In 2015, he went against then U.S. President Barrack Obama and addressed the U.S. Congress in an attempt to torpedo the Iranian nuclear deal, which he failed. During Trump's years in the White House, Netanyahu enjoyed a friendly U.S. administration which not only turned a blind eye to settlement expansion but also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The majority of the international community does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the whole city, viewing the contentious matter as one to be settled in negotiations with the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a televised press conference at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, Dec. 22, 2020. Also under U.S. auspices, Netanyahu signed a series of peace accords with Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and Oman. In his last year in office, Netanyahu faced a global pandemic. Criticized for his handling of the health and economic repercussions of COVID-19, he has been hailed as extricating Israel from the crisis quickly by conducting a highly efficient mass vaccination drive. Israel resumed pre-pandemic life several months ago, with its economy largely bouncing back. Netanyahu's recent years have been marred by scandals. He is currently on trial on several charges of corruption. Netanyahu has denied wrongdoings and the trial is expected to last for years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receives second dose of COVID-19 vaccine in central Israeli city of Ramat Gan on Jan. 9, 2021. (Miriam Alster/JINI via Xinhua) It is his personal handling that led the country to four consecutive elections and an unprecedented political paralysis which has finally resulted in a government without the Likud or Netanyahu. Netanyahu was also prime minister for a term between 1996 and 1999. Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-14 02:34:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RIYADH, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A bomb-laden drone fell on Sunday at a school in the Saudi border city Asir, the Saudi Civil Defense Ministry said. The ministry's spokesman Captain Abduljalil Al Jilban revealed that no injury was reported in the latest Houthi militia's attack, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The incident was the latest of the frequent attacks launched by Yemeni Houthi rebels against Saudi targets, especially border cities. Most of the attacks had been foiled before reaching their targets. Saudi Arabia has been leading a war in Yemen against Houthi militia since 2015, in support of the government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-14 03:43:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Ambassador to Cairo Diab al-Louh, also Palestine's delegate to the Arab League, has lauded China for its continuous support to the Palestinian people and their just cause. "We thank China for its support to the Palestinian people and their just cause," the Palestinian diplomat told Xinhua in a recent interview on the sidelines of the Cairo Construction Hub, a forum focused on rebuilding the war-torn Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip that kicked off on Thursday. "We have strong historical relations with China," al-Louh said, noting that China has always stood by the Palestinian people in all international forums. He added that China has also been supporting the Palestinian economy, with clear fingerprints in the infrastructure of Palestine, whether in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or Jerusalem. The Palestinian diplomat expressed hope that China will have a major role in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, pointing out that Beijing always backs friendly countries worldwide. Egypt brokered a ceasefire on May 20 to end the 11-day fighting between Israel and Gaza's Palestinian militants, which left at least 250 Palestinians and 12 Israelis killed. The Israeli strikes on Gaza during the May 10-21 conflict have reportedly left 1,100 Palestinian housing units wholly destroyed and 900 others either partially damaged or uninhabitable. Held in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the four-day forum featured a series of events specialized in the discussions of urban development, construction, engineering, architecture, and building materials producers. "The Gaza Strip is in urgent need for translating the reconstruction initiatives into actions on the ground," al-Louh said. He expressed the hope that donor countries will contract with local Palestinian companies to revive the economy in Gaza and reduce the unemployment rate there which has reached as high as 50 percent. "The Palestinian National Authority and the ministries are ready to fully cooperate with all the funding and donor countries to speed up the implementation of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip," the Palestinian diplomat said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-14 03:54:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Naftali Bennett (M) , head of Israel's right-wing Yamina party, is seen during a special session of the parliament to vote on a new coalition government, in Jerusalem, on June 13, 2021. (JINI via Xinhua) Naftali Bennett was sworn in as new Israeli prime minister to oust the country's longest-serving leader Benjamin Netanyahu. JERUSALEM, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina (United Right) party, was sworn in as new Israeli prime minister on Sunday night, sending Benjamin Netanyahu to the opposition after a record 12-year rule. This came after the new coalition government, headed by Bennett and Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid (Future) party, was approved by the parliament, or Knesset, in a vote of confidence. Yair Lapid, leader of Israeli centrist party of Yesh Atid, speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 6, 2021. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua) In the vote of confidence held in the parliament earlier, 60 lawmakers of the 120-member chamber voted in favor of the new government while 59 voted against it. TV footages of the parliament session showed Bennett and Lapid taking their new seats at the coalition seats in the parliament, while Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, moved to the back seats of the opposition. Netanyahu (L), head of Israel's right-wing Likud party and the country's longest-serving prime minister, speaks during a special session of the parliament to vote on a new coalition government, in Jerusalem, on June 13, 2021. (JINI via Xinhua) At the same time, the 27 new ministers of the new governing coalition were also sworn in. Bennett and Lapid will rotate as the prime minister on a two-year base, with Bennett going first. Lapid will serve as Israel's alternate prime minister and foreign minister. Israel's parliament on Sunday night also elected Mickey Levy, a lawmaker with Yesh Atid, as its new speaker. Israelis celebrate after Israel's parliament voted in a new coalition government, on the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 13, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/JINI via Xinhua) The new coalition includes eight parties, including the Islamist Ra'am party, the first Arab faction to be included in a governing coalition in Israel. Thousands of Israelis gathered on Rabin Square in central Tel Aviv on Sunday night to celebrate the end of Netanyahu's rule. The forming of the new coalition government has ended a political crisis in Israeli, that has seen four elections in two years. Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-14 05:24:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, June 13 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his solidarity with persons with albinism on Sunday, which is the International Albinism Awareness Day. Albinism, a rare, non-contagious, genetically inherited condition found in both men and women, presents as a lack of melanin pigmentation in hair, skin and eyes, causing vulnerability to the sun and bright light. As a result, almost all people with albinism are visually impaired and are prone to developing skin cancer. The top UN official said that this year's theme, Strength Beyond All Odds, reflects the "resilience, perseverance and achievements" of people with albinism in the face of pervasive "misconceptions, discrimination and violence." While numbers vary, the United Nations estimates that in North America and Europe one in every 17,000 to 20,000 people have some form of albinism, but in sub-Saharan Africa, the figure is higher. One in 1,400 Tanzanians have the condition, and in Zimbabwe and select populations in other specific ethnic groups in Southern Africa, the prevalence rises to as high as one in 1,000. Profoundly misunderstood, socially and medically, people with albinism face multiple forms of discrimination worldwide, said UN News. They are often the object of superstitious beliefs and myths, which not only foster their marginalization and social exclusion but also lead to various forms of stigma discrimination and violence. Some centuries old erroneous mythologies still exist in cultural attitudes and practices globally, putting the security and lives of persons with albinism at constant risk. "Despite these obstacles to well-being and security, leaders of organizations representing persons with albinism continue to work hard to support the most vulnerable," said the UN chief. Meaningful commitments, such as the Plan of Action on Albinism in Africa and the work of the UN independent expert on albinism in promoting the rights of persons with albinism, have encouraged the UN chief that those with the condition are "increasingly taking their rightful place in decision-making platforms around the world." Recognizing the deep need to demystify the condition and end discrimination, Guterres said much remains to be done. The secretary-general urged all nations and communities to "protect and fulfil the human rights of all persons with albinism and provide necessary support and care." In her statement marking the day, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, echoed the UN chief's call for protection. "I call on states and the international community to continue to build and strengthen partnerships with persons with albinism and organizations representing them, to ensure they are included in decision-making that concerns them and to promote their enjoyment of all human rights," said Bachelet. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-12 23:14:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Tafara Mugwara HARARE, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean stone sculptor David Ngwerume's COVID-19 pandemic-inspired art is receiving international acclaim due to its unique way of reflecting the current dynamics facing the world. Since the beginning of this year, Ngwerume has used much of his time carving pandemic prevention messages in stone, capturing the world's attention with his expressive artworks. After gaining the spotlight on social media and in the international press with his unique approach to art, Ngwerume was recently commissioned by the African Union (AU) to make a piece that will be on display at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The sculpture, which he recently finished and is currently on display at his gallery in the capital of Harare, showcases a woman seated on a chair receiving a COVID-19 jab from a dismembered pair of hands. Dubbed "the jab of faith," Ngwerume said the piece "depicts the times we are in, where the world is moving toward vaccination of all citizens as a preventative measure against the spread and further spread of the coronavirus." The artist said with anti-pandemic messages chiseled in stone, his art has resonated well with the public. "My art has managed to convince many and has managed to bring alternative messages to people around an issue which is at the centerpiece of this whole world, that is the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "I strongly also feel that it has drawn a different kind of audience to the messages of awareness around this COVID-19 pandemic, and also it has brought altogether the new way of portrayal of such messages in stone sculpture at large." The sculptor said art is a reflection of perception and can convey feelings and moods in a way that words alone cannot accomplish. "Art presents a very vernacular spectation, because when you make a sculpture piece you freeze time for a moment, hence it is something that brings an everlasting sensation," he remarked. The artist is confident that his work will continue making an impact worldwide. "I am so hopeful that it reaches even further into communities, into societies and changes the perception of how the world is moving and influences us as humanity to look forward towards a unity of purpose through this popular consensus and usher our world into the next era," he said. Ngwerume is no doubt one of Zimbabwe's most prolific expressionists as evidenced by his dynamic art. Earlier this year, the talented artist made headlines after unveiling a piece titled "The New Normal" which draws inspiration from the reality the world is facing due to the pandemic. The piece, which is made up of black granite, showcases a woman, carved in the shape of the African map, wearing a headscarf and a surgical mask. One of his notable pieces chronicles the times we are in where vaccines are being rolled out globally. Titled "Piece to arms," the sculpture aims to counter vaccine hesitancy. It features a half figure of a woman wearing a surgical mask presenting her shoulder to a pair of disembodied hands holding a syringe. Another piece titled "Mask up" is a figure of the late pop star Michael Jackson wearing a hat, a mask, and a pair of gloves. The piece "We are torn" portrays a woman sneezing into her arm to prevent the spread of the virus. The COVID-19 themed artwork is part of a wider collection that Ngwerume is currently working on and will be exhibited this coming July at his gallery in the eastern Harare suburb of Greendale. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 00:14:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RABAT, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's COVID-19 tally rose to 523,620 on Saturday as 455 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours. According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, the death toll rose to 9,207 with five new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 204 people are in intensive care units. The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 510,958 after 335 new ones were added, the statement said. The COVID-19 fatality rate in Morocco stands at 1.8 percent while the recovery rate is 97.6 percent. Meanwhile, 9,363,220 people have received so far the first vaccine shot against COVID-19 in the country, and 7,094,691 people have received the second dose. The North African country launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on Jan. 28 after the arrival of the first shipment of China's Sinopharm vaccines. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 20:38:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Somalia has called on Kenya to reopen its diplomatic mission in Mogadishu following the normalization of ties between the two neighboring countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said Mogadishu will reciprocally re-open its embassy in Kenya to resume full diplomatic relations. "The resumption of full diplomatic relations will be a positive start to the commencement of bilateral discussions between the two nations," the ministry said in a statement issued on Saturday evening. The move came after Kenya on June 10 lifted its ban on flights to and from Somalia after a nearly one-month ban amid a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Kenya said that the move was a goodwill gesture in the hope it will lead to the full normalization of relations with Somalia. Somalia later welcomed the resumption of flights and reiterated its commitment to restore and accelerate diplomatic, trade, and people-to-people relations for the prosperity of Somalia and Kenya. Mogadishu also called for the formation of a joint committee to work out modalities on the full restoration of diplomatic relations with Kenya, noting that the reopening of the airspace by Kenya is a starting point to commence negotiations aimed at full normalization of diplomatic relations. Somalia in December 2020 severed its diplomatic ties with neighboring Kenya, accusing Nairobi of frequently violating Mogadishu's sovereignty, which Kenya denied. Mogadishu restored diplomatic relations with Nairobi on May 5 with mediation by Qatar. Kenya's aviation authorities suspended all flights to and from Somalia on May 11 after Somalia refused to lift a ban imposed in 2020 on Kenya's cargo flights for khat (miraa). Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 20:49:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Guests attend the Egypt's Entrepreneur Awards (EEA) ceremony held in Cairo, Egypt, June 12, 2021. During a breezy glamorous night at the foot of the great pyramids, Egypt held its first award ceremony to honor the country's entrepreneurs across various industries. Egypt's Entrepreneur Awards (EEA) is the 1st such ceremony in Egypt aiming to acknowledge the nation's brightest entrepreneurs. (Str/Xinhua) CAIRO, June 13 (Xinhua) -- During a breezy glamorous night at the foot of the great pyramids, Egypt held its first award ceremony to honor the country's entrepreneurs across various industries. Egypt's Entrepreneur Awards (EEA) is the 1st such ceremony in Egypt aiming to acknowledge the nation's brightest entrepreneurs. The award ceremony was largely attended by business leaders, government officials, foreign diplomats, and celebrities. Aiming to motivate and inspire, the EEA, which kicked off on May 4 and concluded on June 12, focused on risk-takers, change-makers and innovators that create a positive influence in society. During the competition, 22 out of more than 450 entrepreneurs were meticulously selected by 56 jury members to be the non-monetary encouragement award winners of the EEA's first edition. "The idea to start this competition came to my mind a year and a half ago ... I was thinking why we do not have something like Oscars for entrepreneurs. I believe they are stars, but they do not have the opportunity to be on media," Amr Mansi, founder of the EEA, told Xinhua. Mansi said this event will help shed light on entrepreneurs' achievements and will allow the media to tell their stories to the public, adding that the EEA will be held annually. "This is just the beginning, and we have future plans for it," he said, pointing out that these ambitious people are role models to others and therefore deserve recognition. For the evaluation process, the EEA jury panels focused on assessing skills such as leadership, resilience, vision, market knowledge, innovation, and strategy. There was also a specific judging committee panel for each award made up of relevant industry experts, experienced businessmen, and leaders from academia. "Today is a celebration for the entrepreneurs and all the stars participating in this big event," Mohamed Ashraf, a member of the general tech services jury panel, told Xinhua. He noted that the competition was intense, stressing the competitors made it very hard for the jury to pick the best among them. "Today is an inspiration for all entrepreneurs in Egypt to strive for whatever they want to get," he stressed. Out of more than 450 nominated entrepreneurs, 72 finalists competed for the awards. "I'm so proud to be among the finalists. This is very encouraging not only for me but also for all business starters in Egypt," Karim Rafla, co-founder and CEO of a company that turns shipping containers into fully customized homes, restaurants and offices, told Xinhua during the event. Rafla, a graduate of Global Business Management and Entrepreneurship from a university in London, said such events help Egyptian entrepreneurs tell their stories to those who have visions and ideas for businesses. "This platform will let me tell other young people with ideas for a creative business to start doing them ... this event is a push not only for me but also for other dreamers who want to stand here someday," Rafla said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 23:55:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JUBA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Inter-communal clashes in Rumbek East have left 13 people killed and 16 others wounded in South Sudan's restive region of Lakes state, local police said on Sunday. Elijah Mabor Makuach, police spokesperson in the state said they have deployed soldiers to restore calm following fighting which started on Saturday between Gony and Theyieth communities. "The fighting started on Saturday morning leading to 13 people killed and 16 wounded. The situation is now calm following the deployment of security forces," Makuach told Xinhua by phone on Sunday. He disclosed that the two communities have for a decade been fighting each other. The violence is often characterized by cattle raiding and revenge killings. Lakes state is awash with illegal guns in the hands of the civil population. Several attempts by state authorities to disarm civilians have not borne fruits, leading to casualties on both civilians and soldiers. "The main challenge facing us in the state is the presence of arms in the hands of civilians; there are arms everywhere in lakes state. Civilians are in possession of arms in villages and cattle camps," said Makuach. President Salva Kiir last week appointed former head of military intelligence Rin Tueny Mabor as governor of Lakes State, replacing Makur Kulang, following a rise in communal violence and armed attacks on aid workers. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-14 00:34:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ABUJA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Some residents were kidnapped late Saturday when a group of gunmen stormed a community in Nigeria's northwestern state of Kaduna, police said on Sunday. Local police confirmed the attack in Zaria, a town in the northern state, but said they were still gathering the details. Mohammed Jalige, the spokesman for the police in Kaduna, told Xinhua by telephone that "there were abductions, but I cannot say for now the number of people that were abducted during the attack." However, an eyewitness was quoted by the official News Agency of Nigeria as saying no fewer than 12 people were abducted during the gunmen attack. This latest abduction followed an attack by gunmen on a college in the same town of Zaria on Thursday. At least one student was killed, another injured, and 10 others, including teachers, kidnapped at the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic at Zaria, local officials said. A series of gunmen attacks recently happened in the northern part of the most populous African country, including attacks on schools and the kidnapping of students. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 09:02:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani (C) speaks at a handover ceremony of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, June 12, 2021. (Afghan presidential palace/Handout via Xinhua) KABUL, June 13 (Xinhua) -- A handover ceremony of China-donated COVID-19 vaccines has been held at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul. Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Acting Minister of Public Health Wahid Majrooh, senior officials from the Afghan government and Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu attended the event on Saturday. "Vaccine is a gift of life and we thank China for its help," President Ghani told audience at the handover ceremony. Welcoming the expansion of Afghanistan-China relations in various fields, especially economic, trade and transit relations, the Afghan leader said the donation of medical supplies and vaccines of China would help Afghanistan defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Wang said China would provide more assistance to Afghanistan to help Afghans contain the pandemic. The ambassador noted that as a friendly neighbor living in harmony, a close partner taking the same journey and a good brother sharing weal and woe, China would continue to join hands with Afghanistan to fight the pandemic in solidarity and help Afghanistan in this regard to the best of its ability. China would continue to support the Peace and Reconciliation Process in which the Afghan government and people play an important role and all parties participate widely. The batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived in Kabul on Thursday. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 14:21:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine security forces killed four suspected terrorists in a before-dawn shootout on Sunday in Sulu province in the southern Philippines. Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said the shootout broke out around 2 a.m. local time when a team of soldiers and police swooped down on the suspects' hideout in Jolo town. "Sensing the presence of the operating troops, the (suspects) opened fire, thereby prompting the government forces to retaliate," Vinluan said in a statement. The four died at the scene, Vinluan said, adding that troops also recovered an M653 Carbine, a caliber .45 pistol, and components for improvised explosives. Vinluan said the suspects from Abu Sayyaf Group were allegedly involved in a series of kidnappings and murders of foreign and Filipino victims in the Mindanao region and Malaysia. The military has launched on-and-off offensives against the Abu Sayyaf Group, a loose band of about 200 militants. The group has carried out deadly bombings and kidnappings in the remote and poor southern Philippine provinces of Sulu and Basilan. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 14:22:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Yan Jie, Liu Kai MANILA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Wilson Lee Flores, a Philippine bakery owner, never thought his longing for the taste of "Mama's Zongzi" could become a way of earning livelihood amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past one and a half years, the pandemic has hit the Philippine catering industry hard and Lee's bakery, a time-honored brand established in 1939 in Quezon City in Metro Manila, is no exception. "Business is not good following a series of lockdown measures against the pandemic. One day, for no reason, I missed the taste of 'Ma Zhang', namely Zongzi or glutinous rice dumpling with seasoned meat stuffing in Minnan dialect, made by my mother in my childhood," Lee, 54, whose ancestors came from Jinjiang, a city in southeast China's Fujian province, told Xinhua. Zongzi, usually pyramid-shaped traditional Chinese delicacy wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, is a kind of special food derived from the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. And, this year it will be celebrated on June 14. For Lee, recalling and reproducing Mama's recipe for Zongzi is like completing a gastronomic jigsaw puzzle. Having spent months of constant testing, he finally wrapped up delicacies and specialties such as glutinous rice, seasoned streaky pork or chicken stuffing, mushrooms, dried shrimp and salted egg yolks into green leaves, making them sell like "wrapped paella" during the pandemic. "It has become a unique best seller in my bakery, increasing our sales dramatically," Lee said. "Some politicians, movie stars and food writers in the Philippines would come and buy Zongzi, posting the pictures on social media, which really helped our entire bakery business." Mark Nilo Odiaman, a regular customer of Lee's bakery, has become a big fan of Zongzi ever since it hit the shelf, describing the snack with a distinct flavor of the Chinese culture as "economical and easy-to-carry." "It costs 140 pesos (roughly 3 U.S. dollars) per piece, and there is so much stuffing inside that it could be an equivalent to a lunch or dinner for me." Intriguingly, Lee followed the principle of "buy one and get one story free" for Zongzi selling. A slice of paper is wrapped around each Zongzi, with a brief introduction of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese ancient statesman and poet. "I know the Dragon Boat Festival has been observed to commemorate Qu Yuan, who drowned himself for finding no way to make his small hinterland kingdom better. I shared this story with my customers in this way and they love it," Lee said. From boom to gloom, Renato Balida's Suman business, the Philippine version of Zongzi, experienced the same trajectory as Lee's during the pandemic. Suman, cylinder-shaped sticky rice dumpling with coconut milk inside wrapped in banana leaves, is a tasty snack for Philippine traditional weddings, parties and festivals. Balida, 58, inherited the craftsmanship of making Suman from his mother, and has been producing it with his wife, Jessica, for 35 years in coastal Mabini city, Batangas province, south of Manila. "Our Suman, 10 pesos (0.2 U.S. dollars) per piece, was sold well in the market before the pandemic. Philippine overseas workers who return from abroad would also bring our Suman to Italy, the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Singapore," Balida said. However, the pandemic took a toll on Balida's Suman business, following a plunge in the number of inbound foreign tourists and overseas workers due to the tightened border control measures. Facing the difficulties, Balida's eldest daughter Regine, in her 20s, who has graduated from Westmead International School in Batangas City thanks to the Suman business, spared no effort to help her family to expand the domestic market with a new flavored Suman. "We still sell hundreds of Suman every day. We are also exploring ways to sell it online," Regine said. "There are bound to be ups and downs in business. I want to make it better." Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 15:46:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 2,188 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the first time that the country hit the 2,000 threshold on a daily basis, the health ministry said Sunday. The latest confirmed cases, which were all locally transmitted, brought the national tally to 76,084, said the ministry in a statement. The country meanwhile reported 10 new fatalities and 496 more recoveries, taking the nationwide counts to 375 and 56,947, respectively, it said. Noting that children account for more than 30 percent of the recent daily cases, the ministry urged the public to follow all health guidelines to protect the minors. The virus has spread to the capital Ulan Bator and all the 21 provinces of the country, with the capital city, which is home to over half of the country's population of 3.3 million, being the hardest-hit area. Mongolia launched a national vaccination campaign in late February with a target of 60 percent coverage. So far, more than 1,891,800 people in Mongolia have received a first dose, and over 1,642,600 have been fully vaccinated. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 17:03:10|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JAKARTA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Due to the surging increase of COVID-19 cases since the past several days in the country, Indonesia resorted to boosting the vaccination program against the lingering coronavirus disease. The Indonesian Health Ministry on Thursday recorded the highest daily hike in the COVID-19 cases of 8,892 infections since late February. The daily increase in the COVID-19 cases in Indonesia on Saturday was recorded at 7,465, bringing the total cases to 1,901,490 since March 2020 when the first case was detected. President Joko Widodo asked for the acceleration of the mass vaccinations in Indonesia to meet the target of 700,000 shots per day in June and 1,000,000 injections in a day by July in his social media account on Wednesday. He has also called on regional heads, including governors and district heads to carry out mass vaccinations in their respective areas to meet the national target. Previously, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin set up a target of vaccinating 1 million people every day starting in June. The target was then adjusted with the gradual arrival of vaccines. A total of 426 million doses of vaccines are estimated to arrive, including 90 million doses arrived during the period of January to June, and the rest would come in July to December, the minister said. "The arrivals of the vaccines will be gradual," the Ministry of Health spokesperson for vaccination Siti Nadia Tarmizi Tarmizi told a local media on Thursday without elaborating the dates of the arrivals. Based on data from Indonesia's Ministry of Health, as of Sunday, the number of people vaccinated with the first doses has reached 20,158,937, and those who received the second dose have reached 11,568,443. That means, for almost five months of vaccination in Indonesia, only about 6.37 percent of the targeted 181,554,465 residents have been fully vaccinated. Tarmizi was yet optimistic that the target can be achieved as Indonesia has already had commitments to the arrivals of vaccines in accordance with the target number. Although there was a delay in the vaccine arrivals in April, she said that in the second semester of 2021, more doses of vaccines for Indonesia would arrive. The Indonesian government has so far secured 94.7 million doses of vaccines from various producers, consisting of 84.5 million doses from China's Sinovac, 2 million doses from China's Sinopharm and 8.2 million doses from AstraZeneca. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:15:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry has registered 1,597 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 91,458. The pandemic has so far claimed 3,612 lives in Afghanistan, including 85 deaths in the past 24 hours since the outbreak of the disease in February last year, a statement of the public health ministry released here said. A total of 471 patients have recovered over the period, according to the statement. In the statement, the ministry also warned of the rapid spread of the disease, calling upon citizens to respect immunity measures and guidelines of health clinics to stay at home or wear a mask in public buses, markets and crowded areas. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:41:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close AUCKLAND, New Zealand, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Ethnic communities in Auckland, New Zealand celebrated the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival with music, dances and rice dumplings on Sunday. The "We are a Family" Dragon Boat Festival multicultural gala was aimed at promoting friendship and solidarity among New Zealand's diverse communities. Cultural dances and music performances by community groups from Chinese, Maori, Indonesian, Indian and Philippine ethnicities were staged in the multicultural gala. Guests were invited to wrap their own "Zongzi" (rice dumplings) for the traditional Chinese festival. Chinese Vice Consul-General in Auckland Xiao Yewen said at the opening remark that China is committed to building a community with a shared civilization on the basis of equality and mutual respect, while New Zealand enjoys diverse ethnic groups and supports multiculturalism. "The cultural activities in New Zealand have brought the hearts of people between China and New Zealand closer to each other and enriched the scope of the bilateral relationship," said Xiao. Dave Bromwich, president of New Zealand China Friendship Society, was pleased to see a big multicultural crowd celebrating the traditional Chinese festival. He talked about the history of the Dragon Boat Festival, and wished everyone in the New Zealand "multicultural family" a good festival time. New Zealand Member of Parliament Naisi Chen reiterated the importance of cross-cultural exchange and understanding among different ethnicities in New Zealand. New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon also delivered a video speech to the event, celebrating the traditional Chinese cultural festival. The festival celebration also saw New Zealand Member of Parliament Melissa Lee, Auckland Councillor Paul Young and senior officials along with several hundred New Zealanders. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 20:52:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JAKARTA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has detected the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant in the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Kudus district of Central Java province, the province's governor Ganjar Pranowo said on Sunday. The governor said that 86.11 percent or 62 out of a total of 72 samples of recent COVID-19 cases in Kudus emanated from the Delta variant first reported in India. "The spread of this virus variant is very fast. Three weeks ago COVID-19 in Kudus affected only three sub-districts but today they are happening in 11 sub-districts," Pranowo said. "Kudus experienced a significant increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in a week, jumping more than 30 times from 26 to 929 cases," Wiku Adisasmito, the national COVID-19 task force spokesperson, said recently. Kudus has so far recorded 10,525 confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 7,322 recoveries and 861 deaths. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the Delta variant in Kudus came from Indonesian migrant workers returned from India and seaport activities. "We have been taking good care of airports and seaports in Indonesia," said the minister. Enditem Digital economy thrives in China's western regions: report The rural e-commerce industry boomed in China's western regions in 2020, according to an industrial report. China to improve price-stability mechanism for staple goods China's top economic planner has urged accelerating the improvement of the price-control mechanism for important goods related to people's livelihoods. Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-13 19:50:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writers James Wright, Pan Geping BRUSSELS, June 13 (Xinhua) -- For bar manager Luke Nolan, originally from the west of Ireland, the Belgian government's decision to allow the hospitality sector to reopen bars and terraces from May 8 arrived not a moment too soon. After several months of paralysis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nolan and his two colleagues heave a sigh of relief as they finally welcome back customers to Funky Monkey, a popular bar located in the European quarter of Brussels. "It's been a major relief for everybody. Excellent for us to be back to work and excellent for our mental health. People can switch off their laptops after work and come out to the pub or go to a restaurant," he told Xinhua in an interview. To survive the months of lockdown, he and his colleagues sold takeaway meals in the evenings. Though unable to make a profit, they managed to keep the business running. "We weren't exactly making millions, but ticking over, a bit of money in our pockets and for the boss," said Nolan. The pandemic took a heavy toll on the hospitality sector in the Belgian capital and many establishments have failed to make the necessary adjustments to weather the crisis. Luckily for Nolan and his colleagues, Funky Monkey entered into a partnership with Hairy Canary, a smaller bar situated on the corner of the same street. Owned by the same group, the two establishments have managed to lean on each other for support. "We've had to adapt a lot to the changes, saving money in particular. We borrowed a colleague from Hairy Canary to help out," Nolan said. His routine got back to normal on June 9, when the country's bars and restaurants reopen their indoor areas to customers. On that day, the first stage of the country's summer COVID-19 relaxation plan entered into force. Still, Nolan feels his life has been "hectic" ever since the bar reopened. "It's hectic in a positive sense," he said. "We're super excited for the summer ahead and we stay positive all the way through." Another Brussels restaurant, eager to see things back to normal, has decided to offer a 50-euro (61 U.S. dollars) voucher for customers who got their first COVID-19 vaccine dose after May 26. Osteria Romana, an Italian restaurant, announced on social media that its offer kicked in on June 9. The deal, valid for the whole month of June, is limited to only one voucher per table. The restaurant aims to encourage more people in the city to get vaccinated in order to reach the projected vaccination target of 70 percent of the population. Enditem South Boston, VA (24592) Today Thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 67F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms this evening will give way to steady rain overnight. Low 67F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. President Muhammadu Buhari has said some graduates with good degrees may not have jobs because of the action of certain persons. Speaking on ARISE TV on Thursday, the president condemned the high level of destruction during the #EndSARS protest. He said such incidents scare away investors and government jobs are very scarce at the moment. "Go to any governor now and ask him to give you contract or to give you a job, he'll tell you there's no vacancy. The same thing with the local government. So, you may have a good degree, but you may die without having a job. Why? Because nobody is going to invest in an insecure environment. So I told them to tell the youth that if they want jobs, they will behave themselves, make sure Nigeria is secure, so people can come and invest. "Look at the 200 buses bought by the former governor of Lagos, some of these boys went and burnt the vehicles. Who will go and invest their money in an unstable environment? Nobody will. "It's just common sense. So you behave yourself, you make Nigeria secure, and people will invest." A Gambian by the name Ebrima Samura, seeks sponsorship to pursue a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology at Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Engineering Technicians University in India. According to his admission letter, Ebrima is admitted based on his academic performance and is selected for admission to the following program at Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Engineering and Technology in Moga-142001(Punjab) (INDIA). The rest of the admission letter stated thus: "Please note that classes for the above course commences from the 14th day of September 2021," the institution stated on the acceptant letter. Samura said he is asked to transfer 2, 000 US Dollars as deposit not later than 14th July 2021; that after this date, the offer of admission will become invalid. He said the program will enable him to go through an innovative multi-disciplinary curriculum containing a unique learning and research experience; that the program will also avail him the opportunity to develop essential skills and knowledge in research. Mr. Samura calls on institutions, philanthropists and all Good Samaritans for support and can be reached on the following numbers: 2893557 or 7487220. United Nations A hilarious anecdote, recounted in the New York Times years ago, related to the widespread corruption embedded in the political culture of a Southeast Asian country where crooked politicians were willing to provide receipts every time they received a bribe--big time bribes. And in Africa, the late Mobutu Sese Seko, president of former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), was often described as one of "the world's most corrupt leaders". Asked at a press conference whether he was the world's second wealthiest political leader, a seemingly outraged Mobutu shouted back: "It's a lie. It's a lie," and then added with a straight face, "I am only the fourth richest." In an October 1991 report, the Washington Post quoted Mobutu as laying down one of the basic principles of corruption: "If you want to steal, steal a little cleverly, in a nice way. Only if you steal so much as to become rich overnight, you will be caught." A former UN Secretary-General, the outspoken Kofi Annan of Ghana, once said that "billions of dollars of public funds continue to be stashed away by some African leaders -- even while roads are crumbling, health systems are failing, school children have neither books nor desks nor teachers, and phones do not work." And, when the UN General Assembly held its first-ever, three-day special session against corruption last week (June 2-4)--over 120 were listed as speakers, including multiple foreign ministers, three deputy prime ministers and 10 heads of state and government, mostly addressing via video messages to a world body locked down by the pandemic. But one of the questions posed at the UN's daily press briefing was subtle but right on target. Asked what the President of the General Assembly (GA) Volkan Bozkir of Turkey hoped to achieve when "so many Heads of State who talked this morning are corrupt", his Spokesperson, Brenden Varma, told reporters the President's goal was always to create a forum where member states could come together -- to discuss topics that mattered to the world and share with each other ideas, best practices and lessons learned". The GA President's ultimate aim, the Spokesperson said, was to move forward in the global fight against corruption and see progress in that regard. Bozkir told delegates that corruption corrodes public trust, weakens the rule of law, seeds conflict, destabilizes peacebuilding efforts, undermines human rights, impedes progress on gender equality and hinders efforts to achieve the targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. "It also hits the poor, the marginalized and the most vulnerable the hardest," he added. The outcome of the special session is reflected in the text of an action-oriented political declaration adopted by consensus. But history has shown that the fight against corruption is a long-drawn-out losing battle with no end in sight. In July 2019, Transparency International compiled a list of 25 of "the biggest corruption scandals that shook the world and inspired widespread public condemnation, toppled governments and sent people to prison"--extending from Azerbaijan to Peru and from Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea. These scandals involved "politicians across political parties and from the highest reaches of government, staggering amounts of bribes and money laundering of epic proportions," Transparency International said. The degree of corruption- both in the developing and the industrialized world--is so vast, particularly among politicians and heads of government, that a cynic might be right in declaring: if there is no corruption, there would be no politicians. In the industrialized world, bribery is euphemistically called "kickbacks", mostly on multi-million-dollar deals, largely for commercial aircraft and weapons systems. According to one published report, some of the world's most corrupt leaders included: Sani Abacha (Nigeria); Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire); Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines) and Suharto (Indonesia). In a televised debate on the New York city Mayoral elections last week, one candidate publicly reminded one of his rivals of multiple corruption charges he had once faced. "We all know that you've been investigated for corruption everywhere you've gone-- in a trifecta of corruption investigations. Is that what we really want in the next Mayor?" Mandeep S. Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, told IPS it's great that the General Assembly organised a session on fighting corruption which is major scourge on our societies and a driver of inequality. However, any meaningful debate on corruption would be incomplete without an interrogation of how the present emphasis on market-oriented policies is creating avenues for corruption on a grand scale by enabling the siphoning off of public resources to private companies, he argued. As part of the dominant market discourse, he pointed out, states are being encouraged to retreat from public services and cede space to profit driven private entities. "A lot of corruption thereby emanates from inappropriate awards of government tenders to cronies of political elites and the so-called incentivizing of certain businesses through backroom deals on tax breaks and privileged concessions to certain politically connected businesses," he noted. "Illicit financial flows and money laundering are all part of the mix and need to be addressed through emphasis on transparency and accountability supported by vibrant civil societies and media watchdogs", Tiwana said. Addressing delegates last week, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, and current President of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said corruption, which leads to massive outflows of illicit finance, is among the main reasons for the economic underperformance of developing countries and for rising inequalities across the world. Stressing that corruption stifles opportunities for the poor, while condemning them to a life of misery and inequity, he said an estimated $2.6 trillion -- or 5 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) -- is lost annually to such behaviour. Developing countries lose $1.26 trillion -- nine times all official development assistance (ODA), he noted. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told delegates the administration of President Joe Biden is committed to taking special aim at corruption. And that starts with building on the U.S. government's existing anti-corruption tools, obligations, and commitments, including steps to vigorously enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which strengthens business environments around the world by prohibiting U.S. persons from bribing foreign officials. It also means strengthening the U.S. Department of Justice's Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, she said. Since 2019 alone, U.S. asset recovery efforts have led to the transfer of more than $1.5 billion to countries harmed by corruption, she added. Tiwana of CIVICUS said a debate on corruption should logically include focus on creating enabling environments for civil society organisations and independent media entities to shine a spotlight on corrupt practices and collusion between political and economic elites. "Our research at CIVICUS shows that 87 per cent of the world's population live in countries with serious restrictions on the civic freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression". He said civil society activists and journalists are being attacked on a colossal scale across the globe. "If governments in the Global North and South are truly serious about tackling corruption, they should take action on reversing civic space restrictions and ending persecution of activists and journalists," he declared. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines 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. In a joint statement released last week the G7 ministers (of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, US, and the High Representative of the European Union), said they recognize that corruption is a pressing global challenge. As the UN Convention against Corruption notes, corruption threatens the stability and security of societies, undermining the institutions and values of democracy, ethical values and justice, and jeopardizing sustainable development and the rule of law. The ministers said corruption presents serious threats for individuals and societies and often enables other forms of crime, including organized crime and economic crime, including money laundering. These threats have been heightened by COVID-19. "As the world continues to recover, it is critical that we do not let corruption threaten our efforts to build back better and address global challenges especially the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals". "We are looking forward to the G7 ministerial meeting in September this year, where there will be a discussion on our joint efforts to address corruption", the ministers declared. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the creation of the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities - or GlobE Network - as a step in the right direction. He said the Network will enable law enforcement authorities to navigate legal processes through informal cooperation across borders, helping to build trust and bring those guilty of corruption to justice. *This article contains extracts from a newly-released book on the United Nations titled "No Comment - and Don't Quote Me on That." Authored by Thalif Deen, Senior Editor, Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, the book is peppered with scores of anecdotes- from the serious to the hilarious- and is available on Amazon worldwide and at bookshops in Sri Lanka. The links follow: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/ https://www.vijithayapa.com/ Cairo Commentators reported low turnout Saturday in parts of Algeria, which was holding its first parliamentary elections since a 2019 popular uprising swept away veteran President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika. Some political parties called on voters to boycott the election, while the government urged them to "fulfill their electoral duty." Nevertheless, Mohammed Sharafi, head of Algeria's Independent Electoral Commission, told journalists late Saturday that turnout "was over 30%" and that "more than 23.5 million voters had cast their ballots. Earlier, Saturday afternoon, Sharafi indicated that turnout was aboutas 10.2% as of 2PM, but he said subsequent reports showed it was picking up. "Voting results," he insisted, "are no longer being manipulated, as they once were in previous elections." President Abdelmadjid Tebboune told a press conference after casting his ballot that he was hoping to put together a "new Algeria" after the country's fresh parliament was seated. He said democracy "gives citizens the right to boycott elections" but urged voters to "do their civic duty." Freedom of expression He said citizens had the right to boycott the vote as long as they don't try to impose their boycott on others. Everyone in the country, he said, was free to express convictions and views. Democracy, he said, requires that the majority respect the minority. Sharafi told voters the "point of the election is that voters should know which candidates' political platform coincides with their own positions and convictions." Abdel Qader, a young man from Algiers who identified himself as a member of the popular protest movement, told Arab media he would like to see a new government that's responsive to the demands of the people. He said it was his hope that the new government formed after the elections would respond to the demands of the popular protest movement and that conflicts would start resolving themselves. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Algeria 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. Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, told VOA that Algeria's political landscape was a bit "disorganized," but that the country's political leaders were "seeking a new political legitimacy." He said there were many political candidates and the electoral landscape was not entirely clear, but that the president appeared to be trying to win over independents to put together a new political majority. Lots of candidates Voters were given an unusually large number of lists of candidates to pick from Saturday. Almost two dozen lists could be seen at some polling stations. Egyptian political sociologist Said Sadek told VOA that Algerian voters remained suspicious and disappointed that the regime did not meet the demands of the popular revolutionary movement that toppled Bouteflika. "Algeria also continues to suffer from economic woes, corruption and distrust," he said. Abdallah Jaballah, leader of the Islamist Growth and Justice Party, told Arab media he was not pleased with the way the situation was evolving. He said the government had imposed this election on the people, and that it would either continue down this path or would back off and respond to public opinion. Final results of Saturday's parliamentary voting were not expected until next week. Algiers President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO Brahim Gali welcomed "the clear and frank" positions of the Algerian State and its President Abdelmadjid Tebboune vis-a-vis the Sahrawi cause. President Gali received at the Army's Central Hospital Mohamed-Seghir-Nekkache of Ain Naadja (Algiers) Sahrawi Prime Minister Bouchraya Hamoudi Beyoun who went to see him. President Gali's health is clearly improving. The Sahrawi President welcomed, during the meeting, "the clear and frank positions of the brotherly Algerian State and its President Abdelmadjid Tebboune who has continuously expressed them at every opportunity." He also conveyed his greetings to all the children of his people, calling for a general mobilization of the different institutions and authorities and of activists, in order to foil the plans of the occupation, while reaffirming the national choice for freedom and independence. For his part, Hamoudi Beyoun presented to President Gali a general and detailed report on the "execution of the programmes characterized by positive results obtained in different fields." The latest developments in the Sahrawi issue were reviewed "in the light of the achievements made in the previous military, juridical, political and media period, marked by dense and important regional and international presence," according to the source.SPS press release Journalists Khaled Drareni and Ihsane El Kadi, and opposition leader Karim Tabbou taken into detention last night More than 200 people currently detained in connection with country's Hirak protest movement 'These arrests mark a chilling escalation' - Amna Guellali Responding to news that the Algerian authorities have arrested journalists Khaled Drareni and Ihsane El Kadi - as well as high-profile opposition leader Karim Tabbou - ahead of legislative elections tomorrow (12 June), Amna Guellali, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said: "These arrests mark a chilling escalation in the Algerian authorities' clampdown on the rights to freedom of expression and association ahead of the elections. "It is highly likely that the three men have been targeted as retribution for their ties to the Hirak protest movement, which has called for radical political change in Algeria through peaceful means. "Their detention follows an alarming pattern in recent months of arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of journalists and activists calling for social justice and political reforms. "Unless the authorities have clear grounds to justify these arrests, the three men must be immediately released." The three men were arrested separately last night (10 June) and have been detained in Antar security centre for interrogation. Targeted by Algerian authorities It is not the first time the three men have been targeted by the Algerian authorities. Last August, Khaled Drareni was sentenced to three years in prison after a grossly unfair trial for his coverage of the Hirak protest movement. The sentenced was later reduced to two years on appeal and in February he was released and his case sent for retrial by the Supreme Court. In March last year, Karim Tabbou was sentenced to a year in jail on trumped-up charges in relation to comments made in videos published on his party's Facebook page in which he criticised the role of the army in politics. Ihsane El Kadi, director of Maghreb Emergent and RadioMPost, has faced legal proceedings for "defamation and insult" against Algeria's president. The authorities have also blocked his media outlets. There are 223 people currently detained in Algeria in connection with the Hirak protest movement, according to local groups and activists monitoring the human rights situation. Algerian voters are casting their ballots Saturday in early parliamentary elections, after two years of political unrest, although pro-democracy activists have called for a mass boycott. The vote is the first parliamentary elections since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019 after 20 years as president, facing protests over corruption, joblessness and repression. Pro-government parties have called for broad participation, branding the vote "crucial" for restoring stability. The early elections were called as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has promised a "new Algeria," attracting young candidates and others from outside the political elite. More than 20,000 candidates are competing for the 407-seat parliament. Upwards of 50% of them are running as independents and the remainder are on party lists. Voting stations will close at 7:00 p.m. local time. Zimbabwe's mines said on Friday they had kicked-off crunch meetings with banks, government and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) to find a solution after operators reported that their funds had been withheld in MMCZ's foreign accounts by the United States government. The country's mines export minerals through the state-run MMCZ, which was slapped with US sanctions in 2008 for "contributing to the undermining of democratic process and institutions in Zimbabwe". As a result, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been withholding foreign currency wired through MMCZ accounts, some of it belonging to exporters. The MMCZ was among several key institutions slapped with sanctions in Zimbabwe including financial services powerhouses CBZ Holdings and ZB Financial Holdings Limited. However, some of these restrictions have been removed. But the MMCZ remains under a tight leash, which it says has undermined international trade in minerals. Last week some miners struggled to pay workers, while several commitments had also not been settled after funds held in MMCZ accounts were withheld. But in an interview with Standardbusiness, incoming Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) president Colin Chibafa said miners had immediately engaged government, which said it was taking action to save the industry. It was not clear what new action President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration had lined up to save mines given that it is a crisis that has transcended a decade. "Affected miners have engaged their bankers on this matter and as a chamber we have raised the matter with the government," Chibafa said. "We are informed that the relevant authorities are working round the clock to make sure that mining companies are not affected in future. "These are confidential matters between miners and their bankers. We do not have details of the amounts involved." Zimbabwe has blamed global embargoes for its two decades economic crisis, but its adversaries argue that sanctions are only targeted at a few elites. In one of the indications that government has also felt the pinch, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last month shifted to the payment of mining fees and commissions to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. RBZ governor John Mangudya said this was part of strategies to improve the ease of doing business. "The bank has received numerous requests from mining exporters on the need to continuously improve the ease of doing business arising from complications around payment of fees and commissions to the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe," Mangudya said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Business 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. "To make payment of statutory deductions easy for exporters of minerals, with immediate effect, all commissions and royalties that are due will no longer be deducted by MMCZ. "All applicable taxes shall now be paid to Zimra in the normal manner." Washington's decision has left several mining companies in a lurch, with some even considering suspending operations until there is a solution. This has crippled the entire mining sector, upon which Mnangagwa is pinning his hopes for economic revival. The government is hoping to grow the mining sector to US$12 billion by 2023. One miner told Standardbusiness that the situation had become desperate. "We were supposed to pay our workers by May 25, but we failed because the money that has been withheld was for salaries and other running costs," the miner said. "It is a major challenge. "If this situation persists we will have no choice but to suspend operations because it means we can't buy consumables such as explosives and workers cannot come to work on empty stomachs." The miners have approached RBZ. MMCZ general manager Tongai Muzenda recently told the media that the parastatal had suffered as a result of the sanctions. "We are feeling the impact of sanctions big time; the embargo is making it extremely difficult for us as the country's mineral marketing arm in the sense that anything in terms of trade that we want to do using major currencies like the United States dollars, we are constrained," he said. Abeokuta Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun on Saturday called on Nigerians to join hands together and build bridges of national unity and oneness of the country, rather that demolish fences. Governor Abiodun, who made the call in his remarks at the MKO Abiola International Stadium, Kuto, Abeokuta at a ceremony to mark the 2021 June 12 Democracy Day, said, as Nigerians, it is better to live in unity for the development and emancipation of the country. According to the governor, "the best way to immortalize and celebrate MKO Abiola and June 12, particularly, at this time of our national life, is to build bridges and demolish fences". He added, " we should think Nigerian and not sectarian. We should not limit that mandate and success to 1993. We must ensure that the hope is kept alive. We cannot afford to bring down our country or show despair in our future. Truly, Nigeria shall rise again". "We are only consoled by the re-introduction of democracy in 1999 and the fact the nation has enjoyed the longest and uninterrupted democratic experience since then. However, we must also acknowledge that, like every human endeavour and system, our democracy is not perfect. Our democracy is still a work in progress". "In truth, the essence of democracy is good governance. In truth, the people have a right to the agitation for a better life. In truth, also, we can achieve more together rather than the clamour for division of the country and separation of the constituent parts". "MKO Abiola and his mandate should serve as a reminder to all of us that we are stronger together as a nation. He broke all barriers such as religion and ethnicity that are being used in Nigeria today to divide us. He won across the length and breadth of this country, even at the backyard of his main opponents. It was a phenomenon that should remind us that we are greater than our challenges". "Unless and until we embrace the essence of the MKO persona, internalize belief in self, faith in a united country and other initiatives that help to engender a sense of shared heritage amongst Nigerian people, we will continue to be a country in search of nationhood. "Let us push all the negative and divisive forces and policies on the back-foot and embrace the symbolism of June 12. Let us join hands to make Nigeria work for all Nigerians. This will end all quest for self-determination and other sectarian agitations and calm frayed nerves. June 12 represents what will strengthen the country's unity, indivisibility and oneness", Governor Abiodun sai0p. "We must not forget that, as individuals, we can also change the course of history, like MKO did, even at this point in time. We must all note that each and every one of us, our actions and inactions, will either propel the country forward or fuel the already tensed situation. Our country should rise and fulfill its full potentials in the comity of nations". "As we celebrate June 12, we must also not forget to pay tributes to the heroes of the struggle for the actualization of June 12 after the annulment of that election. Nigerians came out en masse to protest a dashed hope. Many suffered degrees of deprivation, incarceration and some even paid the supreme price". "Some may wonder why we take so much interest in the unity of Nigeria. With the contributions of our heroes past in Ogun State and some of them still living, perhaps more than any other State, we have greater stake in the unity of Nigeria. Our people have made, more than any other States, the greatest contributions, sacrifices for the unity, oneness and solidarity of Nigeria. This is not to paper over the challenges we have, even some defects that the citizenry abhor". "It is better to jaw-jaw rather than to war-war. War has never done anybody any good. Even the so called victor is a victim. We can evolve a new and better Nigerian for all of us through a peaceful process. This is what new constitutional review process offers us". Governor Abiodun during the celebration reiterated the commitment of his administration towards ensuring security of lives and property in every part of the State, stressing that "it is obvious that we have lowered the political temperature in Ogun state". 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 are adjudged the most peaceful state in the country. This is not an accident but achieved by deliberate steps to provide a safe and secure state for our indigenes and investors". He noted that "no part of Ogun State will be a safe haven for criminals and criminality in whatever form or guise. Those who think they can come into our dear State with criminal tendencies must have a quick rethink". "Ogun State will never be a home for criminals, whether big or small. We will smoke them out, arrest them and hand them over to the swift hand of justice. In addition, any property found to be serving as hide out to criminals will not only be taking over by government but such facilities will also be demolished. Whoever is found to harbor any criminal will be arrested and handed over for prosecution". President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday branded the MDC Alliance a terrorist organisation that was "pro-violence" and "anti-people". Mnangagwa's remarks made at the launch of empowerment programmes for war veterans in Harare invited an immediate response from the MDC Alliance, which accused the Zanu PF leader of preaching hatred. "Let us all remain astute and vigilant, aware of the asymmetrical tactics of the opposition, in particular the MDC Alliance whose character resembles that of a terrorist organisation," Mnangagwa said. "The MDC Alliance has nothing democratic about it. It is anti-constitution, anti-development and anti-people, but pro-violence and destruction. "Let us remain vigilant and be wary of the MDC-A, which is anti-people and anti-democratic." Clifford Hlatywayo, MDC Alliance deputy spokesperson, said to the contrary it was Mnangagwa who had caused untold suffering and terror to the people of Zimbabwe. "He is the one terrorising people. Zimbabwe is suffering under his watch and command. "There is terror all over and chaos in schools, hospitals and across the board," Hlatywayo said. "He is preaching hatred to cover for his terror acts. What kind of leader does that? "He is actually abusing the war veterans who are suffering but now want to use them for his campaign. "It is all about power retention and wanting to abuse the freedom fighters." Mnangagwa has been accused of descending heavily on opposing voices since he came into office, including shooting of civilians by the military in August 2018 and January 2019. Under his watch, dozens of MDC Alliance activists have been arrested while human rights abuses continue unabated. The government, on Saturday, June 12 announced new measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, among which the daily curfew has been extended by one hour, running from 9 PM to 4 AM. In addition, public transport (buses) will be allowed to carry passengers only at 50 percent of their capacity, while public offices will function at 30 percent capacity - mainly allowing only essential staff in their premises. The rest will work from home. Likewise, places of worship will host congregations at 30 percent of the normal capacity of their facilities, and Covid-19 preventive measures will be observed during the prayers. But this will only apply to places of worship that have been authorised to host worshippers. All these measures will be taking effect starting from Monday, June 14 and will be reviewed after a period of 2 weeks. Cafes and restaurants will also operate at a 30 percent occupancy limit, while gyms will operate at 10 percent of their venue capacity. All businesses will close at 8 PM. Civil and religious weddings will not be exceeding 30 persons, and local authorities have to be informed prior to the event. Events happening at hotels among other public places are not allowed to exceed 50 percent of the venues' capacity, and all participants should have negative Covid-19 results, not exceeding 3 days prior to the event. Former local government minister Prof Anastase Shyaka is Rwanda's new envoy to the Republic of Poland, while the former Health Minister Dr Diane Gashumba is the country's envoy to the Kingdom of Sweden. These are among the new appointments announced after the cabinet meeting that convened on Saturday, June 12. A medical doctor by training, Gashumba left cabinet in February 2020, having served as Health Minister since October 2016. Prior to that, she worked as the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion from March 2016. She is a pediatrician by profession with 17 years of experience in global, maternal, newborn and child health, according to the Ministry of Health. In that way, she previously worked as the senior team leader of the USAID-funded Rwanda Family Health project which focused on improving health, family planning and reproductive health among others. She holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Rwanda and a Masters in Medicine specializing in Pediatrics. Shyaka was the Local Government Minister from October 2018 to March 2021. Prior to that, he worked as CEO of Rwanda Governance Board since 2011. As a professor of political science, he was also once the Director of the Center for Conflict Management at the University of Rwanda. Meanwhile, the cabinet also appointed the former CEO of Crystal Ventures, James Gatera as the new ambassador to the state of Israel. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda 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. Gatera also previously worked as CEO of Bank of Kigali. Michel Minega Sebera who was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Commerce has been appointed as the Minister-Counselor in the Rwanda Embassy in the Kingdom of Netherlands whereas Winnie Ngamije was appointed as the Deputy Director-General of Rwandan Civil Aviation Authority. Winnie Ngamije. Ngamije has been working as an engineer at Rwanda Airports Company. Meanwhile, the meeting also approved Antoine Anfre as the Ambassador of France to Rwanda whereas Dragos Viorel Radu Tigau has been approved as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania in the Republic of Rwanda with residence in Kenya. Anfre will be the first French ambassador to Rwanda since 2015 due to frosty relations that have existed between both countries since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Both countries are currently working to mend the ties and French President Emmanuel Macron visited Rwanda last month. Mozambique's northernmost coastal province was a tinderbox of colonial-era tensions, inequality and Islamist militancy. Discoveries of ruby and natural gas deposits lit the match. To tame the insurgency, Maputo will need to use force, alongside neighbour militaries, but also care in addressing underlying grievances. What's new? Militant attacks and security force operations in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province have claimed nearly 3,000 lives, while displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Insecurity has prompted the suspension of a massive gas project. The Islamic State (ISIS) claims ties to the insurrection. Southern African governments are lobbying to send troops. Why did it happen? Mozambican militants have been motivated by grievances against a state that they see as delivering little for them, despite the development of major mineral and hydrocarbon deposits. Tanzanians and other foreigners have joined up, fuelling the insurrection. The country's historically weak security forces have been unable to stem the onslaught. Why does it matter? Unaddressed, the insurrection could spread further, threatening national stability just as Mozambique is fulfilling a peace deal with the country's main opposition group and heading into national elections in 2024. It could worsen instability along East Africa's coast and present ISIS with a new front to exploit. What should be done? Maputo should accept targeted assistance for security operations to contain the insurrection, and avoid a heavy external deployment that could lead to a quagmire. Authorities should deploy aid to build trust with locals and open dialogue with militants. Regional governments should redouble law enforcement efforts to block transnational jihadist involvement. Executive Summary Fears are mounting that Mozambique's Muslim-dominated province of Cabo Delgado could become the next frontier for prolonged jihadist rebellion on the continent. Since 2017, Mozambican militants backed by Tanzanians and other foreigners have thwarted the weak security forces' efforts to defeat them and perpetrated atrocities against civilians. Thousands have died and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. The Islamic State (ISIS) global core claims it is behind the insurrection. While keen to respond militarily, Maputo also needs to deal with the set of local factors that have spurred Mozambican rank-and-file militants into battle. The government should take military assistance from external partners but use force wisely to contain the militants' expansion while it ramps up efforts to persuade as many of them as possible to demobilise. To that end, it should channel aid to communities and use them and other influencers to open dialogue with Mozambican militants and tackle their grievances. Regional countries should step up efforts to interdict foreign support for the insurrection. Cabo Delgado is a province that has long been ripe for conflict. In 2007, frustrated youth in the province's southern districts dominated by ethnic Makua began denouncing the authority of local religious leaders, especially those close to the country's official Muslim council. By the mid-2010s, ethnic Mwani militants in the coastal district of Mocimboa da Praia had joined the fray. Their activism had an Islamist tinge: they pushed for alcohol bans while opposing the enrolment of children in state schools and the right of women to work. But it was also fuelled by their economic exclusion amid the discovery of rubies and natural gas. They resented, too, the influence of liberation-era generals who have business interests in the province and are drawn from President Filipe Nyusi's Makonde ethnic group. Amid this boiling resentment, authorities expelled artisanal miners from commercial mining concessions in early 2017, further feeding local discontent. Militants, known to locals as al-Shabab (not to be confused with Al-Shabaab, the jihadist group in Somalia) moved to armed revolt in October 2017. At first dismissing the militants as criminals, officials now refer to them as "terrorists". In so doing, they admit the problem is greater than initially thought, but the rhetoric also fuels a perception that global jihadism is the only reason for the threat. Fighters from neighbouring Tanzania, many of whom are part of Islamist networks that have proliferated on the Swahili coast of East Africa are, indeed, among the militants' leaders. But the bulk of the group's rank and file are Mozambicans, including poor fishermen, frustrated petty traders, former farmers and unemployed youth. Their motivations for joining and staying with the group are diverse but less shaped by ideology than by desire to assert power locally and to obtain the material benefits that accrue to them via the barrel of a gun. If the group is still growing, it is because it is managing to draw on recruits who see joining and staying with al-Shabab as a good career move. That said, some of the Mozambican militant core may well, by now, be committed jihadists. Maputo is meanwhile struggling to contain a group that is growing in strength on land and which can also operate in waters off the coast. The army, which significantly shrank after the 1992 peace deal ending the country's civil war, is in disrepair, a soft target for militants who have overrun many of its positions and plundered its weapons stockpiles. It is also stretched, having to guarantee security in the centre of the country while it tries to achieve the final surrender of a residual armed faction of the Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (Renamo) opposition group. The navy, meanwhile, is barely functioning. Under pressure to respond to the Cabo Delgado crisis, Nyusi dispatched elite paramilitary police units with air support from a South African private military company. This joint force stopped the militants' advance toward the provincial capital Pemba and destroyed some of their camps but was unable to neutralise them. In March, militants stormed Palma, the gateway to major gas fields, prompting the French multinational Total to halt development. Mozambique's government has thus been pressing its foreign partners to provide the resources, including lethal assistance, that it says it needs to build up its military, which Nyusi now wants to be the primary force tasked with fighting militants. Mozambique's Western partners say they want to help but their diplomats say their capitals will be reluctant to supply materiel to the military without the institution going through significant training and reforms. Those partners are concerned, too, about reports of abuses committed against the population by security forces and potential leaks of government weapons into militants' hands as a result of alleged graft and indiscipline. Southern African Development Community (SADC) states, which see Cabo Delgado's conflict as endangering their own security, are meanwhile seeking to build international support to deploy their own troops into Mozambique. Nyusi has been nervous about that happening. His critics say he wants to keep prying eyes out of the province, a zone for illicit activity including heroin trafficking that benefits elites. His supporters emphasise rather that he is just being careful about what kind of intervention he allows, wary that a heavy presence of foreign troops could become difficult to control and could end up in a quagmire. After the Palma attack, Nyusi, who is currently SADC chairman, has come under further pressure from the regional bloc. He is, however, courting other security partners, including Rwanda, whose troops could be used to provide Mozambican security forces combat support. Whichever partners he chooses, any external intervention should be measured in how it uses force, so that it can both respond to the very real security threat posed by the militants but also eventually allocate enough resources to protect civilians when they return to their native districts. A heavy deployment of regional troops unfamiliar with the local terrain may not be necessary. Instead, Maputo should welcome bespoke African and international assistance to support its own special forces, who are receiving training primarily from a few Western partners. It should task these special forces to spearhead restricted military operations to contain and then degrade al-Shabab. Patrolling territorial waters could also deny militants opportunities to move fighters and supplies via coastal waters. If residents can be persuaded to return to areas they vacated, Mozambique's other forces should focus on providing security around these population centres to benefit civilians and humanitarian actors. A security plan like this would pressure al-Shabab militarily but also leave space for authorities to seek a negotiated end to the conflict. Besides needing to win back aggrieved locals' loyalty, they also need to induce militants lured by weapons, money and abducted women used as sex slaves to give up violence. Maputo should use its new development agency for the north to start dialogues with civilians in areas where security permits and to work out with them how best to spend donor aid, soothe local tensions and rebuild trust with communities who feel let down by the state. Such dialogue might also help authorities open lines of communication with Mozambican militants, given how deeply al-Shabab's own recruitment network is embedded in society. If they can reach back this way, authorities could seek ways to encourage the militants' demobilisation and possible participation in local security arrangements. Maputo may need to offer them security guarantees, and in some cases amnesties, after they exit. In the meantime, East and Southern African countries should, via their regional blocs, also start exploring how they can conduct joint law enforcement operations to stymie any support to al-Shabab from transnational militants, including ISIS, whose influence over the group appears weak for now. Such operations should focus on stopping attempts by individuals to finance, train or provide new technologies to al-Shabab. Their success will require Mozambique and Tanzania in particular to share information with their international partners about al-Shabab networks that have been operating across their borders. After more than three years of violence in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique and its regional partners are gearing up to respond together to the threat. They are right to put their heads together. Cabo Delgado's population craves safety and wants the security forces to act, petrified that otherwise they could end up abducted or killed. A security response is necessary. The government and its allies also need to think carefully, however, about how they can address the grievances underpinning a rapidly expanding challenge that in essence started as a local revolt. Maputo/Nairobi/Brussels, 11 June 2021 I. Introduction Once the cradle of Mozambique's war of liberation from colonial occupation, the resource-rich but impoverished northern province of Cabo Delgado is today home to another conflict critical to the country's destiny. Since 2017, groups of fighters, often carrying black Islamic State (ISIS) flags and denouncing the state and the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique (Frelimo) ruling party, have grown from small units targeting remote security posts into heavily equipped companies whose attacks threaten not only national stability but also international peace and security. In the last eighteen months, fighters have stepped up raids, including on some of the province's main towns, resulting in more civilian casualties. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. Insecurity has also prompted the French multinational Total to suspend a multi-billion-dollar liquefied gas project on which the government hangs its hopes for the country's future development. Neighbouring capitals now fear the crisis could become a magnet for transnational jihadists who might conduct terrorist attacks in the region. Following the brazen March 2021 attack on the northern town of Palma, gateway to giant gas fields, President Filipe Nyusi is under pressure from regional allies to counter the militants, whom the U.S. now labels part of the Islamic State.A Mozambican special police unit fighting in conjunction with South African mercenaries was unable to defeat the group. The president is now increasingly looking to Mozambique's military to do the job. This institution is in a state of disrepair, however, and requires a serious upgrade that will take time. Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are thus pushing to make some kind of intervention in Cabo Delgado. But Mozambican authorities are wary of allowing in a heavy regional deployment they fear could lead to a messy quagmire. In the meantime, the president has opened a new conversation with President Paul Kagame to assess whether Rwanda's security forces can provide targeted support. This report looks at how the Cabo Delgado conflict is unfolding as the country also implements its peace process with the Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (Renamo) opposition group and heads toward the 2024 election, when, as the constitution requires, President Nyusi must step down after two terms in office. It offers ideas about what foreign military intervention should look like and concentrate on if it does go ahead. It also proposes other ideas about how to reverse militants' gains and defang the insurrection. Research involved interviews in February and March 2021 in Maputo and Cabo Delgado with government officials, diplomats, humanitarian workers, security sources, businesspeople, religious and community leaders, politicians and victims of violence. Additional research took place in South Africa, and via remote interviews with sources in Tanzania, East and Southern African countries between December 2020 and May 2021. II. From Grievance to Insurrection A. A Province Ripe for Conflict Separated from Maputo by some 2,000km of coastline, Cabo Delgado is a province whose political economy has been shaped by the war of independence and its aftermath. Following the end of Portuguese rule in Mozambique in 1975, senior Frelimo liberation-era figures drawn from the Makonde tribe prevalent in the province's northern plateau claimed top positions for themselves, including provincial governorships, while placing their allies in national administrative and military posts as a reward for their central role in the struggle against colonial occupation. The fifteen years from 1977 to 1992 saw illicit trade proliferate in Cabo Delgado, as local elites enriched themselves by smuggling timber, precious stones and ivory, without being encumbered by the government in Maputo or affected by Frelimo's war with Renamo, which barely touched the province. Since the 1990s, the province's economy has only become further characterised by forms of monopoly and illicit activity, much of which ties back to senior Frelimo figures and their business allies. As the civil war receded into memory, senior Makonde continued to dominate Cabo Delgado's politics and economy. Over the next years, top Makonde generals who had been key figures in the liberation war, including those who went on to serve as governors, began focusing on expanding their business interests in the province. These included forestry, mining and transport operations that were often backed by state loans. In the same period, Cabo Delgado's remote coastline also became a documented hotspot for the import and transhipment of heroin and other narcotics via cartels run by Mozambicans of South Asian descent who received protection from Frelimo's uppermost echelons at both the provincial and national levels. The proceeds from such illicit trade washed through the political system, keeping Maputo content with the status quo in Cabo Delgado. Senior Frelimo officials acknowledge that the ruling party and the post-liberation governments in Mozambique did not transform Cabo Delgado's war economy. They admit being preoccupied with areas nearer the capital. "We paid a lot of attention to the development of the regions of the south and the central part of the country where the war with Renamo took place, but in so doing we also have to take the blame for having neglected Cabo Delgado", said a top Frelimo official in Maputo. While poverty certainly aggravated local tensions, some socio-economic indicators are worse in other northern provinces. Other factors helped make the province ripe for conflict. Mozambican social scientists suggest that colonial-era tensions between the Mwani and Makua peoples, on one side, and the Makonde, on the other, have grown since liberation and now shape conflict dynamics. They say, however, that these tensions are political rather than inherently tribal. Many Mwani, alienated by the dominance of the Makonde elites after independence, have remained sympathetic to Renamo and, with a large number of Makua, have become a major source of recruits for the insurrection. In the words of one senior government official working in Cabo Delgado: "What has happened is essentially a protest against socio-economic asymmetries and inequalities". B. Religion as a Conflict Vector Young people's anger at inequality and their political exclusion bloomed in the post-war period, which was also marked by a period of change for Islamic denominations active in Muslim-dominated Cabo Delgado. On this front, two trends were visible. First, in the late 1990s, came the return of Mozambican students who had been sent abroad to study by the Islamic Council of Mozambique (Cislamo), a Salafi denomination that had allied with Frelimo in the 1980s, when the party was looking to co-opt segments of the Muslim community and broaden its connections to Arab states. The return of these young men, who had studied in Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, was part of a pattern of growing Salafi influence in Mozambique and financed by foreign states and charities. With the influx of devotees and cash over the next decade came a new circuit of mosques and madrasas built across the Muslim-majority north, including Cabo Delgado. This trend challenged traditional Sufi orders that had long dominated coastal enclaves, and areas deep in northern Mozambique's interior, and whose practices had adapted to local customs over centuries. Secondly, even as newer religious establishments in Cabo Delgado propagated more doctrinaire Islamic practices, youth in the province's coastal areas were consuming other religious teachings prevalent on the Swahili coast of East Africa, where Islamist and jihadist networks had proliferated since the 1990s. Some of these young men, including petty traders, had established commercial and other ties up the coast via the small caucus of smugglers and merchants from Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia in Cabo Delgado's port of Mocimboa da Praia with whom they together formed both business and religious associations. These groups in turn helped disseminate pamphlets espousing the propaganda of Aboud Rogo, a Kenyan cleric who before his assassination in 2012 was associated with al-Qaeda's East African networks and Somalia's Al-Shabaab movement. Rogo had become something of a cult hero in Kenya after his arrest in 2002 and acquittal in 2005. By early 2007, early signs of local militancy appeared in Cabo Delgado, particularly in the Makua-dominated areas of the province's south and south west. Religious and communal leaders from Cabo Delgado describe aggressive behaviour by youths who began challenging the established Sufi religious orders and Cislamo in these districts, accusing both of acquiescence with the authorities. They also began trying to block the enrolment of children in secular schools and accusing local religious leaders, including those from Cislamo, of hypocrisy and apostasy. Dressed in shortened trousers, in fashion among their East African brethren, and occasionally brandishing knives, they began setting up their own prayer houses or informal mosques in private residences in different villages. Local authorities often confronted these youths, arresting them before releasing them for lack of formal charges. Frelimo officials, local religious and communal leaders and scholars of Cabo Delgado explain that despite their many attempts to flag these developments within the party and to local officials, the government never developed a strategy to deal with this emerging problem, besides the mass arrests. While on one level, the crisis appeared to be a sign of Islamist militancy on the rise, it was also a rebellion of primarily Mwani and Makua youth in a province with a Muslim majority against local Sufi religious leaders and an organisation, Cislamo, which they saw as one of the Frelimo state's closest allies. C. A Resource Boom Lights a Fire The tensions in Cabo Delgado appeared to heighten after 2009, as the state earmarked the province as a future source of mining and hydrocarbon revenue. A rich deposit of rubies was discovered in the western district of Montepuez in 2009, followed by giant reserves of natural gas in the seabed off Palma. Beginning in 2010, the state cleared residents off the land it eventually allocated to the mining and hydrocarbon concession holders. A top Makonde general who says he had previously acquired rights to the land around the deposit entered a partnership with an industrial miner, generating feelings of exclusion among mainly Makua communities living near the new concession. While locals around the gas development near Palma secured relocation packages from the multinational companies, many complained about those deals' lack of transparency, the loss of their livelihoods as they were displaced, and lack of access to job opportunities with the oil and gas operations. Frelimo's choice of Filipe Nyusi as its candidate for the 2014 presidential election was meanwhile a sign that the old Makonde heavyweights were calling in claims to have the top position in government allocated to them. Some senior party members say an unwritten rule always stipulated that power would eventually rotate into the hands of this caucus, which has waited in line behind a succession of southern presidents since independence. They also note, however, that the Makonde cohort was particularly keen to take control of the presidency at this moment, as Cabo Delgado was emerging as the epicentre of Mozambique's resource bonanza. In the end, the choice of Nyusi, a younger Makonde, represented a tense compromise between the caucuses loyal to the Makonde generals and the outgoing president Armando Guebuza, who had been seeking a third term of office, and under whom Nyusi had served as defence minister. The 2014 election, which took place amid a ceasefire between the state and Renamo, was not the cakewalk for the ruling party that previous elections had been. Nyusi scored only 57 per cent of the vote, much lower than Guebuza's margin of victory in 2009. The drop-off reflected Renamo's resurgence at that time but also the divisions within Frelimo that had come to the fore. Nyusi still won in a landslide in Cabo Delgado itself, however. Some Frelimo officials say that even though Nyusi has a strong political following in the north, the party achieved its sizeable victory in the province in part due to its distribution of patronage. After the elections, Makonde business elites began to show greater bullishness in acquiring economic power in Cabo Delgado. They spread their money around among district Makonde party stalwarts and local chiefs, entrenching the community's power base down to the grassroots. State allocations of war veteran pensions in Cabo Delgado also became more heavily skewed to favour Makonde recipients. As a result, working-class Makonde were also able to buy up land in parts of the province, including along the Mwani-dominated coast. Frustration among Mwani youth reignited, particularly as they were also enduring extortion by local officials interfering with their small businesses and fishing operations. Sources from Mocimboa da Praia report that as these local tensions heated up around the end of 2014, Mwani youth who were known among traders began mysteriously vanishing from the port town. Locals reported that some of them had in fact travelled to countries up the Swahili coast of East Africa and even farther afield. This trend was matched by a wave of migrants landing at Mocimboa da Praia, a mix of other Mozambicans and foreigners. Sources working in the town's banks at that time report that substantial amounts of money flowed into Mocimboa da Praia from Somalia and elsewhere. By 2015, reports were proliferating about increasingly aggressive behaviour by the same youth gangs clashing with religious authorities in several Cabo Delgado districts. In the first instance, scuffles broke out between them and local leaders, as they became even pushier, for example by attempting to impose bans on alcohol, disrupting prayers at mosques, forcing women to wear the niqab or burqa and preventing women from working outside the home. As they clashed with local government and religious officials, the state began to fight back. Security forces arrested groups of youths and closed their prayer houses. By 2016, sources in Cabo Delgado were reporting armed elements establishing a presence in remote parts of Mocimboa da Praia district. The authorities stoked further discontent in early 2017, when they expelled thousands of artisanal miners digging in the ruby fields under the commercial concession near Montepuez. Since the discovery of the ruby deposits in 2009, thousands of prospectors from elsewhere in Mozambique or Tanzania and other parts of Africa had arrived in the area to search for gems, often coming into confrontation with police and mining security guards patrolling the concession on behalf of the industrial operation. Those lucky enough to evade the guards and find rubies sold them to Tanzanian, Thai and Sri Lankan buyers in Montepuez but also, in smaller quantities, to traders in Mocimboa da Praia. The authorities however eventually kicked out thousands of miners and traders, both foreigners and Mozambicans. The expulsions, which were violent, also thus deprived some of the Mwani and foreign traders in Mocimboa da Praia of an income stream. Several former miners joined the militants. "This was now war against the Makonde top dogs behind the concession", says one former miner. By now, militant youths across the province were trying to come up with a name for themselves. Some referred to themselves as members of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jammah, which literally translates as the "adherents of the Prophet's words and deeds and the community of his followers". This name never gained traction, however. Both militants and locals instead began using the label al-Shabab, Arabic for "the youth", although not in any way to suggest that the group in Mozambique was linked to the separate Al-Shabaab insurgency in Somalia. III. Local Insurrection to International Crisis An armed phase of the insurrection soon started. It would accelerate into a humanitarian catastrophe and threat to regional stability. Almost 3,000 people would lose their lives and hundreds of thousands flee their homes and native districts in the next three and a half years of conflict. A. The Early Phase: Moving Inland from the Coast The violence in Cabo Delgado started in the port town of Mocimboa da Praia and quickly spread. On 5 October 2017, around 30 fighters stormed the town's police stations, raided their armouries and battled security forces for more than a day, leaving more than a dozen dead, including several of their own number. Residents who encountered the fighters just prior to the assault said they wanted only to attack the state and not to pay taxes. Three days later, security forces had retaken the town. Over the rest of the month, however, militants mounted additional attacks on security forces nearby. They also raided the coastal town of Olumbi, some 70km north toward the town of Palma, the gateway to the major gas project on the Afungi peninsula, then run by the U.S. multinational Anadarko. Security forces hit back with mass arrests and counterattacks, but in so doing stoked local grievances further. They first began arresting suspected militants and collaborators, eventually detaining hundreds. In December, they mounted an air, land and sea attack on the village of Mitumbate, near Mocimboa da Praia town, understood to be a militant stronghold at the time. The attack reportedly killed a substantial number of al-Shabab fighters, but also sparked anger from residents who claimed that women and children had been caught in the crossfire. As the militants regrouped, they spent the first few months of 2018 attacking security forces and raiding villages for supplies. From the middle of May, militants spread farther south into coastal districts of Macomia and Quissanga, and faced little resistance from security forces, leaving civilians to suffer dreadful abuses. Al-Shabab fighters reportedly beheaded ten civilians in Palma district in late May. During the course of June, militants also raided villages in districts already under their influence where they burned homes and hacked people to death, forcing thousands to flee. In July, they also made bold raids against security force posts in Mocimboa da Praia and Palma districts, capturing their weapons. By late 2018, al-Shabab fighters had come to dominate the four main districts accounting for most of Cabo Delgado's coastline but also begun moving inland. Between November and the end of December, militants stepped up raids on remote villages across the districts under their sway, particularly Palma and Macomia, but also farther inland in Nangade and Muidumbe, both of which have significant Makonde populations. As the crisis entered 2019, militants began to show more confidence in engaging state security forces and ambushing transport routes in the coastal districts. On 21 February, they attacked separate Anadarko convoys in Palma district, killing a company contractor and sending alarm through the gas industry. In April, fighters raided a military base in Mocimboa da Praia district, reportedly making off with a significant quantity of weapons. With the province reeling from Cyclone Kenneth, militants continued to resist security forces' attacks. In early June, they beat off an operation in Mocimboa da Praia. ISIS propaganda channels celebrated the counterattack, saying the fighters were "soldiers of the caliphate". After security forces reportedly killed 26 fighters in Nangade district in mid-June, the militants rebounded with attacks on police and killings of civilians, including more beheadings, in several districts. B. Security Forces Turn to Military Contractors Following battles between al-Shabab fighters and security forces in Macomia and Palma districts in July and August, militants started moving again into the Makonde heartland of Muidumbe district. Alarmed, authorities contracted the Russian Wagner Group to support operations through October, diverting the mercenaries from their original duties of providing security for the presidential election, which Nyusi won in a contested vote criticised by international observers and marked by a dip in his popularity in Cabo Delgado. While killing several militants, the Russians sustained losses of their own and wound down operations. For the rest of 2019, militants thus had more room to operate. They made incursions into Tanzania in November before stepping up raids again in Muidumbe district in December. By the end of December, 85,000 civilians in Cabo Delgado had fled their homes. With the onset of 2020, the militants became better organised and equipped, forming at least three geographically separate attack groups, in the north, centre and south of Cabo Delgado. They could now mount multiple operations in different areas on security services and state infrastructure. In late January, al-Shabab fighters first attacked Mbau in Mocimboa da Praia district, reportedly killing more than twenty soldiers. They then raided the town of Bilibiza, in Quissanga district, a few days later, vandalising government buildings including a health centre. Thousands of people began fleeing southward amid sporadic cholera outbreaks. Humanitarian and other sources report that during this time, al-Shabab fighters who came across civilians during the course of attacks began ordering people to vacate land or be killed. Militants then launched bold raids on district capitals as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. In March, in the first attack against Mocimboa da Praia town, they battled security forces, overrunning a military base, before raising the ISIS flag and handing out food to civilians applauding them. The militants left town a day later, having kidnapped a large number of women and children. A separate group of fighters then attacked Quissanga town, destroying the police headquarters, burning the military barracks and beheading the statue of Eduardo Mondlane, Frelimo's founder. In early April, al-Shabab also mounted sustained attacks on Muidumbe town, otherwise known as Namacande, decapitating or shooting dead dozens of nearby villagers before retreating from helicopter gunfire from the Dyck Advisory Group, a South African private military company brought in to support Mozambican forces. Maputo's decision to use the mercenaries arguably dented al-Shabab's momentum, but even when pushed onto the back foot, militants quickly regrouped. A few days after their retreat from Muidumbe, they raided the island of Quirimba, in Ibo district, where they destroyed a school, a health centre and an administrator's residence. Security forces and Dyck men counterattacked in April and May, reportedly killing dozens of al-Shabab fighters. Militants still managed to mount a bold attack on Macomia town, storming into the district capital carrying rocket-propelled grenades and wearing government army uniforms. Humanitarian workers and many civilians abandoned the town. Government security forces attacked al-Shabab positions days later and again in mid-June, with officials reporting dozens of militants killed. The militants would, however, rebound again. C. The Onset of an International Crisis In late June, al-Shabab fighters launched a multi-pronged raid on the port town of Mocimboa da Praia, attacking government and police buildings and killing civilians and security force personnel. Days later, the joint government and mercenary force struck an al-Shabab base in Quissanga district, with officials claiming they killed a large number of al-Shabab fighters. Still, the militants bounced back again. After a spree of raiding and looting in Macomia district, they made another assault on Mocimboa da Praia town, driving out security forces and almost the entire population in more than a week of fighting in early August that left dozens dead. By the end of the month, the total number of displaced people had risen to 330,000. Regional capitals and oil and gas multinationals began to fear that the situation was getting out of hand. In August, during the assault on Mocimboa da Praia, neighbouring Tanzania had announced that it would step up border security operations. The French oil and gas multinational Total, which had purchased Anadarko's assets in Africa in 2019, pressed the government to enter into a new memorandum of understanding that obliged the government to reinforce its security force presence around the Afungi perimeter. The company's chief executive officer, Patrick Pouyanne, travelled to Maputo to meet Nyusi, to whom he relayed that the risk posed to the company's multi-billion-dollar operational plan was becoming critical. Still, the militants continued to sustain the momentum. Weeks later, in October, a group of al-Shabab fighters numbering as many as 300 crossed into Tanzania and raided security, reportedly capturing military equipment in an attack again celebrated by ISIS. The conflict started to draw world leaders' attention and prompted Total to start reducing its operational footprint. In late October, Dyck helicopters struck two boats carrying militants off the coast of Ibo district. Days later, security forces struck militants again, this time in Palma district. At the same time, al-Shabab massacred up to 50 civilians in Muidumbe district before eventually storming Namacande. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the killings. The then-outgoing U.S. coordinator for counter-terrorism, Nathan Sales, visited Maputo, where he insisted to journalists that the militants were part of a "committed ISIS affiliate that embraces the ISIS ideology". In December, al-Shabab fighters attacked security forces close to Afungi. Although these strikes did not target Total, they still prompted the multinational to withdraw non-essential and non-security personnel the following month and press the government to provide more troops to secure the Afungi perimeter. After security forces and Dyck hit a militant base in Mocimboa da Praia district in February 2021, many in the private security industry speculated that the militants would struggle to recover. But the militants geared up operations in the north, drawing from their bases on the Tanzanian border. They began raiding the environs north of Palma town. The raids sent waves of terror through the civilian population, thousands of whom fled the district as food supplies reached critically low levels due to lack of secure road access. A dirt road in Chuiba, Cabo Delgado. Residents say that flooding makes it hard to use roads in the province because of the state they are in. 25 February 2021. CRISISGROUP/Meron Elias On 24 March, militants numbering around 120 and heavily armed with machine guns and grenade launchers attacked Palma town, destroying government buildings, robbing a bank, raiding arsenals and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. As fighting with security forces spilled into a second day, a second group of attackers moved in from the north. They razed large parts of the town, killing civilians, and ambushed a convoy including expatriate contractors who were trying to flee. Rescue operations shipped thousands of civilians by boat to Pemba, as security forces battled the militants. On 27 March, Total announced it was halting operations. ISIS then celebrated the attack on its media channel. In the days ahead, government forces continued to fight militants, amid sporadic attacks on security forces around the perimeter of Afungi. Authorities declared they had taken back control of Palma on 4 April. By then, however, Total had decided to withdraw all its staff from Afungi. On 26 April, the company invoked force majeure, saying it would no longer be able to guarantee its contractual obligations to the state. By the end of the month, the total number of displaced people from Cabo Delgado had risen to 732,000. Since late April 2021, al-Shabab's activity has been relatively muted while government and allied forces put them under pressure in continued cat-and-mouse operations. Militants continued to raid neighbourhoods of Palma, forcing civilians to flee during the course of early May, before moving their attention south and west toward Muidumbe, Mueda and Nangade districts where they once again began to mount attacks. Government forces, however, have been able to take back some strategic locations, notably Diaca, an important gateway to Mocimboa da Praia, as well as Namacande, which had been dominated by militants since November 2020. They have also attacked militant positions in Macomia district. IV. Al-Shabab's Evolving Shape, Strength and Behaviour Cabo Delgado's al-Shabab is a composite movement. Lower-level militants are mostly Mozambicans, primarily young Mwani and Makua who tend to be former fishermen and farmers, coastal smugglers and traders, or unemployed youth. There are a small number of Makonde al-Shabab fighters, for example some who were swept out of ruby mines in 2017. But the leadership of the movement is different. While there are a number of known Mozambican leaders of al-Shabab, eyewitnesses and Mozambican officials say Tanzanian Islamists, many of whom fled into Mozambique after security crackdowns in their home country in recent years, represent an important part of the group's leadership. These men appear to be more ideological than the Mozambican rank and file, many of whom are abducted and forced to sign up, or who join al-Shabab out of frustration with their socio-economic status, lured in by recruiters either offering cash or promising future wealth, and staying loyal to the group so long as they are paid. The movement seems to be growing in strength even after sustaining many casualties. It has reoccupied some of the main bases previously attacked by security forces. Independent security sources say the group comprises up to 1,500 fighters, but some government officials think there could be as many as 4,000 members, including in non-combatant roles. Eyewitnesses describe the group's logistical crew, which include local mechanics, nurses and communications specialists. The group recruits those it can entice with money, or the promise of it, as well as by kidnapping men in raids. Ever more evidence suggests that al-Shabab cells are recruiting in neighbouring Niassa province to the west and Nampula and Zambezia provinces to the south. When attacking major population centres, the group is thus now able to amass relatively large units. Hundreds of fighters were involved in the August 2020 battle in Mocimboa da Praia town and in the March 2021 attack on Palma town, for example. Since 2017, the group's weaponry and operational tactics have also improved significantly. According to a range of security sources, militants have significantly built up their armouries, including from stockpiles they have grabbed directly from government armouries. Dependent at first on AK-47 rifles and the occasional PKM machine gun, they have now acquired racks of RPG-7 rocket launchers and several 60mm and 82mm mortar firing systems, as well as the occasional government vehicle, mostly from looting security forces. On land, the fighters have become adept at coordinating simultaneous attacks in different districts and have got markedly better at battlefield tactics. In addition, they are mobile in littoral waters, using small canoes and sailboats to move up and down the coast or to mount attacks on shore or nearby islands. They also appear to have built up an effective intelligence system. Security sources report that the militants have developed cells not just among the civilian population but also within armed force units. They have caught security forces flatfooted in ambushes and prepared raids on military bases from nearby hidden locations as well as infiltrated towns before launching attacks, as they did in Palma. Fighters often attack areas soon after security forces depart, suggesting that they have advance knowledge of their foes' movements. When they attack, they sometimes wear security force uniforms, obtained illegally, confusing civilians and soldiers who are unable to tell whether they are in fact al-Shabab until it is too late. The group has also attracted defectors from the security forces. One Mozambican source told Crisis Group that former security force personnel he hires for his security company say they know out-of-work former colleagues who have joined al-Shabab. The militants also appear able to generate considerable revenue and deploy funds to expand their operational footprint and recruitment base. Some businesses in Cabo Delgado pay protection money; other enterprises have been started up through cash loans from militants, who then tax profits. Militants also raise revenues from ransom payments. Intelligence sources suspect significant funds may be channelled in from abroad. The funds of al-Shabab are hard to trace, however. The movement often uses civilians to launder money, including via mobile phone transfer services. Eyewitnesses, however, have seen militants handle large amounts of Mozambican meticais and foreign currency. Some experts fear that the movement could start taking a slice of contraband profits, including via bankrolling networks of gold and gemstone miners and smugglers operating in the province. There are fears militants may also start taxing drug cargoes in transit through waters and coastal land under their control, although there is no visible evidence to suggest that is happening yet. While invoking Islam, and presenting themselves as jihadists, the militants seem to have specific local motives for killing. They sometimes stress their hatred for the ruling party and target specific local administrative and security officials, or those they consider government collaborators. In one video, reportedly of the Quissanga town attack, militants wave an ISIS banner, but also make clear that they are rejecting the Frelimo flag. A Mozambican militant in another video says they are fighting "leeches and corrupt people" from "Maputo". One eyewitness told Crisis Group that when al-Shabab fighters stormed Mocimboa da Praia in August 2020, they killed only civilians who presented government-issued or Frelimo identification cards, sparing others who carried no official documents. The relationship between al-Shabab and civilians is fraught. The militant group behaves like a roving predator, often seemingly appearing out of nowhere to conduct indiscriminate attacks before vanishing again. In the process of targeting security forces and government buildings, its fighters have inflicted terrible casualties on locals, often mutilating and decapitating them. Militant attacks on the Makonde, who are mainly Frelimo supporters and Catholics, are reportedly often severe. Mwani and Makua civilians, however, have also borne the brunt of terrible attacks, for example during al-Shabab's gradual sweep through the coastal districts in 2018, or in the group's assaults on various district capitals. During these attacks, militants often explicitly order civilians to leave their homes and never come back. They kill those they believe are resisting the orders. As a result, vast areas in some of the conflict-affected districts of Cabo Delgado are now significantly depopulated. That said, militants can, from time to time, show mercy, providing residents occasional food handouts and even safe passages out of the line of fire, and frequently telling civilians whom they come across that their real enemy is the state and not the population. Despite the group's elusive nature and its tendency to force many civilians to flee districts in which it operates, al-Shabab recruiters still maintain contacts with communities that chose to remain in the conflict-affected areas, and also among civilians and in displacement camps much farther afield. V. Transnational Links and the Threat to the Region As the al-Shabab group in Cabo Delgado has grown, Mozambican and foreign security officials have become increasingly concerned that it could draw in more fighters from overseas, and also become a platform from which ISIS or other foreign militants could embed themselves and sow more insecurity in the region. While the link between Tanzanian jihadists and Mozambican militants is well established, the extent of other reported relationships between al-Shabab and other regional networks, including ISIS, is less clear. That said, Mozambique is right to be concerned about the possibility of transnational support for al-Shabab. The conflict in Cabo Delgado has already been significantly affected by the proliferation of jihadist networks in Tanzania. Over the last decade, Islamist militants in Mozambique's neighbour have come into confrontation with security forces there. In 2013, Tanzanian authorities dismantled a training camp which was linked to Somalia's Al-Shabaab movement and located near the northern city of Tanga. In 2015, security forces began cracking down on Islamist youth in the Kibiti district, 140km by road south of Dar es Salaam. The youth fought back in 2017, targeting public and security officials in the district only to be met with heavy security crackdowns, accompanied by hundreds of reported disappearances. Many of these youth fled to Mozambique, where they eventually joined al-Shabab, including as leaders of the group. Some of these individuals are connected to gem traders and maritime traffickers who have worked for smuggling rings still operating today between Tanzania and Mozambique, and which have also been previously used to move recruits from Tanzania to Somalia. Mozambican officials claim that some al-Shabab militants have also gone to fight alongside the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militant group that has been involved in killing thousands of civilians and attacking security forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They also say several Ugandans and Congolese have come to fight in Mozambique, travelling via Tanzania, though they offer no precise numbers or any explanation about why these exchanges, which appear to have taken place mostly between 2016 and 2018, might be valuable for either the ADF or al-Shabab in Cabo Delgado. Information collected outside Mozambique only partially corroborates some of their allegations. A former ADF fighter whose testimony while in custody has been reviewed by Crisis Group says ADF leader Musa Baluku has long been in contact with al-Shabab leaders in Mozambique. In addition, the former fighter stated that in 2017, a militant Ugandan cleric now in Mozambican custody was involved in recruiting Mozambicans to join the ADF, moving them from Cabo Delgado through Tanzania and Burundi, after which they crossed into the DRC's South Kivu province and headed to the ADF's base in North Kivu. In 2018, a group of Mozambicans arrested in the DRC claimed to the media that they were on the way to join "jihad" and had also travelled via Burundi. Whether recruits are still moving between the eastern DRC and Mozambique is unclear. While Congolese military sources say they suspect more Mozambicans have been training with the ADF in previous years, they cannot confirm the precise numbers in the ADF's ranks at present, and say they have no other Mozambicans in custody. Regional security sources therefore believe that even if there was a significant movement of recruits between the DRC and Mozambique, it has now wound up. That said, an organisation working with the Congolese military says it has identified at least one Tanzanian currently in the ADF who has fighting experience in Cabo Delgado. It is investigating the possibility that other Tanzanian jihadists are rotating through eastern Congo and Mozambique. In addition to these links, Mozambican and foreign security officials are also concerned about Somali jihadists who may also be getting involved with al-Shabab. UN investigators have reported to the Security Council that a senior figure from an ISIS-affiliated splinter of Somalia's Al-Shabaab movement operating in the north of that country's semi-autonomous region of Puntland has travelled to Mozambique. The team reported in September 2020 that Mohamed Ahmed "Qahiye", known by regional intelligence sources in East Africa as a military trainer, had passed through Ethiopia on his way to Cabo Delgado. While the UN investigators did not provide further details, regional intelligence and diplomatic sources suspect that Qahiye went to train fighters in Mozambique. Meanwhile, fighters of several other nationalities are known to be embedded in Cabo Delgado's militant ranks. Eyewitnesses who have escaped or been released from militant bases in Cabo Delgado report seeing other foreigners in camp, including fighters with fair skin, and in one case, blue eyes. Security sources are divided over whether these men could be from Arabic-speaking countries or from the Caucasus, but establishing who and how numerous they are has not been possible. South African law enforcement officers say they are pursuing several leads relating to South African nationals, and other Africans passing through South Africa, who may have established links with al-Shabab in Cabo Delgado. Counter-terrorism experts and policymakers claim that it is through these foreign links that ISIS is most likely to exert influence. The UN team monitoring the global evolution of ISIS and al-Qaeda reported in 2020 that the Puntland ISIS-affiliated group acts as an important logistical lead for support directed to both the ADF and al-Shabab in Cabo Delgado. The U.S. State Department which has now classified al-Shabab in Cabo Delgado and the ADF as ISIS-affiliated groups, has meanwhile named the leader of what it calls "ISIS-Mozambique" as a Tanzanian national, Abu Yasir Hassan. He is known to have been involved in the Kibiti violence and is also suspected to have spent time in the DRC, although some security sources suggest he may be dead. But while ISIS now claims joint ownership of the ADF faction run by Baluku as well as the al-Shabab of Mozambique, under the banner of Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), the U.S. State Department considers the DRC and Mozambican franchises "distinct entities". If there is a relationship between ISIS and al-Shabab, it appears to be more tenuous than official accounts suggest. Crisis Group research elsewhere shows that ISIS tends to exploit pre-existing conflicts and mostly provides only limited resources to strengthen the performance of allied factions on the ground, but that these affiliates retain their own command and control and local priorities. An important indicator of the strength of any link between ISIS and any given affiliate is the speed and accuracy with which ISIS issues media releases glorifying the attacks of the affiliate. Rapid press releases would indicate smooth communication between the groups. In the case of Cabo Delgado, the link appears to be weak. While ISIS has claimed or commented on over 40 separate attacks by al-Shabab between June 2019 and the present, it stopped claiming them at the end of October 2020, resuming only in the aftermath of the Palma attack in March. By contrast, ISIS claims of ADF attacks continued throughout this period. Regional governments are nonetheless understandably concerned that the longer the conflict rages in Cabo Delgado, the more likely it is that southern Africa becomes a new frontier for jihadist attacks. In January 2020, South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor stated: "We should be worried, given that the attacks in Mozambique point to the presence of IS in the ... region". South African intelligence and law enforcement officials are also amassing evidence that while homegrown criminal gangs and jihadists in cities like Durban and Johannesburg are mingling with suspected jihadists coming from Tanzania and ADF operatives coming from as far away as the eastern DRC, South African nationals connected to these militant circles have also attempted to travel to Mozambique for combat experience. Authorities are also investigating several suspected ISIS-affiliated money launderers allegedly operating in South Africa. VI. Government and Regional Responses A. The Role of the Police and Military Mozambique's military, stunted by decades of under-investment, has faced serious challenges when countering al-Shabab and has become a near constant target for militant attacks. The army is also stretched given its responsibilities in trying to achieve the surrender of a dissident residual armed faction of Renamo in the centre of the country. A special rapid reaction unit of the national police, the Unidade Intervencao Rapida (UIR), supported for several months by Dyck mercenaries until they recently wound down their operation, has served until recently as the primary force taking the fight to al-Shabab. Mozambique's national military, Forcas Armadas de Defensa de Mocambique (FADM), is in a parlous state after decades of under-investment following the 1992 peace accords that ended the country's civil war. Much of the FADM's Soviet-era stock is in disrepair. Originally slated to be a force of 30,000 men, split 50:50 between government and Renamo appointees, the FADM fell way short in its recruitment efforts, leaving it with just over 12,000 members by 1995, just 30 per cent of them Renamo. Under foreign pressure to prioritise development and loath to trust an institution composed partly of its former battlefield enemies, Maputo continued to slow-roll military spending over the next decades. A government procurement scandal during Guebuza's term as president and Nyusi's as defence minister, in which state-backed companies took on more than $2 billion in questionable debt guaranteed by the state to finance the purchase of maritime assets, also rendered the country bankrupt and without a navy fit for purpose. The UIR has fared differently, however. Spending on the UIR was privileged during and after the Guebuza presidency. This force is better paid and equipped than the FADM and other police units, which also generally suffer from under-investment. As the crisis erupted, the UIR thus became the main security organ fighting militants. Under Police Commander Bernardino Rafael, the force kept al-Shabab from expanding even further. But Nyusi's reliance on Bernardino, a Makonde career officer, antagonised those who see him as yet another expression of Makonde dominance in political and security decisions related to Cabo Delgado. Amid these tensions, the UIR had trouble securing ammunition and logistical support from the FADM, hampering its operations in 2020. Meanwhile, Nyusi attempted to involve the FADM further in counter-insurgency efforts by appointing Eugenio Mussa, a prominent military commander stationed in Cabo Delgado, as chief of army staff. This effort stalled when Mussa died in February 2021. The president has pressed on with his priority of placing the FADM at the heart of the country's security response. Maputo has been pushing for more direct bilateral support from its foreign partners, asking them for training and materiel including for the urgent creation of specialised combat units comprised of marines and commandos. After the Palma attack, former colonial power Portugal is expediting the provision of Mozambique's security forces with an array of specialised training. The U.S., keen to develop a relationship with gas-rich Mozambique, has also reactivated a training program for Mozambican forces. The European Union (EU) is also proposing deploying a long-term training mission of perhaps up to 300 personnel to Mozambique. In terms of equipment, the government has recently acquired armoured vehicles and helicopters from a South African defence and aerospace company, which also has a subsidiary training unit present in Mozambique. Mozambican officials say they would still need more equipment for units to be deployed effectively against al-Shabab. Some European and other Western governments are wary of providing Mozambique military hardware to FADM units until they have at least completed their training, citing the allegations of abuses by security forces and government contractors during past campaigns to combat al-Shabab. External partners also want to ensure Mozambique's military can maintain such materiel and avoid defectors running off with equipment, or personnel selling it. They also worry about how security forces will manage local militias whom they have relied on to combat al-Shabab, and whether the use of these forces and the distribution of weapons among them by the UIR, FADM or anyone else could constitute another security risk going forward, even if the militias have been useful allies of the security forces until now. Even were the EU inclined to finance the provision of lethal assistance, the European Peace Facility, which is where any financing would come from, is not expected to be functional until July 2021. B. Promises of Development and Humanitarian Aid The humanitarian situation in Cabo Delgado is dire. Thousands of people fleeing violence have crammed into Pemba and other towns, stretching public services in the capital and draining the resources of host families. Thousands more sit in displacement camps in the province's south and in neighbouring provinces. The government has started to offer many displaced families access to land and services in about 100 new villages in the south, which remains untroubled by violence. It is unclear, however, whether the people installed there can adapt to new livelihoods. Until security improves in their places of origin, there is little alternative, officials say, other than to relocate them to these villages. These villages, however, can only absorb a fraction of the displaced. Aid organisations, meanwhile, complain that government delays in issuing visas and clearing items at customs have stymied their operations across various districts. As the crisis has unfolded, Maputo has developed plans to draw in hundreds of millions of donor dollars for aid and development projects in Cabo Delgado and the north. In March 2020, the government created the Northern Integrated Development Agency, an institution mandated to coordinate humanitarian assistance and support economic growth and youth employment in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula. The Agency comes under the management of the minister for agricultural and rural development, Celso Correia, a former campaign manager for Nyusi. In April 2021, the government also entered into an agreement to receive $100 million allocated by the World Bank for use primarily in supporting basic infrastructure and livelihood creation for thousands of people displaced as a result of the conflict. The National Fund for Sustainable Development, also part of Correia's ministry, will be responsible for procurement related to any funded projects, assisted by the UN Office for Project Services. Questions remain, however, about what role the Agency will play going forward and whether it should not be engaging more directly with the province's population to survey what people say they need, besides security, in the areas to which they eventually want to return. Some civil society organisations have expressed concerns that there are insufficient safeguards for how funds will be used, and also worry that there is not enough of an emphasis on using the funds to support the return of civilians to their native districts. C. Regional Intervention Plans As Cabo Delgado's crisis has escalated, neighbouring countries have pushed to get more involved. Southern African Development Community states are keen to put boots on the ground, worried that insecurity could spread north into Tanzania and south toward Mozambique's central regions bordering Southern African states. But an agreement has been elusive. Critics suggest that the Mozambican president, who is currently SADC chairman, has resisted regional intervention because he does not want to open up Cabo Delgado and its illicit political economy to prying eyes. The president's supporters dismiss these views as unfounded assertions, and add that if he has been cautious, it is because he is merely trying to ensure that any foreign intervention is thought through carefully and that Mozambique retains control over it. The road up to this point has been tortuous. Initial SADC consultations in 2020 delivered little of consequence. The 19 May 2020 meeting of SADC's Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (also known as the Organ Troika) held in Harare ended with a communique saying the bloc was committed to fighting the "terrorists" in Mozambique, but giving no further details. Two days later, South Africa's Foreign Minister Pandor stated that Pretoria was "in negotiations" with Maputo to provide assistance, although little, if anything, was agreed. A meeting of Organ Troika committees in June resulted in commitments from SADC countries to deploy, but without Mozambique's green light. Toward the end of 2020, SADC member states became increasingly impatient at Maputo's hesitation but discussions still yielded nothing. At a two-day Troika Summit in Gaborone, Botswana, in late November, which was attended by regional presidents (except Nyusi, who was represented by his defence minister, Jaime Neto) the bloc issued a communique saying it had "directed" a regional response for the crisis in Mozambique, although it imposed no time frame. Troika leaders (Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa) pushed for a follow-up meeting on 14 December, hosted by Nyusi. But further talks on a regional intervention stalled and a decision on SADC assistance was pushed back to a dedicated summit on Cabo Delgado scheduled for 14 January. That summit was then postponed, ostensibly due to a surge of COVID-19 in the region. Mozambique's foreign ministry declared on 12 February that a SADC summit might convene in either May or June. The Palma attack upped pressure on Nyusi. Following the attack, and in his capacity as SADC chair, Nyusi gave in and called an extraordinary "Double Troika" SADC meeting on 8 April where the bloc committed to send a technical team from neighbouring states to Maputo to assess what the regional role in fighting al-Shabab could be. A day before the meeting, Nyusi stated that Mozambique would lead any military operation involving SADC. "Those who arrive from abroad will not replace us. They will support us", he said in a state television broadcast. "It's about sovereignty". In published closing remarks a day later, he stated that Mozambique would be ready to act "in a coordinated manner and with a support structure and specific regional actions to sustain the threat of terrorism". Zimbabwe's ministry of information tweeted that SADC agreed that a force "should be resuscitated and capacitated immediately so that it can intervene". Nyusi still appears to be hesitant, worried about whether such a force, were it ever deployed, would be impossible to control. A leaked report by a SADC technical team recommending the deployment of a combined force of 3,000 personnel in army, navy and air units has already been rejected by Mozambique's officials, some of whom also feel the leak was a way of putting Maputo under undue pressure to accept a deployment of this magnitude. The follow-up SADC summit of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, due to occur on 28 April, was postponed, with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa tending to a pressing domestic engagement and Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi indisposed due to a COVID-19 quarantine restriction. In the meantime, Nyusi has now begun to take advice from Rwanda's President Paul Kagame on how to manage the military response to al-Shabab. On the same day that the SADC meeting was postponed, Nyusi flew to Kigali to meet Kagame and Rwandan security officials to discuss possible security cooperation. A Rwandan military assessment team followed up with a visit to Cabo Delgado. Security and diplomatic sources say discussions between the two sides centre around the possible deployment of a small contingent of Rwandan forces who could support Mozambican security forces in counter-insurgency operations. Meanwhile, a follow-up SADC meeting on 27 May again yielded no concrete agreement. D. Security Cooperation with Tanzania Ever since the Kibiti crackdowns, Tanzania has been on guard for a resurgence of violence on its own turf. Tanzanian authorities have taken a restrictive approach to border policing, fearing that militants based in Mozambique will cross back and forth at will and stage further attacks on Tanzanian forces. The UN has criticised Tanzania's policy of either blocking entry for civilians fleeing Cabo Delgado or expelling them back into the province. A ban on cross-border exports of food into Cabo Delgado in February led to higher food prices and more human suffering in Palma. Bilateral relations between Mozambique and Tanzania are cordial but at times strained. In January 2021, Nyusi, Bernardino and Mussa travelled to Tanzania and led to the formal tightening of police and intelligence cooperation between the two neighbours and the extradition of hundreds of suspects in Tanzania to Mozambique. Yet some Mozambican officials privately gripe that the cooperation is undermined by the Tanzanian security services' tolerance for smugglers and traffickers, who are in turn connected to the Mozambican al-Shabab and who allegedly receive protection from powerful political and security figures in Tanzania. Mozambican officials say they hope for better cooperation from the Tanzanian authorities under the new presidency of Samia Suluhu Hassan. VII. Stemming the Insurrection The Palma attack seems to have focused minds in Maputo and further afield: turning the tide in Cabo Delgado is urgent, lest the humanitarian crisis keep worsening and the insurrection pose a broader threat to national and regional stability. Mozambique's government has a range of proposals on the table, including the option of inviting in external forces to provide additional security. But it needs to act in a measured fashion, so that security operations are complemented by efforts to address local grievances, in order to avoid what Nyusi himself warns could otherwise become an ineffective and unfocused "salad of interventions". A. An Urgent but Measured Security Response Maputo's instinct to rebuild the army is sound, but this task will take time. In the interim, the country, already under financial strain from its debt scandal and thus likely to have to depend on external financing to upgrade its forces, will face limitations on how it can combat an enemy that has rebounded with greater ferocity every time it has come under pressure. Some military assistance is on its way from Western governments and the EU, but in limited form. While these partners may be ready to come to Mozambique's assistance with military training, they have to date demurred from lavishing the country's security forces with weapons, wary of the human rights allegations surrounding the security services and eager to see the FADM first show greater discipline. Mozambique is thus in a tough corner. Without capable security forces, Maputo will struggle to stabilise Cabo Delgado and may see al-Shabab plan further attacks and even spread into neighbouring provinces or Tanzania. External military intervention is thus needed but should be measured. Diplomats, military experts and Mozambican authorities agree that a SADC force of 3,000 troops may well be an unrealistic proposition. Donors fear that the bill for standing up such a force would be prohibitive, given that SADC member state forces have their own capacity and logistical deficits. They also voice doubts that the proposal for this many men is based on a clear strategy; some think it may just be a way for some SADC member states to use the Mozambique crisis to justify international resources for their own militaries. SADC's intervention in the DRC already serves as a cautionary tale. Member state forces deployed as an intervention brigade under UN blue helmets in the DRC have for years struggled to finish off the ADF there, with their operations often compromised by poor cooperation with the DRC military authorities. In the meantime, the ADF continues its brutal attacks against civilians. Security and Mozambican government sources fear that foreign troops with limited understanding of the local environment would similarly struggle against al-Shabab. If they got bogged down in a long conflict, they could attract more foreign fighters eager to take on international forces and turn the province into a battlefield pitting Western-backed forces against transnational jihadists seeking to open a new frontier. Many security experts and some in government are in any case sceptical whether it is possible to eradicate al-Shabab. They believe a more realistic goal would be stemming the militants' expansion while offering its fighters incentives to demobilise. Rather than accept a very heavy regional force that risks a quagmire, Mozambique might better benefit from the provision of military advisers, intelligence capabilities and limited but effective combat support from its regional and international partners. Such assistance should be deployed in support of the elite Mozambican commandos and marines that are already being trained up by international partners to spearhead FADM operations against al-Shabab. Donors should be able to extend a limited amount of hardware to these units, with fewer concerns, given the specialised training they are receiving. All contributing parties should agree that these Mozambican forces will lead operations against al-Shabab. Agreements for external combat support should be time-bound so as to allow flexibility in adjusting any mandate or reassigning responsibilities. Operations should be geared toward stopping the militants' expansion and squeezing al-Shabab so that its fighters start to consider leaving the group. In the meantime, regular FADM units and the police, including the UIR, could secure population centres and provide reassurance to civilians able to return to their districts. Organising the fight this way achieves three things. First, targeted operations would ensure that the militants are not given free rein to plan more major attacks. Secondly, while operations proceed, Maputo could separately focus on upgrading the broader capabilities of the FADM and police, as they undergo longer-term training. To prepare the ground, Maputo should also conduct a full audit of the logistics base and organisational structures of its military and police forces. An audit would allow Mozambique's partners to assess what long-term assistance to give - from updating command-and-control systems to improving stockpile management and maintenance skills - so as to help reform and rebuild the FADM and the police. Thirdly, in avoiding heavy external deployment that could turn the conflict into a quagmire, authorities will also have space to use the tool of dialogue to encourage al-Shabab fighters to demobilise. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Mozambique 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. B. Development, Dialogue and Demobilisation Knowing that a military solution on its own will not be enough to stem the insurrection, government officials are also keen to use development initiatives as a tool to soothe public opinion, persuade militants to quit al-Shabab and ensure they do not relapse into militancy if they do leave the group as a result of military pressure. Of course, militants may not be responsive to such a bargain if they have become ideologically gripped by jihad, or if they feel their career path within al-Shabab is a better bet. Officials are also wary they may not have anything to offer harder-line Tanzanian leaders of the group who are not part of Cabo Delgado's political fabric, and that some Mozambican militants may now be committed jihadists. Still, they and community leaders believe it is possible to appeal to the interests of the vast majority of Mozambican militants who may well consider the option of defecting permanently if the state can demonstrate it is committed to addressing their grievances and keeping them gainfully employed. Even leaving aside the question of whether militants will be open to such an approach, there are other challenges to using aid in this way. Given the kinship ties between militants and their original communities, government officials believe they can use development funds to rebuild trust with locals and reach back through the communities to al-Shabab fighters to persuade them to defect. Local activists and staff from the Northern Integrated Development Agency warn, however, that unless aid is channelled into communities through a series of consultations with local populations, it could enflame local tensions, as donors have found out in the Sahel. In addition, unless development spending is all accounted for, it may fuel perceptions that the authorities are not responding to locals' concerns directly and that funds are being misappropriated. Various government officials from different ministries and provincial offices are already tasked with consulting local populations, but the authorities should request that this dialogue take place through the Agency, which should identify local leaders who can win the trust of communities and coordinate initiatives to avoid overlap. Nyusi stated as far back as 2019 that he would be willing to initiate dialogue with militants. The Agency thus has a role to play in terms of kick-starting that process and should work with locals and defectors to find ways of communicating with militants and explaining what they might have to gain by leaving al-Shabab. In addition, the government could then work with other community leaders and figures of influence to keep the dialogue going. To complement the Agency's work in building trust with the population and civil society, further measures are required. Firstly, the government and donors should channel resources equally across Cabo Delgado's different communities, to avoid enflaming tensions between Makonde and the Mwani and Makua. Secondly, the Agency should include representatives of opposition groups including Renamo, which has large support among certain constituencies in Cabo Delgado, such as the Mwani of Mocimboa da Praia. Doing so would demonstrate that it has the backing of the entire political system and lend the process broader legitimacy across the public spectrum. Thirdly, the National Fund for Sustainable Development, with UN assistance, should publish quarterly updates on how the government is spending World Bank aid and who is benefiting. If it is possible to induce al-Shabab fighters to demobilise, there will also have to be a safe way out of the movement. The government should work on developing an exit corridor for surrender, drawing on the experience, for example, of Nigeria, which has in place a process for receiving defectors, providing them with livelihood training and reintegrating them into society, although it has much work to do to improve the system, including ridding it of abuses committed against defectors by various security officials. Maputo may also want to consider what specific security role it can assign to militant defectors, including in the port town of Mocimboa da Praia itself. Nyusi has already stated that he would favour a policy of giving amnesties to Mozambican al-Shabab fighters. "We are ready to receive them and reintegrate them back into society", he said in early April. To make this proposition palatable to the public, the government should also step up its support for the Attorney General's Office to prosecute high-level al-Shabab leaders who fall into military custody, in order to demonstrate that justice is also being served. C. Easing Restrictions on Humanitarian Aid Mozambican authorities have taken a cautious approach to humanitarian assistance. While there is no official policy to block aid, humanitarian agencies have consistently reported that authorities slow their operations, for instance by delaying workers' visas. Some Mozambican officials claim the reason for such interference is that national intelligence services remain concerned that militants will infiltrate humanitarian agency camps to feed themselves, or that humanitarian workers may end up negotiating access with militants who may demand payoffs or even divert humanitarian aid. Yet stepping up humanitarian assistance in various districts, in addition to whatever security improvements can be delivered locally, will be crucial for persuading the population to return to depopulated districts and thus playing a role in the recovery of their communities. The government should work with a diplomatic task force that has been set up to facilitate international aid for Mozambique's fight to contain COVID-19, and which also engages on other priority issues, to unlock bureaucratic delays facing international aid agencies so that they can escalate aid deliveries to needy populations and prepare the ground for further interventions in the wake of military operations. D. International Law Enforcement Cooperation While al-Shabab remains primarily a Mozambican affair, regional governments in East and Southern Africa are also working hard to stop any attempt by foreign elements from the continent and farther afield to fuel violence in Cabo Delgado. While ISIS ties and influence over al-Shabab in Mozambique appear rather limited, Maputo and its allies still fear that the global movement could plug into the various criminal and jihadist networks operating in the region to channel more trainers, funds, weapons, drones and perhaps even components of improvised explosives into Mozambique. Beyond bilateral relationships, countries in East and Southern Africa rely on several institutions for intelligence and law enforcement cooperation: the African Union's Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa, Interpol and financial intelligence units of governments that work with the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group. This cooperation could be enhanced. First, donors can assist the information flow by creating opportunities, formal and informal, for financial investigators, intelligence and law enforcement officials and prosecutors from East and Southern Africa to exchange information. Such meetings could be funded by external partners including but not limited to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice, who often convene counter-terrorism roundtables in the region. Secondly, these countries should request assistance from SADC and the Horn of Africa's regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, in developing a platform on which they could convene in various combinations depending on circumstances to share intelligence and plan law enforcement operations targeting relevant individuals and financial streams connected to the insurrection. The regional organisations should place a special emphasis on disrupting transnational support to networks that support al-Shabab in Mozambique and Tanzanian networks connected to the conflict in Cabo Delgado. VIII. Conclusion While international headlines have focused of late on links between Cabo Delgado's militants and ISIS, the real drivers of conflict have more to do with local grievances and the state's inability to manage a snowballing security threat. Eager to help, Mozambique's external partners need to exercise caution or they risk making things worse. Foreign-backed counter-terrorism operations without a plan to address local tensions at their source could simply exacerbate human suffering, poverty and the resentment of the state that many locals feel. A wiser approach for Mozambique and its partners would combine military operations with efforts to address the conflict's local roots, building up the country's capacity to handle its own security problems, doing more to win over communities in which Mozambican militants originate and stepping up policing efforts against transnational jihadists and criminals who may try to exploit the crisis. Maputo/Nairobi/Brussels, 11 June 2021 Appendix A: Map of Mozambique (See links at the end for Appendices) Appendix B: Timeline of Cabo Delgado Conflict 5 October 2017 Group of 30 fighters storms Mocimboa da Praia town in the first violent attack 8 October 2017 Security forces succeed in retaking the town December 2017 Security forces attack al-Shabab in Mitumbate, Mocimboa da Praia district 27 May 2018 Group beheads at least ten in an attack on the town of Olumbi, Palma district 5 June 2018 Militants burn homes and kill civilians in attack in Macomia district July 2018 Attacks on security forces positions in Mocimboa da Praia and Palma districts 21 February 2019 Attacks on convoys of Anadarko in Palma district alarm the gas industry 2 April 2019 Fighters attack military base in Mocimboa da Praia district Late April 2019 Cyclone Kenneth hits Cabo Delgado province 3 June 2019 Fighters of al-Shabab beat off security operation in Mocimboa da Praia district 4 June 2019 ISIS claims that al-Shabab fighters are "soldiers of the caliphate" 13 June 2019 Security forces and militants clash in Nangade district inland 20-24 August 2019 President Filipe Nyusi visits Russia 23 September 2019 Fighters kill ten in Mbau, Mocimboa da Praia district October 2019 Wagner mercenaries from Russia take part in counter-insurgency operation Mid-November 2019 First attack by al-Shabab militants in Tanzanian territory, in Ngongo village 23 January 2020 Attack by al-Shabab on Mbau, claimed by ISIS, kills more than twenty soldiers 29 January 2020 Militant attack on Bilibiza town, Quissanga district 23 March 2020 Fighters overrun military base in Mocimboa da Praia town and raise ISIS flag 25 March 2020 Fighters attack Quissanga town, beheading Eduardo Mondlane's statue Early April 2020 Dyck mercenaries repel militant attack in Muidumbe town 19 May 2020 SADC claims to be committed to fighting "terrorists" with no further details 21 May 2020 South Africa says it is "in negotiations" to assist Mozambique 28 May 2020 Fighters stage multiple attacks on Macomia town 27 June 2020 Militants attempt to take Mocimboa da Praia town 1 July 2020 Government and Dyck mercenaries kill dozens in a militant base in Quissanga district 5-15 August 2020 Militants take Mocimboa da Praia town, driving out the military and civilians 17 August 2020 President Filipe Nyusi assumes chairmanship of SADC 24 August 2020 Total announces agreement with government concerning security of liquefied natural gas (LNG) project 14 October 2020 300 fighters cross the border and carry out new attack in Tanzanian territory 11 November 2020 UN Secretary-General condemns massacre of 50 in Muidumbe district, after which militants take hold of district capital Namacande 27 November 2020 Filipe Nyusi skips Organ Troika summit that agrees on "regional response" December 2020 Several attacks near LNG project in Afungi 4 January 2021 Total confirms suspension of operations and withdraws non-security personnel 14 January 2021 SADC summit is postponed to either May or June due to COVID-19 surge 10-11 February 2021 Offensive against fighters' base in Mbau disrupts group's operations 24 March 2021 Around 120 heavily armed militants begin an attack on Palma town 27 March 2021 Total announces it is suspending operations 29 March 2021 ISIS claims attack on Palma town; veracity of the claim is later disputed 4 April 2021 Government claims to have retaken control of Palma 7-8 April 2021 SADC meeting agrees on technical team to assess a possible regional role 26 April 2021 Total declares force majeure on LNG project 27 April 2021 SADC's technical team report, suggesting almost 3,000 regional troops, is leaked 28 April 2021 SADC meeting to discuss technical team's report is postponed May 2021 Government forces retake Namacande 27 May 2021 Another SADC meeting yields no agreement Appendix C: Access and Displacement in Cabo Delgado Appendix D: Reported Fatalities in Cabo Delgado (January 2017-April 2021) *As recorded by ACLED, 2,822 fatalities came from organised political violence, which includes battles, explosions/remote violence and violence against civilians. Source: ACLED (Armed Conflict & Event Data Project), as of 30 April 2021. Note: numbers of reported fatalities should be regarded as indicative rather than definitive. Appendix E: Map of Organised Political Violence in Cabo Delgado (2017-2020) Note: organised political violence includes battles, explosions/remote violence and violence against civilians as de-fined by the ACLED codebook. Source: ACLED (Armed Conflict & Event Data Project), as of 30 April 2021. Appendix F: Violence Targeting Civilians in Cabo Delgado (2017-2021) Source: ACLED (Armed Conflict & Event Data Project), as of 30 April 2021. Note: Violence targeting civilians in-cludes violence against civilians, explosions/remote violence, riots and excessive use of force against protesters where civilians are present. Appendix G: Timeline of ISIS-Claimed Attacks (June 2019-March 2021) Published with kind permission by ExTrac. Nigeria's indefinite Twitter ban has cut off an estimated 40 million users in the country. The prohibition of the microblogging platform is being celebrated by some, highlighting the country's growing north-south divide. Social media companies that want to operate in Nigeria must register a local entity and be licensed by the country's broadcasting commission, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Wednesday. It followed the banning of Twitter by the Nigerian government, who alleged that the platform was being used to destabilize the country and undermine "Nigeria's corporate existence" by spreading fake news. "Twitter has consistently made its platform available to those who are threatening Nigeria's corporate existence, that is the reason for suspending their operations in Nigeria," Mohammed said. The decision came days after the microblogging site deleted a tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, stating that it threatened secessionist groups in the southeast that were allegedly responsible for attacks on government and electoral offices. Civil war comparisons In the 1960s, Nigeria waged war on one of those groups, which had declared itself the Republic of Biafra and fought a devastating civil war. In the deleted tweet, Buhari compared the civil war -- which killed more than 1 million people -- to recent attacks on offices of the national electoral commission. Buhari threatened to "treat" those who vandalized the electoral offices "in the language they understand." "Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War," Buhari's tweet read. The president used to be an army general who fought on behalf of the federal government against the Biafra separatists. The tweet was still online after several users urged Twitter to remove it. Some saw the tweet as "a threat of genocide" against the predominantly Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria's southeast. After Twitter removed it, it said the tweet violated its "abusive behavior" policy. Biafra wounds Today, renewed calls for secession have gained momentum online, pushed by an army of activists who use social media platforms like Twitter to disseminate information. "More than 120 million Nigerians have access to the internet, and nearly 40 million of them have a Twitter account -- 20% of the population," according to Lagos-based researcher NOI Polls. This call for Nigeria's split has irked many in the country's north, including the president, who is also a northerner. The government's main defense claims that Twitter allows secessionists to disseminate information that undermines the country's stability, while blocking the president's remark. "We found out that Twitter is the platform of choice for a particular separatist leader, who resides outside the country and issues directives to his members to attack symbols of government authorities such as the police, military, electoral commission offices, correctional centers, etc.," Lai Mohammed said. "This is being done willfully and consistently, without any consequences from Twitter. No country that wants to survive would tolerate that and no company, no matter its self importance, would force a nation to accept this." The ministers are referring to Nnamdi Kanu, the de facto leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement. Kanu, a British Nigerian, was arrested for spearheading a renewed call for Biafra's independence, but he secretly fled the country while on bail. His exact whereabouts is unknown, but some assume he is hiding in Israel. "Twitter gives the upper hand to the other parties, who are against Nigeria," political analyst Abdullai Mohamed Koli told DW. "IPOB and so many other bad associations are against the corporate existence of Nigeria." Twitter ban reaction Twitter users in Nigeria expressed outrage at the ban and warned of Africa's most populous nation slipping into repression. Many bypassed the suspension by using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the service, which has become the default platform to criticize the government. "This is a clear violation by the Nigerian government or is an attempt by the Nigerian government to deprive the rights of the ordinary citizen in expressing their own voice regarding to governance system, on how the government governs its own citizens," said political activist Ibrahim Adamu. "Twitter and all other social media platforms are the last alternatives for the common man to express their own mind or to communicate between the citizens and their own leaders," Adamu told DW. "When these platforms are blocked, there is no way that ordinary citizens can communicate with their leaders." However, in a series of social media posts by DW's Hausa service, many users hailed the ban. "Twitter has despised my country and our president," wrote Itz Khaleed Bin Muhammad on the Facebook page of DW Hausa. "We love our country and we want to live in unity and they do not want that. We hope the government should expel them completely." Nura Haruna Maikarfe Fta also wrote: "Even though I am not a supporter of the Buhari administration, its response towards Twitter is a good one, considering what I call open lack of respect of the platform to the presidency of our country." Analyst Abdullahi Mohamed Koli also supports the government's new directives requiring so-called over-the-top (OTTs) services to register locally. "For many, it has been a welcome idea by the Nigerian government. They have not been following the due process, the rules and regulations of the NBC [National Broadcasting Cooperation]," Abdullahi said. "They do not have any office in Nigeria, they are not paying tax in Nigeria and they refuse to register in Nigeria. A lot of irregularities have been happening under no regulations of the activities of social media in Nigeria." However, some northerners were against the ban. "This action is a violation of human rights, and it will not be effective because the proper channel has not been followed, therefore the law does not necessarily apply," wrote Ahmed Mohammed in one of DW Hausa's post. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance 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. "I do not support this kind of banning because Twitter is the most verified social media outfit," Muhammadu Ibrahim, a youth in Bauchi city, told DW. "Despite the fact that I do not support the ban, I also do not support the action of Twitter to delete the president's tweet. I disagree with it because he is the number one citizen of this country." Freedom of expression on the line? Legal pundits in Nigeria said the Twitter ban violates the freedom of expression guaranteed by the country's constitution. "I consider this new directive very detrimental to Nigeria and Nigerians," Baba Dala, a constitutional lawyer, told DW. "I think the unilateral decisions of sending them away will go a long way ... but won't stop the enthusiasm of Nigerians." Nigeria's bar association was hoping to file a court motion to lift the ban, but an ongoing nationwide strike by judiciary staff prohibited lawyers from taking further action. Nigeria's 40 million Twitter users are primarily young southerners who use the platform to hold their government to account. In 2020, the microblogging platform provided protesters with a means to communicate and make publicity during the #EndSARS protests, which were aimed at a notorious police unit but later metamorphosed to include governance and corruption. President Buhari also has an active Twitter account with 4.1 million followers. COVID-19 impact has exposed weakness of current food systems, but also revealed an opportunity for Africa to trade within the AfCFTA. Senamiso Ndlovu, 32, is a smallholder farmer with big food production dreams. The seed of her farming ambitions is the growing urban food demand. She has ramped up production of green peppers, butternut squash, tomatoes and cucumbers to meet growing demand for fresh produce in Bulawayo, a sprawling city in Zimbabwe. Ms. Ndlovu, who runs a family farm and is studying for a Master's degree in Agribusiness, says she is happy to keep city consumers fed, but wants a slice of the African food market. The recently launched African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could be just the market she needs. "I have eyed selling my produce in Kenya, for example, which is a competitive market, and I cherish a bigger market in Africa," explains Ms. Ndlovu. For Ms. Ndlovu, the export market in Africa is an exciting prospect to grow her agribusiness and learn new business ideas to innovate. Breaking into the local market has been tough. She has had to borrow money at expensive rates so as to triple her current production to meet large orders and raise quality standards. Marketing to the world is even tougher; there is thick red tape in getting the paperwork to export, meeting stringent phytosanitary conditions and guarantees of supply, not to mention upfront finance for production. Selling to Africa will change the food game, she argues. "Smallholder farmers need to be in consortia now to be able to aggregate their produce to supply foreign markets," notes Ms. Ndlovu. Open borders, more food, more money Agriculture contributes about 30 per cent to the continent's GDP, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB). The impact of COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of the current food systems as nations closed borders during lockdowns, constraining food imports and exports but starkly revealing an opportunity for Africa to trade with Africa under preferential trade terms. Through the AfCFTA, a trade block to tackle low trade and high unemployment has been launched. It promises to get more Africans buying, eating and wearing 'Made in Africa' goods and services at an affordable cost. African agriculture -- battered by poor productivity, low mechanization, inconsistent investment and policy mismatch -- could be transformed by increased trade among the 55 African Union member states. Restoring African dignity A thriving agriculture restores Africa's dignity, argues Prof. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, a food security advocate and Director of the African Research Universities Alliance Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Africa is importing over $50 billion worth of food and most of it from outside the continent. The AfCFTA has implemented a benchmark and trade targets, which is almost a quota system for Africa. "We have broadly defined food, and we can start by what we are capable of producing in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way," Prof. Sibanda told Africa Renewal, emphasizing that setting trade quotas should be used as a stimulant for internal competition and comparative advantages for African countries. "The root cause of Africa's high food import bill has been poor policies that have not incentivized farmers and not stimulated local production," Prof. Sibanda says. In Nigeria, it has been cheaper to import tomato paste than make it locally, while in Zimbabwe it is much cheaper to import milk than produce it locally. Prof. Sibanda is urging governments to go back to the drawing board and evaluate production costs while identifying the comparative advantage for Africa. "The Africa we want is an Africa that brings dignity to Africans," Prof. Sibanda said, adding that there can be no better way to restore dignity than through an AfCFTA that is not into monopolizing trade but showcase to the World Trade Organization that Africa can negotiate deals to its advantage as a block. Agriculture needs money to grow Dedicated investment in improved inputs, irrigation, storage and basic infrastructure will drive agricultural growth in Africa, McKinsey & Company notes, calling for an improvement in the continent's overall competitiveness, not just crop yields. Rising urbanization and growing middle class consumers are forecast to help generate $645 billion in consumer spending by 2025 in fresh produce, dairy, meat, processed food and beverages. The private sector must tap into Africa's agricultural potential by solving food supply challenges through facilitating flexible payment terms for agro-dealers to improve input purchases. McKinsey recommends the development of partnerships to mitigate the risk of default. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa 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. For example, the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) has provided a first-loss guarantee to fertilizer suppliers to extend payment terms to agro-dealers in Tanzania, contributing to an approximately 35 per cent increase in fertilizer sales. Tapping technology and injecting innovation Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) Managing Director Debisi Araba tells Africa Renewal that technologies and systems that improve the efficiency of the movement of goods and the transmission of information and transactions are an exciting prospect for Africa. Start-ups like Lori Systems and Kobo360 are utilizing big data and other information analytics to improve the efficiency of the haulage sector, mapping demand and connecting them with much-needed supply services, Mr. Araba says. Mr. Kanayo Nwanze, CGIAR Special Representative to the UN Food Systems Summit, believes Africa was not always a net food importer because its agriculture contributed more than 60 per cent of GDP before the 1980s. Today, it is a net food importer after disinvesting in agriculture in favour of mining and fossil fuel-led industrialization, Mr. Nwanze says. Desde el Parque de la Exposicion, el ministro Oscar Ugarte, junto con la titular de @pcmperu, Violeta Bermudez, superviso la vacunacion contra la COVID-19 a mujeres con mas de 28 semanas de gestacion. A nivel nacional, se preve vacunar a mas de 30 000 gestantes. #PongoElHombro ???? pic.twitter.com/YEDfbgYliX 11:17 | Lima, Jun. 13. Last Wednesday, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte informed that the first case of the Indian variant had been detected in a 78-year-old patient in Arequipa region, where the cases and deaths are increasing. In this sense, Oscar Escalante, head of INS' National Public Health Center , told Andina news agency that this new variant has a higher transmissibility and warned about its potential to evade the effects of the vaccine. French President Emmanuel Macron has sparred with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the geography of the post-Brexit United Kingdom as the two leaders discussed at the G7 how to solve the riddle of Northern Irish trade flows. "The president said that Toulouse and Paris were part of a single geographic area and that Northern Ireland was on an island," the Elysee Palace said after Britain's DailyTelegraph newspaper reported that Macron had suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the United Kingdom. "The president wants to highlight that the situation was quite different and that it wasn't right to draw this kind of comparison," the Elysee said. "He reminded (Johnson) that the UK's exit from the EU was a British decision and that it was necessary to stick to the word given," the Elysse said. "The President then steered the conversation back to the key issues of the G7." (Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) Prime Minister Scott Morrison has discussed climate change with the leaders of Germany and Japan on the sides of a G7-plus summit, backing "ambitious action" while maintaining his line that net zero emissions should be achieved "as soon as possible" rather than giving a firm date. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga have committed their countries to move to to net zero emissions by 2045 and 2050 respectively. "Australia reaffirms its commitment to achieve net zero emissions as soon as possible, preferably by 2050," Mr Morrison's government said in a joint statement with Mr Suga, in language previously used by the prime minister. Mr Morrison, seated between Ms Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, took part in a G7 session on climate and nature on Sunday that started off with a pre-recorded presentation by naturalist David Attenborough. Earlier on Sunday, he announced that Australia and German had struck a deal to work together "to build a global hydrogen industry". "Our partnership with Germany will accelerate the development of an Australian hydrogen industry and create new jobs," Mr Morrison said. "Our ambition is to produce the cheapest clean hydrogen in the world, which will transform transport, mining, resources and manufacturing at home and overseas," he added. The accord builds on Australia looking to be a major hydrogen exporter and Germany holding expertise in hydrogen technology and planning to import significant quantities of hydrogen in the future. Australia and Japan said in a statement they would commit to jointly support initiatives that will help drive the transitions to net zero emissions. They vowed to "increase our joint focus on lower emissions LNG production, transport and use; clean fuel ammonia, clean hydrogen and derivatives produced from renewable energy or from fossil fuels with substantial carbon capture, utilisation and storage; carbon capture utilisation and storage; carbon recycling; and low emissions steel and iron ore". Story continues Mr Morrison is in Cornwall as a guest of leaders from some of the world's richest countries and will have separate talks with host UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson early this week in London. Earlier on Sunday, senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said Mr Morrison's refusal to embrace net zero emissions by 2050 had left him isolated at the summit. Senator Wong said she was disappointed the prime minister failed to secure a one-on-one meeting with US President Joe Biden. Scott Morrison did get a meeting with Mr Biden on the sidelines of the G7 leaders meeting in the UK on Saturday but was unexpectedly joined by Mr Johnson. Senator Wong said this was a disappointing result. "Mr Morrison's stubborn refusal to sign up to net zero emissions has left him isolated and left Australia isolated," Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman told reporters in Adelaide. "I suggest Mr Morrison reflect on whether or not his stubborn refusal to sign up to net zero emissions along with so much of the rest of the world, is really delivering for Australia and for Australians." The UK is also host to a global climate change conference later this year in Glasgow. Greens leader Adam Bandt believes the only reason why Mr Morrison was invited to the G7 meeting is so they can give him a dressing down over Australia's inaction on climate change. "Climate is a critical issue at this G7. It is the only game in town," Mr Bandt told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday. "When they sit down to discuss climate, Scott Morrison will be sitting at the kids' table and I think part of the reason he's been invited to this summit is so the rest of the world can give Australia a dressing down on climate." Trade Minister Dan Tehan said Australia has put forward an alterative that would see a reduction on all tariffs when it comes to environmental goods and the freeing up of the movement environmental services. "So that means all countries can get access to the technology they need to reduce emissions and the know how and expertise to be able to use that technology," Mr Tehan told Sky News' Sunday Agenda program. "We think that is a much more pro-trade approach." Taiwans Foreign Minister has issued a stark warning about the potential of China launching a war against Australia. Dr Joseph Wu spoke to The Weekend Australian and said China was preparing for war and "we all need to be ready for that". "The new phenomenon we are seeing is part of what I would describe as China's 'grey zone' operations, where it sends in its maritime militia large fishing boats armed, operated and following the orders of Chinas navy to harass and intimidate their perceived enemies," he said. "This is something Australia hasn't experienced yet but it is coming." Taiwans Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has warned China is preparing for war. Pictured is Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Source: Getty Images Operating in the "grey zone" allows China to deploy armed forces to foreign territory, The Weekend Australia reported, though Beijing denies the existence of the militia. However, this isn't the first time Dr Wu has spoken about such activities. Speaking to Britain's Sky News earlier this year, he said the military threat from China was growing through "misinformation campaigns, hybrid warfare, and... grey zone activities". "And all these seem to be preparing for their final military assault against Taiwan," Dr Wu told Sky back in April. "This is our country, this is our people and this is our way of life. We will defend ourselves to the very end." China has utilised the tactic in the South China Sea, however Dr Wu warned the country could spread beyond and closer to Australia in the Pacific. He pointed out in 2019, China re-established diplomatic relations with the Solomon Islands for military purposes, adding this is something everyone needs to "pay close attention to". Like Australia, Taiwan has seen tensions heighten between China and Dr Wu added war is a legitimate possibility which could spell disaster, not just for Taiwan, but the rest of the world. Story continues Taiwans Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned China could move beyond the South China Sea and into the Pacific. Source: AFP via Getty Images Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings confirmed to The Weekend Australian Dr Wu's concerns over "grey zone" warfare were legitimate. "We've known for years now that there's been a Chinese military interest in seeing if they couldn't establish some type of base in the Pacific region," he said. "Given the sort of spread of Chinese interests in the region, thats definitely going to start to encroach on Australian waters, probably starting around Papua New Guinea." China discussed by G7 leaders G7 leaders have reached consensus on the need for a shared approach to China selling exports at unfairly low prices and to human rights abuses, a senior official in US President Joe Biden's administration says. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the leaders of the Group of Seven world's largest advanced economies had also agreed on the need to coordinate on supply chain resilience to ensure democracies are supporting each other. "I would say there was unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms that invoke our shared values," the official said. "There was commitment to take action in response to what we're seeing." The official said the G7 had moved far from three years ago when the final communique made no mention of China. Under the legal structure of the World Trade Organisation, the designation of China as a "non-market economy" allows its trading partners, including the US, to use a special framework to determine whether China's exports are being sold at unfairly low prices and, if that is found to be the case, to apply additional anti-dumping duties. with Reuters 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. The top two Democrats in the US Congress have vowed to probe the "rogue" actions of the Justice Department during former president Donald Trump's term, including its move to seize the communications records of Democratic lawmakers. Those reviews will run parallel with an investigation by the department's own internal watchdog into its moves to subpoena phone records of representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as part of a probe into leaks of classified information. The Justice Department under former attorneys-general William Barr and Jeff Sessions was regularly accused of putting Trump's personal and political interests ahead of the law. "The Justice Department has been rogue under President Trump, understand that, in so many respects. This is just another manifestation of their rogue activity," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN on Sunday. Her Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, vowed to subpoena both Barr and Sessions. "This was nothing less than a gross abuse of power, an assault on the separation of powers," Schumer told a news conference in New York. "Sessions and Barr must testify under oath as part of a formal congressional investigation." A White House official on Friday criticised the Trump administration actions as "appalling". Pelosi said the probe by the department's inspector-general, Michael Horowitz, would be important but was not a substitute for congressional investigation. Pelosi said it was "beyond belief" for Barr or Sessions to say they knew nothing about it. Barr told Politico on Friday he had no recollection of any congressman's phone records being subpoenaed. Pelosi sidestepped a question about whether they would be subpoenaed, saying she hoped the pair would appear voluntarily. Horowitz's office said on Friday it was launching a review of the department's use of subpoenas to obtain the communications records of both lawmakers and journalists. Story continues The New York Times on Thursday reported the Trump-era Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for data on Schiff and Swalwell. Apple also told Donald McGahn, a Trump-era White House counsel, that the Justice Department had subpoenaed information about him in early 2018 and barred the company from notifying him of the request, the Times reported on Sunday. McGahn left the White House in 2018 after it emerged he was a star witness for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. I'll guess that earning letters in public speaking was a bit of a doozy, as well, since all the speeches were done through Zoom calls. I remember taking a public speaking class once and in order to subdue my anxiety the professor suggested I picture everyone in their underwear. Now? Everyone online actually is in their underwear and are only dressing from the waist up. Once things get back to normal, I'm sure the advice to relieve future anxiety is going to be imagining that your in-person audience is just a really high-definition video screen. The graduates I have a lot of compassion for are those who earned Masters in clinical psychology. Boy, are you going to have your work cut out for you once you enter the workforce. As someone who's been in therapy for years, my heart goes out to you, because how do you calm someone down when everything they're worried about is actually happening in real life? Germophobe? Check. Technophobe? Check. Conspiracy theorist? Double check! Yes, dear graduates, your learning has been mostly remote as of late, but your futures are moving right toward you. So get out there and make this world a better place. And with any luck, you may very well be the graduating class that is prepared to fix this crazy world or, at the very least, help to guide us through it. Auburn native Bradley Molloys column appears here each Sunday. He can be reached at lovonian@hotmail.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A King Ferry company that got its start making hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic has recently switched to making another strong and fragrant substance: vodka. Cayuga Clear Vodka is the first spirit from New Age Renewable Energy, which operates under the trade name Cayuga Ingredients. Like the company's sanitizer, BOS, the vodka is made entirely from whey, a dairy byproduct sourced from local producers. New Age Director Eduard Zaydman told The Citizen he's working with local bars, restaurants and liquor stores to stock it, and hopes its reach eventually spreads across the state. Because it's affordable and produced sustainably, he believes Cayuga Clear has a unique appeal that will help it stand out in the spirits marketplace. "I am hoping the Finger Lakes as well as other regions of New York state will be interested in working with us and continue to promote local, renewable and sustainable products," Zaydman said in an email. "We are passionate about sustainability and the upcycled economy ... We wanted to bring to market affordable, sustainable products that New York can be proud of." Above all, I want my Catholic brothers and sisters to know that you are not alone. I am a Protestant pastor. I serve a church of Presbyterians. But first and foremost, I am a follower of Christ, as you are. We are members of the same body. And as the Apostle Paul writes, If one member suffers, all suffer together with it. I know youre hurting. I know youre confused and angry. And I know how frustrating and lonely it is when others dont understand. These arent just buildings. These are the places where you got married, and your children were baptized. These are the pews where you sat next to grandparents, and where you later said your last goodbyes to them. These are the halls of generations of laughter and tears, Holy Communion and worship, Sunday school and shared meals. Theres more than just memory in those old wooden boards; theres love. This is where Gods love found you, and held you, through the hardest times of your life. Your congregations have fed the hungry, provided clothing and rent relief, hosted AA and recovery, and advocated justice. Youve educated children, and cared for our elders. Youve served as places of friendship and belonging. Youve connected us with a higher purpose. You have served this community. Now let us serve you. We are here to listen, to love you, to stand with you in your grief. Mexico's main autopart association INA forecasts that the severe semiconductor chip shortage that has slammed the brakes on the global auto industry will subside in July and return to normal by the end of this year. Semiconductor chips are a crucial component for electronics in modern cars, including touchscreen displays as well as driver assist and other safety systems. The chip shortage in North America alone has caused the region's carmakers to cut previously expected output by 1.16 million vehicles in May, a figure that has accelerated each month since the start of the year, according to data from IHS Markit. INA's head of foreign trade, Alberto Bustamante, forecast in an interview on Thursday that the semiconductor shortage will begin to ease by the second half of July before returning to normal in December. (Also read | Nissan's Ariya electric SUV sales delayed due to Covid-19, chip shortage) The supply crunch began last year as the coronavirus pandemic forced the North American auto industry to shut down for a couple of months, which kicked off a cascading series of order cancellations. Bustamante pointed to steadily growing vaccination rates in major economies and ebbing infections as helping drive a return to normal for the auto sector. He noted that after Mexico's autoparts output dropped 20% last year in value terms due to the pandemic, a nearly 18% uptick is expected this year to reach $92.4 billion in production value. A full recovery to pre-pandemic levels is forecast by 2022. Mexico's massive auto sector is the country's top foreign currency earner, and employs more than 850,000 people. (Also read | General Motors will start five plants it closed due to chip shortage) Bustamente predicted that by 2023, the value of the country's autopart production will likely exceed $102 billion, fueled by a revamped North American trade pact that incentivizes more regionally-produced content, among other factors. Every vehicle assembled in the United States includes up to $5,500 in Mexican-made parts, he said. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. But more work is still needed. With a better understanding of the desired objectives, the housing section will now look to establish the exact number of housing units needed within the city through gap analysis. The gap analysis will establish that need and that reasonable number of housing units to preserve and create over the next 10 years, project manager Leah Bloom said. In addition, strategies currently under development for use in the plan still need to be assessed for both feasibility and legal viability, Bloom said. Completing that process would open up the more specific outcomes of the plan to receive public feedback. The end goal is to implement safe, decent and affordable housing opportunities for all community members, according to the housing section. Council was given more information on how the plan will meet that goal during the Tuesday presentation, and were joined by several public commenters as they weighed in on the current housing crisis. Many commenters urged city council to support the plan when it is presented in September, while some noted small improvements that could be implemented into the final document. But health and environmental campaigners were distinctly unimpressed by the details in the leaders' final communique. This G-7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at the international aid group Oxfam. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Despite Johnson's call to "vaccinate the world" by the end of 2022, the promise of 1 billion doses for vaccine-hungry countries coming both directly and through donations to the international COVAX program falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. Half of the billion-dose pledge is coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain. Canada said it also would give 100 million doses, and France pledged 60 million. Altogether, the leaders said they pledged 870 million doses directly over the next year," with further contributions taking the total to the equivalent of over 1 billion doses. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the lack of a more ambitious vaccination plan was an unforgivable moral failure. The sail of this childhood fantasy was set when I was in third grade, during a three-day summer trip, organized by Dads office, to Tianjin, a city by the sea. It happened so long ago all that I can remember about the trip are mostly bits and pieces: our bus driver got lost countless times as streets in Tianjin are not laid out like lines on a chess board but twist and turn as if they are paths in a maze designed by a madman, we all slept on the pleasantly cool marble floor of the lobby of an elegant old building that bore witness to the glory of a bygone era of the Tianjin concessions, we visited a pork processing facility where pigs were humanely rendered unconscious by electric shock before being dispatched It was on that trip, during a visit to the Tianjin Harbor, when I started to have this fantasy of sailing the seven seas. The harbor visit was nothing short of eye opening. I remember strolling on the pier, dwarfed by towering gantry cranes lined up on shiny rails. They looked like giant soldiers ready to leap into action. I marveled at ships moored along the pier. Everything seeming bigger when you are young, those ships appeared humongous to me that day if they were in fact featherweight among ocean-going vessels. And yes, for the first time in my life, I saw the ocean. I had read about the ocean. I had heard stories about the seafaring Odysseus. I had seen the ocean in movies. But I had never seen the real thing. Now that I was standing there staring right at it, as book knowledge of its vastness embracing eye-popping reality, I found myself gaping at it longingly, lost for words, totally mesmerized. It could have been a long time, or it could have been a fleeting moment, before I heard a voice inside my head, growing from a whisper into a deafening crescendo, I want to sail the seven seas The yearning for the vast and endless sea has been with me ever since, but the fantasy to sail it had to stay just that, a fantasy, for a long, long time. There was once a chance for me to get enrolled in a college that would have trained me for the ocean-going transportation industry. But a different school, with clout, grabbed me. I did travel from Dalian to Tianjin once by ferry, but that would hardly count as sailing the seas, as the voyaging was done almost entirely at night inside the Bohai Gulf. Ive done more sea travel since then. I have done Caribbean cruises. But the Caribbean Sea is not the seven seas. I have done transatlantic cruises. Then again, the Atlantic Ocean is not the seven seas. I love traveling by sea, so much so that, I suspect, I would keep on narrowing my definition of "the seven seas to allow me to continue fulfilling that childhood fantasy of mine. Oh, how I wish all this chaos thrown our way by the pandemic will soon end so that we can all go back to the happy business of turning our childhood (or adulthood :) ) fantasies into reality. Not everyone can schedule their doctor's appointment during the set time we travel to and from the city, Timmons said. There are clinics in Red Lodge, but many people can only get the care they need by leaving the county. As of now, the program operates Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with service to anywhere in Carbon County. On Wednesdays, the free ride rotates from highways 212 and 308/312 for service to Billings. Riders must reserve a ride 24 hours in advance by calling 406-426-4506. The program asks questions like the purpose of the ride, and then calls passengers to confirm. It also wants passengers going to Billings to schedule the round-trip drive between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The RLACF is addressing the high demand for rides to Billings by ordering a second, larger 11-person van. With two vehicles the program can operate more days, and have a response time as short as one hour. But due to manufacturing shortages the van has been delayed until next February. Kallenbach said the program is still just getting off the ground, and not everyone who could use the ride has made use of the service. It has not reached a lot of people who have had good ride options in the past, he said. We do an important job right now, but the next step is finding a way to be more convenient to more people. Love 9 Funny 0 Wow 1 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. In 2020, at 20 years old, I was elected as a Republican to represent House District 3 in Flathead County. One of the key reasons I tossed my hat into the political realm was to bring a fresh, youthful voice into a broken, corrupt and aged political system. One of the most highly contested bills of Montanas 67th session evolved around House Bill 102, sponsored by Rep. Seth Berglee. The bill allows for permit-less carry across the state of Montana and prohibits the Montana University System and Board of Regents from infringing on constitutional rights to carry on campus. The bill was signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte in February. In recent weeks, the Board of Regents has filed a lawsuit in state district court challenging HB102, and last week a state court in Helena blocked the law from taking effect on Tuesday. The state of Montana owns and operates the Montana University System. The Second Amendment of the Constitution states the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The Board of Regents is not elected by the people of Montana, and they have no right nor authority to block state law and infringe on a student's constitutional right to carry a firearm to protect themselves and other students. In Montana, choosing a hunting partner is not to be taken lightly. It has to be someone who you can spend hours with, in trucks, boats and long hikes. Someone who will pitch wholeheartedly into the work that follows a successful hunt and are right along with you when things dont go quite as planned. The choice of a hunting partner comes down to someone with skills, grit, and character you respect. The same might be said for the leader of our largest public land agency, the Bureau of Land Management. Skill, grit and character. Tracy Stone-Manning is that leader. Ive known Tracy for thirty years, both as hunting partner and as colleague working for public land policies that will benefit both people and wildlife. As a sportswoman and an advocate, Tracy will be an outstanding BLM Director and I strongly support her nomination to lead the agency. Leading the BLM is one of the nations most important jobs. The agency oversees more than one-third of our public lands, including vast grasslands across the great plains and intermountain West, beautiful rainforests along the west coast, and deserts and grasslands in the southwest. In Montana, the BLM manages over 8 million acres of land. Google How to retire, and youll get over 148 million results. And each one of them says something different about the best age for retirement, how much youll need to save, and when youll need to save it by. As a single parent and business owner, it hasnt been easy, but thanks to the income from my small business and my smart savings, I think I have retirement figured out. Personally, I will rely on my 401(k) payouts to pay my mortgage, my bills and buy groceries when I retire. Every dollar in that account counts, as it is a dollar that will maintain my quality of life for the longest amount of time. And while I dont consider myself an investor, I am glad that my money is not just sitting stagnant in a savings account earning less than 1% interest. Instead, it is being traded between mutual funds, index funds, and bonds, growing responsibly over time. Right now, I am concerned about some policy proposals in Washington that would throw my retirement for a loop. Some lawmakers have floated the idea of instituting financial transaction taxes to fund various projects like free college for all. While this may sound like a good idea to some, I worry that lawmakers havent thought through the effects that this type of tax would have on my savings or the millions of Americans in a similar situation. Among those facilities, the fish-cleaning station attracts much of the attention. Every now and then, despite warning signs, someone puts a catfish into the grinder and clogs it up. Their heads are like a stone, he said. But there are a lot of big fish coming out of the lake. A 2019 Eastern Montana tourism study financed by the state was critical of Fort Peck Reservoir for lacking amenities and services like rental boats and tours. Additional marinas, a modern hotel, outdoor learning center and a venue for large groups was also recommended to upgrade the region and attract more tourism dollars. Clint Thomas, who runs the adjacent Hell Creek Marina, said although Montana State Parks touts visitation of about 30,000 people annually to the area, he thinks its a much smaller pool of visitors who come several times a year. For a lot of people, this is their place, he said. Its not a place you stop by. His friend, Jim Gustafson, agreed. It takes a certain kind of cat to make the long drive down a dusty road to a remote region to fish and camp, he said. So far this year, those cats are pretty fat with fish, if Jones group is any indication. The concern is we are moving away from agriculture, said Klein who has been in the Senate since 1997. There was a time even (urban lawmakers) grew up on farm. North Dakota currently has 47 legislative districts, and each is represented by two House members and a senator. The North Dakota Constitution allows for as few as 40 legislative districts and as many as 54. When the Legislature completed its last redistricting plan a decade ago, district populations averaged about 14,500 people. The new plan will likely add about 2,000 more people to that, with preliminary census estimates. That means in rural North Dakota, which has been losing population for decades, more real estate would be needed to reach the increased population numbers. That could put some legislators in the same district as other incumbent lawmakers, forcing them to run against each other to keep their jobs. The number of districts also could be expanded to prevent already sprawling districts from becoming more so. That idea has met some resistance in the past, with more conservative lawmakers arguing it grows government. During the 1990s, the Legislature had 49 districts and 147 members. It had 53 districts and 159 members in the 1980s. JERUSALEM Israel's parliament has narrowly voted in favor of a new coalition government, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic 12-year rule. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned bitter rival, becomes prime minister, presiding over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. Netanyahu remains head of the Likud party and will hold the post of opposition leader. Sunday's vote, passed by a 60-59 margin, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four elections. The eight parties, including a small Arab faction that is making history by sitting in the ruling coalition, were united in their opposition to Netanyahu and new elections but little else. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, remains the head of the largest party in parliament and is expected to vigorously oppose the new government. If just one faction bolts, it could lose its majority and would be at risk of collapse, giving him an opening to return to power. The country's deep divisions were on vivid display as Bennett addressed parliament ahead of the vote. He was repeatedly interrupted and loudly heckled by supporters of Netanyahu, several of whom were escorted out of the chamber. As the Buffalo Niagara region tries to build up its technology sector for startups, jobs and investment, it might look to the Midwest for inspiration. Indianapolis has managed to develop its own tech sector, far from the hotbeds of Silicon Valley and Boston, Mass. It's something entrepreneur Eric Reich noticed when he was head of Campus Labs, traveling to cities around the country. "It has a lot of the same attributes and dynamics," said Reich, now a board member of TechBuffalo and 43North. Buffalo Niagara, one the other hand, has an undersized technology sector, and that shortfall has become a growing focus of the region's economic development officials, eager to catch a ride on one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation. Indianapolis has educational institutions to draw upon in Purdue University and Indiana University, like Buffalo does with the University at Buffalo. The city had a homegrown tech success story in ExactTarget, which was sold to Salesforce for $2.5 billion. ExactTarget's rise reminded Reich of ACV Auctions. And Salesforce went on to start filling up a 48-story office tower with tech workers, "because they believe those tech workers have the training and the work ethic and the ambition to help them scale and grow in a way that would be too expensive in a major market," Reich said. "That is essentially exactly what is happening at Seneca One." So what can Buffalo Niagara learn from Indianapolis? With those similarities in mind, Reich approached Mike Langellier, president and CEO of TechPoint Indianapolis, about providing advice to Buffalo as it takes its next steps in tech. Langellier will join Reich to discuss building a startup and tech ecosystem, hosted by 43North at 5 p.m. Monday in the Seneca One tower auditorium. (The event is free, and registration is required.) Inside Indianapolis TechPoint Indianapolis is a nonprofit tech accelerator and advocacy organization. Langellier said he sees a few factors contributing to the growth of Indianapolis' tech sector. "A tech ecosystem needs a success that begets other successes," he said. In Indianapolis, Software Artistry went public in 1995 and was later sold to IBM for $200 million. More recently ExactTarget was sold to Salesforce, in 2013. "You have talented individuals that have experienced that kind of growth and success, and in many cases wealth is being created through that process," Langellier said. "We've been fortunate though the community fabric here is strong, and strong enough that that talent and that capital has been reinvested." People who were with Software Artistry and Salesforce went on to launch other companies, a natural progression in the tech world. In one 10-year span, Indianapolis had about $7 billion worth of acquisitions and IPOs among its tech companies, Langellier said. Indianapolis' tech sector also benefits from access to higher education, he said. There are over 350,000 college students enrolled within a three-hour drive of the city, creating a pipeline of new talent. The universities also serve as research and development hubs, spawning new companies. Indiana's government is a partner in promoting tech development. Its Next Level fund is aiming to invest $250 million over a five-year period to stimulate further investment in innovation, and there's a venture capital investment tax credit. Midsize cities' moment For years, Langellier recalled, just a few places, including Silicon Valley and Boston, were thought of as the only places to be for tech. "Everywhere else was not even on the map." A 2019 Brookings report found that just five metro areas Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, and San Jose, Calif. accounted for more than 90% of the growth in the nation's innovation sector from 2005 to 2017. But that perception has started to change among investors and startups, Langellier said. The main tech hubs faced obstacles like high costs, congestion, too much competition, employee turnover and quality of life challenges. "It was evident that was not going to be sustainable forever," he said. Meanwhile, some other cities started to cultivate their tech sectors. And technology that originated in the Bay Area began to intersect with industries in other parts of the country, creating a broader set of opportunities, he said. The time is now for midsize cities to commit to becoming tech hubs and build momentum, Langellier said. "The places, the regions, the cities that get it right early will be the ones that will disproportionately prosper in the future." Midsize cities should play to their strengths in tech development, including cost and lifestyle, as well as community and collaboration, he said. In midsize cities, "there's a level of social capital and connectedness that allows the place to band together and create outsized results," Langellier said. They are the right size to bring together partners like universities, business, government and philanthropic organizations, he said. And that in turn creates opportunities for individuals to be part of building a region's tech ecosystem, and to have a good lifestyle and career, he said. Learning from experience Reich said Buffalo isn't looking to copy the "Indy playbook" for tech development. But he feels there are lessons Buffalo can learn. "There's things that I'm sure worked really well for them that we could emulate, because we have similar circumstances," he said. "And I think theres probably mistakes that were made, too, that we can stay away from." This will be Langellier's first visit to Buffalo. But he is familiar with what's underway here, including M&T Bank's tech hub at Seneca One, ACV Auctions, and TechBuffalo's work in promoting tech growth. Langellier said in his conversations with Reich and other TechBuffalo board members, he sensed "a belief and an urgency that we can do this, and the time is now." What does he feel Buffalo needs to do to take its tech ecosystem to another level? One piece is to expand its talent pool, he said. "It needs to repeat the business and entrepreneurial successes," Langellier said. "It needs to retain and inspire the business and entrepreneurial leaders that are there, to not just have modest startup successes, but to grow market-leading, major companies, and to be a pillar and a part of the community's future." Matt Glynn The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Minority-owned businesses in Buffalo will get a boost from $3.5 million in federal stimulus money, Mayor Byron W. Brown said Sunday. The new federal aid will help pay for grants to existing businesses, try to attract entrepreneurs and startup companies to Buffalo and provide technical assistance to business owners. The program is meant to help Black, Latino and other minority business owners who often lack access to capital and face additional obstacles in launching and growing their companies, officials said. Businesses, we want you to know that money will be available and help is on the way, Brown said at the citys Beverly Grey Business Exchange Center on East Utica Street which will administer the program. Brown and other officials said decades of discriminatory practices have produced a wealth gap between white and minority communities and have made it that much harder for people of color to start their own businesses. +3 Analysis: How $1.2B in new federal cash to Buffalo Niagara will be doled out The local and school aid targeted to the area under President Biden's American Rescue Plan won't come gift-wrapped. It will arrive, instead, tied together with red tape, with strings attached. This type of assistance is particularly vital today as the region and the world recovers from a Covid-19 pandemic that disproportionately affected minority communities, Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, said. We have to grow back in a more equitable and inclusive way, Higgins said. The companies too have been banned from debt collection and a default judgment of $1.7 million was imposed on them. To pressure debtors, he and his companies allegedly called consumers and falsely claimed to work in law enforcement, typically coupled with false claims that the consumers had committed a crime or were about to be arrested on a warrant. The companies associated listed in the complaint were identified as Campbell Capital LLC; Kahl, Heidenreich, and Nemmer LLC; Urban, Heidenreich, Melendez, and Associates LLC; J & V Receivables LLC; Rich Financial LLC; and BCH & Associates Ltd. Kelly S. Brace In 2016, Kelly S. Brace of Buffalo was permanently barred from debt collection. An $18.4 million judgment was issued against Brace and his companies. He was ordered to pay $151,893 to the FTC and state attorney general. The authorities sued Brace and Braclaire Management LLC in 2015. The agencies accused Brace's company of "collecting on fake payday loans they knew consumers did not really owe, and using deceptive and abusive tactics to get them to pay, including false threats of lawsuits and arrest." Mark M. Miller Saturday was the first day of early voting for the June 22 primary election, but the scene bore little resemblance to those at early voting sites last year. In 2020, 25.4% of Erie County registered voters almost 168,000 people took advantage of the nine early voting days before the presidential election. This year, with only local offices on the line, the numbers are dramatically smaller. Erie County Board of Elections commissioners Ralph M. Mohr and Jeremy J. Zellner announced after the polls closed at 6 p.m. Saturday that just 904 voters cast first-day ballots. Lines, which last year were long and common, were rare and short at the polling places The Buffalo News visited Saturday. "I dont know what kind of response were going to get. Primaries just dont get a lot of people," said Lew James of Clarence Center, who was one of the few voters at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Clarence at midafternoon. Its easy but I think there should be more people out here. They should be out here voting because its important," said Margo Warr of Buffalo, who voted at the Delavan Grider Community Center. The Grand Island satellite opens not a moment too soon: Calls to the center from people needing help increased 74% when the pandemic began. Abuse increased when Covid-19 hit, forcing victims and their abusers into close quarters for extended periods. Last month, 27-year-old Megan Wisniewski and her mother Margie Ramos were shot and killed by an alleged abuser in their Layer Avenue home, where her six-year-old daughter was present. The abuser then turned the gun on himself. In April, 18-year-old high school senior Larrinsha Johnson was found dead in a car at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, where police say her abuser beat and strangled her. +2 Killing of a student, 18, raises worries about intimate partner violence Since last March, the Family Justice Center, which provides services for domestic violence victims, has taken 65% more calls for help than in previous years. But quarantine also forced domestic violence support and legal proceedings to go remote, allowing victims to navigate services virtually. And, with many people working or learning from home, they found themselves able to reach out for help in a chat box online or in a quiet phone call disguised as a work or school responsibility, Murphy said. Buffalos charter school parents, families and supporters agree with The News editorial on June 1 arguing that Westminster Community and Enterprise charter schools should remain open, and that the Buffalo School Boards March 31 closure decision be reversed. The unacceptable alternative for the 950 K-8 students in these two schools relegates them to likely lower-performing Buffalo Public Schools, denies parents the access to schools of their choice and forces disruption during an already catastrophic time for families in Buffalos neediest communities. Working with a statewide organization that hosts 351 open and approved public charters and their 150,000-plus students, we want to point out how charters are funded, and why the arguments that charters siphon funds from the Buffalo district are false and misleading and certainly should not be used as a rationale to close two strong schools. Charter funding is calculated according to a state formula, and the funds are distributed via public districts, which are expected to pass these funds to the charter schools for their students, based on their enrollment. The district plays the important role of confirming student enrollment, but the money paid to charters is not the districts money. It was the worst of times and it was the best of times. After a year plus of fear, boredom, anger and sorrow, nothing about re-normalizing seemed normal. Do I need my mask? Yes, no and maybe. The first time I left home without one I needed it, of course, to enter the library. I rummaged through my car and found one crumpled leftover under the passenger seat. I hoped it was mine as I pulled it on. One of the more important places I was allowed into was our veterinarians office. Our pet terrier had been a bright light for me during a dark time. He was the first of our many dogs who had preferred my company above all others, settling in my home office when I worked and waiting until I went to bed to retire as well. Unfortunately, Murray suffered from physical and behavioral problems unbeknownst to us when he joined our family. We did our best, spending countless hours and a small fortune trying to correct what was wrong, but it wasnt meant to be. When he took his last trip to the vets office I was at least able to accompany him and for that I was immensely grateful, despite the emotionally draining experience of saying goodbye. Months ago, Canada was especially concerned about the Alpha variant which was driving case numbers up and packing ICUs with sick patients. Now, the focus has shifted to the Delta variant and broader questions come to mind: As COVID-19 continues, how concerned we should be about Delta, and future variants? Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an Ontario infectious disease specialist, told Yahoo Canada that the Delta variant has been found to be more transmissible, is "concerning" and important to track and keep an eye on. But, he stressed that the circumstances for virus spread have evolved and should be taken into consideration. "When the Alpha variant came through...it came through a population that had no vaccination,...we were just barely coming out of [the second wave]," Dr. Chakrabarti explained. "So I think that we have to remember that in Canada we have a lot of good aspects going for us right now and that includes the fact that [70 per cent of eligible Canadians] now are vaccinated." "Even if it's just one dose, it still offers protection that wasn't there a couple of months ago. So I think that while it's something that we have to look at, I don't think it's something that we have to panic about."-- Dr. Sumon Charkabarti, Infectious Disease Specialist While Canadians read headlines warning of this new variant, linking the Delta to a fourth wave of the pandemic in some areas and suggesting we may be losing this race between the vaccine and the variant, Dr. Chakrabarti said it is important to put this information into the appropriate context. "You're giving the public kind of raw scientific data and...its being amplified in ways that it wasn't meant to be," he said. An example of this Dr. Chakrabarti highlighted are reports that the AstraZeneca vaccine is 33 per cent effective against symptomatic disease from the Delta variant. The infectious disease expert call this "the same trap" people fell into when it was reported that the AstraZeneca vaccine is 60 per cent effective, not putting that into the context of protection against severe illness. Story continues Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table In presentation of COVID-19 modelling data for Ontario on Thursday, Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said early data suggests the risk of hospitalization when someone is infected with this variant is increased. The projections state that it is "critical to control the spread" of the Delta variant. "Vaccine effectiveness is lower with the first dose, with the Delta variant," Dr. Brown said. Information from Ontario states that the Delta variant is about 50 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant, and is expected to be dominant strain in Ontario. Will we have to worry about variants in the future? Moving forward, Dr. Chakrabarti said that infectious disease experts, epidemiologists, scientists should continue to monitor COVID-19 variants, but it's not necessarily something the public will have to keep track of on a daily basis. While many people fearing having to go back into lockdown, Dr. Chakrabarti stressed that the most important factor continues to be keeping cases low enough to not significantly impact hospitals. "Even if there is a variant it's something that we can deal with, we can identify it, we have vaccine coverage, and we may need boosters in the future, that's a possibility," he said. "As of right now, our vaccines are fighting against it." G7 leaders face some of the most important decisions in human history as they tackle the climate change crisis, Sir David Attenborough said as the summit in Cornwall draws to a close. The environmentalist will address leaders gathered in Carbis Bay on the final day of the summit as they set out plans to reverse biodiversity loss and to fund infrastructure development around the world. Boris Johnson is also launching a 500 million blue planet fund to protect the worlds oceans and marine life. The Prime Minister will hold a press conference on Sunday afternoon at the conclusion of a gathering which has seen him clash with European Union leaders over Brexit. Mr Johnson has threatened to unilaterally delay the imposition of checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland in protest at the way in which the deal he agreed is being implemented. The Prime Minister met French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel in the margins of the summit on Saturday. But Mr Johnson appeared frustrated at the way the talks had gone, saying: Ive talked to some of our friends here today who do seem to misunderstand that the UK is a single country and a single territory. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) I think they just need to get that into their heads. The Sunday Telegraph reported the comment may have been prompted by his talks with Mr Macron over the ban on shipping chilled meats from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, which is due to come into force at the end of the month. The newspaper said the Prime Minister attempted to explain his frustration with the Northern Ireland Protocol the part of the Brexit divorce deal covering the arrangements by asking Mr Macron what he would do if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. The French president reportedly claimed the comparison did not work because Paris and Toulouse were both part of the same country, wrongly suggesting Northern Ireland is not within the UK. Story continues Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News: We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it was some kind of different country to the UK. It is not only offensive, it has real-world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. Could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, one of the lander in Germany, northern Italy, Corsica in France as different countries? We need a bit of respect here. Mr Johnson is considering extending the current grace period without the consent of Brussels to ensure that sausages and mince can continue to reach Northern Irelands shops. The Prime Minister told Sky News he would do whatever it takes including using Article 16 of the protocol to act without Brussels agreement, which would trigger retaliations from the EU in a dispute which has been dubbed the sausage war. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In the main business on the final day of the summit, the leaders of the G7 the UK, US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy will make a series of environmental commitments in Carbis Bay. Sir David will deliver a pre-recorded message to the G7, plus guests Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa, at a session on climate and nature. In advance of the session, he said: The natural world today is greatly diminished. That is undeniable. Our climate is warming fast. That is beyond doubt. Our societies and nations are unequal and that is sadly plain to see. But the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilising the entire planet? If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history. Mixed in with the environmental intentions of the G7 is an attempt to reassert the values of the worlds leading democracies. The build back better for the world plan will bring together G7 countries to develop an offer for high quality financing for vital infrastructure, from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia. The move is part of an attempt to counter Beijings belt and road initiative which has spread Chinese influence around the globe. The new approach is intended to give developing countries access to more, better and faster finance, while accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and sustainable technology. Mr Johnson said: Protecting our planet is the most important thing we as leaders can do for our people. There is a direct relationship between reducing emissions, restoring nature, creating jobs and ensuring long-term economic growth. As democratic nations we have a responsibility to help developing countries reap the benefits of clean growth through a fair and transparent system. G7 nations are expected to commit to almost halve their emissions by 2030 relative to 2010. The UK has already pledged to cut emissions by at least 68% by 2030 on 1990 levels, the equivalent to a 58% reduction on 2010 levels. The countries will set out the action they will take to slash carbon emissions, including measures like ending all unabated coal use as soon as possible, halting almost all direct government support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas and phasing out petrol and diesel cars. The G7 will also endorse a nature compact, aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 including supporting the global target to conserve or protect at least 30% of land and oceans by the end of the decade. Mr Johnson has also launched the UKs blue planet fund, with 500 million to help countries including Ghana, Indonesia and Pacific island states tackle unsustainable fishing, protect and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs, and reduce marine pollution. The fund will run for at least five years. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 13) -- The opposition coalition 1Sambayan said it is not expecting firm decisions yet from its nominees to run for specific positions in the 2022 general elections. In a statement on Sunday, the coalition pointed out that not even the administrations anointed ones have openly declared their plans to run for public office. There are no expectations of firm decisions to run for specific positions at this point in time. The fact is no one - not even the administration anointed ones -- have openly declared their ambitions for public office, even as some have already embarked on ad campaigns, said 1Sambayan. The coalition released on Saturday the list of its nominees for president and vice president for next years polls. The names include Vice President Leni Robredo, former Senator Antonio Trillanes, Senator Grace Poe, CIBAC party-list Rep. Eddie Villanueva, Atty. Chel Diokno, and Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto. However, Poe and Santos-Recto rejected their nominations and both maintained that they have no plans to run for higher office next year. Meanwhile, both Diokno and Villanueva did not categorically accept nor reject the nomination. For her part, Robredo renewed her call for unity among the opposition as she urged supporters to be receptive to other ideas and voices. Despite leading surveys, presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has remained tight-lipped about her plans for 2022. But she previously said she has no plan to succeed her father. 1Sambayan said it would support whatever will be the decision of its nominees. 1Sambayan supports our nominees desire to think, weigh, and discern if it is truly their personal mission to be in positions of power. It is not an easy decision to make. After all, true servant leadership is a challenging vocation, it said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 13) Four alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, including a suspected sub-leader and the youngest brother of the 2020 Jolo twin bombings suspect, were killed during a shootout in Sulu early Sunday morning, according to the military. The Joint Task Force-Sulu identified as among those killed suspected ASG sub-leader Injam Yadah, believed to be behind the kidnapping of several Filipino and foreign nationals. These included the abduction of five Indonesians in January 2020, who were rescued in Tawi-Tawi earlier this year. According to the task force, its troops and the Philippine National Police entered Yadahs residence in Brgy. Alat, Jolo at around 2 a.m. on Sunday to serve him an arrest warrant when they were fired upon by the ASG members, prompting them to return fire. Also killed were Al-Al Sawadjaan, brother of bomb expert Mundi Sawadjaan who is tagged as the mastermind of the Jolo bombings in August 2020. The explosions killed 14 and injured at least 78 people. The military said Al-Al is also known to have some knowledge in bomb-making and have already pledged as a suicide bomber. The two others slain were Yadahs follower identified as alias Raup and another alleged ASG member yet to be identified. Recovered from the scene were an M653 carbine rifle, caliber .45 pistol, improvised explosive device components and 15 mobile phones, the task force said. JTF-Sulu and 11th Infantry Division Commander MGen. William Gonzales added they are doubling their efforts to catch Mundi Sawadjaan, whose two other brothers were killed in November last year. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 13) The Interior Department has ordered all local government units to accept the Philippine Identification (PhilID) card as a single requirement for all transactions in the Philippines. In a statement Sunday, DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Ano said he issued a memorandum directing all LGUs to consider the national ID card "as sufficient proof of identity without requiring any other additional identification document from the transacting public." He also urged the private sector to do the same as the PhilID is "enough" to prove the identity of a person. According to Ano, the PhilID has the registered persons information including picture, full name, address, sex, marital status, and date of birth to establish the identity of the person. It also comes with the PhilSys Card Number (PCN), diffractive optically variable image device, QR (Quick Response) code, and PhilSys Number (PSN) Microprint for security purposes. Meanwhile, the transacting public must take advantage of the national ID and register for it, he said. RELATED: 12.1M Filipinos complete final step of national ID registration PSA "Malaking tulong sa pagpapabilis ng mga proseso ang ating PhilID dahil dati dalawa o higit pang ID ang kailangan para mapatunayan ang iyong pagkakakilanlan. Ngayon, iisang ID na lang ang dala-dala mo at puwede na ito sa kahit anong transaksiyon na mangangailangan ng ID," he was quoted as saying in the statement. [Transaction: The PhilID is a big help in speeding up the process because previously two or more IDs were required to verify your identity. Now, you can only carry one ID and it can be used in any transaction that requires an ID] "The PhilID card reduces costs, simplifies transactions, and makes things easier and more convenient. It also improves government services and reduces red tape in government transactions since all pertinent information of the registered person is already consolidated into one system," the DILG chief added. DILG Spokesperson and Undersecretary Jonathan E. Malaya warned that refusal to accept, acknowledge, or recognize the PhilID or PSN without just and sufficient cause will have to face a 500,000 fine. For government officials and employees, refusing to accept the national ID would result in a lifetime ban from holding any public office or employment in the government, including government-owned and controlled corporations and their subsidiaries. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 13) A drive-through COVID-19 vaccination site is expected to open in the city of Manila next week to cater to tricycle drivers and operators, Vice President Leni Robredo said Sunday. The tentative launch date is on June 20 if the vaccine supplies procured by the local government unit arrive as scheduled, Robredo said during her weekly radio show. The initiative is a joint project of her office and the Manila LGU. According to Robredo, all members of the Tricycle Operators and Drivers' Association in the city are covered under the project. Ang alam ko yung Grab drivers na nag-ooperate sa Manila ganon din, she added. So, mag-inquire nalang po sa Manila City Hall, pero tuloy-tuloy na po ngayon yung registration. [Translation: As far as I know, Grab drivers operating in Manila are also included. So, they can just inquire at the Manila City Hall, but registration is ongoing.] Robredo said they would issue an announcement should there be a delay in the vaccines' arrival. The government officially began on June 7 the vaccination of priority group A4 or essential workers, which includes public transportation drivers. RELATED: Roque: Workers under A4 only need job ID for vaccination As of June 12, the Manila LGU has tallied a total of 64,420 COVID-19 cases, of which 1,229 are active. Its recovery count stands at 62,005 while the death toll is at 1,186. Cagayan de Oro (CNN Philippines, June 13) A municipal councilor from Talakag, Bukidnon was killed by unidentified gunmen in Barangay San Antonio on Saturday, June 12. According to the police, Susan Gayonan died from two gunshot wounds while two other people were injured. They were identified as Dona Mae Timtim and Luther Joey Bustillo, the councilors niece and nephew, respectively. Gayonan was declared dead upon arrival at the Talakag Provincial Hospital. Meanwhile, Timtim sustained two gunshot wounds in the head and was brought to the intensive care unit of the Maria Reyna Hospital in Cagayan de Oro, while Bustillo is now under observation at the Capitol University Medical Center in the same city. An investigation showed the two gunmen, both wearing jackets and long pants, suddenly appeared from the direction of Talakag proper and shot Gayonan. Recovered from the scene were five empty cartridge cases of a caliber .45 pistol, a magazine with six live bullets, and an unfired live ammo. Talakag Mayor Vergito Factura has directed the local police to swiftly identify the suspects and bring them to justice, as well as intensify the conduct of checkpoints. Investigators are looking at the motive behind the incident. (CNN) - In a statement to mark the end of the G7 summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that leaders of the world's richest nations have pledged over one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses for the rest of the world either directly or through funding to COVAX. "A week ago I asked my fellow leaders to help in preparing and providing the doses we need to vaccinate the whole world by the end of 2022. I'm very pleased to announce that this weekend leaders have pledged over 1 billion doses, either directly or through funding to COVAX. That includes 100 million from the UK, to the worlds poorest countries, which is another big step toward vaccinating the world," Johnson said. Speaking about the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the news conference, Johnson said, Today over half a billion people are safe because of the development and production of that vaccine. "What we as the G7 need to do is to demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to the rest of the world. We can achieve that through medical history. We can do that by working together to stop the devastation that coronavirus has produced from ever occurring again," he added. Earlier this week, Johnson announced the UK will donate at least 100 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses to COVAX and countries in need within the next year. Ahead of the G7 summit, US President Joe Biden announced the United States plans to donate 500 million Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses globally. As for a timeline, officials said the Pfizer doses will begin to ship in August and 200 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year. The remaining 300 million doses will be delivered in the first half of 2022. This story was first published on CNN.com, "G7 nations pledge over 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses for the rest of world, UK prime minister says" The 67-year-old is director of the acute care unit, a position she grew into professionally after starting as a licensed practical nurse. She became interested in nursing when she was about 10 years old and living in Leigh. Her aunt, whom she idolized, became a nurse so she made up her mind to do the same. As a young adult, Loseke enrolled at Central Community College-Columbus, then known as Platte Community College, to become an LPN. I was very naive when I started, she said. I dont think I stepped foot in a hospital aside from seeing my newborn siblings until I was in LPN school. Loseke started working at Behlen, which later merged with St. Mary and was renamed Columbus Community Hospital. After eight years as an LPN, she went back to school at Methodist Hospital in Omaha to become a registered nurse. Later, she earned a bachelors degree in nursing from Creighton University, also in Omaha. She had worked for CCH nearly 30 years when she became the ACU director. In that role, she oversees the ACU, intensive care unit and infusion. She often works 10 hours a day, starting at 5 or 6 a.m. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} When people ask me what Im going to do when I retire, I say I will sleep past 4 in the morning, Loseke said with a laugh. Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, who was at the Jan. 6 rally outside the Capitol and is a chief supporter of a partisan review of ballots in Maricopa County, is running for secretary of state. Former Nevada lawmaker Jim Marchant, who has clung to the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from Trump, is campaigning to replace Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who has repeatedly denied claims of election fraud. Cegavske cant run again because of term limits. Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for Common Cause, which advocates for expanded voter access, said that while the statewide positions come with more power, local officials generally have much discretion over how to solve common Election Day issues such as long lines, voter roll problems or trouble with voting machines. If you have an elections official who doesnt want to expand access to the ballot, who finds democracy disturbing to them, theyre not going to fix problems and then theyre going to multiply, she said. Races for county offices receive far less attention than those for statewide positions, and many of those roles arent up for election for another year or more. Still, partisanship has already seeped into the process. Years ago, a candidates qualifications might be centered around his yes, his brawn. Now, police departments say they are seeking recruits who can use their brain. And they want those future officers to represent their communities. Days of old, you wanted someone who actually had the strength to be more physical, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said. Todays police officers, thats not what were looking for. Were looking for someone who can actually relate to the community but also think like the community thinks. But the climate today, coupled with increases in crime in some cities, is creating what Chuck Wexler, the head of the Police Executive Research Forum, called a combustible mixture. Its creating a crisis on the horizon for police chiefs when they look at the resources they need, especially during a period when were seeing an increase in murders and shootings, Wexler said. Its a wake-up call. Anyone turning 65, retiring, or becoming eligible for Medicare because of a disability might want to consider participating in the free Medicare Virtual Fair on June 23 to help navigate through the complexities of Medicare. CLAIM, the official State Health Insurance Assistance Program for Missouri since 1993, is helping residents sign up for Medicare by promoting this national virtual event from 2-6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23. Unfortunately, during the COVID crisis this past year, we were unable to provide many of our traditional Welcome to Medicare events around the state, said Scott Miniea, executive director of the not-for-profit Missouri Connections for Health, which manages CLAIM. Now, CLAIM is excited to participate in this upcoming national event designed to assist Missourians with their Medicare needs, said Miniea. The CLAIM program team will be all hands on deck related to staff, according to Miniea, at this virtual eventwhich links nationwide resources with Missouri-specific details. Our team of CLAIM staff and volunteers are eager and ready to assist Missourians in the virtual break out room to learn about how we can help. We can also provide general education to those who need it, said Miniea. His next relocation was to North Carolina, where he worked for six years before returning to Missouri and Scott Air Force Base. White said although hes trained like all other soldiers for combat, he acknowledges his military experience has been mostly peaceful although he came close to being shipped to the Middle East. All (my service) was peace time, I was real fortunate for that, but I did get deployed, I had to pack all my bags, take all my stuff for the first Gulf War when Iraq invaded Kuwait, he said. Left home, did all the boo-hoos and all that with the family and work. When it came time to assess the troops before they were sent over, the powers that be realized they had two men reporting for the same duty. I got there, sat down, everyone went through what they were there for, and they got to me and said, Well, we got two of you guys, and I said, Well, OK, Im out. I got up and left, I didnt have to go, he said. White said he appreciates the skills, experiences and knowledge that trained him not only for life, but to take lifes challenges and negativity, and turn them into opportunities and positivity. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Attenberg offers encouragement on her Craft Talk newsletter ( https://1000wordsofsummer.substack.com ), and has brought in Celeste Ng and Lauren Groff, among others, to share advice. One of this years contributors is Rumaan Alam, whose novel Leave the World Behind was a National Book Award finalist in 2020. Advice about writing is mostly pretty awful, but a long time ago, another writer said something to me, really an aside, a stray thought, that has stuck with me, as advice about writing, or maybe advice about life itself. No one is ever going to ask you to write a book, she said, and shed know, having published three at that point, Alam writes. Take the book out of it; no one will ask you to write, full stop. Its up to you. You probably already knew that, which is why youre trying to produce 1,000 words a day right now. Participants follow different paths to 1,000 and have different reasons for trying. Nicole Stellon ODonnell is primarily a poet, but also writes little bricks of prose to reach her quota, and when finished looks for lines she can use for standalone poems. There are a whole bunch of little factors that made now the perfect time; its not just one thing, Miller said. But I will say that getting the state grant that provided half of the cost was a big win for us. The seized assets fund includes cash and other items, such as vehicles, that the county has seized over the years, mostly via drug busts, Miller said. The fund was used in part due to grant requirements but will not be used to provide ongoing funding. The asset forfeiture fund would be appropriate for the capital costs of cameras and also potentially future maintenance and replacement of cameras, but the ongoing fees and costs of the program will have to be absorbed in the operating budget, Kilroy said. Due to shipping delays, the county police now expect the cameras to arrive toward the end of July and training will begin soon afterward. The evening shift, which runs from the early afternoon until around midnight, will be the first to receive the equipment due to their higher rate of interaction with the community. In terms of the cameras functions, officers will need to activate the camera in order to record both video and audio. Haas said he didnt want to wait until the final year of his contract to start talking with the board about an extension. I wanted our School Board to know that I enjoyed our relationship and hoped it will continue, he said. Extending the contract now provides consistency and stability for the division, Haas said. Paige echoed that. It gives him some reassurance by moving it forward, he said. It really would be an advantage to both the board and to him to advance [the contract] at this time. As for the next four years, Haas said hes looking forward to the rollout of the divisions new strategic plan, which will be presented to the School Board during its annual retreat Friday, as well as a change to the countys human resources department. The county and school district are studying how to separate the jointly run department so each entity has its own department. Haas said the strategic plan will be a true plan with metrics to hold the division accountable as it seeks to ensure that every student succeeds. Mierzejewski added that he and other parents want positive change and do not want discrimination. The mechanisms to get there are what we need to now discuss and agree to, he said. Mechanisms he would support include those that respect parental rights, provide teachers with the proper training and time and offer a safe learning environment. He said natural conversations about race, bias and other topics most likely will come up in other subjects, and thats fine, as long as teachers are properly trained. But there has to be a place for every students voice to be included, Mierzejewski said. And that includes, as an example, someone who believes that there are only two genders, male or female. That is a belief system that my child subscribes to, and that he should not feel intimidated, unsafe, or discriminated against because of that belief and position. His son has experienced discrimination in the school, he said, declining to provide further details. His wife, Marie Mierzejewski, said at the May 27 board meeting that as a Catholic, the message to her son has been to keep his head down and shut up because his opinions arent welcomed in the school. Koch said Cville Plans Together has received feedback across a wide spectrum of opinions about the draft map, with some people supporting certain aspects and others asking for the same aspects to be changed. She said the team will analyze these responses after the public input period ends Sunday and will determine what the largest areas of concern are. Koch said based on some of the responses the team has received, there seems to be misunderstanding from a lot of the public about how the process will go forward, including that there will soon be a vote by the City Council on the map. There is no vote scheduled anytime in the near future, and the map will have to be reviewed by the Planning Commission prior to any decision being made by the council. I think some [people] misunderstand and think were looking at zoning right now, Koch said. Koch said the land use map is just a framework for what kind of zoning could be allowed in certain areas of the city. Our intention is not to say, for example in the medium intensity residential areas, that we think up to 12 units should be allowed in all of these sites. And thats not how it would work out. Were saying the zoning should consider within this range what would make sense in these places, she said. NORFOLK, Va. (AP) To hear a military prosecutor tell it, U.S. Marine Mario Madera-Rodriguez was tasked with smashing open the bedroom door of a U.S. Army Green Beret with a sledge hammer and then turning on some music. Another Marine was supposed to remove the Green Beret's mosquito netting from around his bed, the prosecutor said. A Navy SEAL would choke the Green Beret into unconsciousness, while a second SEAL would tie him up with duct tape. Their plan was to haze him that night, to humiliate him, Marine prosecutor Jason Samuel said Friday at the start of Madera-Rodriguez's murder trial at a U.S. Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia. But they killed him. The Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, a native of Lubbock, Texas, died of strangulation. Madera-Rodriguez is one of four American servicemembers charged in Melgar's 2017 hazing death in Africa, where the men were serving together. Madera-Rodriguez, who belongs to a special operations group in the Marines known as the Raiders, is the only one of the four men to plead not guilty. The others have already made plea deals and may testify at his trial. RICHMOND Richmond Commonwealths Attorney Colette McEachin has requested that a special prosecutor be appointed to review the Virginia State Polices investigation into allegations of election fraud by Mark Earley Jr., who handily won a Republican primary Tuesday. McEachin cited a social relationship with the parents of Mr. Earley as the reason for her request that a prosecutor from another jurisdiction review the evidence and decide whether to prosecute. Earley is the son of former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley Sr., also a Republican. McEachin, a Democrat, also just won a primary Tuesday. McEachin said late Friday that her request is pending in Richmond Circuit Court. In May, the Virginia State Police confirmed that it was looking into a complaint concerning paperwork submitted by Mark Earley Jr. to the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council. Even under the cloud of a criminal investigation, Earley easily won Tuesdays Republican primary in House District 68, a seat currently held by Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond. Earley received more than 91% of the primary vote against perennial candidate Mike Dickinson, a far-right candidate and former Democrat. Sears lives in the Winchester area, where she runs an appliance, plumbing and electric company. She will join GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin and attorney general nominee Jason Miyares on their partys ticket. Staunchly conservative, Sears generally opposes abortion and gun control, and would support overhauling education funding to increase school choice. In an interview Friday, she seemed unfazed about the possibility of making history again in November. Once you win, its history. What matters is going forward. What do you do with the office now that you have it? Im going to be focusing on education, she said. Lieutenant governor, a position first in the line of succession to the governor, mainly involves presiding over the procedural flow of bills through the Senate and breaking tied votes, though the job can also be used to advocate on policy issues. The role is often a stepping stone to higher office, and with the Senate closely divided, its an important one. Outgoing Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has broken ties on a number of bills of significance, including Medicaid expansion and marijuana legalization. Lowe spoke of her concern over the future and sustainability of farming in Virginia, an especially important issue for her given the quantity of agriculture in the 5th District. The release noted she wants to remove burdensome regulations that hampers farmers ability to sell locally. Lowes roughly two-hour kickoff event featured live music from Willows Branch Bluegrass Band and had several guest speakers, including Philip Hamilton, a Charlottesville resident seeking to turn the Democratic 57th House District red; Brandon Howard, president of the Second Amendment advocacy group Right to Bear Arms Virginia; and Mike Dickinson, who lost in Tuesdays Republican primary for the 68th House District but announced Saturday his intent to run for sheriff of Richmond. Dickinson described Lowe as a true fighter who will stand up against entrenched politicians and the establishment. Shes someone whos going to get out there on the front line because right now that is what we have wrong in our country and in the Republican Party, Dickinson said. We need less chihuahuas fighting for us and more junkyard dogs that will take a bite out of big government, out of big establishment and out of corruption, and thats why Im supporting Kimberly Lowe. Honestly, its not going to help very much at all, said Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association. The minimum wage is so much higher than our state minimum wage, its not going to make much impact. Its not set up correctly to make a difference, said Terry, who represents about 1,500 members, both independent and chain restaurants. This is zilch. Starting May 1, Virginias minimum wage rose from $7.25 per hour to $9.50 per hour. Its the first of three scheduled increases that will raise minimum pay for most non-farm jobs in Virginia to $12 per hour by 2023. Child care providers were more supportive because they need help in hiring employees, while they are still waiting for direct aid under the latest federal emergency relief package. One of the greatest challenges we face in child care today is lack of teachers, said Kim Hulcher, executive director of the Virginia Child Care Association. We commend the governor for taking action to build forward momentum to get people back to work. Many child care centers now have waitlists because they dont have enough teachers to fill the increasing demand. We are hamstrung Convinced there had to be an easier way, she consulted her arts and crafts kit and built the first prototype. She showed it to her parents, and, for a while, that was the end of it. She graduated from Washington and Lee University and enrolled in dental school at VCU, where she began learning about floss. Shocked, she discovered a better product still hadnt been invented. To find out if her idea was marketable, she met with Spark Product Development, a Richmond-based firm that helps turn abstractions into sellable products. With VCUs funding, Spark is helping her figure out various aspects of the business, including whether her invention can be manufactured at scale. To determine whether her idea contains defendable intellectual property, the university consulted lawyers. They decided that, yes, there was space in the market for her nascent product. After a prototype is developed, Gordon can go back to VCU and ask the Innovation Gateway, a unit of the university that helps its faculty and students commercialize their innovations, to fund the next steps. Gordon was one of 10 applicants to pitch her product to the board. Two were chosen for full funding, and three others were granted partial funding. Just another alert? As Wireless Emergency Alert messages are being used for new kinds of emergencies, its more important than ever that public alert messaging is complete and straightforward. Yet there have been persistent challenges in COVID-19-related messaging, as seen in the El Paso alert. It addressed its public in terms of a religious holiday, indicating a lack of attention to diversity that could undermine some peoples trust in the system. Furthermore, the message came without a clear indication of its sender. Nearly half of early COVID-19-related alerts left out this information. This omission can lead to confusion about the trustworthiness of messages and a hesitance to take them seriously. The possibility for confusion is amplified because emergency alerts pop up just like text messages, app alerts and similar push notifications on smartphones. Some alerts are sent alongside an audible tone, but there is little to distinguish emergency alerts from other messages on phones with sound turned off. This makes it easy to perceive Wireless Emergency Alert messages as invasive, annoying or untrustworthy spam or a scam which could lead people to opt out of them. All emergency alerts, other than alerts the president sends to the nation, can be turned off in a phones settings menu. The Senate report on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol reminds us once again of that riots similarity to Charlottesvilles August 2017. The Senate investigation found multiple errors by law enforcement and other officials both in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack and in the response to it. Intelligence reports had predicted a large and potentially violent march on the Capitol; indeed, organizers were sharing information fairly openly on internet channels. But that intelligence was not routinely sent up the chain of command, so officials in charge of planning were not properly apprised of the risk. Capitol Police were visibly unprepared for the assault they faced, both in manpower and equipment. Even after calls went out for the National Guard to assist the police, the Pentagon spent hours mission planning its response, The Associated Press says in its summary of the report. Many of us remember watching the horrific events of that day unfolding on national television and asking ourselves in disbelief: Where are the police? Where are the guardsmen? Part of the problem in getting the National Guard to the scene had to do with a cumbersome bureaucratic approval process. Education featured Food for students was easy to find last summer. What about now? Jeff Woo/DRC Delia Monsibais, Bell Elementary Schools child nutrition lead, left, and Christina Young, Rodriguez Middle School child nutrition manager, place meals inside a familys vehicle Thursday at Cross Oaks Elementary School in Cross Roads. Jeff Woo/DRC Delia Monsibais, Bell Elementary School child nutrition lead, prepares to place meals inside a familys vehicle at Cross Oaks Elementary School on Thursday. Denton ISD is handing out four days worth of meals for children 18 or younger, available during noon-3 p.m. Mondays and 4-6 p.m. Thursdays at the school in Cross Roads. CROSS ROADS Free meals for area students are still easy to come by if you know when or where to look. At least 12 sites across Denton ISD are passing out meals to students during the week. Unlike summer 2020 when many school districts leapt to action in order to get food into childrens hands, this summer in Denton ISD is closer to what one might expect in pre-pandemic times. The S. Tracy Howard Project, a local nonprofit, is operating 11 sites spread mostly across central Denton. Locations vary from city buildings to schools to housing developments. For its part, Denton ISD is distributing meals from only one site this summer compared to its more than 18 or so sites and 26 delivery locations last summer. A small team of child nutrition workers passed out four-day meal bundles from Cross Oaks Elementary School on Thursday afternoon in Cross Roads. Liz Raftery, director of child nutrition for the district, said the district saw a gap in feeding locations along U.S. Highway 380, and Cross Oaks Elementary had been one of the more popular sites for food distribution this past year. Those factors led to Denton ISD opting to operate its own site two days a week this summer. Raftery said the typical school years menu gets translated directly to the meal bundles each Monday and Thursday at Cross Oaks. Any students can get their meal bundles free of charge thanks in large part to an extension by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The department approved free universal meals through its free and reduced-price meal program nationally to combat child hunger amid the pandemic, but the federal agency already promised the program would be funded at least through the 2021-22 school year. These arent necessarily DISD students, Raftery said. They might be from surrounding districts, as well. If the child is not present, Denton ISD simply asks for some sort of documentation such as school ID or birth certificate to show the person or people receiving meals is 18 or younger. Meals have to meet a strict set of criteria in order to qualify as reimbursable through the federal government. That means families cant simply pick and choose what items they take from the pre-packaged bundles. At least one person was wounded early Sunday morning after a shooting at a small house party, the Aurora Police Department said. Police said 10 to 15 people, mostly teenagers, were partying at a house under construction at 23577 E. Fifth Place, near East Sixth Avenue and Interstate 225. Just after 4 a.m., neighbors called to report multiple gunshots, police said. When officers arrived, they found evidence of a shooting but all of the partygoers were gone. About 5:30 a.m., a woman walked into a nearby emergency room with a gunshot wound. Police said the woman was shot at the party. She is expected to survive her injuries. It is unclear if anyone else was shot at the party. Police have not released any information about what led to the shooting. No arrests have been made in connection to the shooting. No suspect information is available. Anyone with information is asked to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can be anonymous and are eligible for a $2,000 reward. The Elba City Schools Board of Education accepted the resignation of Elba Elementary School Principal Debra Johnson Strickland, who was arrested on June 5 following a hit-and-run incident. Strickland was placed on administrative leave after the news of her arrest was released. She had been employed with the school system since 2007. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency reported that Strickland, 38, of Samson, was driving a 2017 Nissan Maxima on Alabama 87 at around 4:35 p.m. The Maxima was traveling north when Strickland crossed the centerline into the southbound lane. The 2019 Subaru Outback driven by Wendy M. Smith, 43, of Owensboro, Kentucky swerved into the northbound lane to avoid colliding with the Maxima. Strickland then swerved back into the northbound lane and struck the Subaru approximately 12 miles south of Enterprise city limits. Investigators reported Strickland then fled the crash scene on foot and was later apprehended approximately one mile from the crash scene. She was charged with fleeing the scene of an accident with injury, according to Geneva County Sheriff Tony Helms. Kenya Martin, the schools counselor, was appointed as interim principal, and Superintendent Chris Moseley thanked her for the effort shes put into the role over the last week. Attention baby boomers and our remaining elders: Here we go again! Remember several years ago when we learned Pluto had been deplanetized? Well, now were told Earths fifth ocean has been named. On June 8, the Southern Ocean officially joined the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. That total of five is incorrect; well explore that below. But first, gotta wonder whats the next change thatll addle boomers; what else will we have to learn/unlearn? One of the first informational changes many boomers made involved adding Alaska and Hawaii (aka Hawaii) as U.S. states, messing up the array of stars on the nations flag that was good enough for the Greatest Generation in their youth. Note: Tomorrows Flag Day, supposedly, in most states. This day and time, historical negationism, including Woke in some applications, offers surprises aplenty. To start, they would like to import 10,000 pounds of Cuban tobacco, enough to handroll 150,000 to 175,000 cigars. Well take as much as we can get or as little as we can get, Newman said. Im sure it will start off slowly as the U.S. government gives us permission, but then we can grow it over time. Since Obama started the program to support Cubas private sector, the U.S. government has approved the import of coffee and charcoal. John Kavulich, is the president of the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which analyzes and predicts business trends between the nations. He said this is the right time for the Newmans to petition for the import. The Biden administration, he said, is considering allowing Americans to invest in Cubas private sector. Currently, U.S. citizens can only donate to the businesses. This impacts the Newmans in a good way, Kavulich said. The Biden administration has interest in providing more support to Cubas private sector. Still, Kavulich said, the Cuban government must allow its private farms to sell tobacco to the Newmans. MIAMI (AP) Leaning against the wooden gate in front of the mobile home she boarded up and painted herself, Brandy Sarut realizes that, at 24, shes facing the threat of eviction for the second time in her life. The first time was when she was still a kid, growing up in Miami-Dade County. But this time, Sarut is a caretaker. She works just three days a week as a waitress at a nearby Dennys and has a 3-year-old girl, Mariana. Her father, who lives in a trailer behind hers, is retired and disabled. What little she makes at the diner goes into paying her $600 monthly rent to live in a small trailer, about the same amount paid by the 30 families living in one of the few non-subsidized affordable housing options left in the city. And, as of now, homeowners are likely to lose the bulk of the investments many made on their trailers decades ago. Residents of the Paradise Park Mobile Home Park, west of the 27th Street bridge near fast-growing Allapattah, received a six-month notice of eviction last November, just a few days after the trailer park was bought by Miami-based developers for $15 million and about a month before one of South Floridas worst COVID-19 outbreaks. Although the park has survived the threat of evictions and demolitions in previous years, this time its likely all residents will have to find new homes. In Mississippi, about 835,000 people have been fully vaccinated, or 28% of the population. But despite the lagging vaccination rate, the state's rolling average of daily new cases over the past two weeks has decreased by about 18%, according to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Albert Ko, who chairs Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale, said there is no accurate data to show what percentage of the population in high burden states such as Alabama or Texas have been exposed to the virus, but he said estimates have put it as high as 50%. I think it doesnt deny the importance of vaccination, particularly because the levels of antibodies that you get that are induced by natural infection are lower than that of what we have for our best vaccine, Ko said. Ko said it is important that even those exposed to the disease get vaccinated because natural immunity does not last as long as vaccine immunity and the levels of antibodies are lower. Wen said research strongly suggests that vaccinations provide a benefit to those who already have some antibodies due to infection. "I think it is a fallacy that many people have that recovery means they no longer need to be vaccinated, she said. 'Thac Bo' (Landscapes with Junks), a lacquer painting by Pham Hau, was sold for 833,000 ($1 million) by French auction house Aguttes. It went under the hammer at the 'Asian Painters, Major Works' auction, and had been expected to fetch only around 250,000. Thac Bo, comprising four panels and finished in 1943, represents a Vietnamese lakescape, the auctioneer said. "The luxuriant vegetation, made of banana leaves, apple blossoms and bamboo, underlines the tropical nature of the place. Pham Hau sublimates the bay thanks to a masterly work of blue and gold reflections, punctuated by the presence of junks and rocks." 'Thac Bo' (Landscapes with Junks) by Pham Hau. Photo courtesy of Aguttes. The auction, taking place on June 7, also featured many other works by Vietnamese artists, including Le Pho, Mai Trung Thu and Vu Cao Dam. Hau (1903 - 1995) created a range of famous works. He demonstrated a profound grasp of both eastern and western artistic principles and philosophies through his paintings, while his poetic landscape compositions offer us a glimpse into the rich and complex Vietnamese culture. In 2019, his lacquer painting 'Cuu Ngu Quan Hoi' (Nine Carps In The Water) fetched a record price of over US$1.1 million at a Sothebys Hong Kong auction. Earlier this year, his 'Canh Ngoi Chua O Mien Bac Viet Nam' (View of a Famous Old Pagoda Landscape in North Vietnam) went for HKD8.04 million ($1.03 million) at the same auction house. A barrier is set up in a neighborhood in Hanoi to limit contact to prevent Covid-19 spread, March 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Foreign experts said there are several conditions making self-quarantine successful and Vietnam may learn from them. Since the fourth wave of Covid-19 erupted in late April, Vietnam is seeing a rapid increase in the number of people who come into close contact with patients. Data from the Ministry of Health shows that, as of June 8, over 20,000 are in quarantine and over 151,000 others are self-isolated at home and elsewhere. To ease the pressure on government quarantine facilities, some experts have suggested that the authorities should allow people coming into contact with Covid patients to self-quarantine at home. Professor Sharon Lewin, director of Australias Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said, "This is what Australia is doing, and it has worked well." In Victoria state, they are allowed to quarantine at home for 14 days and authorities call them on the phone every day to make sure they do not go out. "More importantly, they intermittently visit them at home without electronic monitoring." Anyone not found at home could be fined nearly $5,000 and ordered to quarantine further, according to the state website. Lewin said during the quarantine period (14 days), health workers test them three or four times. Even people who test positive are permitted to quarantine at home. They need to wear a mask, stay in one room and use a separate bathroom. If they live in a crowded house, the family is sent to quarantine in a hotel. "We do have families in quarantine, but it is not common. Most people are at home." In general, Australia only quarantines people in hotels if they are travelers coming from other countries. Professor Michael Baker of the public health faculty at the University of Otago in New Zealand said home quarantine is fine in some circumstances. People who come into close contact with Covid patients need to be able to avoid contact with others at home for 14 days, report any symptoms and require people to check on them and be available if they develop symptoms or need help, he said. "If there is any doubt about a person's ability to self-quarantine effectively, they need to be placed in a well-run quarantine facility." Lewin admitted there are some risks with home quarantine such as close contacts going out or getting infected, but these are minor and the policy is effective because "most people are doing the right thing." Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist with the Griffith University Australia, however expressed concern with the viability of self-quarantining. He noted that the authorities should pay much attention to poor people, who do not have separate rooms in their house and have to stay in one space. In such cases, the risk of household clusters will develop. He suggested that Vietnam could establish quarantine centers at the community level to reduce the pressure on large centers, he said. "These kinds of quarantines could be easier to manage." Of the new cases, 27 are from Bac Giang, followed by HCMC with 20, Bac Ninh with 15, and Hanoi with one. The cases in the northern provinces of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh are related to the outbreak in the provinces industrial parks. Among the 20 cases in HCMC, 13 had come into contact with Covid-19 patients, three are related to the cluster that emerged from the Revival Ekklesia Mission, a Christian congregation based in Go Vap District.The sourcesof transmission of the remaining four are still unclear. The case in Hanoi, that of a three-year-old child, is related to the previously confirmed cases. On Friday, Vietnam recorded a total of 185 new local cases, two deaths and 96 recoveries. The total number of recoveries since the start of the pandemic is 3,804. The death toll has risen by 22 in the latest wave, taking the total to 57. Vietnam was hit by a fourth wave of Covid-19 community transmission on April 27. Since then, infections have been recorded 39 cities and provinces. Belarus' Mogilev Oblast and China's Henan Province signed a roadmap on cooperation on 3 June. The meeting and the signing of the documents took place online, BelTA has learned. According to Mogilev Oblast Vice Governor Ruslan Strakhar, the region cooperates with five Chinese provinces today. This brings about its positive results. Since 2015, the mutual trade between Mogilev Oblast and China has increased 13 times, up to $93.6 million. Our task is to continue active cooperation, especially during the pandemic. This province was one of the first to set up cooperation with Mogilev Oblast and to provide assistance in selling our products. The new document is an important step foward, Ruslan Strakhar. According to the vice governor, the parties agreed to continue cooperation in trade and increase cooperation in the investment sector. Tourism is an important area of partnership. We have decided on the main areas of our cooperation. We have defined those responsible from each side, and concrete dates to compare notes and hold events. In the near future we are going to hold an online business meeting to assess results and outline steps for further development, said Ruslan Strakhar. The Chinese representatives also expressed interest in cooperation. According to Henan Province Vice Governor He Jinping, the two countries enjoy vibrant relationship. We can see that cooperation between our countries brings positive results. Today we are signing another important document between our regions. Among the important issues that need to be worked on is the improvement of transportation and logistics between our countries. We also need to work on the tourism sector: our countries have a rich history and cultural traditions, He Jinping said. Egypt's parliament the House of Representatives will start Sunday to discuss the 2021/22 new state budget and a socio-development plan. The House will debate a comprehensive report prepared by the parliament's Budget Committee on the new state budget and the socio-development plan on Sunday and Monday. The report also covers the budgets of public economic organizations and the National Organization for Military Production. In the report, MPs recommend the budgets of the two sectors of health and education be increased, saying that the priorities in the new budget should be re-ordered to give some sectors precedence over others, head of the House's Budget Committee Fakhri El-Fiqi said. The MPs call for increasing the budget allocated to state-funded medical treatment for poor and limited-income citizens from EGP7 billion to EGP8 billion. They also recommend the budget of the higher education be increased from EGP 74.7 billion to EGP 77.2 billion, and that of the Ministry of Education from EGP 108 billion to EGP 112.5 billion. In a statement before parliament on 25 April, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said while the new 2021/22 budget targets revenues of EGP 1.365 trillion, spending is projected to reach EGP 1.837 trillion. He indicated that the new budget will allocate EGP 321.3 billion in subsidies, grants and social privileges. Maait said the new 2021/22 budget aims to slash public debt to 89.5 per cent of GDP and cut budget deficit to 6.7 percent of GDP. "This is part of our policies focused on maintaining financial stability, achieving fiscal discipline and containing the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy," said Maait. Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said also indicated that the government targets EGP 1.25 trillion in overall investments. "We target economic growth of 5.4 percent in FY 2021/22, up from a projected 2.8 per cent at the end of 2020/21," said El-Said. The House will also discuss a $400 million loan agreement between Egypt and the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development on supporting Egypt's new social health insurance system. On Tuesday, Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Mola will face 35 questions from MPs on high costs of supplying households with natural gas, problems in Petrojet Company, oil prospection in the Red Sea governorate, and oil exports. Short link: Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday that the Egyptian government is handling the crisis of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with full transparency. The government keeps the Egyptian people updated about the latest developments related to the GERD negotiations, Shoukry told Sada Al-Balad TV channel in an interview. He pointed out that his recent meetings with Sudanese officials which were held last Wednesday during his visit along with Egypt's irrigation minister to Khartoum aimed to place emphasis on the need to coordinate with Sudan to counter the negative impacts of the second filling of the dam. The government follows up on all GERD-linked technical aspects, data and developments and assesses the dam-related phases, Shoukry said. The minister stressed that Egypt and Sudan will work strictly to counter any negative unilateral actions on the part of Ethiopia and will take all necessary steps to protect the interests of both downstream countries. Egypt always hopes that a breakthrough will take place in the GERD crisis, stressing that Cairo and Khartoum have showed a lot of flexibility to settle this issue. Regarding the international communitys stance on the GERD issue, the minister said the UN secretary general had expressed the international community's concern over the second filling of the dam and its repercussions on the region. "We are contacting all partners, including the US envoy, the European Union and the United Nations, to coordinate for solving the crisis," Shoukry added. The US State Department issued a statement on 14 May urging the resumption of African Union-mediated negotiations in line with the 2015 Declaration of Principles and the outcomes of the July 2020 AU summit on GERD, saying that the US is committed to providing political and technical support to facilitate a successful outcome." By including references of the 2015 Declaration of Principles and the 2020 summit, Washington was backing a comprehensive and legally binding deal before the filling, according to experts. The Egyptian minister stated that "we are in a critical stage as Ethiopia is about to declare the start of the second filling." "This measure will have an impact on the negotiating path, but we will wait and see," he said. On the 40-year compensations for protection of the Nile River that was requested by Ethiopia, the minister said such demands are "unacceptable and contradict the rules of international law and have no international references." He asserted that Ethiopia breached the 2015 Declaration of Principles and refused to respond to solutions offered by African countries to settle the dam crisis. Water shares With regards to negotiations on water shares, the top Egyptian diplomat said the negotiations only concentrate on reaching a binding agreement between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on the filling and operation of the dam. In August 2020, A similar Ethiopian proposal was rejected by Sudan, which threatened to withdraw from the GERD talks if Addis Ababa insisted on linking an agreement on the dams filling to a deal on sharing the waters of the Blue Nile. Sudan's Water resources Minister Yasser Abbas said at the time that he was surprised by Ethiopias proposal on the water shares, which he described as dangerous. In April, when media reports surfaced again indicating Ethiopian intention to include a water-sharing deal for the Blue Nile in the GERD talks, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on Ethiopia not to compromise Egypt's share of Nile water, saying all options are possible, while stressing that cooperation is better than conflict. "I say to our Ethiopian brothers, [we] should not get to a point where you infringe upon a drop of Egypt's water because all options are open cooperation is better to build with each other is better than to disagree and tussle," El-Sisi said. Ethiopia conveyed in April its rejection of the downstream countries water rights of what it described as colonial agreements when its Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Dina Mufti said that it is unacceptable for Egypt and Sudan to use historical accords of Nile shares as reference points during GERDs negotiations. In response, Sudan, from its side, threatened that disavowing these agreements means compromising sovereignty over the Benishangul region on which Addis Ababa is building the controversial dam, urging Addis Ababa to commit to the international agreements it signed as an independent state." The Anglo-Ethiopian treaty was signed in 1902 between the United Kingdom representing Egypt and Sudan and Ethiopia represented by Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia. While the agreement has prohibited the Ethiopian construction of any waterworks across the Blue Nile that would affect the rivers natural flow, it has granted sovereignty of the then Sudanese Benishangul region to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian claim that the relevant agreements are an insignificant colonial legacy is an explicit fallacy of historical facts, indicating that Ethiopia was an independent, sovereign state and a member of the international community at the time of the conclusion of those agreements, while Sudan was subject to bilateral colonialism (of the Ottomans and the British), Sudans Foreign Ministry said. Ethiopia was not party to other Nile water accords such as the 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain, representing Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Sudan. The deal allocates 55.5 bcm of water to Egypt and 18.5 bcm to Sudan. Nor did Ethiopia take part in its 1959 supplementary agreement which confirmed Cairo and Khartoums annual quota and allowed the construction of Egypts Aswan High Dam. Second filling of GERD The Egyptian foreign minister reaffirmed during his telephone interview that the second filling of the dam is politically rejected, while Egypt and Sudan will take all available steps to protect their water interests. With less than three weeks before the GERDs scheduled second-year filling, Ethiopia's water and irrigation minister reportedly said last week the construction of the GERDs body has not reached the previously planned height needed for a full second-year filling. The current height of the GERD is 565 metres and construction works are underway to reach 573 within the coming 20 days, Ethiopian Minister of Water Seleshi Bekele was quoted as saying, according to Ethiopia-based news company Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC). Addis Ababas officials have repeatedly announced they would unilaterally fill GERDs 74 billion cubic metres (bcm) reservoir with 13.5 bcm in July and August to raise the build-up amount of water to 18.4 bcm, up from the 4.9 bcm it secured in 2020. Ethiopia intends to commence its second filling of the GERD on 22 July with or without forging a deal, a unilateral move that has been rejected by both downstream countries, describing it to be a clear violation of international law and threatens regional security and peace. Egypt and Sudan are pushing for signing a comprehensive and legally binding agreement with Ethiopia over GERD. However, Addis Ababa refuses and rather seeks mere guidelines that can be modified any time at Ethiopias discretion. Resorting to Security Council Commenting on resorting to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Shoukry said on Saturday all options are on the table. Later in the day, Egypt sent a letter to the president of the UNSC expressing its objection to Addis Ababa' plan to move ahead unilaterally with the second filling of the GERD in July in the absence of a legally binding agreement with downstream countries. The 95-page letter, which Ahram Online exclusively had a copy of it, included an overview of the decade-old negotiations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia as well as how the latest round, which was held under the brokerage of the African Union (AU), faltered due to Addis Ababa's intransigence. The latest talks of the $4.8 billion Ethiopian hydropower project which was sponsored by the African Union (AU) and aimed to revive the already stalled negotiations since January was held in the AUs chair country, the DR Congo, in April but failed to stir the stagnant water, with both Egypt and Sudan blaming Ethiopias intransigence. In the letter, Egypt noted that the AU talks did not falter because of the lack of agreement on technical matters, but because of Ethiopia's policy of unilateralism, noting that Addis Ababa has adopted "substantively intransigent positions and a procedurally unconstructive attitude." Egypt's letter to the UNSC came a year after two similar letters from Cairo and Khartoum to the UN body on GERD. On 24 June 2020, Sudan said in a letter to the UNSC that it is deeply concerned about Ethiopias decision to start filling its controversial dam which had been unilaterally concluded by later by Addis Ababa on the Blue Nile without prior agreement with downstream countries Egypt and Sudan. Sudan's last-year letter to the UNSC came after Egypt sent a letter on 19 June requesting the UN body's intervention to resolve the dam dispute with Ethiopia. Short link: Arab Parliament Speaker Adel Al-Asoumi affirmed on Saturday the legislature's full solidarity with Egypt and Sudan in the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), urging Ethiopia to respond to the Egyptian diplomacy's efforts for reaching a legally binding agreement on its dam. In a statement, Al-Asoumi stressed the Arab Parliament's complete rejection of the Ethiopian approach that seeks to impose a fait accompli on Egypt and Sudan through unilateral measures and steps, which "are totally rejected." The $4.8 billion Ethiopian hydropower project's last round of talks which was sponsored by the AU and aimed to revive the already stalled negotiations since January was held in the AUs chair country, the DR Congo, in April but failed to stir the stagnant water, with both Egypt and Sudan blaming Ethiopias intransigence. Ethiopia intends to commence its second filling of the GERD on 22 July with or without forging a deal. Both downstream countries reject any unilateral move, describing it to be a clear violation of international law and threatens regional security and peace. Addis Ababas officials have repeatedly announced they would unilaterally fill the GERDs 74 billion cubic metres (bcm) reservoir with 13.5 bcm in July and August to raise the build-up amount of water to 18.4 bcm, up from the 4.9 bcm it secured without coordination with both downstream countries in 2020. Al-Asoumi also asserted his support for a letter sent by Egypt to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as an official document that reveals the intransigent Ethiopian positions that thwarted the efforts made to reach a fair, balanced and binding agreement for all. Egypt sent on Saturday a letter to the president of the UNSC expressing its objection to Addis Ababa's plan to move ahead unilaterally with the second filling of the GERD in July in the absence of an agreement with downstream countries. In the 95-page letter, Egypt noted that the AU talks did not falter because of the lack of agreement on technical matters, but because of Ethiopia's policy of unilateralism, noting that Addis Ababa has adopted "substantively intransigent positions and a procedurally unconstructive attitude." Al-Asoumi vowed the Arab Parliament will work on reaching out to all international and regional parliaments in order to clarify the constructive and responsible stances taken by Egypt and Sudan to reach an agreement that takes into account the interests of the three countries and preserves their rights. He affirmed the Arab solidarity towards "this strategic issue" that concerns all Arabs not just Egypt and Sudan. Arab foreign ministers will hold a meeting in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the GERD recent developments. On Saturday, Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki stressed that Egypt and Sudan are in need of the political support of all members of the pan-Arab body in the Ethiopia dam file. The two countries decided to get such a support during the AL ministerial meetings in Doha on Tuesday, he said in a phone call with ONtv satellite channel according to MENA. Egypt, whose 100 million-plus population relies on the world-longest River Nile for more than 95 per cent of its renewable water resources, fears the massive $4.8 billion hydropower project will significantly diminish its water supply, which at 560 m3 per person annually is already well below the international threshold for water scarcity. While Sudan has said that the unilateral filling of GERD would threaten the lives of millions of its people living downstream the dam, jeopardize the operational safety of its dams, and consequently risk Sudan's national security. Short link: A Cairo court Sunday decided to form a technical committee of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Ministry of Culture to examine movables from an apartment and a shop in a building in the cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Zamalek. Located on 20 Mansour Mohamed St., the apartment and the shop had been sequestrated and placed under supervision of the prosecution. A legal committee that oversaw the implementation of a final verdict in an inheritance lawsuit had detected huge amounts of ancient and historical movables, as well as jewelry, inside the apartment and shop. Those should be examined by specialists, the court said Sunday. The defence team representing the litigant against whom the lawsuit was filed had submitted documents proving his client's ownership of the apartment and its contents. The legal committee took necessary measures to secure the apartment by sealing all windows and the door and installing cameras everywhere inside and outside the apartment. Also a metal detector machine was placed outside the apartment, with a police force monitoring the situation around the clock. The technical committee has written a report indicating that 1,204 ancient Egyptian and Islamic pieces, as well as 787 belongings of the Mohamed Ali Dynasty, are among the movables of the apartment. Those had been attained from auctions that are regularly held under the supervision of the Ministry of Antiquities to sell retrieved pieces that had been smuggled out of Egypt. The technical committee has already examined 216 paintings; 103 of which are of great historical and financial value and could very well be showcased at museums and 10 could be displayed at the Egyptian National Library and Archives. A Colt Cobra and some ammunition, as well as sums of money of different currencies, were also found inside the apartment. The litigant and his father against whom the lawsuit was filed have proven that they have an antique possession license, but do not have legal permission to attain belongings of the Mohamed Ali Dynasty. They are also not licensed to possess any firearms. The apartment is now under the supervision of the prosecution. Short link: Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed Egypt's foreign policy on a number of regional files, including Egyptian support for the Palestinian cause, relations with Turkey and Qatar, and stances on ending the crisis in Libya during an interview with Sada Al-Balad TV channel on Saturday evening. On Egyptian-Turkish relations, the foreign minister said Egypt is currently assessing Turkish policies, since Cairo proposed some files that Turkey should take into account to remove all obstacles that hinder building mutual relations. He reaffirmed that Egypt always works to build close relations with its regional and international partners properly. Egypt is working on exploring how Ankara is ready to have relations with Cairo on a proper basis and its compliance with international law, the minister added. Shoukry also stressed the necessity that Ankara be away from anything that destabilises Egypt's security. This is a sacred matter, he said. The foreign minister pointed out that if Turkey did not extradite Muslim Brotherhood members to Egypt or close MB-affiliated TV channels, the situation would be more difficult, adding all these policies are being monitored and ties could be normally resumed in case of any progress. Cyprus and Greece are not upset with the Egyptian-Turkish rapprochement, he underlined, adding: We are informing them about all the developments in the Eastern Mediterranean region. As for the Qatari file, Shoukry said Egypt is implementing what has been reached in the Al-Ula agreement, saying committees have been formed to restore Egyptian-Qatari ties to normal. He described the political relations between the two countries as positive, saying that another development will take place next week and will have impact on the relations. The foreign minister stressed that the rights of Egyptians who sacrificed themselves in defense of their homeland will not be relinquished. The two countries are positively working on removing the boycotts repercussions, the top diplomat noted, saying Qatar's response to Egypt's demands is being assessed. Regarding the invitation of the Qatari emir to President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi to visit Doha, Shoukry said the invitation is appreciated and the visit will be paid in its right timing within the diplomatic framework. Regarding the files of Libya, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Shoukry said these files are of great importance for Egypt's security and stability, stressing that Egyptian security cannot be crossed. Concerning the situation in the Gaza Strip, Shoukry said Egypt has shouldered the responsibility of supporting the Palestinian people and their cause over the past seven decades. Gazans deserve support and better living conditions to continue their march towards achieving their aspirations of establishing an independent state, he said. As for the coming Israeli government, the foreign minister underscored that Egypt would deal with any government based on the normal ties between the countries and will be pushing for peace to achieve the two-state solution on the 1967 borders. Commenting on reports about Israeli demands asking Egypt to stop sending cement and equipment to the enclave, the top diplomat noted that President El-Sisi ordered $500-million aid for Gaza reconstruction in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government. Short link: President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Sunday in Cairo ways to boost cooperation between Egypt and Pakistan in all fields, especially in military and security cooperation, with Pakistani Chairman joint Chief of Staff Committee General Nadeem Reza, the Egyptian presidency said. The Egyptian presidency stated that El-Sisi and Reza discussed military cooperation between the two countries, including the exchange of visits of commanders, holding periodically a joint defence committee meeting, and cooperation in the field of defence and military industries, in addition to joint training programs like the Sky Protectors-1 air forces drill that was held in May. The Egyptian president and Pakistani chief of staff discussed regional developments, above them the recent ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, which was brokered by Egypt, as well as the latest developments in the Middle East and Muslim world. During the meeting, Reza praised the deep ties between Pakistan and Egypt and said he is looking forward to enhancing fruitful cooperation between the two countries. According to the Egyptian presidency, El-Sisi asked Reza to convey his best regards to Pakistans President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan. Egypts Minister of Defence Mohamed Zaki and Pakistans ambassador to Cairo attended the meeting. Short link: Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has stressed the need to reach a binding legal agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Hamdok, in a meeting with chairman of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, on Sunday said this would enable Sudan to go ahead with its development projects and avoid harms that could be caused due to lack of detailed information regarding the filling and operation of the dam. The meeting also discussed the situation in Sudan, focusing on the country's transition to democracy. Hamdok posted Mahamat on progress achieved so far in the files of peace and economic development. The AU commissioner stressed support of the pan-African body for Sudan in its period of transition. He also said the AU is closely following negotiations on the GERD and agreed that Sudan would provide the union with further information about the controversial dam. Short link: President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Sunday in Cairo Egyptian-French economic and commercial cooperation and ways to boost French investments in Egypt with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, the Egyptian presidency said. According to the Egyptian presidency, the meeting witnessed an agreement on the importance of economic and commercial cooperation between Egypt and France and the priority of boosting French investments in the country. The president and the French minister agreed that the Egyptian market represents a promising launching point for French exports to different markets in the region due to Egypts central geographical locales, the free trade agreements Cairo signed, as well as the incentives and advantages available for investing in the country. El-Sisi and Le Maire also discussed the huge investment opportunities available for French companies in Egyptian national megaprojects like the Suez Economic Zone, Decent Life Initiative, and the new cities currently being constructed nationwide. Le Maire conveyed to El-Sisi the greetings of French President Emmanuel Macron for the recent Egyptian efforts in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian factions in the Palestinian territories. Le Maire asserted the depth of Egyptian-French strategic relations, stressing that France was keen to support Egypt by boosting and diversifying its investment in the country, as well as enhancing joint cooperation in all fields. From his side, El-Sisi stated that those investment opportunities are supported by the stability that Egypt has been enjoying recently. El-Sisi and Le Maire also discussed ways to boost partnership between the two countries in the cultural and tourism fields, the Egyptian presidencys statement read. Egypts Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, and Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait attended the meeting, along with Egypts Ambassador to France Alaa Youssef and Frances Ambassador to Egypt Stephane Romatet. Short link: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly witnessed on Sunday the signing of several cooperation deals between Egypt and France in various fields. This came after Madboulys meeting with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, where Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir, and International Cooperation Minister Rania Al-Mashat, along with other diplomats and officials, were present. The deals were signed by Al-Mashat, and Le Maire from the Egyptian and French sides respectively. The deals are expected to provide a financing package worth 1.7 billion Euros, 776 million Euros from the French government and 990 million Euros from the French Development Agency, to fund projects in the fields of transport, housing, electricity, education, and wholesale markets. Short link: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will leave Cairo on Sunday for Doha to convey a letter from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. The letter focuses on the positive developments in Egyptian-Qatari relations following the signing of the Al-Ula reconciliation agreement on 5 January, Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ahmed Hafez said in a statement. It also expresses Egypts aspiration to take further measures to advance the priority areas of bilateral cooperation to achieve the interests of the two brotherly countries and peoples, he added. The top Egyptian diplomat will then take part in the consultative meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which will be held at the invitation of Qatar the president of the current session of the Council of the Arab League to continue coordination and consultation on the current Arab situation, and ways to strengthen joint action mechanisms regarding the growing challenges facing Arab countries. Shoukry will also participate in the extraordinary meeting of the Arab League Council at the ministerial level to discuss developments regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam issue, which will be held at the request of Egypt and Sudan following the consultative meeting of Arab foreign ministers. He will also attend the first meeting of the Palestine Committee. The foreign minister is also scheduled to hold talks with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. This is considered the first visit for an Egyptian minister to the Qatari capital after the Al-Ula agreement between Qatar and Egypt, along with Gulf states Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, that ended a rift with Doha which lasted over three years. In May, Qatars Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani led a delegation on a visit to Cairo, during which he met with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Short link: The Nile for Peace Initiative called on Sunday for the need to reach a legally-binding agreement that preserves the water rights of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia in the Nile over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dams (GERD) filing and operation policies. In a press conference held in Cairo to introduce the initiative and its NGOs members to the Egyptian audience, the Nile for Peace Initiative shared its activities in the past two months since its launch in April in the Ugandan capital of Kampala till now, as well as its future plan to help in solving the GERDs deadlock. 15 members of the initiative from various African countries have participated in the conference organised by Cairo-based Maat for Peace, Development, and Human Rights, through online recorded speeches. Kofi Kankam, chair of the Major NGO Group in Africa and vice-chair of the African Mechanism of Major Governmental Organisations, said that the initiative held a number of meetings and high-level visits, topped by meetings with the Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and members of the House of Representatives, as well as a number of African embassies in Egypt led by the Ethiopian ambassador in Cairo, to present alternative solutions to the initiative and the African views that recommend postponing the second filling of the GERD until a legally-binding agreement guaranteeing the rights of the three peoples is reached between the three countries. As to the initiatives future steps, Kankam, the head of the initiative's delegation to Egypt, declared that a number of meetings will be held with decision-makers and actors in the African Union, the European Union, the United States of America, and some United Nations bodies, as a mobilisation of international solidarity to introduce them to the initiative and hear their point of view, and to stress the need for the development of a legally-binding framework that preserves the rights of all states. Ayman Okeil president of Maat for Peace, Development, and Human Rights stated that the initiative is not aimed at impeding the development process in Ethiopia, as long as this development is not detrimental to the rights of the peoples of Egypt and Sudan. Okeil added that Ethiopia, for its part, must stop the second filling of the GERD as a demonstration of goodwill towards the peoples of Egypt and Sudan. While Egypt, Sudan, and the international community must support Ethiopia in its developmental process, especially energy projects, and compensate it in case of any damage caused by the delay. Hanan Muddathir founder, representative, and president of the Environmental Initiative Organisation for Sustainable Development in Sudan addressed the shortcomings in the negotiation process over the past ten years, especially the lack of involvement of civil society organisations in the issue. Muddathir encouraged the three countries to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible and to seek solutions in the framework of international treaties and covenants, stressing that peoples' lives are not negotiable. Short link: Algerians voted for a new parliament Saturday in an election with a majority of novice independent candidates running under new rules meant to erase political corruption and open the way to a ``new Algeria.'' But the turnout was dismal for the first legislative election since the gas-rich North African nation's longtime president was forced to resign two years ago. Tension surrounded the voting as activists and opposition parties boycotted the election amid a crackdown on weekly marches by the Hirak protest movement, which were all but banned under new rules for demonstrations. Pressure from Hirak marchers forced former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign in 2019 after two decades in office, a time marked by rampant political and financial corruption, unemployment and repression. Participants in the protest movement now want a transition period before elections. In its most recent update, given while polls still were open, Algeria's electoral authority said that less than 14.5% of the country's 24 million voters had cast ballots. Some regions, notably in Kabylie, a bastion of opposition east of the Algerian capital, had voter turnout under 1%. Some voting stations were vandalized, and scuffles between residents and police were reported in some towns in the region. The turnout figures ``aren't trafficked like in the past where numbers were fixed in advance,'' the head of the electoral authority, Mohamed Charfi, said, adding that the new transparency ``gives credibility to this election, part of the wish to break with the old system.`` The final turnout was not immediately available after polls closed at 8 p.m. local time. Authorities began tightening the screws on the Hirak movement weeks ago with dozens of arrests and a rule obliging organizers of the marches without real leaders to declare them. Three prominent figures arrested Thursday, including two journalists - one was press freedom advocate Khaled Drareni - were released early Saturday ahead of the voting. The Constitutional Council announced Saturday that it would be 15 days before results of the balloting are known because of the number of candidates and the need to ensure against the fraud that marked past elections. ``We are looking for change,'' voter Mohammed Touait said at a polling station. ``I am 84 years old, and today I woke up at 8 a.m. because I still have hope for change.'' The election was supposed to exemplify President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's ``new Algeria,'' with an emphasis on young candidates and those outside the political elite. A huge number of candidates - more than 20,000 - ran for the 407-seat parliament, once dominated by a two-party alliance considered unlikely to maintain its grip on the legislature. Islamist parties all offered candidates. Tebboune was elected eight months after Boutflika was forced out. He vowed to remake Africa's largest country but with no sign of abandoning the shadowy role of the army in governance. The president, at the start of the day, brushed off as irrelevant the number of people who vote. ``What is important is that those the people vote for have sufficient legitimacy,'' Tebboune said after casting his ballot in Algiers. The president also brushed off boycotts by the main opposition parties and Hirak supporters. ``These elections are another stage on the path to change and the construction of a new Algeria,'' with sovereignty for the people, Tebboune said. ``I respect the position of those who decided to boycott the elections, but they do not have the right to impose by force their viewpoint on others.'' Women made up half of the candidates for the first time. But women were largely invisible from the campaign - their faces often blurred or concealed in campaign posters. Candidates had just 20 days to campaign, and Algerian media said real debate on major issues of concern, like unemployment, was mostly absent. ``With such a slew of candidates, the calculation of power is simple: to elect a patchwork assembly, without a majority, which will allow the president to create his own parliamentary majority with which he will govern,'' political scientist Rachid Grime said. Many candidates couldn't afford campaign posters. Independent candidates like Djamel Maafa, a former TV producer, used social networks to spread their messages, lacking access to the funds and logistical structure of big parties. ``Elections in Algeria have always proved that they are not the solution. The solution lies in democratic transition. It also lies in a dialogue around a table in order to solve the crisis,'' activist Sofiane Haddadji said. Search Keywords: Short link: The Lebanese army on Sunday said it intercepted a small boat carrying 11 people, mostly Syrians, attempting an illegal sea crossing out of the crisis-hit country. A statement said a naval force spotted the boat off the northern port city of Tripoli and that its passengers were all detained and referred for investigation, the army added. The boat was carrying '10 people of Syrian nationality and a Lebanese national,' it said. Their journey's end was not specified but neighbouring Cyprus, a member of the European Union, has been a popular sea smuggling destination in recent months. In May, the Lebanese army intercepted a boat near Tripoli carrying 60 people, including 59 Syrians. Lebanon, home to more than six million people, says it hosts more than a million Syrian refugees. They have been hit hard by widening poverty rates and growing food insecurity brought on by the country's economic crisis. In a report released this month, the World Bank warned that Lebanon's economic collapse is likely to rank among the world's worst financial crises since the mid-19th century. Short link: . Israel's Bennett Naftali Bennett, a multi-millionaire former tech entrepreneur who made his political name with hardline religious-nationalist rhetoric, will become Israel's next prime minister if parliament approves a new government on Sunday The 120-member Knesset is due to vote on a coalition put together by centrist Yair Lapid with the aim of terminating veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12 unbroken years at the helm. The coalition deal would see Bennett, an estranged former protege of Netanyahu, serve first as prime minister in a rotation deal, before Lapid takes over after two years. A 49-year-old former defence minister and one-time special forces commando, Bennett leads the right-wing Yamina party, which has called for Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. If parliament green-lights the coalition, Bennett will be Israel's first premier to lead an openly religious lifestyle, with his small skullcap known as a kippa fastened to his head. The son of American-born parents who speaks perfect English, he is ultra-liberal on the economy and takes a hard line against Israel's arch-foe, Iran. He shares this ideology with Netanyahu, having served in several of the Likud leader's governments. But in recent years tensions between the two arose and intensified, with Netanyahu making little effort to hide his disdain for Bennett. And in late May, two months after Israel's fourth inconclusive election in two years, Bennett allied himself with Lapid, paving the way for the improbable eight-party coalition that parliament is now set to vote on. Incendiary comments Bennett lives with his wife Gilat and four children in the central city of Raanana. He entered politics after selling his tech start-up for $145 million in 2005, and the next year became chief of staff to Netanyahu, who was then in the opposition. After leaving Netanyahu's office, Bennett in 2010 became head of the Yesha Council, which lobbies for Israeli settlers in the West Bank. He took politics by storm in 2012, taking charge of the hard-right Jewish Home party, which was facing annihilation. He increased its parliamentary presence fourfold, while making headlines with a series of incendiary comments about Palestinians. In 2013, he said Palestinian "terrorists should be killed, not released". He also argued that the West Bank was not under occupation because "there was never a Palestinian state here", and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not be resolved but must be endured, like a piece of "shrapnel in the buttocks". Beyond holding the defence portfolio, Bennett served as Netanyahu's economy minister and education minister. He re-branded Jewish Home as the "New Right" party, before forging the Yamina ("Rightward") bloc in 2018, and was part of Netanyahu's coalition which collapsed the same year. But he was not asked to join a unity government in May 2020 -- a move seen as an expression of Netanyahu's personal contempt towards him. In 2020, in opposition and with the coronavirus pandemic raging, Bennett dampened his right-wing rhetoric to focus on the health crisis. He moved to broaden his appeal by releasing plans to contain Covid-19 and aid the economy. 'Natural successor' Former supporters and critics have accused Bennett of betraying his nationalist voters by joining a fledgling coalition that includes dovish Meretz and support from the Palestinian citizens of Israel Islamic conservative party Raam. But Bennett has said he is on a mission to restore Israel's governance and avoid a fifth election in little more than two years. In an interview justifying his decision to join the "change" coalition, despite explicit campaign pledges to not be part of a government headed by or formed with Lapid, Bennett said that the good of the country trumped his word. "The core promise of these elections was to extract Israel from chaos," he told Channel 12 news. "I chose what's good for Israel," he said. While risking alienating his traditional right-wing base by breaking a campaign promise in his bid to take down Netanyahu, Bennett's move could enable him to broaden his support in the long run. "The chance to serve as prime minister is a huge opportunity for Bennett to present himself as prime ministerial material," said Toby Greene, a political scientist at the Bar Ilan university near Tel Aviv. Bennett could thus "present himself to Israeli mainstream as the natural successor to Netanyahu, as the candidate of the Right who has shown he can run the country," Greene said. Short link: Israel's parliament Sunday opened a special session during which lawmakers were set to vote on a "change" coalition seeking to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year reign. Beloved as "King Bibi" by his right-wing supporters and condemned as the "crime minister" by his critics, the hawkish and combative Netanyahu has long been the dominant, and increasingly divisive, figure in Israeli politics. If the fragile eight-party alliance wins a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Netanyahu, 71, will be replaced as premier by his one-time ally Naftali Bennett, a right-wing Jewish nationalist and former tech millionaire. In the lead-up to the legislative session, coalition lawmakers -- united only over their shared disdain for Netanyahu -- met for closed talks, according to a spokesperson for Bennett's party Yamina. The diverse anti-Netanyahu bloc was cobbled together by the secular centrist Yair Lapid, a former TV presenter, and includes right-wing and left-wing groups as well as Arab-Israeli lawmakers. The upcoming crunch vote will either end Netanyahu's record time in office or, in case of a last-minute upset, return Israel to a stalemate likely to trigger a fifth general election since 2019. "A morning of change," promised a Sunday tweet by Lapid, who would serve as foreign minister under the coalition deal before taking over the premiership in 2023, provided the wobbly alliance survives that long. Netanyahu meanwhile tweeted a photo of himself with a message to supporters that said: "Love you, thanks!" Netanyahu, who is battling corruption charges in an ongoing trial he dismisses as a conspiracy, has been the dominant Israeli politician of his generation, having also served a previous three-year term in the 1990s. On Saturday night, around 2,000 protesters rallied outside his official residence, waving "Bye Bye Bibi" signs and celebrating what they hope will be his departure from office. "For us, this is a big night, and tomorrow will be even a bigger day. I am almost crying," said one protester, Ofir Robinski. "We fought peacefully for this, and the day has come." Fragile coalition The anti-Netanyahu bloc spans the political spectrum, including three right-wing, two centrist and two left-wing parties, along with an Arab Islamic conservative party. The improbable alliance emerged two weeks after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, and following inter-communal violence in Israeli cities with significant Arab-Palestinian populations. "We will work together, out of partnership and national responsibility -- and I believe we will succeed," Bennett, a former defence minister under Netanyahu, said Friday. That day all coalition agreements had been signed and submitted to the Knesset secretariat, Yamina announced, a moment Bennett said brought "to an end two and a half years of political crisis". Netanyahu, who long ago earned a reputation as Israel's ultimate political survivor, has meanwhile tried to peel off defectors that would deprive the nascent coalition of its wafer-thin legislative majority. He has accused Bennett of "fraud" for siding with rivals, and angry rallies by the premier's Likud party supporters have resulted in security being bolstered for some lawmakers. 'Scorched earth' Netanyahu's bombastic remarks as he has seen his grip on power slip have drawn parallels at home and abroad to former US president Donald Trump, who described his election loss last year as the result of a rigged vote. Netanyahu has called the prospective coalition "the greatest election fraud in the history" of Israel and warned of the threat of a "dangerous" left-wing government. The premier's opponents have accused him and his allies of stoking tensions to cling onto power in a "scorched-earth" campaign. If Netanyahu loses the premiership, he will not be able to push through parliament changes to basic laws that could give him immunity on charges he faces in his corruption trial. Sunday's vote comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which has grown more bitter in the Netanyahu years, in part due to the expansion of settlements considered illegal under international law in the occupied West Bank. Recent days have seen police crackdowns on Palestinian protests over the threatened eviction of families from homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem to make way for Israeli settlers, a month after similar clashes fuelled the latest Gaza war. Meanwhile, right-wing anger has grown in Israel over last week's postponement of a controversial Jewish nationalist march through flashpoint areas of east Jerusalem. The "March of the Flags" is now slated for Tuesday, and the agitation surrounding it could represent a key initial test for a new coalition government. Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, said ahead of Sunday's session that the political developments wouldn't change its relationship with Israel. "The form the Israeli government takes doesn't change the nature of our relationship," said spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum. "Its still a colonising and occupying power that we must resist." Short link: Israel's designated prime minister, Naftali Bennett, says that renewing the international nuclear deal with Iran will be a mistake. In a speech to parliament, Bennett said that Israel remains ready to act against Iran. ``Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,'' Bennett said. ``Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action.'' The strong comments maintain the confrontational policy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Nonetheless, Bennett thanked President Joe Biden and the U.S. administration for supporting Israel over the decades. Bennett's new government is scheduled to be sworn into office late Sunday after a parliamentary vote. Short link: Algeria cancelled the accreditation of France 24, the communications ministry said Sunday, a day after parliamentary elections in the former French colony. The move was due to the satellite news channel's "clear and repeated hostility towards our country and its institutions", the ministry and government spokesman Ammar Belhimer said, in quotes carried by the APS news agency. The outlet said authorities had given the channel a final warning on March 13, over its "coverage of Friday marches" of the long-running Hirak anti-government protest movement. France 24 did not immediately respond to Sunday's announcement, but in March its director Marc Saikali had defended the outlet as "just doing our work as journalists, respecting the rules in place". The French government, which has tense ties with Algiers, did not immediately comment on the withdrawal of France 24's accreditation. The withdrawal of France 24's accreditation came a day after the North African country held legislative elections, with almost 70 percent of voters abstaining according to official figures. It also comes amid mounting official pressure against the Hirak and a string of arrests of journalists and opposition figures. Although former Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down in 2019 in the face of anti-regime protests, demonstrations have continued, demanding an overhaul of the ruling system in place since independence from France in 1962. The authorities say the movement's main demands have been met, and accuse the remaining protestors of working against Algeria's interests. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Short link: Israel's parliament has narrowly voted in favor of a new coalition government, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic 12-year rule. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned bitter rival, becomes prime minister, presiding over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. Netanyahu remains head of the Likud party and will hold the post of opposition leader. Netanyahu sat silently during the vote. After it was approved, he stood up to leave the chamber, before turning around and shaking Bennett's hand. A dejected Netanyahu, wearing a black medical mask, then sat down in the opposition leader's chair. Sunday's vote, passed by a 60-59 margin, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four elections. Minutes later, Bennett was sworn into office, followed by members of the new Cabinet. Bennett, the head of a small ultranationalist party, will have to maintain an unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left and center if he wants to keep the job. The eight parties, including a small Arab faction that is making history by sitting in the ruling coalition, are united in their opposition to Netanyahu and new elections but agree on little else. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, remains the head of the largest party in parliament. If just one faction bolts, it could lose its majority and would be at risk of collapse, giving him an opening to return to power. The country's deep divisions were on vivid display as Bennett addressed parliament ahead of the vote. He was repeatedly interrupted and loudly heckled by supporters of Netanyahu, several of whom were escorted out of the chamber. Bennett's speech mostly dwelled on domestic issues, but he expressed opposition to U.S. efforts to revive Iran's nuclear deal with world powers. ``Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,'' Bennett said, vowing to maintain Netanyahu's confrontational policy. ``Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action.'' Bennett nevertheless thanked President Joe Biden and the U.S. for its decades of support for Israel. Netanyahu, speaking after him, vowed to return to power. He predicted the incoming government would be weak on Iran and give in to U.S. demands to make concessions to the Palestinians. ``If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way,'' he said. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. ``Even though it has a very narrow majority, it will be very difficult to topple and replace because the opposition is not cohesive,`` he said. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver, and for that they need ``time and achievements.`` Still, Netanyahu ``will continue to cast a shadow,'' Plesner said. He expects the incoming opposition leader to exploit events and propose legislation that right-wing coalition members would like to support but can't _ all in order to embarrass and undermine them. The new government is meanwhile promising a return to normalcy after a tumultuous two years that saw four elections, an 11-day Israeli campaign on Gaza Strip and a coronavirus outbreak that devastated the economy before it was largely brought under control by a successful vaccination campaign. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years, if the government lasts that long. He called off a planned speech to parliament, instead saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. In a brief speech, he asked for ``forgiveness from my mother.'' ``I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why it's time to replace you,'' he said. Netanyahu accused Bennett of defrauding voters by running as a right-wing stalwart and then partnering with the left. Netanyahu's supporters have held angry protests outside the homes of rival lawmakers, who say they have received death threats naming their family members. Israel's Shin Bet internal security service issued a rare public warning about the incitement earlier this month, saying it could lead to violence. Netanyahu has condemned the incitement while noting that he has also been a target. His place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years _ more than any other, including the country's founder, David Ben-Gurion. Netanyahu began his long rule by defying the Obama administration, refusing to freeze settlement construction as it tried unsuccessfully to revive the peace process. Relations with Israel's closest ally grew even rockier when Netanyahu vigorously campaigned against President Barack Obama's emerging nuclear deal with Iran, even denouncing it in an address to the U.S. Congress. But he suffered few if any consequences from those clashes and was richly rewarded by the Trump administration, which recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, helped broker normalization agreements with four Arab states and withdrew the U.S. from the Iran deal. Netanyahu has portrayed himself as a world-class statesman, boasting of his close ties with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also cultivated ties with Arab and African countries. But he has gotten a far chillier reception from the Biden administration and is widely seen as having undermined the long tradition of bipartisan support for Israel in the United States. His reputation as a political magician has also faded at home, where he has become a deeply polarizing figure. Critics say he has long pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy that aggravated rifts in Israeli society between Jews and Arabs and between his close ultra-Orthodox allies and secular Jews. In November 2019, he was indicted for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling a coalition that is both farther to the right and more stable than the government that is set to be sworn in. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Short link: Thousands in Madrid are protesting the Spanish government's plan to issue pardons to a dozen Catalan separatist leaders convicted for their roles in the biggest challenge to the country's unity in recent history. The demonstration has been organized by a civil society group in defense of the nation's unity, and it chose a central square that has become a symbol for far-right political rallies. Leaders of the center to far-right opposition to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are joining the protest at Colon Square, which boasts one of the nation's largest national flags. Sanchez hasn't announced pardons for the 12 political and civil society leaders who in October 2017 pushed ahead with a banned referendum on independence for the northeastern region of Catalonia and then declared independence based on its results. But he has defended the possible move as a way to bring Catalans and Spaniards closer together after the divisive convictions that put most of the Catalan leaders behind bars. The prime minister is also facing criticism in his own Socialist camp, where the move is seen as a risky political gamble. While more than 60% of Spaniards oppose the pardons and only 29.5% back them, according to a recent poll for El Mundo newspaper, surveys in the northeastern region show support for the move ranging in between 60% to 70% of Catalans. Detractors say the separatists have not shown any remorse for their defiance to the Spanish Constitution and that Sanchez is making concessions to them in exchange for support in the national parliament. Tensions over secession grew in earnest a decade ago amid the economic hardship of the Great Recession and discontent over Spain's opposition to more autonomy for the Catalan-speaking region of 7.5 million people. The issue has also dominated the political debate at the national level and contributed to the rise of the Spanish nationalist Vox party, which has become the third-largest political force in the Spanish Congress. Short link: Britain accused European Union leaders on Sunday of holding the `offensive' view that Northern Ireland is not fully part of the United Kingdom, as Brexit cast a shadow over the Group of Seven summit. Britain and the EU are in a spat over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could see British sausages banned from entering Northern Ireland, the only part of the UK that borders the 27-nation bloc. The dispute is raising political tensions in Northern Ireland, where some people identify as British and some as Irish. British media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked French President Emmanuel Macron when they met Saturday in the English seaside resort of Carbis Bay how he would feel if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. They said Macron replied the comparison did not work because Paris and Tolouse were part of the same country. The French presidency did not deny Macron had made the comments. It said he was explaining `that Toulouse and Paris were on a geographical unity of territory, Northern Ireland is on an island. The president wanted to stress that the situation was quite different and that it's not appropriate to hold that kind of comparison.' UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the idea Northern Ireland was not an integral part of the UK was `not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation.' 'Can you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, northern Italy, Corsican France, as different countries?' he said on Sky News. `We need a bit of respect here. And also, frankly, an appreciation of the situation for all communities in Northern Ireland.' Relations between Britain and the EU have soured since the UK made its final break from the bloc at the end of 2020, more than four years after voting to leave. The EU is angry over the British government's delay in implementing new checks on some goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, as was agreed in the Brexit divorce deal. The bloc is threatening legal action if the UK does not fully bring in the checks, which include a ban on chilled meats such as sausages from England, Scotland and Wales going to Northern Ireland beginning next month. Britain accuses the EU of taking a `purist' approach to the rules, leading to burdensome red tape for businesses. Johnson has said if no solution is found he may pull an emergency brake allowing either side to suspend parts of their agreement. It is intended for use only in extreme situations, but the EU briefly threatened to invoke it in January to stop vaccine doses from Ireland crossing the border. US President Joe Biden has even been drawn into the spat, raising concerns about the potential threat to Northern Ireland's peace accord. The new arrangements, designed to keep an open border between Ireland and its northern neighbor, have angered Northern Ireland's British unionists, who say they weaken ties with the rest of the UK. Tensions over the new trade rules contributed to a week of street violence in April, largely in unionist areas of Northern Ireland, which saw youths pelt police with bricks, fireworks and firebombs. Short link: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkey would be the "only reliable" country left to stabilise Afghanistan after the US pulls out its troops, indicating Washington could rely on it NATO ally. The Turkish leader also said he would discuss the issue in his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden on the margins of a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday. "America is preparing to leave Afghanistan soon and from the moment they leave, the only reliable country to maintain the process over there is obviously Turkey," Erdogan told reporters at an Istanbul airport on Sunday before leaving for Brussels. The United States is in the final stages of completing a military drawdown, alongside NATO forces, by September 11 -- 20 years after they invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban. Turkey has reportedly said it is prepared to keep troops in Afghanistan to protect Kabul airport, the main exit route for western diplomats and humanitarian workers. Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish officials had informed their American counterparts about Ankara's plans in Afghanistan after the US troop pullout, without providing details. They are "pleased and happy. We will be able to discuss the Afghanistan process with them," he said. On Saturday the Taliban said that foreign forces should hold "no hope" of keeping a military presence in Afghanistan after the US and NATO withdraw troops, warning the security of embassies and airports would be the responsibility of Afghans. Short link: US President Joe Biden arrived Sunday in Brussels for two days of summits with leaders from the NATO military alliance and the European Union. Biden, on his first foreign trip as president, flew in from Britain, where he attended a G7 summit. On Wednesday, he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, before returning to Washington. Short link: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is interested in expanding its operations in Africa in the coming period, while the bank is helping countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, its President Odile Renaud-Basso said on Sunday. Renaud-Basso made her comments during a virtual meeting held on Sunday with Egypts Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat to discuss areas of joint cooperation within the framework of the banks new 2021-2025 strategy and to evaluate proposed topics for annual meetings that will kick off on 28 June. "Egypt can constitute a launching point for these [planned] expansion, as it is one of the banks largest countries of operation and has a strategic relations with the countries of the [African] continent," Al-Mashat said. The minister added there are many opportunities for cooperation with the EBRD to implement projects that address climate change in Egypt, as these projects would represent an important aspect in Egypts 2030 vision. She stressed that the state seeks to launch smart cities, protecting the coastal areas, and promotion agricultural development. Al-Mashat also affirmed Egypts government support for the EBRDs strategy that targets combating climate change and promoting green economy. Egypt is taking extensive measures to achieve a green and sustainable recovery by developing strategies to both combat and mitigate the impact of climate change, said the minister. The EBRDs 2021-2025 strategy, which the bank approved in its annual meeting last October, focuses on three pillars, including supporting the transition to a green economy and promoting environmental sustainability; promoting equal opportunity through access to skills and employment for women and young people; and accelerating the digital transition. In April, EBRDs president paid her first official visit to Egypt since her election in October 2020. During the visit, two MoUs and a development financing agreement were signed to support the Egyptian governments and the private sectors transition to a green economy. In 2020, Egypt was EBRDs largest country of operations in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, accounting for more than 1 billion financing 21 projects, accounting for 47 percent of the banks total investments in the region. Egypt was also the largest country of operations for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. The current portfolio of cooperation between Egypt and the EBRD amounts to $1.3 billion. Since 2012, the EBRD has invested over 7.2 billion to implement 127 projects. Short link: Two of the Middle Easts known hip hop, rap, and trap musicians Felukah and The Synaptik team up to present two singles commissioned by the Shubbak Festival, Londons biennial multi-disciplinary event dedicated to showcasing Arab creativity. Their first single, titled Nefsi, in the series of two was released on YouTube on 10 June 2021. The track is a collaboration between Palestinian-Jordanian rapper The Synaptik and New-York-based Egyptian musician Felukah. This project is about polarities, identity, and just about being raw, reads the press release. It also quotes Feluka saying that the project showcases Arab identity, talking about cherishing ourselves in a world that is constantly trying to categorise and classify us. Meaning both I wish and myself, Nefsi is about acceptance, an issue that has become vital in past years, when despite many challenges artists make sure to remain truthful to their own beliefs. The two singles were commissioned by Marsm, a London-based event producer, and the Shubbak Festival. Both artists collaboration will culminate with a joint concert at Londons jazz cafe in late October, hosted by Marsm and Shubbak. Born and raised in Cairo, Felukah is an artist who moved to New York in 2017 to study creative writing. In parallel, she also discovered a passion for hip hop music that led to a creative expression where Egyptian heritage is combined with a New York neo-soul edge. As the musician clarifies, she blends English and Arabic prose in order to create a sound that brings the Nile to New York. The Synaptik, a Palestinian-Jordanian rapper at the forefront of the Arabic rap and trap scene, was drawn to rap as a teenager. He started making his own tracks at the age of 17, and soon after he began dedicating himself fully to building a career in music. While exploring keystone issues like migration and social inequality, over the past years he also collaborated with some of the regions hip hop heavyweights. Shubbak, the multi-disciplinary festival showcases theatre, dance, music, visual art, film screenings, literature, talks, and workshops on hybrid platforms. This year, the events will showcase virtual activities as well as digital screenings of outdoor physical activities. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Short link: KYODO NEWS - Jun 13, 2021 - 14:19 | All, Japan, Coronavirus All Nippon Airways Co. on Sunday began its COVID-19 inoculation program for employees at Tokyo's Haneda airport, moving up the schedule set by the government by more than a week and becoming the first Japanese firm known to start offering workplace vaccinations. The government unveiled a plan earlier this month to allow companies and universities to administer coronavirus vaccinations on site from June 21 as Japan looks to accelerate the pace of its daily COVID-19 shots and expand eligibility to younger people. ANA Holdings Inc., the parent of the major airline, had initially sought to begin on-site vaccinations from that day but was able to bring forward the plan in cooperation with the government. Japan Airlines Co. plans to begin inoculations at the Tokyo airport on Monday. Japan's vaccination rollout was launched in February for health care workers and widened to people aged 65 or older in April, but with the start of the Tokyo Olympics only 40 days away, its vaccination rate remains low compared with other industrialized countries. To begin with, ANA said it will focus on vaccinating about 10,000 employees, mainly pilots and flight attendants working on international routes. "Now I can board an international flight with peace of mind," Takuya Ebata, a 51-year-old ANA pilot said. "But I plan to continue taking preventive measures and not to relax my guard." ANA vaccinated about 50 pilots and flight attendants in a meeting room next to its clinic at the airport. It will increase the number step by step and plans to inoculate around 300 people per day from June 21. ANA said about 46,500 employees are eligible for the program and it expects to complete two-shot vaccinations for the 10,000 priority employees in late August. JAL is also planning to provide COVID-19 shots, beginning with international aircrew and eventually offering them to a total of 36,000 employees of its group companies. The government, facing criticism for Japan's slow vaccination rollout, hopes that the new on-site scheme will supplement existing efforts being led by municipalities across the country. As of 5 p.m. Friday, the government accepted applications from companies and universities for inoculations of about 9.07 million people at 1,821 venues. A two-dose vaccine developed by U.S. biotech firm Moderna Inc. will be used. By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Jun 13, 2021 - 19:04 | World, All, Coronavirus It is now impossible to taste North Korea's flagship homemade beer in China's border city of Dandong, with leader Kim Jong Un apparently having little intention to let down his guard against the novel coronavirus. Earlier this year, expectations briefly mounted that North Korea and China would resume land transportation in a couple of months, but in fact, there are no signs in Dandong that restrictions on travel between the two countries will be lifted anytime soon. Many citizens in China's northeastern city have become more pessimistic about the prospects of the regional economy, which is supposed to be buoyed by trade with North Korea as well as tourists intrigued by the mysterious, nuclear-armed neighbor. After a highly contagious variant of the virus was confirmed for the first time in China in May, Pyongyang seems to be tightening security along the border river by mobilizing soldiers and wiring fences to prevent human intrusion into the nation. North Korea claims no infection cases have been found in the country, but it has cut off land traffic to and from China since early last year, amid worries that the virus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, could enter the nation. The customs office near the Yalu River has been effectively closed as North Korea has banned its citizens from visiting China. Restaurants and shops run by Koreans in Dandong have been shuttered, with trade with the neighboring country choked off. Popular tourist sites in the city, like the Tiger Mountain Great Wall and the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, have not been filled with people, even on sunny days, locals say. "Before the pandemic, land shipments were active between China and North Korea, while a large number of those who are interested in Korea came to Dandong from both at home and abroad," a 51-year-old Chinese man said. "People have been disappearing and the economy has become increasingly sluggish for the past one and half years. I hope China-North Korea trade will get back to a normal track in the not-so-distant future," said the man selling souvenirs in the city. Although Dandong's economy grew 2 percent from a year earlier in 2019, it edged up only 0.4 percent in 2020 against a backdrop of a more than 20 percent dive in its trade with foreign nations including North Korea. The sightseeing industry in Dandong suffered a crushing loss last year. The city's total tourism revenue slid 79 percent from the previous year and the number of inbound tourists plummeted 96.9 percent in 2020, according to the municipal government. "The atmosphere in Dandong has been shabby. We have been losing resources to attract people from outside the city," a male restaurant worker said. Tourism remains a key industry for Dandong's economy. Each room in a hotel facing the Yalu River was still equipped with binoculars to allow its guests to clearly watch the North Korean side. But the hotel is unlikely to be full of travelers for the time being. In March, North Korea restarted imports of some commodities from China, such as chemical fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide. China, however, exported goods to North Korea by ship. China's trade with North Korea posted more than an over two-fold rise from a month earlier in April. Nevertheless, the total value accounted for only around 13 percent of that in April 2019. Recently, China has been preparing to begin operations of cargo trains connecting it with North Korea. Yet, Pyongyang has delayed setting up disinfection facilities for imported goods, diplomatic sources said. Following the detection in China's southern city of Guangzhou of the coronavirus variant first discovered in India, North Korea has become more vigilant against a possible outbreak in the country. The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said in early June, "The highly infectious and lethal variant is spreading at a rapid pace globally." It pointed out that current COVID-19 vaccines could be ineffective against the variant and emphasized the importance of strengthening anti-epidemic measures, dampening speculation that North Korea's border blockage might end soon. North Korea's economy has also been languishing. In addition to a plunge in trade with China, agricultural devastation by powerful typhoons and flooding last year has sparked concern that its citizens may not be receiving adequate daily necessities. In Pyongyang, some people have become severely malnourished, sources familiar with the situation in North Korea's capital said. At the first congress of the ruling party in nearly five years in January, Kim pledged to make efforts to prop up the economy, while acknowledging North Korea failed to achieve the economic development goals set in its strategy through 2020 in almost all sectors. China is North Korea's closest and most influential ally in economic terms, accounting for more than 90 percent of its trade. North Korea, meanwhile, is believed to be vulnerable to infectious diseases in the face of chronic shortages of food and medical supplies triggered by international economic sanctions aimed at thwarting its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. Previously, it barred foreigners from entering the nation during the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. "Given that the Indian variant has been confirmed in China, North Korea would not open its border at least through the end of this year," one of the diplomatic sources said. Related coverage: North Korea reluctant to accept U.N.-backed vaccination monitoring North Korean defectors launch balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets North Korea resumes imports of some goods from China in March Bengaluru: 47-year-old restaurant owner Basheer, who was attacked by a group of people on January 3 in Mangaluru, succumbed to injuries on Sunday morning at a local hospital. Basheer was attacked with lethal weapons outside his restaurant in Mangaluru. Security has been beefed up in the city. On Saturday evening Mangaluru police have claimed that they have arrested four person's Shrijith, Sandesh, Dhanush and Kishan in connection with the attack and confirmed it was carried was to avenge the murder of Bajrang Dal volunteer Deepak who was also murdered on January 3. However, police have not clarified yet if the accused belonged to any particular party. TS Suresh, Police Commissioner Mangaluru said, "Accused had come to Kankanady to participate in the religious festival. When they came to know about Deepak's murder they planned revenge and collected weapons from one of the accuseds house and Basheer was a random target. Deepak was hacked to death in broad daylight by four persons namely Mulki Naushad, Rizwan, Pinky Nawaz and Nirshaan. They were arrested within five hours of the incident. Immediately after the death of Deepak, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers started protests in Mangaluru and adjoining areas. BJP MP Shobha Karandalaje posted a tweet blaming Jihadis "One more Hindu hacked to death near Mangaluru. No value for a Hindu's life. Jihadi forces operating without any fear. Where are you Mr CM @siddaramaiah?" she tweeted. One more Hindu hacked to death near Mangaluru.No value for a Hindu's life.Jihadi forces operating without any fear.Where are you Mr CM @siddaramaiah? Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) January 3, 2018 After the death of Basheer, Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, while speaking to media appealed to the people to maintain communal harmony and also said nobody should politicise the issue. The government has announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the family of Basheer. BJP MP Pratap Simha has also appealed to people to maintain calm. Simha posted a tweet immediately after hearing about the death of Basheer, "They say An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Killing Basheer is not the answer for Deepak Raos murder. Its time to hold peace meeting between Hindus n Muslims as Cong Govt is not bothered to bring peace n tranquility in the state. Srinagar: A senior leader of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday stoked a controversy by saying there was no bar in condoling the killing of local militants in Kashmir. Whether it is a CRPF man... or a local militant, there is no bar on offering condolences. However, it depends on the security situation, sometimes we can go and sometimes not, PDP chief spokesperson, Rafi Ahmad Mir, told reporters. Even before coming to power, the party had a policy of visiting the families of local militants who were killed in counter-insurgency operations by security forces, he said. The PDP had a policy. Whenever a militant was killed, I used to visit (the family) to offer condolences, and at that time the PDP president would also visit, Mir said, adding that whoever becomes a martyr is before God and I think we should not talk about that. Referring to todays IED blast in Sopore in which four police personnel were killed, the PDP chief spokesman said that whether a policeman gets killed or a local militant, it is very unfortunate and we condemn it. It was a heart-wrenching incident. We were hopeful and thinking that the situation was getting better, but got this shock. It is very unfortunate. They were our own sons, he said. Also Read: Four policemen killed in IED blast in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore Whoever gets killed, be it (from) the police force or militants, it is very unfortunate and we condemn it. We hope this does not recur, Mir said. The PDP had to shelve its election agenda to form government with the BJP, otherwise, the state would have incurred losses as it needed Delhis assistance in running the government in the state, he said. Unfortunately, what happened is that we had to shelve our election agenda. We won around 28 seats. In Jammu, the BJP got the highest share of probably 26 seats. We needed the assistance of Delhi here. We took a decision, a very harsh decision, a bitter decision (of forming government in an alliance with BJP), Mir said. There was resentment in our voters also. There is no doubt about it, the chief spokesperson said. Washington: SpaceX Zuma secretive government spacecraft launched into low orbit Washington, Jan 7 (AFP) John Young, a legendary US astronaut who went into space six times, orbited the moon and then walked on its craggy surface, has died, NASA has announced. He was 87 and died late Friday of complications from pneumonia, the space agency said. He lived in a Houston suburb just minutes from the NASA Space Center. NASA and the world have lost a pioneer, agency administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. We will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier. Young was a man of many firsts: the only astronaut to fly in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programmes (and the first to command a shuttle flight); and the first to fly into space six times. He once held the world record for total time spent in space, NASA said. Young joined Gus Grissom on the Gemini 3 mission, then commanded the first space shuttle mission in what some people called the boldest test flight in history. He commanded Gemini 10, the first mission to rendezvous with two other spacecraft during a single flight. Young orbited the moon in Apollo 10, and made a lunar landing with Apollo 16. In an iconic display of test pilot cool, he landed the space shuttle (STS-9) with a fire in the back end, NASA said. He was in every way the astronauts astronaut, Lightfoot said. But he was also described as a savvy engineer and a test pilots test pilot. While in the navy, Young set world records for the fastest ascension from a standing start in an F-4 Phantom II jet. Once, during an air-to-air missile test, Young and another pilot approached each others aircraft at a potentially calamitous speed of Mach 3 (2,300 miles per hour, or 3,700 kilometers per hour), according to Youngs website. I got a telegram from the chief of naval operations, Young said in his understated way, asking me not to do this any more. Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden called Young and Robert Hoot Gibson the two best pilots he had ever known. Never met two people like them, he said. Everyone else gets into an airplane; John and Hoot wear their airplane. Theyre just awesome. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Singapore: Singapore can provide a good base for Indian companies as a civil aviation, trading and financial hub, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said on Sunday. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the two-day ASEAN India Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2018 held in Singapore, Teo made a vigorous pitch on the opportunities available for Indian businesses in Singapore. As a civil aviation, trading and financial hub, we are a good base for Indian companies to work from in order to expand to South-east Asia and beyond, he said at the PBD gala dinner. The annual conference, that celebrates the achievements and contributions of the Indian diaspora, is being held with an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) theme this year, to mark 25 years of dialogue partnership between India and the regional bloc. Singapore, the ASEAN chair, is hosting the meeting for the first time in South East Asia. ASEAN is Indias 4th largest trading partner, accounting for 10.2 per cent of Indias total trade. India is ASEANs 7th largest trading partner. Trade is back on track and registered an 8 per cent increase in 2016- 17, as compared to the previous year. Read- Sushma Swaraj discusses ways to strengthen ties with Indonesian leaders Many multinational companies have their headquarters in Singapore, noted Teo. Today, Indian companies form the largest contingent of foreign companies in the country; there are more than 8,000 of them, double the number in 2009. Singapore, he said, plays a key role in connecting many companies from all corners of the world who use the country as an operational base, among them more than 7,500 Chinese ones registered here. These Singapore-based companies form a vibrant community, and can work together to tap on the countrys business infrastructure and its network of 20 implemented free trade agreements with 31 trading partners to help them expand abroad, said Teo. Noting the strong turnout from Indian and Singapore businesses - many of which operate across the region - at the conference, Teo also made a pitch for businesses to urge governments to facilitate the ease of doing business and to enact policies to attract greater investments and cross-border partnerships. Businesses can play an important role by encouraging governments, both at national and state levels, to be more competitive, responsive and plugged into global value chains, The Straits Times quoted the deputy premier as saying. He added that, as ASEAN chair, Singapore is committed to deepening the groups relations with its key partners, including India. Two events on the horizon will help further enhance ties: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs trip to India later in the month for the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit - his first ASEAN-related summit as 2018 chair - and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Singapore later in the year to deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-la Dialogue. Teo also detailed three key areas in which ASEAN and India can work together more closely: economic integration, connectivity and digital technologies. Southeast Asia and India represent a quarter of the worlds population - 1.8 billion people - and a combined GDP of more than USD 4.5 trillion. By 2025, Indias consumer market is expected to become the fifth largest in the world, while South-east Asia will see a doubling of middle-class households to 163 million. Against this backdrop, we are starting from a modest base, said Teo, noting that ASEAN-India trade accounted for only 2.6 per cent of the blocs external trade in 2016. There is much scope to strengthen our linkages and trade ties, the daily quoted Teo as saying. He called for ASEAN and India to press on with economic integration, pledging that Singapore, as ASEAN chair, will do what it can to secure the support of India and all other Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership countries to advance negotiations on the pact. Connectivity can be boosted too, said Teo, noting that with Indias strategic location, maritime and air connectivity can be expanded to bring the country closer to the rest of ASEAN. He noted that India has many airports ready and available to connect many more points in ASEAN. The key to unlocking this potential is to further liberalise air services as Singapore has done, said Teo, adding that India could start, as a pilot project, to allow one or two of its key cities to have open skies with those in ASEAN. Thirdly, ASEAN and India - both fast-changing markets with an appetite for innovative solutions - can cooperate in digital technologies. There are opportunities for platforms such as Indias e- payment and digital identification systems to be harmonised with those in the region. On the security front, Teo, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security, was heartened to see that defence cooperation between India and ASEAN has intensified. India, which is located strategically along important sea-routes from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, is integral to the security in the region, he noted. ASEAN and India share a common interest to keep these vital conduits of trade and economic exchange open, said Teo. And it is crucial that we continue to uphold our shared principles of the freedom of navigation and respect for the rule of law. Earlier today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is on two-day visit to Singapore, said that Indias dialogue partnership with ASEAN has evolved into a strategic partnership and the Indian diaspora provides a platform for stronger ties with the grouping. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Reports of Palestinian ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali being reinstated are false and he is very much in Palestine as of now, said Palestinian Foreign Ministry. We deny this information. Our ambassador in Pakistan is in Palestine and our position was declared by our official statement which we have published last week, Palestinian Foreign Ministry clarified. Earlier in the day, Pakistani media outlets reported that Palestine has reinstated its ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali after he was recalled for attending an event of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, also a UN-designated terrorist. An article published in Geo News said, The Palestinian president has reinstated Ambassador Walid Abu Ali and he will return to Pakistan on Wednesday to resume his duty. Also Read | Palestine reinstates envoy to Pakistan who shared stage with Hafiz Saeed, Pakistani media reports The report further said Ali was reinstated on the recommendation of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi. I requested Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the countrys Chief Justice to reinstate Walid Abu Ali, in view of the ambassadors services rendered to Pakistan, Geo News quoted Ashrafi as saying. However, Palestine Embassy in New Delhi rubbished all the reports and said, "We don't know from where you got this information about Palestine Ambassador to Pakistan being reinstated. As per our knowledge, he is very much in Palestine as of now." Earlier on December 30, Palestine had recalled Ali after India's protest terming his meeting with Hafiz Saeed as unacceptable. "We are supporting India in its fight against terrorism and because of that my Government decided to directly call our Ambassador to go back home," Palestinian Ambassador to India said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh of "befooling people" and said "instead of wasting time, the party should demand big" from the Centre in its budget. He said in the coming days he would try to establish SP as a "national party" and would also take out a "rath yatra", when needed, to strengthen the party. "The BJP government is only befooling people. Instead of wasting time, the party should demand big from the Centre for the state in its annual budget," Yadav said, suggesting the launch of a bullet train service to Lucknow. "The same (bullet train) can be run alongside Agra- Lucknow expressway," he told reporters here. Asked about his meeting with like-minded opposition parties yesterday to discuss the EVM issue, Yadav said, "We demand that before the Lok Sabha polls, two bye-elections of Gorakhpur and Phulpur be held using ballot papers." On possibilities of coalition and alliance with other parties in the days to come, he said the matter would be discussed with other parties. On his father Mulayam Singh Yadav announcing his decision to contest from Mainpuri seat, presently held by his kin Tej Pratap Yadav, the SP chief said, "The party is behind him. He can contest from wherever he wants. I know from where Tej Pratap is to be asked to contest." Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the BJP for not starting distribution of sweaters to children during the winter, imposing tickets for entry to Janeshwar Mishra park and starting toll on Agra expressway. On the issue of demonetisation, he quipped, "All the corruption has ended. It (BJP) should once again initiate demonetisation in the New Year to end the leftover corruption." For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: FIR on a complaint by a deputy director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in connection with a newspaper report on the breach of details of the over one billion Aadhaar cards, naming the journalist behind the story. UIDAI Deputy Director B M Patnaik informed the police that an input was received from The Tribune that the newspaper purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of any of the more than 1 billion Aadhaar numbers created in India, the police said today. On January 5, a complaint was received from Patnaik and the FIR was registered the same day, they said. The police was informed by the UIDAI official that the correspondent of The Tribune, posing as a buyer, had purchased the details. The FIR mentions the names of the journalist and the people the reporter reached out to purchase the Aadhaar data, but they have not been shown as accused, the police said. The police said that they will be questioned. Under fire for filing the FIR, the UIDAI said it respects free speech, including freedom of the press, and its police complaint should not be viewed as, shooting the messenger. In a statement, it said that its act should not be viewed as one targeting the media or a whistleblower. Justifying its stance, the UIDAI said criminal proceedings have been initiated as it was an act of unauthorised access. Reacting to the development, the Congress attacked the Centre over the UIDAI registering the FIR. The opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shooting the messenger instead of probing the matter. The Congress also raised questions over the intentions of the government on privacy issues. Intent, & Intentions of Modi Govt on Privacy were thoroughly exposed when it had proclaimed that no citizen can have an absolute right over his/her body, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted. In SC, Modi Govt had accepted Aadhaar data leak! Now instead of investigating, an evasive Modi ji shoots the messenger! he said. The Editors Guild Of India sought government intervention for the withdrawal of the case and called for an impartial investigation into the matter. Criticising the lodging of the FIR, the guild said it was deeply concerned over reports that the UIDAI deputy director had registered a complaint in which the reporter of The Tribune has been named. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Beijing: Thirty-two crew members, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, have gone missing after an oil tanker collided with a cargo ship off the coast of east China. The Panama-registered oil tanker, carrying 136,000 tonnes of oil condensate, caught fire after it collided with a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter at around 8 pm on Saturday, the transport ministry said. The collision took place in waters about 160 sea miles east of the Yangtze Rivers estuary. The 32 missing crew members were all from the oil tanker. Also Read| Pakistan oil tanker fire: 148 burnt alive, 100 inured; Army joins rescue operations All the 21 crew members of the bulk freighter have been rescued, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Chinese maritime authorities have dispatched eight vessels for search and rescue. After the coordination of China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre, South Korea has dispatched a coast guard ship and a fixed-wing aircraft to assist in the rescue operation, the report said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Just when it was widely reported that Chhota Shakeel, the most trusted lieutenant of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim had died in Pakistan, News Nation unearthed the truth. Listen to the alleged telephonic conversation between the D-Company 'CEO' and News Nation correspondent Rumman Ullah Khan. Here is what all the man who claims to be Chhota Shakeel said: # Yes, I am Chhota Shakeel and the dead don't speak. I am not detached from Dawood, we are very much together. # I am at Morocco and Anees is my brother, says Chhota Shakeel revealing his location. # I came here for some business related work. # I don't know how you people get the clips of my death, you should verify the clips before running those. # Once you look up, you will find me, says Chhota Shakeel. Initially Shakeel ran a dubious travel agency in Dongri, Mumbai. He was one of the early members in the D-Company along with Bishal Cheetah, Johnny Akhawat and Liger Bhai or Mushu Bhai. He joined Dawood in Dubai in 1988. Sharad Shetty managed the match fixing, betting and hawala deals for Dawood while Chhota Rajan managed the gang's criminal activities in Mumbai. After the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and the Dawood-Chhota Rajan split, Shakeel took over the day-to-day operations of the D-Company. He was a mentor to Abu Salem and entrusted him the responsibility of Bollywood film financing and acquiring overseas film rights. Later they had a fallout and Abu Salem branched out on his own. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Chennai: The ongoing transport strike by trade unions and impact of Cyclone Ockhi in Kanyakumari district are some of the matters that are expected to be in focus as the Tamil Nadu Assembly session begins on Monday. The session will begin with a customary address by Governor Banwarilal Purohit. This will be the first session for Purohit after assuming charge as Tamil Nadu Governor in October. The session would also witness sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran making his debut in the Assembly after having won the December 21 Radhakrishnan Nagar bypoll by a thumping margin of 40,000 votes against E Madhusudhanan of AIADMK. This will also be the first session after Speaker P Dhanapal disqualified 18 rival AIADMK MLAs supporting Dhinakaran, for revolting against Chief Minister K Palaniswami in August last year. Also Read: Tamil Nadu Transport Workers' unions' strike enters fourth day, temporary drivers employed to run buses These MLAs had met the then governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and said they had lost confidence in the Chief Minister, a day after the formal merger of the two factions led by Palaniswami and then rebel leader and now Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on August 21. According to a government notification, the Governor has summoned the Assembly to meet on January 8 at 10 am. The duration of the session will be decided by the Houses Business Advisory Committee, later on Monday. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Palestine has reinstated its ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali after he was recalled for attending an event of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, also a UN-designated terrorist, Pakistani media reported. According to an article published in Geo News, The Palestinian president has reinstated Ambassador Walid Abu Ali and he will return to Pakistan on Wednesday to resume his duty. The report further said Ali was reinstated on the recommendation of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi. I requested Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the countrys Chief Justice to reinstate Walid Abu Ali, in view of the ambassadors services rendered to Pakistan, Geo News quoted Ashrafi as saying. Also Read | After India's strong protest, Palestine recalls envoy to Pak for attending Hafiz Saeed rally Earlier on December 30, Palestine had recalled Ali after India's protest terming his meeting with Hafiz Saeed as unacceptable. "We are supporting India in its fight against terrorism and because of that my Government decided to directly call our Ambassador to go back home," Palestinian Ambassador to India said. The move to recall its Pak envoy came after Indias strong protest over his presence with 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind and UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed. The concerns were conveyed both in New Delhi to the Palestinian Ambassador and in Ramallah to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, State of Palestine, the External Affairs Ministry of India said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Three workers died due to suffocation on Sunday afternoon when they went inside a manhole of a sewage plant to clear the blockage in the premises of a private apartment in Bandypalya area of Bengaluru. The three deceased have been identified as Narayana Swamy (35), Srinivas (52) and Mahadeva Gowda (42). All the three were not professional sanitary workers. One of the workers while entering the manhole, slipped down and to rescue him, the other two also went inside. However, the three of them collapsed due to suffocation. Speaking to Media, Satish Reddy, local MLA said, as soon as I received the information, I reached here. In meantime, fire service and police officials had also started the rescue operation but unfortunately, they couldnt rescue them. These persons where hired by apartment association and they were not the professionals. I have announced Rs. 1 lakh ex-gratia to each family since they are economically very weak. Read: Security beefed up in Mangaluru after Muslim restaurateur succumbs to injuries Manual scavenging is banned in India but still, some people are continuing with it. Last year also Bengaluru has witnessed few deaths because of manual scavenging. Sampat Raj, Mayor said, Supreme court and the high court has already banned manual scavenging but still people are continuing with this. In Bengaluru, we have sophisticated equipment for manhole cleaning, I have asked my officials to start a campaign against the manual scavenging from Monday itself so that we can create awareness. KJ George, Bengaluru Development Minister also visited the spot and issued the orders for a detailed inquiry into the incident. George said, Guilty will be punished and BBMP will give Rs. 5 lakh ex gratia to the families of the deceased. South East division of Bengaluru police has registered the case and started the investigation. Berhampur: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said there was need for formation of an alternative secular political force to fight against the communal elements before the next general elections. The like-minded secular political parties should join hands to place a well-defined alternative policies before the people, Yechury told reporters on the sideline of a party meeting on Sunday. "Netas (leaders) are not important for the alternative political forces, but neetis (policies) are more important,? he said while defending alternative political forces with alternative polices. He said talks with the other parties were going on and it would be clear only when the general elections near. In Odisha, Yechury said he would also talk with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Coming down heavily on the Modi government at the Centre, the CPM general secretary said the people of the country suffered due to the government?s decision on demonetization and Goods and Services Tax (GST). The government has came to power with promise to provide employment to two crore people per annum. But in reality, thousands of people lost their job due to the shutdown of the factories, while unemployed youths lead an uncertain future, he said. The situation might aggravate in the future as the government wanted to privatise different profitable public sector units, he claimed. He said the reforms of the Modi government were creating economic inequalities by making the rich richer and the poor poorer. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A fire broke out at the premises of Mumbai Session Court in Karamveer Bhaurao Marg on Monday morning, reported news agency ANI. At least five fire engines were rushed to the spot to douse the fire. As per last reports coming on the incident, the fire was brought under the control. No casualties have been reported. The fire brigade got a call at 7.14 am about the blaze in the court building, located near the campus of the Mumbai University in South Mumbai, the official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's disaster management unit said. The fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot, he said. "Efforts are on to douse the flames," he said. The cause of fire was not yet known, he said, addingthat an investigation will be carried out into the incident. This is the fifth fire incident in the city in the last 20 days. Twelve people were killed when a massive fire broke outat a snack shop in Saki Naka-Kurla area here on December 18. Later, 14 people were killed in a fire at an upscale pubin the Kamala Mills compound on December 29. On another incident on January 4, four persons, including two children, died and five were seriously injured after anupper floor of a residential building in suburban Marol caughtfire. Besides, a 20-year-old man, who worked for a television serial production unit, was killed in a fire at the Cine Vistafilm studio in suburban Kanjurmarg on January 6. This is sixth incident of fire reported in Mumbai, since the Kamala Mills fire incident on December 29, which left 14 people dead. The other fire incidents in the financial capital of India were in Marol in Andheri East, killing a family of four, Nagpada in Mumbai Central, Cinevista film studio in Kanjurmarg, and another fire in Lower Parel. Lucknow: After receiving flak from the Allahabad High Court over noise pollution in Uttar Pradesh, the government on Sunday issued detailed directives on the use of permanently installed loudspeakers at public places here. The Allahabad High Court last month had asked the UP government whether the loudspeakers or public address systems installed at mosques, temples, churches, gurdwaras etc. were installed after obtaining a written permission from the authorities concerned. Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said, "On the directions of the court regarding ensuring implementation of noise pollution control rules, a government order giving detailed instructions has been issued". This practically implies that sound should not go beyond the periphery of the public or private place, Kumar said. The 10-page-order requires survey of loudspeakers permanently installed and issuance of show cause notice to those using it without requisite permission. A format for applying for permission, issuance of permission and action against those who neither apply for permission nor comply with terms and conditions of permission has also been issued. It also requires DMs to categorise areas into industrial, commercial, residential and silence zones. Each area has separate maximum limits for permissible sound levels. The loudspeakers installed in public places can not have sound level more than 10 dB above ambient noise level at the periphery of a public place and 5 dB above ambient noise level at the periphery of a private place, Kumar said. The Lucknow bench of the high court had on December 20 sought to know as to what action has been taken against such unauthorised installations and also against the officers who failed to ensure mandatory requirement of obtaining written permission in their area. It directed the principal secretary (home) and the chairman of UP Pollution Control Board to file their personal affidavits along with the aforesaid information on February 1. The division bench of justice Vikram Nath and justice Abdul Moin issued the directions on a PIL moved by lawyer Moti Lal Yadav, seeking strict compliance of the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules that had been framed in 2000. Reiterating that right to live in freedom from noise pollution and right to sleep being a facet of Article 21 of the Constitution, the bench cautioned the officials to appear in person before it, if their personal affidavits were not filed till the next hearing. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming period drama 'Padmavati', which has been into the limelight since its inception, is given U/A certificate after several modifications, suggested by the Central Board of Film Certification. While speculations have been rife about the Deepika Padukone-starrer releasing worldwide on January 25, sources closed to the industry said uncertainty still prevails over the release date of Padmavati. In its 28 December meeting with the makers, the review committee of CBFC and a special panel of historians recommended five modifications to the film. While the first suggestion was to rename the film as 'Padmavat', several other changes were made in the scenes related to Sati and Jauhar.CBFC has also asked Bhansali to modify the song 'Ghoomar' featuring the Mewar queen Padmini, played by Deepika Padukone. Also Read: Former Mewar royal slams changes suggested by CBFC in 'Padmavati' as cosmetic 'Padmavat' is happened to be the first Indian feature film to get a simultaneous global release across 60 countries by global studios-Paramount Pictures, while sources closed to the film suggest that the film will not hit the screens in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, Karni Sena and several other Rajput outfits are continuing to hold out their protests against the film despite the changes. The film, which was earlier scheduled to hit cinema houses on December 1, features Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in the lead. Also Read | Padmavati: Push for complete ban, Karni Sena chief to community members For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Singapore : Indias dialogue partnership with ASEAN has evolved into a strategic partnership and the Indian diaspora provides a platform for stronger ties with the grouping, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday. Addressing the Indian diaspora at the ASEAN-India Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Singapore, Swaraj reaffirmed Indias commitment to ASEAN. We are here to reaffirm our commitment and to share the course of our journey ahead to the future of India and ASEAN in the world, Swaraj told some 3,000 delegates. Our diaspora provides a platform for a stronger relationship between India and ASEAN countries, she said. Noting the 25-year milestone of ASEAN-India partnership, she said, Our dialogue partnership has evolved into a strategic partnership. Indias engagement with the ASEAN region lies in the clarity of the principles that we share. We believe that when all nations adhere to international rules and norms and when we conduct on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect, our nations feel secure and our economies prosper," Swaraj said. As Indias economy grows its ties will deepen, its trade and investment flow will grow," she said, emphasising that ASEAN was a part of India's Act East Policy. She said states play a vital role in Indias progress and advancing the countrys economic ties with the world. She highlighted the presence of Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the gathering and underlined that the North East will grow and become a bridge to South East Asia. Also Read: Sushma Swaraj to visit Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore to mark ASEAN-India partnership's silver jubilee Our North East region will prosper when it is better connected to South East Asia and when the North East becomes our bridge to South East Asia, we will be closer to realising our hopes for India and ASEAN ties, she said. She called for addressing the common challenges in the region like creating skills for the digital age, generating jobs in the age of disruption, meeting the need of rapid urbanisation, protecting the bio-diversity and making the energy sources cleaner. We are moving from industrial age to information age. The global power balance is shifting, and the relation between nations are changing," said Swaraj. There is interesting new technology but unsettled question of history still divides us. At the same time, we see progress and opportunities as never before," said the minister. It is the time for India and South East Asia to work for prosperity for its people and secure a peaceful future for new generation, she stressed. Also Read: Swaraj intervenes, 17-yr-old girl's US dream to become reality ASEAN is Indias 4th largest trading partner, accounting for 10.2 per cent of India's total trade. India is ASEANs 7th largest trading partner. Trade is back on track and registered an 8 per cent increase in 2016-17, as compared to the previous year. New Delhi will host a commemorative summit on January 25 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Dialogue Partnership between India and the ASEAN in which all the leaders of the grouping are expected to participate. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Dhaka: Temperatures in subtropical Bangladesh hit a 70-year-low on Monday as authorities handed out tens of thousands of blankets to help the poor fight a record cold spell, officials said. The mercury plunged to a frigid 2.6 degrees Celsius (36.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of Bangladesh, well below average in the low-lying riverine nation whose 160 million citizens are used to milder winters. It is the lowest temperature since authorities started keeping records in 1948, Shamsuddin Ahmed, head of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told AFP. The previous low of 2.8 degrees was recorded in 1968, he added. Ahmed said Bangladesh was in the grip of a severe cold wave, with temperatures dipping across all northern districts over the past few days. The coldest temperatures were recorded in the border town of Tetulia, about 400 kilometres north of the capital Dhaka. One local broadcaster reported that at least nine people had died from exposure, including six in one of the coldest locations in the northern district of Kurigram. Officials said they were not aware of any deaths so far. Authorities have distributed at least 70,000 blankets to poorer Bangladeshis shivering in the coldest areas of Panchagarh and Nilphamari, government administrators in those two districts said. Panchagarh administrator Jahirul Islam told AFP more blankets were expected to arrive on Tuesday when a senior government minister toured the rural region. The cold snap comes as records tumbled on a frosty US East Coast, with New York on Sunday shivering through minus 15.5 degrees Celsius (four degrees Fahrenheit) in the wake of a deadly winter storm blamed for at least 22 deaths last week. At the other end of the scale, Australias largest city Sydney on Sunday recorded its hottest day since 1939, as the mercury soared to 47.3 degree Celsius. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washinton: The widespread protests in Iran was a sign of failure of the government, US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have agreed, the White House said on Monday. The two leaders spoke over phone on Sunday during which they also discussed the developments in the Korean Peninsula. North and South Korea are scheduled to hold talks on Tuesday. Trump spoke to Macron to provide an update on developments on the Korean Peninsula, and to underscore American, South Korean and international resolve to achieve the complete denuclearisation of North Korea, the White House said in a readout of the call. The presidents also agreed that the widespread demonstrations in Iran were a sign of the Iranian regimes failure to serve its peoples needs by instead diverting the nations wealth to fund terrorism and militancy abroad, it said. At least 21 people have been killed in Iran after anti- government began on December 28. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Former Pakistani diplomat and renowned author Husain Haqqani talked openly about the relations between the tension that is brewing between India, Pakistan and USA in an exclusive interview with News Nation. Haqqani, said that Pakistan has to make changes in its attitude and establish better relationship with India. He said, "The negative image that Pakistan has created all over the world is the result of their own wrongdoings. If they want to change the image of Pakistan then they have to change their agenda. At the same time, we have to take initiative to improve relations with our neighboring countries." He further said, "If Pakistan does not take any initiative to curb Hafiz Saeed and other terrorist organizations soon, then it will take a long time to build a positive image in the international community." On the Kashmir issue, Haqqani said, "It is important to resolve the Kashmir issue for that India-Pakistan has to build friendship, only after that rest will follow.' At the same time, when the former diplomat was questioned about the relations between Pakistan and China, he said, "China supports Pakistan because it wants to maintain a pressure on India." If Pakistan dont understand these things, then relations with its neighbors will only turn bitter. I hope hey change their thinking soon. Haqqani, also adevised the media of both India and Pakistan to stop promoting inciteful content and said, "The media of India-Pakistan also need to make changes in their way. The media of both the countries speak extensively on the Indo-Pak issue, which should not be the case. Such talk provokes people of both countries; therefore, it is important to avoid such provocative content. On the US relations with Pakistan, he said, "America does not have any special love for Pakistan, it is only because they benefit from the ties. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Thurmont (US): President Donald Trump, shelving comparisons about the size of a "nuclear button," said he is open to talking with the North Korean leader he's called "Little Rocket Man" and hopes some progress results from upcoming talks between the Koreas. Trump, who last year lambasted his chief diplomat for talking about negotiations with the nuclear-armed North, told reporters at Camp David that some dialogue or direct conversation with Kim Jong Un was not beyond the realm of possibility. "Sure, I always believe in talking," Trump said. "Absolutely I would do that. I wouldn't have a problem with that at all." But he was quick to add that any talks would come with conditions, which he did not specify. The first formal talks between North and South in more than two years are set to take place in a border town Tuesday as the rivals try to find ways to cooperate on the Winter Olympics in the South and to improve their ties. Tensions are high because of the North's nuclear and missile programs. "Right now they're talking Olympics. It's a start, it's a big start," Trump said during a question-and-answer session after meetings with GOP leaders in Congress and Cabinet members on the administration's 2018 legislative agenda. Kim "knows I'm not messing around. I'm not messing around, not even a little bit, not even 1 percent. He understands that," Trump said. Assessing next week's discussions, Trump said "if something can happen and something can come out of those talks that would be a great thing for all of humanity. That would be a great thing for the world." The president also said that he had spoken with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in, who "thanks me very much for my tough stance." "You have to have a certain attitude and you have to be prepared to do certain things and I'm totally prepared to do that," Trump said, contending his tough words have helped persuade the North to sit down with the South. Trump had tweeted last week: "Does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn't firm, strong and willing to commit our total 'might' against the North." His administration on Thursday agreed to delay joint military exercises with South Korea until after the Olympics. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis insisted the move was a practical necessity to accommodate the Olympics and was not a political gesture. Trump and Kim have traded barbs recently about their nuclear arsenals. In a New Year's address, Kim said he has a "nuclear button" on his office desk and warned that "the whole territory of the US is within the range of our nuclear strike." Trump soon responded: "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his and my Button works!" For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bhopal: The Congress, which is once again in the news after opposing the abrogation of Article 370 in Parliament, is currently in the news. In fact, in a clubhouse chat, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, while talking to an alleged Pakistani journalist, has said that he has made headlines. In fact, talking to the journalist, he said, "If we come to power, we can consider bringing article 370 back". Now, after the leakage of his audio, political turmoil has arisen. Amidst all this, the Congress has remained silent, and the BJP has become an attacker. Recently, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited anti-national statements by Congress leaders and said that "Indian National Congress has actually turned into an anti-national clubhouse. In fact, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared a part of Digvijay's alleged clubhouse chat on Twitter. Sharing this, he said, "It is actually Pakistan's desire to reconsider the decision to repeal Article 370. The Congress has the same thinking". Let us tell you that Pakistani journalists were also present in Digvijay's clubhouse chat and in response to that question, he had asked for a reconsideration of Article 370. During the chat, Digvijaya said, "When Article 370 was removed from here (Jammu and Kashmir), democratic values were not followed. During this period, neither humanity nor Kashmiriyat was taken care of. All were locked behind bars. If the Congress government comes to power, we will reconsider this decision and restore Article 370". Amit Mitra writes letter after GST Council's decision, Anurag says "voice was muzzled...'' Black Widow director REVEALS Scarlett Johansson's movie will remind you of Captain America: The Winter Soldier Petrol-diesel prices get marginal relief today, find out what your city rates Madhya Pradesh cleanest city, Indore has come forward for Pakistan nationals. The officials of Indore gives in a big relief to over 4,000 Pakistani Sindhis residing in city on extended visa. The district administration has now allowed these nationals to take Covid-19 vaccines by registering with their passports on CoWIN app. The citys local health authorities have permitted for vaccination of the Pakistani residents living in Indore for a long time. District immunisation officer Dr Praveen Jadia told TOI, "All those citizens of Pakistan residing here can now take their Covid-19 vaccines after online registration on the CoWIN app. Since these people don't have identity documents like Aadhaar cards issued to Indian citizens, they must register with the help of their passport." According to his statement, the registration with a passport is allowed on the CoWIN app. Earlier it was done in the case of a citizen of the Netherlands, who had taken the first dose of Covishield at one of the centres in May. The clearance to vaccinate Pakistani Sindhis was given after a delegation met Indore district collector. Additionally, most of them have decided to reside in India and have applied for citizenship after completing seven years of residence here. Also Read Captain Amarinder Singh is 'the most hated person': Shiromani Akali Dal Manvita Kamath says that for digital platforms, content is king and the star is an addition Hitting Back to Centre Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi asks 'Which Is GOI Most Efficient Ministry?' His hunger and enthusiasm for networking and blogging carried him to the bleeding edge of the online marketing industry. The universe of marketing, advertising, and blogging has become a new niche that has opened opportunities for new talents. Becoming the best in something requires dedication and devotion along with skill and determination. The digital world has ever since put forth the criteria to excel in the industry. Only a few manage to catch the exact steps and follow them to set up their place in this industry. One such rising name in the computerized business, who sees himself as an advertiser by psyche and blogger by heart is Bilal Kazi. The young and brilliant Bilal Kazi always wanted to make something of his own, something that he could feel proud of pretty much for his entire life. Henceforth, he started publishing content as a blog in 2013 and discovered an enthusiasm for putting himself out there through what he composed. Even though Bilal Kazi finished his hotel management at Rizvi College, he generally wanted to accomplish something in the field of networking and blogging. He believed in his extraordinary abilities in this field and thats what drove him to his career pathway. Soon enough, he purchased a domain name. Further, he began learning various approaches to bring in cash on the web AdSense was his principal monetization strategy and later, he hopped into affiliate marketing for developing his vocation. Bilal Kazi got the chance to work alongside numerous celebs and publicizing agencies, which helped him, find his advantage in motivating individuals through his work. Marketing was a specialty he was always interested to explore and investigate. He subsequently began with the food business. He started promoting food brands. He went on to assist them in growing by blogging and marketing about these brands. Today, he has made his extraordinary name in the food business as a blogger and discovers harmony and bliss by supporting the brands in the business. The youthful mastermind from Bahrain has teamed up with many top brands and superstars in Mumbai and Bahrain and is anticipating working with a lot more individuals. Bilal Kazi has transformed into a notable marketer and web-based media expert today, who, through his abilities, has moved brands, which has additionally procured him incredible acknowledgment and grants like Business Manager Award at Channel V India Fest Goa, and Best Influencer Award at Channel V India Fest Goa. Taking a gander at his success, making brands reach ideal outcomes; we will not be amazed on the off chance that he arrives at the highest point of the advertising game. For further information, follow him on Instagram @bilalkazi.bh. Also Read: People worship Corona Devi, administration places idol in police station UP: Husband gives triple talaq by cutting his ear, brother-in-law did obscene act Navy rescue labourers trapped inside illegal coal mine in East Jaintia Hills Kathmandu, June 13 Three European countriesSlovenia, Austria and Maltahave send medical aid to Nepal expressing their solidarity in the countrys fight against the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The equipment that they donated via the European Union arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday morning. The EU Delegation to Nepal says the EU member states have supplied the equipment through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. This is in response to the government of Nepals earlier call for support. Slovenia, Austria and Malta goodwill gesture for Nepal comes immediately after Spain, Finland, France, Belgium and Germany provided their support in the recent weeks and more emergency supplies from Ireland, Italy, Denmark Lithuania to come, the delegations statement reads. Honorary Consuls of Slovenia and Austria, joined by EU Ambassador to Nepal, Nona Deprez, handed over the materials to the Health Ministrys Chief Specialist Roshan Pokhrel, the statement informs. Here is a list of the medical equipment and supplies received today: According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, 1,205 people died due to landslides in Nepal in the past 10 years while 297 have been missing (that means they are also feared dead). The numbers are expected to rise this year as the government believes that the forthcoming monsoon is likely to affect nearly 2 million people in the country. However, there have been no measures set in place by the government to tackle this issue as the monsoon is nearing. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology has already stated that the monsoon has already entered Nepal for this year. Indira Kandel from the department tells Onlinekhabar that it is likely that Nepal would be getting more rainfall this time than in previous years. But, the government has not taken any steps to save lives, warn experts. Especially, preparation is much needed in areas like Baglung and Sindhupalchowk, which the government has listed as risk zones. Untimely sense of urgency The authoritys spokesperson Liladhar Adhikari says the government has set aside Rs 200 million to relocate households that were prone to landslides in these two districts. But, experts believe doing so on the eve of the monsoon season is pointless as implementing it would be next to impossible given the short time frame. Disaster expert Ganga Lal Tuladhar accuses the government of not being proactive when it comes to risk management. They dont do any prior planning; thats quite disappointing. These people in power havent learnt to pay attention to risk management. I dont think if these things are ever discussed in their party meetings, says Tuladhar. This years monsoon is likely to be long and affect a lot more people, say meteorologists. Sindhupalchok to be affected the most On August 2, 2014, a landslide in Jure in Sindhupalchok, killed 145 people and displaced 127 families. A year later, the district also bore the brunt of the 2015 earthquake which killed 3,575 people there. In July 2016, a flood in the Bhotekoshi river swept away 81 houses from the district and caused damages worth millions. A flood near Larche on July 22, 2017, swept away a bridge on the Araniko Highway along with a part of the road. A few days later, a landslide in the area killed 39 people. In the past year alone, 73 people have died due to floods and landslides in the area destroying 127 houses. People were so traumatised about dying of floods and landslides; many did not sleep until the monsoon was over. Sindupalchoks District Administration Office prepared a report recently stating around 1,100 households in the area were under the threat of floods and landslides. But, government bodies are not active enough to help these people, experts say. The districts Chief District Officer Arun Pokharel says even though the government tried to relocate these people for the past nine months, no progress has been made. We dont have the technical know-how and human resources needed for this kind of work. Weve been writing to the centre, but weve not had any positive response to deal with the issue, says Pokharel. In the past year, 73 people have died due to floods and landslides in Sindhupalchok destroying 127 houses. Due to the government not being proactive enough, it is likely that a lot of people will die from floods and landslides again this year. Pokharel has said that he has asked for technical help and asked for people to be stationed in Barabise. Technical expertise is only available in Kathmandu. When they arrive after a landslide or a flood, its already too late. If they were stationed in Barabise, it would be very helpful, says Pokharel. A committee formed to identify vulnerable zones had advised that some settlements in Jugal, Bhotekoshi and Helambu rural municipalities be relocated. There were a total of eight settlements that needed to be relocated. They had even proposed locations to relocate these settlements. But, the budget announcement a few weeks ago has all but assured that they will not be relocated anytime soon. Late release of the budget Between April 2020 and March 2021, Sindupalchok and Baglung suffered the most due to natural disasters. The government then announced that the two districts were a disaster-prone area and called for a reconstruction drive in the area. However, the funds for the project were released only in April. As the funds were only available two months prior to the monsoon, it has made it impossible to conduct any reconstruction drive. And, everyone blames the government for this. Adhikari, the spokesperson for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, says the funds have been released by the government in April to start the reconstruction of houses destroyed by natural resources. I know its late, but at least they have released a budget, which is a start, says Adhikari. Weve started another project from the Myagdi district and its going on good. Ganesh Bahadur Adhikari, Myagdi CDO, says 247 houses were destroyed in the district the past year. This year, a further 829 houses, which are located in vulnerable zones, are under threat in Dhaulagiri rural municipality, the official adds. 247 houses were destroyed in the past year due to floods and landslides in Myagdi. Likewise, Baglungs CDO Shiva Kumar Karki says that a lot of households in the district fear they will be affected by floods and landslides this season. Dhorpatan and Nisikhola rural municipalities are under the biggest threat, says Karki. There are 636 people who need help. Weve sent the list to the concerned authorities. Hopefully, well have funds soon so we can help these people, says Karki, who says relocation is a must. The blame game It is clear that there is hardly any coordination between local, provincial and central governments when it comes to mitigating disasters and helping those who have suffered. For example, Pokharel, the CDO of Sindhupalchok, says there has been no decision regarding the relocation of 1,100 families for the district. Were dependent on the centre for help. But, as of now, that has not come and we dont know what to do, says Pokharel. He says that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority is the government body that hands out funds and deploys human resources during disasters. This is why he says the authority needs to be a bit proactive and be ready during these times. Jugal rural municipality chair Home Narayan Shrestha says this shows how least bothered the government is. Last monsoon, 39 people died due to landslides in his municipality. He says he had submitted a report to the districts relief committee to relocate people from vulnerable areas. But, the committees delay in paperwork meant that nothing will be done as Shrestha says that the committee does not even have funds to manage tarpaulin for these families who are likely to lose their houses to floods. According to the new rule, survivors do not get relief support from the authority unless the district administration office lists them as beneficiaries upon a recommendation from the local government. The Sindhupalchok District Administration Office says many local governments have not sent their recommendation lists yet. But, Shrestha says that he has already sent a list with names of 209 beneficiaries to the DAO and adds that they are yet to receive an acceptance from the authority. Due to the governments incompetence, locals have had to bear the brunt and that is unfair, he says. Just tents for the rescue Looking at things, particularly in Sindhupalchok, it is unlikely that the relocation will happen this year. The central government is planning to distribute tents in the district just in case anything bad happens in the area. Shrestha says that they will be starting to distribute tents to vulnerable areas from next week. The tents will be distributed to local ward offices. Jugal rural municipality, which is one of the most affected areas of the country, has had to relocate 500 households in the past few years. Shretha says that the local government has been in regular contact with the federal and provincial governments about helping these people. According to data, the district has set aside aids like tarpaulin, tents, plastics, sleeping bags, blankets and sleeping mats. But, CDO Pokharel says the locals need more than just that and have been begging the centre for help. Looks like its going to be a long monsoon for a lot of people here, says Pokharel, who feels the history is going to repeat itself in Sindhupalchok as people will lose their home to landslides yet again. What is the authority up to? The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority has already started warning the vulnerable areas in the country. But, it has not released any plan to help the most vulnerable area in the country Sindhupalchosk. Even in other districts, there has not been a relocation drive as the authority has only warned people that a storm is coming. Weve warned people to be prepared for the worse, says the authoritys spokesperson Liladhar Adhikari. Weve also conducted impact-oriented forecasting and are planning how to conduct rescue operations when we need to. The authority is also disseminating information in local languages to make sure it reaches more people so that they can brace themselves when the storm comes. It took a global health crisis to convince one of Gretchen Behnkes clients that she could retire early at 51, a move the woman finally made in February, convinced her finances were in good enough shape to allow her golden years to start. She had been contemplating early retirement for about three years, Behnke, a certified financial planner in Plano, Texas, told Yahoo Money, I believe it was the pandemic that made her feel the uncertainty of life and that she didn't want to spend any more time in a job that was very stressful, took a toll on her health, and drained her energy. Read more: Expert: Retirement investors should embrace uncertainty as their new normal Shes not the only one. The unusual circumstances of the pandemic the unexpected boom in the stock market, unprecedented job losses, the unique health threat to older people, and the loss of time with loved ones all created an environment that helped lead to an early retirement for many, according to a pair of studies. Patsy Hahn, owner of Patsy's Potpourri of Gifts in her shop. At Patsy's Potpourri of Gifts in Boyertown Thursday afternoon February 4, 2021. Patsy Hahn, the owner, is retiring and the shop will be closing. (Photo by Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images) More than 1 in 10 baby boomers said the pandemic caused them to retire sooner than expected, according to a recent survey from MetLife, with nearly a third adopting a life is too short mentality, while a quarter wanted to spend more time with loved ones or have more free time. Older people have really faced new challenges when it comes to retirement and their retirement savings and how they perceive their financial future, Roberta Rafaloff, vice president of institutional income annuities at MetLife, told Yahoo Money. You have these people who are saying, I've watched loved ones get sick, perhaps I've watched loved ones pass away. Life is too short. I'm going to take advantage of what I have today and retire. Read more: Here's how to get your retirement savings back on track On the flip side in a Federal Reserve study, the 29% of adults who retired early due to COVID-19 were more likely to say they were forced to retire or that work was not available, they did not like their work, or they had to care for family members, compared with other retirees. Story continues For people who are in industries that were negatively affected hospitality, etc. their stories are very different if they werent financially or psychologically prepared, said Patricia Hausknost, a certified financial planner in Long Beach, California. YF Plus For instance, One FedEx delivery worker in his early 60s whose pre-pandemic goal was to retire at 65, bowed out last November, right before the holiday rush when the pressure and the workload ramped up. The work tempo he was under was increasing more and more, the mans financial planner, Christopher Owens, a senior advisor associate at Wealthspire Advisors, told Yahoo Money. "[He] physically couldn't take it anymore and couldn't keep up. For others, it was a combination of job loss and existential reflection that convinced them to retire early. Another client of Owens who was always kind of apprehensive to retire was laid off from her job in a doctors office last year and the situation was pretty much decided for her, he said. Between the unemployment and lockdown measures, the downtime allowed her to gradually transition into retirement and spend time with her family instead. (Credit: Federal Reserve) While she was buoyed by unemployment insurance benefits, she also kept her expenses low, and Owens explained that she thought about going back to work but as time wore on she became more and more comfortable with the idea of retirement, he said. So did Larry Harris, a certified financial planner in Asheville, North Carolina, who credits the pandemic for allowing him to open his imagination to retirement. I am 67 and planning to retire, he told Yahoo Money. The pandemic did create a unique opportunity to examine work from home and how that might enable me to enjoy working longer at a different pace. [It] also gave me some insight into what retirement might look like not going into the office everyday. Yahoo Money sister site Cashay has a weekly newsletter. Stephanie is a reporter for Yahoo Money and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @SJAsymkos. Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit. JOHANNESBURG, June 13 (Reuters) - South African health inspectors on Sunday said they will not release Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines that may have been contaminated during production at a U.S. plant. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said it made the decision after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised concerns over manufacturing practices at the Baltimore plant. "SAHPRA reviewed the data provided by the FDA and has made a decision not to release vaccine produced using the drug substance batches that were not suitable, SAHPRA said in a statement. The findings by the FDA would impact two million vaccines that are awaiting release at Aspen Pharmacare's Gqeberha manufacturing site, acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said on national broadcaster, SABC. Kubayi-Ngubane said the government was in talks with J&J over replacing the affected vaccines. Fears of a third COVID-19 wave are mounting in the country, which has recorded the highest number of infections and deaths on the continent, with daily infections rising to over 9,000 per day. South Africa launched phase two of its vaccine rollout in May, aiming to inoculate five million people aged over 60 by the end of June. Local heath regulators said 300,000 doses of the J&J vaccine have been cleared by the FDA and will be shipped to South Africa. Manufacturing at the Baltimore plant was halted in April after it was discovered that ingredients from AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, produced at the plant at the time, had contaminated a batch of J&J's vaccine. A further inspection by the FDA also turned up a long list of sanitary problems and bad manufacturing practices at the Emergent plant. (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) NO MATTER how hard it is to grasp, kids still die in hot cars. There was a big drop last year in cases of children dying in hot cars. But AAA Mid-Atlantic and other safety groups see the warm weather and a return to pre-COVID-19 routines as a recipe for a potential return to 2019 totals. In 2020, with people working from home and driving less, hot-car deaths dropped to 25, but 2018 and 2019 are the two worst years in history for child hot car deaths with 54 and 53 fatalities respectively, according to AAA. As outside temperatures rise, the risk of children dying from heatstroke after being left in a hot car increases, said Richmond Ambulance Authority CEO Chip Decker in a news release. One child dies from heatstroke nearly every 10 days in the United States from being left in a car or crawling into an unlocked vehicle. In almost every case, the deaths could have been prevented. A car can get deadly hot fast. According to AAA, the temperature in a car, even with the windows slightly open, can hit 125 degrees in minutes in the right conditions, and a body temperature of 107 can kill a child. AAA also noted that heatstroke can happen when the temperature is as low as 57 degrees outside. Baroody said the median would make the issue moot, but conceded that a short-term solution is required. He pledged to meet with city staff and transportation experts and return to City Council with a plan. Obviously there is a concern for safety, Baroody said. Were going to take that seriously and report back to council in a week or two. City resident Laurie Bendall, who lives on nearby Century Oak Drive, would like to see a no left turn sign posted at the exit of Royal Farms. She said its a free-for-all for drivers to turn left and cross into multiple lanes of oncoming traffic. She cited the death last month of a female pedestrian who was struck and killed by a vehicle at the intersection of Route 3 and Altoona Drive. She also learned after a conversation with Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton that there have been seven accidents in a 360-foot span between Oakwood Drive and the Wendys on Route 3 since the start of this year. Its the biggest cluster you could ever imagine right there and were going to make it worse, Bendall said. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) An auction for a ride into space next month alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother ended with a winning $28 million bid Saturday. The Amazon founder's rocket company, Blue Origin, did not disclose the winner's name following the live online auction. The identity will be revealed in a couple weeks closer to the brief up-and-down flight from West Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing. It will be the first launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket with people on board, kicking off the company's space tourism business. Fifteen previous test flights of the reusable rocket and capsule since 2015 short hops lasting about 10 minutes were all successful. Saturday's auction followed more than a month of online bidding that reached $4.8 million by Friday. More than 7,500 people from 159 countries registered to bid, according to Blue Origin. More than 20 bidders the high rollers took part in Saturday's auction. Bezos announced Monday that he and his younger brother, Mark, would be on board New Shepard's first crew flight; the news quickly boosted bidding. The Group of 7 is an informal group of seven powerful democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The presidents of the European Commission and European Council also attend G-7 meetings because several of Europes largest countries are also members. Membership, which is decided internally, hasnt changed much since the groups founding in 1975. At the time, it included only six countries, all of which still belong. Canada joined a year later. Russia joined as an eighth member in 1998, temporarily changing the groups moniker to the G-8, but Russia was ousted after it annexed Crimea in 2014. Together, these seven wealthy nations form the foundation of the modern global economy and the cooperative rules-based system on which it is built. Why the G-7 matters The G-7 countries make up about 40% of the world economy, down from nearly 70% a few decades ago. If a second grader is doing math at the fifth-grade level, no amount of differentiated instruction will serve that student as well as being able to take math with his or her academic peers by going to a fifth-grade class for one period a day. As other states and countries provide more accelerated opportunities to their high-ability students, Virginia is proposing to remove such opportunities. It does not make sense, but unfortunately, the VMPI approach is like one of those fads that seem to cycle through educational circles on a semi-regular basis. In the fall of 1993, I took part in a debate regarding Outcome-Based Education (OBE), a similar achievement-leveling fad that the VDOE was preparing to implement. Members of the VDOE, as well as the State Board of Education, supported the new program, while five of us Militant Moms argued against it. The issue was so important, and the impact so far-reaching, that it was covered on the front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. After listening closely to the pros and cons, Gov. Doug Wilder repudiated OBE and wisely announced that it would not be implemented in the commonwealth. Lets hope that another such debate can be held on the VMPI proposal. Virginia cannot and should not be holding students back due to the false notion that this somehow creates equity. MILLIONS of people have celebrated former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvins conviction for the murder of George Floyd as a validation of the Black Lives Matter movement. It is a major step along the way to police reform. Yet we should not be satisfied with anything less than total reform, including a full reappraisal of the mandate of law enforcement. And most of these necessary changes have been summed up under the rallying cry of Defund the Police. I know that this phrase has been both dismissed by jittery politicians on the left and seized on by those on the right to generate fear around progressive politics. I have seen a Facebook meme warning Dont say Defund the Police. Im still saying it. Defund the police isnt about attacking cops. It isnt about letting criminals run rampant. Its about getting the United States out of a cops and robbers mentality that simplifies crime to a fight between the good guys and the bad guys. Its about looking realistically at the social forces that contribute to making America unsafe, and having the courage to correct them. The filibuster was frequently used to block progress on civil rights and voting rights legislation. We cannot let the filibuster stand in the way of progress yet again, and the Senate must do anything it can to pass the For the People Act. This isnt just a policy disagreement. This is bigger than protecting our freedom to vote, getting big money out of politics, and stopping gerrymandering. This fight is fundamental to our democracy. If we let states take away our freedom to vote by targeting largely Black and brown voters, what would prevent states from restricting the right to vote for other groups of people? As the parent of four boys, this fight is personal to me. This fight is about ensuring that our children, grandchildren and future generations can live in a democracy that respects the rule of law and the will of voters, instead of trying to rig the rules. Its about the type of government we leave for our children and grandchildren. Do we want them to live in a country in which one party continues to ignore the rule of law and lead us toward authoritarianism? Or do we want to strive for a democracy that encourages everyone to vote? Ill choose democracy each time, and thats why we need the For the People Act immediately before its too late. Our children and our democracy depend on it. Karen Hobert Flynn is the president of Common Cause. She wrote this for InsideSources.com. THE For the People Act is too broad and seeks to nationalize many democracy reforms that would be better left to states. The first version of the act was launched in 2019, after Democrats had taken control of the House of Representatives. With Republicans in charge of the White House and the Senate, it had no chance of becoming law. It was aspirational, a statement of Democratic values on democracy reform, and the blueprint for an agenda with many specific policy changes that Democrats could highlight as contrasts to Republican policy. This blueprint was incredibly broad and ambitious: setting many federal standards for the way states administer elections; introducing forms of public financing of election campaigns; and requiring very detailed independent redistricting commissions that would take away the power of redistricting from state legislatures, to name a few of the more prominent proposals. But in these large brushstrokes, and also in many of the details, there was little bipartisan consensus for the reforms, some of which have been bitterly debated for years. In addition to the lack of agreement between the parties, the bill would overrule many future or existing state reforms that states would tailor for their own citizens. One of the things some of my colleagues said to me when I was there was, Well, the United States leadership recognizes there is global warming, Biden said. The president was ending his day in Brussels for meetings with NATO and European Union leaders on Monday and Tuesday before his summit with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva. U.S. officials said that one-on-one meeting would test whether the two men could develop a constructive relationship even as Biden was poised to rebuke Putin for a range of rights abuses and election interference. Pressed at the news conference on why Putin has not changed his behavior after waves of U.S. sanctions, Biden replied with a laugh. Hes Vladimir Putin. The summit marked some of Biden's first face-to-face meetings with global leaders since taking office in January amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including Frances Emmanuel Macron, with whom he was meeting for the first time. The 43-year-old Macron, who came into office in May 2017, months after Bidens two terms as the U.S. vice president ended, appeared to have quick chemistry with the 78-year-old American. The two draped their arms around each other and chatted animatedly when they walked together after the leaders' photo at the beginning of Fridays summit. NUR-SULTAN -- U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has said the United States will not abandon the war-torn country even after the withdrawal of its forces planned for later this year. Our forces are leaving Afghanistan, but the United States is not leaving Afghanistan. We will work hard for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan, Khalilzad told a news conference during his visit to Kazakhstan's capital, Nur-Sultan, on June 13. We will continue our security assistance, and we will continue our economic and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, he added. Spiraling violence and stalled peace talks between the Taliban and the Western-backed government in Kabul have casts further uncertainty over the future of the country once U.S.-led international forces leave the country by September 11. Despite the troop pullout, U.S. President Joe Bidens administration has vowed to remain committed to providing military and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department announced more than $266 million in new humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, bringing to nearly $3.9 billion the amount of U.S. humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since 2002. In Nur-Sultan, Khalilzad also said that he regularly discusses Afghanistan with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin's special representative Zamir Kabulov. Russia and the United States are working well together in promoting peace in Afghanistan, according to the Afghan-born diplomat. The Pakistani government has shut down six unregistered, Iranian-funded schools in the southwestern city of Quetta, officials told RFE/RL on June 13. Muhammad Zohaib-ul Haq, the assistant commissioner of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province, said the privately run schools were closed on June 12 because they were teaching international curricula without being registered with the Private Schools Regulatory Authority, which is not allowed in Pakistan. Some questionable religious material was being taught at the schools, Haq said, adding: So we acted and closed six Iranian schools in Hazara Town, an area on the outskirts of Quetta that is predominantly populated by members of the Shiite Hazara minority. Officials said the schools received funds from Iran, as well as tuition fees from the students. No detentions were made during the crackdown, they said. RFE/RL contacted the administrators and teachers at the closed schools, but they refused to comment. The closed educational institutions included three high schools and three middle and primary schools in which hundreds of both boys and girls were enrolled. The principals and the teachers in the schools were Iranian citizens, Haq said, adding that law enforcement agencies were investigating whether their curriculum followed the national guidelines. The official sent RFE/RL photos that he said were taken in two classrooms and showed portraits of Ayatollah Rohullah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. One picture also showed a religious textbook written in the Persian language. The authenticity of the photos could be independently verified. Shiite Hazaras in Pakistan have close historic, cultural, and religious ties with both Afghanistan and Iran. Colorado Springs, CO (80903) Today Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Here's a look at what the law does. Less time to vote on Election Day The polls will close on Election Day at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. Less time to vote early The number of days to vote early is reduced from 29 to 20. Until two years ago, Iowas early voting period had been 40 days. Stricter requirements for satellite voting locations Local elections officials also face stricter requirements before setting up a satellite early voting location. The law requires a petition signed by at least 100 eligible voters to establish a location. Less time to request and mail a ballot Absentee ballot requests may begin 70 days before an election, rather than the previous 120 days. And absentee ballots cannot be mailed to voters until 20 days before the election, down from 29 days, with limited exceptions. The new laws also sets the last day for auditors to mail ballots at 15 days before the election. In practice, that allows five business days for mailing ballots to every voter who requested one. Arriving in Mason City in 1898, Mier Wolf, the first Jewish resident of Mason City began a hide and fur business. Born in 1872 in a section of Austria that is now the Soviet Union, Mier arrived in the United States in 1893 stopping in Cedar Rapids before arriving in Mason City. Business opportunities for Mier Wolf expanded and in 1903 he started a furniture business. North Iowa grew and so did Miers business, by 1931 the business was known as Mier Wolf and Sons with stores in Mason City, Charles City, Austin and Albert Lea. Married in 1892 to Sicol, who had immigrated from Poland, they had three sons. Their home, a Prairie School designed by William Drummod, on North Adams was built in 1909 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Jewish population in Mason City grew rapidly. Rabbi Schultz arrived in 1909 and held Sabbath services in his home and high holiday services in the original armory. Soon a Jewish section in the cemetery would be needed. Mier Wolf arranged for 50 burial plots in the newly formed Adas Israel section of Elmwood Cemetery. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} With the direction of Mier Wolf as synagogue president the first synagogue was completed in 1912 on South Adams. The women of the congregation had taken an active part in raising the funds to purchase property. The president quietly got on with his prayer like everyone was doing, she said, adding: He looked around and said peace be with you, and I was one of them so Im delighted. Im not sure I will ever get over this moment completely. Gayle Wood, 63, said Biden appeared to make a very generous donation to the church before leaving. FALMOUTH, England Britain is accusing European Union of holding the offensive view that Northern Ireland is not fully part of the United Kingdom, as Brexit continues to cast a shadow over the Group of Seven summit. Britain and the EU are in a spat over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could see British sausages banned from entering Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that borders the 27-nation bloc. The dispute is raising political tensions in Northern Ireland, where some people identify as British and some as Irish. British media are reporting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked French President Emmanuel Macron when they met at the summit in Carbis Bay, England, how he would feel if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. They said Macron replied the comparison did not work because Paris and Tolouse were part of the same country. A gut punch to Iowans. A gut punch to Iowans. Thats the only way to describe the Biden Administrations decision to roll back the previous administrations Navigable Water Protection Rule. Sadly, for those of us who have been on the frontlines of this fight since 2015, this news is not a surprise. Now let me be clear: everyone can agree that clean water should be a national priority. Iowans, and all Americans, want sensible safeguards that protect our environment and keep our nations water clean. But what they dont want is a one-size-fits-all, Washington power grab that makes it harder for Iowans to farm, ranch, and build. Thats why, in 2015, when the Obama-Biden Administration finalized its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rulegiving the federal government authority to regulate water on 97 percent of the land in IowaI immediately got to work to get it off the books. I fought to nullify the rule, but even after my bill passed both the House and Senate with bipartisan support, it was vetoed by President Obama. But I didnt back down, and even before President Trump took office, I signaled my intent to work with him on a new, more flexible rule. And we did: the Trump Administration released a proposed rule to replace the Obama-era rule with one that provided much-needed predictability and certainty for farmers. Importantly, it established clear and reasonable definitions of what qualifies as a water of the United States. That rule, entitled the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, was finalized in January 2020. As they say, however, elections have consequences. Anticipating a return to the Obama-Biden era of burdensome regulations, at the beginning of this year I urged the Senate to stand with workers, farmers, manufacturers, and businesses by upholding the previous administrations Navigable Waters Protection Rule. Despite having the support of 25 of my colleagues and stakeholders across the country, the Biden Administration ignored these concerns, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) announced their plans to undo all of our progress. The reality is the fight for Iowas agriculture community is never over, and right now Im working to push back on any harmful regulation this new administration might impose on these hardworking folks. Together with Senator Chuck Grassley, Im pressing the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, to make known to the president and his colleagues at the EPA and the Corps the serious concerns Iowas farmers and ranchers have with their recent actions on WOTUS. Im also working to strengthen the voices Iowas small businesses in the federal rulemaking process. Too often, Washington bureaucrats put forward rules and regulations without considering their impact on small businessesand the Obama-Biden WOTUS rule is a perfect example. Thats why Ive put forward the Prove It Act which allows our small businesses to send federal agencies back to the drawing board to prove what theyre proposing wont hurt small businesses. Specifically, the bill gives the Small Business Administration the ability to question an agencys analysis if it claims a rule or regulation wont impact small businesses. When it comes to WOTUS, instead of continuing to confuse Iowas hardworking families, farmers, and businesses by changing its definition with each new administration, we need to make a reasonable, workable definition permanent. To do so, I helped introduce the Define WOTUS Act. This commonsense effort is more important now than ever. Theres simply no reason to return to the Obama-era ways of giving an unchecked federal agency and unelected Washington bureaucrats more authority to control whats done on private land. I will always fight tooth and nail for Iowas agriculture community, our working families, and our small businessesand Ill continue to push back against any attempts to impose complex, burdensome, and overreaching regulations on folks in our state. THURSDAY, JUNE 24 THURSDAY PADDLE: Slow-paced kayak trip on the Dan River at Camilla Williams Park from 6 to 8 p.m. for $14 for ages 10 and up. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Register by Monday before the program by calling Danville Parks and Recreation at 434-799-5150. SATURDAY, JUNE 26 FREE COMMUNITY HOT DOG LUNCH: A free community hot dog lunch will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 409 Arnett Blvd. Food can be picked up in the parking lot only. A HISTORY OF THE MILTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: A history of the Milton Presbyterian Church will be presented at 11 a.m. by Martha Bradsher Spencer in Milton, N.C. A tour of the church will follow the presentation. TUBING ON THE DAN: Float on the Dan River from Main Street to Anglers Park. One or two person tubes are available; life jackets are provided. Close-toed shoes are required. Ages 12 and up. For information, call Danville Parks and Recreation at 434-799-5150. Meets at Main Street Plaza, begins at 10 a.m., ends at 1 p.m. Cost is $15. Danville Parks and Recreation is gearing up for a picnic-style celebration Saturday to mark Juneteenth, now recognized as a state holiday. The date is known as the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, and Gov. Ralph Northam made it an official holiday in 2020 during a period of unrest and racial awakening in the the aftermath of George Floyds killing. Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis who knelt on his neck for more than 9 minutes. Derek Chauvin, that former officer, was convicted in Floyds death earlier this year. Since 1619, when representative democracy and enslaved African people arrived in Virginia within a month of each other, we have said one thing, but done another, Northam said in a news release last year. Its time we elevate Juneteenth not just as a celebration by and for some Virginians, but one acknowledged and commemorated by all of us. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people Galveston, Texas, finally learned that the Civil War had ended. Galveston was the last of the former Confederate states to abolish slavery when learning the Emancipation Proclamation had made them free nearly two years earlier. After Virginia lifted all restrictions established when the coronavirus pandemic was in full force, daily caseloads are steadily dropping. In fact, its possible on the current course to reach zero weekly cases by September in the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District, according to the University of Virginias Biocomplexity Institute. Even a worst-case situation would only mean 63 weekly cases in early October, a reversal of a once-feared summer surge. Local and state 7-day COVID-19 averages are as low as early days in the pandemic. But health officials are quick to point out vaccination rates also have dramatically slowed. Those without shots of protection against COVID-19 are still at risk of getting sick. Its important that unvaccinated Virginians continue to use masks and get vaccinated as soon as possible, researchers wrote in a recent UVa report. Another leading candidate, Al Mohler, has been supportive of sex abuse victims but angered some Southern Baptists for endorsing Donald Trump last year and for signing a statement, in his capacity as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, denouncing critical race theory. Meanwhile, Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor, is supported by Fred Luter, the only Black pastor ever to be denomination president. The two are among the co-signers of a statement by a multiethnic group of Southern Baptists asserting that systemic racial injustice is a reality. For all the Baptists who will be in the room this week, looming large will be the influence of a non-Baptist whos not present: Trump. The Conservative Baptist Network announced at its formation in February 2020 that members had been concerned over an effort to keep former Vice President Mike Pence from speaking at the 2018 meeting. Strong Southern Baptists support for Trump contributed to the estrangement between the denomination and Beth Moore and Russell Moore, both of whom had criticized the former president. THOMASVILLE When Larry Crouse retires June 25, Thrifty Oil will close after nearly 80 years as a full-service station that generations of residents relied on in the Thomasville area. Crouse, 72, who became known through the years for his honesty and humor, described his decision to retire as bittersweet. Some of his earliest memories revolve around the station and garage his father, Jack Crouse, owned and operated at 1 National Highway starting in 1942. Jacks brother, Buck, and their father, Melvin, did major mechanical work in a shop next door. The business was named National Motor Co. until Jack combined the two companies into Thrifty Oil. At one time the business had six employees, operated seven days a week and offered extras like selling tires and washing cars. We would go out and wash windshields, check the oil, pump the gas and gauge the tires, Crouse said. There wasnt anything like self-service back then. It was all full-service. Thrifty Oil added a self-service pump about 15 years ago but kept its full-service pump, where it continues to provide full service when a customer requests it. Some longtime customers are now elderly or disabled, he said. While Cockrams first year (2019) in her position in Rockingham County was highly successful, year two brought major growth to the county. As 2020 began, Cockram and her economic development team, found Rockingham County at a pivotal point and were already working diligently to gain momentum in the coming year. Just after the turn of the first quarter, Ontex Group announced its $93 million investment in Rockingham and plans to create 450 jobs. Ontex, a Belgium based manufacturer of affordable, disposable hygiene products, will soon call the new South Rockingham Corporate Park (SRCP) their new home and serve as its first occupant. The large manufacturers presence spurred interest in the area and led to the addition of a 174,000 square foot shell building in the park. As the third quarter of 2020 came to a close, the largest economic development announcement in the countys history came when Nestle Purina said it would invest $450 million in the former MillerCoors site vacant since 2015 and bring more than 300 new jobs to the area. Then in early December 2020, Farmina, an Italian-based pet food company, announced they would invest $28.5 million in Reidsville on their first U.S. facility to be located in the Reidsville Industrial Park . Victims are Eden residents Alexander "Alex" Michael Grubbs, 29, and Jordan Lee Gwynn, 27, who both lived at the house where they were found, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said in a news release. Rebecca Fisher Gwynn, 26, also a resident, was listed in critical condition at an area hospital on Tuesday morning, according to the release. Cox has a criminal history involving the sale of drugs and other offenses. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} In 1999, he was charged in Guilford County with possession of drugs with intent to sell. His next arrest came in 2011 in Guilford when he was charged with possession of a controlled substance, trafficking and maintaining a place for a controlled substance. By 2013, Cox faced charges in Guilford of drug possession with intent to sell and selling a schedule IV controlled substance. He was charged with misdemeanor wanton injury to personal property that same year in Forsyth County. Page has not disclosed investigators theories about a motive in what he terms targeted shootings. Asked if the shootings were a revenge crime related to rival motorcycle gangs, Page said he could not discuss the ongoing investigation. He further declined to discuss whether investigators are seeking other suspects in the crime, such as a possible passenger in Coxs truck. The riders, traveling on two motorcycles, were shot May 24 around 4:45 p.m. as they headed northbound along the U.S. 29 bypass between Barnes Street and N.C. 14, officials said. Following a significant decline of COVID-19 cases in Southern Virginia, Sovah Health is loosening more visitor restrictions on a path toward pre-pandemic times. The health system announced Monday that it is extending blocks of visiting hours at its campus in Danville and Martinsville, effective immediately. Visitors are now allowed from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m. Sovah Health implemented the change designed to give family members more flexibility to visit loved ones, a news release stated. However, visitors still are not allowed for high-risk patients. Sovah Health considers that category to include those in a behavioral health unit, patients who are in isolation, immunocompromised or are under observation. In addition, a patient who has tested positive for COVID-19 will not be allowed visitors. Our hospitals top priority is safeguarding the health and wellbeing of our patients, providers, employees and community, Alan Larson, market president of Sovah Health and CEO of Sovah Health-Danville, said in a release. Had he simply moved over to the party that has his heart, it is likely that no one in his deep red, Donald Trump-loving state of West Virginia would have objected. But as a Democrat, he holds more power than he ever could as a Republican. Allowing a single man to have the final say regarding the countrys destiny is a serious flaw in our democracy. If Manchin supported the values of the majority of American voters, perhaps it would be less egregious. But hes steering the country in the same path as Republicans who are trying to drive it to ruins, though they lost the election. If there were any hope left that he would do the right thing, Manchin made it clear Sunday that hes not the guy. He will not protect voting rights or help President Joe Biden push through other big-ticket items on his agenda. In an op-ed published in The Charleston Gazette-Mail newspaper in his home state, he let it be known that he is looking out for Republicans. If Democrats cant get a single Republican on board, dont look at him for help. Yet despite slower growth, we are still speeding toward environmental catastrophe. At the same time that human fertility rates were decreasing, greenhouse emissions all over the planet were rising steadily, hitting record levels in 2019. A U.N. report on global greenhouse gas emissions found that the richest 1% of people on Earth were responsible for more than double the number of greenhouse gas emissions of the poorest 50%. To comply with the Paris agreement, the ultra-rich would need to decrease their greenhouse gas emitting behaviors by a factor of 30. The link between population and climate change is broken. In both China and the U.S. the top two emitters of greenhouse emissions the average woman gives birth to 1.6 children in her lifetime, below the 2.1 children needed to replace herself and her partner. There are several factors behind the fertility slowdown. Womens voluntary access to contraceptives alongside other reproductive health services plays a major role, as well as formal education and opportunities to earn an income outside of the household. The siblings were working to help Guilford Preparatory Academy meet its need for 150 computers and a school in another state meet its need for 200 computers to take exams in early May, Martinca said. Our visa was valid until 2023, but we had two schools that had a crisis, Martinca said. Me and my sister eventually lost track of time fulfilling that need of providing 250 computers to kids, and we accidentally missed our May 3 deadline to renew the I-94 (a form used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to keep track of people who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents) but still with a valid visa. We couldnt fly, so we drove up to the Canada border late on May 20 to renew our I-94. After their arrest, the siblings visa was canceled. They were told if they go to court and cant prove that they were not late, they would get deported and banned from the United States for three to 10 years, Martinca said. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Instead, we took a voluntary departure, so they offered us 30 days to leave the United States, Martinca said. They told us to move back to Canada within 30 days, like we dont want you here. ... Literally tens of thousands of children dont have computers and they are asking us to just walk away. Two teams of scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have finished in first and second place in NASAs Vascular Tissue challenge. NASA said Wednesday that the prize competition aims to accelerate tissue engineering innovations to benefit people on Earth today and space explorers in the future. Competing as teams Winston and WFIRM, the scientists used a different approach to create lab-grown human liver tissues that were strong enough to survive and function in ways similar to those inside the human body. Team Winston, which finished first, will receive $300,000. It also has the opportunity to advance its research aboard the International Space Stations U.S. National Laboratory. Team WFIRM, which was second, will receive $100,000. The team leaders were Drs. James Yoo and Anthony Atala, and the team members were Colin Bishop, Sang Jin Lee, Young-Wook Moon and Kelsey Willson. The teams each used a varied 3D printing technique to construct a cube-shaped tissue about one centimeter thick and capable of functioning for 30 days in the lab. Vascularization of engineered solid organs like the liver is part of the Holy Grail pursuit of regenerative medicine, Wake Forest Baptist said. Where youll find it: Spotted water hemlock is found throughout the state in places where the soil is wet or moist. Why its dangerous: There is an alkaloid, found mostly in the roots, that causes trembling, muscular paralysis and respiratory failure. How it will hurt you: If ingested, it is likely to cause death in humans, livestock and pets. Tobacco Where youll find it: Tobacco is cultivated as a cash crop, but has escaped into various habitats. Why its dangerous: Eating the leaves can cause severe vomiting and respiratory failure. How it will hurt you: In humans, ingesting tobacco leaves can cause certain disorders or irritations. It may be fatal to livestock or pets, but they do not commonly come in contact with the plant. Yellow jessamine Where youll find it: Yellow jessamine is found in wet or dry woods trailing on the ground, and climbing in bushes and trees in the Coastal Plain and lower Piedmont. Why its dangerous: The flowers, leaves and roots contain cumulative poisons that cause paralysis. How it will hurt you: If ingested, it is likely to cause death in humans, livestock and pets. Sources: JC Raulston Arboretum at N.C. State University; Carolinas Poison Center; Poisonous Plants of North Carolina by James W. Hardin; Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants; Manual of Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. While politicians celebrate their take on early results, researchers and health experts acknowledge theres still a lot of uncertainty about the new programs likely effects. Brewer, the UNC Gillings researcher, is part of a team advising North Carolina leaders on the roll out of Coopers proposed lottery. He said theres plenty of good research to show what works when trying to convince people to get vaccinated. Direct interventions those that try to convince people to change their minds arent likely to work. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} People have pretty fixed ideas about whether the virus is dangerous, and theyve drawn their own conclusions about whether the vaccine is safe and effective, Brewer said. Social pressure can be somewhat effective, and he said more friends, family and medical professionals recommending the vaccine to some hesitant about it might help a bit. Financial incentives in particular even modest ones can provide a boost among low-income populations. Thats because a $25 to $50 payment will do more for them than for a CEO making six figures. Brewer is not generally a fan of lotteries. On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed concerns that the Justice Department was taking positions that benefited Trump or his policies when he testified before a Senate subcommittee. In response to a question from Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), Garland said that "the job of the Justice Department in making decisions of law is not to back any administration, previous or present. Our job is to represent the American people and our job in doing so is to ensure adherence to the rule of law." Garland also drew a distinction between law and policy, noting that the the Biden administration had reversed several decisions by the Trump administration in the latter category. The White House has characterized as "policy direction" President Joe Biden's decision that the department will no longer seek the phone and email records of reporters as part of leak investigations. The distinction Garland drew between law and policy is arguably too neat. For example, when the Obama Justice Department declined to defend a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act in court, policy seemed as important as legal considerations. I feel so fortunate to be living here in the United States, and especially in Greensboro, but my heart aches for my brothers and sisters who are still waiting in refugee camps and enduring hazardous conditions, especially in the midst of a pandemic. I was one of the few fortunate ones. Throughout the four years of the Trump administration, the refugee resettlement program was nearly decimated. Last year, President Trump set the refugee admissions number to its lowest point in history just 15,000 refugees. These barriers make what was already a difficult process nearly impossible for so many who desperately need refuge. Ive tried to do my part by working for World Relief. This is my way of giving back to those who have helped me along my journey, as well as assisting those who are in a similar position as I was three years ago after all, with community support, refugees go on to make our communities stronger by volunteering, starting businesses and joining our military. But this alone is not enough. We need meaningful policy change from the top. But the report is as noteworthy for what it leaves out as for what it includes. This report is important in the fact that it allows us to make some immediate improvements to the security situation here in the Capitol, Sen. Gary Peters, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said. But it does not answer some of the bigger questions that we need to face, quite frankly, as a country and as a democracy. And we all know what those questions are. The report studiously avoids calling the incident an insurrection though the attack fits the dictionary definition and avoids discussing former President Trumps role, which several prominent Republicans Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and our own Sen. Richard Burr, among them acknowledged immediately following the attack. But the elephants memory is surprisingly short. Some of the same legislators who condemned the former president for instigating the attack have since sought his blessing at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Some are now seeking out his approval and, no doubt, his donors contact information. Their refusal to hold him to account, to air every aspect of the insurrection thoroughly before the American people, all but guarantees that other such incidents will follow. The least the Senate can do is help Capitol Police be better prepared. Equally abhorrent was turning his corrupt attorneys general loose on members of Congress who were critical of the president. As reported by the Washington Post late last week: The Justice Department in 2018 secretly subpoenaed Apple for the data of two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as the data of their current and former staffers and family members, in an aggressive push by the Trump administration to determine who was leaking classified information to the news media, according to a committee official and one of the affected lawmakers. That the probe was turned only on two Democrats can only be construed for what it wasa flagrant abuse of power by the executive branch. It was done in secret because the perpetrators knew a vast and justified condemnation would arise if it was publicly revealed. And of course theres the Jan. 6 insurrection, a blatant attempt by the former president to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power upon which the nation has reliedand is constitutionally mandatedfor its entire history. Caught up in the post-insurrection dragnet, those who stormed the Capitol to try to halt the certification of the legitimate election results are now willing to admit they attacked Congress because the president of the United States called us to Washington, D.C. Current and former lawmakers are asking whether editorial boards around Montana are still concerned about the states lax government transparency laws. Let us be the first to say: Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, and retired Republican legislator Dee Brown of Hungry Horse both penned recent op-eds raising concerns about an open records issue at the center of an ongoing dispute between the legislative and judicial branches of our state government. Though the issue has been extensively reported on the news pages of the Independent Record and other Montana media, Regier and Brown chastised editorial boards in Montana for not sharing our opinions about it. In a nutshell, the Montana Supreme Court administrator admitted to deleting emails that some Republican lawmakers believe would have proved the judicial branch is biased. Although the Montana Supreme Court email policy states nothing about records retention, it does state that all messages are property of the state of Montana and will be subject to public scrutiny. DECATUR Just over one month after making public plans to run for Macon County sheriff in 2022, Howard Buffett is dropping out. The 66-year-old Decatur philanthropist, businessman and former sheriff announced Saturday that he is suspending his campaign, citing uncertainty over his eligibility and desire to prevent more instability following the 2018 sheriff's election, which was resolved just a week ago. "When I consider these two factors, I have concluded that it is not in the best interest of the community or the sheriff's office to enter into a 2022 campaign that could bring additional uncertainty and potential for dispute to the election process," Buffett said in a statement. Buffett cited the sweeping criminal justice reform legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker earlier this year, which changed eligibility requirements for sheriffs. As currently written, Buffett said it's "open to interpretation" whether he meets the requirements. Under the law, sheriffs must now complete the Minimum Standards Basic Law Enforcement Officers Training Course as prescribed by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board. The law also requires all law enforcement officers to complete in-service training requirements every three years to brush up on "constitutional and proper use of law enforcement authority, procedural justice, civil rights, human rights, mental health awareness and response, officer wellness, reporting child abuse and neglect, and cultural competency." Buffett was appointed sheriff in 2017 following the retirement of Thomas Schneider. He completed the final 14 months of Schneider's term, vowing not to run for a full term. Before that, he was a volunteer in the sheriff's office. Howard received a waiver from the state training and standards board for his extensive previous law enforcement experience. Many of us, including myself, thought that the waiver and the 705 certificate were equivalent," Schneider said. "Unfortunately that is not the case." "It is very unfortunate for the community Howard is currently denied the opportunity to run for the sheriffs office," he said. "His motivation is to serve the community. I think he has clearly proven that not only when he served as sheriff but through his other actions and his commitment to the citizens of Macon County. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Buffett's reversal comes just over a week after Sheriff Tony Brown announced his retirement, allowing Jim Root to take office and thus resolving the legal battle over who won the 2018 sheriff's election. Though the initial count showed Brown winning that race by one vote, Champaign County Circuit Court Judge Anna M. Benjamin found that Root won by 16 votes. Brown dropped plans to appeal the finding. Root is expected to take office later this month. Buffett planned to run as a Republican. If he had stayed in the race, he would have been looking at a contentious primary against Root. A candidate fundraising committee in support of Buffett's bid was opened last October, according to documents filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Buffett was the committee's sole contributor. But the campaign truly went live when at least three billboards reading "Elect Howard Buffett for Macon County Sheriff 2022" went up around Decatur in early May. Buffett campaign officials acknowledged his candidacy and teased a more formal announcement in the weeks to follow. But, that announcement never came. The son of multibillionaire investor Warren Buffett, Howard Buffett came to Decatur in the 1990s to work for Archer Daniels Midland Co. His foundation has donated millions of dollars to Decatur-area projects, including to the sheriffs office. Warren Buffett is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. That company sold its newspaper division last year to Lee Enterprises Inc., the parent company of the Herald & Review. Contact Brenden Moore at 217-421-7984. Follow him on Twitter: @brendenmoore13. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DECATUR When U.S. Army veteran George Frank returned home from Vietnam in 1971, there was little recognition for the service he had just given on behalf of his country. "In the 24 hours it took me to fly from Seattle to San Francisco to Dallas to St. Louis to Decatur, not one person spoke to me because I was in uniform," Frank said. "I mean, it was a tough time back then. And it was difficult." The experience was reflective of many Vietnam-era veterans who never felt properly welcomed home after serving in one of the country's longest wars. Recognizing this sacrifice has been the central mission of the Veterans Recognition of Central Illinois group, which Frank and some of his fellow Vietnam vets formed nearly 10 years ago. Though initially focusing on Vietnam veterans, it has since expanded to include all veterans. The group gathered Saturday afternoon at VFW Post 99 for their major annual event honoring veterans for their service. Most years, the event is held in March at the Decatur Civic Center and attended by 500 to 600 people. But COVID-19 restrictions put a halt to those plans. Though smaller than usual with about 50 veterans attending, the timing of the event was fitting, just days after the state's full reopening from COVID-19 restrictions and two days before Flag Day. "This is our way of getting back out into the public, feeling out where people are and letting them know we're still in business and we intend to be back at the Civic Center next March 26," said Jay Manship, the organization's secretary. The hour-long ceremony included the sounding of "Taps" in honor of fallen service members, a display of and explanation of the meaning behind the 13 folds of the U.S. flag, a patriotic-themed musical performance and the distribution of a commemorative coin to each veteran. The keynote speaker was Roy Dolgos, former director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, who touched upon the meaning of Flag Day. "Flag Day isn't simply about honoring a particular design on a cloth; it is more about taking time to reflect on our freedom and the principles of our great nation for which that flag stands," Dolgos said. "The flag is a reminder of who we are." In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation establishing June 14 as Flag Day. It recognizes the adoption of the U.S. flag by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. Though it is not a federal holiday, it is widely observed. For the veterans in attendance, the flag is a powerful symbol of everything the country stands for, and a common thread throughout every major conflict in American history. "To put it simply, there are (58,318) names on a wall," Frank said, speaking of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. "That flag was the shroud that covered their caskets when they came home. It covered the caskets of World War II, Korea, it still covers the caskets of fallen servicemen everywhere around the world." "And it is the symbol, the tangible thing you can look at and see that America is still here, America is still proud, that America is still the land of the free because of the brave," he said. The group is planning several smaller events in the next year along with their large annual event next March. Frank said he is eager to return to the larger venue, which allows more to attend and thus greater recognition for the veterans. "A lot of them had come up to me and other members and said that's the first time that they felt comfortable by saying, 'I'm a Vietnam veteran,'" Frank said, speaking of previous events. "And it shouldn't be that way." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 DAMASCUS, Va. Business just got a little sweeter for Ralph Wilson, who opened a new coffee and bakery business in Damascus on Memorial Day weekend. Main Street Coffee & Cream has been a long-awaited venture for the business owner, who had planned to open in 2020. Wilson, who didnt know how COVID-19 would impact the community, put the project on hold until this spring. It may be just as well, said the owner, because in the meantime, he decided to add ice cream and soft serve to the menu. After talking to bikers and hikers coming through town, he learned that ice cream was at the top of their lists. Hes also offering homemade grab-and-go chicken and tuna sandwiches and wraps. Traci Seats of Bristol, Tennessee, stopped in at the store for ice cream last week while making a nostalgic visit to her former hometown. This is really nice. This restaurant building used to be Shortys Shoe Repair back in the 1970s, said Seats, whose father, Scottie Thomas, operated a cabinet shop next door. The coffee shop is the third business for the local entrepreneur. In addition to the coffee shop, he owns Damascus Diner and Dragonfly Inn in town. Such a move prompted jokes among citizens about Abingdons possible Kmart Courthouse and elicited a thumbs-down from every attorney who belonged to the Washington County Bar Association. Still, that building was deemed by county leaders to have just enough space and parking to make a perfect fit. In the end, the public voted down that location by a 2-1 margin in the November 2019 election. That left supervisors back at home base where court functions have been since 1779. Regrouping, the countys courthouse committee is now moving forward, following guidelines set by state officials to provide more space and security. Were still listening to Virginia Supreme Court recommendations, said Supervisor Mike Rush, who seconded Penningtons motion to award the contract last week. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Ultimately, the court is going to get what the court needs from the county, Rush said. And thats in terms of aesthetics, the functionality of the renovation and, of course, its going to respect the historic district of Abingdon. Real plan Downtown Bristol has been named one of the best places to go shopping in Southwest Virginia, according to city officials. The city of Bristol, Virginia, and Believe in Bristol said Friday that Bristol has been voted by Virginia Livings readers as one of the areas with the Best Downtown Shopping in the region. The Best of Virginia 2021 issue, which is being released this summer, is a guide to the best in dining, shopping and doing in the state. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} In January, Virginia Living readers were polled for the bests across the five regions of Virginia, including Central, Eastern, Northern, Southwest and the Shenandoah Valley. More than 50,000 ballots were cast, according to the magazine. This is great news, especially since it is voted on by the readers, said Bristol Virginia City Manager Randy Eads. Downtown Bristol is a vibrant and exciting area full of top-notch stores and restaurants. Im thrilled that our downtown continues to receive the awards and accolades it deserves. CARBIS BAY, England (AP) Leaders of the world's largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan Saturday for the developing world to compete with Chinas global initiatives, but they were searching for a consensus on how to forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses. Citing China for its forced labor practices is part of President Joe Bidens campaign to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing. But while they agreed to work toward competing against China, there was less unity on how adversarial a public position the group should take. Canada, the United Kingdom and France largely endorsed Biden's position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed more hesitancy during Saturday's first session of the Group of Seven summit, according to two senior Biden administration officials. The officials who briefed reporters were not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity. The communique that summarizes the meeting's commitments was being written and the contents would not be clear until it was released when the summit ended Sunday. White House officials said late Saturday that they believed that China, in some form, could be called out for nonmarket policies and human rights abuses. "France never allowed itself to question British sovereignty, the integrity of the British territory, and the respect of that sovereignty," he said. But the French leader repeated his insistence that the U.K. implement the Brexit deal that both sided signed on to. "On this topic, everyone should return to reason, and my wish is we succeed, collectively, to put in motion what we all decided upon together several months ago," Macron said. "We should do it in all calm and with mutual respect, and I think that polemics every morning are not helpful. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the idea that Northern Ireland was not an integral part of the U.K. was not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. Can you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, northern Italy, Corsican France, as different countries? Raab said on Sky News. We need a bit of respect here. And also, frankly, an appreciation of the situation for all communities in Northern Ireland. Relations between Britain and the EU have soured since the U.K. made its final break from the bloc at the end of 2020, more than four years after voting to leave. Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Separate bombs hit two minivans in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the Afghan capital Saturday, killing several people and wounding others, the Interior Ministry said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for bombing two minivans in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the Afghan capital that killed seven people. Among the dead were two employees of Afghanistan's state-run film company, a colleague said Sunday. In a statement issued late Saturday, Afghanistan's IS affiliate said its operatives blew up two minivans carrying disbeliever Shiites using sticky bombs. Sticky bombs slapped onto cars trapped in Kabuls chaotic traffic are the newest weapons terrorizing Afghans in the increasingly lawless nation. Film director Sahra Karimi in a tweet Sunday said Fatima Mohammadi and Tayiba Musavi, who worked for the Afghan Film Organization, were among the six killed in the first attack. Their families identified their burned bodies in the forensic hospital of Kabul, she said. Karimi said Mohammadi and Musavi were animators working on an animated film for children and they were returning home when they were attacked. The Saturday attacks targeted minivans on the same road about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) apart in a neighborhood in western Kabul. The second bombing took place in front of Muhammad Ali Jinnah hospital, where a majority of COVID-19 patients are admitted, killing one and wounding four. In some west Kabul neighborhoods populated mostly by members of the minority Hazara ethnic group, just going out for errands can be dangerous. The Islamic State group has carried out similar bombings in the area, including four attacks on four minivans earlier this month that killed at least 18 people. Hazaras are mostly Shiite Muslims. Shiites are a minority in mostly Sunni Afghanistan and the IS affiliate has declared war against them. An attack on a Kabul school on May 8 killed nearly 100 people, all of them members of the Hazara ethnic minority and most of them young girls just leaving class. ___ Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. Monsoon clouds covered 80 percent of India's landmass by the middle of June and were expected to reach the remaining corners of the country, except Rajasthan, in a matter of days. This despite the fact that the onset of monsoons over Kerala was delayed by a few days. The forecast this year is for normal rainfall across the country. While you secure your windows against splashes of rain or scan the horizon to check for the arrival of rain clouds, here's what you need to know about what arguably remains the most important season for India. It is only a wind According to the National Geographic Magazine "a monsoon is a seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing, or strongest, winds of a region", and blow always from cold to warm regions. The summer, or June to September monsoon that India gets, arrives as warm, moist air from the southwest Indian Ocean moves towards the Indian subcontinent. The key phenomenon that aids the arrival of the monsoon is described as the "differential heating and cooling of land and water". As the Indian landmass heats up in the summer months, the warm air rises up, creating a low pressure zone while the Indian Ocean has relatively high temperatures. Nature abhors a vacuum and, hence, this triggers the movement of winds from the sea towards the land, setting in motion the process of the monsoon's arrival. There are two parts to the Indian monsoon. The first is when the rain clouds move up peninsular India into the northern plains, bringing rains to the bulk of the landmass. The second phase is when these rain clouds eventually hit the Himalayas to India's north and then make an about turn before bringing rains in some parts between October to December as it returns to the Indian Ocean. Tamil Nadu receives rainfall from this northeast monsoon. How does one know that monsoon has hit? IMD has a checklist for when it should be declaring the arrival of the monsoon. The first factor that IMD looks to before announcing that monsoon has arrived is, of course, rainfall. If 60 percent of 14 designated weather stations report 2.5 mm or more rainfall for two consecutive days after 10 May, "the onset of monsoon Kerala (can) be declared on the 2nd day", IMD says, adding that there are certain other criteria that have to match, too. Story continues These include the flow of winds in the region and the radiation emitted from the Earth. What determines whether a monsoon is 'normal'? To decide whether a monsoon is 'normal', the weatherman matches the rainfall during one year's monsoon with the average of monsoon rainfall down the decades. If rainfall in India during the south-west monsoon ranges between 96 percent to 104 percent of the 'Long Period Average' (LPA), then it is considered to be a normal monsoon season. The LPA itself is the average data for rainfall recorded across India between 1961 and 2010, which is 88 centimetres. What is the northern limit of the monsoon? Private weather forecasting agency Skymet says that the northern limit of monsoon, or NLM, is the "northernmost boundary of India up to which monsoon rains have advanced on any given day". So, it is a way of tracking the progress of monsoon clouds as they move over India's landmass. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) adds that the monsoon "advances northwards, usually in surges, and covers the entire country around July 15". What are the eastern And western arms? According to the UK-based Royal Meteorological Society (RMS), it is the mountains of southern India that split the south-western winds, giving the Indian monsoon its 'two arms'. "The western arm of the monsoon is deflected northwards, by the western Ghats, to (Mumbai) and then on to Pakistan," RMS says, adding that "the eastern arm travels up through the Bay of Bengal to (Kolkata) and Assam, and is deflected north-westwards by the Himalayas". What explains the fluctuations in monsoon? Weather patterns and climate change all have an impact on the amount of rainfall that the country receives in a monsoon season. The phenomenon called El Nino, which causes the Pacific near the equator to warm up more than is usual in the years that it is active, causes lower rainfall during the summer monsoon in India. Again, the opposite phenomenon, called La Nina, when the Pacific Ocean is cool, brings more rain during the monsoon. According to reports, the latter part of 2020 and early 2021 saw "moderately strong La NiAa conditions". But such weather patterns are not the only ones that have a bearing on the amount of monsoon rain. A recent study echoed the fears that climate change is making India's monsoon stronger and more chaotic. Researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) found strong evidence that every degree Celsius of warming would likely increase monsoon rainfall by about 5 percent. The study not only confirmed trends seen in previous research but found "global warming is increasing monsoon rainfall in India even more than previously thought," lead author Anja Katzenberger of Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. The researchers said that in the past few decades, human actions have started exerting a marked impact on monsoons as compared with the natural changes that become pronounced over centuries and millennia. "Initially, air pollution from aerosols " which largely reflect sunlight and act to subdue warming " caused monsoon rainfall to decrease. But then, from the 1980s, the warming effects of greenhouse gases began to dominate, driving stronger and more volatile rainy seasons," AFP said, citing the report. https://www.metlink.org/resource/monsoons/ https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/storms/monsoons Also See: Onset of southwest monsoon in Kerala likely to be delayed, to hit coast on 3 June, says IMD Last La Nina cycle ended in May, taking its cooling effects with it, reports WMO IMD, Skymet differ on monsoon arrival: A look at reasons behind divergent statements by two agencies Read more on India by Firstpost. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (l) and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau Cornwall [UK], June 14 (ANI): Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau on Sunday expressed grave concerns over any attempts to force a shift in the status quo in the East China Sea. This comes as China has ramped up its maritime activities in the South China Sea and East China Sea. Suga and Trudeau held talks on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Cornwall county in England. This was their first in-person meeting since Prime Minister Suga's inauguration. According to Kyodo News, the two leaders were apparently taking aim at Beijing's repeated intrusions into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands in an attempt to undermine Japan's control over the islets, which China claims and calls Diaoyu. The two leaders reaffirmed the strategic partnership between Canada and Japan, including a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Japan controls the Senkaku Islands, however, China and Taiwan continue to claim them. Tokyo maintains the islands, which are an inherent part of its territory as per history and international law. In February, China enacted a law that permits its coast guards to destroy other countries' structures and use force when defending Beijing's maritime claims in disputed areas, leading to criticism from several countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea and has overlapping territorial claims with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. China has been increasing its maritime activities in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea over the past few months, partly in response to Beijing's concerns over the increasing US military presence in the region because of escalating Sino-US tensions. Beijing's rising assertiveness against counter claimants in the East and South Sea has resulted in unprecedented agreement across the Indo-Pacific. (ANI) As TMC rebels line up to join back in Mamatas party, the BJP grassroot workers have now taken to express their remorse for backing the BJP in the Assembly elections. The workers from Labhpur, Bolpur and Sainthia in Birbhum district to Dhaniakhali in Hooghly district use public announcement systems atop e-rickshaws declaring that they have misunderstood the BJP. A report in The Indian Express said that BJP, however, alleged that the TMC intimidation tactics were behind the public apologies. Earlier BJPs former national vice-president Mukul Roy returned to TMC on Friday. The next day, former Minister Rajib Banerjee, who had joined BJP before assembly polls, met Trinamool Congress state general secretary Kunal Ghosh at the latters residence on Saturday fueling speculations of his return to TMC. However, Banerjee termed the meeting a courtesy call and defended his recent social media post criticising BJP. I came to North Kolkata to meet an ailing relative. Since Kunal Ghosh, my senior brother and a long time friend, resided nearby, I called him up and met him There was no political discussion. I have some reservations about certain issues. I stand by it and have already told my party about it, said Banerjee. The report said that BJP workers are now apologising to the TMC in public meetings. We were persuaded by the BJP. It is a fraudulent party. We have no alternative to Honble CM Mamata Banerjee, and we want to be part of her development programme, a public announcement system in Bolpurs ward no 18 proclaimed. Another group of 300 BJP workers returned to the TMC fold after taking oath in Sainthia. We had gone to the BJP by mistake. We are joining the TMC from today to support Mamata Banerjees development work. Mukul Mandal, a BJP worker, said that he misunderstood the BJP and wants to join back TMC. Meanwhile, BJP workers in Dhaniakhali were allowed to start a new innings after a public apology to TMC activists for their arrogant behaviour. But, the Hooghly BJP leaders claimed their workers were forced to join the TMC. Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here Representative image Tel Aviv [Israel], June 13 (ANI/Xinhua): A 28-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead on Saturday by an Israeli security guard at the Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank, the Israeli police said. The woman, a resident of the Palestinian refugee camp Aqabat Jaber near the city of Jericho, approached the cars crossing at the checkpoint manned by Israeli border police and civilian security guards, and ran toward them holding a knife in her hand, according to the police. A civilian guard fired several bullets at the woman after she kept getting closer without heeding the guard's warning calls on her to stop. Medical staff who arrived later pronounced the woman's death. The Palestinian woman was reportedly identified with Gaza's ruling movement Hamas and had been jailed in 2016-2018 for a stabbing attempt. (ANI/Xinhua) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) When Minnesota Republican Tyler Kistner announced his candidacy for the U.S. House in April, he asked voters to ponder two questions: What America will we leave for our children?" and "Will they be taught to hate their police? Across the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District aired a digital ad this spring to demand that their Democratic congressman stand up to attacks on law enforcement. And in Iowa, a Republican governor who had promised additional checks on police conduct after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer plans to sign a law making it harder for police to be sued on the job. As rising murder rates gain attention in American cities, Republicans have ramped up a misleading campaign to cast Democrats as anti-police and lax on public safety. It's a message they believe helped them stave off greater Democratic gains in last year's elections and one with renewed potency as cities consider cuts to department budgets as part of an effort to revamp policing. Cousin Junior recently shut down publication of his anti-mainstream-media newsletter called The Truth Hurts (But Ill Hurt You Worse) due to distribution problems. He was issued a littering citation for driving along the highway and throwing them out of the window of his truck, as well as a cruelty to animals charge after his neighbors goat ate a handful, had an allergic reaction to the ink and required a vet visit. Cousin Junior has been busy shifting from print media to online and setting up a blog called Dont Make Me Come Over There Because I Will, Son, in which he intends to offer his opinions and engage in friendly debate with readers. He graciously took time out from that to answer my questions. Me: Cousin Junior, tell me about your close encounter. Cousin Junior: Last week I drove down to Atlanta and met this gal by the name of DeeZire157 I met on the internets Me: Not that close encounter, the one involving alleged space aliens. Cousin Junior: Well, it was a few years back. I was out spotlighting deer, uh, I mean enjoying the sights and sounds of nature after dark. I cant tell you how many times Ive heard someone say, Why did he or she do that? Theyre supposed to be Christians. In truth, Christians are not sinless; they just try to sin less. Is it necessary, caring and loving to point out to an Atheist or an agnostic that theyre condemned for not believing in God? Is that what a Christian is? Or is there a better way? Perhaps by being supportive, nurturing and loving one might lead someone else to a journey of profound discovery by simply setting a positive example? Perhaps? Is being pro-life mean its okay to torch abortion centers? Or attack the doctors and/or patients that frequent those facilities? Is that what a Christian is? Unfortunately, although the previous two statements seem absurd, it happens more often than any normal person would consider reasonable. Last year reached new record highs with 1,369 reported acts of violence against abortion centers; those who work there or those that visit those establishments. There are 106 verses in the Bible about love. The following is just one but a favorite of mine. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5. Q: Since the government has recovered some of the money, $2.3 million, from the attack on the Colonial Gas pipeline, does that mean gas prices are going to be reduced? J.L. Answer: Haresh Gurnani, professor and Thomas H. Davis chair at the Wake Forest University School of Business, explained what caused the increase. His research includes supply chain disruptions and restoration. The quick answer is that this will have no impact on the price of gas. There are a couple of explanations for this. First, the ransom amount and the recovery are both miniscule in comparison to the daily dollar value of gasoline flowing through the pipeline which is around 3 million barrels per day. This translates into hundreds of millions of dollars per day. As such, the recovery of $2.3 million is a low fraction. Second, most companies have insurance for disruptions, and Colonial likely would either absorb the cost or get reimbursement from their insurance carrier. The real reason why prices went up was due to the economic principle of supply and demand a combination of reduced supply and artificially inflated demand as people panicked and started filling up. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Second shooting Police said earlier Saturday that they were investigating whether Gadberrys death is related to a shooting death about five hours later Friday on East Devonshire Street. The shootings locations are within a 1.5-mile radius. Officers on patrol in the 800 block of East Devonshire Street heard numerous shots in that area, police said. Responding to the sound of gunfire, officers found four victims near the intersection of East Devonshire and Burgundy streets. One victim, who hasnt been positively identified, died at the scene, police said. Two victims are men and one victim is a 17-year-old juvenile, police said. These victims were taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with serious, but not life-threatening injuries. Detectives didnt immediately identify the victims for investigative reasons, police said. Investigators recovered two guns at the scene, police said. Evidence indicates that multiple shots were fired. Gadberrys death and the victims death on East Devonshire Street are the citys 16th and 17th homicides so far this year compared to 13 homicides for the same period in 2020, police said. Nearly 500 people attended the Happy Hill Reunion Saturday at the Sims Recreation Center and the Happy Hill Park in Winston-Salem. The event featured music, food, COVID-19 vaccinations and fellowship among the attendees who have connections to Happy Hill, the citys oldest Black neighborhood. Happy Hill is the citys earliest outlying neighborhood, and it was known in the Moravian records as Liberia starting in 1872, when streets and lots were laid out on the site of the former Schumann plantation. Each lot sold for $10. Blacks bought the lots, and construction of houses began in 1874. Since 1994, Happy Hill reunions have attracted hundreds of former residents to the Sims Recreation Center where they remembered the people and events that shaped the neighborhood, said Bishop Antonio Spillman of the Images of God Outreach Center in Winston-Salem. It brings unity especially for people who have moved away, Spillman said. We come together and show love to each other. Its important to see peoples smiles. The 2020 event was canceled because of the pandemic. Fewer positions in the budget coupled with increasing turnover and vacancy rates seem like a bad trend for good policing. Im no expert, but it seems as if wed want more people with experience, not less, carrying guns into tense situations. Who would you prefer responding to a domestic violence call? A nervous 23-year-old or a 45-year-old whos raising a family and understands the impossible choice between skipping a credit-card payment to put new brake pads on the family minivan? Retention a priority Transparency, too, helps build trust. And thats reflected in the budget by a line item calling for $520,000 for new body cameras. Police, those in command at least, will tell you that officers like body-cams and that having video footage available is useful in terms of training and to support decision-making on the street. Merely having the latest technology wont be enough, though. The next step, quicker, more complete and more responsive public release of that footage, has to come through the Legislature. Think Derek Chauvin is in prison absent the quick thinking of a teenager and her cell phone? When told to get medical care for the animals, Pagan said he couldnt afford it, and he refused to turn over two dogs that needed treatment, Detective J.P. Brienza wrote in the warrant. Brienza returned days later to see some of the alleged dog fighting paraphernalia removed, but some items remained and he reportedly spotted a dog limping due to a leg injury. Dogs, potential evidence seized Search warrants were executed on the property off of U.S. 321 in southern Gaston County on June 2. Investigators removed a laundry list of items including collars, syringes, notebooks, sticks with red stains, medicines and cellphones as well as cash, the search warrants state. The Humane Societys Animal Rescue and Response team assisted Gaston County Police and took custody of the dogs during the execution of the search warrants. It is gut-wrenching to imagine the violence and pain these dogs have been forced to endure, State Director for the Humane Society of the United States Gail Thomssen said as the animals were taken away. The rescued dogs ranged in age from three months to senior dogs. They will be treated and assessed before their potential for adoption can be determined. But the report is as noteworthy for what it leaves out as for what it includes. This report is important in the fact that it allows us to make some immediate improvements to the security situation here in the Capitol, Sen. Gary Peters, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said. But it does not answer some of the bigger questions that we need to face, quite frankly, as a country and as a democracy. And we all know what those questions are. The report studiously avoids calling the incident an insurrection though the attack fits the dictionary definition and avoids discussing former President Trumps role, which several prominent Republicans Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and our own Sen. Richard Burr, among them acknowledged immediately following the attack. But the elephants memory is surprisingly short. Some of the same legislators who condemned the former president for instigating the attack have since sought his blessing at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Some are now seeking out his approval and, no doubt, his donors contact information. Their refusal to hold him to account, to air every aspect of the insurrection thoroughly before the American people, guarantees that other such incidents will follow. The least the Senate can do is help Capitol Police be better prepared. In 1871 the second Burlington depot was built at 7th and P. This Victorian Gothic building, whose construction was overseen by A. E. Touzalin, was a three-story, masonry, 54-by-182-foot structure whose top floor was mostly occupied by a huge storage wet-cell battery capable of maintaining 907 miles of the railroads telegraph lines, but the building itself had no lavatories or electricity. In 1906 the depot was renovated, modernized and the extant 1,600 foot canopy built. At that point in history the depot and grounds had over 40 miles of track, employed over 800 workers and hosted an average of 25 passenger and 75 freight trains daily. The third, extant, Neo-Classical Revival depot was completed by Kiewitt Construction Company on October 28, 1927, at a cost of $1 million. The second railroad to build a depot in Lincoln was the Midland Pacific, whose primary objective was to capture as many governmental land and cash grants as possible. The Nebraska legislature granted them 100,000 state-owned acres in 1869 with considerably more should they, as they planned, be the first to reach the new state capital of Lincoln. The Midland Pacific actually arrived in April of 1871 with seven intermediary station stops after leaving Nebraska City. A 24-by-50 foot cottonwood depot was erected on the northeast corner of 5th and H streets near their roundhouse. In the 1940s the depot was moved to a lumberyard on the southeast corner of 8th and N for storage before being razed and becoming Baker Hardware, which was also removed as the site of 8NLofts apartments. 1941: Joseph T. Carroll became Lincoln's police chief, succeeding Walter Anderson. Carroll was to serve until his retirement in 1975. 1951: Salt Creek, Antelope Creek, Dead Man's Run and Beal Slough overflowed as the result of heavy rain that turned many Lincoln streets into streams. 1961: Reports of "flying saucers" of various kinds were fairly frequent and usually resulted in some kind of investigation. Beatrice police had reports from a group of teen-agers that a "7-foot flying woman with claws" had been sighted in Chautauqua Park on the southeast edge of the city. 1971: The Lincoln City Libraries had on display an exhibition of art by Soviet children from the fifth-grade level in Leningrad. 1981: Louis L'Amour received the 17th annual Buffalo Bill Award at Nebraskaland Days in North Platte. The author of some 80 westerns, L'Amour was attired in fancy western clothing. The Union Pacific Railroad depot in Osceola was in danger of being demolished until rescued by Lee and Mary Jo Becker. The couple moved the depot from the town's park to property they owned in Osceola with plans to convert it to a museum. The depot was located in the park in 1977, after being donated to the city by UP. Lack of interest and funds for renovation of the depot prompted the city to auction the partially refurbished building. 1991: A severe thunderstorm ripped through Lincoln with a torrential downpour, lightning and wind gusts up to 41 mph. The winds lifted the roof and supporting trusses from a Forest Siding Supply warehouse at 16th Street and Yolande Avenue, moving it 60 yards to the east, and propelled tree limbs that knocked out power for hundreds of Lincolnites. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 "I can't afford to go back and put my health and well-being in that kind of jeopardy," says Nikki Schultz, 38, who left the industry after 20 years for a remote job with a Los Angeles-based funeral arranger. Other former restaurant workers say they no longer trust restaurants and bars as stable employers, given the possibility of future shutdowns if cases surge. That was the story for Nick Bottomley, a 15-year food service veteran from Seattle who was laid off twice last year. After the first time, in March, Bottomley began training as a solar energy technician and earlier this year took a job with Seattle-based Puget Sound Solar. Although the new job pays less than high-end culinary gigs, "the long-term outlook felt better to me," Bottomley says. Competition from other sectors is always a problem for restaurants, especially for the many entry-level positions that typically see lots of turnover and don't require a lot of training, says ESD's Vance-Sherman. During the pandemic, a lot of that competition came from grocery stores, delivery firms and warehouses, all of which have boomed. "You name it, we're competing with everyone," says Chris Tonkin, co-president of Taco Time Northwest, which runs dozens of Puget Sound locations. Lopez's parents came from Mexico. And this was his small way of showing them respect and thanking them for making his education possible. What happened next should never happen. Not in this country. A widely circulated video of the graduation ceremony shows Lopez pausing as he reaches out to shake the hand of Principal Penny Crooks. The student engages in a brief conversation with Crooks who -- according to Lopez's family -- ordered him to remove the flag. Lopez refused. He kept the flag on and walked across the stage. I love this kid. I was born in the United States, just like both my parents and three of my grandparents. My great-grandparents were Tejanos who didn't cross a border as much as a border crossed them. I'm more American than most of the jerks who tell me to "Go back to Mexico!" And even so, I gotta say: This kid screams "American." My tribe is ornery, and it doesn't respond well to being pushed around and told what to do. This little troublemaker fits right in. Crooks didn't see it that way. While the graduate did receive an empty diploma book on stage, he was supposed to pick up his personalized diploma the next day. But school officials refused to give it to him, claiming that Lopez had violated the graduation ceremony's "dress code." I read Cal Thomas' sycophantic parroting of the lies Donald Trump fed his followers in North Carolina ("Trump finds a new line," June 8). So much falsehood, and only 250 words to respond. I'll have to pick and choose. First, Trump made peace in the Middle East? That'd be news to the dozens of Israelis and hundreds of Palestinians -- including dozens of children -- killed recently by the exchange of rocket fire, bombs and artillery. Next, the insinuation that the Democratic Party was somehow complicit when Time magazine made Josef Stalin its "Man of the Year" for 1940? First off, Time was outspoken against Communism in the 1930s and '40s. Second, then as now, Time's "Person of the Year" was not an expression of praise or approval, but recognition of the person who had done the most -- for better or worse -- to influence the news in the past year. Others over the years that also included Adolf Hitler, Nikita Kruschev, Richard Nixon and Donald Trump. A knowledgeable, responsible journalist would know that, but I did say Cal Thomas, didn't I? Kelly has repeatedly affirmed his faith in Boeing and the 737 Max after two years of turmoil following the crashes that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia and caused a reckoning at Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration due to how the plane was certified. But Southwest, which has flown only 737 jets for more than three decades, has recommitted to the plane as it has expanded its footprint to 119 destinations. The new Max jets are about 15% more fuel-efficient than older models and have quieter engines, too. Compared with the 737 Max 8, which carries about 175 passengers, the planes will be better suited for Southwests growing focus on smaller cities and second airports in major markets. Southwest has recently added service to cities such as Jackson, Miss., and Eugene, Ore., to capture more passengers during the pandemic downturn in flying. Its a smaller plane, and its better suited to sort of a medium-range, maybe shorter-haul routes, Kelly said of the 737 Max 7 series planes in an interview with the Morning News in May. But theyre both (the Max 7 and Max 8) fantastic airplanes; theyre very versatile; theyll do the mission for short, medium or long. CRT has already been banned from being taught schools by the governments of Florida, Idaho and Iowa. Similar prohibitions have been proposed in Burlington and are being discussed within the Wisconsin Legislature. I, Ladson-Billings said, also think that the concern is that students will be asking critical questions about disparity and we have to come up with an explanation. CRT is defined by the American Bar Association as not a diversity and inclusion training but a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship. Critical race theory, mainly explored at the college-level in classrooms, is not likely to be in many k-12 lesson plans. Critical race theory is analysis: the who, what, where and why questions that help students understand the world. Belle City Boardshop Belle City Boardshop is located at 1913 Taylor Avenue. It's the only skateboard shop in Racine. RACINE Simon Freeman got his first skateboard from his uncle. It was 2005. Freeman was six years old. His uncle, Cory Hudec, had been skating since he was 14 years old. I picked it up, I had a friend down the block, we skated every day, hours a day, Freeman, now 22, said. I never stopped and Im still doing it today. Now, Freeman co-owns Belle City Boardshop which sells skateboard decks, accessories and apparel alongside Hudec. The store is located at 1913 Taylor Ave. Its the only skateboard shop in the area. Soon, it will be selling snowboarding equipment, too. Started in Sturtevant The shop at Sturtevant Skatepark Belle City Boardshop also runs a pop-up shop from a trailer, and the owners often take it to visit Sturtevant Skatepark, 2845 87th St. Before owning their storefront, Freeman and Hudec started with a pop-up shop in a trailer in October. The trailer would park at Sturtevant Skatepark, 2845 87th St., and the two would sell skate necessities and provide quick-fix services for skaters. When (Hudec) brought the idea, I was just like, Yeah, lets do it, Freeman said. Racine hasnt had a skate shop in almost 20 years. The two worked hard to find a physical, permanent space, and opened at Taylor Avenue in mid-May. People were hyped. People were stoked, Freeman said of the local skate communitys reaction to a new shop opening even back when it was just through a trailer. People were just happy to have skateboard product near them. The trailer is still in service, Hudec said; they are planning to get back out to Sturtevant this summer. Precise details Simon Freeman ensures a set of wheels are properly secured on a skateboard deck on Wednesday. Simon Freeman Simon Freeman of Mount Pleasant laughs after taking a spill Dec. 5, 2019, at the skate park in East Park, 2845 87th St., Sturtevant. A hub for skateboarding The skateboard culture in Racine is little-known, said Freeman, due to a general lack of interest in the activity in the Midwest in the past couple decades. Years before Belle City moved in, Racine had a tiny number of skate shops. There was Sky High Skate Shop, which resided on Douglas Avenue from 1988 to 1993, then Phase II Skateshop, which was on Wisconsin Avenue from 1999 to 2004. But both establishments moved out of the area and closer to Milwaukee where the culture was more vibrant; something a lot of Midwestern skaters had done, Freeman said. When the pandemic hit, however, more people especially kids were buying skateboards and sticking to them, Freeman said. Skateboarding has even become an Olympic sport for the first time; it is to make its debut at the Tokyo Olympics next month. The goal is to have a hub for skaters to come learn about skateboarding or to see whats new, to be able to get quality things, Freeman said. Its to just keep pushing the skate scene. Hudec added hed like to see the store become a cornerstone of the skate community. Keeping the community alive Belle City carries merchandise from smaller businesses and creators, such as decks from Broke Skateboards in Milwaukee and Speedlab Wheels in Baltimore. As a small skate shop, both owners said they wanted to be able to house products made by other small businesses to keep the community alive and supporting one another. One company, we call and order boards, and hell personally come on up for a couple of hours ... wed actually go out and skate with him, Hudec said. Just as Hudec introduced Freeman to skateboarding at a young age, the two hope to help other skateboarders (and snowboarders) from all different ages and skill levels enjoy the activity. Freeman and Hudec, 2010 Simon Freeman performs a skateboard trick as his uncle, Cory Hudec, watches in the background in 2010. Hudec recalled a time he and a group of skaters helped a friends daughter learn how to do a kickflip trick. Twenty minutes later, she was actually getting it, Hudec said. And its not just us thats like that, its the whole skateboarding community. Freeman added: There are a lot of skateboarders who are just more than happy to help because theyre in the same boat. They want to see the scene grow if you see me at the skate park, feel free to come up to me, I will answer all your questions. For more information on Belle City Boardshop, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/bellecitybrds. Love 0 Funny 0 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. Quote "We knew something like this was going to happen." Tracy Vinz, half-sister of Matthew Vinz ROCHESTER Before Matthew Vinz killed both of his parents and took his own life in a murder-suicide in January, a family member called police and tried to warn them about him. Tracy Vinz, a half-sister on the father's side, worried that Matthew Vinz was abusive toward his parents. She asked the Racine County Sheriff's Office to take him into custody and get him out of the house. But the Sheriff's Office declined, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. Matthew Vinz, 30, was no stranger to law enforcement. He had an arrest record going back more than 10 years, much of it stemming from drug-abuse issues that family members say had long plagued him. In the months leading up to his deadly rampage at home in Rochester, several police agencies had opportunities to get Vinz behind bars. He had outstanding warrants for his arrest in Racine County, Walworth County and Shawano County. Helping to keep him out of jail? The COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic driving concerns about health risks inside jails, the Racine County Sheriff's Office and other agencies imposed capacity limits to avoid spreading the virus among inmates and staff. Vinz stayed on the streets partly because law enforcement had nowhere to put him. Quote "They should have left him in there." Bonnie Lukas, Matthew Vinz's aunt On those few occasions when he did find himself behind bars, Vinz had two people who would show up with bail money: his parents, Terrence Vinz and Debra Meagher. Family members say they pleaded with Meagher and Terrence Vinz to not keep bailing out their troubled son. The family hoped that spending time inside a jail cell would help Matthew Vinz set himself straight. "They should have left him in there," said Bonnie Lukas, Terrence Vinz's sister, who lives nearby in Rochester. "A little more time would've done him some good." Six weeks after his final arrest, Vinz used a rifle to shoot and kill his mother and father inside the house they shared at 400 N. State St. When police showed up at the house Jan. 22 because the mother had not shown up for work, Vinz took his own life in the basement with a rifle shot to the head. Double murder-suicide response Several Racine County armored law enforcement vehicles were in the area surrounding the Rochester Public Library and Rochester Village Hall on Newly released police records show that Debra Meagher had instructed co-workers at her place of employment, Gooseberries Fresh Food Market in Burlington: "If she wasn't at work, it was because of her son." Family members are unsure exactly what that comment meant, or when Debra Meagher made the remark. But they say that Matthew Vinz had exhibited a volatile side before. Quote "We all knew he was violent. We didn't think it was going to be this extreme." Jennifer Meagher, half-sister of Matthew Vinz Years of opioid abuse Jennifer Meagher, another half-sister on the mother's side, said she herself had a physical altercation with Matthew Vinz. She believes he had fought with his father, too. For years, Matthew had abused heroin and other opioids, Meagher said. "We all knew he was violent," she said. "We didn't think it was going to be this extreme." Records released by the Racine County Medical Examiner's Office show that Vinz shot his mother five times and his father three times. His mother was 62, his father 65. Both were found dead in the garage of the house, covered with blankets. Vinz left a suicide note, but investigators have refused to release the contents of the note. The Medical Examiner's Office declined to disclose how long the parents had been dead before police arrived. Police reports indicate that Vinz's drug use was a persistent source of tension between him and his parents. The parents kept certain rooms in the house locked to keep Vinz from stealing, police reported. Troubles predate murders Terrence Vinz and Debra Meagher were married in 1989, one year before Matthew Vinz was born. Both parents had other children from previous relationships. The couple divorced in 2000, but they agreed to share the house in Rochester. Family members say both parents had their own past drug-abuse problems, and that Vinz lived a troubled childhood. Lukas called Vinz "a very lost child" who often was seen roaming the neighborhood to escape what she said was turbulent life at home. "He never had a chance in life," Lukas said. "Trouble always found him." First arrested as a teenager Matthew Vinz was first arrested at age 17 on a misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property. He pleaded no contest and got one year of probation. He was later charged with driving without a valid driver's license and misdemeanor bail jumping. It is not clear when or why he lost his driver's license. During a period when his parents had thrown him out of the house, court records show that Vinz was living in Algoma in 2018 and in East Troy in 2019. In May 2019, East Troy police were called by a man who had taken in Vinz as a house guest. The friend told police he made Vinz leave because the house started to smell "like smoke and suspected drug use." Walworth County prosecutors charged Vinz with misdemeanor theft for allegedly stealing tools from the friend's garage and pawning them for cash. Court records show that Vinz's father posted his bail in the Walworth County case. When family members later learned that Vinz was back living in Rochester, they worried about the parents. Tracy Vinz, who lives near Madison, called the Racine County Sheriff's Office in April 2020 and asked that police arrest her half-brother on the outstanding warrants against him. She was told they would not arrest Matthew because the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in jail capacity limitations that prohibited such arrests unless a subject is wanted for a violent crime. The Sheriff's Office's response left Tracy Vinz angry and worried. Of the deadly violence that erupted nine months later, she said: "To say this was a shock would be a lie. We knew something like this was going to happen." Racine County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Michael Luell confirmed that Tracy Vinz called the department on April 27, 2020. Luell said COVID-19 jail capacity restrictions were keeping nonviolent offenders out of jai. That was how authorities viewed Matthew Vinz at the time nonviolent. Also, none of Vinz's previous charges were felonies. "Deputies were not instructed to search for Matthew," Luell said, "because the offenses were not felonies, the offenses were nonviolent, and the offenses did not involve weapons." Just three days after Tracy Vinz's phone call to the Sheriff's Office, her troubled half-brother had another brush with the law. Matthew Vinz inside car during police arrest April 2020 In an image captured from police bodycam footage, Matthew Vinz is shown inside his car while being questioned by police in Muskego on April 30 Run-in after run-in Police in Muskego, in Waukesha County north of Wind Lake and Norway, arrested Vinz after finding him sitting alone in a parked car. He was shaking his head violently, in what police identified as a drug-induced outburst. Vinz gave police a fake name and told them he was en route to a work assignment on his tree-trimming job. He was booked for possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting or obstructing police, and other charges, all misdemeanors. Matthew Vinz in police custody before killing his parents In an image captured from police bodycam footage, Matthew Vinz is shown handcuffed in a Muskego police wagon on April 30, 2020, although he wo Muskego police noted the outstanding warrants in Racine County and elsewhere. But the officers wrote of the other police agencies: "They would not request a hold of Vinz due to the current COVID-19 virus." Police body cam footage of the arrest shows Muskego Police Officer Michael Petz taking a handcuffed Vinz into custody. While leading him to a police wagon, Petz told Vinz that the booking process would be handled differently because of COVID-19, to avoid exposing Vinz to the virus behind bars. "We want to see you somewhere safe," Petz said. Muskego police gave Vinz a court date, then released him later that day to his father. In early December, Vinz was arrested once more. In the Milwaukee County city of Greenfield, police booked him on suspicion of shoplifting at a Walmart. Police reported that he stole a shopping cart filled nearly $400 worth of food, including steaks, frozen pizzas and ice cream. Because of the outstanding warrants elsewhere, Greenfield police handed Vinz over to the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department. Court records indicate that either Vinz or his public defender told a Waukesha County judge that he would be "incarcerated in another county." Vinz spent a week in the Waukesha County Jail before being released Dec. 10 on a signature bond, which means he did not have to post any bail money. Charges against Vinz were pending in four counties Racine, Waukesha, Shawano and Walworth when he killed his parents and himself. How it could've been different Family members said that although they had no idea Vinz was capable of such deadly violence, they question whether police and the court system handled him appropriately before the tragedy. Lukas said she generally is supportive of police departments, and she understands why Vinz was not incarcerated, with his nonviolent arrest record and the COVID-19 pandemic limiting jail populations. Still, considering the violence that occurred later, Lukas said: "I'm sure the ball did get dropped." Tracy Vinz, who said she was frustrated at how Racine County sheriff's officials handled her call for help in April 2020, said she was indignant when police contacted her in January to report that her half-brother had killed his parents and himself. "I was pissed," she recalled. "I said, 'You all wouldn't come get him.'" 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. Sometime in March, cement barriers were placed in front of the Erickson Truck-n-Parts' entrance on Frontage Road, blocking the only way the owners could get in and out. The village is mum about what's going on, even after one of the Ericksons was cited for trespassing on his own property. An attorney representing the Ericksons wrote in a letter to a Mount Pleasant official: "In Catch-22 fashion, my client has been directed to clean up its property, but its owners and employees are not allowed on the premises." Unlike dental assistants, who are not licensed or credentialed by the state and perform a limited range of tasks, EFDAs would be certified by the Dentistry Examining Board and required to have 70 hours of classroom instruction. They could help dentists complete restorations, apply sealants, take impressions and adjust dentures, among other duties. While EFDAs would have more education than dental assistants, the training would be much less than for dental hygienists, who clean and polish teeth, along with providing oral health assessments and education. Adding these positions to oral health care teams in our state will allow dentists and dental hygienists to focus on practicing at the top of their scopes and allow more patients to be seen, said Plumer, also a lead sponsor of the dental therapist bill. Lack of access to dental services is an issue that affects urban and rural areas of Wisconsin. More than 20 states and the military allow EFDAs, Felzkowski and Plumer said. Concerns linger I have a shocking confession to make. I believe that all drugs should be legalized. Gasp! Before you wonder about my sanity, let me assure you that I do not condone drug usage unless prescribed by your physician. Consider this: The number of drug overdoses continues to climb; billions of our dollars are spent on the "war" on drugs; our prisons are overcrowded with drug addicts where they do not receive the proper treatment for their addictions; and, honestly, an addict will find their drug of choice or a substitute. Let us consider other solutions. Countries such as Portugal has legalized all drugs. The drugs are dispensed by teams consisting of a social worker, a psychologist and nurses. The drugs are not contaminated with deadly additives and there is no guessing about the dose. The addict is not arrested and, in fact, is educated about obtaining treatment for their addiction. Many addicts defer help because of shame and the fear of punishment. Portugal has enjoyed great success for this daring program. Our country is not winning this war on drugs. We should funnel more money into treatment centers rather than building more prisons where addicts languish for years. I often reflect on my life of good luck (of course with bumps): Being born in the USA, into a loving family, etc. I can even express my thought freely to The Journal Times and get contrary replies. Recently, a couple were pretty toxic. I suggest that the election was over and we should become "one nation" again. In The Keystone, it's a fossil like burning fossil fuel. Since publication, more data of support. Production of electric aircrafts, cars and F-150s, besides making fuel from waste CO2. Our nation became a world leader via science. As a child, terror ruled during the Polio season. Then eradication via a vaccine. Today, we have a safe, effective, free vaccine that many are avoiding. My son knew one such "tough guy". He's dead now! Get the shot(s) for yourself, to protect others and eradicate COVID-19. Of greater worry, if we can't act together on this, how will we ever act on really big issues including global warming, overpopulation and trash? Our only home is overheating! Rivers are flooding our oceans with trash. Locally our pile of trash is the highest point in the area. From its top you can see the tops of Chicago sky scrapers! 1. Yes. Its a serious public health issue; unvaccinated workers put others at risk. 2. Yes. Some colleges and school districts are mandating it. Its a necessary step. 3. No. Employees should have the option of getting vaccinated or not. Its up to them. 4. No. Some people have serious side-effects. Geting jabbed should be optional. 5. Unsure. Getting people vaccinated is important, but so is having a choice. Vote View Results Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Dobesh got busy, too. I have three guys who worked with me. We took the gates down and hauled em back to Grand Island. One was cracked and had to be fixed, he said. He used two Grand Island businesses, A&D Welding, and Borer Repair, and had them sandblasted and powder-coated. Powder-coating is a little nicer paint job. Both those businesses had worked for me before. I knew the quality of their work was very good, he said. Everyones a little busy, but they got on it. Then I loaded the gates back into the lowboy and took em back to Kearney. He told Baye he was reluctant to hang the gates because I dont want to scratch them or have something happen to them. But Dobesh wasnt finished. When he took the gates back, he saw that the city was taking the old bricks off the pillars because the bricks needed to be replaced. I told Steve and Lynnda, if you let me, I will bring a big excavator, dig the pillars out and haul them away. Ill donate that as well, he said. Baye said, It saved us hours of labor, with him bringing his large equipment over to do this for us. FOOTJOY FARM & BREWING WHAT: A restaurant and brewery owned by Chad Forsberg. WHERE: 407 Central Drive in Melvina, a small community along Highway 27 between Sparta and Cashton. HOURS: 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 3 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, and closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. MORE INFO: Call 608-654-5662 or visit www.footjoyfarmbrewery.com or Facebook. School buildings are full of history. The teachers, the students, the books, and especially the walls are brimming with memories. Much like the rings of a tree, the walls of our schools tell us a tale about the history of our district. Each era holds special pieces of the past about the changing expectations for public schools. Every transformation the community felt was necessary for students to be prepared for the future is recorded in these walls. Each addition and renovation indicate what a modern learning environment was at that particular point in time. The evolution of Emerson Elementary School over the years is one chapter of this story. Emerson Elementary School, located near the UW-La Crosse campus, was built in 1939 and serves the northeast portion of central La Crosse. Its original construction included a modest office area on the first floor and classrooms located on two levels. In 1956, the school district added two classrooms and a combination cafeteria/gymnasium. This addition responded to new expectations by the community and increasing demands of public education and so appropriate spaces were provided to accommodate. The additions provided space for a lunch program on-site up until then students often walked home for lunch and added spaces to accommodate curricular instruction in art, music, and physical education. In the end, its six aircraft together, he said. It shows that precision of flight. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} None of it would happen without the logistical support of Fat Albert. Were the logistics behind getting the team to and from the show, Huckeba said. Once we get on the ground, it takes every single member of this team to get all six jets up to perform the flight demonstration. In addition to personnel, the C-130T carries 35,000 pounds of equipment. Its not built for comfort, but its built for everything we need, Huckeba said. Everything fits together like parts of a jigsaw puzzle. For Navy Logistics Specialist 2 Brian Hubbard, La Crosse marked his first road trip with Blue Angel team. He acknowledged the tight quarters inside Fat Albert. Its a little snug, but it gets us to and from the shows, Hubbard said. Its nothing we cant handle. This is our family. This our team. Hubbard, one of the team members responsible for the maintenance of the jets and procuring parts, said hes proud to be part of a group that promotes the Navys mission and shows the world what the Navy and Marine Corps are really about. MIAMI (AP) Rapper Polo G has been arrested on charges including battery on a police officer, resisting arrest with violence and criminal mischief. Jail records show the rapper, whose name is Taurus Bartlett, was booked into jail early Saturday on five charges and released on bond hours later. The Miami Police Department released arrest affidavits in which officers stated Bartlett, 22, and others were pulled over early Saturday, and the rapper ended up in a struggle on the ground with officers. One of the documents says an officer who was trying to handcuff Bartlett was struck multiple times. The documents say Bartlett was aggressive as he resisted arrest in downtown Miami. One of the officers said he had ordered him and all the passengers in the car he was traveling in to get out of the vehicle to pat them down for firearms, saying he suspected they carried weapons because they heard a passenger claim the vehicle was bulletproof. The police department said it was reviewing the incident that would include examining all camera footage, saying the arrest was captured on several body-worn cameras. Police spokesman Michael Vega said it also was investigating several threats received against personnel and facilities in response to the rappers arrest. Rising vaccination rates and a growing willingness to return to travel plans put off by many due to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a massive increase in travel in and out of the Dane County Regional Airport. Airport data for April shows a roughly 1,500% increase in both passenger arrivals and departures compared with April 2020, the first full month when air travel and businesses shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, Dane Countys airport remains close to 55% down from traffic levels in April 2019, before the pandemic hit. After posting more than 97,000 departures and more than 101,000 arrivals in April 2019, combined arrivals and departures dropped to about 5,500 in April 2020 as coronavirus-related travel restrictions were implemented and concerns surrounding travel during the pandemic grew. Dane County Regional Airport spokesperson Michael Riechers said it will take time for the airport to completely return to pre-pandemic levels, but so far this year has shown positive growth. Combined arrivals and departures climbed from less than 55,000 in February to almost 89,000 in both March and April. Riechers said rising traffic can be attributed to increased vaccine availability and the traditional return to travel season that comes with spring break and warm weather. Morenatti separated himself from his family for months to avoid the risk of exposure as he documented the toll of COVID-19 on the elderly. He credited half the award to his wife, who took care of their children, and the other half to his colleagues. I never thought that I could win the Pulitzer, actually, but much less than I could win at using my electric scooter around a few dozen kilometers from my house in Barcelona, he said. Morenatti is a veteran photographer with wide experience in war zones. He was embedded with the U.S. military in southern Afghanistan in August 2009 when the vehicle he was in was hit by a roadside bomb. His left leg was amputated below the knee. The AP photographers who won in the breaking news category captured the drama and raw emotion of protests that roiled U.S. cities after the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. Would anyone really compare an AR-15 assault rifle, which has been used in so many recent mass killings, to a Swiss Army knife? Such a comparison is ludicrous, yet that is exactly what a federal judge in San Diego did recently in striking down Californias 32-year-old ban on assault weapons. Judge Roger Benitez began his decision by declaring, Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. This is the most extreme gun rights ruling yet from a federal court. Every other court in the country has upheld bans on assault weapons. This ruling is wrong as a matter of constitutional law and of common sense. Unfortunately, though, a majority of the current Supreme Court justices are very likely inclined to expand gun rights. But I hope they will not go so far as to declare that the Constitution protects a right to have an assault weapon. The Second Amendment says: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. From 1791, when it was ratified, until 2008, not one law local, state, or federal was struck down as violating the Second Amendment. America was founded on the principle that everyone can do well here if they work hard enough. Increasingly, that belief has become hatefully judgmental, leading many to embrace the stereotype that poor people are poor because they are lazy. The misconception is not based on fact or reason. It is simply what some choose to believe because its easier than acknowledging the truth. It makes people feel good about how much they personally have accomplished, especially if they also came from meager beginnings. That attitude has done nothing to improve the situation, though. Nearly 1 in 5 children of color in America remain poor. They are 2.5 times more likely to be poor than white children. But white children are not exempt. One in 12 white children live in poverty too. Bidens domestic policy initiatives are bolder than any weve seen in recent times. We arent used to our government stepping up and taking the lead in making the lives of everyday people in this country better. But thats what our elected officials are supposed to do. An extra $300 a month for half a year isnt going to end all the poverty in the United States. But for at least a while, millions of children will go to bed with a full belly. That should help the rest of us sleep better too. Dahleen Glanton is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Its a problem that cries out for regional collaboration. According to the study: We observe lower levels of mutual aid than we have seen in other regions, and our stakeholder interviews suggest this may be partly due to longstanding political disagreements. The study also cited concerns from area chiefs interviewed that La Crosse could arrive at the scene of an emergency in a neighboring community before that communitys fire department because of La Crosses full-time staffing. In other words, some communities are potentially letting political disagreements get in the way of public safety and thats shameful. Despite the comparative low cost, Holmen fire expenditures have grown 68.4% from 2016 to 2020 in large measure reflecting increased salary and benefits to hire more full-time staff. Some of the municipalities in the Holmen district are considering referendums in 2022 that will gauge support for longer-term expenditures and solutions. The Holmen Area Fire District and the city of La Crosse are working on a long-term agreement with escalating fees, but the proposal would allow either party to talk away after the first year. BERLIN (AP) Dozens of workers gathered outside of one of Berlin's most-celebrated startups, the grocery delivery company Gorillas, to protest the firing hours earlier of a colleague. We want Santiago back! the young riders chanted last week, threatening to blockade one of the company's inner-city warehouses with their bikes unless he was reinstated. The wildcat strike on a balmy June evening was unusual even by Germany's strong tradition of labor rights, highlighting growing tensions in the capital's freewheeling startup scene. We came here to show our solidarity, to support our friend, said Zeynep, a Gorillas rider who declined to give her last name for fear of facing repercussions from the company. "We want this decision to be reversed as soon as possible. The riders said their colleague had been fired without warning after turning up late for his shift. In a statement, the company said he his contract was terminated for serious misconduct but declined to provide details, citing confidentiality. Founded just last year, Gorillas has benefited from surging demand for quick grocery deliveries during the pandemic. In March, the company raised about $290 million from investors, becoming Germanys fastest 'unicorn a startup with a total valuation of $1 billion or more. Gorillas now operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York, where it faces U.S. incumbents such as Gopuff. But strikes like those in Berlin show trouble is brewing in its home market. The rowdy but peaceful protest late Wednesday drew support from employees of rival delivery services, some of whom downed their colorful courier bags to join the picket. Eventually Gorillas agreed to close the depot for the night, drawing cheers from the protesters. The next day, riders blockaded another warehouse, making clear their gripes go beyond the firing of a single colleague. In the last six months, that Ive been here Ive noticed so many ways that the company is doing things in an unjustified way, said rider Huseyin Camalan. Were here to stand against that. Its part of a larger thing. Camalan said many riders suffer from back pain and other health problems due to the heavy bags they have to carry. Faulty bikes, a limited say in their shifts and lack of administrative support are also a problem, he said. When riders send emails asking for help, they rarely get a reply, Camalan said, adding "They ignore us. Last week four rivals Delivery Hero, Bolt, Glovo and Wolt announced a joint effort to develop a code of conduct in what appeared to be an effort to head off a regulatory crackdown by the European Union. We want to establish better governance of working conditions, labor practices and social rights for all workers, regardless of their employment status, Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Spain-based delivery company Glovo said. According to experts, many delivery firms in Germany operate on the edge of legality in their rush to expand before they run out of cash. Gorillas says it doesn't consider itself part of the gig economy, having chosen to employ its riders and warehouse staff. But hourly wages are low at 11.50 euros (less than $14) after tips and the probationary period is six months the longest allowed by law. Riders at the protest complained that the company doesn't issue them with phones they need for work, that salaries are often short and weight limits on bags aren't respected. The working conditions are at the minimum end of whats normal in Germany, said Sebastian Riesner, who heads the Berlin chapter of the hospitality workers union NGG. Some of the contracts are pretty outlandish. "There seems to be a strategy of relying on people who don't know the rules in this country." Angry Gorillas riders recently banded together and, with the help of NGG, began the process of electing a works council. Under German law, members of the council get a say on working conditions and firings. Falling in line with Germany's established labor practices could make it harder for businesses like Gorillas to turn a profit. I dont think these companies are earning any money at the moment, said Werner Reinartz, a retail expert at the University of Cologne. German business monthly Manager Magazin cited internal documents suggesting that Gorillas loses 1.50 euros ($1.82) on every order. At the same time, foreign rivals such as Getir from Turkey and Britain-based Weezy are eyeing a launch in Europe's biggest economy, where they will compete for the same limited pool of riders already dwindling as other parts of the economy wake up from the pandemic lockdown. The strikes show that the current model is difficult to carry forward, said Reinartz. You need people who want to do this job." The company's chief executive, Kagan Sumer, said in a message to staff that he was deeply troubled by the events of the past days, but insisting that the firing of the rider had been a difficult but necessary decision. Sumer didn't address the protesters' broader complaints, but instead announced plans to cycle to every city where the company operates, to meet staff and ride through the cities with them. The Left party's candidate in September's mayoral election, Klaus Lederer, expressed his support for the striking Gorillas workers. If these companies want to have a future in Berlin, then they need to immediately respect the minimum standards of treating their employees fairly, he said. Riders such as Camalan insist they can force a change from below. We live in Germany." he said. We don't live in some random country that doesn't have any labor laws. Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wirereporter WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has vowed to mend Americas trade relations with its European allies, which were stretched to the breaking point by President Donald Trumps mercurial behavior, combative policies and aversion to multinational alliances. Yet when he meets Tuesday with European Union leaders in Brussels, Biden may find that making up is hard to do. The prospect of forging an accord to resolve their differences and perhaps form a united front against an increasingly confrontational China may be stymied by European skepticism. Sounding a sour note about Bidens intentions, Valdis Dombrovskis, a Latvian political leader who serves as the European Union's trade chief, said in speech last week that the time had come for the U.S. to walk the talk. Dombrovskis was referring in part to Trump's 2018 decision to impose import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum a decision that left European leaders furious and triggered retaliatory steps against the United States. Biden has been slow to take up the possibility of dropping the tariffs, which Trump had imposed on the basis of national security. Asked about the tariffs during a news conference Sunday as he wrapped up his time at the Group of Seven summit in the U.K., Biden pleaded for patience with his young administration, saying, "A hundred and twenty days. Give me a break. Need time." And with trade tensions still shading the trans-Atlantic relationship, the EU may also prove reluctant to join a U.S.-led effort to confront China over its provocative trade policies. Then theres a longstanding dispute over how much of a government subsidy each side unfairly provides for its aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing in the United States and Airbus in the EU. This has been going on for 17 years, says Cecilia Malmstrom, a veteran of trans-Atlantic battles as the European trade commissioner from 2014 to 2019. All that said, U.S.-EU relations are still certain to be much friendlier than they were under Trump, who regularly accused the Europeans of shirking their responsibility to pay for their own defense through NATO and of exploiting what he called unfair trade deals to sell far more products to the United States than they buy. In a goodwill gesture in March, the Biden administration and the EU did agree to suspend the tariffs they had imposed on each other in the Airbus-Boeing battle. Several news outlets have reported that U.S. and EU diplomats are working on a draft communique that would call for the Boeing-Airbus dispute to be resolved by July 11 and for the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and the EUs retaliatory sanctions to be lifted by Dec. 1. The Biden administration also announced Friday that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo would be joining the U.S. delegation; her department administers the steel and aluminum tariffs. Kelly Ann Shaw, a former Trump administration trade official who is now a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, suggested that the EU and U.S. are eager to move past their tariff battles so they can move on and tackle some 21st century challenges, not the least of which is China. Last week, though, Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, sounded noncommittal in speaking with reporters on Air Force One. There has been good progress in those negotiations," Sullivan said of the Boeing-Airbus dispute. "But Im making no promises about what might happen. Regarding the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, Sullivan noted that the EU agreed last month to suspend plans to escalate retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products a concession meant to ease tensions and encourage further negotiations. But he added: Thats going to take some time to work out." Asked specifically whether the United States would be rolling back the metals tariffs, Sullivan shook his head. The steel and aluminum dispute is an especially sensitive one. In moving to tax imported metals, Trump dusted off a little-used weapon in U.S. trade policy to justify the tariffs: He declared the foreign metals to be a threat to U.S. national security a decision that startled and outraged Europeans and other longstanding American allies. Almost all the EU members were NATO members, said Malmstrom, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. How could we be a national security threat? It was offensive. Malmstrom said she was surprised that Biden hasnt already dropped the tariffs and hopes he will do so at the summit Tuesday. Maybe hes saving this as a gift, she said. Complicating the political calculus for Biden is that U.S. labor unions and steel and aluminum producers some of them concentrated in states important to Democratic election prospects want to maintain the tariffs on the imported metals to help keep prices up. A key reason is that China, which churns out more than half the world's steel, has contributed to an oversupply that has otherwise kept global prices down. Demonstrating a united U.S.-EU challenge to China's aggressive policies could strengthen the trans-Atlantic negotiating leverage. But Malmstrom said she is skeptical about whether the EU is eager to join the United States to face up to China and force a reckoning over its trade practices. The Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on $360 billion of Chinese goods came against the backdrop of a roiling conflict over the predatory tactics that China is widely accused of deploying to try to supplant America's global technological dominance. Many trade experts say Beijing has coerced American companies to hand over trade secrets as the price of access to its market, forced U.S. businesses to license technology in China on unfavorable terms, used state funds to buy up American technology and committed outright theft. Critics, including Biden, had lambasted Trump for alienating would-be allies like the EU instead of enlisting them to help challenge Beijing. For now, though, Biden hasn't called off Trumps trade war against China. Malmstrom noted that among the EUs 27 member countries, there is no full unanimity on how to deal with China." She suggested that the EU might go along with the United States on specific measures perhaps cracking down on Beijing's subsidies to its own companies, for example but still stop short of joining the United States in any wide-ranging confrontation with China. The EU will not just sign up to a U.S. agenda on the bottom line, she said. The EU is not in trade war mode against anyone. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Carbis Bay, England, contributed to this report. When a team at the University of Virginias Center for Politics sat down to work out their initial rankings of which party had an advantage in each states 2022 senate contests, they rated just one state as a toss-up. Take a wild guess which one. In the last four and a half years, both parties presidential candidates scored narrow wins in Pennsylvania, the 18-seat congressional delegation split right down the middle twice, progressive candidates won upset victories in the states two largest population centers, and Republican row office candidates won two statewide races on the same day President Joe Biden won the states 20 electoral votes. Enter or, rather, exit U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey. The Lehigh County conservatives decision not to seek a third term means neither party will have the advantage of incumbency, making Pennsylvanias open seat perhaps the biggest prize in the parties battle to gain an advantage next year in a Senate currently controlled by Democrats by the slimmest possible margin. If its not Number 1, its 1A, said Christopher Nicholas, the veteran political operative who managed four of the late Arlen Specters Senate campaigns. The party that controls the Senate controls the fate of Bidens ambitious and expensive domestic programs, the fate of any Supreme Court candidates Biden might appoint, and perhaps whether Congress will certify the 2024 presidential results if a Democrat wins but Trump or another Republican again attempts to overrule the will of voters. Twenty-five candidates 12 Democrats, 12 Republicans and one Libertarian have declared their candidacy to the Federal Election Commission, and party operatives expect more to enter the race. I dont think there's much clarity as to who the nominees are going to be, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor for Sabatos Crystal Ball, the University of Virginias newsletter that ranked Pennsylvanias Senate race as the lone toss-up. Ticket-splitting is increasingly rare, which generally makes a states presidential vote more predictive of its Senate vote. Pennsylvania is one of only two states, along with Wisconsin, where Republicans will defend seats in states Biden won. The stakes Though Joe Biden got seven million more votes nationally than Republican incumbent Donald Trump last year, the Senates geographic weighting left the chamber evenly split, 50 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. The dynamic has frustrated liberals, as conservative Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have insisted on compromises with Republicans and the preservation of the filibuster, the procedural tool that allows a minority of senators to block the majoritys priorities. This is an opportunity to flip a seat, said J.J. Abbott, executive director of the progressive organizing nonprofit Commonwealth Communications and the former press secretary for Gov. Tom Wolf. The stakes are pretty high. Biden has proposed a $6 trillion federal budget that includes funding for universal pre-kindergarten, guaranteed paid leave, billions to fight climate change and a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. Despite increasing taxes on corporations, capital gains and those in the highest tax bracket, it would increase deficit spending to levels not seen since World War II, according to government projections. In addition to big-ticket domestic legislation, Bidens presidency offers Democrats a chance to push back some of the massive gains Republicans have made in reshaping the federal judiciary. Three Supreme Court justices are older than 70, and one of them Bill Clinton appointee Stephen Breyer is over 80. Trump appointed three justices during his term, filling the seat of a Democratic appointee (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and two Republicans, including a vacancy (Anthony Scalia) that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell kept open for most of Democratic President Barack Obamas final year in office. Another concern among Democrats is the 2024 presidential election. Multiple polls found a majority of Republicans believe Trumps lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and many GOP politicians have tried to win their support by echoing the lie or trying to overturn the election results outright. Republican Sean Parnell, who lost his 2020 challenge to U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Allegheny County, joined with Republican Congressman Mike Kelly of Butler County in a lawsuit that would have disenfranchised 2.6 million Pennsylvanians who voted by mail in 2020. Their bid sought to supplant the voters choice for president by allowing the GOP-controlled General Assembly to appoint the states 20 electors. Efforts to overturn the election culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, during which rioters attempted to stop Congress certification of the results. After the insurrection was quelled and armed security escorted lawmakers back into their chambers, a majority of GOP legislators in the House and several in the Senate objected to the results in yet another attempt to keep Bidens electors from being seated. Thats a real threat going into the 2024 election, Abbott said. I dont think, after Jan. 6 and after everything weve seen happen after the 2020 election, we can even for a second pretend that its not a serious option for the Republican Party going into 2024. Wawa vs. Sheetz Republicans enter the 2022 race with history on their side. With few exceptions, the party that wins the presidency loses congressional seats in the next midterm election. Biden only won (Pennsylvania) by 1.3 (percentage) points, so its a very competitive state, Kondik said. If you believe that the non-presidential party has an advantage in midterms and I am a believer in that it doesnt take much to turn a 1.3-point Democratic win into a Republican victory in the next election with a different kind of electorate. That happened in 2018, when Democrats answered Trumps victory in the state by claiming the top two races on the statewide ballot. When you see Pennsylvania go to Trump, and then (Sen. Bob) Casey and the governor get re-elected (two years later), theres no clear current, Nicholas said. The back-and-forth swings have to do with Pennsylvanias peculiar political geography, Nicholas said. It's WAWA versus Sheetz. The western portion of the state, where Sheetz convenience stores reign, sits firmly inside the Appalachian borderlands of the Midwest, a formerly union-heavy bulwark for Democrats that steadily became more Republican as heavy industry declined and cultural divides with socially liberal areas widened. In the east, where Wawas predominate, Philadelphia and its suburbs make up part of the Northeasts Acela corridor. Once-reliable Republican suburbs in the area have moved in the opposite direction as western Pennsylvania, becoming more Democratic and diverse as Donald Trumps GOP increasingly appealed to white cultural and racial grievance to attract voters. The state has six media markets and the countrys fifth-most-populous city. But it also has more rural residents than every state except Texas and North Carolina, according to the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. A test for both parties Though the field is far from settled, Democrats have attracted better-known candidates, Kondik said. The Democratic field, at least at this point, includes bigger names than the Republican field. Thats not to say Sean Parnell or (Montgomery County real estate developer Jeff) Bartos are unknown, but whatever you think of John Fetterman, John Fetterman is a bigger name than those two, Kondik said. So far, anyway. Prominent politicians who havent yet announced could upend the current dynamic if they enter the race. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb in the west could add his name to the mix. The Republican primary might soon include Carla Sands, a wealthy Trump megadonor who served as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark during Trumps term. In a crowded field, a candidate could capture their partys nomination with far less than a majority of votes. Nicholas broke the GOP primary into three lanes: Trump acolytes, candidates who adopt Trumps populist messaging but not his conspiracy theories, and those who put some distance between themselves and the former president. Youre kind of running an insiders game and an outsiders game, Nicholas said. The retiring Toomey benefited from that dynamic when he won his first term in 2010, during the Tea Party backlash to President Obamas election two years before. He took on Nicholas former client, who remains the longest-serving Senator in Pennsylvania history. The anti-establishment zeitgeist that year helped propel Toomey, and gave then-Vice President Biden the opportunity to convince Specter to leave the GOP and become a Democrat only to lose the Democratic primary to former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak. That set up the last race for an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Now Toomey finds himself on the outs with many in his party. He declined to sign on to GOP efforts to overturn the election, and voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Local Republican parties responded by censuring a man who, a few election cycles ago, was the conservative insurgent. Still, had Toomey not decided to retire, Nicholas said he believes he wouldve won re-election. The 2022 primary hasnt attracted marquee names and its really hard to beat somebody with nobody, Nicholas said. You look at the candidates now, and (wonder) how many of them wouldve run if Toomey was running for re-election? Nicholas said. As GOP factions fight over how closely to tie themselves to a former president with a devoted base inside the party but little support outside of it, Democrats are having their own reckoning between moderate and liberal wings. The Democratic Party is continuing to eat its own, Nicholas said. Pittsburgh saw some evidence of that in the May primary, when the citys progressive, second-term mayor, Bill Peduto, lost to state Rep. Ed Gainey. Imagine if, a year ago, youd said John Fetterman is going to be running for Senate and a number of candidates are going to be running to his left, Nicholas said. Gainey won by mobilizing city Democrats progressive base some of the same voters who propelled Peduto into office in 2013 and 2017, but flipped amid a national reckoning on race and a broader leftward shift driven in part by progressive successes from district attorneys races to congressional campaigns. Democrats need to nominate someone who can motivate the base, Abbott said. What weve seen in 2020 and 2021 is that the Democratic base, when engaged, turns out. Thats progressive voters, black and brown voters, and suburban-liberal voters. Indicators One early sign of who that might be could come from campaign finance reports. Candidates who excite base voters prove their viability by attracting lots of small-dollar donors. Think Barack Obama in 2008, and Trump and Bernie Sanders in 2016. After the first fundraising quarter this year, Fetterman, who already had a statewide campaign operation, reported raking in $4 million more than twice as much as every other candidate in both parties, combined. Bartos led the GOP field with $1.2 million, $400,000 of which was a loan from himself. But national party leaders could tilt the field toward their preferred candidates, Nicholas said. Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh hasnt reported raising any money, but that could change quickly if, say, someone like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled that he believes she has a better shot at winning. If youre Chuck Schumer, do you think, Id much rather have a woman from the southeast than a man from the west? Nicholas said. Senate campaigns tend to be more volatile than races for state offices because theyre subject to the shifting currents of increasingly heated national politics. You live in much choppier waters, Nicholas said. Abbott agreed. Itll be a very nationalized race, Abbot said. I think its also going to be the race in a state where Biden is most visible in many ways. His popularity and stature going into 2022 is really important. Bidens job approval hasnt yet dipped below 50 percent, a level of approval his predecessor never achieved, but hes above water by just four percentage points in the latest Gallup polling. Democrats are banking on the popularity of Bidens policies the recovery act, expanded child care tax credits, and proposed tax increase on corporations and the wealthy to keep those numbers up and buoy their chances of keeping Congress. But that requires proving to voters that the slim majorities they hold now (in addition to the bare majority in the Senate, Democrats hold just nine more seats than Republicans in the House) can translate into laws that improve peoples lives to counter Republican arguments for limiting the scope and size of government. Democrats need to continue ... showing how government can be used to improve peoples everyday lives, Abbott said. Trying to tackle some of these issues that families are facing across the ideological spectrum whether its the lack of paid leave or the inability to meet their household budgets or child care is really going to be essential to show voters they did the right thing by sending them to Washington. Kondik said hell also be keeping an eye on party registration changes to see if the states recent trends a reddening west and leftward tilt in the east continue. In the context of the modern tweet-fueled political cycle, the election is eons away, but Nicholas identified one group poised to come out ahead: Its going to be full-employment season for political consultants here. When: East Lampeter Township supervisors meeting June 7. What happened: Township supervisors approved the purchase of body cameras for its police officers. The cost: The cameras, equipment and warranty costs will be purchased through Motorola Solutions for $95,320. East Lampeter police Chief Stephen Zerbe said the department had been waiting on a grant to partially fund the body cameras, but that did not happen. During the meeting, the supervisors adopted a resolution making a supplemental appropriation for expenditures within the police forfeiture fund to pay for the development and implementation of body cameras. Why its important: Zerbe said the benefit to both the department and the public is transparency. Officers will be required to wear a body camera and have it on/running for any call, incident or interaction they have. Quotable: Body cameras will also provide quicker resolution to citizen complaints, provide a measure of civility with public/police interactions, provide officers with report recall and may help in corroborating evidence and allow the department to use the footage for training purposes, Zerbe said. Whats next: Zerbe said 40 Watchguard Body Cameras will be ordered and provided for each police officer. After the department receives the cameras in about two months, all personnel will be trained on how to use them before going out on patrol. Zerbe said he hopes to have them in use by September. Other news: Three East Lampeter Township Police officers were recognized for their life-saving efforts and proactive police work. Officers Jordan Miller and Jon Werner were recognized with the life saving award for resuscitating a man whose heart stopped beating by using an AED and Officer Ryan Wiegand was recognized for exceptional performance of duty for arresting a man for drug possession and having a stolen firearm. Upcoming meeting: The next supervisors meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. June 21. In 1862, in the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln declared millions of enslaved people in the United States to be free. However, because word traveled slowly back then, and because many slave owners refused to obey the proclamation, Black people in deep Southern states, including Texas, continued to be held as slaves even after the Civil War ended in April 1865. Ten weeks after that war ended, Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with 2,000 troops to occupy the state on behalf of the federal government and to enforce the conditions of the Confederacys surrender, which included the end to slavery. And on June 19, Gen. Granger read aloud a declaration announcing the total abolition of slavery in Texas. General Orders No. 3 stated: The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, or Emancipation Day, celebrated on June 19, commemorates the long-awaited end of slavery in the United States. To honor the significance of this day, and to celebrate multiple generations of Black leadership and excellence, the Crispus Attucks Community Center, a program of Community Action Partnership, partnered with MAKE/FILMS this year to create a series of videos titled Sincerely, Crispus Attucks. Each video features three generations of local Black leaders sharing letters detailing the inspiration they have drawn from the previous generation, with the eldest among them offering wisdom to future leaders. The text of the letters follows. You can view the Sincerely, Crispus Attucks videos at caplanc.org/juneteenth. Note: These letters have been edited slightly, mostly for newspaper style. COMMUNITY VOICES Qureem Glenn, 13, Lincoln Middle School student, to Joshua Hunter, 29, director of Crispus Attucks Community Center in Lancaster: Dear Mr. Hunter, First of all, thank you for visiting the Brotherhood. (The Lincoln Brotherhood is a mentoring program at Lincoln Middle School.) Mr. Hunter, we appreciate you for doing what you do in the community! You give people who dont have a sufficient way of getting what they need the help they deserve. It makes me feel good; better yet, it makes me feel great to know that there is another Black man out there who is off the streets, who isnt selling drugs or gangbanging. Your way of doing things to support the community inspires me to impact others in my own way. For example, Im going to become a Web leader at my school. If you dont know what a Web leader is, its someone who helps the younger students get to places they need to get, helps them and guides them through their first year of middle school. I really appreciate the way you are doing things in the City of Lancaster, and I hope I could do some good things like this when I get older or maybe even now. Sincerely, Qureem Glenn Joshua Hunter to Ted Darcus, 78, member of the Crispus Attucks Advisory Council and former Lancaster City Council president: Dear Ted, It is said that we build off those who have come before us. It is the Ted Darcuses of the world who force us to become better people and help us to see the value of living in service to others. Youre known in the community as Uncle Ted. Growing up, you not only inspired me but added to my growth as I saw representation in the leadership positions you held, including an executive role at the Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster, president of Lancaster City Council and executive director of the Governors Advisory Commission on African American Affairs. It has challenged me to rise higher. You have championed for your community. I have learned the value of being personable and considerate but above all, how to get things done. It is your whispers of You can do it and unlimited support that keep that fire ignited inside me. I am learning to stand by my decisions no matter the outcome because authenticity is vital. I am thankful for your mentorship and grateful for the path you have paved. Sincerely, Joshua Hunter Ted Darcus to young people: Dear future leaders, What is a leader? A leader is someone who can connect with and inspire those around them to do great things. Some of you may wonder if you have what it takes to be a leader. The answer is YES! The impact from a leader on a local level is just as powerful as any other leader you can think of. The most important aspect of leadership is the people, making connections and listening to those in your community. You can initiate the changes that will directly affect their lives for the better. You have the power to make a difference and influence your communities in a positive way just like all the great leaders before you! Sincerely, Ted Darcus VOICES IN GOVERNMENT Ashley Bombin, 17, McCaskey High School student, to Ismail Smith-Wade-El, 31, president of Lancaster City Council: Dear Ismail Smith-Wade-El, During my childhood, no one really looked like me. When I turned on the TV, the closest thing to me was Dora the Explorer. When I looked around me, people of color who were active in our community werent shown. For most of my life, I thought that being a part of my community was impossible. No one who looked like me ever had the opportunity to use their voice on a big scale. Thats what I thought as a child. Seeing so many people of color after years of hard work finally being able to be a big part of our communities is a sign of hope for the future generation of kids. People like you are letting kids know that being active in our community even on a big scale is achievable. You let us know that we can use our voices to get our message across. You give us hope. Sincerely, Ashley Bombin Ismail Smith-Wade-El to Ron Ford, 81, former Lancaster County commissioner and former president of Lancaster City Council: Dear Mr. Ford, Im not sure whether to call you Commissioner, or Mr. Ford. It will never be Ron. Not because youre not friendly like that, but because you were always Mr. Ford to me when I was growing up. Its been a hard year, Mr. Ford. Much of the time Ive spent thinking about what it means to be Black and an elected official here in Lancaster County, amid issues of poverty and justice, health care and housing theres this feeling of being pulled in several directions at the same time. Its been hard, but I know that its not the hardest year ever to happen, or the hardest year yet to come. So, I find myself wondering how you did it. Not just the elected office or becoming county commissioner, but all the work leading up to it, the whole process of becoming. You carved a path for a lot of us who are doing this work right now, and we want to know how you managed, and if it felt for you the way that it feels for us. You seemed to know something, Commissioner, that was hard for a lot of us to learn. Namely, that leadership isnt about how an individual can put their name at the head of the list, but how a community can be empowered and how young people can envision opportunities for themselves and others. You and my mother were of the same generation, and she was fiercely dedicated to the each one teach one mentality, that we have to lift each other up, that we have to invest in our young people. I was one of those young people when I first heard about your story, Mr. Ford, and now Im proud to say that Im the president of Lancaster City Council. Its been a hard year, but it is powerful to know that it is not the first hard year, and that leaders and mentors like you made it through. Leadership, Ive learned, is the capacity and willingness to envision better for your community and then empowering that community to realize better. Servant leadership is redundant; there is service or there is simple self-aggrandizement. I envision liberation, justice, progress and equity for this community particularly for our African American community as we look forward to our own independence day. But as Black people, we cannot look forward without remembering those who came before. Maybe all that I want to say, Mr. Ford, is thank you. You are a lighthouse, and may we all be so to others. Sincerely, Ismail Smith-Wade-El Ron Ford to young people: Dear future leaders, In April of this year, I celebrated my 81st birthday. I have seen eight decades of the ebb and flow of the civil rights and social justice movement in this country. As a people, we have made great progress on all fronts. But it has been one step forward and two steps back. It has not been a straight line. With the election of Barack Obama (in 2008), many felt we had reached a point where all people would be judged on their character, not the color of their skin. His election was inspirational to many. But to some, it brought out fear and hate. Over the past four years, we have seen politicians use fear and hate to gain power. The fight for equality and justice never ends. My advice to you is: Do not let negativity turn you into a negative person. Hate begets hate. Study the real history of the African people; there is much that we do not know. Discover your talents and develop those talents to provide opportunity for yourself and your community. Buy, as much as possible, goods and services from people in your community. Find a religious/spiritual foundation that brings you peace, understanding and serenity. Finally, we are all members of one race the human race. Lets work together to build a society based on peace and love. Sincerely, Ron Ford VOICES IN MEDIA From Tacura Tobler, 17, McCaskey High School student, to Danielle Woods, 32, anchor at WGAL News 8: Dear Danielle, If no one has said it recently, youre an inspiration. Youre showing every young girl who watches WGAL that they can do whatever they put their minds to. Youve inspired me. I help host the news show at my high school, and after reading and learning about how you came to be a news anchor, it has pushed me to consider a career in broadcasting. Young girls, especially young Black girls, all over the Susquehanna Valley region get to see someone who looks like them doing such an important job like delivering the news, and an I-See-Me moment like that is irreplaceable. I read that you hope to inspire young girls. I can confidently say that you have. Sincerely, Tacura Tobler From Danielle Woods to Ron Martin, 65, retired WGAL News 8 anchorman: Dear Ron, More than 40 years ago, you followed your dreams and fought for your spot in the field of broadcast journalism: a spot that wasnt occupied by people who looked like you or me. But that didnt stop you from making your mark and becoming the Ron Martin who won over the hearts of people across the Susquehanna Valley. Its because of you and other trailblazing journalists of color across the country that little brown girls, like me, knew that I, too, could make my dreams a reality. I sit today at the desk where you spoke the truth, provided comfort in times of unspeakable tragedy and were a leader in and for our community. You graciously shared that space with me and took me under your wing. Thank you for being a mentor to me and the perfect example of professionalism behind the anchor desk. I am grateful that you not only secured your seat at the table, but made sure a chair was there for me, too. Its an honor to follow in your footsteps. I hope Im making you proud. Sincerely, Danielle Woods From Ron Martin to future leaders: Dear students, I say students because many of you are still learning how to turn the challenges of life into victories. To quote the Black poet Langston Hughes, youll be reaching landings and turning corners, and sometimes going in the dark where there aint been no light. Remember that despite the challenges, dont be discouraged. Just keep pressing forward to achieve your dreams. Its no secret: It takes education, hard work and patience. Also dont be afraid to seek the help of a role model or mentor, as I did. Remember that the purpose of life is not to win, but to grow and share. Challenge yourself to help the younger generation, by offering your advice and uplift to those still finding their way. Youre needed to be the bridge builders and leaders of the future and to ultimately have a positive impact on your communities. Sincerely, Ron Martin VOICES IN LAW From Timmy Goodson, 18, McCaskey High School graduate, to Kareemah Mayer, 28, associate attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC: Dear Kareemah, I would like to say thank you for contributing to your community and becoming an example of Black excellence. Just by completing a law degree you have become somewhat of a superhero. Not only going against the odds, you also went above and beyond. From research projects to earning a spot in a law firm, you have shown Black and brown girls that we belong in the professional world and that there is a spot waiting for us at the table. Thank you so much for your contributions not only to yourself but to your community. Sincerely, Timmy Goodson From Kareemah Mayer to Jennifer Craighead Carey, 52, partner at Barley Snyder and former chair of the United Way of Lancaster County board: Dear Jen, I wanted to start my letter by saying thank you. Thank you for embodying the definition of a community leader. Thank you for being a champion of diversity and inclusion. And most importantly, thank you for being a mentor. When I first moved to Lancaster, it was difficult maneuvering in the scene as a minority attorney. To be honest, I had never met a Black female attorney until I went to law school. However, working for Barley Snyder beside you changed that for the better. Every day I get to work under a dominant force in the Lancaster legal community. Every day I get to work next to someone who cares and who gives back to her local community. And finally, every day I get to work under someone who looks like me. Jen, youve inspired me to not only do better, but to be better, whether that be in a community outreach capacity or in the legal profession. Please continue to inspire the community at large and the legal community like youve been doing for the past two decades. And most importantly, continue to inspire Black female attorneys. Sincerely, Kareemah Mayer Jennifer Craighead Carey to young people: Dear future leaders, On Jan. 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old old African American female, recited her poem The Hill We Climb at the inauguration of President Joseph Biden. Ms. Gorman said the spoken word poem was a call for unity and collaboration and togetherness. It was a powerful and transformative moment of a young adult using her voice and talent to create positive community change. As young adults, never underestimate the power of your voice to transform. Be your authentic self and use that voice to drive change in your own community. That voice can take many forms, such as volunteering, mentoring, writing, public speaking, protesting, politics or donating money and resources, to name a few. Just know that your voice can be the catalyst to positively change your community. Sincerely, Jennifer Craighead Carey The U.S. intelligence community released a report in March that outlined how the Iranian and Russian governments orchestrated digital attacks on U.S. social media platforms to influence the 2020 election. According to the report, they did this by blasting Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with fake profiles, bots and troll armies that would directly engage with U.S. citizens in comment sections and purposefully try to foment ideological division. They also created and shared memes with false information and managed social media pages that perpetuated polarizing ideologies. Their mission was simply to sow division among American voters. The implications of the report are substantial and reinforce what many media researchers have known for some time: We are vulnerable without media literacy education. The digital information landscape can be difficult to navigate; it is filled with pitfalls and largely unvetted. Anyone can post anything online at any time. As the total hours of daily screen time and internet usage continue to climb rapidly, it has never been more important than now for our nation to cultivate media literacy programs. Through such education we can better protect ourselves from unwanted influence and help ensure that future generations are well equipped to engage with the digital world. Media literacy is defined by researchers as ones ability to evaluate, access, interpret and create various forms of media. For example, knowing how to direct-message someone on Instagram, being able to upload a video to YouTube, or understanding how to use hashtags, could all be a part of media literacy education. At the same time, one also would learn important interpretive/critical skills such as how to double-check sources of information, interrogate the credibility of user profiles, spot scams and manage private information across platforms. Overall, the goal of media literacy education is to give people the tools to navigate the many communication technologies we use and how to critically analyze the many messages we receive. Currently, this type of education is not happening throughout the United States. Although there are some legislators and individual institutions that have made attempts, there are still no national standards. As a result, even the states that have media literacy education often lack assessment measures, making the curriculum inconsistent or ineffective. Media illiteracy is an issue across all age groups. For example, researchers from Princeton and New York University found that baby boomers disproportionately share fake news stories. Meanwhile, researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education found that most middle schoolers could not tell the difference between a sponsored or real news article and that most college students could not identify biased content from independent groups like lobbying firms. As a communication professor, I have seen much of this firsthand. Virtually all of my students use social media regularly, but few have received media literacy training. It is clear that this issue is ubiquitous and it is affecting society now. The need for reform has never been greater. To meet this need in Pennsylvania, policymakers introduced legislation that sought to cultivate media literacy education in grades K-12. It specifically called for students to learn about the risks of sharing personal information online, how to handle cyberbullying and how to use social networking sites responsibly, among other skills. The bill ultimately died in the state House Education Committee, but it was a clear first step toward giving media literacy more attention in our state and our public discourse. As a researcher, teacher and citizen, I believe that media literacy is an important part of modern education and can benefit everyone in our community (and nation). Whether you like it or not, most people get all of their information from the internet. If people have a question, they go to Google. If people are lonely or bored, they go to social media. If people want to be entertained, they go to YouTube. We are constantly plugged in and the pandemic accelerated our submersion into the digital world even further. As more of society spends every waking moment looking at computers, cellphones, virtual reality devices and smart TVs, we are doing a grave disservice to future generations by not teaching media literacy in our schools and to the rest of our community. I am old enough to remember a time without the internet. In grade school, we were taught how to physically use the card catalog in the library to find good sources of information. Yet today even though we get most of our information from social media, search engines and other digital platforms we have not adapted our national education standards to meet these changes. Instead, we are sending our loved ones off into the digital world hoping that they know what they are doing and wont fall victim to unwanted influence. Through media literacy education, we can stop hoping and start equipping our community to be skilled media consumers and educated citizens. Lukas Pelliccio, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of mass communication at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, and a media/communication researcher. He was raised in Lancaster County. Who Is Taking Over the Internet? June 12, 2021 (EIRNS)Reddit is one of the worlds top internet sites, with 1.2 billion visits in April 2021, making it the eighth most visited site in the United States, ahead of Twitter, Instagram, and eBay (not to mention Fox News and the New York Times). Therefore, why has so little attention been paid to who runs it? In 2017, a foreign policy hawk from NATOs Atlantic Council think tank, Jessica Ashooh, was appointed to be Reddits Director of Policy. Prior to her promotion to Reddit, Ashooh was Deputy Director of the Atlantic Councils Middle East Strategy Task Force, working with and under Madeleine Albright and Stephen Hadley. Albright considered the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children a price that was worth it, while Hadley was Condoleezza Rices Deputy National Security Adviser at the time of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraqand in 2005-09 became George W. Bushs National Security Adviser. Ashoohs particular fixation appears to be Syria. She has called for bombings, the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, and military support for the (fictional) moderate rebels trying to take over the country: As long as [Assad] remains in power and remains the figurehead of the Syrian government ... this conflict wont end, she wrote in the New York Times. In the Washington Post, she condemned Obama for being too soft on Assad, and demanded that Trump restore U.S. credibility by ordering targeted, punitive strikes against the Assad regime. She comes from a New Hampshire family of Lebanese descent. In her doctoral thesis at Oxford, she wrote about George W. Bushs Middle East policy. She wrote that she would most liked to have had the chance of meeting George H.W. Bush, who she described as being possessed of incredible amounts of strategy, finesse, and restraint. So how did this person, with no particular internet or marketing background, become a top executive at an anarchic message board created with a devotion to free-speech and an anti-establishment reputation? Simpleto change Reddits character. (EIR readers may recall Reddits cancellation of an ask-me-anything webinar with National Security Agency whistleblower, former NSA Technical Director Bill Binney.) Reddit is not alone in becoming staffed with intelligence hawks. In 2018, Facebook and the Atlantic Council announced a partnership for checking for misinformation, to decide which sources are trustworthy. Earlier in 2021, Facebook hired NATO press officer Ben Nimmo as its intelligence chief. And we can recall that earlier this month, former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was the Facebook official who announced the two-year duration of former President Trumps sentence in Facebook prison. Microsoft has worked to install in its Edge browser a piece of software called NewsGuard, which displays little green and red badges for trustworthy and naughty news sites. Who runs NewsGuard? Former Homeland Security Secretary, NSA Director and CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen. A senior Twitter executive responsible for Southwest Asia was outed in 2019 as an active duty officer in the British Armys 77th Brigade, which is devoted to online operations and psychological warfare. The NATO-British-Atlantic Council links are even more directly seen in the Atlantic Councils partnership with the Integrity Initiativea British group that purports to defend democracy from disinformation, while serving mainly to plant disinformation of the everyone we disagree with is a Russian bot variety. A 2019 story about Reddit is reminiscent of the censorship of news about the Hunter Biden laptop, and claims that reporting about it were Russian intelligence operations. A few days before the 2019 U.K. general election, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn promoted documents leaked on Reddit that showed that his Tory opponent Boris Johnson, was negotiating with American companies, putting much of the U.K.s National Health Service up for sale. This could have severely damaged Johnsons standing in the election, but Reddit came to the rescue, claiming that the documents were part of Russian disinformation. Headlines that could have read Johnson Selling Off NHS were transformed into Corbyn Promotes Russian Propaganda. So, what did Ashooh do at her new position at Reddit? Just last year, she oversaw the banning of over 2,000 communities in a single day, including /r/The_Donald and /r/ChapoTrapHouse. The Reddit co-founded by free speech absolutist Aaron Swartz, who, charged with attempting to download and publish the entirety of Jstor, committed suicide when faced with a 40-year prison sentencethat Reddit is no more. The internet as a cultural phenomenon was seen decades ago as the potential great equalizer, a forum for all views to be discussed, and for people from around the world to come to better understand each other. The transformation of Reddit is just one example of the brazenly direct takeover of media by military and intelligence agencies, along the hiring of spooks by the dozens for MSNBC, CNN, and other agencies, the deranking of alternative media, and the attacks on independent source of news and commentary, such as substack. This is emphatically not an issue of private companies making private choices, independent of the First Amendment. It is the same slime mold, centered in London, Wall Street, and Washington, that exerts such financial, military, and ideological power. Three of the founders of Americas top private space companies have stated their personal desire to fly into space. But only one will be first. Jeff Bezos is head of the rocket company Blue Origin. He also founded the online store Amazon. Bezos has announced plans to make his wish come true next month on the companys first human space flight. If successful, the 57-year-old would become the first person to ride his own companys rocket into space. Two other founders -- Elon Musk of SpaceX and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic -- have said they also want to ride into space on a company-built spaceship. "Ever since I was five years old, I've dreamed of traveling to space, Bezos said in a message announcing his plans on Instagram. He said he would be making the trip with his brother, Mark. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend, Bezos said. Joining the brothers will be at least one other passenger who is being chosen by an online auction. Blue Origins New Shepard rocket and capsule can carry up to six people. The spacecraft will take its passengers on a 10-minute flight to about 105 kilometers above Earth. That distance is a common international definition for the beginning of space, also known as the Karman line. The passengers are expected to spend about four minutes in this suborbital space, where they can experience weightlessness and observe the curvature of Earth. The rocket will take off from Blue Origins launch center in a rural area of West Texas. After the capsule separates, the reusable rocket is designed to return to Earth and land in an upright position by itself. The capsule is designed to float back to the surface with three large parachutes. Blue Origin said it has carried out 15 successful test flights of New Shepard, but none of those carried humans. The spacecraft is named after NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space. The planned launch date is July 20. The date was chosen because it is the 52nd anniversary of the first moon landing by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Bezos has said he will step down as Amazons chief 15 days before the launch. Earlier, he announced that he wanted to spend more time on projects for Blue Origin. On its website, the company says its goal is to develop reusable launch vehicles for civilian and defense purposes. The Bezos flight will officially launch the company's space tourism business. The company has yet to start selling seats to the public or announce prices for the short trips. Virgin Galactic founder Branson has said he also plans to ride into space on the companys winged spacecraft later this year after one more test flight over the state of New Mexico. Virgin Galactic recently completed its third test flight into space with a crew. The 70-year-old Branson offered congratulations to Bezos after his announcement. Branson tweeted that their two companies "are opening up access to space -- how extraordinary! Like Blue Origin, Branson's company plans to send space tourists to the lower levels of space. About 600 people have already planned flights, which cost up to $250,000. Musk's SpaceX has already carried 10 astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, the U.S. space agency. His company has also sold several seats on private space flights. SpaceX, however, has said its space tourism program aims to launch people into super high orbit about 800 to 1,200 kilometers above Earth. The price for those trips is expected to cost millions of dollars. Musk has not said when he might be ready to go to space himself. But he has predicted his companys reusable spacecraft called Starship will one day carry people to the moon and Mars. Musk has repeatedly said he wants to die on Mars. Just not on impact. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. Quiz - Billionaire Space Race: Bezos Aims to Be First to Visit Space Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz __________________________________________________________ Words in This Story journey n. an act of traveling from one place to another adventure n. an exciting and sometimes dangerous experience auction n. a public sale at which things are sold to the people who offer to pay the most capsule n. the part of a spacecraft that people can live in curvature v. the state of being curved or bent tourism n. the activity of traveling to a place for pleasure access n. the right or ability to approach, enter or use impact n. an act or event in which an object strikes another object found v. to begin, to create or establish something such as a business, organization or country Scientists in New Zealand are developing drones and small radars to follow insects to try to protect threatened species. The new technology involves attaching radars to the insects to follow their movements. The devices connect electronically to drones that will track the insects in real-time. The scientists are with the University of Canterbury on New Zealands South Island. The team says it hopes the technology will lead to a deeper understanding of the countrys troubled insect populations. The research builds on years of experience in the area of bird conservation, in which radio tracking methods have helped to protect many threatened species. But that technology had to be made much smaller for use on insects. The researchers have now made about 20 small harmonic devices that can be attached to insects. The insects can then be tracked over wide areas by drones. Steve Pawson, from the universitys College of Engineering, told VOA that bird-tracking technology is what made the researchers start looking for a similar solution to follow insects. The information from tagged birds, Pawson said, really informs conservation management. The same system can help scientists learn more about many different insect behaviors, he added, like how far they move, where they look for food, and even, how long they live. If we have that knowledge, then we can incorporate it into our decision making and our planning for conservation management operations, Pawson added. The researchers plan to begin tests of the system on ground-based insects before moving to the greater complexities of tracking insects in flight. They hope to begin field testing by 2023. The team says the research could possibly be useful in other scientific fields as well, such as biosecurity or medical imaging. Among New Zealands endangered insects is the widely recognized Weta. The creatures -- native to the South Pacific --have large bodies, legs with sharp points and rounded tusks. Several species of Weta are under threat from animals that eat them and destruction of the places where they live. Im Bryan Lynn. Phil Mercer from VOA News reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver 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 drone n. a small, unmanned plane species n. biology : a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants : a group of related animals or plants that is smaller than a genus track v. to follow conservation n. the act of keeping something safe from harm or from being damaged or destroyed incorporate v. to include something as part of another thing habitat n. the natural environment of plant or animal A well-fed songbird jumps around in grass near Washington, D.C. On its back it carries a very small, lightweight electronic device called a tag. The bird, a robin, sees an insect nearby. The bird attacks fast --- and wins a meal. Ecology scientist Emily Williams watches from behind a bush. On this clear spring day, she says, "Now I'm watching to see whether he's found a mate," The bird has moved to a nearby tree where there is another robin. When the bird leaves, the device it carries will send data about its position to a special satellite, then back to Williams' computer. The Georgetown University ecologist will be able to track the animals movement. The satellite involved is Argos. The goal of the project is to learn why some American robins travel long distances on a usual basis, or migrate, but others do not. The new tracking system promises to give more exact information about the places robins mate and raise their young and where they spend the winter. That will help scientists understand the importance of genetics versus the environment in shaping why birds migrate," Williams said. Researchers have been attaching tracking tags on birds and animals for many years. But, the International Space Station and the Argos satellite now provide new ways to receive the information sent by the tags. The new system permits scientists to watch songbird movements from afar in much greater detail than before. "We're in a sort of golden age for bird research," said Adriaan Dokter, an ecologist at Cornell University, adding that the technology is improving as the tags are made smaller and smaller. We can satellite-track a robin with smaller and smaller chips. Ten years ago, that was unthinkable," said the scientist, who is not involved in Williams' study. The device that the robin wears can report its immediate place on Earth, within about 10 meters. A second new device, for only the heaviest robins, provides more information about the bird's movements; future versions may also measure the humidity and barometric pressure of the space the bird occupies. The devices are known as ICARUS tags. Martin Wikelski is director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. His scientific team is working to improve the ICARUS technology. He hopes that more and better devices could help develop what he called, "an 'Internet of animals' - a collection of sensors around the world giving us a better picture of the movement of life on the planet." The first bird of spring The American robin is a well-known songbird in North America. Its song announces the coming of spring. Yet its migratory life remains mysterious. Ken Rosenberg is a conservation scientist at Cornell University. He says it is surprising how little we know about some of the most common songbirds." An earlier study Williams worked on showed some robins are long-distance migrants from Alaska to Texas - while others, for unknown reasons, stay in a single place most of the year. Williams hopes more detailed data from satellite tags will answer her questions. She is working with partners who are tagging robins in Alaska, Indiana and Florida for a three-year study. Catching a robin Williams has placed nets between tall poles in her yard. When a robin flies into the net, she carefully removes the bird. She measures the birds body and pulls out a single feather to check on its overall health. Then she weighs the bird. This one is about 80 grams, just big enough to wear the satellite tag. The technology has only recently become small and light enough to use with small songbirds. Tracking devices have to weigh less than five percent of the animal's weight for it to fly normally. 30 percent drop in bird population Cornell scientist Rosenberg co-wrote a study in 2019 that showed North America's population of wild birds has dropped by almost three billion, or 30 percent, since 1970. Ben Freeman is a life scientist at the Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia. He says the tracking will help show why the bird population numbers are going down. Better information about migration paths "will help us look in the right places." Im Jill Robbins. Christina Larson wrote this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story versus prep. used to indicate two different things, choices, etc., that are being compared or considered migrate v. to move from one area to another at different times of the year track v. to follow or watch the path of (something) tag n. a small piece of cloth, paper, metal, or an electronic device that is attached to something humidity n. moisture in the air barometer n. an instrument that is used to measure air pressure and predict changes in the weather feather n. one of the light growths that make up the outer covering of the body of a bird What do you think of the new way to track birds? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. Biden has often touted the personal relationships hes developed with world leaders over nearly 50 years as a factor that makes him uniquely equipped to revitalize the reputation of the United States following the presidency of Donald Trump. In recent days, hes mentioned to aides that hes developed a strong rapport with Erdogan over the years, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Biden still fondly recalls making a house call to Erdogan in 2011 when he was in Turkey to speak at the Global Entrepreneurs Summit, according to the official. Erdogan did not attend because he was recovering from major surgery, but Biden stopped by to check in on him. Their conversation was supposed to be brief but lasted over two hours. Still, the relationship has been complicated at times. In 2014, while vice president, Biden apologized to Erdogan after suggesting in a speech that Turkey helped facilitate the rise of the Islamic State militant group by allowing foreign fighters to cross Turkeys border with Syria. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden drew ire from Turkish officials after an interview with The New York Times in which he called Erdogan an autocrat. Raam is the first Arab party to join an Israeli government, and Abbas said that the partnership in the new government will also bridge the gaps on the national level and the religious level. Abbas said that combatting crime and violence that has plagued Arab communities in Israel is a top priority for Israels Palestinian minority. Abbas spoke ahead of a parliamentary vote that was expected to approve the new coalition government. Arabs make up about 20% of Israel's citizens and largely identify with Palestinians in the neighboring West Bank and Gaza Strip. 5:25 p.m. JERUSALEM The Israeli politician who was the driving force in forming the countrys new government has called off a planned speech to parliament, saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. In a brief speech, Yair Lapid said he wanted to ask for forgiveness from my mother. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. DALLAS The NCAA Board of Directors approved one of the biggest changes in the history of college athletics Wednesday, clearing the way for almost a half-million athletes to start earning money based on their fame and celebrity without fear of endangering their eligibility or putting their Shirley Contreras lives in Orcutt and writes for the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society. She can be contacted at 623-8193 or at shirleycontreras2@yahoo.com. Her book, The Good Years, a selection of stories shes written for the Santa Maria Times since 1991, is on sale at the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society, 616 S. Broadway. A scheduled discussion about the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District's use of Christopher Columbus' ship as its logo has been deferred to the fall after district officials committed to formally addressing the topic over the summer. Now people are saying, OK, I can't go to a museum, I cant go into a space. But on Instagram, I just go on my phone, and all this history is accessible to me. Theyre seeing a different perspective on how Ghana was. A lot of times they dont have these photos or have access to them, so how are they going to see these moments? Or even the different traditional music? Youll see documentation from other databases on YouTube, and Im able to place those on our page. Like Louis Armstrong, he performed in Ghana. All these different historical moments have been forgotten, but now youre able to see these photos, these videos, and embrace that moment. How do you see your role as a cultural curator? In a way, now, Si Hene is becoming like the messenger from the chief to his people being able to continue those legacies on our page, and having these stories, these photos out, and continue that story. Some of the chiefs, they might not have Instagram, they might not have social media. So how do they tell their story to people who are using Instagram? Kids will start at beginner level and go all the way up to Vera Expert. Kids who achieve Vera Expert will have their names etched into a plaque on display at the center and be honored at an award ceremony at the end of the summer. Goodman Community Center, located just off of Atwood Avenue on the east side, is also providing its usual range of summer programming, though with caution. Amie Hoag, director of communications at Goodman reminded people that young children havent been vaccinated and that Goodman needs to take that into account with its programming. I think were still working out the differences, Hoag said when comparing last summer to this summers programming. We will still maintain our sanitation practices. We will determine whether kids need to be masked outside and still will be inside. Were looking at increasing our capacity compared to last summer and adding a few more kids than we had last summer. Hoag said there are still openings for kids who want to participate and that anyone can still enroll. Needless to say, Benitez never took a course in argumentation and critical thinking, thus failing to understand a false analogy. As I taught my argumentation and advocacy students for over four decades at the University of Texas-Austin, a false analogy is where one makes a comparison between two subjects that have more dissimilarities than similarities. Consider this example: Using hairspray every day is analogous to launching a nuclear weapon. Like Benitez comparison of a Swiss Amy knife and an AR-15, this analogy is not only fallacious but defies common sense. Therefore, we must ask Judge Benitez: When has a Swiss Army knife ever been used to kill a large number of people in a short period of time? Surely Benitez realizes that had a Swiss Army knife been the chosen weapon in recent mass shootings, more victims would have not lost their lives. Sadly, Judge Benitez spurious reasoning is but another instance of our nations current rhetorical habit of abandoning previously well-accepted standards of rationality and logic. Everywhere you look, partisanship dominates and trumps (no pun intended) our discourse something that makes deliberation less possible and therefore threatens the survival of democracy. Moreover, as a colleague and friend of mine poignantly observed, faith in humanity is required for a faith in rationality. Spains Supreme Court has opposed the pardons. In a recent non-binding opinion, the court said that the sentences for sedition and other crimes were appropriate, and that the convicted individuals had not shown the slightest evidence or faintest hint of contrition. Sanchez also faces criticism in his own Socialist camp, where the pardons are seen as a risky political gamble. More than 60% of Spaniards oppose the pardons and 29.5% back them, according to a recent poll for El Mundo newspaper. Other surveys conducted in Catalonia show 60% to 70% support for the move. In his most recent comments about the issue, Sanchez signaled a desire to address the concerns. I understand that there are citizens who are reluctant about the possibility of granting pardons to the Catalan prisoners, the prime minister said during a visit to Argentina this week. But I ask for your trust because we have to make a bet for coexistence, he continued. Spanish society has to move from a bad past to a better future, and that also implies magnanimity. Note: Save these destinations for when its safe to travel again. Be sure to check the travel rules before visiting Mexico. Mexicos capital is the largest city in North America, has more museums than any city in the world, and is home to some of the best street food on the planet. The space-age Museo Soumaya is just one of the citys many hubs of culture. Youll find Frida Kahlo and Diego Riveras former house in the charming Coyoacan district. Thats to say nothing of the famous murals that are found throughout the city from street art to the National Palace and Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso. Food is stellar everywhere in Mexico City from holes-in-the-wall like Las Buenas Migas to internationally famous spots like Pujol. Youll also find stands slinging tortas, tacos, tlayudas, tlacoyos and nearly every type of regional cuisine on seemingly every other block across the city. Youll also find history here in spades. The Centro Historico is one of the largest preserved colonial zones in the Americas, with beautiful architecture and the ruins of Templo Mayor. Just west of iconic Lambeau Field, in the shadow of the stadium that is home to the Green Bay Packers, a gleaming new building symbolizes the convergence of tradition and innovation in Green Bay. Its called TitletownTech, a 13,000-square-foot hub that is home to 20 emerging companies, a $25 million investment fund, three main floors of tech-enhanced space and the dreams of entrepreneurs who are finding their footing in northeast Wisconsin. As much as anything, TitletownTech is an example of how Wisconsins tech-based economy isnt limited to strongholds such as Madison and Milwaukee and is taking root in cities searching for renewed economic identities in a changing world. TitletownTech also symbolizes one factor holding back that growth lack of major venture capital investments to bring young companies beyond the seed stage to maturity. In a Wednesday meeting, people interested in a state budget proposal to launch a $100 million fund of funds to enhance Wisconsins ability to attract more capital heard an overview about how the fund would work to attract matching private dollars and strong private managers. Speakers also stressed that while Wisconsin has a vibrant angel capital sector, it lacks enough venture capital to bring young companies to the next stage. Dane Countys lesser-known lakes Talk of lakes in Dane County more often than not revolves around Mendota, Monona, Waubesa, Wingra and Kegonsa. There have been great efforts over the years to improve water quality and, more recently, the flow of the Yahara River, which runs through four of the five bodies of water. But just east of Prairie du Sac near the Columbia County line sit a trio of smaller lakes, sans crowds, ski boats and the hum of city traffic. However, water levels in the three lakes have been dramatically rising and falling over the past four decades. To help address the issue, a special taxing district was created in 2003 to help pay for lake-related initiatives. A pumping program to lower the levels of the lakes began in 2006, and hundreds of tons of gravel have been dumped onto Fish Lake Road over the years. But despite the efforts, prolonged periods of above-average precipitation have overwhelmed pumping efforts. Parts of Fish Lake Road are submerged, and water has reached nearly the gutters of homes along the road as the lake has risen 10 feet over the last three years, in part because nearby Crystal Lake has topped its banks with the excess flowing into Fish Lake. On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed concerns that the Justice Department was taking positions that benefited Trump or his policies when he testified before a Senate subcommittee. In response to a question from Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., Garland said that the job of the Justice Department in making decisions of law is not to back any administration, previous or present. Our job is to represent the American people and our job in doing so is to ensure adherence to the rule of law. Garland also drew a distinction between law and policy, noting that the the Biden administration had reversed several decisions by the Trump administration in the latter category. The White House has characterized as policy direction President Joe Bidens decision that the department will no longer seek the phone and email records of reporters as part of leak investigations. The distinction Garland drew between law and policy is arguably too neat. For example, when the Obama Justice Department declined to defend a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act in court, policy seemed as important as legal considerations. On Juneteenth, June 19, we celebrate Union Army General Gordon Grangers order to free the people still enslaved in Texas. The holiday marks the effective end of slavery in the United States. Although President Lincoln, in his Emancipation Proclamation, banned slavery in all Confederate states two and a half years earlier, it took enforcement by Union troops to actually uproot the practice. As one of the most remote slave states at the time, Texas was in the last wave of enforcement. Now, over 150 years later, Juneteenth reminds us to be critical of how progress is measured. In the last month alone, we had two national remembrances of racial injustice: the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd and the 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre. Floyds murderer, police officer Derek Chauvin, was found guilty this year. And this spring, President Biden became the first president to visit Tulsa and commemorate the massacre. Why cant the two political parties in Washington cooperate more to get things done? A big reason for gridlock in Congress is that many members dont even try to find agreement with members of the opposing party on legislation. U.S. Rep. Ron Kind is an exception. The Democrat from La Crosse ranks as the seventh most bipartisan member of the 435-member House of Representatives, according to the latest analysis by the Lugar Center and McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. The Lugar Center, founded by former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Georgetown researchers recently released their latest assessment of how often members of Congress sponsored legislation with bipartisan support. Kind achieved his highest rating yet since the Lugar Center started calculating its Bipartisan Index in 2015. The centers goal is to encourage more pragmatism and agreement toward solving Americas many challenges. U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, did well, too, ranking 89th, which was well above average. BURLEY Cassia County School District and the Idaho Commission for Libraries will work together to increase access to e-books and digital audiobooks for students. The two joined to combine the library and schools digital reading resources into one app. The Idaho Commission for Libraries is proud to partner with OverDrive to bring the Idaho Digital E-Book Alliance collection of high-quality e-books and e-audio titles to Idahos school libraries including the Cassia County School District at no cost, Deputy State Librarian Tammy Hawley-House said. The majority of the content is comprised of childrens, juvenile, and teen titles which helps fill a gap in our school libraries. Students will be given access to thousands of safe and age-appropriate titles to use at home during all hours of the day and in the classroom. Our students are enjoying the ability to access digital books anytime, anywhere, but are most excited about the huge number of audiobooks available through our partnership with the ICfL. Our librarians and reading teachers are excited to be able to get the newest and best books into students hands instantaneously, District Head Librarian David Cole said. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The atmosphere is so charged that lawmakers approved extra spending to bring more Idaho State Police troopers to the 100-year-old Statehouse even when the Legislature isnt in session. A doorway pane shattered last year when Bundy and others pushed their way into the House gallery that had limited seating due to the pandemic. The schism also played out dramatically late last month when far-right Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin issued an executive order during a short stint as acting governor while Republican Gov. Brad Little was out of the state. She ordered a statewide ban on mask mandates, which were already in place in some cities and counties, without consulting them or Little. Her action came about a week after she announced her run to unseat Little in 2022. She and Little were each elected in 2018. In Idaho, the governor and lieutenant governor dont run on a combined ticket. The next day Little, who has never issued a statewide mask mandate, repealed McGeachins order. The typically reserved first-term governor called McGeachins action an irresponsible, self-serving political stunt. Little touts his own conservative credentials by saying hes made Idaho the least regulated state following a pruning of administrative rules after he took office. Almost all the EU members were NATO members, said Malmstrom, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. How could we be a national security threat? It was offensive. Malmstrom said she was surprised that Biden hasnt already dropped the tariffs and hopes he will do so at the summit Tuesday. Maybe hes saving this as a gift, she said. Complicating the political calculus for Biden is that U.S. labor unions and steel and aluminum producers some of them concentrated in states important to Democratic election prospects want to maintain the tariffs on the imported metals to help keep prices up. A key reason is that China, which churns out more than half the world's steel, has contributed to an oversupply that has otherwise kept global prices down. Demonstrating a united U.S.-EU challenge to China's aggressive policies could strengthen the trans-Atlantic negotiating leverage. But Malmstrom said she is skeptical about whether the EU is eager to join the United States to face up to China and force a reckoning over its trade practices. Senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call Friday that revealed wide divisions in a number of contentious areas, including the curtailing of freedoms in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Yang said China was gravely concerned over what he called absurd stories that the virus escaped from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where cases were first discovered. The U.S. and others have accused China of failing to provide the raw data and access to sites that would allow a more thorough investigation into where the virus sprung from and how it initially spread. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia says this years hajj pilgrimage will be limited to no more than 60,000 people, all of them from within the kingdom, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The kingdom made the announcement Saturday on its state-run Saudi Press Agency. It cited the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah for making the decision. It says this years hajj, which will begin in mid-July, will be limited to those ages 18 to 65. Those taking part must be vaccinated, the ministry says. The case received extensive media coverage at the time, and Stone-Manning years later had to explain her involvement to Montana lawmakers prior to her confirmation to lead the states environment agency under former Gov. Steve Bullock. Its resurfacing comes as some Republicans have sought to undermine Stone-Manning's nomination, characterizing her as a partisan Democrat and environmental radical. Barrasso, of Wyoming, said after seeing the documents in the case that Stone-Manning's participation should disqualify her from heading the Bureau of Land Management, which regulates grazing, energy drilling, logging and other activities across 245 million acres (100 million hectares) primarily in the West. Tracy Stone-Manning collaborated with eco-terrorists, Barrasso said in a statement. She worked with extreme environmental activists who spiked trees, threatening the lives and livelihoods of loggers. While she was given immunity from prosecution to testify against her companions in court, her actions were disgraceful. Stone-Manning did not respond to telephone and text messages seeking comment. An administration official who asked not to be identified said officials knew about the criminal case and Stone-Manning's testimony prior to her nomination. JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) Where once there were pebbles, now sits an enormous troll. The recycled wooden sculpture, now lounging in Rendezvous Park, is the brainchild of Copenhagen artist Thomas Dambo, who has built trolls all over the world. Their whimsical construction beckons spectators to clamber aboard, and in the case of R Park, serves as a bridge to ferry the fun from the park to a nearby miniature island. Dambo named the Jackson Hole troll Mama Mimi, for her motherly guidance (plus Mimi is a good, strong Scandinavian name). Im super happy with it, the artist said of his 80th piece. It was nice to have a good time to really bust a high quality one out. Mimi is one of the few female trolls in Dambos small army, and apart from Runde Ries rope swing (hidden near Roskilde, tucked in a northern Denmark fjord) shes the first one to interact so closely with water. Even though its just a few feet up, crossing over on her extended leg can feel precarious, and if you glance back at her you just might topple into the water in fright. Her plywood visage is as tall as a human and you could almost imagine her gobbling one up if her expression wasnt so serene, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports. THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC GETS POLITICIZED Peterman said this hesitancy is partially attributable to the political influence on public health measures and the politicization of the entire coronavirus pandemic. The massive amount of political decision-making on treating a very serious disease and the huge amount of misinformation has made it challenging for doctors to explain (the science) to their patients, he said. Its just a shame that we have local and county politicians making recommendations about public health and vaccines when, frankly, they dont have the training ... We have to, at some point, trust our doctors and people who have done research (into) what is best for our adults, our children, our elderly. Though Epperly said hes noticed that some residents are driven by ideological thinking Kaiser Family Foundation surveys indicate that more than 80% of Democrats nationwide say they have received at least one dose of a vaccine, compared to 49% of Republicans many parents might have other things on their mind. When it comes to subjecting their children to this, what I believe is more significant is their concern about safety, he said. As with fanatics in much of history, Bundys anarchism only emboldened other malcontents and anti-law antics, such as those of gubernatorial candidate Janice McGeachin, Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, and others. Do we really want to give any more traction, much less support, to these Bundy-ites, his legislative supporters and this separatist movement? Idaho politics is already riven with conservative versus far-right discord. Do we want more of that? (AssociatedPress, 6/8). There has been secessionist and nullification talk among Idaho rightists for years, and even an occasional bill. Wisely, weve not gone down that road. Despite the break-away sentiment of some, it would take a broader base of support than appears evident, except among the McGeachin rightists. The splitting of states has happened only once in American history, when West Virginia broke away from the Confederacy during the Civil War to form a separate state in 1861-1862. Those were certainly unusual circumstances, and of not much use for a successionist effort by Eastern Oregon counties, much less by the Ammon Bundy mob and his sympathetic band of legislators. Idaho GOP party chairman Tom Luna says Bundy isnt welcome in the Idaho Republican Party,(GOP Statement, 6/4), but there are already plenty of Bundy-ites in this big elephant tent. The Oregon-Join-Idaho movement is yet another place where internal party politics is already in play. Expect McGeachin, Bundy and others to try to exploit it. The Idaho-Oregon union may seem appealing, but the union would clearly add to the break-away mentality already simmering. We need to examine the question, Is it good for Idaho, either for today or tomorrow? We shouldnt jump into this without a lot more answers. Stephen Hartgen, Twin Falls, is a retired five-term Republican member of the Idaho House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Commerce & Human Resources Committee. Previously, he was editor and publisher of The Times-News (1982-2005). He can be reached at Stephen_Hartgen@hotmail.com Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 There were no new cases, hospitalizations or deaths reported Sunday in the health district, and there have been only 50 cases in June. The 7-day average is at 3. On Friday, though, the Virginia Department of Health reported there are now 37 cases of variants of the novel coronavirus in the West Piedmont Health District, up by five from last week. All but two of the cases are the B.1.1.7 variant the most prevalent in the states 2,358 cases statewide. There have been 12 hospitalizations in the district caused by variants, an increase of 1 from last week, but no deaths. There have been 32 deaths statewide. Its unclear why the district still shows a potential for a surge, but UVa officials recently highlighted Patrick County among Virginia localities with the lowest vaccination rates. Patrick County is up to 33.5% of residents having had at least one shot of either Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and 29.4% are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had a second shot of those vaccines or one of Johnson & Johnson. Statewide 56.8% of residents have had one shot, and 47.4% are fully vaccinated, which are well below the levels of herd immunity that doctors are are pursuing. The committee official said the panel has continued to seek additional information, but the Justice Department has not been forthcoming on questions such as whether the investigation was properly predicated and whether it only focused on Democrats. It is unclear why Trump's Justice Department would have targeted a minor as part of the probe. Swalwell, confirming that he was told his records were seized, told CNN on Thursday night that he was aware a minor was involved and believed that person was "targeted punitively and not for any reason in law." On CNN Friday, Swalwell said he "would not be surprised" if the department had gone after other members as well. He said an internal Justice Department investigation could find that out. The Senate Intelligence Committee was not similarly targeted, according to a fourth person who was aware of the probe and granted anonymity to discuss it. There's no indication that the Justice Department used the records to prosecute anyone. After some of the information was declassified and made public during the later years of the Trump administration, some of the prosecutors were concerned that even if they could bring a leak case, trying it would be difficult and a conviction would be unlikely, one of the people said. What are the advantages of renting? Many of the new rental developments provide lawn mowing and other maintenance services that homeowners must provide themselves. Renters who decide they want to move on can move out with minimal fuss. Life is simpler. Renters dont receive bills for property taxes and plumbing repairs. These costs, of course, get tacked onto the rent, but renters dont have to burn brain cells figuring out what they should be paying to repave the driveway or for home insurance. And if todays renters eventually decide that homeownership is the preferred course, they will have the luxury of waiting for the right property at the right price. These real estate frenzies never last forever. But should former city folk find they miss their urban haunts and the boss wants them back in the office renters can just give the landlord notice. Homeowners, by contrast, would have to unload a property they own, which is expensive, stressful and not optimal when others are unloading at the same time. Of course, demand for rental homes has caused rents to rise as well. In fast-growing Reno, Nevada, for example, a 1,500 square-foot house that would have rented for $1,800 half a year ago now goes for around $2,500 a month, according to a real estate agent there. 3. Can any candidate from the western part of the state hope to win a statewide race? Given the states demographics that shift eastward (and northward) with every election, its hard. However, we cant say the answer is always going to be no because Rasoul showed a possible path. His second-place finish was better than the third- and fourth-place vote totals put together, and Mark Levine of Alexandria and Andria McClellan of Norfolk had the advantage of a base in the urban crescent. In most of Northern Virginia, Rasoul polled a very respectable second. In massive Fairfax County, Ayala took 33.5% to Rasouls 28.4% pretty impressive considering that Ayala came from next door and was presumably already part of the local political conversation and Rasoul came from west of the Blue Ridge and was a new figure. Rasoul conceivably could have won if not for some factors he had no control over. First, there was a sentiment among some Democratic voters that they shouldnt nominate an all-male ticket, and with McAuliffe and Herring winning big, that meant the only option for diversity was to nominate a woman for lieutenant governor. Second, the party establishment notably Gov. Ralph Northam and House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn lined up behind Ayala. As we saw in the overall results, the Democratic establishment counts for a lot. Third, Rasoul was hurt by the weakness of some of the other candidates. He especially did not fare well in Hampton Roads but neither did the local candidate, Andria McClellan. She didnt win her hometown; she didnt win anywhere, which opened the way for Ayala to roll up margins there. Still, McClellan would have had to more than double her performance, and take all those votes from Ayala, for Rasoul to have won. Rasoul did part of what he had to do maximize his western base, be competitive in Northern Virginia, but then his luck ran out. Workers at a mostly empty COVID-19 vaccination clinic located at Cathedral of the Cross A.O.H. Church of God in Birmingham, Ala., are shown in this Monday, May 3, 2021, file photo. New COVID-19 cases are declining across the most of the country, even in some states with vaccine-hesitant populations. But almost all states bucking that trend have lower-than-average vaccination rates, and experts warn that relief from the pandemic could be fleeting in regions where few people get inoculated. Credit: AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File New COVID-19 cases are declining across most of the country, even in some states with vaccine-hesitant populations. But almost all states bucking that trend have lower-than-average vaccination rates, and experts warn that relief from the pandemic could be fleeting in regions where few people get inoculated. Case totals nationally have declined in a week from a seven-day average of nearly 21,000 on May 29 to 14,315 on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. For weeks, states and cities have been dropping virus restrictions and mask mandates, even indoors. Experts said some states are seeing increased immunity because there were high rates of natural spread of the disease, which has so far killed nearly 600,000 Americans. "We certainly are getting some population benefit from our previous cases, but we paid for it," said Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. "We paid for it with deaths." More than 7,300 Mississippians have died in the pandemic, and the state has the sixth-highest per capita death rate. Dobbs estimated that about 60% of the state's residents have "some underlying immunity." "So we're now sort of seeing that effect, most likely, because we have a combination of natural and vaccine-induced immunity," Dobbs said. Just eight statesAlabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Missouri, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Wyominghave seen their seven-day rolling averages for infection rates rise from two weeks earlier, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. All of them except Hawaii have recorded vaccination rates that are lower than the US average of 43% fully vaccinated, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 10 states with the fewest new cases per capita over that time frame all have fully vaccinated rates above the national average. P.M. Browner, 88, speaks about her apprehension over receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, while waiting for a transportation bus at the Rev. S.L.A. Jones Activity Center for the Elderly to take her and other seniors to the Aaron E. Henry Community Health Service Center to receive a vaccination, in Clarksdale, Miss., in this April 7, 2021, file photo. New COVID-19 cases are declining across the most of the country, even in some states with vaccine-hesitant populations. But almost all states bucking that trend have lower-than-average vaccination rates, and experts warn that relief from the pandemic could be fleeting in regions where few people get inoculated. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File Medical experts said a host of factors is playing into the drop in case counts across the country, including vaccines, natural immunity from exposure to the virus, warmer weather and people spending less time indoors. But Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, said she is concerned that the natural immunity of those who have been exposed to coronavirus may soon wane. And she's worried that states with low vaccination rates could become hot spots. "Just because we're lucky in June doesn't mean we'll continue to be lucky come the late fall and winter," said Wen, the former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore. "We could well have variants here that are more transmissible, more virulent and those who do not have immunity or have waning immunity could be susceptible once again." In Mississippi, about 835,000 people have been fully vaccinated, or 28% of the population. But despite the lagging vaccination rate, the state's rolling average of daily new cases over the past two weeks has decreased by about 18%, according to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Albert Ko, who chairs Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale, said there is no accurate data to show what percentage of the population in "high burden" states such as Alabama or Texas have been exposed to the virus, but he said estimates have put it as high as 50%. "I think it doesn't deny the importance of vaccination, particularly because the levels of antibodies that you get that are induced by natural infection are lower than that of what we have for our best vaccine," Ko said. Ko said it is important that even those exposed to the disease get vaccinated because natural immunity does not last as long as vaccine immunity and the levels of antibodies are lower. Wen said research strongly suggests that vaccinations provide a benefit to those who already have some antibodies due to infection. "I think it is a fallacy that many people have that recovery means they no longer need to be vaccinated," she said. 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Although the state has plans to leave, in the interim it has negotiated a two-year no-cost lease with the Corps and an option to renew at one-year intervals. However, Worsech said hed like to see a tribal member shadowing the state park manager as soon as possible to learn about the sites operations and infrastructure. The goal is for the tribe to take over the lease when the state leaves, although the Little Shell would have to submit a new application to the Corps. Gerald Gray, tribal first vice-chairman, said he was hopeful the visit by the Corps Omaha staff would result in the Little Shell receiving a memorandum of understanding. Like Thomas, however, hes seen nothing in writing yet. The transition plan will need to be initiated by the state and worked out between FWP, the Little Shell Tribe and the Corps, Newman said. As part of that, the tribe will need to develop a long-term management plan for the area if they want a lease that exceeds the 10 years originally offered to FWP, the Corps administrator added. Gorillas now operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York, where it faces U.S. incumbents such as Gopuff. But strikes like those in Berlin show trouble is brewing in its home market. The rowdy but peaceful protest late Wednesday drew support from employees of rival delivery services, some of whom downed their colorful courier bags to join the picket. Eventually Gorillas agreed to close the depot for the night, drawing cheers from the protesters. The next day, riders blockaded another warehouse, making clear their gripes go beyond the firing of a single colleague. In the last six months, that Ive been here Ive noticed so many ways that the company is doing things in an unjustified way, said rider Huseyin Camalan. Were here to stand against that. Its part of a larger thing. Camalan said many riders suffer from back pain and other health problems due to the heavy bags they have to carry. Faulty bikes, a limited say in their shifts and lack of administrative support are also a problem, he said. When riders send emails asking for help, they rarely get a reply, Camalan said, adding "They ignore us. However, as hardworking families on Main Street know all too well, nothing is free, and helping large corporations never comes without consequence. The Durbin amendment is no exception to this rule. It caused many banks, which faced massive revenue shortfalls thanks to this corporate legislative giveaway, to eliminate free checking and credit rewards for consumers. Some banks closed altogether because of revenue losses that emanated from the Durbin amendment, causing more than 1 million Americans (and countless Montanans) to lose access to mainstream financial services. But Durbin doesnt appear to believe hes caused enough hardship just yet. He and Senate colleague Sanders are thirsty for more and now want to do the exact same thing to your credit card. According to federal estimates, the average consumer gets about $170 each year from their credit card rewards and points. Based on what weve learned from the last 10 years, those will be the first to go if Sanders and Durbin get their way on the Senate floor. For countless consumers and small businesses, it is those perks that fund trips to and from Montana. They serve as an immediate source of revolving capital for those on all rungs of the economic ladder. I applaud the Biden administrations commitment to bolster the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and to address the root causes that have forced their citizens to flee to the United States. This week Vice President Kamala Harris completed her visit to the region with some agreements with the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico designed to address poverty, persecution, corruption and security concerns. With pledges of U.S. aid, Vice President Harris voiced support and words of hope for the people of the region, including non-governmental organizations. The difficulty of the strategy cannot be understated. A recent June 6 article in the New York Times recounted that despite the billions of dollars of U.S. aid, conditions in the region have not improved. One major issue has been the recipients of US.. funds: From 2016 to 2020, 80% of the American-financed development projects in Central America has been entrusted to American contractors, according to data provided by U.S.A.I.D. While large for-profit contractors have the capacity to manage huge contracts, development experts have stated that 50% of the contracts could be directed to salaries and overhead in the U.S. All too often the projects are ineffective and not what communities on the ground need. Jeannette Rankin was born in Missoula 141 years ago on June 11, 1880. While many of us are familiar with her political history and votes for peace during both world wars, there is much more to her story. A woman of great conviction and courage, Rankin observed life at the turn of the last century with a deep sense of empathy for the women, children and families who lived in poverty and without legal protections. After graduating from the University of Montana, her experiences and observations from Boston to Seattle and beyond inspired her to take direct action for a more just society. Ultimately, her commitment to humanity and equality helped shape our democracy and continues to make a tangible impact. While working in San Francisco, she noted women suffered from the oppression of bigoted and antiquated laws and a total lack of legal protection. Later working as a social worker in orphanages in Spokane and Seattle, she realized that reform would not come from within institutions but by influencing the laws which governed them. The suffrage spirit sparked within her. In 1913, she led the suffrage movement in Montana, and a year later Montana became the 10th state to grant women the right to vote. In November 1916, Rankin ran and won to represent Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress. First of all, let me apologize for last Sundays column. It was not what I had originally intended to send in; todays column should have run last week. Last Sunday was the 6th of June, 77 years to the day after the greatest amphibious invasion in the history of the world, when Allied Forces came ashore on the coast of Normandy, France, on D-Day 1944, during World War II. The R&L ran five photos on page A-2 in last Sundays newspaper concerning D-Day. The first and largest photo, showed assault troops crammed in a landing craft called a Higgins boat, heading toward one of the landing beaches. In Navy nomenclature, the vessel was a LCVP, the initials standing for Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel. It was designed to hold 36 fully-armed soldiers. Try to visualize for a moment what that might have been like. The men probably got little sleep the night before. Then the men endured the choppy crossing of the English Channel between two storm fronts, then climbed down a cargo net into a bobbing landing craft, wearing full equipment. The men would have gotten wet, cold and would most likely have lost their breakfasthad they been inclined to eat any--in the landing craft. And assuming they actually made it to the beach, there was the short, terrifying run across the sand and shale to the sea wall, under fire from Nazi artillery and small arms. "Let's face it. It's time to move forward," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, told CNN regarding the bipartisan group's negotiations. "The Republicans have held us up long enough." And that's to say nothing of the House, where Democrats also hold a very narrow majority. *** White House reaction The new money in the agreement could represent slightly more than half of Biden's initial physical infrastructure proposal and a senior administration official told CNN that makes it worth exploring. The lack of tax increases doesn't make it a nonstarter, the official added, saying that potentially acceptable pay-fors that the White House still considers in play are "user fees" on corporations, not individuals, and tougher IRS enforcement. The efforts of the group, made up of moderate members of both parties, took on new importance after Biden broke off talks with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a Republican who had been empowered by GOP leadership to negotiate with the White House on behalf of the conference. The senators had been negotiating behind closed doors for several weeks before announcing they had come to an agreement. Share this: This page provides a brief overview of the commission and home rule charter forms of county government in Washington State and the consolidated city-county option for home rule charter counties. Overview Washingtons counties derive their powers from the state constitution, which establishes the legal framework for county government and lists the duties and powers of the governing bodies. Article 11, section 5 of the Washington State Constitution authorizes the state legislature to provide for a system of county classification based on population, but the legislature abandoned the system of formal county classes in 1991 and instead uses the most current county population figures to distinguish counties. Washington counties are organized under two forms of government: the commission form and the home rule charter form. Commission Form Article 11, section 5 of the Washington Constitution makes the commission form the standard form of county government throughout the state for counties that do not adopt a home rule charter and sets forth, in general terms, the governmental structure that all commission counties must have. Of Washington's 39 counties, 32 "noncharter" counties operate under the commission form of government provided by state law. The commission form is often referred to as the "plural executive" form of government. Under the commission form, the county governing body consists of a three-member board of commissioners, elected on a partisan basis, who serve as the county's legislative body and also perform executive functions. Counties with populations greater than 300,000 can increase the size of the commission from three to five members (RCW 36.32.055 36.32.0558). Basic authority and procedures for board of county commissioners are set forth in Ch. 36.32 RCW. While the county commissioners establish the budget and act as the county legislative body, they share administrative functions with several other independently-elected county officials, including a clerk, treasurer, sheriff, assessor, coroner, and auditor (or recorder). The county prosecuting attorney and the judges of the superior court are also independently elected. Although there is no constitutional or statutory requirement for county commissioners to delegate any of their executive authority to a separately-appointed administrator, many of them have, to a limited degree, chosen to do so. "Home Rule" Charter Form Article 11, section 4 of the state constitution was amended in 1948 to provide the option for counties to adopt "home rule" charters to provide their own form of government that may be different from the commission form prescribed by state law. Home rule charters can provide for any county officers deemed necessary to perform county functions, but they cannot affect the election of the prosecuting attorney, the county superintendent of schools, the judges of the superior court, and the justices of the peace, or the jurisdiction of the courts. As outlined in the constitution, the charter process involves electing a group of 15-25 freeholders who are responsible for developing a proposed charter that is voted on by the electorate. Charter Process Case Study: A Brief History of the Development and Passage of Clark County's Home Rule Charter. Seven Washington counties have successfully adopted home rule charters - King (1969), Clallam (1977), Whatcom (1979), Snohomish (1980), Pierce (1981), San Juan (2006), and Clark (2015). Several other counties, including Kitsap (1971), Island (1976 and 1995), Thurston (1978), Cowlitz (1998), Ferry (1993), Skamania (1994), Spokane (1995), Yakima (2011), Asotin (2012 and 2013), Jefferson (2013), Lewis (2018), and Skagit (2018) counties, have tried and failed to adopt charters. After adoption of a charter, the powers, authority, and duties of county officers provided for by state law, except for the prosecuting attorney, are vested in the county legislative authority, unless the charter expressly assigns powers and duties to specific officers. The duties of the board of county commissioners and other elected officers may also be modified by charter. The commissioners and other elected officers may be entirely replaced, subject to certain restrictions. Charter counties generally choose between two types of forms of government: Council-Elected Executive Form In the council-elected executive form, the county executive is elected by the voters and serves as the head of the executive branch of government. The county council is the legislative branch of government, and it enacts ordinances, adopts the budget, and exercises oversight of the administration. Its role is similar to the role of a city council in a mayor-council city. The county executive has the power to veto legislation; however, a veto can be overridden by the council with a two-thirds majority vote or greater. The county executive proposes policies to the council, executes policies adopted by the council, prepares a budget, and has responsibility for general administration of the county. The county executive appoints and may dismiss department heads, generally with the consent of the council. The county executive's role is similar to the role of a mayor in a mayor-council city. Commission/Council-Appointed Administrator Form In this form, an elected body, be it a county commission or council, continues to have the policy-making, legislative, and budget-adoption functions. However, the council or commission delegates all or a portion of its administrative authority to an appointed professional administrator with the specific intent of enhancing administrative coordination and control functions. As an appointed official, the county administrator serves at the pleasure of the council or commission. Other important aspects that charter counties must choose include: Elected Official Partisanship . While all county elected offices in noncharter counties, other than judicial offices, are partisan offices, charter counties may choose if their elected positions are partisan or not. . While all county elected offices in noncharter counties, other than judicial offices, are partisan offices, charter counties may choose if their elected positions are partisan or not. Initiative and Referendum . Home rule charters can also provide the powers of initiative and referendum to the citizens of the county, and all existing charter counties have done so. For more information, see our page Initiative and Referendum Powers. . Home rule charters can also provide the powers of initiative and referendum to the citizens of the county, and all existing charter counties have done so. For more information, see our page Initiative and Referendum Powers. Elected vs. Appointed Officials. A county charter can make any elected county official, except the prosecuting attorney and superior court judges, an appointed rather than an elected position. Most of the charter counties have done so only selectively. A number of counties have made the Office of the County Clerk and the Office of the Medical Examiner into appointed positions but most others remain elected. Comparison of Washington Charter Counties Below is a list of all charter counties, including links to their respective charters, information on their form of government, and a list of which officials are elected and appointed under their charters. For more information on the roles and responsibilities of many of these officials, see our page County Elected and Appointed Officials. County Form Council/Commission Other Elected Appointed King (1969) Charter Council-Elected Executive 9-member (NP) County Executive (NP); Assessor (NP); Prosecuting Attorney (NP); Director of Elections (NP) Auditor; County Administrative Officer; Treasury Operations Manager; Clerk; Medical Examiner; Sheriff Clallam (1977) Charter Commission-Appointed Administrator 3-member (P) Assessor (NP); Prosecuting Attorney/Coroner (NP); Auditor (NP); Sheriff (NP); Treasurer (NP); Community Development Director (NP) County Administrator; Clerk Whatcom (1979) Charter Council-Elected Executive 7-member (NP) County Executive (NP); Assessor (NP); Prosecuting Attorney (P); Auditor (NP); Sheriff (NP); Treasurer (NP) Clerk Clerk; Deputy Administrator; Medical Examiner Snohomish (1980) Charter Council-Elected Executive 5-member (P) County Executive (P); Prosecuting Attorney (P); Assessor (NP); Auditor (NP); Sheriff (NP); Clerk (NP); Treasurer (NP) Medical Examiner Pierce (1981) Charter Council-Elected Executive 7-member (P) County Executive (P); Prosecuting Attorney (P); Sheriff (P); Assessor-Treasurer (P); Auditor (P) Clerk; Medical Examiner San Juan (2006) Charter Council-Appointed Administrator 3-member (NP) Prosecuting Attorney/Coroner (P); Assessor (NP); Auditor (NP); Clerk (NP); Sheriff (NP); Treasurer (NP) County Manager Clark (2015) Charter Council-Appointed Administrator 5-member (P) Assessor (P); Auditor (P); Clerk (P); Prosecuting Attorney (P); Sheriff (P); Treasurer (P) County Manager, Medical Examiner (P) = partisan, (NP) = nonpartisan Consolidated City-County Government At the same time the state constitution was amended in 1948 to allow counties to adopt "home rule" charters, another amendment was adopted to allow counties with a "home rule" charter to provide for the formation and government of a combined city and county municipal corporation known as a "city-county." The same procedures applicable to the adoption of a county charter also govern the adoption of a city-county charter, except that the only method of beginning the combined city-county charter process is through a voter petition. There is no minimum population requirement. In addition to providing for an alternative form of county government, a city-county charter may also merge the county with cities and other municipal corporations within its boundaries. Consolidated city-county governments have been proposed as a way to improve local government service provision by eliminating conflicts between competing levels of local government. Although a few Washington counties have explored this option, no combined city-county governments have yet been formed. Recommended Resources Share this: To see the classification and form of government of any city or town, see MRSCs Washington City and Town Profiles . This page provides a basic overview of the mayor-council, council-manager, and commission forms of government in Washington State, including relevant statutes, statistics, and procedures for changing form of government. Overview Washington cities and towns are organized under two principal forms of government, sometimes referred to as plans of government: mayor-council and council-manager. (This is in addition to and separate from the city's classification, such as a first class or code city.) In addition, state law permits larger cities to voluntarily adopt charters unique to their communities under certain circumstances as described below. In general, choosing the form of government is not a matter of how much legislative and/or administrative authority the city or town will have, but rather the distribution of authority between the legislative and executive officials. For a brief overview of the common arguments for and against each form of government, see MRSC's handout on Common Issues and Pro/Con Arguments in Elections to Change Form of Government. More details regarding each form, as well as examples of cities that have changed form of government, are provided below. Mayor-Council Form Mayor-council is the oldest and most common form of government in Washington, including small towns and large cities alike. However, while most cities in Washington use the mayor-council system, the vast majority of cities that have incorporated or successfully changed form of government since 1970 have adopted the council-manager system. The basic structure and organization of mayor-council cities is set out in chapter 35A.12 RCW for code cities; also see chapter 35.22 RCW for first class cities, chapter 35.23 RCW for second class cities, and chapter 35.27 RCW for towns. The mayor-council form consists of a mayor elected at-large, who serves as the city's chief administrative officer, and a separately elected council (elected either at-large or from districts) which serves as the municipality's legislative body. This separation of powers is based on the traditional federal and state models in the United States. The council has the authority to formulate and adopt city policies and the mayor is responsible for carrying them out. The mayor attends and presides over council meetings but does not vote, except in the case of a tie. The mayor also has veto authority over legislation (except for towns), but the veto can be overridden by the council as specified in the municipality's statutes or charter. (For more information, see our page on Council Voting.) In all but the largest cities, elected mayors and councilmembers serve on a part-time basis, leaving most of the day-to-day operations to administrative personnel. Nationally, mayor-council governments are often classified as either "strong mayor" or "weak mayor" types depending on the degree of executive authority that is concentrated in the mayor's office. However, by providing veto authority (except for towns), the Washington State legislature essentially provided for a strong mayor system. Hybrid City Administrator System Many mayor-council cities have hired professional city administrators, chief administrative officers, or similarly titled positions to serve under the mayor. The city administrator is usually a full-time position responsible for many administrative and policy-related duties such as budget preparation, personnel administration, and department supervision. In essence, this is a hybrid model between the mayor-council and council-manager systems, retaining a separately elected mayor who is responsible for administration, but providing for professional management of the city's day-to-day operations. In theory, this also frees the mayor from the need to attend to administrative details and allows the mayor to focus greater attention on policy development, political leadership, and potentially their own private employment apart from city government. See the code provisions below for a few examples: Practice Tip: For some perspective and personal experiences regarding the hybrid mayor/city administrator approach, see Public Management Magazine: The Unofficial Role of the Administrator (2008), written by one of MRSC's former staff members. Council-Manager Form Council-manager is the other common form of government in Washington, including quite a few medium-to-large cities. While it is not as common as the mayor-council form, the vast majority of cities that have incorporated or successfully changed form of government since 1970 have adopted the council-manager system. The basic structure and organization of council-manager governments is set out in chapter 35.18 RCW (non-code cities) and chapter 35A.13 RCW (code cities). The council-manager form consists of an elected city council (which may be elected at-large or from districts) which is responsible for policymaking, and a professional city manager, appointed by the council, who is responsible for administration. The city manager provides policy advice, directs the daily operations of city government, handles personnel functions (including the power to appoint and remove employees) and is responsible for preparing the city budget. Under the council-manager statutes, the city council is prohibited from interfering with the manager's administration. The city manager, however, is directly accountable to and can be removed by a majority vote of the council at any time. The council-manager form aims to improve public services and make them more efficient by introducing professional management and removing politics from the day-to-day administration. This is based on the model of a business with a board of directors that appoints a chief executive officer; another familiar public example is the school board-superintendent relationship. However, as noted earlier quite a few mayor-council cities have hired professional administrators to work toward similar goals. In council-manager cities, a ceremonial mayor presides at council meetings and is recognized as the head of the city for ceremonial purposes but has no regular administrative duties. The mayor is generally selected by the city council and this person must also be a councilmember. (According to the provisions of RCW 35A.13.033, the charter of a first class city or the voters of an optional municipal code city may provide for the "mayor" council position to be directly elected by the people.) Comparison of Mayor-Council vs. Council-Manager Characteristics Mayor-Council Council-Manager Legislative authority Council Council Executive authority Elected mayor Appointed manager Selection of CEO Popularly elected Appointed by council on the basis of experience Removal of CEO Recall election Removed by a majority vote of the council Tenure of executive 4-year term Indefinite Tenure of council 4-year term 4-year term Appointment of department heads Mayor (with council confirmation if provided) Manager (no council confirmation) Removal of department heads Mayor Manager Veto Mayor (except for towns) Manager has no veto Policy development Mayor can propose Manager can recommend Policy implementation Mayor Manager Underlying principles Separation of powers; Political leadership; Strong central executive Separation of politics from administration; Promotes economy and efficiency through professional management; Strong central executive; Follows business model Commission Form (No Longer in Use) While the commission form of government is still common among counties, it is now largely obsolete among cities. There are no longer any commission cities in Washington; the last remaining commission city Shelton, which also employed a city administrator switched to a council-manager system in 2017. The basic structure and organization of the commission form of government is laid out in chapter 35.17 RCW. The commission form provides for the election of three commissioners who function collectively as the city's legislative body and individually as city department heads. The public safety commissioner also serves as mayor but essentially has the same powers as the other commissioners, with no veto power and no authority over other departments. City Charters Cities with local charters can adopt a form of government that does not necessarily adhere to the statutory rules. First class cities and optional municipal code cities with a population over 10,000 may use charters to establish their form of government. However, only one code city (Kelso) has done this. The National Civic League has published a Guide for Charter Commissions and Model City Charter to help with reviewing and updating charters. Below are links to all city charters adopted in Washington, along with the dates they were originally adopted. Mayor-Council City Charters Aberdeen (1929) (1929) Bellingham (1973) (1973) Bremerton (1973) (1973) Everett (1968) (1968) Seattle (original charter 1896; current charter 1946) (original charter 1896; current charter 1946) Spokane (1910) Council-Manager City Charters Kelso (1993; code city) (1993; code city) Richland (1958) (1958) Tacoma (1953) (1953) Vancouver (1952) (1952) Yakima (1931) Reorganizing/Changing Form of Government Any city may change its form of government and adopt another authorized form of government. In general, the procedure may be initiated either by a resolution adopted by the city council or by a petition process, both of which are then followed by an election on the issue of reorganizing under a different form of government. The procedures differ slightly depending on the type classification of the city or town. Non-code cities and towns can adopt or abandon the council-manager form of government through chapter 35.18 RCW, while code cities can change their form of government through the procedures in chapter 35A.06 RCW. For cities with charters, changing the form of government requires a charter amendment. Sample Petition for Election to Reorganize MRSC has developed a sample petition for use by code cities. It is worded to reflect a change from the mayor-council form of government to council-manager but can be easily revised for a change from council-manager to mayor-council if desired. Below are examples of resolutions to change form of government. Examples Adopting Council-Manager Form Examples Adopting Mayor-Council Form Incorporations by Form of Government Since 1970 Since 1970, almost all new cities have incorporated under the council-manager system, although a small number later switched to mayor-council. Below is a list. Cities Incorporating Under Council-Manager Form Ocean Shores (1970, switched to mayor-council in 2007) (1970, switched to mayor-council in 2007) Mill Creek (1983) (1983) SeaTac (1990) (1990) Federal Way (1990, switched to mayor-council in 2009) (1990, switched to mayor-council in 2009) Woodinville (1993) (1993) Burien (1993) (1993) Newcastle (1994) (1994) Shoreline (1995) University Place (1995) (1995) Lakewood (1996) (1996) Edgewood (1996, switched to mayor-council in 2014) (1996, switched to mayor-council in 2014) Covington (1997) (1997) Maple Valley (1997) (1997) Kenmore (1998) (1998) Sammamish (1999) (1999) Spokane Valley (2003) Cities Incorporating Under Mayor-Council Form Liberty Lake (2001) Cities Changing Form of Government Since 1970 Since 1970, approximately two-thirds of the cities that have successfully changed form of government have adopted the council-manager form; below is a list. (This list does not include cities that unsuccessfully attempted to change form of government in that timeframe.) Cities Changing to Council-Manager Form Snohomish (1972, reverted to mayor-council in 2016) (1972, reverted to mayor-council in 2016) Bothell (1973) (1973) Lacey (1973) (1973) Toppenish (1973) (1973) Chehalis (1975) (1975) Ferndale (1981, reverted to mayor-council in 1999) (1981, reverted to mayor-council in 1999) Blaine (1982) (1982) Olympia (1982) (1982) Centralia (1986) (1986) Goldendale (1986, reverted to mayor-council in 1994) (1986, reverted to mayor-council in 1994) Fircrest (1988) Ephrata (1995, reverted to mayor-council in 2003) (1995, reverted to mayor-council in 2003) Sequim (1995) (1995) Battle Ground (1996) (1996) Port Townsend (1998) (1998) Fife (1999) (1999) Carnation (2000) (2000) Ridgefield (2000) (2000) Airway Heights (2002) (2002) Bainbridge Island (2009) (2009) Union Gap (2013) (2013) Granite Falls (2015) (2015) Shelton (2017) (2017) Washougal (2018) Cities Changing to Mayor-Council Form Bonney Lake (1973) (1973) Anacortes (1982) (1982) Goldendale (1994) (1994) Raymond (1998) (1998) Ferndale (1999) (1999) Wenatchee (1999) Spokane (2001) (2001) Ephrata (2003) (2003) Ocean Shores (2007) (2007) Federal Way (2009) (2009) Edgewood (2014) (2014) Snohomish (2016) Number of Cities Using Each Form of Government Below is the current number of cities by classification and form of government, as well as a snapshot of how these numbers have changed over time. To see the classification and form of government for any individual city or town, see MRSC's Washington City and Town Profiles. Class Mayor-Council Council-Manager CURRENT TOTAL First 6 4 10 Second 5 0 5 Town 68 0 68 Code 147 50 197 Unclassified 1 0 1 CURRENT TOTAL 227 54 281 Cote said hes been working 15 paid and 15 unpaid hours every week to get the warehouse ready. Im ready for a vacation, he said. Cote said he plans to take a step back from the warehouse and let the staff handle things. To get the warehouse ready, staff and volunteers repainted some surfaces blue and reorganized the entire inventory. Now, every donated product is easily visible in neat aisles or organized displays. According to Ralph, this wasnt always the case the resale warehouse was a bit of a mess. Not anymore. ReStore opened as a clean and organized warehouse, complete with a table set up with cupcakes and Doritos. Miller said they were completely swamped with donations when they reopened. Miller said ReStore staff is proud of the store. They feel like its going to be one of the better ReStores in the nation, Miller said. This was nothing less than a gross abuse of power, Schumer said of the seized records. I dont think weve ever had a record of this in the past. This is about separation of powers. President Joe Biden has nominated Matt Olsen, an executive at Uber who has experience in the Justice Department and served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center and as general counsel for the National Security Agency, to be the next assistant attorney general for national security. But Demers has remained in place while Olsen awaits a confirmation hearing in the Senate. The former Boeing airline executive is one of the few remaining Trump appointees still in office. The records of at least 12 people connected to the House intelligence panel were eventually shared with the Justice Department by Apple after the subpoena was issued in 2018, including aides, former aides and family members. One was a minor. The subpoena, issued Feb. 6, 2018, requested information on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses, Apple said. It also included a non-disclosure order that prohibited the company from notifying any of the people and was renewed three times, the company said in a statement. MUSCATINE The intersection of Iowa Avenue at 2nd Street will be closed from Monday until around July 26, Muscatine Department of Public Works said in a news release. The closure is part of the 2nd Street Streetscape Project. Throughout the next five weeks, weather permitting, the pavement will be removed and replaced and brick crosswalks will be installed. KE Flatwork, Inc., is the prime contractor. Businesses in this intersection will still be accessible throughout the construction period. For the 100 block of 2nd Street, enter through the Chestnut Street intersection for the west side or the Sycamore Street intersection for the east side. Durig the closure, there will be no exit onto Iowa. All other traffic will be detoured onto Mississippi Drive, 3rd Street, Chestnut Street or Sycamore Street. KE Flatwork is expected to complete work in the 100 block of East 2nd Street, by June 25. The two remaining blocks will be closed in one direction as work is completed. West 2nd Street will be worked on from July 26 to September 27, first from Iowa to Chestnut and then from Chestnut to Pine. CHICAGO (AP) Chicago officials declared the city fully reopened on Friday, ending a requirement that people wear face masks in most indoor places and lifting capacity limits intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Chicago sometimes veered from the states restrictions and opted to be stricter or more lenient than the state required. But city officials decided to join the rest of Illinois in lifting restrictions Friday, nearly 15 months after Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued the first stay-at-home order as COVID-19 cases began to rise. People who are not vaccinated must still wear a mask indoors, and everyone will still need to wear masks inside health care facilities, jails, shelters, schools, taxis, ride-hailing vehicles and on public transportation. And businesses can still opt to require people to wear masks on their premises. According to the city's Department of Public Health, about 45% of Chicago residents were fully vaccinated as of Thursday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged that the rate is lower in some parts of the city, particularly in the largely Black communities on the South Side. Folks, get the vaccine, Lightfoot said at a news conference Friday. Its widely available, its free and its safe. In Illinois, if the governor doesn't sign legislation establishing new maps by June 30 the job shifts to a bipartisan commission. So Democrats, citing June 30 as their deadline, used the American Community Survey to draw the boundaries something MALDEF and more than 50 other human and civil rights organizations have opposed. Unlike the census, which seeks to count each person, the ACS is an annual sample of a fraction of households used to estimate household characteristics, such as education level and household income. The estimates used by the General Assembly come from data gathered over a five-year period, making it less current than the census, MALDEF argues. Saenz said he's concerned about getting an accurate count because if Latino residents are overrepresented in a district it's a missed opportunity and obligation to create another Latino district. There is no way to know for sure if Illinois Democrats accurately drew the lines or for residents to weigh in on them because the full data for each district hasn't been released, he said. Pritzker said during his 2018 campaign for governor that an independent commission should draw political boundaries and that he would veto politician-drawn maps. But he noted in recent weeks that no commission had materialized and instead promised to veto any map that was unfair. The Gun Violence Archive, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines mass shootings as those involving four or more people who were shot, regardless of whether they died. Overall, according to its database, more than 8,700 people have died of gun violence in the U.S. this year. The GVA also found that mass shootings spiked in 2020 to about 600, which was higher than in any of the previous six years it tracked the statistic. According to this year's count, there have been at least 267 mass shootings in the U.S. so far, including the latest three overnight Friday into Saturday. Its worrisome, Fox said. We have a blend of people beginning to get out and about in public. We have lots of divisiveness. And we have more guns and warm weather. Its a potentially deadly mix. This story has been corrected in the 13th paragraph that two mass killings in 2020 marked lowest annual total in a decade, according to a database tracker. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. 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. Supporters of state Rep. Mike Nearman heckle Oregon legislators, after they voted 59-1 to expel him on June 10, 2021 for letting protesters into the state Capitol during a session in Dec. 2020 in Salem, Oregon. However, as time passed, Storm was generally referred to as the Maker of the Bear Flag. A Napa Register article reporting on Admission Day festivities, dated Sept. 13, 1873, verified this point. It said, Mr. Sam Brannan spoke of the famous Sonoma Revolt, the Bear Flag, and the fact the man who painted it was present. At this, Mr. Peter Storm stood up, his head white with the lapse of years, and held out a little flag, the counterpart, in size and painting, of the original Bear Flag, which is now preserved in the Hall of the Pioneer in San Francisco. The old man and his flag were greeted with cheers and the band struck up a few notes in his honor. By the time of the 1873 Admission Day celebration, Storm was 74 years old and had lived in Napa County for about 40 years. That residency began when the 33-year-old Storm arrived in California in 1833. Peter George Storm, a native of Christiansand, Norway, was born into an affluent family in 1799. He enjoyed the advantages of wealth, including private schooling. He also relished the companionship of his siblings. The memories of those days often brought tears to his eyes. But at the tender age of 14, Storm embarked on a 20-year odyssey sailing away from his childhood home, family, and financial security in 1813, never to return. SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) A Southern California sheriff's sergeant who was shot and killed last week after an attempted traffic stop was memorialized Friday as an inspiring leader and a role model for his grieving family. Relatives, law enforcement personnel and members of the public attended the service for San Bernardino County sheriffs Sergeant Dominic Vaca. The deputy had a heart of gold," Sheriff John McMahon said. Vaca, 43, was killed on Memorial Day after a motorcyclist, Bilal Winston Shabazz, opened fire on him near Yucca Valley, authorities said. Shabazz, 29, was fatally shot by deputies after exchanging gunfire. Vaca is survived by a 4-month-old girl and an 11-year-old daughter, who spoke at his service. He protected people he didnt even know, just like he protected me, my baby sister, my mom and all our family, she said. He taught me to be brave, kind and always take care of my family." Vaca, an Army veteran, was eulogized as a hard worker who earned his colleagues trust. Perhaps the more interesting question is whether there should be military registration at all. In 2019, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress that would abolish the Selective Service System entirely, and repeal all state and federal sanctions for failing to register, which include denial of federal student aid and job training as well as federal jobs. Also, at least on paper, violators face fines of up to $250,000 and/or five years in jail, but no one has been indicted for failing to register since 1986 and that case was dismissed before trial. "No young person, regardless of gender, should be subject to a military draft or be forced to register for a draft in the United States," said one of the House bill's sponsors, Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon. "The military draft registration system is an unnecessary, wasteful bureaucracy which unconstitutionally violates Americans' civil liberties. We should be abolishing military draft registration altogether, not expanding it." For feminists with pacifist tendencies like me, the issue of all-gender Selective Service registration poses a dilemma. If we force anyone to register, we should force everyone to register, right? But is the system really necessary at all? Armenia Ombudsman calls on Artsakh-Armenians to remove or block phone numbers, personal data on social networks Armenia acting minister: Two new electric trains to transport passengers to and from Yerevan and Gyumri soon Body of 33-year-old man found hanged in Armenia's Lori Province Karabakh State Minister: I also have questions regarding loss of Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages Armenia Ambassador to Ukraine hands copies of credentials to Ukrainian MFA leadership Erdogan defends Turkey's withdrawal from Istanbul Convention Parliament of Morocco recognizes 'third sex' 11 apprehended during opening ceremony of Tbilisi Pride Week Armenian analyst: Opposition could have won the elections, if it used the right technologies Adam Schiff: We have been able to secure more than $52,000,000 in funding for Armenia and Artsakh Court declares head of Armenia's Odzun village as victim under criminal case, there is no accused Direct flights to and from Kazakhstan and Armenia restored Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of 2 more soldiers found in Hadrut, Varanda and Jrakan Karabakh Security Council Secretary discusses issues related to water supply and power supply Armenian analyst: Turkey wants to do everything possible to absorb Azerbaijani army, turn it into subdivision 'Armenia' bloc to apply to Constitutional Court with demand to annul results of elections in coming days Catholicos Aram I meets with Pope Francis at Vatican Independent MP sues Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker Lena Nazaryan for calling her 'an idiot' Digest: US House calls for at least $50m aid to Armenia, New Jersey recognizes Artsakh independence Did China's Ambassador to Azerbaijan talk about the "Zangezur corridor"? Armenia 3rd President sends congratulatory message to China's Jinping FM: Armenian statehood will become geopolitically disabled without Artsakh Armenia fuel company owner Barsegh Beglaryan says he won't plead guilty and didn't incite anyone Armenia 1st Military Unit participants in recent Artsakh war are solemnly demobilized (PHOTOS) Armenia Environment Ministry: 1,650 structures being dismantled in lakeside zone of Lake Sevan Armenia acting PM's ex-chief of staff to serve as Member of Parliament Karabakh President makes new appointment Karabakh: Searches for remains of servicemen continue in southern direction not under Artsakh's control Armenia ex-President Sargsyan on criminal charge against him: The accusation is completely false Google to change rules for finding information on web Azerbaijan declares impossibility of Armenia lawyers defending Armenian captives in Baku Armenia Parliament approves several amendments to existing laws Dollar holding steady in Armenia Republican Party of Armenia vice-president summoned to Investigative Committee after returning from Brussels Armenia acting PM attends meeting dedicated to 103rd anniversary of prosecutor's office Karabakh State Minister: Artsakh is planning to build a few reservoirs Karabakh State Minister: Artsakh should prepare for elections, but under one condition Faction of Armenia acting PM's political party votes against the bill that it introduced Armenia Special Investigation Service ex-chief's son, official Narek Shahinyan stabbed in Yerevan Kuwait announces launch of its first own satellite on Falcon 9 launch vehicle Total amount of US assistance to Armenia to increase by $12.94m Armenia President sends congratulatory message to Canada PM Armenia acting territorial administration and infrastructure minister on news about being appointed Deputy PM Judicial farce against Armenian captives continues in Azerbaijan Oil rises in price Artsakh state minister believes Russian peacekeepers presence is not limited to 5 years Additional opportunities created to organize protection of right to self-determination, says Karabakh state minister Court hearing over case of Armenia 3rd President and company owner taking place Artsakh state minister: Azerbaijan will no longer use Karmir Shuka-Shushi road soon Armenia PM staff has new chief Armenia becomes 2nd country after US to grant patent to computer programs Armenia provides additional funding to Karabakh The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh welcomes the recognition of Artsakh by New Jersey Armenia acting economy minister: Twice as many agricultural products already exported as in 2019, 2020 Three new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh Pashinyan: Armenia economic growth forecast for 2021 has risen from 3.2% to 6% Armenia acting premier makes new appointment 126 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenian acting PM to Chinese President: Armenia is eager to further develop friendly relations with China Pashinyan to Trudeau: Armenia-Canada cooperation has great potential for furtherance Job search system within EEU, including Armenia, in operation as of today House of Representatives members call for at least $50m in US aid to Armenia in fiscal year 2022 China will bash the heads of those who try to enslave it, says Xi Jinping Newspaper: When will Armenia newly elected parliament convene first session? Newspaper: Quite interesting developments taking place at departments of Armenia state Newspaper: Armenia Judicial Department head included in criminal case Israel asks Washington to put off reopening of US Consulate in Jerusalem Armenia Health Ministry confirms Siberian ulcer diagnosis of 3 citizens 11-year-old Yerevan boy dies after being electrocuted on June 17 Karabakh President: There is no alternative to international recognition of Artsakh people's right to self-determination France lifts most COVID-19 restrictions Turkey's Erdogan wants to control social networks Armenia MOD Military Police chief undergoes surgery Germany charges ex-leader of Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs for offending Jews and Armenians New Jersey becomes 10th U.S. State to recognize Artsakh U.S. law enforcement secretly solicits Microsoft customer data thousands of times a year Armenia ruling party MP: There is still no decision on new foreign minister Britain's chief constable warns of pedophiles rising dangers on social media Lavrov says Erdogan's visit to Shushi was in the context of Ankara-Baku relations Armenia acting PM receives US Ambassador Appeal against Armenia court decision to remand Armen Charchyan inscribed to Judge Lusine Abgaryan Erdogan rules out snap elections in Turkey 'Armenia' bloc representative: Employees of Meghri municipality have been questioned since morning Israeli FM: Visit to UAE marks beginning of road to peace with other countries of Middle East Digest: EU may lift travel restrictions for Armenians, more on COVID-19 in Karabakh, Armenia Karabakh President: Economic decline will make up 25% as a result of war UN Secretary General says relations between great powers are disorganized as never before Karabakh National Security Service issues statement Armenia acting MOD, Russia Ambassador discuss Armenian-Russian cooperation issues Dollar rises slightly after long decline in Armenia Putin: Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan is interested in development of crisis in Karabakh Karabakh Ombudsman: Azerbaijan continues aggression against Artsakh people through informational terrorism EU governments decide to lift travel restrictions from Armenia and 10 other states Spanish PM says there will be no referendum on Catalonia independence Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg adopts petition condemning operations against Artsakh Armenia acting deputy MOD on deployment of Russian peacekeepers on country's borders Baku continues to present demands to Armenia and threaten the country Armenia MP: PACE special rapporteur to meet in Azerbaijan to discuss release of Armenian captives Azerbaijan FM informs counterparts of BSEC about construction of "Zangezur corridor" Seven new cases regarding Armenian POWs filed with European Court of Human Rights According to the incumbent authorities, the sectors of Azatamut and Voskepar of the Ijevan-Berd or Ijevan-Noyemberyan roads need to be transferred to Azerbaijan without preconditions since they used to be Azerbaijani settlements. This is what former Minister of Defense of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan said during todays campaign meeting of Armenia bloc in the city of Noyemberyan of Tavush Province, adding the following: We wont allow it because those authorities wont be in power after June 20. They are currently the opposition, just like they have always been. They have been opposition to Armenian statehood since they have destroyed the foundations, including the army, culture, the system of education and the public administration system, Ohanyan stated and reminded that Robert Kocharyan has restored not only Artsakh, but also the buffer zone and has participated in the battle for Shushi. During the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, we were compelled to fight on two fronts since, as a result of the policy of the Soviet Union, all roads and communication links in Artsakh passed through the Azerbaijani settlements created by the authorities. By Kocharyans order, his family and the families of other officials didnt leave Artsakh during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, but on the morning of September 29, 2020, it is safe to say that a large part of the families had left. I dont know the reason for this, but Im surprised, the former defense minister said, adding that the situation in and around Armenia and Artsakh is rather difficult now. The current threats emerged not only before the war, but also during the war due to the illiterate actions of the authorities. The reason why is because the authorities are defeated, and Armenia will be forced to do something. There are a lot of threats in not only Sevan and Syunik Province, but also in Tavush Province. Armenia needs shift of power and a force that can solve all the problems, and this force is Kocharyans Armenia bloc, which will push Armenia forward, Ohanyan concluded. Im very certain about the opportunities for retrieval of Hadrut, and Im almost certain about the retrieval of Shushi. This is what second President of Armenia, candidate of Armenia bloc for Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan said during todays campaign meeting in the city of Dilijan of Tavush Province. Kocharyan clarified that it is possible to solve the issue by law and within the boundaries of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and that there are relevant arguments, adding that this might take two years. To lead serious negotiations, it is necessary to restore the negotiations and normalize relations with allies. After that, you will see that it is possible to solve the mentioned issues. I dont see anyone who could have solved this problem better than me. As for the problems of Armenians displaced from Artsakh in the short run, programs are being carried out to provide them with shelters. I am personally leading negotiations with large Armenian businessmen of Russia. The plan is to enlarge villages of Artsakh by building another 150 houses in, say, Akhtashen village. The funds will be taken from the millions of dollars that were donated to Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, Kocharyan noted. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen attend the Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1, 2017, in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Though Mary-Kate and Ashley are fraternal twins, they often wore matching outfits in their early acting years that made it difficult for people to tell them apart. Mary-Kate and Ashley in 1992. DMI/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images The pair looked adorable in these matching black dresses layered over yellow collared shirts. However, the flower-topped hats are what make these looks truly iconic. Even as young child stars, the Olsen twins knew how to accessorize. The Olsen twins at the premiere of "Alaska" in Los Angeles on August 11, 1996. The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Mary-Kate and Ashley's head-to-toe outfits at the 1996 premiere for the film "Alaska" embodied quintessential '90s style. From their patent black leather loafers to their circle-shaped sunglasses, the twins looked totally in sync with each other in regards to fashion. Both twins also opted for fun hats to complete their looks. As they got older, they wore coordinated, but not exactly matching, looks. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen attend the "Spice World" Hollywood Premiere on January 28, 1998. Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images At the "Spice World" premiere in Hollywood in 1998, the Olsen twins wore coordinated blue and brown satin suit jackets and similar updo hairstyles. At another Hollywood movie premiere, the twins decided to coordinate their looks once again. The Olsen twins at the "Anna and the King" Hollywood premiere on December 15, 1999, at the Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images At age 13, Mary-Kate and Ashley decided to wear matching black cardigans paired with fringed skirts and strappy black sandals. Over the years, Mary-Kate and Ashley have consistently worn coordinated, but not exactly "matching," looks. The 15-year-old stars embodied '90s grunge fashion in matching black halter tops and choker necklaces while attending an *NSYNC record release party in 2001. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen attend the *NSYNC record release party in 2001. Kevin Winter/Getty Images Their statement belts added just the right amount of flair to their otherwise simple looks. In 2005, Mary-Kate and Ashley coordinated again with flowy, sheer tops and Western-inspired belts at a London charity event. Story continues Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen attend a 2005 charity photo call in London. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images The twins dressed down their gauzy, feminine tops with faded blue jeans, making this one of their most iconic 2000s fashion moments. For the premiere of "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" in 2003, the twins strayed away from their matching aesthetic. The Olsens at the premiere of "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." Chris Polk/FilmMagic/Getty Images Mary-Kate wore a floor-length, brown-and-white halter neck gown while Ashley embraced a more bohemian style with a beaded, red V-neck dress with a turquoise bow. Ashley also styled her hair with a butterfly hair clip, while Mary-Kate wore her shorter, highlighted blonde hair loosely styled in beachy waves. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen arrived at the Tribeca Film Festival screening of "New York Minute" in coordinated brown ensembles. Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen arrive for the Tribeca Film Festival screening of "New York Minute" in 2004. ZAK/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images Ashley opted for a brown silk slip dress accessorized with black strappy heels, while Mary-Kate wore a sheer brown polka-dot dress with a beaded necklace and pink statement pumps. In 2004, the famous twins received their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and rocked distinctly different looks once again. The Olsen twins receive their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 2004. Chris Polk/FilmMagic/Getty Images Mary-Kate wore a backless, lavender-colored halter neck dress with a pair of classic black pumps. Ashley opted for a slightly more dressed-up look in a white V-neck gown with her blonde hair pulled up in a chic updo. For their first Met Costume Institute Gala in 2005, Mary-Kate and Ashley broke away from their matching looks yet again. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the Met Ball on May 2, 2005, in New York City. Peter Kramer/Getty Images Mary-Kate wore a floor-length, embroidered white gown while Ashley wore a high-low gold dress with a shimmery overlay and a pastel pink belt. The theme for this year's gala was the history and impact of Chanel, though neither twin wore designs by the fashion house. Instead, Ashley's dress was designed by Oscar de la Renta and Mary-Kate's was vintage. However, by the time New York Fashion Week rolled around in 2012, Mary-Kate and Ashley were back at it again with matching all-black ensembles. Ashley and Mary-Kate at the J. Mendel Fall 2012 fashion show during New York Fashion Week in 2012. AP/Donald Traill While sitting in the front row at the J. Mendel Fall 2012 fashion show, the twins were hard to tell apart in their matching black suits and sunglasses. This look also marks a transition in the twins' style as they went on to frequently wear simpler, more monochromatic outfits. Fast-forward a couple of years to 2015, and the twins wore black gowns with sweeping trains to the Met Gala. The twins at the "China: Through The Looking Glass"-themed Met Ball on May 4, 2015. Jamie McCarthy/FilmMagic/Getty Images The theme for the 2015 Costume Institute Benefit Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was "China: Through The Looking Glass." Both of their gowns were vintage Dior by John Galliano. The 2017 Met Gala theme was "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between," and the Olsen twins rocked some seriously bold looks. Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen arrive at the 2017 Met Gala. Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images Mary-Kate and Ashley wore lace, floor-length gowns paired with bold accessories inspired by the opulent theme. For the 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards, Mary-Kate and Ashley wore noticeably simpler, menswear-inspired looks from their own brand, The Row. The Olsen twins at the 2017 CFDA Fashion Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom on June 5, 2017, in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images At the ceremony, the sisters were nominated for Womenswear Designer of the Year and Accessories Designer of the Year award for their fashion line. At an event in 2018, the twins kept their looks classic with coordinating skirts and long-sleeve tops. The twins at the YAGP Stars of Today Meet The Stars of Tomorrow 2018 Gala on April 19, 2018, in New York City. Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images While attending the YAGP Stars of Today Meet The Stars of Tomorrow Gala, Mary-Kate accessorized her camel-colored look with emerald green earrings, while Ashley kept things more simple with drop-down silver earrings and her hair tucked behind her shoulders. In 2018, Mary-Kate and Ashley rocked another set of chic all-black looks. Mary-Kate and Ashley at the 2018 CFDA Fashion Awards at Brooklyn Museum on June 4, 2018, in New York City. Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Image/Getty Images At the award show, Mary-Kate and Ashley received the award for best American accessories designers for their fashion brand, The Row. Ashley Olsen stepped onto the red carpet wearing a flowy black top, a black skirt, and black bow pumps, while Mary-Kate wore a coat tied with an oversized belt and matching black leather booties. At last year's Met Gala, the Olsen twins showcased their own brand of "camp" in coordinated black leather ensembles. The 2019 Met Gala celebrating "Camp: Notes on Fashion" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Karwai Tang/Getty Though their outfits definitely weren't as out-there as other, more colorful Met Gala looks that year, they were undeniably true to the Olsen twins' chic, monochromatic, and oftentimes matchy-matchy style. Read the original article on Insider Margaret and Paul Murdaugh were found dead at this ranch (AP) A son who was murdered alongside his mother, before he was set to stand trial for the boating death of a 19-year-old woman, is believed to have been the target of a shooting that killed the two in South Carolina. Paul Murdagh, 22, was shot dead alongside his mother Margaret Murdaugh, 52, at their family country estate the area of Islandton at roughly 10pm on 7 June. However, a source told the local paper The Island Packer that he believes Paul Murdaugh was the only intended recipient of gunfire despite Margaret tragically losing her life as well. On 8 June, police told the The Island Packer , We are pursuing all leads and the investigation is continuing. The Murdaugh family has been involved with the local prosecution service since the 1920s, for a total of three generations. When asked for follow-up information, The Colleton County Sherriffs Office said, We cant release any information that would hinder the integrity of the case, on 10 June. Paul Mardaugh was facing charges over a boat trip that led to the death of Mallory Beach, 19, in 2019. Prior to his death, he was charged with one count of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury. Murdaugh was believed to be grossly intoxicated, got into a brawl with someone and was adamant about driving the boat home from an oyster party despite pleas from his cousins. He is also alleged to have removed most of his clothes and assaulted his girlfriend. Eventually he drove the boat into a bridge, which led to Beach being tossed from the vessel and drowning. Authorities spent nine days trying to find her. Murdagh had pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial. It is believed that people in the town felt he got a less harsh treatment due to his familys connections. Alex Murdaugh, the father and husband of the deceased, is believed to have found the bodies of his wife and son. He claims he was out of the house when the murders took place. He is a named partner at the law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick, whose Facebook page announced the tragic news. The Murdaugh family and PMPED wish to thank everyone for the calls and condolences in the aftermath of the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdagh. We ask for your continued patience and prayers at this tragic time, a statement posted on their Facebook page read, the first on the record naming of the victims. The winners of the 2021 Belief Awards were just announced. Rashpal Photography/Luke Lambertson/Belief Awards The annual Belief Awards honor wedding planners, coordinators, and designers from around the world. The winners of the 14th edition of the awards were just announced. They include a Halloween-themed minimony, a Disneyland Paris reception, and a Viking-inspired event. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. The 2021 winners weren't afraid to get creative with their weddings. Lena Hansen of Nordic Adventure Weddings planned the nuptials. Elena Belevantseva/Belief Awards Lena Hansen of Nordic Adventure Weddings planned Magdalena Maria Elisabeth Schmid and Adam Christian Bunbury's Viking-themed elopement in Denmark. They said their vows at The Viking Hall in Lejre, Denmark, and wore custom-made Viking ensembles from Sokol Workshop. Only Schmid and Bunbury attended the intimate ceremony. Elena Belevantseva photographed the unique nuptials. Some of the nuptials stood out with dramatic scenery. The wedding was planned by Arun Bablani of Vivaah Weddings. Rashpal Photography/Belief Awards Varun and Anisha got married at Disneyland Paris, making their wedding feel like a real-life fairy tale. The couple worked with Disneyland Paris to blend their traditional Indian celebration with the feel of a Disney wedding. Arun Bablani of Vivaah Weddings planned the event, while Rashpal Photography documented the celebrations. Planners helped their clients showcase their cultures with their wedding celebrations. Fenny Torres planned the couple's wedding. David Gallegos/Belief Awards Monica Gordillo and Esteban Mendoza wanted their Guatemalan heritage to be a big part of their wedding day, which is why their planner Fenny Torres incorporated elements like a traditional deer dance parade that nodded to ancient Guatemalan hunting traditions into their celebration. They said their vows at Hotel Convento Santa Catalina Martir in Antigua, Guatemala. David Gallegos photographed the bright and joyful wedding. The couples were ready to commit to each other forever, rain or shine. Barbara Colombo of Sinfonia Wedding planned the couple's wedding. Alessandro D'Elia/Belief Awards Paige and Logan Soya had a destination wedding at Torre La Cerniola in Erchie, Italy, tying the knot in front of expansive views of the sea. The Soyas went forward with their outdoor ceremony even though it rained. Barbara Colombo of Sinfonia Wedding planned the day, which was photographed by Alessandro D'Elia. Story continues The winning weddings showed the beauty of communal celebration. Ana Cesar de Almeida of Pop Up Weddings Portugal planned the wedding. Nuno Lopes Photography/Belief Awards Ana Cesar de Almeida of Pop Up Weddings Portugal planned Roselyn Silva and Blackson Afonso's vow renewal at La Distillerie in Lisbon, Portugal. Everything about the celebration was intimate and emotional, as a hug between Silva and two of her friends after the renewal ceremony highlighted. Nuno Lopes Photography documented the special day. Some wedding planners used greenery to elevate the standout weddings. Cristina Salazar planned the wedding. Raw Shoots/Belief Awards Ana Lucia and Jose David picked Villa Blanca, a cloud forest hotel and nature reserve, as the venue for their destination wedding in Costa Rica, as it offers a protected habitat for a variety of plants. The natural setting added to the romantic feel of the wedding, which had just 50 attendees. Cristina Salazar planned the day, and Raw Shoots photographed it. Tradition was at the forefront of many of the award-winning celebrations. Badel Gomez Nechar planned the wedding. Cuartoazul Wedding/Belief Awards Nadia Martinez and Jeff Sabido's wedding at Hacienda San Diego Cutz in Mexico combined tradition and their own style. The groom wore a Charro suit typically worn by Mexican cowboys, while the bride wore a more modern dress. The wedding also featured a Mariachi band and a performance by Yucatan dancers. Cuartoazul Wedding photographed the special day, which Badel Gomez Nechar planned. Other newlyweds embraced modernity with their weddings. Gwenaelle Grosset planned the wedding. Beatatum Tulum Photographer/Belief Awards Gwenaelle Grosset helped Laura and Greg pull off their wedding at Taboo in Tulum, Mexico, which featured everything from a cosmic ceremony with a shaman to a barefoot dance party. Beatatum Tulum Photographer took pictures of the one-of-a-kind day. The planners helped couples find stunning locations for their weddings. Just Amore Weddings by Anna K. planned the wedding. Vd Image Photography/Belief Awards Melissa Abu Karam & Alexandre Toutounji let the streets of Rome create ambiance for their wedding, which Anna K. of Just Amore Weddings planned. The scenic city played into the couple's travel-themed wedding. Vd Image Photography captured the wedding. Other couples chose their wedding venues because of their emotional significance. Guadalupe Alvarez and Valeria Velez of Penzi Weddings planned the event. Brett Butterstein Photography/Belief Awards Texas couple Corey and Jordan chose to have their wedding in San Miguel, Mexico, as they fell in love when attending a different wedding in the area. Their wedding, which was photographed by Brett Butterstein Photography, took place at Casa Hyder. Guadalupe Alvarez and Valeria Velez of Penzi Weddings planned the 60-person affair. Some newlyweds took to the water for their weddings. Veronica Frasca planned the wedding. Barney Walters/Belief Awards Karen Fan and Joseph Walton's wedding venue, Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como, could only be reached by boat, giving them the opportunity to take scenic photos on the water on their wedding day. Veronica Frasca planned the nuptials, which were photographed by Barney Walters. The planners weren't afraid to take on themed weddings. Sarah Day planned the wedding. Luke Lambertson/Belief Awards Jessica and William Graydon got married on Halloween 2020 at Juliette Chapel with just 13 attendees. The Graydons' planner Sarah Day helped the couple embrace the moody feel of the holiday with touches like a "to the tomb and back" casket ring box and a "til death" neon sign above the sweetheart table. Jessica even wore a black dress to the wedding. Luke Lambertson documented the day. The perfect venue made the theme of some of the weddings more obvious. Karin Badea of Karin Events planned the wedding. 602 Photography/Belief Awards For instance, Sijin and Paul Alexandrescu had a Gothic-themed wedding, and their venue, Bran Castle in Romania, set the tone for the event right away. The bride's corset-top gown helped create the mood as well. Karin Badea of Karin Events brought the couple's Gothic vision to life. 602 Photography photographed the nuptials. For other weddings, the details made the theme clear. Valessa Sahashi planned the wedding. Sergio Echazu/Belief Awards Valessa Sahashi helped Andrea Viscafe & Arturo Vivian pull off their "Mario"-inspired wedding in La Paz, Bolivia, in a subtle fashion. The couple walked into the reception to the "Mario" theme song, and their cake topper was Mario and Princess Peach. Sergio Echazu photographed the festive wedding. They also managed to make beautiful weddings happen amid the pandemic. Darlene Medeiros planned the wedding. Fran Cunha/Belief Awards Darlene Medeiros turned Gabriel and Carollyne Galvao Pereira's wedding at Chacara Mata Nativa Eventos in Brazil into a drive-in event to keep attendees safe amid the pandemic. The bridal party gave the couple a feeling of normalcy by throwing flower petals for them as they left their ceremony. Fran Cunha captured the unique wedding. The winning planners helped couples incorporate personalized elements into their weddings. David Toquero planned the wedding. Ramon Gutierrez/Belief Awards Izetl Solis and Daniela Castillejos asked their guests to tie ribbons symbolizing their best wishes to a lasso so they could use it for a ritual during the ceremony. The couple walked out of the ceremony at Jardin Maja wearing the lasso together, bonding them as one. David Toquero planned the event, and Ramon Gutierrez photographed the day. Family played a big role in the award-winning nuptials. Rui Mota Pinto planned the wedding. Lucho Vargas/Belief Awards Rui Mota Pinto planned Alexandra Cardoso and Ricardo Fresco's 10-year vow renewal at Quinta do Torneiro in Lisbon, Portugal. Their son, who was born the same year they got married, played an active role in their ceremony, helping them celebrate their marriage. Lucho Vargas photographed the wedding. The planners made intimate elopements feel grand. Virginie Mention of Ceremonize planned the wedding. Elena Usacheva/Belief Awards Virginie Mention of Ceremonize turned Nicole and Clayton's elopement into a Parisian experience they could never forget. They said their vows in front of the Notre Dame, and Elena Usacheva took photos of them in front of the Eiffel Tower. The couple even took a dinner cruise down the Seine to celebrate. The little moments made the weddings special. Diana Sciarrillo planned the wedding. Maria Fleischman/Belief Awards Maria Fleischman captured a moment of anticipation on Manuel and Erica Saenz's wedding day. As Erica walked down the stairs before her ceremony at Casa Santo Domingo in Antigua, Guatemala, Fleischman snapped a photo of her father waiting to see his daughter. Diana Sciarrillo planned the wedding. The couples from the winning weddings were just happy to be together. Donna Palimeri planned the wedding. Vicky Bekiaridou/Belief Awards UK couple Angela and David Galley renewed their vows in the Greek town where they first went on a trip together. They wrote their own vows for the ceremony, making it even more special. Donna Palimeri planned the wedding at Aloni Kefalonia, and Vicky Bekiaridou photographed the day. Happy coincidences took some of the weddings to the next level. Jenny Polonsky planned the wedding. Eduard Serra/Belief Awards Eduard Serra snapped a photo of Alexandra and Alex Weber in front of a stunning rainbow on their wedding day. The couple got married at Hotel Panamonte in Boquete, Panama, with 35 guests. Jenny Polonsky planned the wedding, helping the Webers curate a creative menu that included roasted marshmallows. Carefully planned weddings allowed couples to enjoy their days to the fullest. Maricarmen Arias planned the wedding. Ildefonso Gutierrez/Belief Awards Erika & Isaias Lopez's wedding featured live performers instead of a DJ, which brought fun and spontaneity to their wedding reception at La Bartola in Queretaro, Mexico. The performers got the guests to interact with them, as this shot of a bridesmaid jumping rope, taken by Ildefonso Gutierrez highlights. Maricarmen Arias was the wedding planner. The wedding planner's vision often set the tone for the winning nuptials. Rui Mota Pinto planned the wedding. Lucho Vargas/Belief Awards Rui Mota Pinto planned Rita and Fuyi's destination wedding in Portugal around the theme of Cherry Blossoms, which symbolize love and delicacy. The wedding took place at Quinta do Casal Branco, which served as the perfect backdrop for Lucho Vargas to take stunning photographs. All of the winning weddings were unforgettable events for the newlyweds. Teresa Perdigao planned the wedding. D10 Photo/Belief Awards The Marques de Fronteira Palace was the grand wedding venue of Raquel and Derek Templeton's dreams. Teresa Perdigao of Something Borrowed helped them make the rest of their destination wedding in Portugal feel just as elegant, letting the beauty of the castle take center stage. D10 Photo captured the day. You can see more photos from the 14th edition of the Belief Awards here. Read the original article on Insider KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for bombing two minivans in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the Afghan capital that killed seven people. Among the dead were two employees of Afghanistan's state-run film company, a colleague said Sunday. In a statement issued late Saturday, Afghanistan's IS affiliate said its operatives blew up two minivans carrying disbeliever Shiites using sticky bombs. Sticky bombs slapped onto cars trapped in Kabuls chaotic traffic are the newest weapons terrorizing Afghans in the increasingly lawless nation. Film director Sahra Karimi in a tweet Sunday said Fatima Mohammadi and Tayiba Musavi, who worked for the Afghan Film Organization, were among the six killed in the first attack. Their families identified their burned bodies in the forensic hospital of Kabul, she said. Karimi said Mohammadi and Musavi were animators working on an animated film for children and they were returning home when they were attacked. The Saturday attacks targeted minivans on the same road about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) apart in a neighborhood in western Kabul. The second bombing took place in front of Muhammad Ali Jinnah hospital, where a majority of COVID-19 patients are admitted, killing one and wounding four. In some west Kabul neighborhoods populated mostly by members of the minority Hazara ethnic group, just going out for errands can be dangerous. The Islamic State group has carried out similar bombings in the area, including four attacks on four minivans earlier this month that killed at least 18 people. Hazaras are mostly Shiite Muslims. Shiites are a minority in mostly Sunni Afghanistan and the IS affiliate has declared war against them. An attack on a Kabul school on May 8 killed nearly 100 people, all of them members of the Hazara ethnic minority and most of them young girls just leaving class. ___ Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the Group of Seven countries to help finance the World Health Organization's programme to boost COVID-19 testing, diagnostics and vaccines, the presidency said on Sunday. Ramaphosa, who has joined a summit of the club of rich democracies in England and addressed them on Saturday, said the G7 countries, which together account for more than half of global output, should support the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator to plug the $16.8 billion funding gap for this year. "We need to address the substantial financing gap for tests, treatments, critical supplies like oxygen and the health systems that enable testing, treatment and vaccination," Ramaphosa said in the presidency statement. The World Health Organizations ACT Accelerator programme for global COVID-19 treatments aims to fast-track production and ensure equitable access to tests, treatments, and vaccines in the fight against COVID-19. "If all G7 countries met their fair share target, this initiative would be two-thirds funded and it would be 90% funded if all G20 countries made their fair share contributions," Ramaphosa said. Ramaphosa also urged G7 members to support the TRIPS waiver on patents for COVID-19 vaccines and engage in negotiations that could help boost vaccine production. Around 90% of African countries will miss a September target to vaccinate at least 10% of their populations against the virus as a third wave of the pandemic looms on the continent, the WHO has said. Africa has now registered five million COVID-19 cases, with the southern Africa region the worst affected, a Reuters tally has shown. "If the world is to emerge from this grave crisis, it is essential that we work together to mobilise and direct resources to those countries in the greatest need and that we do so now," said Ramaphosa. The G7 groups the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada. (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Gareth Jones) Ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden agreed Sunday that U.S.-Russian relations are at a "low point" and said he was open to a prisoner exchange with Moscow to clamp down on cybercrime. On the first international trip as president, Biden spoke at a news conference marking the end of a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in the U.K., where the wealthy democracies put out a statement challenging Russia and condemning Chinese human rights abuses. Biden will meet Wednesday with Putin at a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland neutral territory for two leaders who do not want to show any deference to the other where they are expected to discuss several issues, including Russia-based cybercriminals and ransomware attacks that have crippled some U.S. cities and infrastructure. "Let me make it clear. I think he is right it is a low point," Biden said about Putin's recent assessment of the Moscow-Washington relationship. "And it depends on how he responds to acting consistent with international norms. Which in many cases he has not." The FBI and other Western law enforcement and intelligence agencies have blamed criminal syndicates based in Russia for a string of recent cyberattacks, including the one last month against a pipeline that supplies much of the fuel for the East Coast. Putin said in an interview with Russian state television Sunday that he would be open to extraditing criminals to the U.S. if Washington agrees to reciprocate. Biden said he had just heard Putin's comments and was "open" to the idea, although he seemed to express doubt that any criminals in the U.S. were committing crimes against Russians. "If there's crimes committed against Russia that, in fact, are and the people committing those crimes are being harbored in the United States I'm committed to holding them accountable," he said. "I think that's that's potentially a good sign and progress." Story continues Aboard Air Force One later as it flew from London to Brussels for the next leg of Biden's trip, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Biden was "not saying he's going to be exchanging cybercriminals with Russia." "What he was saying was that if Vladimir Putin wants to come and say, 'I'm prepared to make sure that cybercriminals are held accountable,' Joe Biden is perfectly willing to show up and say cybercriminals will be held accountable in America, because they already are," Sullivan said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell in an interview Sunday that Biden will confront Putin about cyberattacks. "He is going to make clear that no responsible state can be in the business of harboring criminal enterprises engaged in cyberattacks, including ransomware. That's very much going to be part of the conversation," Blinken said. "We'll respond forcefully, as the president has already demonstrated with the response to the SolarWinds cyberattack," Blinken said about the hacking of companies and federal agencies. "So I don't think we're going to get a clear and definitive answer from one meeting. But it's the start of testing the proposition of whether Russia also seeks a more stable, predictable relationship or not." Biden's tone was a marked departure from the credulity and warmth former President Donald Trump showed toward Putin, whom he defended during a 2018 meeting in Helsinki even after Trump's own intelligence agencies said Russia and Putin had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said, siding with Putin over the U.S. government's analysts. In a statement last week, Trump asked Biden to "please give [Putin] my warmest regards" and defended his "great and very productive meeting in Helsinki." Biden and Putin will hold separate news conferences after their meeting in Switzerland, a sign of the chillier relationship. Image: Trump and Putin shake hands in Helsinki (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP file) "This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference," Biden said. "It's about making myself very clear what the conditions are to get a better relationship." Biden said there are opportunities for cooperation with Russia, such as stopping ransomware attacks and providing humanitarian relief to global conflict zones where Russia has sway, such as Libya and Syria. "There's a lot going on where we can work together with Russia," Biden said. "Russia has engaged in activities that we believe are contrary to international norms, but they've also bitten off real problems that they're going to have trouble chewing on." Biden said that democracy is at risk around the globe and that democratic countries need to pull together to defend it. "We're in a contest not with China per se, but with autocrats," he said. The meeting of the G-7 the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. concluded with a statement calling on Russia "to stop its destabilizing behavior and malign activities" abroad and specifically mentioned the need to "urgently identify and disrupt ransomware criminal networks." It also warned China about its "non-market" international economic policies and urged Beijing "to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang," where the Muslim population has faced repression. In an interview Friday with NBC News, Putin said that while Trump "is an extraordinary individual," he could work with Biden, as well. "That's a different kind of person, and it is my great hope that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements on behalf of the sitting U.S. president," Putin said of Biden. Algeria was early Monday still waiting for the results of a parliamentary election boycotted by the long-running Hirak protest movement and marked by widespread abstention. Ahead of the official results, an Islamist party seen as moderate, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), said its candidates were in the lead in most regions. It warned against "numerous efforts to alter the results". With the widespread abstentions, established parties linked to the regime -- the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the Democratic National Rally (RND) -- had been seen as likely to lose seats. A statement by the National Independent Elections Authority (ANIE) cited by several news outlets late Sunday refuted "unfounded" claims regarding the election, without naming the MSP. After Saturday's vote, electoral commission chief Mohamed Chorfi said that turnout had been just 30.2 percent -- the lowest in a legislative poll at least 20 years. He said it would be 96 hours before official results are announced. Fewer than one percent of registered voters cast their ballots in Kabylie, a mainly Berber region east of Algiers, and the cities of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou. "As expected, the majority of Algerians snubbed the ballot boxes. The low turnout confirms the strong trend towards rejecting the vote," read the front page of French-language daily Liberte. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, himself elected on an official turnout of less than 40 percent in late 2019, put a brave face on the figures. "For me, the turnout isn't important. What's important is whether the lawmakers that the people elect have enough legitimacy," the president said. - Journalists arrested - The Hirak protest movement, which apart from a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic had held twice-weekly demonstrations for reform until they were effectively banned last month, rejected the polls as a "sham". The movement has urged boycotts of all national polls since it mobilised hundreds of thousands of people in early 2019 to force longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his cronies from power. Story continues But voting day was mainly calm, except in Kabylie, where ballot boxes were ransacked and security forces detained dozens of people, rights groups said. Two prominent journalists detained on the eve of the election and released Saturday, Khaled Drareni and Ihsane El Kadi, condemned their "arbitrary" arrests. "I believe you have the right to know that two journalists... were subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention for no apparent reason," Drareni wrote on his Facebook page. On Sunday, authorities cancelled France 24's right to operate in the country, over its "clear and repeated hostility towards our country and its institutions", the communications ministry and government spokesman Ammar Belhimer said in quotes carried by the APS news agency. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, a 27-place drop from 2015. abh-agr/hc/par/pjm/st Donald McGahn, lawyer and Trump advisor, exits following a meeting of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's national finance team at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City, U.S., June 9, 2016. Reuters/Brendan McDermid Apple told Don McGahn last month that the DOJ subpoenaed information on an account in February 2018, according to the NYT. The action occurred while McGahn was still serving under then-President Donald Trump. According to the NYT, it is unclear what FBI agents were seeking, nor is it clear if McGahn was the subject of their focus. See more stories on Insider's business page. The former White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife were reportedly among those targeted by the Justice Department with a subpoena for their account records in February 2018, while McGahn was still serving under then-President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter. The New York Times first reported on Sunday that McGahn was informed that data from an Apple account was sought by the DOJ, but he reportedly wasn't told what was shared with the department. The government reportedly prevented Apple from informing McGahn about the subpoena at the time, according to the Times report. The pursuit was under a nondisclosure order until May, which would reveal that the DOJ went to a judge on several occasions to keep the subpoena under wraps during the Trump presidency. "The disclosure that agents secretly collected data of a sitting White House counsel is striking as it comes amid a political backlash to revelations about Trump-era seizures of data of reporters and Democrats in Congress for leak investigations," according to The Times. It is unclear what FBI agents were seeking, nor is it clear if McGahn was the subject of their focus. According to The Times, agents "sometimes compile a large list of phone numbers and email addresses that were in contact with a subject, and seek to identify all those people by using subpoenas to communications companies for any account information like names, computer addresses and credit card numbers associated with them" when conducting investigations. Read more: We identified the 125 people and institutions most responsible for Donald Trump's rise to power and his norm-busting behavior that tested the boundaries of the US government and its institutions Story continues Apple reportedly told the McGahns that it received the subpoena on February 23, 2018, according to an individual familiar with the matter. The subpoena was issued by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to The Times. The Justice Department appears to have obtained information on McGahn and his wife during the same month that the DOJ subpoenaed Apple to gain access to the personal information of individuals associated with the House Intelligence Committee, including for two of its Democratic members. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a longtime political adversary of Trump who was one of the subpoena targets, on Friday called for a thorough review of his separate matter. "We need a full accounting of the Trump DOJ's abuse of power targeting Congress and the press," he tweeted. McGahn served as White House counsel for nearly two years, from January 2017 until his resignation in October 2018. He was a key witness in the special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into whether Trump obstructed justice in the FBI's Russia investigation. This story has been updated. Read the original article on Business Insider MILAN (Reuters) -The head of the EU drug regulator's COVID-19 task force said on Sunday that AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine had a favourable risk-benefit profile for all age groups and particularly for those aged over 60. Italian newspaper La Stampa earlier quoted European Medicines Agency (EMA) task force chief Marco Cavaleri as saying countries should avoid giving the vaccine to people aged over 60 in addition to younger age groups, amid fears over very rare blood clotting and as alternative vaccines become available. "Unfortunately my words have not been interpreted correctly in a recent interview with La Stampa," Cavaleri said in a statement to Reuters. The AstraZeneca shot "maintains a favourable benefit risk profile in all ages but particularly in the elderly above 60," he said. The EMA's position is that the AstraZeneca shot is safe and can be used for all age groups over 18. However several European Union member states have stopped administering it to people below a certain age, usually ranging from 50 to 65, restricting its use to older people, due to very rare cases of blood clotting, mainly among young people. On Sunday evening, La Stampa changed the headline on its article online and added a clarification with Cavaleri's later comments to its article. La Stampa editor Massimo Giannini said he had no further comment. Earlier this week the Italian government said it would restrict the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 60, after a teenager who had received the shot died from a rare form of blood clotting. Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza told reporters on Sunday that Italy will continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine on the over 60s, including those who have not received a first shot. Like many European countries, Italy briefly halted AstraZeneca inoculations in March over concerns about the very rare blood clotting problems. It resumed them the following month with the recommendation that the product be "preferably" used for people over the age of 60, after the EMA said its benefits outweighed any risks. (Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Emilio ParodiEditing by Gareth Jones, Elaine Hardcastle and Frances Kerry) Yahoo Entertainment Former President Donald Trump made an appearance on Hannity Wednesday night, which was broadcasted from the South Texas airport only a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. During the interview, Sean Hannity asked the question many people across the country have been wondering. "Let's talk about your future plans," Hannity told Trump, before turning to the crowd at the town hall to ask the audience, "Would you like to see the President run again in 2024?" While Trump has not publicly revealed whether or not he plans to run for president in 2024, on Wednesday, when Hannity asked Trump the question, it sounded like the former president had made progress in his decision. "You are not going to answer, but I have to ask, where are you in the process of," said Hannity. He continued, "Let me ask you this, without giving the answer what the answer is, have you made up your mind?" "Yes," responded Trump firmly. Hannity then happily stated, "I think you got it right, yeah." Hannity later stated, "If you move forward, you know how difficult it is, but you seem ready to re-engage in that battle." "It's not that I want to," Trump pointed out. "The country needs it. We have to take care of this country. I don't want to, is this fun? Fighting constantly? Fighting always? I mean, the country, what we have done is so important." While it may not have been an official announcement, or confirmation, Trump did say he has come to his decision, which means he's definitely not just "beyond seriously" considering it anymore, which he said to Hannity back in April. BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Ivan Duque received his first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, as he urged people to continue protecting themselves against the coronavirus amid a new record in daily deaths in the Andean country. Colombia, which has recorded more than 95,000 COVID-19 deaths, is in the process of vaccinating everyone over age 60 and people between ages 16 and 59 with pre-existing health conditions, as well as teachers and military personnel. Duque received his shot as the military commander in chief. The country reported 577 COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, a new daily high. Colombia began its vaccination campaign in February, prioritizing medical staff and older people. It aims to vaccinate more than 35 million people this year - 70% of its population - and has administered 12.9 million doses so far. "Today more than ever we must be aware that the pandemic has not ended," Duque said from Bogota's military hospital. Duque, who is set to receive his second dose on July 4, encouraged Colombians to continue social-distancing practices and the use of face masks, while also paying tribute to medical workers and those who have died from COVID-19. Intensive care units in many cities remain close to capacity amid a prolonged third spike in cases. Colombia's first shipment of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine will arrive on Tuesday, according to the health ministry, and it will be used primarily for rural populations. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Will Dunham) Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Chipotle recently raised prices about 4% across the board. The company says price increases are due to increased employee wages. CEO Brian Niccol made $38 million in 2020. See more stories on Insider's business page. Chipotle raised prices across the menu by about 4% in June, a move the company says was prompted by increased wages for workers. The average Chipotle meal will cost 30 to 40 cents more than it did before, and a spokesperson told Insider that the price hike will compensate for the recent wage increases for workers. In April, the fast casual chain said it would raise average hourly wages to $15 per hour by the end of June, an increase of $2 over the $13 an hour average pay. While Chipotle attributes raising menu prices to the growing price of labor, some analysts point to high CEO compensation as another factor. In 2020 CEO Brian Niccol took home $38 million, $1.24 million of which was his base salary. The rest was made up of other incentives and an annual bonus. "Brian Niccol 's annual compensation package is based on a competitive analysis of CEO pay levels within our peer group and is designed to pay for performance," a Chipotle spokesperson told Newsweek when the pay report was released. Niccol 's compensation was 2,898 times more than the median Chipotle worker's $13,127 salary in 2020, based on an employee working 25 hours a week in Illinois. Companies are required to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the pay of a median employee. At Chipotle, that ratio is 1,129 to one. Across the board, the pay ratio of CEOs to workers averaged 830 to 1 in 2020, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. Higher labor costs do eventually lead to higher prices for customers, but experts say the difference isn't as stark as some might expect. A study from California State University San Bernardino found that for a minimum wage increase of 10%, food prices increase by just 0.36%. According to Chipotle's proxy statement, executive compensation is aimed at maintaining "a level where we can successfully recruit and retain industry leading talent critical to shaping and executing our business strategy and creating long-term value for our shareholders." Story continues "For 2020, Brian's compensation includes the value of a one-time modification that is not reflective of his ongoing pay package," a Chipotle spokesperson told Newsweek. Niccol made $33.5 million in 2019, an increase of about 13%. Read more: Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol answers 9 questions about the chain's future including the fight for delivery profits, menu innovation, and franchising In 2020, Chipotle's revenue grew 7.1% to $6 billion, with much of the growth attributed to an explosion in digital sales. In a year that was disastrous for many restaurants, Chipotle opened 161 new locations, expanded its Chipotlane drive-thru footprint, and stock prices increased 65.7%. The distance between worker and CEO pay grew wider than ever during the pandemic of the past year, The New York Times reported. The largest CEO compensation packages are for tech company executives. Chipotle does stand out among fast food and fast casual restaurant compensation, though. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson took home $14.7 million. McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski received $10.8 million. Critics of sky-high CEO pay, like the Economic Policy Institute, say the enormous compensation packages are "a major contributor to rising inequality that we could safely do away with." "This escalation of CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1.0% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving less of the fruits of economic growth for ordinary workers, " EPI said in a report released last year. Labor costs might have increased for restaurants over the last year, but so did the price of ingredients. Staple Chipotle items, like corn and avocados, grew more expensive this year as demand rose and shipping delays drove prices further up. "Ingredient costs, there's talk about it. We'll see where that leads," Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung said at the Baird Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference. The company says there are no plans to further increase prices right now. Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com. Read the original article on Business Insider Associated Press Chip Ganassi sold his NASCAR team to Justin Marks, owner of Trackhouse Racing, and declared Wednesday that he will pull out of the nation's top stock car series at the end of this season. I'm not out of racing, I'm just out of NASCAR, Ganassi said. Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, known as "La Negra," is the daughter of CJNG cartel leader El Mencho A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the daughter of Mexican drug lord "El Mencho" to serve two years and six months in prison in a rare criminal case involving the Kingpin Act. Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, known as "La Negra," had urged Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell, with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., to free her after more than 15 months in jail so she could return to her daughter, age 5, and her older son at their family home in Guadalajara, Mexico. Prosecutors had lobbied for a prison sentence of four years and three months, arguing the 34-year-old California native has lied about the degree of her involvement with her father, drug lord Ruben Oseguera Cervantes still on the Drug Enforcement Administration's Most Wanted list and his drug dynasty, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or CJNG. In this wanted poster, the U.S. announces a rare $10 million reward for help finding El Mencho, a ruthless cartel boss and billionaire. La Negra will be credited with time served in jail. The judge ordered her to remain on supervised release for two years after she finishes her time behind bars. She almost must pay a fine of $20,500, according to court records. Prosecutors had lobbied for a fine of at least $25,000 and up to $5 million, arguing that she had access to assets. Agents believe CJNG is a billion-dollar global drug network, detected on every continent except Antarctica. Her attorney disagreed, saying she wouldn't be able to pay any fine. During the past two decades, more than 2,000 individuals and entities have been hit with civil sanctions under the Kingpin Act, including hefty fines and frozen assets, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. However, criminal charges and prison stints using this law are much more rare. During the hearing, held through video conferencing, the judge granted Steven J. McCool's request to recommend sending his client to a prison camp at FCI Dublin in Dublin, California. Placement decisions are made by the federal Bureau of Prisons. "We are disappointed that Jessica remains incarcerated," McCool said in an email to the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. "But we recognize that Judge Howell carefully considered the relevant factors and imposed a fair sentence." Story continues La Negra pleaded guilty in March to violating the Kingpin Act for her association with businesses linked to her father, designated a kingpin by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2015. That included helping manage or promote a sushi restaurant, cabana resort, tequila label, agricultural company and advertising firm. However, La Negra tried to distance herself from her father and his global drug empire. Criminal charges using Kingpin Act rare: Prison or freedom: US judge to decide fate of cartel kingpin's daughter Cartels find new ways to move drugs: A deadly trick: Mexican cartels sneak meth into US in candles shaped like penises, pharaohs CJNG has an estimated 5,000 members and is violent, frequently blamed for mass graves, kidnappings, acid baths and video recorded beheadings. CJNG member showing off his gun and mask Prosecutors accused La Negra of lying to the probation officer who prepared a report on her legal and social background to the judge before her sentencing. They claim they have evidence indicating she helped provide bookkeeping services for the "ruthless and violent" cartel at the behest of her father. They allege that El Mencho, 54, instructed her to manage the resort, Las Flores Cabanas, located in the plush mountains of Tapalpa, a city in the western state of Jalisco, the headquarters of CJNG. The witness claimed El Mencho met with his daughter at the resort in 2011 and directed her to review drug accounting ledgers "so that she could confront a cartel member who was suspected of stealing from the cartel," prosecutors allege in court documents. La Negra insists she hasn't seen her father since she was 11 years old and living in San Francisco. She said he separated from her mother in 1996 when he was deported. That was the third time El Mencho was deported and after he served more than four years in prison for selling heroin to two undercover officers in Los Angeles. El Mencho's sneaked into the U.S. and was caught selling drugs in the 1980s and 1990s in San Francisco. He spent four years in prison and was deported. That one mention of her father is the only reference to him in her attorney's 100-page memo lobbying for leniency. Her father, also known as "Nemesio," is never mentioned by name and there is no reference to his cartel. El Mencho is one of America's most sought after fugitives, with a $10 million reward for help capturing him. CJNG is blamed along with the infamous Sinaloa Cartel for the bulk of illegal drugs saturating the U.S. and killing more than 83,000 people in a 12-month period ending in July 2020. DEA agents, along with Mexican military and federal police, have been searching for El Mencho since 2011. A state trooper and DEA intelligence analyst based in Gulfport, Mississippi, learned the drug lord's whereabouts in 2012 and shared that information with Mexican military officials. On Aug. 25, 2012, five Blackhawks and one Mi-17 helicopter headed to the cartels compound in Tonaya, Jalisco, a five-hour drive southeast of Puerto Vallarta. El Mencho ordered his men to stay behind and shoot at police and soldiers so he and his son, Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez known as Menchito could escape out the back, according to DEA sources. Heir to cartel throne, Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, called "Menchito," now in U.S. jail awaiting trial As bullets rained down, four of El Menchos followers were killed and three soldiers were injured. Prosecutors claim they have a key witness who would have testified if La Negra had gone to trial about seeing her and her father at the 2011 meeting as well as another meeting several months after the deadly shootout with law enforcement. The witness claims the second meeting was at a ranch, where El Mencho and his daughter had a discussion "concerning a discrepancy about money purportedly owed to the cartel and reflected in ledgers" handled by La Negra. Several court documents in the case remain sealed and those that are accessible don't elaborate about where that meeting allegedly took place or who the cartel leader blamed for the missing money. "Ms. Gonzalez admits that the entities she associated with were designated for supporting drug trafficking and specifically the CJNG," her attorney, Steven J. McCool wrote in court documents. "Ms. Gonzalez does not accept the claim that she met with her father." The department published a drug trafficking network organizational chart with photos of her father and uncle at the top. Previously: A ruthless Mexican drug lords empire is devastating families with its grip on small-town USA With El Mencho at large, agents unfairly honed in on his daughter, her attorney argued in a motion alleging "vindictive prosecution" and citing the rarity of the charges against her. La Negra was vulnerable to charges of violating the Kingpin Act because she was born in San Francisco and is a dual citizen. Americans are not allowed to associate or even patronize businesses blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department. The five businesses associated with La Negra, including Onze Black tequila, were blacklisted in 2015 and listed on the Treasury Department's cartel organizational chart. Prosecutors argued that La Negra knew she was in the wrong because she spent years trying to avoid Kingpin Act sanctions, moving the sushi restaurant and disbanding two businesses. They claim she also renamed the cabana resort, later called Cabanas La Loma, to try and fool U.S. investigators. La Negra was surprised by her arrest in February 2020, when she traveled from her home in Mexico to the United States to attend an arraignment for her brother, Menchito, at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. Her attorney argued to keep the details of her arrest and her brother's case from jurors if there had been a trial. Menchito remains jailed on international drug trafficking and weapons charges and is alleged to have been the No. 2 in command of the cartel. In her letter to the judge, La Negra pleaded to be reunited with her children and expressed remorse. "I ask for forgiveness, and say, without hesitation, that I regret everything I did that may have caused any harm," she said in the letter. "Today, more than ever, it is clear to me that I should have paid more attention to my actions and my actions consequences." Follow reporter Beth Warren on Twitter: @BethWarrenCJ. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: La Negra, daughter of CJNG cartel boss El Mencho, sentenced in U.S. South Floridians, especially those in Miami-Dade, have just won a front-row seat to what is expected to be one of the most heated Senate races in the country in the 2022 midterms the states senior Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Miami vs. Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings of Orlando, who just announced her candidacy or Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell. And thats just so far. Not just party politics and philosophy will come into play, but also gender, race, ethnicity, geography and even age will likely be points of attack for both sides. In other words, this race will have everything and Miami-Dade voters will be smack in the middle of it all. Russell, like Demings, a Democrat, announced that he, too, wants to challenge Rubio. Russell is not the Democratic Partys anointed candidate, Demings is, but in a race pitting a Hispanic man and a Black woman, Russell can still make a stand in the race at this point. For now, the race is really about Rubio and Demings, and we suspect its going to be rough and tumble. Presidential run As the areas highest-ranking Republican, Rubio, 50, is the hometown guy who began his political career on the West Miami commission. His main local office is in Doral. The Cuban American ran for president in 2016, but went from promising candidate to ridicule when fellow candidate Donald Trump tagged with the Little Marco moniker. He dropped out after coming in second to Trump in the Florida primary. And in what seems to be a long, long time ago 2013 Time magazine labeled him the savior of the Republican Party. Conservatives love him, liberals not so much. He has been endorsed by former President Trump. In the other corner, Demings, 64, is a former Orlando police chief who has served her Central Florida district since 2017. Shes politically hot. She was one of seven impeachment managers who argued the case against Trump during his 2020 trial in the Senate. Then she was on President Bidens short list of potential VPs before he settled on Kamala Harris. Demings is viewed as an up-and-coming Democratic darling. Story continues Battling it out Weve got an early glimpse of how the mudslinging will go down and thats pretty much like the races in the 2020 cycle where Republicans labeled Democrats socialists. Linking them to the policies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was another tactic. Ground Zero for such attacks was Miami-Dade, where Democratic incumbents U.S. Reps Donna Shalala and Debbie Murcasel-Powell were defeated by Republicans Maria Elvira Salazar and then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Rubio and Demings both have interesting origin stories. Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and grew up in Miami-Dades exile community. He traditionally denounces communism and the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia and China. In a Twitter post, Rubio called Demings a far-left Democrat and a do-nothing member of the House who has not passed any significant legislation. In her announcement speech, Demings described how she grew up poor in Jacksonville: My father was a janitor and my mother was a maid, she said. She said she will serve everyone In the next 18 months, Floridians will see those stories stretched every which way. Game on! Dafna Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority The Israeli Antiquities Authority recently released an announcement about their acquisition of an ancient magical amulet, reportedly from Arbel in Northern Israel, that bears the Divine Name of God. The fifth-sixth century CE magical device, which was worn to ward off evil, was apparently found at the site of an ancient synagogue. The discovery is making waves becausein popular understandings at leastancient Jews were not supposed to participate in magic. According to the press release, the bronze amulet is inscribed with four Greek letters I A W , representing the Jewish Divine Name (Yahweh, IHYH). The teardrop shaped amulet was designed to be worn as a pendant around the neck. The front of the pendant shows a haloed rider on a galloping horse. The rider holds a spear that he is moves in the direction of a female figure, who lies on her back on the ground. The woman is thought to be Gello, a demon who was sometimes associated with infertility or infant mortality. The divine name appears beneath the horses hooves and above the rider a Greek inscription declares The One God Conquers Evil. The reverse (back) of the pendant shows an eye being pierced by arrows and a trident shaped object while a menagerie that includes a snake, scorpion, bird, and two lions attack. The eye is a common representation of the evil eye, a malevolent force that many who lived around the ancient Mediterranean attempted to ward off with talismans, protective objects, and other ritualized protective measures. Dr. Eitan Klein, Deputy Director of the Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit, said in the press release that Although scholars generally identify the wearers of such amulets as Christians or Gnostics, the fact that the amulet was found within a Jewish settlement containing a synagogue in the fifth and sixth centuries CE may indicate that even Jews of the period wore amulets of this type for protection against the evil eye and demons. Story continues While the amulet was certainly used to protect the wearer from hostile supernatural forces, and for most people this will be news, the IAAs framing of the discovery as novel is overstated. The collection of images shown attacking the evil eye on the amulet is remarkably similar to a mosaic from ancient Antioch. The second century Antiochene mosaic employs what University of Iowa history professor Sarah Bond has called the kitchen sink approach to protecting oneself: a small statured man with a large phallus, trident, sword, scorpion, dog, snake, raven, and panther are shown attacking an eye. Its the inclusion of a centipede that really overwhelms the eye. This collection of imagery, therefore, is pretty stock and familiar to scholars of ancient religion and magic. Jeremiah Coogan, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, told the Daily Beast that there is plenty of evidence to suggest that late ancient Jews used this kind of technology to protect themselves from evil. Rabbinic texts like the Mishnah and the Palestinian Talmud also discuss the production and use of amulets. We dont have more physical evidence of Jewish amulets, Coogan explained, because most of the ancient discussion involves amulets written on material like parchment or papyrus which tend not to survive in the Galilee because of periodic rains. Scholars like Gideon Bohakl and Raanan Boustan have been working on the technologies and practices of ancient Jewish magic for a sometime, while others like David Frankfurter and Shaily Patel emphasize that the distinction between magic and religion is something that we often project into the ancient world. The term magician, Patel told me, was an ancient slur that was about rhetoric and bluster rather than reality and description. But in practice reading a religious text and wearing a religious text might have been just two ways that ancient Jews and Christians used scripture. What the discovery actually shows, Coogan told me, is that the late ancient Mediterranean shared a repertoire of apotropaic symbols, images, and terms drawn from a number of languages and contexts. Appeals to or (as here) appear in a wide range of amulets and ritual texts, from across the Mediterranean, and they often appear on the same apotropaic objects that employ words and symbols with roots in other languages and religious traditions as well. Its very much a mix-and-match affair. Chance Bonar, a doctoral student at Harvard, who recently delivered a paper on late antique condemnation of Jewish magic, agreed. Bonar told me that All across the Galilee, Lebanon, and Syria, we've discovered amulets that depict the holy rider spearing a dragon or a woman. Jews, Christians, and pagans all commissioned and used this same amuletic template, sometimes labelling it as Solomon or Saint Sissinos. Whats of interest to Bonar, Coogan, and others, isnt that Jews were using magic but rather that Jews, Christians, and pagans were all using the same templates to ward off evil. Late ancient Jews said Bonar had many of the same concerns as their eastern Mediterranean neighbors and sought out many of the same solutions. There may have been some ancient competition for clients or condemnation of the practices of ones rivals, but there doesnt appear to have been doubt about whether or not the images and objects actually worked. One thing thats difficult to establish, however, is where the amulet came from. The report states that the item was found close to the ancient Arbel synagogue by the late Tova Haviv, a resident of the village of Arbel, which was founded by demobilized Israeli soldiers in 1949. A family member admirably donated the amulet to the National Treasures Center, but because it was not found as part of a licensed excavation it is difficult to know exactly where it was originally discovered. Moreover, as Bonar, pointed out, the popularity of the imagery on the pendant makes it difficult to prove that the wearer of the amulet was an ancient Jew. The popularity of the iconography means that it could easily have belonged to a Christian or pagan instead. Around the Aegean the evil eye is most commonly associated with light colored irises sometimes green but usually blue. The association led to the creation of blue eye-shaped or circular glass amulets that can be hung in homes or worn as jewelry. The popularity of this image persists to this day. Just as in the ancient world the modern day use is fairly ambiguous: whether you paid $10 or over $3500 for your evil eye jewelry your use of it says less about your religious affiliation than it does your religious aesthetics and sartorial choices. 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 Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese spacecraft will blast off from the Gobi Desert on a Long March rocket in the coming days, ferrying three men to an orbiting space module for a three-month stay, the first time China has sent humans into space for nearly five years. Shenzhou-12, meaning "Divine Vessel", will be the third of 11 missions needed to complete China's space station by 2022. Among them, four will be missions with people on board, potentially propelling up to 12 Chinese astronauts into space - more than the 11 men and women that China has sent since 2003. The craft will also carry into space the hopes of some in Earth's most populous nation. "The motherland is powerful," one person wrote on Chinese social media, which has lit up with well-wishes for the Shenzhou-12 crew. "The launch is a gift to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party." Chinese astronauts have had a relatively low international profile. A U.S. law banning NASA from any connection with China means its astronauts have not been to the more than two-decade-old International Space Station, visited by more than 240 men and women of various nationalities. China, which aims to become a major spacefaring power by 2030, in May became the second country to put a rover on Mars, two years after landing the first spacecraft on the far side of the moon. It also plans to put astronauts on the moon - the farthest celestial body that humans have travelled to. THIS TIME, MEN The Shenzhou-12 crew is to live on the Tianhe, "Harmony of the Heavens", a cylinder 16.6 metres (55 feet) long and 4.2 metres (14 feet) in diameter. The planned three-month stay would break the country's record of 30 days, set by the 2016 mission - China's last crewed flight - of Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng to a prototype station. Three men from China's first and second batches of astronauts will be on this mission, Yang Liwei, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office and China's first astronaut, told state tabloid Global Times last month. Story continues China's space bloggers speculate they will be Nie Haisheng - who at 56 would be China's oldest astronaut sent into space - Deng Qingming, 55, and Ye Guangfu, 40. The authorities typically do not announce a mission's crew until near or after the launch. China Manned Space did not respond to a Reuters fax request for comment. The oldest human in space was John Glenn, who flew on the space shuttle at age 77 in 1998 - after having been the first American to orbit the earth in 1962, a U.S. senator and a presidential candidate. While no women are scheduled for the Shenzhou-12 mission, they are expected to participate in every following mission, Yang told Global Times. Two women, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping, were selected in 2011 among China's second cohort, after the first batch of 14 men in the mid-1990s. Liu was China's first woman in space in 2012, while Wang was the youngest, at 33, in 2013. China began building its space station in April with the launch of Tianhe, the first and largest of its three modules. This year it aims to send a robotic cargo resupply spacecraft and three more astronauts, this time for a six-month stay. (Reporting by Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao; Editing by William Mallard) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkey would be the "only reliable" country left to stabilise Afghanistan after the US pulls out its troops, indicating Washington could rely on its NATO ally. Erdogan also said he would discuss the issue in his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden on the margins of a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday, after strained relations between their two countries. "America is preparing to leave Afghanistan soon and from the moment they leave, the only reliable country to maintain the process over there is obviously Turkey," Erdogan told reporters at an Istanbul airport on Sunday before leaving for Brussels. The United States is in the final stages of completing a military drawdown, alongside NATO forces, by September 11 -- 20 years after they invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban. Turkey has reportedly said it is prepared to keep troops in Afghanistan to protect Kabul airport, the main exit route for western diplomats and humanitarian workers. Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish officials had informed their American counterparts about Ankara's plans in Afghanistan after the US troop pullout, without providing details. They are "pleased and happy. We will be able to discuss the Afghanistan process with them," he said. Turkey has made clear its intentions to stay in the war-torn country, but the details remain unclear. A Turkish official said Turkish troops could remain "as long as certain conditions including legal and financial are met." "If Turkey is to stay it will do so under which frame: under NATO umbrella or bilateral terms? And if it will be under NATO auspices, under which authorisation?" asked the official, who wished to remain anonymous. The official also confirmed that Western powers were willing to let Turkey stay and protect the Kabul airport. But, the official added, "why should Turkey try hard if nobody is going to give support? These issues need to be clarified." Story continues On Saturday the Taliban said that foreign forces should hold "no hope" of keeping a military presence in Afghanistan after the US and NATO withdraw troops, warning the security of embassies and airports would be the responsibility of Afghans. - 'Without ifs and buts'- Relations between the US and Turkey have been tense in recent years, and Erdogan said he wanted to turn a new page with the Biden administration. "There were rumours here and there. We need to leave them behind and discuss what we can do," he said. "We expect to see an approach from the US without ifs and buts." Relations have sharply deteriorated since Biden replaced Erdogan's ally Donald Trump in January. Biden most notably recognised the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman empire during World War I, a move that outraged Turkey which rejects that term. "This has seriously saddened us... Turkey is not an ordinary country. It's an ally of America," Erdogan said. fo/dl MEXICO CITY (AP) Investigators digging under the house of a suspected serial killer on the outskirts of Mexico City said Saturday they have found 3,787 bone fragments so far, apparently belonging to 17 different victims. Prosecutors in the State of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, suggested the grisly finds may not end there. In excavations carried out since May 17, authorities have dug up the floors of the house where the suspect lived. They now plan to extend the search to the soil beneath several other rooms he rented out on the same property. ID cards and other possessions from people who disappeared years ago were found at the junk-filled home, suggesting the trail of killings may go back years. The number of bone fragments found underneath concrete floors at the suspect's home would imply the corpses may have been hacked into tiny pieces. That could make sense: the suspect, identified by prosecutors only as Andres, was formerly a butcher and in fact sectioned and filleted his last victim. Video: Alleged serial killer Keith Gibson arrested in Delaware The bones fragments are being subjected to lateralization studies, which include carefully cleaning each one, identifying what part of the body they are and then placing them in their anatomical position, providing a method for determining the approximate number of victims, the office said in a statement. This analysis indicates that, up to now, the bone fragments found may possibly be those of 17 people, the statement said. Authorities have not released the full name of the 72-year-old suspect under Mexican laws protecting a suspects identity. He has been ordered to stand trial in the killing of his last victim, a 34-year-old woman whose body he allegedly dismembered with a butchers hacksaw and knives on May 14. He was caught, not as a result of keen investigative work, but because his most recent alleged victim was the wife of a police commander whom he knew personally. He was to have accompanied the victim on a shopping trip the day she disappeared, so her husband suspected him when she failed to return. Story continues The police officer gained access to police surveillance cameras showing his wife had entered, but not left, the street where the suspect lived; the policeman went to the home, confronted the suspect, and found his wife's hacked-up body inside. But what investigators also found was womens clothing, voter IDs and audio and video tapes suggesting he may have recorded his victims. The format of the video tapes found at the house may suggest how far the killings went back: authorities found 28 8mm video tapes, which were discontinued around 2007, and 25 VHS cassettes, which largely fell out of favor by 2016. However, outdated tech formats often remain in use in Mexico after they have been abandoned in other countries. In total, prosecutors said they have found 91 photographs, many of the type people would have used to obtain ID cards; eight cellphones, and women's jewelry and makeup. Prosecutors said they are still examining the bone fragments to see if they can extract any DNA to identify the victims. The claim: Jamaica banned K-pop music South Korean popular music, or K-pop, has gained international popularity in recent years. But according to some social media users, not everyone's in on the hype. An image of boy band BTS, one of the most popular K-pop groups, is being used to perpetuate a false claim made on a satirical website. "Jamaica Becomes The First Country To Make K-Pop Illegal," reads a screenshot posted on Instagram. The June 6 post has accumulated more than 369,000 likes. When USA TODAY reached out to Wasted, the meme account that published the post, the account said it was aware the claim was made-up. Fact check: Claim about 'genderless' Legos began as satire "It's just a satirical meme that has been going around for years. No idea the source," Wasted said. The account has since updated its caption to say: "This is obviously satire guys cmon."The same meme is posted elsewhere on Instagram and on Facebook without any disclosure that its origin is satire. The article is from 2018 and it is not to be taken seriously. Jamaica has not banned K-pop music. Screenshot shows satire The article presented in the June 6 Instagram post was published by 8Satire, a satirical website, in August 2018. But some Instagram users didn't appear to know that, as the website's name was not visible on the post. This is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," which means stories originally written and presented as satire are reposted in a way that makes them look like real news. This tactic misled some Instagram users who viewed the post. "Shoutout to Jamaica," one user commented. Others appeared to be in on the joke. "Fun fact: it's actually false," another user commented. 8Satire describes itself as a "satire and humor website" with "crazy real news which often sounds too good to be true." The made-up article says that, "after several months of discussion," the Jamaican government decided to ban K-pop music following its rise in popularity. Story continues BuzzFeed News debunked the article in 2018, citing a since-deleted tweet from a spokesperson for Jamaica's prime minister. This is NOT TRUE!!!!! said Robert Nesta Morgan, then-director of communications for Prime Minister Andrew Holness. USA TODAY reached out to the Jamaica prime minister's office for comment. Our rating: False The claim that Jamaica banned K-pop music is FALSE, based on our research. The Instagram post features a screenshot of a headline from a satire site, although it is not presented as such in the post. The made-up article has circulated since at least 2018, when a spokesperson for Jamaica's prime minister debunked it in a tweet. Our fact-check sources: Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: No, Jamaica didn't ban K-pop music Medical workers and pedestrians cross an intersection outside of the Houston Methodist Hospital on June 09, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Getty Images/Brandon Bell A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by over 100 Houston Methodist employees. The workers alleged the hospital's COVID-19 vaccine mandate forced them to be "human guinea pigs." The judge said the workers were not being forced or coerced to take a vaccine. Sign up for the 10 Things in Politics daily newsletter. A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit from more than 100 hospital employees who sued Houston Methodist over its policy requiring all staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The workers alleged in their lawsuit that the hospital was "forcing its employees to be human 'guinea pigs' as a condition for continued employment." They also accused the hospital of violating the Nuremberg Code of 1947, likening the vaccine mandate to Nazi medical experimentation on concentration camp prisoners. US District Judge Lynn Hughes was not sympathetic to either argument, writing in his order of dismissal Saturday evening that none of the employees were forced or coerced to take the vaccine. He also noted that the hospital cannot violate the Nuremberg Code because it is a private employer, not a government. "Equating the injection requirement to medical experimentation in concentration camps is reprehensible," Hughes wrote. "Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on victims that caused pain, mutilation, permanent disability, and in many cases, death." He added that the workers were free to accept or reject a vaccine and that they would "simply need to work elsewhere" if they chose the latter. "If a worker refuses an assignment, changed office, earlier start time, or other directive, he may be properly fired. Every employment includes limits on the worker's behavior in exchange for his remuneration," Hughes wrote. "That is all part of the bargain." The lawyer representing the hospital staff, Jared Woodfill, told Insider in a statement he intends to appeal the ruling to a federal appeals court and to the US Supreme Court if necessary. Story continues "This is just one battle in a larger war to protect the rights of employees to be free from being forced to participate in a vaccine trial as a condition for employment," Woodfill said. "Employment should not be conditioned upon whether you will agree to serve as a human guinea pig." The hospital has already suspended 178 workers who have missed the vaccine deadline The exterior of the Houston Methodist Hospital is seen on June 09, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Getty Images/Brandon Bell Houston Methodist made national headlines earlier this year when it announced it would require its 26,000 employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by June 7. "Those who are not vaccinated by that date face suspension and eventual termination," the hospital said in a FAQ page published in April. The hospital's policy also contained exemptions for workers with sincerely held religious beliefs and certain medical conditions, including pregnancy. Since then, the hospital system has suspended 178 workers who didn't meet the vaccination deadline. They will be fired if they aren't vaccinated by June 21. The lawsuit called the COVID-19 vaccines "experimental," and noted that none have been granted full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has granted "emergency use authorization" to the three major vaccines: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Each of the vaccines have undergone rigorous clinical trials involving tens of thousands of participants. Pfizer and BioNTech have already applied for full approval of their vaccine and Moderna has announced plans to apply soon. In a statement to Insider, Houston Methodist's president and CEO, Dr. Marc Boom, praised the hospital system's 26,000 employees who received the vaccine. "Our employees and physicians made their decisions for our patients, who are always at the center of everything we do," he said. "We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation." Read the original article on Business Insider HOUSTON In the first federal ruling on vaccine mandates, a Houston judge has dismissed a lawsuit by hospital employees who declined the COVID-19 shot a decision that could have a ripple effect across the nation. The case involved Houston Methodist, which was the first hospital system in the country to require that all its employees get vaccinated. U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ruled Saturday that federal law does not prevent employers from issuing that mandate. After months of warnings, Houston Methodist had put more than 170 of its 26,000 employees on unpaid suspension Monday. They were told they would be fired it they weren't vaccinated by June 21. The hospital had made it clear it meant what it said: It fired the director of corporate risk Bob Nevens and another manager in April when they did not meet the earlier deadline for bosses. In recent weeks, a few other major hospitals have followed Houston Methodist's lead, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Louisville, New York Presbyterian and several major hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area. Houston Methodist's CEO Marc Boom predicts more hospitals soon will enact vaccine mandates. Many hospitals and employers were waiting for legal clarification before acting. Related video: Fauci's emails from early days of the pandemic We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation," Boom said after the ruling. "Our employees and physicians made their decisions for our patients, who are always at the center of everything we do." The lawsuit was filed by 117 workers led by Jennifer Bridges, a nurse at Houston Methodist's Baytown hospital who declined the vaccine because she considers it experimental and dangerous. The judge disagreed, writing: "This claim is false, and it is also irrelevant." Learning of the dismissal from USA TODAY, Bridges vowed not to give up. She has initiated a change.org petition that as of Saturday had drawn more than 9,000 signatures and a GoFundMe to pay for the lawsuit that has raised $130,000. Story continues "This doesn't surprise me," she said. "Methodist is a very large company, and they are pretty well-protected in a lot of areas. We knew this was going to be a huge fight, and we are prepared to fight it." The lawsuit claimed federal law prohibits employees from being required to get vaccinated without full U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the vaccines. The FDA has authorized the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines under a special provision for emergencies. The judge dismissed that argument as well, saying that law does not apply to private employers. He also dismissed an argument that anyone who gets the vaccine is effectively a human subject in an experimental trial. "The hospital's employees are not participants in a human trial," he wrote. "They are licensed doctors, nurses, medical technician, and staff members. The hospital has not applied to test the COVID-19 vaccines on its employees." The lawsuit was filed in Texas state court but was moved to federal court at Houston Methodist's request. The federal judge ruled Saturday that Texas state law protects workers from being fired only if they are forced to commit a crime. David Heath is a reporter on the USA TODAY national investigations team. Contact him at dheath@usatoday.com or @davidhth, or on Signal at (240) 630-1962. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lawsuit from vaccine resisters at Houston hospital dismissed by judge Jalan Woods-Bell was stabbed to death on his way to school. (Metropolitan Police) Police have released a picture of a teenager who was stabbed to death on his way to school in London on Friday. Jalan Woods-Bell, 15, was stabbed in Hayes, west London, on Friday 11 June and died at the scene. A 15-year-old from Hillingdon, who cannot be named, was charged with his murder on Saturday (12 June) and appeared at Willesden Magistrates' Court on the same day. Police were called to Blyth Road in Hayes on Friday morning. (PA) The Met Police previously said it received reports of a fight on Blyth Road, near Global Academy, at around 8.30am on Friday morning. Officers called to the scene found Jalan with stab injuries. He died at the scene. Read more: Gang kick their way into house to attack man with knives and garden shears before stealing cannabis grow A post-mortem examination was due to be carried out on Sunday. The Met said detectives from its Specialist Crime Command are investigating. Teacher Tia Rek-Williams, 21, told the PA news agency she had seen the aftermath of the stabbing as people tried to help Jalan. She said: "This happened literally in the middle of the street, not down a back alley, in front of people's houses. It's just awful." Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK News Environmental activists are targeting at least five major oil and gas pipelines after celebrating the death of Keystone XL this week. Over the past two years, at least four multibillion-dollar pipeline projects that drew protests have been canceled or delayed, signaling to activists the effectiveness of their pressure campaign for a carbon-free future. KEYSTONE XL VICTORY EMBOLDENS GREEN GROUPS IN FIGHT AGAINST LINE 3 PIPELINE Sometimes, as in the case of the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline, whose permit was yanked by President Joe Biden, political considerations force project developers to give up. Similarly, Williams Companies last year canceled its $1 billion, 125-mile natural gas Constitution pipeline after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used Clean Water Act power to block construction. Cuomo used the same authority to deny a permit for the $1 billion Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement project to deliver natural gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey to New York City. Williams Companies has not given up trying to build that pipeline but is on a delayed timeline. Other times, legal fees drain a project's financing. Last year, utilities Dominion Energy and Duke Energy announced they would abandon construction of the $8 billion Atlantic Coast pipeline, which would have carried natural gas 600 miles from West Virginia to East Coast markets. Court challenges to that project led to yearslong construction delays and a more than $3 billion cost increase, according to the utilities. Another $1 billion natural gas pipeline, PennEast, is still being fought, with a closely watched eminent domain case pending before the Supreme Court. Here are five more targets of activists facing uncertain futures. Dakota Access: This spring, the Biden administration declined to order the Dakota Access oil pipeline to shut down while it completes an environmental review, dealing a blow to green groups and Native American tribes that had sought to stop it from operating. Story continues The Dakota Access pipeline has been carrying oil for more than three years from North Dakota to Illinois. But multiple courts have found the Trump administrations environmental review of the project to be deficient, so Biden is conducting a new one. The administration could shutter the pipeline if the Army Corps of Engineers environmental review makes that determination. But it would be unprecedented because the pipeline is already operating, unlike Keystone XL. Enbridges Line 3: The $9 billion Line 3 pipeline expansion in northern Minnesota has been the subject of protests this week, leading to tense standoffs with police and the arrests of more than 160 people. Enbridge is looking to replace an aging pipeline to transport crude from Canadas Alberta oil sands, the same emissions-intensive source that would have been used in Keystone XL, through the state's watersheds and tribal lands to Superior, Wisconsin. Despite pressure from activists, the Biden administration has declined to weigh in on the project. Environmentalists are also pressing their case in court. Enbridges Line 5: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered the 645-mile Line 5 pipeline operated by the same Canadian energy company, Enbridge, to shut down, citing risks that the pipeline could leak or spill oil. Enbridges Line 5, which carries up to 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids, runs under the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Enbridge is defying the order, however, saying the governor does not have the authority to shut it. Enbridge wants to move Line 5 into a new, $500 million tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to reduce the risk of leaks. Biden has also not intervened or directly commented on this project. Trans Mountain: Biden does not have any authority over the Trans Mountain pipeline, an expansion project taken over by the Canadian government that would carry an additional 535,000 barrels a day of oil from Albertas tar sands to the coast of British Columbia. Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government bought the 68-year-old pipeline in 2018 when previous owner Kinder Morgan threatened to halt it while facing legal hurdles. But the government plans to sell the project eventually. In the meantime, insurers have dropped out of supporting the pipeline, prompting Trans Mountain to receive regulatory approval to protect the identity of its insurers. Mountain Valley: Federal energy regulators voted in December to allow the developers of the Mountain Valley pipeline to do construction near a 25-mile area that includes going through the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. But several of the permits for the $6.2 billion Mountain Valley pipeline, a 303-mile project that would carry natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia, are under legal scrutiny, and its cost has nearly doubled. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER A coalition building the project recently said it would delay the startup of the pipeline to summer 2022 after originally planning to begin operating by late 2018. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Energy and Environment, Dakota Access oil pipeline, Keystone XL, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Andrew Cuomo, Canada, Justin Trudeau Original Author: Josh Siegel Original Location: Five more oil and gas pipelines targeted by green activists U.S. flagmakers have begun preparing designs to add a 51st star to the American flag amidst a revitalized push to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., NBC News reports. The state of play: The House passed a bill for D.C. statehood in April, but getting it through the Senate remains a long shot. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, but the measure is opposed by Republicans and even some Democrats. Nevertheless, flagmakers around the country are at the ready. Two years ago, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a new flag design with 51 stars, composed in "three horizontal rows with nine stars, three horizontal rows with eight stars," per NBC News. Carter Beard of Annin Flagmakers told NBC News that making the design change of adding an additional star could take place within an hour of the measure's approval in the Senate. "We call in a running change and the redesign part of the process can be done quickly. Its manufacturing the new flags that takes time," he said. More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free The battle to get Washington, D.C., admitted into the union as the 51st state has been waged for two centuries, but adding a 51st star to the U.S. flag would take less than 60 minutes. So says Carter Beard, president of the venerable company Annin Flagmakers, a six-generation family firm that has sewn some of the most famous U.S. flags in history. We could do it in about an hour, Beard said when asked how long it would take to add a star. We call in a running change, and the redesign part of the process can be done quickly. Its manufacturing the new flags that takes time. Statehood, which has long been the dream of many residents in Washington, is once again being debated for the nations capital, and another Flag Day is upon us. If it turns out statehood is in the cards, the new U.S. flag could look like the banner Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled two years ago, when she planted 140 of them on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol ahead of a congressional hearing on statehood. It has three horizontal rows with nine stars, three horizontal rows with eight stars and the blessing of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., who has as she has done every year since she took office in 1991 introduced a D.C. statehood measure. Eleanor Holmes Norton with 51-star flag (Thomas McKinless / CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images file) I defy you to find a flag that looks all that different from the flag we had when there were 48 states, Norton said. Simply adding a star will not have a cosmic change on the flag. What did she think of Bowsers flag? I loved it, Norton said, laughing. But it was not because the flag stood out in any way. Beard said company's partner, Embroidery Solutions of South Carolina, has already sent it three configurations with 51 stars that could be used to produce a new flag. But hes not banking on that happening this year, not even with the Democrats in control of the House, the Senate and the White House. Many Republicans oppose statehood for Washington and for Puerto Rico because any congressional representation would almost certainly be Democratic. Norton is not allowed to vote on the House floor, but she can vote on procedural matters and in congressional committees. Washington residents have no representation in the Senate. Story continues If D.C. were to become a state, Democrats would gain two reliably liberal seats in the U.S. Senate, Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, recently told The Guardian. They cite various reasons for why they want D.C. statehood, but the truth is that these extra Senate seats would be a rubber stamp for their radical, far-left agenda. The House in April passed a D.C. statehood bill with a record number of co-sponsors and the endorsement of President Joe Biden. Still, its a long shot in an evenly divided Senate, given the 60-vote hurdle needed to overcome a filibuster. Even without the filibuster, key Democratic senators like Joe Manchin of West Virginia are not on board with making the district the 51st state. So Beard isnt revving up to start producing U.S. flags with 51 stars or 52 stars, for that matter any time soon. Dont forget, theyve talked about admitting Washington and also Puerto Rico for years, and nothing happened, Beard said. So we are following whats going on and were ready to make new flags, but well cross that bridge when we come to it. Betsy Ross and two young girls on the left, showing an American flag to George Washington standing at center, and three other men standing on the right, possibly the Hon. George Ross and Robert Morris, and an unidentified military officer. (Thomas Dowler / Library of Congress) Change has been a constant for a flag that had 13 alternating red and white stripes and 13 white stars in a circle on a blue background to symbolize each of the 13 new states in the Union when it was unveiled in June 1777. Since then, the design has been modified 26 times as more states joined the union, most recently on Aug. 21, 1959, when Hawaii became the 50th state. My father, who is now retired, was around in 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states, Beard said. He remembers that as a crazy time. Lots of people wanted the new flags right away. I imagine if we went from 50 to 51 states, some people would want the new flags right away. Annin and U.S. history are deeply intertwined. The company produced the first flag the Marines raised at Iwo Jima (the flag in the Lou Lowery photo, not the one in the famous Rosenthal photo), some of the American flags flying on the moon and the flag that was draped over the coffin of President Abraham Lincoln. A U.S. Marine from the 5th Division of the 28th Regiment stands guard atop Mt. Suribachi at Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands of Japan as others hoist the American flag during World War II, Feb. 23, 1945. (Louis R. Lowery / U.S. Marine Corps via AP file) The standard 3-foot-by-5-foot flag, which is made of nylon, requires about six minutes of labor to produce, said Beard, whose company supplies flags to Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot and over 300 other Annin dealers in all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C. The design of the current 50-star flag, which made its debut in 1960, started off as a history project for a 17-year-old Lancaster, Ohio, high school student named Robert G. Heft, who died in 2009. Using his mothers sewing machine, Heft spent about 12 hours stitching together a 50-star flag, only to get a B-minus for his efforts. His teacher, however, said hed give Heft an A if Congress chose his design. Two years later, Heft got that A after President Dwight D. Eisenhower acting on recommendations from a small committee he established to review the submissions selected his design out of the 1,500 or so entries. I never thought when I designed the flag that it would outlast the 48-star flag, Heft said in a 2007 interview with The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan. Hefts design was essentially a conservative modification of the existing flag, Peter Ansoff, who heads the North American Vexillological Association, said in an email. There's no way to know, of course, but I suspect that the process would be similar for a 51-star flag. Vexillology is the study of flags. From purely a design standpoint, Beard said, hes a fan of the Japanese flag. A lot of people say the Japanese flag is very striking, he said. Its a simple design with the red circle on the white background, and everybody knows right away which country it represents. Asked what his favorite flag is besides the Stars and Stripes, of course Beard replied, Those were the ones I made when my kids were born. I had one that said Its a boy on a blue background and another that said Its a girl on a pink background, he said. FALMOUTH, England The Group of Seven summit in Cornwall ended here Sunday with world leaders calling for collective action to end the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future ones, embrace democratic values, reinvigorate global economies and take swift action to protect an imperiled planet from climate change. Direct challenges to China were featured in the G-7's communique for the first time. "America is back at the table," President Joe Biden said in a news conference. "The lack of participation in the past and full engagement was noticed significantly." Biden has been here at the southwestern tip of the British Isles since Thursday for discussions with world leaders that have encompassed the coronavirus pandemic, an ascendant China, climate change and global inequality. Later Sunday, Biden is traveling to Brussels for a NATO alliance summit on Monday and separate talks Tuesday with European Union leaders. But before he heads to continental Europe, Biden will briefly stop at Windsor Castle for tea with the queen. Here's what was learned from the three-day summit: China is the subtext to everything Relations between wealthy G-7 industrialized nations and Beijing were not expected to be on the formal agenda in Cornwall. But China its economic might, geopolitical ambition, approach to human rights and role in the coronavirus pandemic informed much of the discussion over the past few days. Five takeaways from Day 2 of G-7: COVID's 'roots,' China, protests at sea The G-7's communique Sunday called for a "timely, transparent, expert-led and science-based WHO-convened" study into COVID-19's origins in China. It also called on Beijing to respect human rights, especially in connection with allegations over its forced-labor camps in Xinjiang, and in Hong Kong, where Beijing has cracked down on the territory's autonomy. I think theres plenty of action on China," Biden said. "Im satisfied." Story continues On Saturday, the leaders of the world's richest democracies unveiled a plan to counter China's growing influence among developing nations through an initiative called Build Back Better World, or B3W. A woman walks her dogs as the incoming tide begins to wash away the heads of G-7 leaders drawn in the sand by activists on the beach at Newquay, Cornwall, England, Thursday, June 10, 2021. B3W is described as an alternative to President Xi Jinpings multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure building program that spans dozens of countries as well as multiple oceans and continents. BRI takes the form of debt-financed ports, railways, highways, dams, cargo depots and other critical infrastructure. "We think there's a much more equitable way to provide for the needs of countries around the world," Biden said in his new conference. Still, Huiyao Wang, a senior adviser to China's government, told USA TODAY in a phone interview from Beijing on Sunday that whatever the goal of B3W may be, there is a danger it could further drive an adversarial wedge between the West and China. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have much to discuss before the G-7 summit in Cornwall, Britain. "China doesn't want this to be 'us' versus 'you.' China started BRI because it saw there was a tremendous demand for it in the global south. If the U.S and other G-7 countries want to work on infrastructure projects in these places that's fine," he said. The G-7 did not announce specific targets or a budget for its initiative. Low coal is the goal The British broadcaster and wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough told world leaders in Cornwall on Sunday that human beings may be "on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet" as he urged them to do more while they are in the U.K. to make potentially planet-changing decisions on climate change. "The decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history," he said Biden overseas: 4 takeaways from Joe Biden's first meeting with Boris Johnson Attenborough's warning came as the White House announced that Biden and his fellow G-7 leaders had agreed a "concrete set of actions" to accelerate the transition from "unabated coal power generation," which is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Under the plan, G-7 countries will, by the end of this year, halt all government support for international thermal coal power generation. Police officers photograph the route of the motorcade of President Joe Biden after he attended a church service with first lady Jill Biden in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, on June 13, 2021. 'Who's got all the money? We have':G-7 protests hit the beach with blimps, games, banners, flames, kayaks, air horns and more They committed to provide up to $2 billion in investment money focused on helping developing countries move away from coal to cleaner energies. They also pledged, for the first time, to "align their long-term and short-term climate goals in a manner consistent" with keeping projected global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But for many of the protesters who descended on Cornwall over the past few days, those pledges were not enough to stave off the climate emergency. This pandemic and the next one Leaders committed to the Carbis Bay Declaration, a series of recommendations and steps G-7 countries will take to prevent a future pandemic. Those steps include cutting the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days; a commitment to reinforce global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity; and support for reforming and strengthening the World Health Organization. More: COVID-19: U.S. to donate 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to the world G-7 leaders were also asked to donate 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries over the next year. Biden pledged to donate 500 million doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to nearly 100 lower-income countries and the African Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his country would gift more than 100 million doses. Leaders said they recognized that to end the coronavirus pandemic in 2022 would mean vaccinating at least 60% of the world's population. Biden said it's possible the U.S. could donate another 1 billion doses. 15% at the very least G-7 leaders endorsed a U.S. plan for a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%. That is to prevent large companies such as Amazon from paying little to no tax by shifting their profits and revenue to low-tax countries or jurisdictions. "With this, we have taken a significant step towards creating a fairer tax system fit for the 21st century, and reversing a 40-year race to the bottom," the G-7's communique said. "Our collaboration will create a stronger level playing field, and it will help raise more tax revenue to support investment and it will crack down on tax avoidance." At his own news conference, Biden promised to "move on this at home as well. Don't book tickets to the U.K. just yet Biden and Johnson launched a travel task force that will make policy recommendations about safely reopening international travel between the U.K. and the USA. But no specific timing was announced. A man poses with a tea set outside the G-7 media center in Falmouth, Cornwall during the G7 summit on June 13, 2021. One of the reasons a date has not been set is that British scientists believe the U.K. may be starting to see a third wave of coronavirus infections as a result of the Delta variant first detected in India, which is more transmissible than other coronavirus variants. Before the coronavirus outbreak, more than 4.5 million Americans visited the U.K. every year, and more than 5 million British nationals traveled to the USA annually. U.S. is back, but with limits Biden's first stop on his first overseas trip as president saw him warmly embraced by world leaders, who spoke approvingly of his multilateralist values and commitment to democracy promotion around the world. But Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was attending her final G-7 summit before she steps down as Germany's leader, put Biden's return to the world stage in context. "Look, the election of Joe Biden as U.S. president doesn't mean that the world no longer has problems," Merkel said. "But we can work on the solution of these problems with a new zest." One area where Biden was apparently ineffective in Cornwall: On the sidelines of the summit, an argument between Johnson and EU leaders over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could affect a peace treaty in Northern Ireland worsened. Next stop: NATO. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: G-7: What we learned from the summit attended by President Joe Biden Group of Seven leaders on Sunday announced they have agreed work together to challenge Chinas non-market economic practices and to press Beijing to respect human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Why it matters: President Biden went into the summit hoping to present a united front against Beijing. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free The final communique also announced the countries' intention to work together on infrastructure projects to counter China's reach in developing nations, and to insist upon a transparent probe into the origins of Covid-19. What they're saying: "We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law," the leaders said. "With regard to China, and competition in the global economy, we will continue to consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy," the leaders added. "We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions." Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. G7 leaders are set to announce Sunday a range of measures to tackle climate change, including "ending almost all direct government support" for fossil fuels and phasing out gasoline and diesel cars. Driving the news: The plan was outlined in a British government announcement Saturday, which states that the leaders will also agree to halting "all unabated coal as soon as possible." Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free. The White House announced in a separate statement Saturday that G7 leaders had "agreed to a set of concrete actions to accelerate the global transition away from coal generation as part of our efforts to combat the climate crisis." The U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. had agreed to provide up to $2 billion in financing to help developing countries transition away from coal, the White House statement added. Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: Steps to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles and ending subsidies for coal-fired power plants are no surprise, but there is pressure on leaders to go further toward these goals than they have in the past. The developing world will also be eyeing any new financial pledges to help countries transition toward clean energy while coping with the effects of climate change. Developed countries had promised $100 billion per year for these purposes starting in 2020, but funding remains well below that target. Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. US President Joe Biden has declared that "America is back at the table" following the G7 summit of world leaders in the UK. At a press conference on Sunday, Mr Biden said the summit had been "extraordinarily collaborative". G7 leaders agreed on action to tackle China's human rights record and climate change after three days of talks. Mr Biden said the organisation was in a "contest with autocracies" and welcomed its approach on China and Russia. He also sought to distance himself from his predecessor - Donald Trump - who he said believed climate change was "not a problem". "We had a president, the last [one] who basically said it's not a problem, global warming," Mr Biden said. "It is the existential problem facing humanity and it's being treated that way." The leaders agreed on action on China's rights record and climate change The world leaders attending the Cornwall summit signed a declaration calling on China to "respect human rights and fundamental freedoms", especially in the Xinjiang region, the north-western region that is home to the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Human rights groups allege China has subjected minorities in the region to mass detention, surveillance, and torture - something China strongly denies. "We're in a contest, not with China per se... with autocrats, autocratic governments around the world, as to whether or not democracies can compete with them in a rapidly changing 21st century," Mr Biden said. The G7 adopted a spending plan to support lower and middle-income countries in response to a similar Chinese scheme. Chinese officials, meanwhile, warned G7 leaders that the days when "small" groups of countries decided the fate of the world were long gone. The G7 also called for a transparent, expert-led study including in China, organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), amid claims Covid-19 may have leaked from a Chinese laboratory. Story continues "We haven't had access to the laboratories," Mr Biden told reporters. He said it was not yet certain whether or not "a bat interfacing with animals and the environment... caused this COVID-19, or whether it was an experiment gone awry in a laboratory". Mr Biden also said the Russian President Vladimir Putin - who he dubbed an "autocrat" - was right to believe relations were at their lowest point in years. The pair are meeting in Geneva on Wednesday. But he said the US could "work together with Russia" on issues such as Covid, cyber crime and conflicts. Europe breathes sigh of relief Analysis box by Jon Sopel, North America editor In terms of the big set-pieces (excluding tea with the Queen) we're only a quarter of the way through Joe Biden's 'America is Back' tour. We're now in Brussels for the Nato and then the EU/US summits, and then the trickiest meeting of all, his tete-a-tete in Geneva with Vladimir Putin. I accompanied Donald Trump when he travelled a similar route this time three years ago. Then Trump predicted that his meeting with the Russian leader might well be the easiest of the lot. Joe Biden is happy to say that it will be the thorniest. American foreign policy is back in a more familiar pre-Trump place. And the other members of the G7, Nato and the EU are breathing a sigh of relief. The US president came to Cornwall determined to show leadership. The agreement on contributing a billion vaccines to the poorest nations the American team view as a success. Biden has also sought to persuade the G7 to focus on the threat posed by China, and to come up with a global "build back better" fund to rival the billions China has been pouring into developing countries. But here the G7 has come up with warm words rather than hard cash. And the US administration says it wants to be judged by actions; not words. What is in the G7 communique? The G7 leaders published a 25-page communique summing up their "shared agenda" in key points. They included: Northern Irelands Jonathan Caldwell gave himself the perfect belated birthday present by claiming his first European Tour title in the inaugural Scandinavian Mixed. Caldwell, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Thursday, fired an eagle and eight birdies in a brilliant final round of 64 to finish 17 under par, a shot ahead of Spains Adrian Otaegui. Otaegui had a putt to win on the 18th but charged his birdie attempt four feet past the hole and missed the return putt. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Englands Alice Hewson needed to eagle the last to force a play-off but had to settle for a par and a closing 69 to finish third in the first event on the European Tour to feature men and women competing on the same course for one prize fund and one trophy. Caldwell, who partnered Rory McIlroy in the 2007 Walker Cup, began the day three shots off the lead but covered his first 11 holes in six under par and then holed from 40 feet for an eagle on the 14th to move two shots clear. That lead was short-lived thanks to a combination of his bogey on the 15th and Jason Scrivener making a birdie on the 10th, but a birdie on the 16th took Caldwell back in front. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. A bogey on the 17th looked set to prove costly but Caldwell bounced back brilliantly with a superb approach to the last. The resulting tap-in birdie set the clubhouse target on 17 under par and although Otaegui swiftly got to that mark with a two-putt birdie on the par-five 16th, his bogey on the last handed Caldwell the title. HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police arrested at least three protesters on the anniversary of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019 that rocked the financial hub and eventually led to Beijing introducing a security law that critics say has stifled dissent. The protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and failing to produce proof of identity, while at least 10 people were summoned for violating a ban on gatherings, police said, after protests in the Kowloon district of Mongkok and the chanting of slogans in breach of a National Security Law imposed last June. Some people blocked roads by placing rubbish bins and other objects in them, police said. "The police strongly condemn protectors' acts endangering public health and safety," police said in a post on Facebook shortly before midnight on Saturday. The three people arrested were male aged 15 to 19, police said. Small groups gathered on Saturday to commemorate the first major clashes between protesters and police two years ago when tens of thousands demonstrated against a proposed law for the former British colony that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to the mainland for trial. Many Hong Kong residents saw the proposed law as further erosion of the city's special status that was supposed to be guaranteed under a "one country, two systems" formula agreed when Britain handed it over to China in 1997. The 2019 protests snowballed over subsequent months into a mass movement for democracy that included regular clashes between protesters and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Police deployed 2,000 officers around the city on Saturday, the South China Morning Post reported. Police said on the eve of the anniversary that they had arrested two people on suspicion of promoting and inciting others to join an unlawful assembly. Activist group Student Politicism said two of its leaders were arrested. There was no sign of any protests on Sunday. (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Robert Birsel) Prospective buyers are flocking to Boulder Springs for a variety of reasons. The idyllic Spring Hill setting offers a desirable Johnson County location served by the coveted Spring Hill School District. And with both single-family and maintenance-provided, paired villa homes to choose from, buyers can easily find the floor plan and price point that meets their needs. Lisa Alvarez markets Boulder Springs with Cyndi Clothier for Weichert Realtors, Welch & Company and said the communitys villa homes have been especially popular because of the appealing price range: $345,000 to $399,000. Our villas have been a hit with people who want the convenience of a maintenance-provided lifestyle and a Johnson County location, but find themselves priced out of Overland Park, Alvarez said. Boulder Springs St. Croix villa home offers 1,500 square feet on the main level, complete with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Finish the homes lower level to add around 1,000 square feet, plus two bedrooms, one bathroom and additional living space while keeping the price under $400,000. Four additional villa floorplans are available. For prospective buyers with a faster move-in timeline, speculative villas are underway for completions in June and August. The villa homes are built by Aruba Homes and Authentic Homes, two members of the larger Boulder Springs builder team. In addition to spacious, well-built homes, villa owners enjoy provided maintenance, including mowing and lawn care, snow removal, roof and gutter repair and replacement, exterior paint and landscape maintenance. Families are drawn to the communitys single-family homes, available in floor plans that include two-story, reverse 1 -story and ranch layouts. Most homes include a 3-car garage. Several speculative homes are in progress or prospective buyers can choose from a small yet enviable selection of remaining homesites: two cul-de-sac locations and two homesites that back to greenspace. Prices range from $350,000 to $455,000, and buyers can work with any member of the communitys building team: Aruba Homes, Authentic Homes, Calyn Homes, Shepard Homes and Wynne Homes. Story continues All Boulder Springs homeowners are a short stroll from community amenities, including a playground, swimming pool, fire pit and walking trails. Alvarez said she loves seeing all of the kids playing throughout the neighborhood, another advantage of a quiet Spring Hill location. Speaking of location-based advantages the Boulder Springs features dont stop there! The communitys developer, Grata Development, installed CenturyLink 1 GIG fiber internet throughout Boulder Springs, so you will have lightning-fast connectivity for working, surfing or streaming. Additionally, Grata Development shields homeowners from high special assessment taxes that can be found elsewhere in the Spring Hill area. The communitys appealing price points, along with minimal special assessment rates, make Boulder Springs an even better value for buyers who covet new construction in Johnson County. Make plans to visit Boulder Springs, perched between U.S. 69 and U.S. 169 highways off Woodland St. The sales office is open daily so that you can experience all the community has to offer, along with a breezy commute that puts you in Olathe, Overland Park and beyond in just minutes. See you soon! Boulder Springs Prices: Villa homes from $345,000 to $399,000; single-family homes from $350,000 to $455,000. Location: Sales office at 19642 W. 196th Terrace, Spring Hill, Kan. Turn east on 199th Street from U.S. 169, then turn left on Emerald St. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Contact: Lisa Alvarez or Cyndi Clothier, 913-277-0033 or email: BoulderSpringsKS@gmail.com Web: www.boulderspringsks.com By Amit Dave AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Authorities in an Indian city have organised a special drive-through vaccination camp for disabled people in a bid to address low vaccination rates, especially among more vulnerable members of society. Organisers of the weekend campaign in Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Gujarat state, aim to vaccinate 500 disabled people, who often struggle to book slots and get access to vaccination centres. People taking advantage of the offer queued up at the centre in vehicles, wheelchairs, and on customised mopeds for their free COVID-19 vaccine shots. "The vaccination process is now more convenient," said Mahendra Chudasma, a 45-year-old man who is visually impaired. "It's a very nice feeling." Despite being a major producer of coronavirus vaccines, India faces a huge task in inoculating its 1.3 billion people, partly due to the logistical difficulties of reaching remote areas and also scepticism about the shots. People with disabilities often face additional problems of being unable to reach vaccination sites due to a lack of transport or no ramps at the centres for easy access, said Bhushan Punani, general secretary of the Blind Peoples Association in Ahmedabad, one of the organisers of the campaign. Some people have struggled to use a government-mandated smartphone app required to register for shots, he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has said it aims to vaccinate all eligible and willing Indians by the end of this year, but only 240 million of the country's 950 million adults have had at least one shot, according to health data. India was hit hard by a surge of coronavirus infections in April and May but there are signs the worst could be over. Authorities on Sunday reported 80,834 new COVID-19 infections over the previous 24 hours, the lowest daily tally in more than two months, according to health ministry data. There were 3,303 deaths over the same period. (Reporting by Amit Dave in Ahmedabad; Writing by Sunil Kataria; Editing by Alasdair Pal, Robert Birsel) By Jeffrey Heller and Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12-year run as Israel's prime minister ended on Sunday with parliament approving a new "government of change" led by nationalist Naftali Bennett, an improbable scenario few Israelis once could have imagined. But the razor-thin 60-59 vote of confidence in a coalition of left-wing, centrist, right-wing and Arab parties with little in common except a desire to unseat Netanyahu, only underscored its likely fragility. In Tel Aviv, thousands turned out to welcome the result, after four inconclusive elections in two years. "I am here celebrating the end of an era in Israel," said Erez Biezuner in Rabin Square. "We want them to succeed and to unite us again," he added, as flag-waving supporters of the new government sang and danced around him. But a combative Netanyahu, 71, said he would be back sooner than expected. "If we are destined to go into the opposition, we will do so with our heads held high until we can topple it," he told parliament before Bennett was sworn in. The new government largely plans to avoid sweeping moves on hot-button international issues such as policy toward the Palestinians, and to focus instead on domestic reforms. Palestinians were unmoved by the change of administration, predicting that Bennett, a former defence chief who advocates annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, would pursue the same right-wing agenda as Likud party leader Netanyahu. Under the coalition deal, Bennett, a 49-year-old Orthodox Jew and high-tech millionaire, will be replaced as prime minister in 2023 by centrist Yair Lapid, 57, a popular former television host. With his far-right Yamina party winning only six of parliament's 120 seats in the last election, Bennett's ascension to the premiership was a political jaw-dropper. Interrupted by non-stop shouts of "liar" and "shame" from Netanyahu loyalists in parliament, Bennett thanked the former prime minister for his "lengthy and achievement-filled service." Story continues But little love has been lost between the two men: Bennett once served as Netanyahu's chief of staff and had a rocky relationship with him as defence minister. Although they are both right-wingers, Bennett spurned Netanyahu's call after the March 23 election to join him. CONGRATULATIONS FROM BIDEN U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated Bennett and Lapid, saying he looked forward to strengthening the "close and enduring" relationship between the two countries. "My administration is fully committed to working with the new Israeli government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region," Biden said in a statement. Netanyahu - widely known as 'Bibi' - was Israel's longest-serving leader, serving as prime minister since 2009 after a first term from 1996 to 1999. The most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, he had become the face of Israel on the international stage, with his polished English and booming baritone voice. He used his global stature to resist calls for Palestinian statehood, describing it as a danger to Israel's security. Instead, he sought to bypass the Palestinian issue by forging diplomatic deals with regional Arab states, on the back of shared fears of Iran. But he was a divisive figure at home and abroad, weakened by repeated failure to clinch a decisive election victory, and by an ongoing corruption trial in which he has denied any wrongdoing. His opponents have long reviled what they see as Netanyahu's divisive rhetoric, underhanded political tactics and subjection of state interests to his own political survival. He hoped to prevail on the back of Israel's world-beating COVID-19 vaccination rollout, but was dogged by opponents who called him "Crime Minister" and accused him of earlier mishandling the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout. BUSINESS AHEAD Addressing parliament, Bennett echoed Netanyahu's call for the United States not to return to the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers, a deal abrogated by Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump. "Renewal of the nuclear agreement with Iran is a mistake, an error that would again grant legitimisation to one of the darkest and violent regimes in the world," Bennett said. "Israel will not allow Iran to equip itself with nuclear weapons." Thanking Biden for his "years of commitment to Israel's security", and for "standing by Israel" during fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza last month, Bennett said his government would pursue good relations with U.S. Democrats and Republicans alike. At home, Bennett has angered right-wingers, however, by breaking a campaign pledge in joining forces with Lapid, having to fend off allegations from Netanyahu that he defrauded the electorate. Bennett cited the national interest, arguing that a fifth election would have been a disaster for Israel. Both Bennett and Lapid have said they want to bridge political divides and unite Israelis. But the new Cabinet, which met for the first time late on Sunday, faces huge foreign, security and financial challenges: Iran, a fragile ceasefire with Palestinian militants in Gaza, a war crimes probe by the International Criminal Court, and post-pandemic economic recovery. Bennett listed as priorities reforms in education, health, cutting red tape to grow businesses and lower housing costs. Coalition leaders have said it would pass a two-year budget to help stabilise the country's finances. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Jeffrey Heller; Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem and Rami Amichay in Tel Aviv; Frances Kerry, Andrew Heavens and Peter Cooney) A Carabinieri police officer in Rome - Baris Seckin/Anadolu Agency Rome prosecutors are investigating the disappearance of at least 120 paintings, etchings, sculptures and tapestries from the offices of Italys public broadcaster, Rai. Some of the missing artworks which include valuable etchings by Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley disappeared completely from Rai offices, while others were replaced with fakes. Authorities suspect disgruntled employees may be behind the thefts from the impressive collection, which includes 1,500 artworks worth millions of euros that were purchased over the years with public funds. Italian households are required to pay 90 euros a year in television license fees, although Rai - which is owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance - is still 523 million euros in debt. According to the Il Messaggero newspaper, which first reported the Sacking of Rai story, top bosses at the broadcasters Rome headquarters uncovered the issue by chance in March, when a painting supposedly by Florentine artist Ottone Rosai fell to the floor, its broken frame revealing it was actually a copy. Detectives traced the theft back to a retired Rai employee, who admitted he had sold it back in the 1970s for the equivalent of a few hundred euros. The crime is no longer prosecutable as the statute of limitations has passed. The iconic horse sculpture by Francesco Messina outside Rai's headquarters - theodore liasi / Alamy Stock Photo A subsequent survey of the known works in Rai's collection revealed that 120 pieces were missing. Four bronze and silver horse statues that were miniature copies of the iconic sculpture by Francesco Messina outside Rais Rome headquarters were also stolen, along with a canvas depicting the Colosseum by figurative painter Giovanni Stradone. As well as the Rome headquarters, artworks have also vanished from Rai bureaus elsewhere the broadcaster has over a dozen local offices and more than 50 studios across Italy. Paintings by Giorgio De Chirico and Renato Guttuso are among the missing. Detectives suspect most of the thefts occurred only after a 1996 exhibition of Rais collection in Puglia raised awareness of the precious collection hanging unprotected in Rais corridors. Story continues We are tracing a series of disappearances that do seem to be targeted, Rai executive Nicola Sinisi told La Repubblica. Italian art critic Vittorio Sgarbi estimated the value of the missing works at approximately 20 million euros, according to the Adnkronos news agency. The investigation is being carried about by the art heritage fraud squad of Italys Carabinieri police, considered among the top art crime detectives in the world. The unit recently helped to track down 1,635 illegally trafficked art works as part of a massive international operation. Investigators are getting a boost from a new cyber patrol database that scans the web for illegally trafficked art and antiquities. Recovered works from that operation include a 15th century oil on canvas stolen from Matera, silver and bronze Roman coins, and ancient amphora, vases, ceramics and statues, with a total value of 1.1 million euros. Jesus Medina hoists Jose Gonzalez for a photo taken by Jade Magallanes (shadow) at the Sierra Vista High School on-campus prom. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) The gray dawn weighs heavy on the Sierra Vista High School campus. Fading signs of proper COVID-19 protocols weather on rows of unused lockers lining immaculate hallways. Wearing multicolor Vans sneakers and an oversized UC Merced sweatshirt, senior Jesus Medina crouches below yellow caution tape on his way to the ASB office. Clutching a sugary, caffeinated Venti Starbucks drink, hes on a mission to bring life back to a school weary after a year of lockdowns. Jesus Medina and fellow senior Angela Camarillo hang a banner supporting classmate and senior class President Isaiah Maldonado before he competes in a varsity tennis match. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) He rolls two oversized speakers onto the quad, punches a few keys on his smartphone, and in an instant, Dua Lipas Levitating echoes throughout. Minutes later, Jesus is waving at teachers smiling through masks. He stops a few for selfies as a handful of students walk straight to classrooms of plexiglass and computers. He joins classmate and close friend Jade Magallanes for morning announcements. They share an old microphone, delivering school news and reciting the pledge of allegiance. Jade giggles as they emphatically say, Have a tasteful Thursday, Dons! Jesus describes his pandemic year as surreal. It was difficult adjusting to online learning. People not turning on their cameras, the teacher talking to blank screens, he said. That was weird. I turn on my camera so I can have some connection with the teacher, he said. The teacher is literally looking at screens with your initials on them. Were feeling poopy, but the teacher is too. When I had a chance to come to campus, I took it, he said. Minutes after hanging a teacher appreciation banner, Jesus Medina looks for teachers arriving on campus at Sierra Vista High to add to his collection of selfies. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Jesus believed that staying home might have delayed his preparation for life on campus next fall. Sleeping during class, setting my alarm five minutes before class ended so I could leave class. I dont think I would survive college. Hes bound for UC Santa Cruz. Thanks to the teachers of the AVID program, he was on the path to college since his freshman year. It really helped me, he said. Im going to college with a $20,000 scholarship." At home with his mom, dad, a bird and a Maltese Shi Tzu that barks at him, Jesus plays "Minecraft" with friends from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Then they talk until 3 a.m. His advice to his younger self? Enjoy your time with your friends right now, because youre going to move five hours away. Story continues Jesus Medina, right, joins three other students attending Araceli Castillo-Parrales' AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) class. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Jesus Medina attends the Sierra Vista High AVID awards assembly. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Patricia Medina straightens her son Jesus' collar as his father, Felix Sr., looks on at the Sierra Vista High AVID awards banquet. Jesus was honored for having the most community service hours and was named AVID Standout. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Watch: President Biden, first lady meet Queen Elizabeth II Joe Biden has become the 13th president to have a one on one with the Queen after the monarch invited him and his wife, Jill, for tea at Windsor Castle. The Bidens visit follows the G7 summit in Cornwall, where the Queen first met them on Friday evening, during a drinks reception held by the Royal Family at the Eden Project. He is the fourth US president in recent times to have met the Queen at Windsor Castle, instead of Buckingham Palace which is where heads of state are usually entertained by the monarch. In 2018, Donald Trump was invited to Windsor where he had tea with the Queen. Here's how the two visits differed. Trump got more time with the Queen Both visits overran, according to reports, with Trump's scheduled half an hour meeting running over by 20 minutes. The Bidens were reportedly over schedule by just 10 minutes. The Queen with the Trumps at Windsor in 2018. (Steve Parsons/AFP) The Queen with the Bidens in Windsor Castle on Sunday afternoon. (PA images) Read more: 'She reminded me of my mother': Biden reveals details of meeting the Queen The Bidens total visit was about an hour, with the couple arriving just after 5pm and leaving at about 6.03pm. On his way to his next stop, Brussels, Biden told reporters the Queen had been "generous" and "gracious" and even remarked that she reminded him of his mother. Biden's solo Guard inspection In 2018, Trump was invited to inspect the Guard of Honour, as was Biden in 2021. However in 2018, the Queen inspected the Guard with Trump. In 2021, the Queen stayed back on the dais as she spoke to Dr Biden. The inspection of the Guard of Honour is something that the visiting head of state used to do with Prince Philip. The Queen and Trump inspected the Guard of Honour together. (Richard Pohle - WPA Pool/Getty Images) Biden (C) joined the Major General Christopher Ghika (L) in inspecting the Guard of Honour formed of The Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards at Windsor Castle. (Tolga Akmen/AFP) Read more: Queen celebrates official birthday with scaled back Trooping the Colour He was retired by 2018, when Trump was invited, so the Queen stepped into the role. But in 2021, with the recent death of Prince Philip not far from her mind, the Queen asked Officer Commanding the Guard of Honour, Major James Taylor, and Major General Christopher Ghika to carry out the inspection with Biden. Story continues Biden appears to avoid any major gaffes In 2018, Trump was widely criticised when he appeared to make a major gaffe by standing in front of the Queen as they set out to inspect the Guard of Honour. But Biden appeared to avoid any major mishaps in front of the Queen. He arrived wearing sunglasses, but took them off. The Queen herself was wearing sunglasses during an engagement last week, when she received a rose in honour of her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. Trump appeared to lose the Queen as he stepped in front of her at Windsor Castle in 2018. (Richard Pohle - WPA Pool/Getty Images) Biden kept his aviators on at the beginning of the meeting with the Queen before changing his mind about the look. (Samir Hussein - Pool/WireImage ) Read more: Is the Queen really that bothered about breaches of royal protocol? Biden also appeared to offer an elbow to the Queen at one point, to help her walk down the steps, but she seemed to decline. The president revealed details of their meeting later on, which is unlikely to be anything the palace will comment on, considering it a private chat. He also made up for arriving after her on Friday evening to her drinks reception, and was early for his meeting on Sunday afternoon. However, royal experts told Yahoo UK the Queen is rarely overly concerned by apparent gaffes. Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine told Yahoo UK: "The Queen, steeped in tradition after almost 70 years on the throne, has a very keen eye and will immediately notice that something is not as it should be. "However, she fully appreciates that things do occasionally go wrong, but would never admonish her guests and make them feel uncomfortable. That's not her style." Watch: Queen's Quip Gets G7 Leaders Laughing Protesters object to Houston Methodist Hospitals requirement that employees get vaccinated for Covid-19 (AP) A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Texas hospital employees who refused to get vaccinated for Covid-19. A nurse named Jennifer Bridges and 116 other healthcare workers had sued their employer, Houston Methodist Hospital, for requiring them to get the shot, saying it treated them like guinea pigs in a human experiment. On Saturday, US District Judge Lynn Hughes flatly rejected that argument. Bridges dedicates the bulk of her pleadings to arguing that the currently available Covid-19 vaccines are experimental and dangerous, the judge wrote . This claim is false, and it is also irrelevant. The ruling came as a relief to Houston Methodist, where tensions over the vaccinations had reached a boiling point. Although tens of thousands of the hospitals employees had complied with the requirement, 178 had refused. Last week, the hospital suspended those workers without pay, and threatened to eventually fire them something the lawsuit argued would be wrongful termination. Judge Hughes made it clear he doesnt see it that way. Texas state law, he explained, only protects workers from being fired for refusing to commit an act carrying criminal penalties something that doesnt apply in this case. Receiving a Covid-19 vaccination is not an illegal act, and it carries no criminal penalties, the judge wrote. She is refusing to accept inoculation that, in the hospitals judgment, will make it safer for their workers and the patients in Methodists care. The hospital welcomed the news. We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation, Houston Methodists president, Dr Marc Boom, said in a statement. The vaccine-refusing employees, however, vowed to keep fighting. This is just one battle in a larger war to protect the rights of employees to be free from being forced to participate in a vaccine trial as a condition for employment, Jared Woodfill, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. Story continues It was not clear whether Mr Woodfill planned to appeal. All three of the Covid-19 vaccines being used in the United States have proven extremely safe and effective in clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration has granted them emergency authorization, rather than formally approving them, only because the approval process could have delayed the vaccines use as Americans continued to die of the virus. In a letter to his staff , Dr Boom thanked the Houston Methodist employees who did get vaccinated. You did the right thing, the president wrote. You protected our patients, your colleagues, your families, and our community. The science proves that the vaccines are not only safe, but necessary if we are going to turn the corner against Covid-19. Read More Houston hospital suspends 178 workers who refused to get vaccinated Texas hospital workers protest against vaccine policy Health workers sue Texas hospital over mandatory Covid vaccinations Anti-vaxx nurse tries and fails to make a key stick to her neck during speech claiming that vaccines make people magnetic Luke Evans stripped down to celebrate Pride. (Photo: REUTERS/Neil Hall) Luke Evans has found a sartorial and steamy way to celebrate Pride. On Sunday the gay actor, best known for starring in Beauty and the Beast, Fast & Furious 6 and The Alienist, set Instagram ablaze by posting a shot of him posing shirtless, the rainbow-print waistband of his Versace underwear peeking out from above his tan shorts. "Wear your pride," the Welsh actor wrote. "Live your pride. Be your pride. And be kind. Everyone deserves to have happiness. Human rights belong to everyone. #HappyPrideMonth and every other month of the year!" This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. While the post attracted a few trolls who claimed to be "disappointed" in Evans for speaking out on his sexuality, the overwhelming majority of commenters cheered the Girl on the Train star on for his, to quote one follower, "thirst trap." "Happy Pride Luke! Everyone does deserve love! Love your rainbow," wrote one fan, while another said they were "proud" of him for showing support for his community. In December the 42-year-old addressed claims that he's hidden his sexuality from fans by being reticent to discuss his love life, "It was the last thing I had, because everything else Ive given to the world," he explained to Attitude magazine of his personal relationships. "My career was public, I was photographed and all that stuff. My personal life just became the last thing that I had. Also, what was strange was that when people did find out that I was gay, there was a lot of articles and stuff written saying that I was hiding it, and I wasnt." Evans added that he was bullied growing up for being gay, but told the magazine that he's "never been ashamed" of who he is. "I hope that Ive broken down a lot of barriers, just because Im trying to represent my community, but I cant represent everybody," he shared. "And I certainly cant please everybody. I just have to do it my way. Story continues Read more from Yahoo Life: Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter. PARIS (AP) A Frenchman accused of inspiring the kidnapping in eastern France of a girl whose mother had lost custody was expelled by Malaysia on Sunday. France had issued an Interpol arrest notice for Remy Daillet-Wiedemann, who was detained on immigration charges by Malaysia after living in the Southeast Asian country for several years. Daillet, his pregnant partner and children were placed on a commercial flight on Sunday, a Malaysian official said. Prosecutors accuse him of helping organize the kidnapping of an 8-year-old girl in eastern France. Daillet runs a website calling for the overthrow of the French government and supports extremist QAnon-style conspiracy theories. His lawyer released a statement before their expulsion denouncing France for exercising political pressure on Malaysia. The lawyer, Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi, said that Daillet had neither been convicted nor charged in the child's kidnapping. The girl was found with her mother a few days after she was abducted. Basson-Larbi said Daillet's only link to the case was as a source of political inspiration for some of the child's kidnappers. The lawyer said French authorities had pressured Daillet and his partner to buy plane tickets back to France despite the partner's risky pregnancy. A Malaysian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the case, said they boarded a commercial flight Sunday morning. ___ Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed. For the wondering multitudes who saw "In the Heights" over the musical's opening weekend yes, that was Marc Anthony in that stark mid-movie scene. Anthony, the global music star ex of Jennifer Lopez, is nearly unrecognizable, looking worn, unshaven and unkempt while swilling beer in the morning. His character was created for the film, the alcoholic uncle to Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and father of young Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV). In the scene, Usnavi discusses Sonny's future, but his father is more attentive to the baseball game on the TV. It's gritty. Ramos says he kicked up his drama game when he saw how in-the-zone Anthony was. "Yo, I was bugging," Ramos says. "I was like, 'Hey, I better bring it, because my man is coming for blood.' " 'For the culture!': How Anthony Ramos rallied 'In The Heights' cast to joy even on the hardest of days Marc Anthony attends the opening night premiere of "In The Heights" during the Tribeca Festival. Anthony has a role in the musical. "That scene is going to surprise audiences. People are not going to expect Marc Anthony to do something like this, so it's really special," says producer Scott Sanders. Anthony, born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, was a major fan of "In The Heights" during its 2008 Broadway run and saw it multiple times. So when the father role was written, producer Lin-Manuel Miranda texted Anthony, who has appeared in films such as "Man on Fire" and "Bringing Out the Dead." Anthony immediately signed on. When the superstar singer first visited the Washington Heights set to discuss the role, he was followed by so many fans and paparazzi that director Jon M. Chu had to take shelter and hold the meeting in Anthony's besieged limo-van. "People were banging on the windows, there was security, it was no joke," says Chu, who wanted to make sure Anthony was ready for a small but gritty role. "Marc was like, 'I'm coming, not as the Marc Anthony you know, I'm coming in.' " Story continues Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) with his cousin (Sonny) Gregory Diaz IV and Nina (Leslie Grace). Jennifer Lopez's exes: Marc Anthony and Ben Affleck praise her career: 'She's the original!' But Chu wasn't sure what Anthony was really going to bring, especially when the star showed up to the squalid apartment set wearing his trademark star sunglasses and attire. "I was wondering if he was going to be present enough for these important scenes. It was like, this could ruin it," Chu says. But Anthony took off the glasses and said to his worried director: "I got this. Don't worry. Just watch." Marc Anthony and Jimmy Smits at the premiere for "In the Heights." Singer Anthony has a dramatic role, while dramatic actor Smits sings in the musical. To Chu's surprise, Anthony became the character once he donned the attire and settled on the couch. "The guy brought it," Chu says. "Two seconds in and I don't really know if he was drunk or what's going on. He's out of it. And then right after he's just Marc Anthony again. He was like, 'Was that OK, Jon?' I was like, that was amazing. Do more." It was Anthony's idea to make unsteady hand movements and to slovenly have his belt unbuckled. Why those choices? "Honestly, I don't even quite understand just what he's saying (with that disheveled costuming). He just felt it was very important to not have his buckle on. I'm not going to get in the way of it," Chu says. Chu says there was far more of Anthony and Ramos shot that was even more powerful. But he had to cut the scene since it revealed a plot point he wanted to keep under wraps. "Hopefully we get to release that at some point since it's even better than what you saw," Chu says. "That guy will win an Oscar one day if he does more movies. For sure." Dramatic actor Jimmy Smits, who surprisingly sings and dances for "In the Heights," was inspired by world music star Anthony's nonmusical cameo appearance. "The dramatic guy sings here, while the major singer does this dramatic scene," Smits says. "But I've watched Marc's scene a few times, and I'm just sitting there going, 'Wow!' I just love the fact that he chose to do that. That scene was a gift to all of us." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marc Anthony's 'In the Heights' drama role: He 'was coming for blood' One teenager is behind bars and another dead after a fight over a pair of sneakers, according to police. Cassius Vaughn Hanzy, 16, was arrested early Sunday morning in Gulfport, Miss., after he allegedly fired his gun multiple times into a car, hitting a 17-year-old inside, according to the Gulfport Police Department. Police said the victim was initially hospitalized in stable condition, but WLOX reported Sunday that he has since died. The drive-by shooting, which took place around 11 p.m. Saturday, stemmed from a physical altercation earlier in the day over a pair of Jordans, police said. Officials did not specify what actually caused the argument. Upgraded charges are expected for Hanzy now that the victim has died. By Tom Balmforth MOSCOW (Reuters) -Moscow will give away cars in a prize draw for residents who get the COVID-19 shot in an effort to speed up the slow rate of vaccinations, its mayor said on Sunday, as officials brought in curbs to halt a surge in coronavirus cases. The Russian capital reported 7,704 new infections on Sunday, the most in a single day since Dec. 24. Authorities confirmed 14,723 cases nationwide, the largest one-day total since Feb. 13. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that anyone over 18 who receives the first of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine from June 14 until July 11 would now be automatically entered into a draw to win a car. He said five cars worth 1 million roubles ($13,900) each would be given away every week. Sobyanin has publicly lamented how few residents have chosen to get the vaccine. He gave no new figures on Sunday for how many have had the shot, but said on May 21 that 1.3 million out of a population of more than 12 million had received one dose. Sobyanin said on Saturday the city was repurposing thousands of hospital beds for an influx of COVID-19 patients and told residents to stay off work this coming week to help curb the spread of the virus. Sports pitches, playgrounds and other attractions inside large parks were set to be closed for a week from Sunday. Bars and restaurants were ordered to close no later than 11pm. "This is only a temporary solution," Sobyanin said in a follow-up blog on Sunday. "To avoid new restrictions and secure a sustainable improvement of the situation, we need to significantly speed up vaccinations." Russia began rolling out its Sputnik V shot in December and it was rapidly opened up to everyone in Moscow. ($1 = 71.8030 roubles) (Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Gleb Stolyarov; editing by Gareth Jones) MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in Wisconsin on Saturday. Lindell TV MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell hosted a Wisconsin rally, which featured a speech by Donald Trump. Trump's comments on Saturday took aim at President Biden's efforts to reverse his policies. He said he built the "most successful, the safest border in the history of our country." See more stories on Insider's business page. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's latest political rally featured a speech by former President Donald Trump, in which he railed against voter fraud again. Trump delivered his comments via satellite at the Saturday event. He repeated unfounded claims about fraud during the 2020 election and took aim at President Joe Biden's efforts to reverse his policies. Trump seemed to respond directly to the Biden administration's announcement on Friday that it would pull more than $2 billion in funding Trump had diverted to pay for a wall along the southern border. "All Biden had to do - all he had to do was leave it alone," Trump said. "So we went from the most successful, the safest border in the history of our country - think of that - to the worst and most dangerous border." The crowd at the Frank Rally in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Lindell TV After Trump spoke to the crowd in New Richmond, Wisconsin, droves of attendees could be seen walking out of the event. A series of videos posted on Twitter on Saturday showed attendees leaving as the pillow pitchman spoke. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In a wide-ranging speech, Lindell slipped back and forth between his support for the former president and unfounded claims that the 2020 election had been rigged. "Did you hear about the [voting] machines that were attacked by China? Did you hear about it?" he said. He said Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp shouldn't have certified the voting results in their states. He took aim at Fox News and Newsmax, calling them "cowards," saying that it was "disgusting what they've done to our country," as Newsweek first reported. Newsmax anchor Bob Sellers in February had stopped Lindell from repeating claims about voting machines being tampered with during the election. Story continues "Mike, you're talking about machines, that we at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of those kinds of allegations," Sellers said on air. "We're fighting for our First Amendment rights of free speech," Lindell said on Saturday. Insider reached out to Fox News and Newsmax for comment. Lindell had previously held a half-empty rally at the Corn Palace in South Dakota. Read the original article on Business Insider NCP has been in discussions to pull out of rental contracts and cut payments to landlords. Photo: Getty Landlords are once again in talks with the UK's largest car park provider NCP, this time threatening to remove the business from a string of premises ahead of a vote on the company's new restructuring plan. The Telegraph reported on Sunday that the vote could tip the business into administration. The restructuring plan would see a radical shakeup of NCP's business model, with many landlords facing large rent cuts. Some landlords have even gone into discussion with other operators, according to The Telegraph. In May, the car park giant described the rent cuts as "last resort", having started a process to pull out of contracts for unprofitable parking facilities as it reels from the impact of stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company said it had seen revenues drop by 80% and the plan to restructure the business will be put to creditors at the end of May. At the time, NCP's Japanese owner, Park 24, said it backs the plan and will cut funding if it does not succeed. NCP said this would tip it over into insolvency. Read more: UK Huawei 5G ban hammers top line If the plan fails 1,000 jobs hang in the balance and the future of its business looks uncertain. The plan uses controversial new restructuring laws which could force landlords to accept changes even if they don't agree to them. NCP said previously it has tried to negotiate deals on 500 sites it currently uses. The move comes following a pledge by Park24, contained in Companies House documents, to support NCP for at least a year in December. The pandemic has fundamentally altered the way we travel and shop a fact that has wreaked havoc for high streets and in turn car parks. Last week new figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed there are now 5,000 fewer stores on the UKs high streets since the start of the pandemic. One in seven shops now lie vacant. Even as restrictions lift, footfall on high streets is far below what it has been. Story continues An NCP spokesperson said that the Boards focus remains on securing the "best possible outcome for the business, creditors and other stakeholders through the Restructuring Plan." "We would urge all landlords to vote in favour of the plan, which we firmly believe will result in a higher return for each class of creditor, than in the reasonable alternative, insolvency." "If the Restructuring Plan is successful, this will enable the Company to secure new funding from its majority shareholder (120 million facility from Park24) and improve its financial performance, whilst having rationalised its lease portfolio. We believe this should improve NCPs covenant for its landlords. The categorisation of landlords into different classes is a rigorous and objective process clearly based on the operating performance, viability and strategic importance of each car park, supported by independent third-party analysis. This is a judge-led process with two court hearings covering all aspects of the Restructuring Plan to ensure a fair outcome for all landlords and creditors." Watch: G7 vows action on Covid vaccines, climate change Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday that discussions with President Joe Biden regarding the lifting of COVID-19 border restrictions between the United States and Canada have not yet resulted in a deal. Trudeau announced during a press conference he had spoken with the U.S. president about lifting the ban on nonessential travel across the border, a restriction first implemented at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 that has hit the travel industry in both countries. "We will continue to work closely together on moving forward in the right way, but each of us always will put at the forefront the interests and the safety of our own citizens," Trudeau said during the press conference. CANADA OPEN TO RESETTLING CENTRAL AMERICANS ARRIVING AT US-MEXICO BORDER Residents in Canada and the U.S. have raised concerns about the travel ban, which has affected major industries such as airlines and other businesses that depend on travel. Meanwhile, the southern border of the U.S. has seen the largest influx of migrants from Latin American countries in two decades, which those on the Right say is due to the Biden administration's decision to relax the stricter immigration policies imposed by the Trump administration. Despite the pandemic restriction barring travel between Canada and the U.S., Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said on Wednesday the country is open to welcoming refugees from Central America by taking some of the hundreds of thousands who have sought refuge in the U.S. Some U.S. states have been critical of the Biden administration's handling of the surge, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey calling on other states to send aid to the southern border amid the "emergency" there. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Abbott claimed on March 4 the Biden administration's immigration policy of housing migrants in temporary camps along the southern border was essentially "importing" the COVID-19 virus into the country. Story continues White House press secretary Jen Psaki sought to clarify Customs and Border Protection's handling of potentially infected migrants at the border, saying the policy is to have migrants tested "before they are even moved to go stay with family members or others they may know while their cases are being adjudicated." Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, G7, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, United States, Canada, Mexico, Border Original Author: Kaelan Deese Original Location: No deal yet on reopening of US-Canada border, Trudeau says Jun. 13A Norman city councilor's last-minute change to a proposed budget amendment Tuesday night drew accusations that the council again violated the state's Open Meeting Act, but a city attorney said the action holds up. After a break during Tuesday's nine-hour meeting, Ward 1 Brandi Studley returned to the dais and announced she did not wish to reallocate $500,000 from the Norman Police Department's proposed budget for a mobile crisis unit, but wanted the money to instead come from the city's general fund. The announcement initially drew a hush from a packed room of police supporters who were prepared to oppose any cut from the NPD's budget, but some then claimed changing an amendment at the last moment before a vote was a violation of the state's sunshine laws, and violated parliamentary procedure. Studley said she consulted with City Attorney Kathryn Walker before reaching her decision. "She said as long as we're not taking anything from another (department) budget, then it shouldn't matter," Studley said. In an email to The Transcript, Walker said Tuesday's agenda was clearly worded that amendments could change during the meeting. The language has not appeared on previous agendas, but was the result of a lawsuit the city lost regarding open meeting violations last year. The courts found that the agenda for the June 16, 2020 meeting, which reallocated $865,000 from the NPD's proposed budget increase to other programs, was not worded sufficiently to inform the public of the possible action. That amendment did not appear on the agenda for that meeting, despite other listed budget amendments. Tuesday's agenda noted that the amendments listed were "only possible amendments known at this time," Walker said. "In the FOP v. City of Norman ruling, the Oklahoma Supreme Court looked at the agenda for the June 16, 2020 meeting and found that 'Consideration of Adoption' of the budget was sufficient to encompass adoption or rejection of the budget, but not amendments," Walker said. "Further, it found that the attachment to the agenda that contained a list of anticipated amendments did not provide notice that other amendments may be proposed. Story continues "In response to this ruling, we have changed the way agenda items are worded to include 'Consideration of Adoption, Rejection, Amendment or Postponement' of each item to ensure the public understands that Council may act in a variety of ways in response to the information presented during a meeting. In addition, we included language on the attachment to the agenda that explicitly stated that the listed amendments were the only 'possible amendments known at this time' and that '[O]ther amendments to the proposed budget may be raised and considered' at the meeting." The amendment clearly stated that its purpose was to provide funds "for a mobile crisis unit," and the only change was the fund from which it would be taken, Walker noted. "Given that the agenda and the attachments explicitly contemplated amendments to the budget, I do not believe a violation of the Open Meeting Act, as interpreted recently by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, occurred," Walker said. "It is important to note that the public did receive specific notice that the Council may consider an amendment that would allocate $500,000 for a mobile crisis unit. "The only difference in the motion that was actually made at the meeting from what was listed in the agenda attachment as a 'possible amendment known at this time' is that the funds for this program are being taken from the general fund fund balance, instead of the police department budget, which ensures the remainder of the city manager's proposed budget (as adopted) moves forward without impact to any specific department." Studley told The Transcript that no one coerced or asked her to change the amendment. After an accounting error increased the general fund by more than $841,000, Studley said there was no reason to take money for the crisis unit from the NPD's proposed budget. Studley said earlier in June, it had seemed clear to her that the condition of the general fund made it impossible to reallocate the money elsewhere. "At that moment I thought that my only option was to take it from the police budget," she said Friday. "That's the highest-budgeted department in our city and it would also help to reduce the need for as many officers if we create this mobile crisis unit." Courtesy VRBO Ameland Island, the Netherlands (Vrbo): Only a 90-minute drive from Amsterdam followed by a picturesque ferry ride is an island that is a haven for artists and those looking for a remote retreat. Ameland is in the West Frisian Islands of the Netherlands, but it feels like a world away from our 2021 modern-day worries, like having to figure out how to decline social invites again and the will they or wont they game of being called back into the office. In other words, an escape to these windswept beaches is a great excuse to dust off that OOO reply and tell your boss she wont be seeing you at your desk for at least another two months. Courtesy VRBO This home, named Sela, is located beside one of the biggest dunes on the island, which means your stay comes with both an undulating pastoral view and a prime location. The beach, described by the host as rustic, is only a 15 minute walk across the hills. Courtesy VRBO England may be all the way across the North Sea, but the wild, untamed beauty of a Jane Austen novel is present on the western coast of Ameland Island. Now, all you need is a brooding Mr. Darcy to come traipsing across the dunes at sunset and you will have realized your perfect vacation. Courtesy VRBO It is only fitting that a creative haven should have a dining room table that takes its inspiration from the colorful palette of a painter who is in the thick of finishing her latest masterpiece and a unique chandelier. Courtesy VRBO Mood lighting means a little something different when youre hidden away amid the dunes. Here, you can ditch the candles and enjoy your dinner soiree by the gleam of the lighthouse, one of the islands main attractions that can also be seen from your very own holiday house. Courtesy VRBO Sela was refurbished in 2017, which means, while the beach and nearby town may be described as rustic and quaint, you can enjoy your bucolic surroundings while not actually feeling like youre living in the previous century. Courtesy VRBO If traipsing around the beach and moodily staring out at the dunes for creative inspiration isnt enough to keep you entertained, visit the nearby village of Hollum and experience centuries of history. The oldest building in town was built in the 11th century. Story continues Courtesy VRBO Ah, we love it when practical touches like a mini cord of wood also serve as delicious decor matched perfectly to the living rooms color scheme. Theres no need to ruin the functional magic of this design detail by pointing out that the fireplace is gas, making the logs solely ornamental. Courtesy VRBO Embrace the local lifestyle and head to town via the homes two available bikes (complete with the trappings to cart around the kiddos). After buying the fresh catch of the day and a tote full of local produce, youll soon be dreaming of auditioning for the next season of Top Chef. Courtesy VRBO But if any kitchen disasters bring those dreams of overnight culinary genius crashing back to reality, opt to hire the local chef and sommelier who are available to design the perfect evening for guests of Sela. Who needs Top Chef stardom when youre living your best Beyonce life! Courtesy VRBO Speaking of the lives of the rich and famous, weve always wanted to say, If you need me, Ill be in my sauna. Courtesy VRBO The house has five bedrooms and three bathrooms and sleeps eight, which means its up to you whether you make your vacation a rousing affair for friends and family, or whether you book yourself a solo holiday as the breeding grounds for your next artistic creation. Courtesy VRBO We like to think of this light fixture as a modern disco ball there to light up our most dazzling dreams. Courtesy VRBO Here, the idea of maximizing productivity is being able to check read a good book and take a long nap off of your to-do list in the same day before happy hour starts. Courtesy VRBO Theres no better way to avoid modern life slowly creaking back to normalcy than to spirit away to a far off island. When its time to get back to the real world, give yourself a much-needed wake up call by taking a chilly morning dip in the sea. Courtesy VRBO Book Your Stay: Sela Dune Villa, Ameland Island, the Netherlands $950/night via Vrbo 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. During the worst stretches of Toby Pannones childhood cancer treatment, school was touch and go. Toby, who was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma at age three, the anxiety he felt going of returning to preschool after one extended hospital stay stayed with him. I have a pretty incredible memory of going back to preschool and it having been so long I needed my dad to spend the entire day in the classroom, recalled Toby, now 17 and a senior at Beacon High School in Hells Kitchen. But Toby never gave up on his classes or his treatment and more than a decade later, hes celebrating high school graduation, cancer-free. Its sort of this really symbolic thing, Toby said. Its a symbol that I have made it despite everything thats happened so far. High school graduation is an emotional and academic milestone for many teenagers. But for roughly two dozen pediatric cancer survivors, the rite of passage is taking on an extra resonance. The teens all former patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan gathered Thursday for a virtual ceremony to mark the end of high school, and celebrate how far theyve come. I could list off more kids than I can count on my fingers and toes who I knew in that community who didnt make it, said Kate Davis, an 18-year-old senior at the Spence School who was diagnosed with Leukemia as a three-year-old, and has been in remission since elementary school. Watching graduation today and seeing all these smiling faces... theres definitely a lot of gratitude, she continued. The commencement call gave the teens a chance to reflect on their winding journeys and the small, unexpected moments of joy and camaraderie that kept them going through the darkest moments. What sticks in my mind now is the more unique things, said Toby, recalling a meal of apple sauce and pudding that was the first he was able to keep down following an intense bout of chemotherapy as maybe the best meal of my life. Story continues On other days on the ninth-floor pediatric ward of Memorial Sloan Kettering, Toby remembers running through the hallways with his IV pole pretending he was a train reflecting an obsession with transit that persists to this day. But most of all, Toby thinks of the army of doctors, nurses, technicians and hospital educators that made the ward feel like a sprawling extended family. It almost became a second home so you could never see it in a completely negative way when theres all those amazing people there, he said. Toby and other pediatric patients kept up with schoolwork during long hospital visits in part thanks to a unique division in the city Education Department that dispatches teachers to more than 30 hospitals across the city. Our main goal is to help them learn despite feeling sick, feeling tired, said Mary Maher, the principal of the Hospital School which serves between 3,000 and 4,000 city kids each month. Teachers often set up impromptu classrooms with easels and whiteboards in the corners of waiting rooms and hallways. Often, the simple routine of attending class is as important as the content of the lessons, Maher said. Learning is a part of their healing, Maher said. Its so important because its a promise of hope it says we believe youre going to be here tomorrow. Some of the most important lessons the new graduates absorbed during their illness, however, had little to do with school. They gained an intimate and nuanced understanding of the healthcare system one that served them well in a year when the world had to grapple with health and medicine like never before. Toby recalled talking to two classmates who said they were skeptical of the new COVID-19 vaccines because they were experimental. Toby replied, I took experimental medicine and it saved me. Kate, the 18-year-old Spence senior, came out of her treatment with an acute sense of how fortunate she was to receive world-class medical care at a private hospital, with insurance that covered a multi-million dollar treatment. After being able to experience a place like that, you get a newfound appreciation for healthcare and what it means to have access to quality healthcare, she said, adding countless Americans dont have access. Now, Kate hopes to channel her experiences and strong sense of right and wrong into a college education studying social policy. I think kids who go through various cancers have a strong grasp of how unfair the world can be, she said. All across the board I think kids just want to use their opportunity to do some big stuff. Jun. 13EDITOR'S NOTE Green Plate Special columnist Christine Burns Rudalevige is taking a well-deserved vacation. She will return next week. Kate Shaffer's latest cookbook, "The Maine Farm Table Cookbook," is the book I wish someone had given me when I moved to Maine. The cookbook, Shaffer's third, was published this month and comprises, as its subtitle promises, "125 Homegrown Recipes from the Pine Tree State," from Lobster Carbonara, and Haddock and Corn Chowder to Maine Maple Old-Fashioned and Apple and Blackberry Crumble. But the title undersells it. To research it, Shaffer, who founded and owns Ragged Coast Chocolates (formerly Black Dinah Chocolates) in Westbrook with her husband, Steve, visited farms and kitchens across Maine and wrote short profiles that celebrate the state's millers, chefs, bakers, farmers, aquaculturists, lobsterwomen, beekeepers, tortilla makers, jam makers and more. These solid introductions are interspersed with the recipes and with many photos from Saco-based photographer, food stylist and chef Derek Bissonnette. The profiles give readers a sense of the impressive breadth and depth of Maine's farm-and-sea-to-table scene. They tell you about places and people you probably already know like The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Pineland Farms in New Gloucester and Maine Grains in Skowhegan. And they tell you about places and people that may be less familiar, especially if you live in the southern part of the state Tinder Hearth in Brooksville, Quill's End Farm in North Penobscot, Eat at Joe's Food Truck in Ellsworth. No slur intended on the recipes, but I'd be as tempted to keep "The Maine Farm Table Cookbook" in my car when I travel the state as a guide, as in my kitchen. That said, it's a handsome book, but not so handsome that you'd be afraid to keep it in the kitchen, subject to the daily smatters and smudges of cooking. Story continues Shaffer quietly and thoroughly conveys a sense of community and connection among the state's food producers. On one page you meet a farmer, later on you meet the chef who is buying her lamb. An encounter with Aurora Mills & Farm in Linneus leads to a sideways introduction to some of its customers Allagash Brewing (which gets its own profile some 250 pages later), GrandyOats, Borealis Breads; likewise, an entry on Tortilleria Pachanga offers a peek at the Somali Bantu community at Liberation Farms in Wales. On page 84, readers get acquainted with Maine's celebrated organic farmer Eliot Coleman and his wife, garden writer Barbara Damrosch, and learn about their Four Season Farm in Brooksville; on page 148, you'll run into the farm again, this time as a supplier to Deer Isle's Aragosta restaurant. Maine is a big state, but somehow, in these pages its food community feels cozy and tight-knit. "The Maine Farm Table Cookbook" is broken up into apt chapters: From the Mill, From the Field, From the Pasture, From the Sea, From the Forest and the Hive, From the Creamery, From the Orchard; From the Bog, Bramble and Barren; From the Brewery, Vineyard, and Cask; and From the Pantry. Shaffer's earlier books focus on the sweet side of cooking: "Desserted: Recipes and Tales from an Island Chocolatier" and "Chocolate for Beginners: Techniques and Recipes for Making Chocolate Candy, Confections, Cakes and More." The recipes in this cookbook, like its subject matter, are diverse and range from old-fashioned basics such as brown bread, cornbread, biscuits, pot roast, maple baked beans, beef stew and blueberry buckle to newer-fashioned basics like Braised Lamb Shanks with Root Vegetables and Chickpeas; Sliced Lamb Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Red Onions; and Roasted Squash with Pine Nuts. There are fun, fascinating tidbits tucked throughout that help you begin to know the state's food and foodways in a rounded, 360-degree way: how "peeky-toe" crab got its name, also the punning name of Sargentville's beloved Mexican restaurant El El Frijoles (think about it); how Mainers who are food insecure can get fresh wild fish and game (a state program called Hunters for the Hungry); how Maine's food sovereignty movement works; how Maine's sheep production used to be, and is; and how climate change is affecting the state's foods. About that last, here's what Shaffer notes atop a recipe for Sweet Potato and Turnip Soup with Fresh Turmeric: "Because of changing weather patterns, farmers have been able to experiment with crops that aren't historically grown in Maine, such as sweet potatoes. These days, sweet potatoes and rhizomes like turmeric root are popping up on more and more fall vegetable crop rotations throughout the state. Here they're paired uniquely in a smooth soup with one of the heartiest of the traditional Maine crops: the turnip." But it's June. So in our kitchen, we'll leave the turnip for another season and focus on a less hearty, but probably more beloved Maine crop: the strawberry. Strawberry Bruschetta with Ricotta and Arugula Recipe from Kate Shaffer's "The Maine Farm Table Cookbook." Shaffer suggests a creamy, dense ricotta and adds that if you use Skowhegan-based Crooked Face Creamery's cold-smoked ricotta, "the smoked flavors mingle magically with the fresh fruit and peppery arugula." Serves 8 2 cups fresh hulled and diced strawberries 2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds Sea salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1 baguette 1 cup ricotta cheese 2 cups arugula, washed, and chopped if the leaves are very large Toss diced strawberries and pomegranate seeds with a pinch of salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Set aside. Cut baguette, on bias, into at least 8 slices, preferably more. Spread slices with ricotta cheese and top with arugula. Spoon diced strawberries and pomegranate on top before serving. LONDON They met Friday at the Group of Seven summit, but President Joe Biden and the first lady had an altogether more private meeting with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday, at her home in Windsor Castle. The monarch, 95, received the Bidens for tea at her historic residence, about 30 miles west of London. On arrival they were greeted with an official Guard of Honor military parade, which gave a royal salute and played the American national anthem. Biden stood next to the queen in the sunshine, wearing his aviator sunglasses, before inspecting the troops in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle, last seen on television during the somber funeral ceremony of her husband, Prince Philip, who died aged 99 in April. The queen has stoically continued with her official duties since then and met Biden alongside other world leaders and their spouses on Friday at the G-7 summit, by the seaside in Cornwall, southwest England. There, she amused leaders when she quipped during a photo-call: "Are you supposed to be looking as if you're enjoying yourselves?" Biden, who first met the queen in 1982 as a Democratic senator for Delaware, said following the meeting that she was extremely gracious" and that she reminded him of his mother in terms of the look of her and the generosity. The president also confirmed that he invited her to visit the White House. Biden is the 13th serving president the monarch has met. She has met every serving American president since Dwight Eisenhower except Lyndon Johnson who did not travel to Britain while in office. As a 25-year-old princess in 1951, she also stayed with President Harry S. Truman and his family in Washington, D.C. The queen has hosted four other American presidents at Windsor Castle in recent years, including former-President Donald Trump in 2018, who shocked press and palace pundits when he breached royal protocol by walking ahead of the queen, at times blocking her view and giving her his back. Story continues After a state visit in 2019, Trump told Fox News: "There are those that say they have never seen the queen have a better time." Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics On arrival to England last week, first lady Jill Biden told reporters that meeting the queen was "an exciting part of the visit for us." She also undertook a separate engagement with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, when the two visited a school on Friday. Kate told NBC News during the visit that she was looking forward to meeting her new niece, Lilibet Diana, born in California earlier this month. Britain's royal family have had a turbulent year in the public eye following a bombshell interview given by the queen's grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. The couple stunned viewers with allegations of royal racism denied by the palace while Meghan also spoke publicly about how royal life and media pressure had taken its toll on her mental health. After taking private afternoon tea with the queen on Sunday, Biden is traveling to nearby Brussels for a NATO summit, before heading to Switzerland on Wednesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden noted the queen asked about Putin and China's President Xi Jinping. MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Sunday ordered an anti-Kremlin performance artist to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of hooliganism after he was arrested on Red Square where he had simulated shooting himself in the head in a political protest. The activist, Pavel Krisevich, was detained on Friday after firing blanks into the air and then at his head, according to one of his friends. The Open Media news outlet reported that Krisevich had prepared a manifesto beforehand that said the performance was designed to draw attention to what he cast as unacceptable state repression. Authorities have cracked down hard on anti-Kremlin activism this year, declaring jailed politician Alexei Navalny's activist network "extremist" and prosecuting several of his allies. Moscow police said they had opened a criminal case into hooliganism over the Red Square appearance. A court on Sunday ordered Krisevich to be held in jail until August 2021, the Interfax news agency said. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. A journalist, Nika Samusik, who had filmed the stunt was also detained on Red Square on Friday, but was released on Sunday, according to the OVD-Info protest monitor. Krisevich was jailed last year for 15 days over another protest performance in which he simulated crucifying himself near the central Moscow headquarters of the FSB Federal Security Service. (Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Heavens) Parents at the $55,000 per year Dalton School were reportedly furious about the sex-ed classes. Wikimedia Commons A teacher showed a video to 6-year-olds about masturbation, the New York Post reported. Many parents complained about it to the administrators of the $55,000 per year New York school, the paper said. The school's head emailed parents on Friday to inform them that the educator had resigned from her post. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. A teacher who taught sex-education classes to first graders at the elite Dalton School in New York City has resigned, according to the New York Post. Dalton School's administrators were bombarded with complaints from parents after they became aware of the educator's curriculum, the paper reported. In one class at the $55,000 per year school, last fall, Justine Ang Fonte led a lesson that included a cartoon video explaining masturbation to kids, the Post said. The video, which the Post reported was presented to 6-year-olds, explains what an erection is, and shows cartoon children discussing touching their private parts. Fonte also gave lessons on consent and gender identity, the paper said. At another prep school, she led a controversial workshop on porn literacy, according to the Post. The workshop reportedly included information about BDSM, incest-themed porn, and OnlyFans. The school's head, Jim Best, sent an email to parents on Friday confirming that Fonte would not be returning to Dalton next year, the Post reported. "Throughout her tenure at Dalton, Justine Ang Fonte has helped to develop an exemplary K-12 Health and Wellness program. Dalton - our faculty, staff, administration, and trustees - continue to stand firmly behind this program and those who teach it," Best wrote, according to the Post. "At faculty and staff meetings this week, Justine announced her decision to leave Dalton to focus on her work as an independent Health Educator. She has been working toward this goal for over a year. We support Justine's aspirations and look forward to honoring her accomplishments as the academic year comes to a close," Best added. Insider reached out to Fonte for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Read the original article on Insider Podemos, the junior member of Spain's ruling coalition, on Sunday formally appointed Ione Belarra as its new leader, putting two women at the helm of the radical left-wing party following the departure of its founder. Belarra received 89 percent of the vote in a week-long ballot to be named the new secretary-general at a party assembly in Alcorcon near Madrid. "Podemos must grow" and "continue to work to conquer new social advances," the 33-year-old said following the vote by her party, which has seen declining support in recent years. The vote followed the departure of founder Pablo Iglesias, who did not attend the gathering in a gesture to show that he no longer exerts any influence over the party he established in 2014. But Belarra has the full blessing of Iglesias, who decided to withdraw from politics following a crushing defeat to the right in the May 4 regional elections in Madrid. Running against two unknown candidates, Belarra was the overwhelming favourite in the week-long vote. But although she takes the helm, it will be Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz, 50, who will head the list for Podemos and its allies in the next general elections, due by January 2024. - A cultural shift - Having two leaders in charge "is not within the organisational culture of Podemos" which is more accustomed to the super-charged leadership of Iglesias, said Paloma Roman, professor of Political Science at Madrid's Complutense University. A native of the northern city of Pamplona, Belarra has worked for the Red Cross and for the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid and been a Podemos activist since the very beginning. A trusted member of Iglesias' inner circle, she was appointed a junior minister within the social affairs ministry that he headed when Podemos entered government in January 2020. When Iglesias stood down early last month, Belarra inherited his role as social affairs minister, while Diaz took up his position as a deputy prime minister. Story continues As secretary-general, Belarra will be surrounded by some of Iglesias' closest allies, including his partner, Equality Minister Irene Montero, with whom she studied psychology at university. - Very different approaches - From Sunday, the two ministers will share the party leadership. And although both are outspoken feminists and share a passion for addressing wage insecurity, they have very different approaches. Belarra takes a more confrontational style, and has not held back from highlighting the differences between Podemos and the Socialists in government, such as branding Defence Minister Margarita Robles the right's "favourite minister". Diaz, however, has shown herself to be more conciliatory. A former lawyer and Communist activist whose father was a well-known union leader, she has negotiated with employers and unions to set up a furlough scheme that has been critical for avoiding mass layoffs during the pandemic. In a recent speech to Podemos MPs, Diaz called for "calm and composure" in the face of the anxiety generated by "Twitter politics" where the party has traditionally been very belligerent. And she urged a return to its anti-austerity origins to manage a society that is "suffering a lot and is resentful". Having two at the top "is going to be quite complicated" in that Belarra will want to have "a very strong and well-controlled party, and not leave room for Yolanda Diaz to do things her way", said political scientist Jose Ignacio Torreblanca. "I don't know if Belarra will be able to get the upper hand over Yolanda Diaz" who has "her own image and ideas", he added. The main "fight" will be over who drafts the programme for the next general elections and the choice of candidates who will be on the party list. avl/hmw/dl/yad MADRID (AP) Thousands in Madrid are protesting the Spanish governments plan to issue pardons to a dozen Catalan separatist leaders convicted for their roles in the biggest challenge to the countrys unity in recent history. The demonstration has been organized by a civil society group in defense of the nation's unity, and it chose a central square that has become a symbol for far-right political rallies. Leaders of the center to far-right opposition to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are joining the protest at Colon Square, which boasts one of the nation's largest national flags. Sanchez hasn't announced pardons for the 12 political and civil society leaders who in October 2017 pushed ahead with a banned referendum on independence for the northeastern region of Catalonia and then declared independence based on its results. But he has defended the possible move as a way to bring Catalans and Spaniards closer together after the divisive convictions that put most of the Catalan leaders behind bars. The prime minister is also facing criticism in his own Socialist camp, where the move is seen as a risky political gamble. While more than 60% of Spaniards oppose the pardons and only 29.5% back them, according to a recent poll for El Mundo newspaper, surveys in the northeastern region show support for the move ranging in between 60% to 70% of Catalans. Detractors say the separatists have not shown any remorse for their defiance to the Spanish Constitution and that Sanchez is making concessions to them in exchange for support in the national parliament. Tensions over secession grew in earnest a decade ago amid the economic hardship of the Great Recession and discontent over Spain's opposition to more autonomy for the Catalan-speaking region of 7.5 million people. The issue has also dominated the political debate at the national level and contributed to the rise of the Spanish nationalist Vox party, which has become the third-largest political force in the Spanish Congress. The Telegraph A schoolboy chess prodigy has broken a long-standing record to become the youngest grandmaster in history. Abhimanyu Mishra, from New Jersey, earned the prestigious title at the age of just 12 years, four months and 25 days. The youngster had been in a race against time before the opportunity to break the record passed forever. As he chased the title, Mishra found his attempt hampered by tournaments around the world being cancelled because of Covid-19. He and his family were eventually forced to A St. Petersburg man with a history of fraud and larceny was indicted by the federal government which is seeking a judgment of more than $1.8 million on Friday. Thomas Coelho, 52, also known as Thomas Jurewicz, was indicted on two counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2016 to 2019, Coelho recruited investors for a business that bought event tickets and sold them to a third party for profit. Coelho used his association with people in the entertainment industry to give him credibility, according to the indictment. He made the investors a promise for massive returns. He provided them with false financial documents to convince them to invest more. But instead of using their money for the business, Coelho used the money for his personal expenses, including cash withdrawals, according to the indictment. Coelho made about $1,874,174 from the fraudulent business, according to the federal government. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each count. In 2009, Coelho was arrested on a charge of scheming to defraud after selling Super Bowl tickets worth $115,000 on behalf of a Tampa woman. The checks he wrote her bounced, she said at the time. When a St. Petersburg Police Department detective started looking into Coelho, he found similar stories in his past. He had promised a comedy club in downtown New Haven, Connecticut, and was convicted for larceny there. There was a civil suit against him in Massachusetts and old arrest warrants out of California for larceny and grand theft. He admits he got the tickets, he admits he sold the tickets, he admits he gave her rubber checks, St. Petersburg police detective Randy Adams said in 2009. But its the same thing. He always says, Its a big misunderstanding. Nothing happened here. Associated Press On a recent morning before communal prayers at a synagogue, Harry Rosenberg told a friend that his new beachfront condo in Florida offered a much-needed change of scenery after an awful year in which he lost his wife to cancer and both parents to COVID-19 in New York. The home in Surfside was to be a gathering spot for visiting children and grandchildren, and his daughter and son-in-law were doing just that when they traveled to the condo last week from New Jersey to join him for the Sabbath. Elsewhere in the building, a woman also sought a fresh start in Florida after falling ill and recovering from COVID-19. BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is not blocking exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine, a government representative said, after Taiwan said Thailand was keeping for itself doses of the vaccine that it is producing. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday Taiwan had ordered 10 million doses from AstraZeneca , which was mainly producing them in Thailand, but Thailand was "giving priority for vaccines to be used in Thailand". "Thailand is not blocking exports of AstraZeneca, deputy government spokesperson Traisuree Taisaranakul said on Twitter late on Saturday. "It is a matter for the producer to manage," she said. She did not specify whether she meant AstraZeneca or the Thai manufacturer, Siam Bioscience. The health ministry could not be reached on Sunday, and both companies have declined to comment on reasons for export delays. Both Thailand and Taiwan have seen a surge of coronavirus cases in recent week after months of successfully keeping their outbreaks in check. The Philippines said this month it was expecting delays of AstraZenecas Thai-made vaccines due to production delays. Malaysia also said it was expecting delays. AstraZeneca's distribution plans in Southeast Asia depends on 200 million doses made by Siam Bioscience, a company owned by Thailand's king that is making vaccines for the first time. (Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Robert Birsel) Liz Truss chairs a call with her G7 counterparts in the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office - Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, will press her Australasian counterparts to turn momentum into results this week as the UK closes in on post-Brexit agreements with Australia and New Zealand. Ms Truss said British firms stood to gain better access to New Zealand, and consumers face cheaper wine, as she prepared to hold talks with Damien O'Connor, the country's trade minister, in London. Sources close to Ms Truss said she would urge Mr O'Connor to "give us more" on areas such as better access for British service suppliers in New Zealand, and enabling more workers from each country to operate in the other nation. One source claimed that recent progress on a deal with Australia had "put a bit of pressure on New Zealand to play catch-up". Whitehall officials believe that the post-Brexit trade deal with Australia could be signed as soon as this week, during a trip by Scott Morrison, the country's prime minister, to the UK for this weekend's G7 summit. Boris Johnson welcomes Mr Morrison during the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall - Hollie Adams/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Ms Truss will hold her first face-to-face discussions with Mr O'Connor as part of the fifth round of trade talks between the two countries, in the Locarno Suite in the Foreign Office on Wednesday and Thursday. The pair are due to have dinner on Wednesday evening. A source close to Ms Truss said: Its the first time the two ministers have met in person and that is significant because it always takes face-to-face political meetings to unblock the trickiest issues. "The progress weve made with Australia has put a bit of pressure on New Zealand to play catch-up. Theyll need to give us more on services, mobility and investment if they want a deal and Liz will be pressing them hard on that. "People can expect this agreement to go further than any we had as part of the EU. On Saturday night, Ms Truss said: I look forward to giving minister OConnor a warm welcome this week. Weve made great progress so far, but I want to intensify negotiations and move closer to a deal that works for both nations. Both sides are keen to turn momentum into results. Story continues I want an advanced agreement that shows what Britain can do as a sovereign trading nation delivering better access for our service companies, slashing tariffs for our exporters, and benefiting consumers here at home with lower tariffs on goods like New Zealand wine." Ms Truss hopes that the Australia and New Zealand deals will pave the way for the UK to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 9 trillion free trade area in which both countries are key players. "Asia-Pacific is where the richest opportunities lie for Global Britain," she said. Last year, Winston Peters, the then deputy prime minister of New Zealand, said that Wellington was "very frustrated" with the pace of post-Brexit trade talks, adding that the UK's EU membership had not left it "match fit" to negotiate its own agreements. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that China needs to assist with the next look into the origins of covid following commitments made at the G7 (REUTERS) US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said that China has to cooperate with an additional US and World Health Organisation-led investigation into how the Covid-19 outbreak began. He made the comments while being interviewed by John Dickerson on CBS Face The Nation on Sunday while emphasising the importance of Beijing joining in an investigation into what led to the virus that has disrupted the world for more than a year. Mr Blinken said, One of the things thats coming out of the G7 is an insistence that the WHO be able to move forward with China cooperating on this so-called Phase-two report to build on the initial report, which had real problems with it, not the least of which was Chinas failure to cooperate. He called on China to join the international effort to figure out what caused the coronavirus. The theory that it escaped from a lab in Wuhan has gained mainstream traction in recent weeks, with the Biden administration ordering an intelligence community investigation. China has to cooperate with that transparency, access for international experts, information sharing that has to happen. And again, I think youre seeing countries coming together to insist on that, he said. The main purpose is to make sure that knowing what happened, why it happened, how it happened, we can put in place whats necessary to prevent it from happening again or at least to mitigate the next outbreak, Mr Blinken added. From 9 until 13 June, the president has been convening with other world leaders, such as UK prime minister Boris Johnson, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel in St. Ives in Cornwall, UK. All seven countries vowed to eradicate forced labour from supply chains, combat cybercrime and tackle the pandemic. They also urged China to honour the high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong and human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially related to Xinjiang, which is a concern of the international community for the way the Chinese government treats the Uyghur population. Story continues A report published earlier this week by the human rights organisation Amnesty International show detailed evidence of crimes against humanity, massive human rights violations, and a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale. Read More Biden agrees with Putin that US-Russia relations are at low point Scottish rapist who fled to California and faked his own death is jailed after US Marshals track him down US warns against use of particular lateral flow test UK is buying in bulk WASHINGTON Former White House counsel Don McGahn was told by Apple last month that the Justice Department subpoenaed information about an account he owned in February 2018, two sources familiar with the matter told the New York Times. At the time, Apple was barred by authorities from telling McGahn that it had sought this information. It is unclear what the DOJ was investigating or if McGahn was the primary target of the inquiry, the Times reported. The revelation is the latest in a series of reports finding the Trump-era Justice Department monitored and pursued private information on journalists and Democratic lawmakers. It comes just days after the Justice Departments independent watchdog announced it was launching a broad investigation into whether the Trump administration and its two attorneys general improperly seized phone records of House Democratic lawmakers, their staff and journalists as part of an aggressive 2018 leak investigation. On Friday, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed he would launch an investigation, adding his watchdog agency would look beyond subpoenas to other legal authorities (used) to obtain communication records in connection with recent investigations of alleged unauthorized disclosures of information to the media by government officials. More: DOJ inspector general to review Trump Justice Department's seizure of Democrats' phone data According to the Times, Apple told McGahn it cooperated with the subpoena and did not tell him what information the firm provided to the government. What was McGahn's role? As White House counsel, McGahn was a key liaison between the Justice Department and the Trump administration. Before serving as the White House's top lawyer, McGahn was the lawyer for the Trump campaign. In his role, McGahn papered over multiple legal scandals for former President Donald Trump's team while helping pursue the administration's conservative agenda. When House Democrats subpoenaed McGahn as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, McGahn defied the panel and skipped the hearing. Story continues On June 4, McGahn gave a closed-door testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, under an agreement that avoided a constitutional showdown over the investigation of former President Donald Trump. Outrage over subpoena revelations News of the Trump-era Justice Department's various expansive investigations into political opponents and independent media stirred outrage in Washington. On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said John Demers, a Trump-appointed national security official in the Justice Department who remains in his post, will either willingly testify or be subpoenaed about the department's secret seizure of records of Democrats and reporters. The revelations also present a challenge to President Joe Biden, who promised to strengthen federal agencies like the Justice Department that were battered during the Trump years while also reasserting their independence. White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said the administration will not subpoena reporters because it is not consistent with the presidents policy direction to the department," though the White House has not explained how it will guarantee such behavior ends without greater involvement from the White House. Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump Justice Department took records from Apple on Don McGahn: report Tulsa. Library of Congress A century ago this month, a white mob destroyed a thriving Black neighborhood in Tulsa. Here's everything you need to know: What was 'Black Wall Street'? In the early 1900s, Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a racially segregated city of about 100,000 people, with about 9,000 Black residents confined to the Greenwood neighborhood. Forbidden from patronizing or opening businesses on the white side of town, Black Tulsans established Greenwood as a bustling middle-class neighborhood, with more than 200 businesses spread across 35 blocks, including 15 doctors, two newspapers, luxury shops, restaurants, hotels, theaters, salons, and a library. "Black Wall Street," as some called it, also had its own school system, post office, savings and loan bank, and hospital. Many white Tulsans resented the bustling, self-contained prosperity of what they derisively called "Little Africa" and "N-----town," and racial tensions simmered. Greenwood "disproved the whole idea that racial superiority was a fact of life," said Jim Goodwin, current publisher of The Oklahoma Eagle, a Black newspaper. On May 30, 1921, a spark ignited racial resentment into terrible violence. What happened? Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoeshiner, stepped into an elevator in the Drexel building in downtown Tulsa to use the "coloreds only" restroom on the top floor. The elevator operator was a 17-year-old white girl, Sarah Page, who ran out of the elevator screaming. No one knows what happened; in the Black community, it was said that Rowland tripped and grabbed onto Page's arm. The next day, The Tulsa Tribune ran a front-page story saying Rowland "scratched and tore her clothes," an accusation that in that era was tantamount to an attempted rape. Rowland was arrested by police, and a lynch mob of hundreds of men quickly assembled outside the courthouse, demanding Rowland be handed over. A group of about 75 Black men rushed to the scene to protect Rowland. A scuffle broke out between the two groups, a gun discharged, and witnesses said "all hell broke loose." That night, a white mob of more than 1,000 including police officers descended on Greenwood for a 13-hour orgy of violence. Story continues What did the mob do? The attackers looted and ransacked homes, set nearly every structure on fire, and shot men, women, and children; at least one machine gun was reportedly used in the massacre. The terror even rained down from above, as pilots dropped homemade incendiary bombs from crop dusters over the neighborhood. As many as 300 people were killed, and 1,471 homes were burned or looted. More than 800 were injured, and 8,000 people were left homeless. "I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street," Viola Fletcher, a 107-year-old survivor, recently said in testimony before Congress. "I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams. I have lived through the massacre every day." What happened to survivors? Many were taken into custody and forced to march with their hands in the air at gunpoint through white neighborhoods while being taunted and humiliated. Several prominent Black men were charged with "inciting a riot." (No white person was ever charged with a serious crime or imprisoned.) Insurance companies refused to pay damage claims, and Greenwood families lived in tents and shanties for much of the next year. Greenwood did begin to rebuild later that year, but most families never recovered their lost wealth. How much was lost? A 2001 report by an Oklahoma state commission put the cost of the properties destroyed in Greenwood at $1.8 million, or $27 million in today's dollars. R.T. Bridgewater, a Black doctor and property owner, lost 17 houses he had built as rental investment properties. O.W. Gurley, a wealthy landowner who founded Greenwood in 1906, lost nearly $158,000, equivalent to $2.3 million today. The Tulsa massacre was a dramatic example of how African Americans have been denied the opportunity to accumulate wealth: To this day, 1 out of 3 Black people in the Greenwood area live in poverty, and the median income for Black households is $30,955 about 55 percent of white households'. Still, the true story of the Tulsa massacre was hidden until very recently. In what way? For 80 years, Oklahoma schools did not mention the destruction of Greenwood in teaching local history. It wasn't until 2002 that the Oklahoma Education Department added the "Tulsa Race Riot," as it called that event, to the state academic standards, but only as an example of "rising racial tensions" during the period. Even in the Black community, the topic was addressed in whispers, if at all. "It was taboo to speak about it," said Vanessa Hall-Harper, a member of Tulsa's city council. "I didn't even know about the massacre until I was an adult." In 2019, a commission organized to mark the massacre's centennial finally convinced the state education department to include lessons on the destruction of Greenwood. Still, no attempt has been made to repay families or the community for what was stolen from them. "The historical trauma is real," said Alicia Odewale, an archaeologist at the University of Tulsa. "That trauma lingers especially because there's no justice, no accountability, and no reparation or monetary compensation." The search for remains A hundred years after the massacre, the locations of the remains of most of the victims remain a mystery. Hunting them down has become a mission for several Black forensic anthropologists, including Phoebe Stubblefield, a research scientist at the University of Florida. That effort is hampered by the lack of historical records about the massacre and what happened afterward. There are stories of bodies loaded on trucks and dumped in the Arkansas River, thrown down mine shafts, or burned in the city incinerator. None of the stories has been verified or disproved, and until recently, searches for graves have been unsuccessful. But in October, Stubblefield and a team of archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar to survey the Oaklawn Cemetery, in eastern Tulsa, and discovered 12 previously undocumented wooden coffins. They believe they could be connected to Greenwood, and a massive excavation of the cemetery began last week. So far, 20 coffins have been found. This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here. Photo: "Axios on HBO" U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Suzanne Clark told me for "Axios on HBO" that she finds the Biden administration "easy to talk to. They're easy to reach. They're professional." "But sometimes they give us bad news very efficiently and quickly," she said with a laugh. The big picture: The chamber, the worlds largest business lobby, is having success under President Biden on promoting infrastructure spending, but opposes his planned tax increases. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free. "I think it comes down to having different economic philosophies, right?" she said. "The American business community believes this is a moment of growth." Clark, who took over in March as the first woman CEO in the chamber's 109-year history, has made the worker shortage a top issue, and recently launched a program she calls "Operation Warp Speed for jobs." "Look, this is the biggest economic challenge of our time," she said. "I went to Rehoboth over the weekend, took my teenager to the beach. And the number of restaurants, the number of small businesses that have restricted their hours, that aren't serving lunch, or aren't open at all because of the workforce shortage is tragic." I asked Clark: In the past when people thought of the Chamber of Commerce, they thought of a boys' club, and now you're the boss. What's it been like to be in so many rooms full of white middle-aged dudes? "Well, you know, I'm married to a white middle-aged dude, so they're kind of my people," she joked. But she said the conversation now is that "as the world gets more diverse, ... what it's like to have all of these rooms open up. And there is strength in diversity." "I think the Chamber has a long way to go," she added, "particularly in getting more Black and brown people to work here." More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked the G7 group of wealthy industrial nations on Sunday after it voiced support for Kyiv and called on Russia to withdraw troops and weapons from near Ukraine's eastern border. Leaders of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan reaffirmed their backing for Ukraine and called on Moscow to stop its destabilising behaviour in a communique issued after a three-day summit in the UK. "Commend the unwavering support by #G7 states in the Summit's communique," Zelenskiy wrote in Twitter. "Grateful to leaders for the continued support for Ukraine's independence & sovereignty & the call to the aggressor to withdraw troops from Ukraine's borders & Crimea. #Crimea is Ukraine!" Kyiv hopes pressure from Western allies could force Moscow to withdraw tens of thousands of its troops deployed in April near Ukraine's eastern border and in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The West expressed concern about the worsening of the situation in the eastern region of Donbass, where Ukrainian troops fought Russian-backed forces in a conflict that Kyiv said had killed 14,000 people since 2014. (Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Editing by Peter Cooney) Jun. 13There's a battle being waged on Spokane County's radio airwaves, and it's the latest drama in an ongoing debate over transparency with union bargaining in Washington. One side's radio ads accuse Spokane County Commissioners Josh Kerns and Al French of disrespecting public employees by refusing to negotiate new employment contracts. The opposition's counter ads back the county's decision to make union collective bargaining negotiations open to the public. At its heart, the radio war between the union-leading Washington State Council of County and City Employees and the conservative Washington Policy Center is over whether unions should be able to negotiate contracts behind closed doors. Union ad calls out Kerns and French 1 Your browser does not support the audio element. Union ads call out French and Kerns 2 Your browser does not support the audio element. Washington Policy Center ads support public union negotiations Your browser does not support the audio element. The debate began in 2018, when Kerns and French passed a resolution that required union contract talks which have historically been private to be public. The county and the Council of County and City Employees disagree on whether the resolution was legal. Similar collective bargaining fights are happening in Lincoln County and the city of Spokane. Union leaders say public negotiations would weaken organized labor and hurt workers. Kerns and French, as well as conservative groups including the Washington Policy Center and the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation, argue taxpayers should be able to watch negotiations. In addition to the overall collective bargaining debate, there's a more immediate reason union leaders bought the radio ads, which are running on 10 or so local stations five to seven times per day. Gordon Smith, who works for the Council of County and City Employees and represents roughly 1,100 Spokane County workers, said he hopes the ads pressure Kerns and French to negotiate contracts in private for county jail and Geiger Corrections Center employees. Corrections employees are being paid under the terms of their old contract, which expired on Dec. 31, 2019. Story continues The main reason for buying radio airtime is to bring the county to the table to bargain a new contract for corrections employees, he said. The corrections contracts expired first, but Smith said all of his county employee contracts have expired as of Dec. 31. In addition to radio ads, the Council of County and City Employees bought billboard space at Bernard Street and Riverside Avenue and has another billboard coming to Monroe Street and Broadway Avenue, near the county campus. Smith said his organization will lead a picketing campaign at the county campus this month. The county and unions have offered to meet but haven't due to the stalemate over whether the meetings should be private. French said he understands corrections employees have gone a long time without a new contract, but he's not willing to budge. "I'd be anxious to get a new contract, too," French said. "But it'll be negotiated in the light of day." The debate From the union perspective, private collective bargaining meetings were working just fine. "Since the late '50s, we've had a decent relationship with Spokane County," Smith said. "We don't always agree, of course, but it's been businesslike, professional, civil." But there has been a national push from conservative groups, including the fervently anti-union Freedom Foundation, to make union negotiations public. The Washington Policy Center's ad argues that if unions have nothing to hide, they shouldn't fear public meetings. Kerns and French said the issue isn't complicated they just want transparency. "This comes down to one issue," Kerns said. "We feel that bargaining should be done in the public. We are bargaining with public dollars. The unions feel this should be in private, not accessible to the taxpayers." Three smaller unions for county employees, including two for public works, have been bargaining in public since the 2018 resolution. They are not part of the Council of County and City Employees. Smith said if the county wanted to make negotiations public, it should have bargained with the unions to make that change. Plus, he argued the process already is transparent, since the county discusses the tentative contracts in public meetings before finalizing them and people can see the contracts on the county website after they've been approved. Proponents of open bargaining aren't really advocating for transparency, Smith said, they just want to weaken unions and ensure public employees receive less pay. "Public employee unions are one of the few obstacles left to corporate interests," he said. "So that's why we're under attack." Unions don't have anything to hide, Smith said, but there are still reasons to keep negotiations private. For one, people could take meeting recordings and use quotes out of context to make unions look bad, Smith said. Also, public settings aren't always conducive to good communication, Smith said. He noted that when he's bargaining with Coeur d'Alene on behalf of their employees, the meetings are public, but no one shows up and it's not a problem. But he said, in theory, people antagonistic to unions could disrupt negotiations at public meetings. "Having the potential for strangers to be involved can have a chilling effect on open communications, particularly when you know people in the audience could have an agenda," Smith said. Smith also said that union employee volunteers could become public figures if meetings aren't kept private. He said that wouldn't be fair, since the volunteers never signed up for that publicity, unlike elected officials. Power of precedent On Monday and Tuesday, the Council of County and City Employees and Spokane County met before the Public Employment Relations Commission to present their arguments for and against public collective bargaining. The two sides' attorneys have 30 days to send their briefs to the commission's hearing officer. After that, the commission has another 90 days to make a decision. The decision could be in favor of the unions, Spokane County, or some sort of hybrid. If one of the parties doesn't like the commission's ruling, it can appeal to the commission's director. If the parties don't like the director's decision, the argument would go to the courts. Smith said he doesn't want to go through that long process. French and Kerns emphasized that it appears the public doesn't want union negotiations to remain private. In November 2019, Spokane put the question on the ballot and 77% of city voters said they wanted public bargaining. "In the most democratic part of the county, even they want to make sure that these contracts are negotiated in the public," French said. "So there's no confusion about what the public wants, and now it's up to the elected officials to try and deliver on that commitment to the public." The Washington State Council of County and City Employees is suing Spokane in an effort to keep city union negotiations private. Smith said his organization is fighting hard to keep Spokane County union negotiations private because the final decision here could set a precedent for the rest of the state. "This is ground zero for us," Smith said. "We've got to be careful, because whatever happens here is going to affect us statewide." Jun. 12A few dozen residents gathered at BreakFree Aiken on Saturday afternoon to play games, dance to music, eat and enjoy fellowship with others. The church, located at 1411 Columbia Highway N, across from Crosland Park, hosted the free event, titled Unity in the Community, which was billed as a family fun day. William Belo, BreakFree's pastor, said he sees a lot of people in the area who are hurting "so we just wanted to bring them some joy, show them some love and let them know that we're here." "We want to feed them, we want to have fun, we want the kids to come out," Belo said. "We want to introduce them to a newness of life if they haven't experienced it yet." Hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza were all offered, as well as popcorn, cotton candy and snow cones. Attendees could play cornhole or ladder toss, and there was even an inflatable bounce house for the children. Bishop Tracy Reddick was at the event, and he said he wanted to come out to show support for the community. Reddick said it's about "showing everybody that we love them, showing everybody that there is still hope and that everything is going to get better." "We definitely believe that unity is needed with everything that's going on," Reddick said. Stephanie Walker shared a similar message. Walker, who is a member of the church, said she believes in giving back to the community and "trying to gain our youth back with all the gun violence and everything that's going on right now." "If we don't reach out, they don't know we're here," Walker said. Besides all the activities, there were also tents set up for a few different local agencies to give out information and talk to residents, including the Aiken Center Alcohol and Drugs, Aiken Housing Authority and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Colleen Bedenbaugh, a community health worker, was at the DHEC booth and said the agency came out to promote and discuss the COVID-19 vaccine. "(We're) trying to answer any questions about the vaccine and any hesitancies people may have about it," Bedenbaugh said. Jun. 13WATERFORD The town celebrated its graduating seniors and its senior citizens with a 100th birthday this year in one big bash Saturday. The event started with a parade that began at the Jordan Fire House and ended at Waterford High School. Other activities included guided tours of the Waterford Historical Society buildings at the Historic Jordan Village Green, also with a blacksmith demonstration, live music and food trucks on the green, summer reading kickoff at the Waterford Public Library, Touch-A-Truck at the high school and community resource fair, craft fair and farmers market at Town Hall. The high school Jazz Ensemble also performed in the gazebo at Civic Triangle Park, where a crowd gathered to listen. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House said on Sunday ahead of Monday's NATO summit that alliance leaders would launch an "ambitious" set of initiatives to ensure it continues providing security through 2030 and beyond. It said the 30 member countries would agree to revise NATOs "Strategic Concept" to guide its "approach to the evolving strategic environment, which includes Russias aggressive policies and actions; challenges posed by the Peoples Republic of China to our collective security, prosperity, and values; and transnational threats such as terrorism, cyber threats, and climate change." The White House statement said the new Strategic Concept would be prepared for adoption at the 2022 NATO Summit. "Allied leaders will launch an ambitious set of initiatives to ensure NATO continues to provide security to our citizens through 2030 and beyond," the statement added. Reuters reported earlier that NATO's Strategic Concept was expected to include China's military rise as a challenge for the first time. President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels on Sunday for the summit. NATO leaders will endorse a new Cyber Defense Policy boosting coordination to ensure the alliance "is resilient against the increasingly frequent and severe threats ... including disruptive ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure." The White House added that alliance members would rely on "trustworthy providers for next generation telecommunication networks." NATO leaders will also affirm steps to ensure the alliance's "technological edge" and agree to a "Climate Security Action Plan, the White House said, including reducing greenhouse gases from military activities and installations. Russia, climate change, Afghanistan and new technologies are among topics planned for discussion during the day-long summit, which will culminate in a special leaders' session in the North Atlantic Council chamber. Story continues In a twist of fate, the NATO summit will agree on reforms to the alliance, known as NATO 2030, which were set in motion after then-President Donald Trump questioned its relevance. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will set out nine areas where NATO could modernize over the medium term, including more joint allied funding of military operations. France has already expressed concern about the proposal, however, fearing it will take money away from national military priorities. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Peter Cooney) Cox has a criminal history involving the sale of drugs and other offenses. In 1999, he was charged in Guilford County with possession of drugs with intent to sell. His next arrest came in 2011 in Guilford when he was charged with possession of a controlled substance, trafficking and maintaining a place for a controlled substance. By 2013, Cox faced charges in Guilford of drug possession with intent to sell and selling a schedule IV controlled substance. He was charged with misdemeanor wanton injury to personal property that same year in Forsyth County. Page has not disclosed investigators theories about a motive in what he terms "targeted" shootings. Asked if the shootings were a revenge crime related to rival motorcycle gangs, Page said he could not discuss the ongoing investigation. He further declined to discuss whether investigators are seeking other suspects in the crime, such as a possible passenger in Coxs truck. The riders, traveling on two motorcycles, were shot May 24 around 4:45 p.m. as they headed northbound along the U.S. 29 bypass between Barnes Street and N.C. 14, officials said. Anderson said the state also is developing a comprehensive plan on how to track these outcomes in rural Virginia, with the overall intent to reduce race and ethnicity data gaps. The third tier emphasizes the importance of hiring and training more people to focus on testing and contact tracing especially in Black, Indigenous, Latino and Asian populations and rural parts of the state while mitigating health inequities on a local level. Lastly, Anderson noted an expansion of community partnerships through local health districts, historically Black colleges and universities and faith leaders on what solutions have worked in meeting people where they are versus what has not. This time last year, Latinos in Virginia accounted for 45% of cases, 35% of hospitalizations and 11% of deaths while being less than 10% of the population. Throughout 2021, the VDH has reported Latinos and Black residents still were the most likely to be infected, hospitalized or die from the virus even as vaccinations sped up. During the 2016 presidential primary campaign, Barack Obamas failure to wear a flag pin on his lapel caused a mini dust-up. Asked why wasnt wearing one, Obama said hed worn a flag pin after 9/11 but found some people who wear them dont act patriotic. Instead, he said, he would tell people what he believed and show his patriotism that way. Nice try. Obamas reasoned response didnt fly. After that he wore a flag pin on his lapel. On Monday, we once again will honor the nations most iconic symbol on Flag Day. We celebrate on June 14 to commemorate the Continental Congresss resolution on June 14, 1777: Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation. How hopeful our forefathers were to see the young country as united under its flag, a new constellation in the sky. That optimism has been tested as the number of stars has grown to 50, but it continues. On Flag Day, many Americans will fly flags and wear lapel pins. So bring out the stars and the stripes. 3. Can any candidate from the western part of the state hope to win a statewide race? Given the states demographics that shift eastward (and northward) with every election, its hard. However, we cant say the answer is always going to beno because Rasoul showed a possible path. His second-place finish was better than the third and fourth place vote totals put together, and Mark Levine of Alexandria and Andria McClellan of Norfolk had the advantage of a base in the urban crescent. In most of Northern Virginia, Rasoul polled a very respectable second. In massive Fairfax County, Ayala took 33.5% to Rasouls 28.4% pretty impressive considering that Ayala came from next door and was presumably already part of the local political conversation and Rasoul came from west of the Blue Ridge and was a new figure. Rasoul conceivably could have won if not for some factors he had no control over. First, there was a sentiment among some Democratic voters that they shouldnt nominate an all-male ticket and with McAuliffe and Herring winning big, that meant the only option for diversity was to nominate a woman for lieutenant governor. Second, the party establishment notably Gov. Ralph Northam and House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn lined up behind Ayala. As we saw in the overall results, the Democratic establishment counts for a lot. Third, Rasoul was hurt by the weakness of some of the other candidates. He especially did not fare well in Hampton Roads but neither did the local candidate, Andria McClellan. She didnt win her hometown; she didnt win anywhere, which opened the way for Ayala to roll up margins there. Still, McClellan would have had to more than double her performance, and take all those votes from Ayala, for Rasoul to have won. Rasoul did part of what he had to do maximize his western base, be competitive in Northern Virginia, but then his luck ran out. Fridays storms provided some relief. Along with nearly 90% of Iowa experiencing some degree of dryness or drought, Hall said the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map shows 32% of the state was rated as abnormally dry, 47% was rated as in moderate drought and 10% was rated as severe drought. Only southeastern Iowa currently was free of abnormally dry and drought conditions, he said. According to Iowas latest water summary, rainfall in the second week of May brought some much-needed relief especially to the southern third of Iowa, where about 15% of abnormally dry conditions were resolved. But with warmer and drier conditions building during the first part of June and below-average rainfall over the last seven to 10 days, Hall said drought conditions significantly expanded across the northern two-thirds of Iowa with additional expansion into southern Iowa. Iowas statewide average precipitation totaled 3.71 inches in May, or 1.13 inches below normal. Monthly precipitation totals ranged from 1.95 inches in Akron to 8.53 inches near West Point in Lee County. The statewide average temperature was 59 degrees, which was nearly one degree cooler than normal. DES MOINES The terrorists rode on motorcycles to the home in Afghanistan. They wore masks and carried guns. They came upon a little boy, grabbed him by the neck and demanded he bring them bread. If he didnt, they would harm him and his family, they said. The little boy was 9 years old. He had never seen a gun before. He was scared. He did as they asked. That interaction, decades later, could prove to be a death sentence for Zalmay Niazy an Iowa Falls man and the little boy in that story. A decade after the day he brought a piece of bread A piece no bigger than a cell phone to those terrorists, Zalmay Niazy, who had learned English as a child, worked as an interpreter for U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. He did that for three years, from 2007 to 2009, putting his life in danger both at work he was wounded in multiple bombings and at home, where Taliban forces threatened him and his family. The Taliban in 2008 made good on its threats, killing Niazys uncle, he said. A few years later, Niazys employer sent him to a work conference in Washington, D.C. Niazy made plans to not only attend the conference, but while in the U.S. apply for political asylum under a program created for former interpreters who aided U.S. military like Niazy. And Star Tribune journalists were honored for covering the rage in Minneapolis, where protesters burned buildings, including a police station, in the wake of Floyds death. The Black man died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground with his knee on Floyds neck for up to 9 1/2 minutes. The officer was later convicted of murder. Our staff poured its heart and soul into covering this story. It has been such a traumatic and tragic time for our community, Star Tribune Editor Rene Sanchez said in a statement. We felt that our journalism had to capture the full truth and depth of this pain and the many questions it renewed about Minnesota and the country. Prizes for explanatory reporting went to two recipients. Ed Yong of The Atlantic won for a series of deeply reported articles about the pandemic. Andrew Chung, Lawrence Hurley, Andrea Januta, Jaimi Dowdell and Jackie Botts of Reuters were honored for a look at the legal concept of qualified immunity and how it shields police from prosecution. It is not uncommon to see someone at that seven-year mark say, Enough is enough, and they move onto something else less stressful, less challenging and certainly in some ways a little more rewarding, Thompson said. But neither Thompson nor Bradshaw shied away from changes to police practices that are being challenged and in some cases changed. Both applauded legislation passed in 2020 in Iowa shortly after George Floyd, of Minneapolis, was killed while being detained by a police officer. That new law, among other provisions, banned the use of police choke holds in most cases, barred the hiring of officers who have been disciplined by other agencies for using excessive force and allows the state attorney general to investigate when an individual dies while in police custody. It didnt change our methodology one way or the other, Thompson said. In my agency or statewide, I didnt hear any sheriffs standing up and saying, Oh my gosh, this is a crisis, because 90% of what was contained in that bill was already being implemented and was already standard practice across the board. The Lincoln County Commissioners will receive bids and consider acceptance of a bid on a body scanner for the Lincoln County Detention Center at Mondays regular meeting. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the commissioners room at the Lincoln County Courthouse in North Platte. The board will discuss and consider setting a date to receive bids on the North Platte Trail Network Bike Trail. The commissioners will: Discuss and consider informal bids for updates to County Court. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Consider authorizing the chairman to sign Change Order No. 5 for the Lincoln County Jail addition/remodel project. Consider authorizing the chairman to sign a letter discontinuing payroll deductions with Aflac. Consider authorizing the chairman to sign a contract with Shelco Asphalt and Paving for overlay at Fairway Estates entrance. Consider authorizing the chairman to sign a rental agreement with Titan Machinery for a skid steer for Lincoln County Department of Roads. Theres just no comparison between a June with our celebrations and a June without. Its worthwhile to take a moment to review just how North Platte got them all. It was the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission that launched Nebraskaland Days in 1965 in the states capital city. (The parade itself came first, in 1964 meaning Saturdays parade is still the 57th Nebraskaland Days Parade, even though the pandemic took away the parades annual title.) But NLD wasnt automatically intended to stay in the east. Game and Parks accepted statewide bids. North Platte beat Lincoln and three other west central Nebraska cities (Ogallala, Valentine and McCook) and became permanent host. Nearly 20 years later, Miss Nebraska organizers decided to hold their 1985 event in North Platte. It went so well that they stayed. (Exactly 25 years later, Teresa Scanlan of Scottsbluff-Gering was crowned at the North Platte High School Performing Arts Center on her way to becoming the only Miss Nebraska to win Miss America.) Then Miss Rodeo Nebraska followed suit in 1991, relocating from Burwell to fill the gap and complete our three solid weeks of celebrations. (It didnt hurt that both Nebraskaland Days and the Buffalo Bill Rodeo had stage and rodeo pageant traditions before the statewide ones came.) The Justice Department obtained the metadata often records of calls, texts and locations but not other content from the devices, like photos, messages or emails. The order prohibiting Apple from discussing the subpoena, or notifying the people whose records were being seized, was extended three times, one each year, Apple said. We regularly challenge warrants, subpoenas and nondisclosure orders and have made it our policy to inform affected customers of governmental requests about them just as soon as possible, the company statement said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that the data seizures "appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy by the former president. The news about the politicization of the Trump Administration Justice Department is harrowing," she said. The committee official said the House intelligence panel will ask Apple to look into whether additional lawmakers were targeted. The Justice Department has not been forthcoming on questions such as whether the investigation was properly predicated and whether it only focused on Democrats, the official said. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The world of Nigerian refining is an enigma shrouded in a mystery. Although the story of Nigerias refining has been a friction point for some years already, it boggles the human mind how one of the worlds most hydrocarbon-endowed nations has essentially no operational refinery and relies overwhelmingly on product imports to satiate its ever-growing product demand. As is often the case with emerging economies, the inability to cater to domestic needs engenders murky schemes that often serve the purpose of enriching those who have very little consideration for the woes of the Nigerian populace. Taking into consideration everything that has been said above, it seems somewhat counterintuitive that the Nigerian national oil company NNPC would try to find a way into Nigerias private refineries. The move is a natural continuation of the Buhari governments intent to let NNPC into private downstream enterprises, mandating that any refinery whose throughput capacity extends 20kbpd should accommodate the national oil company into its shareholder structure. Unsurprisingly, Nigerias most ambitious and at the same time most realistic downstream projects are led by private enterprises, most notably the 650kbpd Dangote Refinery and the planned 200kbpd Akwa Ibom Refinery. The government drive leaves out all the 5-10kbpd capacity modular refineries that are scattered across Nigeria. The underlying reasons for such blunt actions are twofold. The desolateness of federal refineries On paper, Nigeria has 5 refineries of which only the one the smallest in capacity, of course is operating. The large refineries, namely the 210kbpd Port Harcourt Refinery, the 125kbpd Warri Refinery and the 110kbpd Kaduna Refinery, are all owned by the Nigerian NOC. Another thing that unites the three assets is that they have been out of operation since 2019. First, it was Port Harcourts closure (both the old and new plant) that was idled in March 2019, allegedly for the first phase of repair works. Warri and Kaduna followed soon after in the spring of 2019 and even though the rehabilitation program was assumed to be starting by now, NNPC remains rather mute on the actual relaunch of any of those refineries only Port Harcourt has seen its financing ($1 billion) secured so far. The financing for Port Harcourt comes from the African Export-Import Bank (AEIB), attesting to the fact that Nigeria has no available funds for the downstream revamp of NNPC. Despite agreeing on the AEIB loan, the Nigerian government is still to conclude an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on Port Harcourt, even less so on the other refineries in Kaduna and Warri. Even before their shutdown in 2019 these refineries (dating back to the 1960-1970s) were running at extremely low utilization rates, usually hovering between 15% and 20%. Confronted with an almost ceaseless task of meeting domestic demand, all this has led the Nigerian government to rely on DSDP (direct sale-direct purchase) deals whereby third-party oil companies provide NNPC with refined products in exchange for crude, equivalent in value. The relative success of the Dangote Refinery The Dangote Refinery was initially launched as a small-scale refinery, however soon enough it was upscaled to 650kbpd and moved to a new site next to Lagos, Nigerias largest city. First assumptions had it starting up in late 2019, with fuel production coming up within 2 months of completion. The difficulties that Dangote ran into very manifold - the recultivation of the swampland upon which the refinery is to be built took more than expected, importing steel and refinery equipment also ran into delays and all this was then aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As things stand currently, Dangote would come on-stream in late 2021 and first production is expected in the first months of 2022 the company has already started to train Nigerian staff, sending them to India and elsewhere, so that the refinery launch is as smooth as the owners hope for. Becoming the first large-scale refinery in Nigeria, not to omit that with Dangote alone Nigeria could swing into becoming a net exporter of gasoline, the new private plant is said not to rely on NNPC in any way and would avowedly avoid any participation in DSDP schemes. At the same time, Dangote relies on the government as Nigeria still has capped transportation fuel prices one of the major undercurrents sapping NNPCs downstream capacities over the past decade. Considering that some 40% of the West African countrys foreign exchange revenues are effectively wasted on product imports, the price cap is of paramount importance. Up until now, NNPC served as the buffer between world prices and regulated domestic prices (gasoline is fixed at around $0.45 per litre), therefore Dangote might be inclined to have the Nigerian government on its side should it seek to satiate domestic fuel demand with price caps still on. Thus, NNPC is reportedly looking to buy 20% of the Dangote Refinery, with a prospective view to move into the BUA Refinery. Just a couple of days ago before NNPCs claim for Dangote was expressed publicly, representatives of the Dangote Refinery stated that they are not looking to sale any share in the refinery and do not seek to clinch deals with oil producers bringing long-term supply deals to the table, i.e. the refinery would prefer to have the freedom to source incoming cargoes freely. Given that the Nigerian state coffers barely having any funds to make use of, it seems likely that the NNPC buy-in would be compensated for by some form of price-setting acquiescence for production coming out of the $15 billion refinery. By Gerald Jansen for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: He encouraged us to listen to each other and take full ownership of our (sound), she said. At the end of the video, Slosburg named Wilkins the Omaha Symphonys music director laureate in recognition of your leadership, humility, humanitarian efforts and the place you hold in our hearts. You are welcome back to our stage anytime, Slosburg said. Cue another ovation. A stirring performance of Edward Elgars Enigma Variations. The ceremonious final variation in which all of the musicians were playing most of the time provided a triumphant end to Wilkins Omaha story. The final applause was the longest of all, with multiple whoops and three curtain calls. Nobody wanted to leave. People across the country and perhaps around the world saw the concert livestreamed on the symphonys website. And it was a featured performance at the League of American Orchestras annual conference, which started June 7. Omahan Becky Nicholson, who has been a regular at symphony concerts since Wilkins joined in 2005, said the evening was superb yet bittersweet. Students in one metro Omaha district made solid academic gains last school year despite pandemic disruptions, giving officials there hope for a quicker recovery from COVID-19 learning losses. Spring testing in the Millard Public Schools revealed that reading scores, on average, rebounded to nearly pre-pandemic levels. Math scores were slightly but not significantly lower than two years ago. But what Millard officials find really encouraging is that the amount of growth in math during the school year was surprisingly strong. In spite of the disruption, the kids moved forward as much as they would have in a normal year, and in some grade levels more, said Heather Phipps, associate superintendent of education services. She attributes the growth to a relentless focus on math and reading this year. She said Millard is several years into a focus on standards-based instruction and assessment, making sure teachers understand the standards and what theyre supposed to teach. That effort had already put student achievement on an upward trajectory before the pandemic struck, she said. Moser said no one would build a house like the state is building its expressway system: by first building a basement, then a few years later, the first floor, and even later, the upper story. He added that highway construction costs have risen 50% over the past two decades while the state has been trying to get our ducks in a row, which is raising expenses that could be avoided by borrowing now and paying off the debt later. Were happy to see some progress. We just arent where we need to be yet, Moser said. But the governor, as well as the State Department of Transportation, both oppose the bonding bill. In a recent column about putting the brakes on bad bills, Ricketts wrote that if the state issued $400 million in highway bonds, it would be paying them off until 2033 and that millions would be wasted on interest payments instead of concrete. The governor added that there is additional money available, about $25 million a year, after the Legislature passed, over his veto, a 6 cent-a-gallon increase in the states gas tax in 2015. The public is invited to visit with nationally recognized sculptor Benjamin Victor as he works on a new Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte memorial sculpture at the Jayne Snyder Trails Center in Lincolns Union Plaza. Hours are 3 to 7 p.m. Monday and 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at the Trails Center at 228 N. 21st St. Victor has been commissioned by a local private donor to create a 7-foot-6 bronze sculpture of Picotte, a member of the Omaha Tribe and the first Native American to earn a degree to become a medical doctor. Victor is working on the clay model from which the bronze will be cast. He brought the model to Lincoln from his home and studio in Boise, Idaho. The Lincoln Parks Foundation is funding his visit to Nebraska. I know that people will be inspired to learn about the extraordinary accomplishments and contributions of Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, said Judi Gaiashkibos, director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. Picotte was a trailblazing Native woman whose legacy transcends Nebraskas history and whose story is even more relevant today as we as a nation search for the truth, Gaiashkibos said. Danny Fenster was about to board a plane in Myanmar on May 24 to return home to Michigan. Instead he was detained at Yangon International Airport, apparently for as one of his former teachers at Columbia College in Chicago aptly tweeted performing acts of journalism. I say apparently because the military government that took over Myanmar during a coup in February simply hasnt said why they took Fenster, 37, into custody. Thats not unusual for this junta. In the country that the United States government still calls Burma, Myanmars military regime holds dozens of journalists behind bars, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN America and the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, a Burmese rights group. Full disclosure, Im a member of CPJs board, but this case jumped out at me because of Fensters connection to my beloved home base of Chicago. It also stood out because most of CPJs cases involve countries that have a lot fewer press freedoms than our Constitution protects. In Myanmar, the arrests of journalists has widened to include foreign journalists, including Fenster, managing editor of the Frontier Myanmar news site, and fellow U.S. citizen, Nathan Maung, a co-founder of the local news website Kamayut Media. It is alarming that in the past few years we seemed to have devalued our history. We have focused too much in a living in the present attitude Our successes as a nation were the result of reaching common ground. Our failures have occurred when we dont. I have seen many events that have impacted my life, my familys life and the life of our country. Some werent so fun and others were filled with elation. We cannot move forward as a community of diverse people if we dont understand our history. What gives me hope is that our individual histories are what give us a sense of community and build trust. The political climate today will not work. To me the more we inquire and learn about our diverse histories, we learn to build trust and turn away from conflict to find compromise in our political processes. Our blessing is our diversity. Lets celebrate it every day. I was born in 1949. We had won the war and made the world safe for democracy. Our nation was on the move and our investments both in education and innovation were paying off economically. However, it was events in 1934-1944 that have influenced me the most growing up and still do today. Placing more of the nations water and land in conservation can help protect the environment and address climate change. But achieving that goal will be possible only through trust and collaboration between the federal government and the nations agricultural producers. At present, that relationship is frayed amid anger and uncertainty. The Biden administration in part brought this problem on itself by announcing in January the 30x30 concept putting 30% of the nations land and water in conservation status by 2030 via an executive order that provided no practical guidance on how an initiative of such complexity and ambition would be implemented. The lack of information and failure to provide upfront outreach came across as arrogant and fueled cynicism and uncertainty among many farmers and ranchers. Anti-government activists and some political figures subsequently stepped in, whipping up anger over a supposed federal land grab even though U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, including Secretary Tom Vilsack, have repeatedly said no such federal action is planned. The Biden administration released an interagency report in May that again emphasized that point and provided additional detail. We will protest to the Board of Equalization but fear it will be a lost cause. Since we budget for tax costs monthly, we now have only six months to come up with the extra funds we will need for next years taxes. Belts will be tightened. Pat and Darrell Wineinger, Omaha Nebraskas plate problem I just had the pleasure of going to the Dakota County Courthouse to register my new car. Its not a wonder that I waited 10 years to buy a new car; the registration cost is staggering. That raises lot of questions about our states direction about business and what laws we want to enforce. I just bought the new car, so I am back to huge annual renewal fees for about the next 10 years again. I am forced to do this, or, when you live in a border town (South Dakota and Iowa), you can cheat and register the car in another state. And worse than that, in my county, the number of cars I see that either have no plates, paper plates that are expired, or out of state plates is huge. I see Iowa, Texas, Arizona, South Dakota, Oregon plates parked in garages and driveways everywhere. Amplified, a social marketing project by the Ministry of Information that seeks to highlights and promotes young Ghanaian entrepreneurs has shortlisted 258 young entrepreneurs, Head of Social Media and Digital Innovation at the Ministry, Nathaniel Alpha has said. According to him, the Ministry is impressed with the level of interest and enthusiasm that has greeted the program since it was launched on 27th May 2021 in Accra. Our focus in season one of the Project Amplified is to use the Ministrys social media assets and that of some social media influencers to promote about 20 businesses, hence we estimated to receive about 100 requests from young entrepreneurs. However, having received 258 requests, we would have to increase the number we want to support this year, he said. A project committee made up of representatives from the Ministry Of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Information and some partner bloggers and social media influencers are expected to select the first set of businesses that are to be amplified in phase one. From the request, we have received so far, it is clear that the young entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities to promote their businesses and we at the Ministry of Information led by our Minister, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is willing and ready to embark on this drive, Nathaniel Alpha added. The Ministry of Information will on Friday 11th June 2021, air the first of series of videos that shows the Minister of Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and the Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Alan Kyeremanteng visiting and interacting with young Ghanaian entrepreneurs in order to help them amplify their works to attract more patronage from Ghanaians. Amplified is a social marketing project by the Ministry of Information that seeks to help young Ghanaians reach larger audiences with their entrepreneurial activities, social causes and mentoring programs. The Ministry believes that by amplifying the activities of young entrepreneurs, they can help them reach larger markets with their goods and services which is expected to increase demand for their products and profit margin as well. 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 Mr Michael Kwakuga Fianu, Assistant District Manager of Sogakope-Denu Forest District of the Forestry Commission (FC) has encouraged organisations and individuals to freely visit the office for seedlings for the Green Ghana Project. He said though June 11 was the official day for the tree planting exercise, there was stock and that the office would be open to supply freely to individuals and groups from the various political districts the office served. Mr Fianu spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), when his outfit led the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and Heads of Departments in Ketu South to plant mahogany seedlings at the premises of the Municipal Assembly, the Ketu Divisional Police Headquarters and the National Health Insurance office. The Green Ghana Project, under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources aimed at planting five million trees on June 11 across all 275 constituencies in the country to preserve and protect Ghanas forest and vegetation cover for a balanced ecology. The FC official said the central nursery at Denu had about 147,000 seedlings for now and that the office had distributed the only available cassia seedlings to Ketu South and North Municipalities, Akatsi South and North Districts, Keta and Anloga Districts and South, Central and North Tongu Districts to enable citizens to participate in the Presidential initiative. So far, weve distributed a total of 27,000 seedlings across the board and the stock at the nursery in the next two weeks will also be ready for out-planting. Im hoping that by the close of the month, we would have planted not less than 120,000 seedlings in all the political districts. Ill encourage every individual in our area here to come out freely to the office and request for a seedling to plant. At least, come with your friend. Tell a friend to tell a friend, tell your cousin to tell another auntie so that we all plant trees because when the last tree dies, the last man dies, Mr Fianu urged. 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 Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has admitted that he has failed to end insecurity in the country, a promise he made when he was elected in 2015. In a TV address, he said the fight against Islamist militants in the north had had the unintended consequence of spreading violence to other areas. Mr Buhari extended his "heartfelt condolences" to families of victims. The Boko Haram Islamist group, which began its insurgency in 2009, has stepped up attacks in recent months. After his election in 2015, President Buhari said the group had been "technically defeated" by an army offensive. But there have been dozens of attacks in the north-east since the start of the year, and a number of military bases, as well as towns, have been overrun by the militants. Weapons, food and medicines have also been looted. 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 Peter Attafuah, Northern Regional Director of Education has disclosed that about 972 candidates in the Northern region could not write the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the region. He said out of the 972 candidates, 522 were girls with 113 pregnant. The Regional Director of Education attributed the failure to the long closure of schools resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Attafuah made the disclosure at a regional level advocacy meeting that assembled key stakeholders in education to support the delivery of Reproductive Health Education (RHE) project phase II funded by UNESCO in the Northern region. The event, organized by Norsaac in Tamale, was to outdoor the 12-month duration project to regional stakeholders and to solicit their support for the implementation of the project, which was on adolescent reproductive health and targeting teenage pregnancy. Dr Attafuah also highlighted the situation of absentees at the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in 2020 and indicated that 111 candidates including 50 girls out of which 14 of them were pregnant could not write the exams. The Regional Director said his outfit commenced a programme to impact the back to school advocacy campaign since schools re-opened in January this year to retain more pupils in school. Dr Attafuah expressed concern about the number of children that had not reported to the classroom following the long closure of schools occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. He said some of the students could not return to school following the long break, apprenticeship options they took, and child marriages and said the GES in collaboration with other stakeholders in education worked to relocate them to their communities to return to school. 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 Nurse prepares syringe with Astrazeneca vaccine to be administered to patients, during the inauguration event of the new vaccination center at the Caserma Magrone police station in Maddaloni (CE). Photo: Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket via Getty Images The Oxford-AstraZeneca (AZN.L) coronavirus vaccine was put under more pressure this weekend as the leading EU drugs regulator recommended that countries should avoid giving it to people over the age of 60. The shot has been under intense scrutiny since its rollout began due to reports of extremely rare blood clots. Reuters reported that the head of the EU COVID-19 task force was quoted on Sunday recommending using other vaccines for over 60s as they become available. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) considers the vaccine safe for all age groups, and has been clear in its advice that the benefits of taking the vaccine outweigh the risks, however some member states have restricted its use in the older population. The UK has also previously recommended using an alternative to the AstraZeneca shot for those under the age of 40. "In a pandemic context, our position was and is that the risk-benefit ratio remains favourable for all age groups," COVID-19 task force chief Marco Cavaleri told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Cavaleri noted that due to caseloads falling and the fact that younger people are less exposed to the risks of COVID, using vaccines with mRNA technology, such as ones from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, would be preferable. The news follows the Italian government restricting the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 60. Read more: PM doubles down on Northern Ireland protocol threat in post-Brexit trade spat Some scientists worry that the back and forth on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was one of the first to be approved by regulators, has undermined confidence in the jab. Roberto Burioni, one of Italys leading virologists, said in an interview that government regulators and AstraZeneca communicated very very badly. We are losing the trust of even the most enthusiastic people. Elsewhere there have been calls to cut down the 12 week wait between jabs as variants of the virus bring cause for concern. Watch: Calls grow to change dosage interval for COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine Jordan is one of the world's most and is facing one of the most severe droughts in its history. Jordan said Sunday it plans to build a Red Sea desalination plant operating within five years, to provide the mostly-desert and drought-hit kingdom with critical drinking water. The cost of the project is estimated at "around $1 billion", ministry of water and irrigation spokesman Omar Salameh told AFP, adding that the plant would be built in the Gulf of Aqaba, in southern Jordan. The plant is expected to produce 250-300 million cubic meters of potable water per year, and should be ready for operation in 2025 or 2026, Salameh said. "It will cover the need for drinking water (in Jordan) for the next two centuries," he said, adding that the desalinated water would be piped from Aqaba on the Red Sea to the rest of the country. Jordan is one of the world's most water-deficient countries and experts say the country, home to 10 million people, is now in the grip of one of the most severe droughts in its history. Thirteen international consortiums have put in bids, and the government will chose five of them by July, Salameh said. Desalinating water is a major drain of energy, and the companies must suggest how to run the plant in Jordan, which does not have major oil reserves. Last month Salameh told AFP that Jordan needs about 1.3 billion cubic metres of water per year. But the quantities available are around 850 to 900 million cubic metres, with the shortfall "due to low rainfall, global warming, population growth and successive refugee inflows", he said. This year, the reserves of key drinking water dams have reached critical levels, many now a third of their normal capacity. Explore further Jordan, Israel sign deal to help save Dead Sea 2021 AFP Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket has successfully carried out more than a dozen uncrewed test runs launching from its facility in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas. A mystery bidder paid $28 million at auction Saturday for a seat alongside Jeff Bezos on board the first crewed spaceflight of the billionaire's company Blue Origin next month. The Amazon founder revealed this week that both he and his brother Mark would take seats on board the company's New Shepard launch vehicle on July 20, to fly to the edge of space and back. The Bezos brothers will be joined by the winner of Saturday's charity auction, whose identity remains unknown, and by a fourth, as yet unnamed space tourist. "The name of the auction winner will be released in the weeks following the auction's conclusion," tweeted Blue Origin following the sale. "Then, the fourth and final crew member will be announcedstay tuned." Saturday's successful bidder beat out some 20 rivals in an auction launched on May 19 and wrapped up with a 10-minute, livecast frenzy. Bidding had reached $4.8 million by Thursday, but shot up spectacularly in the final live auction, rising by million dollar increments. The proceedsaside from a six percent auctioneer's commissionwill go to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, which aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEMscience, technology, engineering and mathematics. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to fly into space on a rocket built by his company Blue Origin. Taking off from a desert in western Texas, the New Shepard trip will last 10 minutes, four of which passengers will spend above the Karman line that marks the recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space. After lift-off, the capsule separates from its booster, then spends four minutes at an altitude exceeding 60 miles (100 kilometers), during which time those on board experience weightlessness and can observe the curvature of Earth. The booster lands autonomously on a pad two miles from the launch site, and the capsule floats back to the surface with three large parachutes that slow it down to about a mile per hour when it lands. Lifelong dream Bezos, who announced earlier this year he is stepping down as Amazon's chief executive to spend more time on other projects including Blue Origin, has said it was a lifelong dream to fly into space. Blue Origin's New Shepard has successfully carried out more than a dozen uncrewed test runs from its facility in Texas' Guadalupe Mountains. The interior of the Blue Origin crew capsulean unnamed bidder has paid $28 million for a seat on board, alongside Jeff Bezos. "We're ready to fly some astronauts," said Blue Origin's director of astronaut and orbital sales, Ariane Cornell, on Saturday. The reusable suborbital rocket system was named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space 60 years ago. The automated capsules with no pilot have six seats with horizontal backrests placed next to large portholes, in a futuristic cabin with swish lighting. Multiple cameras help immortalize the few minutes the space tourists experience weightlessness. Private space race Blue Origin's maiden crewed flight comes in a context of fierce competition in the field of private space explorationwith Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, all jostling for pole position. Bezos has a very public rivalry with Musk, whose SpaceX is planning orbital flights that would cost millions of dollars and send people much further into space. The New Shepard crew capsule is seen prepared for liftoff on its eighth test flight. SpaceX has already begun to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and is a competitor for government space contracts. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, hopes to begin regular commercial suborbital flights in early 2022, with eventual plans for 400 trips a year. Some 600 people have booked flights, costing $200,000 to $250,000and there has been talk of Branson himself taking part in a test flight this summer, although no date has been set. Explore further Blue Origin will fly first crew to space in July 2021 AFP The debate over the two anti-pesticide proposals was a bitter one. Switzerland on Sunday rejected proposals that would have made it the first European country to ban synthetic pesticides following a bitterly fought campaign. Voters backed the government's call and rejected the two publicly proposed initiatives that would have changed the landscape for Swiss farming. A majority of both voters and cantons is required to push through popular initiatives, but the two proposals failed on both counts, as 61 percent of voters and all but one of 26 cantons snubbed the initiatives. "This is a reasonable and pragmatic decision which guarantees the future of our agriculture and the country's food security," Swiss President Guy Parmelin told journalists. The result "gives the agricultural sector the chance to pursue transitional reforms towards more sustainable production", he said. Meanwhile controversial sweeping new police powers to combat terrorism passed with 57 percent backing, to the dismay of international rights campaigners such as Amnesty International. Under Switzerland's direct democracy system, referendums and popular votes occur every few months at national, regional and local levels. Any idea from the public can be put to a national vote if it gathers 100,000 signatures from the 8.6 million population, but these so-called popular initiatives require the double majority to pass. To trigger a referendum on new laws agreed by parliament, you first need 50,000 signatures and then a simple majority of votes to pass. Referendums and popular votes occur every few months at national, regional and local levels. Pesticides debate No major country has so far banned man-made pesticides. Bhutan announced in 2012 that it wanted to become the first nation in the world to turn its home-grown food and farmers 100 percent organic. The Swiss debate on pesticides was a bitter one. Arsonists torched a trailer displaying "No" banners in the western Vaud canton, while "Yes"-backing farmers said they had been the victims of insults, threats and intimidation. A first popular initiative, entitled "For a Switzerland free from synthetic pesticides", called for a domestic ban within 10 years, and the outlawing of imported foodstuffs produced using such pesticides. Under a second initiative, only farms not using pesticides, and only using antibiotics to treat sick animals, would have been eligible for government subsidies. The amount of liquid manure being used on fields, and thereby potentially entering the water system, would also have been limited. The Pesticides Initiative coalition behind the first proposal said the government should now "regularly test the population for pesticide residues". It was unacceptable to approve synthetic pesticides then "turn a blind eye to their effects", it argued. Anti-terror laws backed The new anti-terror laws extend police powers to prevent future attacks, making it easier for them to take preventative action when faced with a "potential terrorist". The Swiss government welcomed the rejection of the anti-pesticide proposals. If police believe someone over the age of 12 is contemplating violent actions, the law allows them to conduct greater surveillance, limit their movements and oblige them to face questioning. And with a court order, they can also place anyone over the age of 15 under house arrest for up to nine months. While the wealthy nation has not seen the large-scale attacks witnessed in its European neighbours, the authorities insist the threat level is high. "Switzerland will now have the world's most unprofessional, ineffective and dangerous anti-terrorism law," Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, told AFP. The expert, who does not speak for the UN but reports his findings to the global body, called the move "a major embarrassment for Switzerland as a modern democracy". Amnesty Switzerland's campaign director Patrick Walder said: "Switzerland is giving itself an imprecise definition of terrorism which opens the door to arbitrary police action." CO2 and Covid Voting on another proposal, 52 percent rejected new carbon dioxide laws that would have used tax policy to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2030. The laws would have increased the tax on fuel oil and natural gas, and imposed a tax on outbound flight tickets, while introducing financial incentives to install charging points for electric vehicles. Environment minister Simonetta Sommaruga said the result was a rejection of the law, not climate protection. Some 60 percent of voters backed new laws prolonging government measures to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic's consequences for the economy and society. The laws, challenged by a referendum, regulate financial aid granted to individuals and businesses, including compensation for loss of income, and support for cultural organisations. Explore further Swiss mired in poisonous row over pesticides 2021 AFP The attacks come amid an easing of pandemic restrictions in much of the country, including Chicago, which lifted many of its remaining safeguards on Friday. Many hoped that a spike in U.S. shootings and homicides last year was an aberration perhaps caused by pandemic-related stress amid a rise in gun ownership and debate over policing. But those rates are still higher than they were in pre-pandemic times, including in cities that refused to slash police spending following the death of George Floyd and those that made modest cuts. Tracking ups and downs in crime is always complicated, but violent crime commonly increases in the summer months. Weekend evenings and early-morning hours also are common windows for shootings. Many types of crime did decline in 2020 and have stayed lower this year, suggesting the pandemic and the activism and unrest spurred by the reaction to Floyd's death didn't lead to an overall spike in crime. According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, only three mass shootings occurred at public places the lowest total for that category in a decade out of 19 total mass shootings in 2020. The database tracks all mass killings including shootings, defined as four or more people dead not including the perpetrator. New York cannot require internet providers to offer broadband service for low-income customers for as little as $15-a-month starting this coming week, a federal judge ruled on Friday. The low-income broadband consumers law passed in the state budget in April, which was supposed to come into effect on Tuesday. It allowed the states attorney general to issue penalties up to $1,000 per violation from providers. USTelecom, CTIA, the New York State Telecommunications Association and other industry groups representing internet providers had sued in April arguing that the law meant they could either face penalties for not complying or be forced to provide the services at a loss. U.S. District Court Senior District Judge Denis R. Hurley, of the Eastern District of New York, said in a preliminary injunction the internets promise of access hinges on whether people can afford it. But the judge said the internet providers have shown that they could suffer imminent irreparable injury because of the laws potential impact on their wallets. Three of the internet companies told the court that the law would reduce annual net income by at least $1 million each. NEW YORK (AP) Candidates in New York City's heavily contested Democratic mayoral primary on Saturday urged people to go to the polls in the coming days as early voting kicked off. The start of early voting around the state marks the homestretch to primary election day on June 22. As some city mayoral candidates voted, others spoke at a get-out-the-vote rally hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is remaining neutral in the race. Why on earth would you wait until the last day? candidate Andrew Yang asked at the event. You can vote right now. You can vote tomorrow. You can vote Monday. You can vote Tuesday. I dont know about you all, but I would feel great having gotten it out of the way. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has topped some recent polls, though the 13-candidate race remains tight. Other top contenders include 2020 presidential candidate Yang, former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, city Comptroller Scott Stringer and civil rights attorney Maya Wiley. This primary is especially hard to predict because the city is debuting ranked choice voting, with voters ranking up to five candidates. Garcia was among those who voted Saturday morning in Brooklyn. We cant just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know, President Joe Biden said Tuesday from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the 100th anniversary of a targeted massacre of Black residents there by their white neighbors. Dozens of people were killed in the attacks, hundreds were hospitalized, and thousands were held hostage, some for days. More than 35 square blocks in the wealthy Black community were destroyed. Yet many Americans know little, if anything, about the events. They were never taught. America has a shameful history on race. From building the country on the free labor of enslaved people kidnapped from Africa, to snatching land from Native Americans, the U.S. has long treated people of color as less than human. The remnants of earlier oppression continue to exist today, in subtler forms of institutional racism that still hold back African American people and other groups. This sordid past makes many people uncomfortable; its something theyd rather not talk about. Even worse, some people want to act like it doesnt exist at all in an erasure of history. We saw it for years regarding Tulsa, and were seeing it again now, in the backlash to New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and her 1619 project series that looked at the legacy of slavery in America. Q. When my ex and I were together we had some pretty heated arguments. So, my question is, if we werent respectful when we were together, how do you expect us to be respectful now that we have broken up? He badmouths me constantly. Co-parenting is next to impossible so, I suggested co-parenting counseling. I doubt we can sit through it, though. Whats good ex-etiquette? A. Your entire question is just a big red flag telling us that you have lost sight of whats important. You sound as if you think you dont have control over how you act, when, of course, you do. The devil did not make you do it. You and your ex are adults with brains, and you can work through a problem without losing it if you choose to. This is where angry parents tell me they just cant do it. The guy drives me so crazy; he pushes every button I have. But, you can control yourself. Do you swear like a sailor in front of your kids? Are you rude to the checker at the grocery store for no reason? Do you mouth off at your boss? Probably not. So the truth is, you can control yourself when it serves you. You know the right thing to do. People who want to get along do. People who dont want to get along dont. We did allow some things to happen that shouldnt have happened. In the totality of it, we handled it the best we could at that particular time, he said at the meeting. Contacted after the meeting, Anderson agreed there were issues after some of the events last summer. But he said the Progressive Black Initiative moved quickly to address them. The first barbecue for Fathers Day was before PBI formed. He said he imagines some people drank beer or more at the event, just like on beaches and in parks anywhere else. We cleaned that up. There was no dice, no smoking and no longer any bottles, he said. We tightened ship up quite a bit. He said the barbecues will be back this summer, with plans to add educational elements for the children and a volunteer security team to keep an eye on things. Anderson said he has worked closely with Donohue and with Police Chief Christopher Leusner over the past year and said police officers are welcome to the barbecue anytime. Come out, kick the ball with the kids. I would appreciate (it) if you would be out there, he said. Jackeline Negron, who is Puerto Rican, was inspired to apply to law school by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who in 2009 became the first woman of color and first Latina to be confirmed to the high court. She definitely paved the way for many young girls to see it was an attainable profession, Negron said of Sotomayor, who started her legal career in 1979. I believe that is the profession I am most excited to go down, so that I can pave the way for other young girls out there. Negron will be a junior this fall at Stockton. She plans to apply to law school for fall 2023. She founded a new club, Minorities in Law, during the just-ended academic year. Before Negron, of Bridgeton, started at Stockton, she was more interested in criminal justice. The political aura at the time I was an undergraduate made me realize that I should actually go into the legal field instead. Maybe I can make more changes in the legal field than in the law enforcement field, she said. Social justice issues played a big part in bringing Negron, 19, into the legal field. HACKENSACK For the second time in more than three years, an administrative law judge has recommended reinstatement of four of the New Jersey police officers fired after the city of Hackensack said they engaged in a warrantless search of an apartment in late 2016. NJ.com reported that Judge Andrew Baron said Thursday that Hackensack should not have fired Sgt. Justin de la Bruyere, Det. Rocco Duardo, Det. Mark Gutierrez and Officer Victor Vazquez. The four and three since-retired officers were suspended in 2017 after they were accused of an unlawful search of an apartment and then falsifying a police report to cover it up. Then-Bergen County prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, now state attorney general, dismissed eight criminal cases and told Hackensack prosecutors not to pursue others. Baron said the officers were never given a fair chance to dispute their "Brady list" designation as officers whose history of lying would have to be disclosed to defense attorneys in criminal cases. A defense attorney earlier called the designation a "scarlet letter B" that made it nearly impossible for an officer to get a job in law enforcement. Labeling misinformation online is doing more harm than good. The possibility that COVID-19 came from a lab accident is just the latest example. Social media companies tried to suppress any discussion of it for months. But why? Theres no strong evidence against it, and evidence for other theories is still inconclusive. Pathogens have escaped from labs many times, and people have died as a result. Social media fact-checkers dont have any special knowledge or ability to sort fact from misinformation. What they have is extraordinary power to shape what people believe. And stifling ideas can backfire if it leads people to believe theres a real story that is being suppressed. Misinformation is dangerous. It can keep people from getting lifesaving medical treatments, including vaccines. But flagging it doesnt necessarily solve the problem. Its much better to provide additional information than to censor information. Part of the problem is that people think they know misinformation when they see it. And those most confident of their ability to spot it may be least aware of their own biases. That includes the fact-checking industry within the mainstream media, who were caught removing earlier posts on the lab leak theory, as well as social media fact checkers who arent accountable to the public. At this moment, a draft is theoretical. The United States has not compelled citizens to serve in the armed forces for nearly 50 years. But the specter of military conscription has been raised over the years during moments of extreme international tension. In 1980, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, then-President Carter raised the possibility of a draft and reinstated mandatory registration, which had lapsed after Vietnam. (Three years earlier, he had pardoned thousands of young men who had opposed the Vietnam War and evaded the draft, many by moving to Canada.) The idea surfaced again in 2007 when conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan had our all-volunteer military stretched thin. Perhaps the more interesting question is whether there should be military registration at all. In 2019, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress that would abolish the Selective Service System entirely, and repeal all state and federal sanctions for failing to register, which include denial of federal student aid and job training as well as federal jobs. Also, at least on paper, violators face fines of up to $250,000 and/or five years in jail, but no one has been indicted for failing to register since 1986 and that case was dismissed before trial. Atlantic City has a long history of tainted and manipulated elections. It could be the poster child for efforts to ensure that voting in America is secure and adheres to the nations founding principle of government representatives chosen by its people. Even by Atlantic City standards, though, the lawsuit last week by mayoral candidate Tom Foley was over the top and comical. It seemed to allege that the Atlantic County Clerks Office had failed to properly facilitate the production of messenger ballot votes, threatening the campaigns ability to overturn the choice voters would express at the polls. The candidates request for an injunction to give it two more weekends to produce votes was refused by a Superior Court judge because it failed to provide clear and convincing evidence the messenger ballot process was impeded, and it was filed too close to the primary election to allow it to be reasonably considered. Courts seem allergic to even acknowledging that the conduct of elections sometimes undermines their democratic intent. The politicians themselves arent so reluctant, nor are we. 6/13 GAEA REUNION 'GAEAISM' PPV RESULTS FROM TOKYO, JAPAN By Shannon Walsh, JoshiSunTimes.com on 2021-06-13 16:17:00 GAEA special event GAEAISM pay-per-view results from Tokyo, Japan ???????? from Ota City Ward General Gymnasium on 6/13/21 live on ZAIKO: http://gaeaism.zaiko.io/e/gaeaism This event was originally supposed to take place in April 2020 to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the first GAEA show. It was postponed because of the virus pandemic. The rescheduled date earlier this year then ended up getting postponed as well because of the state of emergency in Japan due to the ongoing virus pandemic. The pay-per-view broadcast is only available to buy and view until 6/16/21 at 23:59 Japan Time. Its $50 USD plus tax. In the main event, the reactivated AAAW Single and AAW Tag Team Titles (the titles that were sanctioned in GAEA) are up for grabs along with the Sendai Girls World Title and Sendai Girls Tag Team Titles in a winner take all Elimination Match with Chihiro Hashimoto, Mika Iwata, and a mystery partner (Team Sendai Girls) vs. Mio Momono, Rin Kadokura, and a mystery (Team Marvelous). The Sendai Girls World Title is currently held by Hashimoto and shes currently half of the Tag Team Champions with Yuu. A long video package was shown on the big screen showing clips of matches from GAEAs ten year run (1995-2005). Also Sprach Zarathustra played as members of the original GAEA roster came to the stage with Chigusa Nagayo out last. They made their way to the ring. Nagayo and Meiko Satomura then made their way back to the stage and stood under the Sendai Girls and Marvelous pro banners as members of those rosters for tonights card were introduced into the ring. This was great stuff with lots of pageantry. Satomura and Nagayo then bowed to each other on the stage and walked into the locker room for the event to begin. The GAEA classic logo is on the mat in full display. There is no commentary at all for the broadcast, just the sounds of the action and the crowd reactions. Tommy Ran is the referee. She still works for groups and was a referee going back to the days of GAEA and All Japan Women. Mei Hoshizuki, Mikoto Shindo, and Maria beat Manami,Yurika Oka, and Kanon when Hoshizuki pinned Kanon after a drop kick in 13:41. Hard hitting and blistering fast paced action. Kanon got her nose busted up early on and she was gushing blood for a while. She was cleaned up toward the end of the match. CIMA pinned Leo Isaka after a Meteora in 10:49. They shook hands afterwards. Sakura Hirota cut a long promo on the video screen to Great Sasuke. She spoke in English at first and did an impression of The Rovk and said Finally Sakura Hirota has come back to GAEA Japan!Shr basically said in Japanese that the match will be for her handmade HHH Title belt. She came out to the ring dressed as Akira Hokuto from the 1990s. (Hirota is wrestling in the 6-man later in the show too). Sakura Hirota pinned Great Sasuke in 10:55 after her finger trigger finisher in the rear end. Comedy match as expected with invisible weapons used. DASH Chisako pinned Hibiki after the Hormone Splash off a ladder in the ring set up by a diving double stomp off the ladder as Hibiki was wrapped in barb wire and covered in chairs. Hibiki previously wrapped her own self in the barb wire and tried to give Chisako a diving senton off the ladder but missed. Chairs and ladders were pretty much the most weapons used. Lots of action on the ramp and on the floor. Chisako gave Hibiki a flying body press over the stage. Later, Hibiki put Chisako through a table on the floor with a diving senton off the top rope. Time of the fall was 19:49. Meiko Satomura was mentioned as the WWE NXT UK Womens Champion in the video package on screen for the semi main event featuring GAEA legends in a 6-man Tag Team Match. Meiiko Satomura, Chikayo Nagashima, and Toshie Uematsu beat Chigusa Nagayo, KAORU, and Sakura Hirota when Satomura pinned Hirota after Scorpio Rising in 17:31. Fun match and one of the final times to see KAORU in action as she will be retiring this year. A video package aired showing key history of the AAAW Title matches and the press conference announcing the return of the titles after years of inactivity. Mei Hoshizuki is the mystery partner for Tram Marvelous. Dash Chisako is the mystery partner of Team Sendai Girls. Chihiro Hashimoto, Mika Iwata, and DASH Chisako (Team Sendai Girls) vs. Mio Momono, Rin Kadokura, and Mei Hoshizuki (Team Marvelous). Rin Kadokura pinned Iwata for the first elimination. Chisako pinned Hoshizuki after two Michinoku Drivers. Hoshizuki looked knocked silly. . Mio pinned Chisako with JK Bomb. Hashimoto pinned Kadokura after a powerslam Chihiro Hashimoto pinned Mio Momono with the Albright Suplex to win the match for Team Sendai Girls and retain their titles plus win the vacant AAAW Single Title and the AAAW Tag Team Titles. Time of the match was 24:09. Hashimoto was given the AAAW Single Title and Chisako and Iwata were given the AAAW Tag Team Titles. Takumi Iroha got in the ring and in the face of Hashimoto. She said she will return to action on 7/19/21. Hashimoto cut a promo and said Kadokura and Momono could have a tag team titles shot on 6/27/21. It is for the Sendai Girls Tag Team Titles. Nagayo closed the show. She thanked the crowd and took a bow. For more Joshi, visit JoshiSunTimes.com. 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! Megan McArdle, in a column published in this newspaper two weeks ago, states that tax hikes wont fix inequality. Towards the end of the column, she suggests perhaps the "best way to reduce the pernicious effects of unequal wealth might be aggressively taxing consumption." A little further into the column she manages to admit that consumption taxes are usually regressive. Well, yes, indeed they are, and so why is McArdle positing that perhaps they could be helpful in reducing inequality? Then she goes on to talk about a "highly progressive, revenue neutral consumption tax." Ive never heard of a progressive, consumption tax. By definition they are regressive, hurting the poor who have little to spend and have to spend it on the basics of life. Per Mar Security Services, a leading provider of total security solutions for residential and commercial clients based in Davenport, is ranked 15th in SDMs 2021 Top 100 list, moving up five spots from last year. The SDM 100 Report measures consumer dollars gained by security companies in order to present an account of the size of the market captured by the 100 largest residential and nonresidential electronic security providers in the United States. This marks the 31st consecutive year that Per Mar has held a ranking in the SDM 100 Report. We are thrilled to have moved up five more spots to 15th on SDMs Top 100 rankings," Chris Edwards, president of Per Mars Electronic Security Division, said in a news release. "In one of the strangest and most challenging years anyone has experienced, our team was able to adapt and deliver amazing results. Our focus on driving customer satisfaction and net promoter scores to high levels paid off and is reflected in our growth. We are once again proud to be a part of this prestigious list. Hy-Vee, Google Cloud to enhance retailers digital capabilities Another woman who tried to help the victim also was struck in the face by Black, who then tried to hit the woman with a cinder block. Black had a bag that was taken from him by police. Officers seized two plastic baggies that were inside the bag. Inside the first baggie was 27.90 grams of methamphetamine. In the second baggie was 20.55 grams of methamphetamine. The normal hit of meth is one-tenth of a gram that usually sells for $20-$25, police have said. Officers also seized from the bag a loaded Romarm/Cugir 7.62 Draco, also known as an AKM pistol. Black has felony convictions in Des Moines County for first-degree theft and willful injury causing bodily injury in 2012 and second-degree attempted burglary in 2015, and is prohibited by law from possessing a firearm or ammunition. Police also seized from the bag $800 in cash. Black was booked into the Scott County Jail. He made a first appearance Saturday in Scott County District Court where his bonds total $40,000, cash or surety, for the new Scott County charges, $20,000,cash or surety for the Des Moines County charges, and $50,000 cash-only for the Louisa County charges. COVID-19 has not disappeared. But the virus that has killed 576 residents of the Quad-Cities, closed schools, partially closed many businesses, left many more workers scrambling and torn at the very fabric of communities large and small is in retreat. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker lifted almost all COVID-19 restrictions across the state last week. Scott County reported just 16 new cases in seven days. Rock Island County reported 22. And while the number of people getting vaccinated on a daily basis has dropped significantly over the past two weeks, Q-C residents still seek the jab. Public health officials in both counties have said vaccinations are the Q-C's best hope against the escalation of cases the area saw in the fall of last year. Friday, June 11 Health officials from Iowa and Illinois reported six total new COVID-19 cases Friday in the Quad-Cities two in Rock Island County and four in Scott County. In fact, we can't even blame social media for making distrust more prevalent just louder. The More in Common report cites data from the nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, which found this lack of trust to be a long-term problem. NORC's historic data shows the last time more than 40% of Americans said most people can be trusted was ... the mid-1980s. And while the Pew Research Center has found that Americans generally trust one another to do the right thing in many situations, that trust does not extend to political decisions. At the end of 2018, just as the United States was gearing up for a second Trump campaign, Pew learned that only 43% of Americans were confident that others would cast informed votes and 42% were confident people could have a civil conversation with someone who has different political beliefs. And that's why I'm supporting America Talks, a much-needed effort to foster civil dialogue not by regulating social media or limiting speech, but by encouraging individual Americans to engage in one-on-one conversations. It's important we all recognize that just because someone has different beliefs, they aren't evil or unpatriotic. Harris received some criticism from progressives who took her, and the senator, to be denying the existence of racial injustice. For the most part, though, Scotts critics just ignored that Harris had agreed point for point, and sometimes word for word, with him. President Biden, too, tried to defuse tensions in response to Scott: I don't think the American people are racist, but I think after 400 years, African Americans have been left in a position where they are so far behind the eight ball in terms of education and health, in terms of opportunity. Well-meaning Americans have been calling for a national conversation on race for decades, but the participants in it remain determined not to hear each other. People who mean to deny that most Americans are racist or that our institutions are illegitimate people such as Pence and Scott are taken to mean that everything is OK now. Those who mean to affirm the existence of large-scale racial injustice, such as Harris and Biden, are taken instead to be slandering the country and most of its population. We have real disagreements about race. Should we strive for race-blind policies, or take race into account to remedy past discrimination? In teaching U.S. history, should the emphasis be on injustice or progress? We are unlikely to debate such issues productively if we have a distorted view of what the disagreements are. It doesnt help when we agree with each other at the top of our lungs. Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 I recall an incident when some six Illinois state senators were chatting during a recess. We were at the podium with the Senate parliamentarian and somehow the question of religious affiliation came up. It turned out that, not only were four of us Catholic (along with one who declared himself "an alumnus"), but two of us had spent time in the seminary. My closest friend in the group seemed somewhat surprised, even alarmed, to be in such a nest of papists. When he asked how it was, I told him we were of a generation raised on the social gospel. Public service of some kind was drilled into us. But you have to be aware that your oath of office is not to the church, but to the state and its Constitution. You dont look to the pope to decide a public question; you look to the diverse population you agreed to represent. Across the wide range of beliefs, interests, and traditions you face, you must find a compromise that best serves them all. In a democratic republic, you look to the law, the people, and the most practical solution. Its politics, not theology. To combine the two is to lose your freedom. Don Wooten is a former Illinois state senator and a regular columnist. Email him at: donwooten4115@gmail.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The first cutting of hay has begun in earnest and the air smells sweet. Hillsides are blanketed in deep green, as corn and green bean plants emerge from the earth. On a more personal note, two weeks ago I had a medical appointment at a hospital in a mid-sized city about an hour or so from my place and afterwards I rode an elevator with a woman, maybe my age, perhaps a little older, and we talked as we descended to street level. Walking toward the parking garage I mentioned that my wife had died on Christmas Eve. Not sure how that came to be the subject, but there you are, me likely looking for some sympathy. She offered her condolences and then offered, "My husband died nine years ago." I too offered my condolences, then she said, "It was the best day of my life. He was abusive." Heres where lightning arcs across a dark sky, thunder rumbles in the distance, then suddenly the skies clear when she says, "Every day now is a good day." I turned to her and she was smiling. Oh my gosh. For months Ive been wandering in a fog feeling sorry for my dead wife, and for myself, not really acknowledging the incredible pain others have carried with them during their lives, pain I cannot begin to fathom. What a fool I am. Who am I to think my pain and grief are unique? On that warm afternoon when the sun was hot, the air humid, two people met, walked across a parking lot together, and likely revealed more than they should have. It was a beautiful thing and Ive not been the same since. Kurt Ullrich lives in rural Jackson County. His book "The Iowa State Fair" is available from the University of Iowa Press. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In truth, this is just a repeat of the 2015 scrap between Republican governors and President Barack Obama, who back then was trying to help refugees fleeing the war in Syria. Then, it was Gov. Terry Branstad, with Reynolds by his side, trying to keep war-scarred Syrians out of Iowa. And when the Obama administration went around them and helped these people, anyway, Branstad and Reynolds complained about not being told. In reality, they just didnt want the refugees here in the first place. Im not sure if the Biden administration was trying to purposely keep information from Reynolds. It sounds like it may be just one arm of the government not knowing what the other was doing. But what if it was evasion? Its not like Reynolds would be a reliable partner in this endeavor. Reynolds made it clear back in April how she sees the increase in border crossings and the unfortunate surge of kids fleeing their homelands as a political opportunity. When the Biden administration asked whether the state of Iowa would be willing to help with the overflow of kids, this mother of three and grandmother of three others turned a cold shoulder. Its not our problem, she famously said. This, despite agreeing to a request by the Trump administration to house refugees in late 2019. Typically, we hear about the dangers of lead in paint. Since the Midwest has one of the countrys oldest housing stocks, this is a particular danger. But our water systems cant be ignored. The Chicago Tribune recently reported that 8 in 10 Illinoisans live in a community where lead was found in at least one home over the past 6 years. East Moline found one home with 3,000 parts per billion of lead in tap water, according to the Tribune. We believe this legislation holds great promise. If this area has a lot of exposure to lead water lines and there is a manageable way to discover it and rid the community of the danger then that is a good thing. We owe it to our children, to all of us, really, that the water we drink is safe. That is basic. But we also believe there needs to be flexibility exercised in implementing these new requirements. A $5 billion price tag is hefty, and while there may be federal funds available through President Joe Bidens infrastructure plan, we know state and municipal budgets already face fiscal challenges. We think the General Assembly deserves credit for taking on this task, but it will be effective only if it is implemented with an eye toward ensuring the public safety comes first, but that other considerations dont get lost along the way. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Chief Leonard Crow Dog, a renowned spiritual leader and Native American rights activist who fought for sovereignty, language preservation and religious freedom, has died at age 78. Crow Dog, Sicangu Lakota Oyate, passed away June 6 at Crow Dogs Paradise on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota after a battle with cancer, Indian Country Today reported. As a youth, Crow Dog learned about cultural traditions and ceremonies from his father and Lakota elders. He later became a spiritual leader for the American Indian Movement. He did not go to school. Instead his parents enlisted four medicine men to guide his education, Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Rodney Bordeaux said in a statement. Throughout his life, Crow Dog learned from the University of the Universe, as he would say, and he shared his understanding of WoLakota with our Sicangu Oyate, the Oceti Sakowin, and Peoples of all Nations. Crow Dog attended and spoke at countless rallies, marches and protests over the years. He also co-authored a book, Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men, which tells the story of his ancestors and his life. What is the biggest challenge/opportunity in the next two to five years: Learning to take all of my business acumen, skills and knowledge from Nicksaysgo.com and transitioning into a more creative role full time, potentially leaving the tech space in my corporate career. Lets make it happen. First job after college: I was working for FedEx Signs & Graphics. At the time, there were only nine locations in the country. We were behind the scenes, doing all of your oversized graphics you see in yards, billboards, department stores and private orders. Really fun stuff. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently: I know its a cliche answer, but nothing. I really believe in the Butterfly Effect that one small thing I wish I changed could prevent me from having all the other success I do have, so lets leave things how they are. Movie or book that inspired you the most, and why?: The Buddha Walks Into a Bar . . .A Guide to Life for a New Generation Its an amazing book. I recommend it to everyone. I started practicing Buddhism around 10 years ago and that book helped me realize how to try and live a righteous path, while also realizing we arent perfect and thats okay. Facing a surge in homelessness, Richmond wants to buy a hotel to meet the growing need for emergency shelter in the region. The potential purchase, shared with a council panel last week, is among several options the city is weighing to stand up a year-round inclement weather shelter by this fall, said Sherrill Hampton, Richmonds new director of housing and community development. We have several options so we are exploring several of these options all at once, Hampton told the councils Education and Human Services Standing Committee on Thursday. It is our goal to have an emergency shelter up and running by October 1. Hampton did not disclose a specific location; she likewise declined to do so in response to follow-up questions sent via email about the number of sites under consideration and the citys budget for the initiative. If the city can buy the building for a reasonable amount of money, Hampton said, it would do so later this summer when it receives the federal funds it intends to use for the purchase. Examining a new normal in a post-pandemic world will be essential. The pandemic has proven that when societal needs becomes paramount, we can adjust, endure and even thrive. One of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic was its impact on the environment. With transportation emissions being a significant source of greenhouse gases, less travel meant cleaner air and clear views not seen in years in places like Los Angeles. If we are to prevent, or at least delay, the worst effects of climate change, we must rethink how and when we travel, invest wisely in sustainable travel options and optimize how we operate our transportation systems, all the while ensuring the vitality of the economy across the Washington, D.C., region. In short, we must reduce and preferably reverse our dependency on driving alone, adopting this approach as the new normal. While the Biden administration is preparing to make a big investment in our nations infrastructure, and Big Tech and the automotive industry already are making significant investments in transportation technologies including electric and autonomous vehicles, we in state, local and regional governments need to act as well and not get left behind. Conflict about religion, not so much about land Editor, Times-Dispatch: E.R. Seidman's excellent June 9 Letter to the Editor, in response to Nancy Wein's earlier letter, lists three times in the past when Israel offered Arab leaders land for a Palestinian state. Actually there were five and all were rejected. In 1937, the British occupiers offered 80% of Palestine to the Arabs and 20% to the Jews. In 1947, the Arabs rejected the U.N. partition plan and attacked Israel in 1948. Seidman's list included another offer in 1948 and two Israeli offers for land for peace, in 2000 and 2008. Yasser Arafat rejected the first at Camp David and Mahmoud Abbas rejected a better deal later. There are 22 Arab states in the Middle East and one Jewish state. Jordan even has a Palestinian majority. Israel freely gave up control of Gaza 16 years ago. Since 1948 the main issue is not about land but about the Jewish state and religion in the region. Richard Daub. HCAs stock has doubled in three years. The biggest U.S. hospital operator along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, HCA has opened trauma centers in more than half of its 179 hospitals and says it runs 1 of every 20 such facilities in the country. And its not slowing down. HCA has basically taken a position that all of their hospitals should be trauma centers, said Dr. Robert Winchell, describing conversations he had with HCA officials. Winchell is a trauma surgeon and former chairman of the trauma evaluation and planning committee at the American College of Surgeons. Trauma patients are typically those severely injured in automobile accidents or falls or wounded by knives or guns. State or local regulators confer the designation trauma center, often in concert with standards verified by the American College of Surgeons. The status allows a cascade of lucrative reimbursement, including activation fees billed on top of regular charges for medical care. Trauma centers are mostly exempt from 1970s-era certificate-of-need laws enacted to limit excessive hospital spending and expansion. The bills for all this reaching into tens of thousands of dollars go to private insurers, Medicare or Medicaid, or to patients themselves. A Boy Scout told me Revolutionary soldiers were buried in Sunset, and I thought, Thats crazy, said Martin, a historian with deep enough local roots to know Sunset wasnt a public cemetery until the 1890s. But she agreed to search through the sea of monuments with Gibson Graham, the scout. They didnt find the stones on that trip; they didnt look in the new section. In actuality, Ezekiel Howard and his father, William Howard, were buried near Childress, but the now-disbanded William Christian DAR chapter placed monuments for the pair in the more accessible Sunset Cemetery in the 20th century. Ezekiel Howard and his father emigrated to the colonies from England. Information on Ezekiels Sunset gravestone puts him in the First New Jersey Regiment and likely serving at Valley Forge with George Washington in the winter of 1777-78 as well as the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth Court House. Although every member of the DAR can prove linear descent from a patriot of the American Revolution, many havent located their ancestors graves and likely never will. Early American homes and family burial plots have a way of disappearing over two centuries. Martin says there are likely many more Revolutionary soldiers resting in unmarked graves in the county. Virginia Commonwealth University wont be changing its student code of conduct policy, which already prohibits illegal drug use that covers marijuana. VCU administrators will be reviewing the Student Code of Conduct to reconcile unclear language regarding state vs. federal law, VCU spokesman Corey Byers said. More and more states are moving to legalize marijuana, and 17 states have given the green light for people to smoke up for pleasure. Americans overwhelmingly support legalization of marijuana for recreational or medical use. And college-aged people have the widest support. According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in April, 70% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 support legalized marijuana for recreational and medical use, while 24% support legalization for medical use only. The legislation that will go into effect in Virginia on July 1 makes possession of up to one ounce of marijuana legal for people 21 and older. Adults caught with more than that but less than a pound will face a $25 fine. Adults found with more than a pound can be charged with a felony punishable by between one and 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. People under the age of 21 caught with marijuana face a $25 fine, and would also have to enter a substance abuse treatment and education program. Today is Friday, June 11, 2021. Let's get caught up. These headlines are in the news this morning: Former President Trump's Justice Department seized records from top House Democrats in a leaks probe; Israeli PM Netanyahu is lashing out as his 12-year rule likely nears its end; and a grandmother and her 1-year-old grandson are among the victims in a shooting at a Florida supermarket. Read on for these stories, other top headlines, celebrity birthdays and more. TOP STORIES Trump DOJ seized data from House Democrats in leaks probe WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump seized data from the accounts of at least two members of the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters, according to a committee official and two people familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors from Trumps Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for the data, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the secret seizures first reported by The New York Times. At Virginia Tech and James Madison University, just 10% of undergraduates identify as Black or Hispanic. The responsibility of educating Black students has fallen to the HBCUs, Wilder said, and they are underfunded. Last month, Northam laid out priorities for how to spend the $4.3 billion. While public schools were on the list, Northams concern seems more directed to K-12 education. Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne said Friday the state is more likely to address HBCU funding in December, rather than during a special session of the General Assembly to address the federal aid. Northam will propose his final budget in December before he leaves office. The American Rescue Plan Act represents one-time funding, and the state generally wont use one-time funds to pay for ongoing expenses. Northam already made HBCUs a priority in the budget adopted by the General Assembly this year, Layne said. The governor has demonstrated he is aware of that issue, Layne added. HBCUs need more than $50 million, Wilder said, but he suggested the specific figure because its realistic and a reasonable share of the overall pot. VIENNA (AP) Diplomats from outside the European Union cautioned Sunday that negotiations with Iran to salvage a landmark nuclear deal still need more time, as leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations reaffirmed a commitment to stop the Islamic republic from building nuclear weapons. Iranian envoys held another round of negotiations with international delegations in Vienna a day after EU coordinators suggested that differences over the 2015 accord limiting Iran's nuclear activities had narrowed further. But Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state media he thought a deal was unlikely to emerge in the coming week. A diplomat from Russia also said more time was needed to work out details. The Vienna meetings are aimed at rebuilding a nuclear containment agreement between Iran and major world powers that the Trump administration withdrew the United States from in 2018. U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders expressed support for the Vienna process after a three-day summit in southwest England that ended Sunday. The G-7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We are committed to ensuring that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon, the leaders said in a joint statement. HELSINKI (AP) Finland's local elections Sunday are seen as a first test for its popular young Social Democratic Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who took office 18 months ago shortly before the pandemic and whose party is behind in the polls. The vote to renew local councils in Finlands more than 300 municipalities, from the northern Lapland region to the autonomous territory of Aland Islands in the south, is viewed as a key indication of parties popularity ahead of the country's 2023 parliamentary election. Stakes are higher this time because the elections were postponed for two months due to COVID-19, and because of the tensions inside Marins center-left, five-party governing coalition. The 35-year-old Marin, who became Europes youngest government leader in December 2019, enjoys high personal popularity and has won international praise for her handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the Nordic nation of 5.5 million. The elections are the first for Marin as leader of both the government and her party. Despite her popularity, the Social Democratic Party, of which she became the leader of last year, has failed to attract young voters. Two opposition parties, the conservative National Coalition Party and the populist Finns Party, are in the lead in the polls. Its hard to believe there was ever a chance it wouldnt turn out this way. Fourteen years ago, members of Carilion Health Systems board had an existential decision in front of them. The healthcare industry faced an upheaval, and trends for traditional hospital systems were not favorable. One thing was clear: Proceeding with the status quo would not serve the community or the health of its members. Should they get out of the business altogether, and sell the health system to a corporate buyer or go all in on a different model of medicine? We know how this story ends. The board didnt like the prospect of someone else, somewhere else managing our communitys health. Not only did they say no to a sale, they said yes to a significant investment in the communitys future. Weighing the pros and cons took true discernment, a lot of time and a lot of courage. What, in retrospect, looks like the obvious choice involved a lot of risk back then. Our federal governments most sacred duty is to safeguard the right to life for all Americans. Yet current federal law allows our most vulnerable citizens newborn babies who are born alive after botched abortions to be neglected, denied medical care, and left on the abortionists table gasping for air until they ultimately succumb to death. How is this allowed to happen? These children are no longer in the womb. The my body, my choice excuse for ending their lives can no longer be used. They are born moving and even crying after taking their first breath. Yet the abortionist has no legal obligation to provide even the most basic help to a struggling child. Thats why pro-life leaders in Congress want to put an end to such cruelty and are demanding a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to ensure that every newborn receives equal care, no matter the circumstances of their birth. One would think that such a commonsense law would get bipartisan support and little opposition in Congress. Its basic humanity, after all. But one would be wrong in that assumption. This bill has been stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives for years because it cant get the backing of a simple majority of representatives to move it to the House floor for a vote. This is to say nothing of the ongoing deregulation disaster elsewhere in the country. California has struggled with persistent reliability problems. The Maryland Office of Peoples Counsel found that households in the state were paying $34 million more per year for electricity under deregulation than if they had purchased from their utilities. The Massachusetts Attorney General has recommended unwinding deregulation in the residential market to protect customers. Utility regulators in Connecticut fined Direct Energy, a competitive electric supplier, $1.5 million for misleading marketing and sales tacticsAARP and other consumer advocates have been fighting these unscrupulous practices in the state for more than a decade. Virginia has wisely avoided going down that path. In Virginia, utilities Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power are required to provide reliable electricity to all the customers in their service area. Keeping the lights on is the foremost objective. Doing so requires substantial investment and is subject to oversight at the state and federal level. Before Reynolds took office, he did something with lasting consequences: For the special election to fill his legislative seat, he endorsed a Black lawyer named Douglas Wilder helping launch a political career that led to the governorship Reynolds himself never reached. At the time it was widely assumed that Reynolds would not only be the Democratic nominee in 1973, but that hed be the winner. Republicans had no real bench of candidates as history was later to prove after Reynolds death. The Roanoke Times wrote that Reynolds seemed politically invincible. In June 1970 he delivered the graduation speech at Montevideo High School in Rockingham County. Striking a poetic tone, Reynolds advised graduates not to waste time in life: Time is the enemy of us all. Those words proved too prophetic. Four days later he felt a strange pain. Later he collapsed at a family reunion. Before the summer was out, he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He hoped radiation would kill it, and for a time that seemed possible. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. GEORGETOWN Seafood consumption is increasing and Clemson University researchers are collaborating with researchers from other entities to determine how to help the seafood market grow in South Carolina. Recently, the researchers held a webinar to explain how producers can benefit from the shellfish mariculture industry in South Carolina. Marzieh Motallebi, an environmental economist and assistant professor at Clemsons Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, said the National Restaurant Associations annual survey of chefs placed locally sourced meats and seafood as a top food trend in the United States. This is good news for South Carolina seafood producers, but it is uncertain if they are in a position to take advantage of this trend. Challenges include production problems such as lack of oyster seed, current producer licensing system, finance options, as well as weather and disease. When we talked with oyster growers, we were told the lengthy permitting process and costly licensing for growers in South Carolina, as well as the lack of guidance for these processes were main issues, Motallebi said. Financial issues also came up frequently. Growers said raising enough money to invest in new equipment would be difficult and there arent many options for federal crop insurance for aquaculture. FLORENCE, S.C. Mondays Florence City Council meeting will be the first council meeting in more than a year to be open to the public. The city announced Friday afternoon that the meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. in the council chambers of the City Center at 324 W. Evans St. would be open to the public. It also indicated that the wearing of face masks is still encouraged. The reopening of the meetings comes a few days after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced that the state would not renew its state of emergency declaration for the COVID-19 pandemic for the 32nd time. His decision may have terminated the citys ordinance allowing for electronic meetings and for the city to mandate the wearing of face masks in city buildings. On the agenda for the meeting are the second and final readings of ordinances annexing and zoning a property on Rainford Road and amending the planned development district for The Grove at Ebenezer. COLUMBIA, S.C. As efforts to unify South Carolina in the fight against COVID-19 continue, state public health officials are asking residents to support an upcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Action Week by getting their vaccines and encouraging their friends and family to receive their COVID-19 vaccines as well. While the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and its partners continue to implement the statewide COVID-19 vaccination plan, South Carolina, like most other states, has seen a decline in vaccine demand since mid-April. To date, more than 45 percent of vaccine-eligible South Carolinians have received at least one shot, and more than 38 percent are fully vaccinated; however, health officials would like those percentages to get to the 70-percent range or higher as quickly as possible. GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) A man was shot and killed by at least one deputy in South Carolina on Wednesday as officers were trying to arrest him THE ENVIRONMENT Leaders committed to ending new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation -- the use of coal without technology to reduce carbon emissions - by the end of the year, and backed a $2-billion coal transition fund. They also pledged to conserve or protect at least 30% of their countries' land and marine areas by 2030 as part of global biodiversity targets. And they agreed to increase financing for projects to curb climate change until 2025 and reaffirmed their support for a target of producing net-zero carbon emissions no later than 2050. Leading climate groups said the summit fell far short of delivering meaningful details. They urged rich countries to go beyond reiterating existing obligations and to put concrete new climate financing on the table. CHINA The G-7 leaders said they would work together to challenge Chinas non-market policies." They also agreed to call on Beijing to respect human rights in Xinjiang, the remote western region where Chinese authorities are accused of committing serious rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. The police departments Criminal Investigations and Special Investigations (narcotics, gangs and vice) units work closely with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the FBIs Violent Crime Task Force to identify and monitor gang members and drug offenders in an effort to track down and prosecute violent offenders. The police chief attends a monthly meeting with Pee Dee Mental Health as part of a mental health law enforcement advisory council. Pee Dee Mental Health has a Community Crisis Response and Intervention (CCRI) team in place that assists officers when they are dealing with a person suffering from a mental health crisis. We encourage residents to request assistance from available community resources to address mental health care concerns for a family member or friend. The Pee Dee Mental Health Community Crisis Response and Intervention (CCRI) team (843-317-4073) is available to assist in this capacity, as is the South Carolina Mental Health Mobile Crisis Program (833-364-2274). With COVID-19 restrictions slowly lifting, the police department is also working toward resuming in-person neighborhood and business crime watch association meetings over the next several months. These associations are vital partnerships between the police and the community for the purpose of proactively addressing criminal activity concerns. Honor Guard duties include flag folders, a reader who reads the 13 folds excerpt as the veterans flag is folded for presentation, a firing party and a bugler. Miller said they make sure people are taken care of properly and that their familys questions are answered. We give them answers or find someone who can answer their questions, she said. We are all former members of the military who are dedicated to providing the last salute or military honors for deceased veterans. Miller said they have about 22 Veteran Honor Guards on their roster, but only 10 to 12 active members. I am 68 years old and one of the youngest members of the group, Miller said. Since Ive been in the Honor Guard Ive been to at least 200 funerals. COVID-19 stopped us from going to the (Florence) National Cemetery, which is where most of the services take place. She said that was hard due to the number of veterans who died. We are trying to bring awareness to people that there is a group of volunteers, Miller said. "We've got a bunch of family in Sioux City. For about a year or two before I bought my car, every time my family would go anywhere, I would plot it out to see if I could make it with one of these fancy Teslas that I wanted so bad. And the only trip I could never make was to Sioux City and back," said Klindt, who was born in Sioux City and raised in Sac City. Bulk and Bernstein both said the 15 or 20 minutes' wait while the Tesla is super-charging -- compared to a minute or two at a gas pump -- isn't as great an inconvenience as it might seem at first bat. "I kind of pull over, I take a break, sometimes I'll get something to eat, if I get something to eat, it usually takes me more than 20 minutes," Bernstein said. Dave Rowland, who owns a Tesla Model 3 and a Model S, used Sioux City's Tesla charger twice in the first week of June, during a trip into Nebraska and back to his home in the Okoboji area. He was delighted by the speed -- it charged his car at about 800-plus miles per hour. "It's the fastest supercharger that we've used to date," he said. BEIRUT Lebanon has vaccinated a daily record of people against COVID-19, raising the total number of shots administered around the country against the virus to more than 1 million. When Stewart contacted the company to tell them about the issues with her email, the reply was essentially a clipped version of the old aphorism: you get what you pay for. "Every time you call Cable One they will tell you that they don't charge for email," she said. "But it would be nice if they would have invested something in email." Dave La Fleur, the head of the Sioux City paranormal investigation agency PARA911, had to change over the organization's former Cable One email to a Gmail account, and sent out an email "blast" to some of his regular contacts to let them know about the new address. "It kinda sucks that they changed it, that they got rid of it, because so many people have had it and they use it for business stuff -- and now everybody has to scramble and try to figure out how they're going to get all that stuff moved," La Fleur said. Phil Claeys, the man behind Sioux City's River-Cade and another 20-ish-year user of a Cable One account, had to hire someone to help him preserve his old emails in a new Yahoo account. As the years passed, the department underwent many changes, some that resulted in more lives saved. Were doing things today that we couldnt even image 41 years ago, he said. From the first moment a person calls 911, the system has completely changed. Before cell phones, the Internet and GPS, there was no way for operators to pinpoint a persons location. The instructions went something like go to Joes barn, where Joes barn used to be or where Joes going to build that barn, and then go north two miles and then east two miles, and were the second place on the right, he said. The medicine, the on-site treatment, diagnostic skills and overall involvement from the medical community are changes he couldnt have imagined and there are more people surviving because of it. One of the most important factors in saving lives is the approach to patient care. We see people survive all of the time because of the system, he said. Everyone involved - from the 911 operators to the medical specialists - work together to ensure the best outcome for the patients. EMS is not an island in patient care, he said. 'BIG SHOES TO FILL' We realize that other high-tech powers, such as the United States and other countries, will achieve similar results sooner or later, Putin added. "Therefore, I believe that it is better to reach agreement in advance on how we will live together in a changing world. We are ready for this. Putin appeared to be alluding to what some call Russia's exotic strategic weapons such as the Poseidon nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered torpedo and the experimental Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. Putin has said these can be discussed as part of a strategic stability dialogue. But the Americans must be prepared to include for discussion their work on strategic missile defenses, which Moscow has long called an impediment to arms control. International arms control experts want to ensure that Europe has a place at the table. Some favor a restart of direct consultations between NATO and Russia, which were cut off after Russia seized Crimea, not as an arms control forum but as a means of discussing tensions and reducing risks of war. In the past, the U.S., Europe and Russia shared a mutual understanding of the ways to avoid accidents and miscalculations leading to conflict. FALMOUTH, England (AP) The Group of Seven wealthy democracies have wrapped up their first face-to-face summit in two years at a seaside resort in southwest England. The leaders of the G-7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States made commitments on a range of topics, from sharing coronavirus vaccines to tackling climate change and making corporate taxation fairer. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The 49 people killed in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida were honored in Orlando and around the world on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the attack. City of Orlando officials say more than 600 places of worship worldwide tolled their bells 49 times to honor each victim who died in the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The First United Methodist Church of Orlando gathered loved ones and community members and read the victims names. Elected leaders and activists said throughout the day that the people who died need to be remembered not just with words, but with actions. U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat who represents Orlando, said during a livestreamed national discussion hosted by a coalition of human rights and gun safety groups that she was inspired to run for public office following the tragedy. After five years, I still cant fathom why someone would do this. How could their hate be so strong? Murphy said. But today I have an even harder time understanding why some politicians still refuse to take the most basic steps to prevent the next shooting. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The 49 victims who were massacred at a gay nightclub shooting in Florida are being honored this week with a community run, a museum exhibit, a mass yoga session, a gay chorus performance and a street dance party. The tributes will culminate with a remembrance ceremony on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. "This is because the bill is an exercise in voter suppression, one disguised as a solution for a problem that exists only in the fertile imaginations of its creators," the lawsuit states. Elias could not be reached for comment. "The biggest thing (the new law will mean) is confusion and disenfranchisement" of legal Iowa voters, said Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville. "If this is about trying to restore faith in our elections, the only way to do that is to have bipartisan compromise. ... And there were no efforts for bipartisan compromise." Only Republicans voted in favor of the legislation, which Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law on March 8, just more than two weeks after its introduction. The new law made Iowa among the first states to create new hurdles in the voting process in the wake of a 2020 election that saw record turnout. That has placed Iowa at the head of what has become a national wave of Republican-led states whose leaders have expressed concerns about the integrity of the 2020 elections, echoing persistent and false claims from former President Donald Trump of widespread fraud costing him the 2020 election. Trump handily won Iowa. Local brewers create jobs, we create culture, we create things that small and big towns can be proud of, and the big brewers dont do that, McKay said. So the more that we can get our residents to switch to local craft, the better it is for everybody in the long run. Bruning, too, bemoaned Iowa beer drinkers infamous affection for Busch Light. He emphasized that the culture around drinking craft beer draws a different demographic one thats willing to spend its disposable income on a quality product. People have pretty big allegiances to those brands, Bruning said of the fans of Anheuser Busch, which is part of global conglomerate AB InBev. But thats not how craft beer drinkers are. With local its more... Im a fan of the brewery or the style. Like Bruning, McKay said she expects the local growth in craft brewing to continue, despite the blows that bars and restaurants suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic. And she hopes to see strong revenue flowing from her taprooms, which in addition to Knoxville and the East Village include a third location in Grinnell. Were all still trying to figure out what the crystal ball looks like, but its very different this year than even the past five years, McKay said. At the end of the day what Im really proud of is to see Iowa beer grow. People dont necessarily think of Iowa as a beer mecca but were making some darn good beer here. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Des Moines Register. Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, who was at the Jan. 6 rally outside the Capitol and is a chief supporter of a partisan review of ballots in Maricopa County, is running for secretary of state. Former Nevada lawmaker Jim Marchant, who has clung to the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from Trump, is campaigning to replace Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who has repeatedly denied claims of election fraud. Cegavske can't run again because of term limits. Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for Common Cause, which advocates for expanded voter access, said that while the statewide positions come with more power, local officials generally have much discretion over how to solve common Election Day issues such as long lines, voter roll problems or trouble with voting machines. If you have an elections official who doesnt want to expand access to the ballot, who finds democracy disturbing to them, theyre not going to fix problems and then theyre going to multiply, she said. Races for county offices receive far less attention than those for statewide positions, and many of those roles arent up for election for another year or more. Still, partisanship has already seeped into the process. LONDON (AP) Fresh from charming leaders at the Group of Seven summit, Queen Elizabeth II was back at her residence at Windsor Castle on Saturday to view a military parade to mark her official birthday. HELSINKI (AP) Finland's local elections Sunday are seen as a first test for its popular young Social Democratic Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who took office 18 months ago shortly before the pandemic and whose party is behind in the polls. BEIJING (AP) At least 12 people were killed and 39 seriously injured Sunday after a gas line explosion tore through a residential neighborhood in central China. Responders to the early morning blast in the city of Shiyan in Hubei province sent more than 150 people to the hospital, according to officials quoted by state media. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. Stall keepers and customers buying breakfast and fresh vegetables at a food market were the majority of victims when the explosion hit shortly after 6 a.m., according to the reports. The blast struck a two-story building built in the early 1990s, which includes pharmacies, restaurants and other businesses. More than 900 people were evacuated from the area. Images showed rescuers climbing over broken concrete slabs to reach those trapped inside. Chinese president Xi Jinping called for a thorough probe into the cause of the blast in order to create a good atmosphere for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party on July 1. While "Combating global climate change" rests near the bottom of Republican concerns at 10%, it is the No. 1 priority of Democrats, with 44% listing it first. When it comes to "Ending US involvement in wars in the Middle East," that goal ranks 5th among all voters. Democrats, Republicans and independents all support that objective. Since the last CAP survey in 2019, the greatest change is the reduced concern over "terrorist threats" from al-Qaida and ISIS. Fewer than 1 in 4 voters now view this as a top priority. As Matthew Petti writes in an analysis of the CAP survey, today, Americans "prioritize getting out of Middle East wars over confronting Middle East adversaries." This survey would thus seem to provide public support for the Trump-Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, and for Biden's effort to reengage with Iran and renew the 2015 nuclear deal. Also ranked high among Democrats and independents, but less so among Republicans, is "Improving relationships with allies." What does the survey tell us? I'd like to respond to the letter to the editor from Jake Jungers that appeared i the Journal on June 6 with the headline, "Are top officials donating to riverfront redevelopment?" I was involved for most of my 8 years on the council working on the riverfront project. I always said, "This is our jewel of Sioux City... we get 1 shot at it!" On TOP of the council's $6 million investment on the riverfront project, the fundraising committee raised an additional $5.265 million in private dollars and grants. And I can guarantee you that the remaining $50,000 will and probably already is raised. Do your research. Our city leaders do their part in making Sioux City the best place to live and raise your families. Also the council and mayor are there to make policy and run the city for the better of Sioux City. I can also guarantee you that everyone of us has been evolved in helping our city through charities with our money and our time and listening to their needs. Matt Salvatore and his crew should be thanked for all they do on the Parks and Recreation Board. Let's not take our elected officials and our city for granted....we have all given of ourselves and shouldn't have to answer to such a petty letter to the editor. - Rhonda Capron, former Sioux City City Council member Love 9 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Perhaps you saw this object on display at the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History in the past few yearsif you did, you wont have forgotten it. Its a cotton sack, much mended, with a hundred-year-old stitched notation: My great grandmother Rose/ mother of Ashley gave her this sack when/ she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina/ it held a tattered dress 3 handfulls of/ pecans a braid of Roses hair. Told her/ It be filled with my Love always/ She never saw her again/ Ashley is my grandmotherRuth Middleton/ 1921. Advertisement This object, known as Ashleys Sack, is the subject of historian Tiya Miles new book, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashleys Sack, a Black Family Keepsake. All That She Carried is a master class in the use of context in historical writing. Stymied by a lack of records, Miles thinks around the sack from every available angle: enslaved womens relationships to their clothes, the meaning of hair in the 19th century, what we know about enslaved childrens reactions to separation, how Ashley might have gotten her name (an unusual one, for an enslaved girl), the natural history of pecan trees in the South. Through her interpretation, the humble things in the sack take on ever-greater meaning, its very survival seems magical, and Roses gift starts to feel momentous in scale. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I asked Miles to talk a bit more about her process. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Rebecca Onion: I first read about Ashleys sack in Heather Williams book about slavery and family separation. I dont think Ive ever come across a more uniquely powerful object in all of the history of American slaverymaybe in all of American history. You write in an essay on method at the end of this book that you first saw the sack on a screen, in a digital image, and it affected you in a similar way. How do you explain this power? Emotional connection cant begin to describe it. Tiya Miles: The power of this object seems to emanate from it, whether a person is seeing it from a distance, on the page of a book or on a screen, or up close and personal in a museum exhibit. And I think the power is anchored in the materiality of it, the fact that its a concrete and tangible item, and then the emotionality of whats expressed on the surface of the sack, through the embroidered story. So the experience of engagement for the viewer or reader is a double or triple whammythere are all these different modes of connection with the thing itself. Advertisement Advertisement The way I tried to convey this in the book was, you take a few steps back from the sack to talk about that space of emotion, that experience of feeling the kinds of things that we do often want to sidestep in historical investigation. I think that to have avoided emotionality in the research and interpretation of the sack would have been to set aside an important aspect of the meaning of the sack, to the women who packed it and gifted it and carried it, and also potentially for us today. This was somewhat of a struggle for me as a scholar, because so many of us are trained to try to adopt an objective stance in relationship to our sources. And though of course I have attempted to work within the accepted and proven methodological parameters of my discipline, I had to really make space for myself to relate to this object in a different way, and also to write about that mode of relating in the bookto be transparent about it, to expose it, and to encourage readers, people who have seen the sack in person or who will see an exhibit with it in the future, to be open to the feelings. Thats where so much of the power lies, so much of the usefulness for us today. Advertisement Advertisement What were the things that you were able to find out about this object, and what things remain a mystery? When I started the project, I hoped and expected Id be able to identify the women who are named on the sack, to understand something more about their relationships, and to really trace them through time. And also to be able to trace more about the origins of the sack itselfto identify where it had been produced, and by whom. And with what specific materials. I was very quickly disappointed to realize that records about all these thingsthe women, their relationship, their history, where they were from, the manufacture of the sackwere either nonexistent or had not been saved. And so what I thought was a project headed straight toward historical investigation turned into something else entirely. It turned into a deeply exploratory and experimental project. I had to confront the paucity of sources and recognize that the book was going to be very different than what I had at first imagined, and recognize that this deficit could be a benefit for the project. Advertisement Harriet Jacobs, a formerly enslaved woman, told us in her writing that we could not know what slavery was. We just do not have that capacity. She said this to her white, free Northern women readers back in the 19th centurybut we, too, due to our moment in time and place, cant know. Advertisement And so we are in this place of not knowing, which is difficult for the scholar. But I think in the end, without this information, I was pushed to narrate the history of these women and their sack differently, and I hope that this will bring the readers a bit closer to the experience. These women had to stretch, bend, experiment, and innovate just to stay alive, to maintain their ties to one another, to their daughters, their sons; they had to innovate to tell their stories. And it has been an incredible gift and a learning experience for me to do something like the same in the research and writing of this book. Advertisement I loved your section on the pecansI never know how to say it, but pee-cahn is what sounds right to me!the three handfulls that Ruth reports Rose put into Ashleys sack. You get into natural history, and botany, and write that you went so far as to plant a pecan tree, to observe its unfurling, to understand the objects in the sack from a bunch of different angles. For that part of the story, all we have is the notation: three handfulls of pecans. Thats it! So what do we do with that? If we want to try to understand what pecans meant to Rose, and how she may have gotten ahold of them, what they could have meant to Ashley, and how they might have not only sustained her but symbolized her relationship to her mother, a relationship to Black culture, and so on it was difficult to figure out how to access that when the record has only three words! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So the move I made was to try to get closer to the thing itself in the present day. So, of course, I have my pecan sapling. Its still growing! Its wonderful. I love it. Oh, good, I was afraid to ask! Yes, its going! I wanted to see what would happen if Ashley had chosen toif she was able toplant a pecan tree. And if she tried to grow it, what would it have looked like? My sapling is not the same as Ashleys, if she ever had one, but being able to see the new leaves on a pecan sapling, to think about what kind of life that could have signified for Ashleythe kind of life that is embodied by a growing plant, the kind of life that is encapsulated in a source of foodthat helped me think about telling that part of the story. Advertisement I also ate more pecans! I wanted to, through my own senses, connect to what was in the sack. For breakfast today, I had rice cakes with pecan butter and peanut butter. And youll see that in the book, I actually include pecan recipes. This is the kind of experimental, exploratory chain of thinking that unfolded: going from the stitched notation on the sack, to trying to grow a little sapling, to eating more pecans, to talking with you today about how pecan is pronounced. Advertisement I want to ask about the political impact of feelings. I was interested to find out that Ashleys sack was rediscovered at a flea market in 2007 by a white woman, who recognized its value and sold it to Middleton Place for very little money; you say she might have quasi-donated this object because she had a dream about the sack, and had a daughter, and must have seen something in the story that moved her. Curators you interviewed who had seen the sack on display reported people weeping so much when seeing it that they needed to hand out Kleenex. Advertisement For myself, a white woman, I was very interested in the history of slavery before I had a child, but since Ive become a mother my interest has sharpened, through some kind of feeling of empathy or maybe projection. Now I can barely think about this history without thinking about the situations mothers found themselves in. My maternal fellow feeling is intense, but is it useful? Does it have political force? Or is it self-indulgent, in some way, for audiences to consume this kind of story of Black traumamaybe especially white audiences? Let me go first to the question of maternal empathy, and how I think it might be functioning in the book and with regard to the sack. Im a mother, and my experience as a mother has most definitely and profoundly affected and shaped my experience as a researcher who works on the period of slavery, and on enslaved women, both Black and Indigenous. Advertisement Advertisement Ashleys sack was exhibited in the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was displayed in front of a wall that had many little notations from records about sales and family separations. There was one particular inscription that I remember being just stunned by, because it was about a boy who was 7 years old who was sold. It had his price. I think it was $300, but I dont precisely remember right now what that number was. I may have purposely put that out of my mind because my son was around this age when I saw this notation on the wall. It felt like a gut punch to me. It was a kind of a time warp. All of a sudden I could imagine the vulnerability of my beautiful son, my own child, to this kind of horrific possibility. It was so visceral; I felt for a moment dropped out of time. Advertisement I felt that many times when writing this book. Many times, working on this book, especially on the section about children and their experiences, I had to remind myself: This is a different time. Your children are safe. Were OKin comparison with the status of Rose and Ashley. Advertisement But that kind of electric feeling of connection isnt really an end goal of this kind of work. I certainly would not want people to become so lost in the horrors of this time period that the book is attempting to interpret that we forget that change is possible. The powerful emotions that we can feel, and that undertow of horror that can pull us underthey are real, they are true to the history of the experience, but we need pull ourselves back up again and look around in this moment and this time, and think about how we can apply the lessons of the past Advertisement Regarding your question about white audiences and their emotions: This is a tricky subject right now, and it comes up in so many of the discussions of anti-racism and cross-racial interaction. I tried to be careful with this in the book. I dont want the book to exacerbate divisions; I want the book to actually bring people who may have very different political views together, around the story of this object and the women who cared for it and passed it down. Many people cry when interacting with this object, this story. These are gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching stories. These things happened, and our ancestorssome of themlived through these atrocious things, and if it werent for their persistence and survival, many of us wouldnt be here. When people who dont share that ancestral past engage with these materials and also feel an empathetic, emotional reaction, when they recognize, This is horrible. How could individuals, how could municipalities, how could states, how could the federal government be complicit in this brutality?I think thats a good thing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But that doesnt mean that anyone should think we know what it felt like, or think, We had a good cry, and now lets move on. I hope we would redouble our efforts to understand the threat that has been posed in the past, the threat thats being posed in our present, to recognition of peoples humanity, to democracy. And, instead of resting with those tears, turn them into action. I dont think perpetually turning inward is at all productive. Think of how, if Rose had only turned inward at this terrible moment in her lifeI dont think, if she had, she would have packed the sack and given it to Ashley. Perhaps Ashley wouldnt have survived. And we definitely wouldnt have the story about what Rose did. She turned outward; she thought, I need to act. And thats what we need to do. Care and Feeding is Slates parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. Dear Care and Feeding, Help! My 15-year-old wants to go to camp this summer. Its local, on a college campus, and she would be staying in a dorm. She keeps reminding me that its only for two weeks, and shes been so bored, and the school year was so terribleand its an arts camp, which is her thing. She desperately wants to go. Advertisement I know how disappointed shell be if I stick to my guns, but my every instinct is screaming at me that this is a bad idea. We live in an area where many people arent getting vaccinatedmostly by idiotic choiceand neither the camp nor the college is requiring proof of vaccination. Nor is there a mask mandate! My own kid is of course vaccinated (why would we not partake of this freaking medical miracle?) as is the rest of my family, but we are surrounded by people who arent. I have let her socialize with the few kids she knows whose parents have had them vaccinated, so Im not keeping her locked up! Its just that we are surrounded on all sides by anti-vax, science-denying conspiracy theorists. And while she would be much less at risk than the kids at camp who are not protected by the vaccineshes 95 percent protected, they are 0 percent protectedthere is still a risk to her that doesnt seem worth taking. Plus I dont want to pretend Im OK with the camp happening at all under these circumstances, and I think theres a good chance somebodys kid is going to get sick if 100 teenagers are socializing and living in close quarters. If I send mine, it feels like Im giving tacit approval to whatever happens during those two weeks. Am I being ridiculous? My daughter insists I am. And because she is a dramatic teenager, she says shell never forgive me if I dont let her go. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Overprotective? Dear Overprotective, You are not being ridiculous. Teenagers are at greater risk than was previously thought, as this story in the New York Times and this one in the Washington Post make clear. If the camp is not requiring that all attendees be vaccinatedand, good lord, not requiring masks eitherthen you should not let her go. If it makes you feel any better, I can tell you that I run a sort of summer campa creative writing program for teenagers, in which we house the kids in a dorm on the Ohio State campusand I canceled it (again) this summer. (I had to make that call back in February, when I would have had to reserve dorm and classroom space and invite applications, and at that point it was an easy call, I admit: it didnt look like there was any hope that everyone would have access to a vaccination by then. But there was a moment recently in which I questioned myself, when vaccines became available here to everyone over the age of 12. Only a moment, though, as it quickly became apparent that too many people are opting out, and opting out for their children: only 40 percent of Ohioans overall are fully vaccinated.) Advertisement Advertisement As to forgiveness from your daughter, heres an even more personal anecdote. Ten years ago last March, when my daughter was planning a summer trip to Japan after she graduated from high schoola trip she had been dreaming about and saving for for yearsa huge earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima led to a nuclear disaster, and I made her cancel the trip. I think shes finally forgiven me. But even if she hasnt, I was right to make that call, too. Some things are more important than a teenagers disappointment. P.S. She got to spend a summer in Japan three years later, between her junior and senior years of college. And by then she was fluent in Japanese and also far better equipped in every way to travel on her own. Your daughter can go to camp next yearor, if the virus is still spreading where you live (as it may well be if people arent getting vaccinated and theyre also not wearing masks in public), in a few years she can leave home for college somewhere safer, take classes in her art form(s) of choice, and maybe even major in one of them, so that shell essentially be in arts camp for four whole years. Maybe by then shell forgive you. Advertisement Advertisement If you missed Fridays Care and Feeding column, read it here. Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group! Dear Care and Feeding, My daughter is 15 and recently her dad got engaged. He and I have been divorced nearly ten years. They had been dating for roughly 5 years and my daughter seemed to really like her. Since their engagement was announced, though, she has been using demeaning language and ridiculing my daughter about her ADD diagnosis and the fact that she takes medication for it. She also has been trying to sway her from getting the COVID-19 vaccine by telling her that she will be unable to have kids later and that it will make her really sick. Whats puzzling about this is that both she and my kids dad have had their vaccines and have been now living like they did before the virusbut they also are dragging my kid with them to large indoor events where people arent wearing masks. As parents, my ex and I have been really cautious this past year, even to the point of keeping our kid learning virtually after her school reopened because her dad is a cancer survivor and was high-risk. I know that I cant control what goes on in their household, but at what point do I step in with regard to the future stepmoms judgmental input about health decisions that my daughters dad and I have already decided on? I have talked to my daughter about setting boundaries, especially when the language used hurts her feelings, but she hasnt yet found the courage to stand up for herself. Advertisement Advertisement Wheres My Lane? Dear WML, I think you have two lanes. One is going to have to be with your exi.e., a frank conversation with himbut I would be careful about what you choose to talk to him about. I would stick to the health decisions the two of you have already made and are in agreement on, reminding him that these matters are between the two of you. His future wife, as well intentioned as she may be (throw him this bone! it may help!), should not get a vote on such decisions. I would be super-careful not to say anything that will inflame tension between the two of you; I would not criticize his fiance or complain about her language (to him). And Im afraid I dont see the point in taking this up with your daughters future stepmother, either. I think if you were to confront her directly, it would lead to a blowup, and since (Im assuming) you share custody with your ex, a blowup could only make things worse for your daughter when she is in her dad and stepmothers care. Advertisement But I do think you have a lane with your daughter, too. In addition to helping her find the courage to speak upwhich may take a whileits important for you to help her absorb the message that her soon-to-be stepmother is wrong, and that whether she can stand up for herself in the moment or not, she can develop an inner core of strength that will help her get through these challenging interactions. I think you might want to practice with her ways she can respond to these remarksId roleplay with her, which will help to prepare her for them when they come. Advertisement Advertisement My final thought about this painful situation is that you can encourage your daughter to speak to her father about her concerns, telling him how hurt and upset she is by the things his fiance says. While thats something you cant (shouldnt) do, its definitely something she can. Its important that shes able to be honest with her dad, and its important for him to stand up for her. I think shes also old enough to say no when they offer to drag her somewhere that isnt safe for her. No, thanks, Id rather notthat doesnt feel safe for me. Maybe we can get together a different day instead this week is a perfectly legitimate response to their suggestion that they go to a large indoor event! Advertisement Help! How can I support Slate so I can keep reading all the advice from Dear Prudence, Care and Feeding, Ask a Teacher, and How to Do It? Answer: Join Slate Plus. Dear Care and Feeding, My husband and I are expecting our long-awaited first baby in November. Neither of us has family living in our state, but my parents plan to visit often. My husbands family is more complicated. We havent been in contact with his parents for the past year or so since we determined it would be healthier for us and any future children of ours to be free from their manipulation, racism, classism, and lack of boundaries. We are comfortable with this decision and do not plan for my husbands parents to have contact with our child. We have, however, maintained contact and occasional visits with my husbands aunt and uncle. They are thrilled for the baby to arrive and are considering buying a home within a three-hour drive of us so they can be involved in our kids life. While they are generally kind people and much less bigoted than the rest of their family, they still use some problematic language that I know they think is normal. They also occasionally go on rants about how the illegals and the homeless are ruining their state, although when I ask follow-up questions and model inclusive language, they usually recant and admit that the real problem is that their state isnt properly caring for these vulnerable populations. This leads me to believe that theyre not beyond reform. Advertisement Advertisement Here is our dilemma: It is very important to us that our child be raised in an inclusive, antiracist environment. While we like these family members and it would be helpful to have them nearby to help with occasional babysitting, we worry that the more exposure our child has to these people, the more hate speech he will absorb. On the other hand, my husband would really like to keep a relationship with some small part of his family. Can we make them change their language, at least around our kid, or is our only option to encourage them to keep their distance? Deliberately Diplomatic Dear Deliberately, While I might have a different answer if his aunt and uncle were beyond reform, it sounds like they are actually reachable/teachable, so dont give up on them! Im much less concerned about the free babysitting than the possibility of your husbandand his childrenbeing able to maintain a relationship with members of his family, if there is a chance that he can. You cant make them change their language, just as you cant make them change their thinking, but you can keep talking to them in the way you have already tried; you can educate them and help them move forward. This is likely to be a long-term project, but if you like them and they are your husbands only link to family, I think its worth the effort. Advertisement Advertisement But of course, all this effort is unlikely to fix everything. If you make the decision to keep them in your lives, you will also need to be prepared for talking to your childrenthe one thats coming soon and any future othersabout why the language Aunt and Uncle use is wrong and hurtful. Indeed, your kids may be the best messengers to these family members about thisor at least they may be the best people to drive the message home that you have already been delivering. I am sad to say that no matter how hard you try, your children are going to run into plenty of people who express their bigotry. I dont believe your job is not to make sure they never encounter such people, but that they have the tools to deal with them. Advertisement Dear Care and Feeding, I have two beautiful daughters, but ever since we moved, neither one of them wish to identify as such. The 13-year-old chooses the pronoun it and the 12-year-old has decided that she wants to be a boy and change her name; she gets offended if I call her by the name I gave her and usually scolds me for using the wrong pronouns. I want to be supportive but this has come completely out of the blue. When asked, my 12-year-old says, I just want to be a boy. I always thought transgender people were stuck in the wrong body and did not choose to be the way they are, but the only reasoning Ive heard from my 12-year-old for her sudden change of self-identification is not wanting to have a period. Her boy name is something dreadfully common and dull and in no way befitting of the 12-year-olds bright and artistic persona, but she is determined to be called by it anyway. I know Im not as supportive as I want to be but I am of the opinion that this is not something you arbitrarily decide overnight when youre 12, and I have told her that until she turns 18, she will remain a girl to me, but after 18 she can make these determinations (and take necessary steps to achieve them) for herself. I dont know what happened, but before this sudden transformation, 12-year-old was always the kindest, sweetest little girl and she used to love all things girly. I know I am handling it wrong, but am I completely in the wrong? Advertisement Uncertain Up North Dear Uncertain, I know you dont want to hear it, but yes, I think you are completely in the wrong. What you have always thought about transgender people is beside the point. And I 100 percent guarantee that if you keep up this line of defense with your 12-year-old, you are going to lose that child. It doesnt matter if you dont like/believe the reasoning youve been offered. It doesnt matter that you dont like the name your bright, artistic child has chosen, or that the name you gave your kid is being rejected. You say very little about the 13-year-old who has announced a new pronoun of it, so I cant tell if this child is being supportive of a younger sibling, has come into a new identity, is being provocative with you, or whatbut since you mention this and then move on to all of your concerns about the younger child, I have some concerns about how your relationship to both children is playing out. So let me just say this: good parents support their children as long as theyre not doing anything to hurt anyone. What would it cost you to throw your support behind your kids? I guarantee that whatever that cost feels like to you, its less expensive than the cost of not supporting them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michelle More Advice From Slate Im a 55-year-old divorced college professor who earns $140,000 a year (plus interest, dividends, and royalties). I have around $3.5 million in investments, home equity, and savings, so I am fairly well off. My 51-year-old girlfriend has little savings, works an hourly wage job, and earns around $40,000 a year (shes had a much tougher life than me). I would be happy to support us both and would like her to quit working (or work much less) so we can travel more and have more free fun time. But she is worried about losing independence and being financially dependent on me. How do we bridge this? You can add Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the list of Democrats who want Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to step down so President Joe Biden can appoint his successor. The lawmaker didnt give a definitive answer when she was asked the question but she also made it clear which way she was leaning. You know, its something I think about, but I would probably lean towards yes, Ocasio-Cortez said when CNNs Dana Bash asked her whether Breyer should retire. I would give more thought to it, but Im inclined to say yes. Advertisement Ocasio-Cortez gave the answer when Bash asked her straight out whether Breyer should retire at the end of this term as a follow up after she mentioned that Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Democrat from New York, had called for the 82-year-old justice to step down. Jones has a point, Ocasio-Cortez said. The lawmaker said Democrats had very difficult experiences with making the opposite mistake, in clear reference to the way the successor to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed by former President Donald Trump. The way Republicans are attempting to make voting more difficult mean its even more important to make sure Biden can pick Breyers successor, the lawmaker said. Advertisement Advertisement AOC on if she thinks Justice Breyer should retire: "I would probably lean toward yes." pic.twitter.com/yG1fqvU2eY Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2021 Advertisement If Senate Democrats are not going to pass reforms on H.R.1, we cannot rely solely on a wish of winning elections, particularly in the Senate, when voting rights are under attack in Georgia, Arizona, and Texas, across the country, Ocasio-Cortez said, referencing the broad voting rights bill that was approved by the House but faces an uncertain future in the Senate. And if were not going to pass H.R.1, with the preemptive clauses that can roll some of that voter suppression attacks back, yeah, I believe that we should protect our Supreme Court, and that that should absolutely be a consideration. In April, Jones became the first lawmaker to publicly call for Breyers retirement. Theres no question that Justice Breyer, for whom I have great respect, should retire at the end of this term, Jones said. I mean, my goodness, have we not learned our lesson? Jones and Ocasio-Cortez are co-sponsors of a bill that would add seats to the Supreme Court Advertisement Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, said that Americans who are living along the southern border need to take their security into their own hands by obtaining firearms and be ready to shoot them. Lara Trump, who recently said she wont seek the North Carolina Senate seat next year after much speculation, was on full scaremongering mode in her appearance on Fox News Justice With Judge Jeanine. Jeanine Pirro began the show with lots of criticism aimed at Vice President Kamala Harris, criticizing her stupid giggle and the way she laughed when asked a question during a recent interview about when she would go to the southern border. She thinks she can just laugh off the crisis at the border and its embarrassing, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lara Trump says people who live at the southern border should get guns and take matters into their own hands pic.twitter.com/2JL30va6nF Acyn (@Acyn) June 13, 2021 After showing a clip of someone complaining about migrants going through her property, Pirro asked, What do we say to people at the southern border who feel like they arent even part of the country anymore? Trump said it must be insulting to the border patrol agents to see the situation. I dont know what you tell the people that live at the southern border, Trump added. I guess they better arm up and get guns and be ready, and maybe theyre going to have to start taking matters into their own hands. It should never happen. These people should never make this dangerous journey here. Its bad for Americans, its bad for the migrants, it is bad all around. Advertisement .@LaraLeaTrump joins Justice to react to VP Harris failed diplomacy tour. Check it out. pic.twitter.com/8i2QSOwruu Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) June 13, 2021 Harris is under pressure from some quarters to visit the countrys southern border after she was tapped by President Joe Biden to lead the administrations efforts to deal with migrants who enter the United States through Mexico. The pressure increased after she traveled to Guatemala and Mexico to meet with the countries leaders in an effort to improve ties and work on strategies to stop migrants from traveling to the United States. Harris has also received criticism from fellow Democrats for telling migrants not to go to the United States. Do not come. Do not come, she said in Guatemala. If you come to our border, you will be turned back. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels longest-serving prime minister, ended his 12-year tenure on Sunday as the countrys parliament approved a new coalition government. Taking over for now will be nationalist Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu ally turned rival who now faces the task of leading a diverse coalition that was approved by a razor-thin 60-59 vote. Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, patting himself on the back for transforming Israel from a marginal country to a rising force and vowing that he wont be going anywhere and may be back soon. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. The new governing coalition will collapse sooner than people think, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahus ouster marks an end to a two-year era of political paralysis in the country that held four inconclusive elections during that time. The political divisions that have marked the last few years were evident in parliament as heckles and souths of shame and liar frequently interrupted the session. We are incapable of sitting togetherwhat is happening to us? Bennett said. I am proud of sitting with people with who have very different opinions. We have decided to take responsibility. Advertisement Under the agreement of the coalition that includes representatives from the left, center, and right, Bennett will hold the top office for the first two years and then will be replaced by centrist Yair Lapid, a former TV news anchor. It was Lapid who was largely responsible for brokering the coalition among eight parties that dont have much in common beyond a desire to see Netanyahu out of power. The new ruling coalition includes the Islamist Raam party, marking the first time an independent Arab party is part of a governing coalition in Israel. The marked divisions within the new coalition means most expect it to follow a modest agenda focused on domestic issues, reducing tensions with Palestinians, and maintaining good relations with Washington. We will forge forward on that which we agreeand there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side, Bennett said. Some are optimistic that the constant questioning of whether the coalition can hold will motivate its members to prove naysayers wrong. Plus they know Netanyahu will be waiting in the wings. Ill be back, Netanyahu told lawmakers. Try to ruin our wonderful economy as little as possible so we can fix it as quickly as possible when we return. Advertisement President Joe Biden quickly congratulated Bennet and Lapid and said he was fully committed to working with the new Israeli government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region. Bennett tweeted his response: Thank you Mr. President! I look forward to working with you to strengthen the ties between our two nations. Another day brings another explosive report about information that the Justice Department sought during former President Donald Trumps administration. And the latest one is a doozy because of the person involved. Turns out, Apple told former White House counsel Don McGahn that the Justice Department subpoenaed the company for information about an account he owned in February 2018, reveals the New York Times. McGahns wife also received a similar notice from Apple. The Justice Department didnt just seek the information but also barred Apple from telling McGahn about it. Considering gag orders are only valid for a year, the fact that McGahn was only told in May suggests that prosecutors asked for several extensions. Advertisement This latest revelation raises a lot of questions. It isnt clear what information Apple handed prosecutors and it also isnt known exactly why the Justice Department wanted the information and whether the focus was McGahn or he was just part of a broader collection of data. But its extraordinary that the Justice Department would subpoena records for the White House counsel. Its possible, however, that the subpoena didnt have to do with his work in the White House but rather his time as the top lawyer for the Trump campaign in 2016. The subpoena was issued by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, which was at the center of a part of the Russia inquiry led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Besides the Russia inquiry though, at the time of the subpoena, Trump had become angry at McGahn. It was around the time it was revealed Trump had called on McGahn to oust Mueller, which McGahn refused to do. Trump became very angry when that news became public and tried to get McGahn to deny it. But CNN reports the subpoena didnt come from Muellers team. Although it isnt known whether the subpoenas were politically motivated, the revelation comes at a time when Democrats are demanding answers about the Trump-era Justice Department following news that prosecutors sought records from members of the House Intelligence Community. It also comes on the heels of revelations that lots of information was sought about journalists. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on his Republican colleagues to join Democrats to subpoena former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr to testify. This is not just some kind of Washington insider thing, Schumer said. Its about peoples phone records being subpoenaed without them even knowing about it, and who knows who would be next. The Justice Departments independent inspector general, Michael Horowitz, confirmed on Friday he would launch an investigation. Prior to Saturdays $99,370 Currier & Ives at The Meadows, trainer Chris Beaver predicted that his horse Perron would win some big races this year by roughing it on the outside. It was a bold forecast since Perron, the reigning Ohio champion, was winless in five starts this year. But Beavers crystal ball was in focus, as Perron moved first over to wear down Whiskey Blu and capture the prestigious test for three-year-old trotters. Panzano, also trained by Beaver, finished third. When Whiskey Blu quarter-poled to the top, he was able to discourage any challenges until the three-quarters where Perron took up the chase. Winning driver Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. indicated that was about the best scenario he could draw up for the My MVP-Long Island Tea gelding. The four hole is a good leaving spot here, and thats about as good as he can leave, Wrenn said. I knew I would have to grind it first over, but he can go all day long. Hes just not super-handy. Hell eye a horse down, and he just doesnt quit. Perron and Whiskey Blu dueled through the stretch until Perron inched away to down his rival by a half-length in a career best 1:54. Beaver said Perron has about a five-week gap in his schedule before his next engagement, an Ohio Sires Stake leg, and that he might look for a race for Perron or give him time off and qualify him for his return. Perron lifted his career bankroll to $272,389 and helped Beaver extend his distinguished record in the Currier & Ives, which has been contested since 1975. Beaver won the 2017 edition with Fraser Ridge, took a 2009 heat with Triumphant Caviar and captured a 2014 division with Il Sogno Dream, who scored in a stake-record 1:53.2. Dave Palone was aboard a third Beaver-trained Currier & Ives contestant, Kildare King, who broke stride early and often. Palone managed to enjoy a pretty good day anyway, winning six of the 13 races on the card. Live harness racing at The Meadows resumes Wednesday when the program features a $12,467.41 carryover in the final-race Super Hi-5. First post is 12:45 p.m. BILL DAUGHERTY, JR., JERRY KEHM WIN GLADA SPLITS The Great Lakes Amateur Driving Association (GLADA) brought its road show to The Meadows on Saturday, and Bill The Flying Antique Daugherty, Jr. and Jerry Duke of Oil Kehm emerged with victories in the $9,300 divisions. Daughertys victory with Wimborne Hanover may have been the more improbable of the two, as he had intended to drop the nine-year-old Muscle Massive-Wherly gelding in a standard overnight event. When that race didnt fill, he opted for Plan B. I put him in here to make two divisions, Daugherty said. I think its good for the sport in these amateur races. I thought wed clear a little easier. We had a little bit more late, but Im glad the wire came up when it did. Wimborne Hanover needed most of the final quarter to overtake the favourite, Tom Mayhem Svrcek (Berkery J), but he finally inched away to down him by half a length in 1:57. Daugherty trains Wimborne Hanover, who pushed his career bankroll to $261,444, for Susan Daugherty. Stephen Youre Never Too Oldford (A Royal Line) and Pete Stratton (Cash For Gold) completed the ticket. Once Kehm hustled Harness AM to the point from post three, that split was pretty much over. The four-year-old daughter of Father Patrick-Noblesse Blue Chip drew off at will to defeat Floyd The Roper Rhodes (Back Door Man) by 6-1/2 lengths in 1:56. They were followed by Chicago George Bonomo (Time Outa Jail) and John The Greek Sikaras, who got a check on his 71st birthday with Explosive Leggs. Tyler Stillings trains Harness AM for Rags to Riches of PA. (MSOA) Five rivals faced off in the weekly feature on Saturday (June 12) with three of those horse boasting top-class wins already this season. Two of those horses Little Manny and Blood Money garnered most of the public support on Saturday, but it was Woodmere Ideal Art who would capture the lion's share of the $1,600 purse. Starting to the inside of his main rivals, Woodmere Ideal was hustled away from post three by drivern Robert Laffin and outsprinted his four foes into the first turn. Favoured Little Manny (Stephen Trites) and second choice Blood Money (Dr. Mitch Downey) settled into fourth and fifth, respectively. Woodmere Ideal Art paced out panels of :29, :57 and 1:26.3 while holding a two-length margin through those first three stations. A :30.4 closer was enough to keep that two-length lead in tact for the 1:57.2 score. Thankyouallmyfans (John Davidson) had the pocket ride but couldn't make a dent in the pacesetter's lead and stayed for second, while Blood Money rallied up the rail to complete the triactor. A 22-time winner in his career for trainer Sifroi Melanson, Woodmere Ideal Art (Articulator - Very Ideal Hanover) is owned by his Ultimate Stable of Greater Lakeburn, N.B. Handle for the five-race card was $3,091. Live harness racing returns to Saint John next Saturday, June 18. To view the results for the Saturday card, click the following link: Saturday Results - Exhibition Park Raceway. With nearly 500 driving wins to her credit, its perhaps a stretch to refer to Valerie Grondin as an amateur. But she has not driven third-party horses professionally, and recorded her last win in 2013 in a Maine Amateur Driving Club event. Fast forward to Saturday (June 12) at Cumberland, and Grondin expertly handled Gold Star Spider in another $4,200 MADC sprint by putting the pacer right on the engine and never looking back. Brushing quickly to the front from post three, Grondin dictated fractions of :29.3, 1:01.1 and 1:30 before stepping on the accelerator in the final stretch drive to draw off and win by 3-1/2 lengths in 1:59. It felt great to be in the bike again, exclaimed Cumberlands third leading trainer. Grondin continued, Winning makes all the long days worth it. Spider is perfect to drive; he has been with us for four years. Gold Star Spider is a seven-year-old stallion by Rock On, trained by Grondin and owned by Heath Campbell and Gino Martucci. He paid $7.20 to win. Wagering favourite Plus One (Joe Burke) finished second. Kreacher (Benson Merrill) was third. Grondin and her partner, Heath Campbell, together train about 26 horses that are split between the overnight horses at Grondins farm in Corinna, and the Maine Stakes horses stabled at Bangor. Approaching another milestone, Valerie Grondin is just four wins shy of 2,000 training wins. Having earned over $8 million in purses in the last four decades, the Bangor-born conditioner enjoys the racing and camaraderie at the new Cumberland facility. Quick to share the credit of her success, Grondin points out that all the work gets done with an excellent crew and involved partners. Inspired by her good friend and fellow Maine-based trainer Kelly Case, they bought a horse together for $300 in 1984 and named it I Would, a mare by Frisky Thomas. She went out and won her first five races in a row for Kelly, Grondin fondly recalls. Its clear that the horse I Would turned Valerie Grondin into an I can ... and so out she went, traveling boldly into the world of Maine harness racing, never looking back. While Grondin was pleased with the new seasonal mark of 1:59 for Gold Star Spider, she is not ready to rest on her laurels: I am just getting back started. I have put this off too long. My goal is to get to win number 500! Currently sitting on 494 driving victories, Grondin just needs six more to hit 500. Stay tuned. The other MADC split was captured by Three Day Forecast and active amateur driver Todd Whitney in 2:00.3. Following a photo finish, favourite Three Day Forecast held off a late charge by Stonebridge Grand (Joe Burke) to win the $4,200 event by a head. Flooded with fans for the Blue Seal Feeds winner's circle presentation, trainer Ryan Berry held the 10-year-old son of Three Olives for the 36th win of his career. Berry and Whitney share ownership of Three Day Forecast, who paid $5.40 to win. Continuing her dedication to the MADC and Cumberland, and returning to make the presentations to the winning amateur connections was Aimee Nichols, Blue Seal and Kent feeds territory sales manager for Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. Nichols provided swag bucket trophies of stable supplies on behalf of the Windham and North Yarmouth Blue Seal Feed stores to both amateur race winning connections. After three weeks and four divisions, Todd Whitney leads the point standings in the Maine Amateur Driving Club, followed closely by Benson Merrill in second, Charles Butch Eaton in third and Joe Burke hits the board in fourth. In overnight racing news, Andrew Harrington and Dan Delandes both enjoyed driving doubles on the Saturday afternoon card. In the $6,000 Winners Over Trot, Bruizin (Harrington) returned to Cumberland to capture the event for a second time this season, winning by a half-length over Cherry Crown Jewel (Matt Athearn) in 1:59.3. Caulfield (Mike Stevenson) finished third. The strapping seven-year-old son of Musclini is trained by Kim Ireland and owned by Dennis and Deb Foss. He paid a whopping $32.20 to win. Live harness racing from Cumberland is presented each Tuesday and Saturday through early August; post time is 2:30 p.m. For more information, go to firsttrackscumberland.com. (First Tracks Cumberland) The return of live (spectator-free) racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park is coming in hot with full fields, a new starting gate, returning stars and more for an action-packed re-opening weekend. A total of 22 races will be contested over Friday (June 9) and Saturday (June 10) evenings in Campbellville. Each card will offer plenty of full fields, much to the delight of horseplayers, and a Preferred contest to showcase some of the circuits top older horses. The regular wagering menu, headlined by the $100,000 Early Pick 5 (starting Race 1), is back in play for the start of a big-money summer at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Here are a few notes and storylines to watch out for this weekend: 10 WIDE BEHIND NEW SLANTED START CAR The resumption of live racing will see Woodbine Mohawk Park revert to having horses starting from post position 10 score on the outside of the wings rather than in a trailing spot. The fields will also now align behind a new slanted starting gate that offer horses with an outside starting spot more options to potentially use early speed and situate in a more favourable position. Slanted starting gates have been used by several tracks across North America and the new Woodbine vehicle has been used in recent qualifiers. THE POPULAR $100,000 EARLY PICK 5 Horseplayers from all over have made Woodbine Standardbreds Early Pick 5 the most popular nightly wager in harness racing. The attractive multi-leg wager will continue to be offered in its regular spot at the start of each race card. The Early Pick 5, which offers a low 15 percent takeout, has a guaranteed pool of $100,000 nightly and many nights prior to the April 3 lockdown the pool exceeded $120,000, including a $154,425 on the April 1 card. PREFERRED PACE BATTLES A pair of Preferred pacing events will take the feature race slot on each of this weekends card. The $30,000 Mares Preferred takes its usual spot on Friday evening with a compact group of six competing, headlined by OBrien Award winner So Much More. The Don Beatson trained five-year-old won her final two starts prior to the recent shutdown and has two wins, three seconds in six starts this season. Half of her six starts came against male rivals. James MacDonald will take his usual position behind So Much More. The Mares Preferred group also includes four-year-olds Rose Run Victory and Karma Seelster. The Ashleigh Hensley-trained Rose Run Victory made plenty of noise late last season and was this years Niagara Series winner. The Gregg McNair trained Karma Seelster makes her season debut after earning $277,570 last season to bring her career earnings to $539,775. Wheels On Fire is the horse to beat in Saturdays $34,000 Preferred. The six-year-old returns to Mohawk Park after winning back-to-back Preferred events at The Meadowlands in May. Back in the care of trainer Richard Moreau, Wheels On Fire is five-for-eight this season and teams with reinsman Doug McNair. Also returning to Mohawk Park is Points North for trainer Carmen Auciello. The six-year-old was a winner two starts back at Pocono in 1:49.3 and most recently competed in the $100,000 Commodore Barry Invitational at Harrah's Philadelphia. TOP NA CUP ELIGIBLES TO CLASH Saturday evenings third-race (Non-Winners of 5 races or $95,000 lifetime, Also Eligible Three-Year-Olds) will be the first of likely many battles this season between three-year-old pacers Bulldog Hanover and Lawless Shadow. The highly touted Pepsi North America Cup eligible sophomores finished one-two in last years Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Super Final, which saw Bulldog Hanover score a nine-length blowout win in 1:50.2. With the OSS season around the corner and each paid up to Mohawk Parks Grand Circuit races, fans will have plenty of opportunities to watch this rivalry grow. The Jack Darling-trained Bulldog Hanover won four of six starts as a rookie. The OSS champions only two losses came when he finished second in his career debut and when he made a break before the start in OSS Gold event over an off track at Flamboro. Bulldog Hanover tuned up for his season debut with a pair of impressive qualifying scores at Mohawk Park. The Dr. Ian Moore-trained Lawless Shadow already has two starts under his belt this season, scoring a pair of victories at Columbus Scioto Downs in May. Lawless Shadow had four wins and three runner-up finishes in nine starts last season. His top victories were scores in the Nassagaweya Stakes and an OSS Gold division, while he also finished third in the $720,000 Metro Pace. TOP DRIVERS AND TRAINERS IN 2021 Drivers (Wins | Win % | UDRS) Sylvain Filion 42 wins, 18.7%, .304 Bob McClure 37 wins, 17.1%, .276 Doug McNair 33 wins, 17.9%, .337 Louis-Phillipe Roy 28 wins, 14%, .253 James MacDonald 27 wins, 13.8%, .264 Jody Jamieson 27 wins, 13.8%, .242 Trainers (Wins | Win % | UDRS) Richard Moreau 28 wins, 18.1%, .298 Carmen Auciello 24 wins, 15%, .272 Ben Baillargeon 13 wins, 18.3%, .286 Bob McIntosh 10 wins, 28.6%, .400 Ashleigh Hensley 8 wins, 17.8%, .306 SCHEDULE, WATCH AND WAGER Fans and horseplayers can watch and wager on this weekends races from Woodbine Mohawk Park through HPIbet.com. Free programs and live streaming of all racing from Woodbine Mohawk Park can be found at WoodbineMohawkPark.com. Woodbine Racing Lives pre-game show will start Friday evening at 6:20 p.m. (EDT). Post time for each card is 7:00 p.m. (EDT). Following reopening weekend, live harness racing will take place every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park. To view the entries for the weekend cards of harness racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park, click on one of the following links: Friday Entries Friday Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT) Saturday Entries Saturday Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT) (Woodbine Mohawk Park) We are so excited. We do not know of another facility outside of Omaha that is this type of facility, Richter said. There are group homes, but this is a facility where each individual has a full apartment a bedroom, living room, kitchen but then there are also common areas where there will be a bigger kitchen, a dining area, a commons area where they can have a pool table and a movie room so they have the social aspects. Residents of the facility will be like Richters son, able to live independently, but also needing some extra support. A residential manager will be hired and onsite, there in case of an emergency or other need. They also hope to have an activities director and purchase a van, helping make trips to the movies, bowling or other activities possible for the adults. They will live independently, but with an atmosphere of friends who live around them, Richter said. The Northfield Haven nonprofit board is made up of parents, like the Richters and the Krafts, but also local education professionals who work with the developmentally disabled, like Wendy Kemling-Horner, director of student services at Scottsbluff Public Schools, and worked with officials at ESU #13 to determine the need for if such a community did exist in the community. TCD also conducted a home study, which determined that need. The Gun Violence Archive, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines mass shootings as those involving four or more people who were shot, regardless of whether they died. Overall, according to its database, more than 8,700 people have died of gun violence in the U.S. this year. The GVA also found that mass shootings spiked in 2020 to about 600, which was higher than in any of the previous six years it tracked the statistic. According to this year's count, there have been at least 267 mass shootings in the U.S. so far, including the latest three overnight Friday into Saturday. Its worrisome, Fox said. We have a blend of people beginning to get out and about in public. We have lots of divisiveness. And we have more guns and warm weather. Its a potentially deadly mix. This story has been corrected in the 13th paragraph that three mass shootings in public places in 2020 for lowest annual total in a decade, according to a database tracker. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form This mountain range is comprised of over 114 mountain peaks, 50 of which reach altitudes of 23,600 ft or more. In addition there are over 15,000 glaciers. When cranes can navigate the migration over these Himalayas, it then serves as a signal for the ideal time for climbers to climb (Usually sometime in the month of May). Amazing! Two weeks ago I halted my car and hopped out to photograph dozens of Sandhill Cranes as they hopped and fluttered and flirted and warbledits mating season. It also made me wonder about the many blue herons I see from the treestand. One sure way to determine if its a heron or a crane is to observe their necks. A Cranes neck is shorter than the Herons and when flying they stick their neck straight out. The Heron curves its neck into an S shape and it is pulled all the way back when flying. Cranes also have shorter beaks than herons. Part of natures boastful grandeur is its marvelous sounds and displays of its cranes and herons. I am astounded. And so it isin the environment of cranes and herons it becomes quickly evident JESUS, Creator God, is Master-ful in all He touches, imagines and places into action. Survival of the fittest. New presidents have only so long to get big legislative initiatives done. Its already June, and the clock is ticking for President Joe Biden. Big bills take a long time. Congress will spend much of the summer on recess. Theyll be at work in the fall, but by the end of the year, Democratic and Republican lawmakers will be obsessed with winning reelection in 2022. Byron York Byron York is the chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, a Fox News contributor and the author of The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. But Biden has an even bigger problem than the calendar. In the last election, Democrats failed to win a majority in the Senate, and the body is now tied 50-50. If Republicans are united in opposition, Senate Democrats can pass bills only if they keep all 50 of their senators in line and then rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. Its a difficult process that makes it extremely hard to pass controversial bills. And yet many in the Democratic base, and certainly in its progressive wing, appear to expect the Senate to pass far-reaching, historic, groundbreaking legislation in the mold of Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal and Lyndon Johnsons Great Society -- even though FDR and LBJ had huge Senate majorities, while Biden has none. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 For seven straight years now, Randy Marion Subaru has selected the Mooresville-based charity FeedNC to be a part of their annual Share the Love sales event that takes place during the holiday season. On Friday, the dealership presented FeedNC with a check totaling $13,335. This amount of money is enormously helpful to us. We dont receive checks like this every day. Lara Ingram, executive director of FeedNC, said. We fed 5,000 people in 2020, so the need was great. This will help us provide all of our services. According to FeedNC, if the donation were to solely be used to provide meals for those in need, the donation provided by Randy Marion would pay for roughly 2,700 meals. However, FeedNC not only provides hot meals, they also run a grocery service and provide job training to members of the community that need assistance. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} (FeedNC) is an organization that is very needed in our community, Randy Marion said. Were happy to give back . As a company, Randy Marion not only donates to FeedNC financially, employees also donate their time to working at the charity. During the pandemic, they put together backpacks for homeless people in need of some support. Randy Marion employees also help unload delivery trucks at FeedNC every month. Indirect negotiations with the United States over lifting sanctions have gone through five negotiating sessions since April, without an agreement. Apparently, some progress has been made and it may only take one or two more sessions to get some sanctions relief for Iran. These talks are the result of a new (since early 2021) U.S. government, containing many people who worked with the 2015 U.S. government that joined JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) group and made the lifting of Iranian sanctions possible. JCPOA consists of six nations (China, France, Russia, Britain, the U.S. and Germany) that negotiated and signed the 2015 treaty with Iran. This deal lifted economic sanctions in return for Iran halting its nuclear weapons program, which Iran insisted it did not have. Currently Iran refuses to talk with the U.S. directly, so the current negotiations are being held in Austria where the U.S. representative has to be briefed by the other JCPOA members who can meet with the Iranians. This is cumbersome and Iran refuses to deal directly with the Americans while the renewed sanctions are in force. That sort of pre-condition, thanks to abuse by North Korea, is now unacceptable to most Americans and keeps the American negotiators from actively participating in the new talks. Another obstacle is the growing list of Iranian sponsored violence worldwide. In some cases, Iranians are directly involved, something Iran prefers to avoid by using proxies; Iran-backed groups that deny they are taking orders from Iran. This use of proxies is no longer very effective because so many Iran proxies have been exposed. Iran no longer gets the benefit of the doubt because if some group carries out a violent act that benefits Iran, that attack was probably ordered and supported by Iran. While more distant adversaries in Europe and the United States still contain a lot of people inclined to trust Iran, that is definitely not the case with Irans neighbors. Another obstacle to lifting sanctions is the UN inspectors of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), who have been inspecting real or suspected Iranian nuclear facilities for years, believing that the Iranians have been concealing nuclear weapons work for years and are still at it. A major factor in shaping current IAEA assessments was the 2018 Israeli Mossad (foreign intel) operation in the Iranian capital where a heavily protected warehouse containing top-secret documents was located by Mossad, covertly entered and half a ton of documents on the Iranian nuclear program were removed and 24 hours later showed up in Israel. Iran denied that the Mossad operation took place and that the documents were real. Since 2018 Israel has allowed foreign intel and nuclear program experts to examine the documents and that led to international acceptance of the documents as authentic. IAEA used information from these documents to improve their inspection operations and Iran responded by blocking IAEA access to areas that the 2018 documents identified as involved in nuclear weapons research. The 2018 disclosures also persuaded Irans neighbors that they had to start planning how they were going to develop or buy nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from using nukes to bully its way to domination of the region and the removal of any government that opposed this. The Angry Neighbors The continued lack of hard currency and growing anti-Iran attitudes in Iraq have led Iran to reorganize its pro-Iran militias. Most of the Iraqi militiamen have been dismissed, or asked to work without pay. The small percentage of militia members who remained loyal were offered jobs in smaller, better equipped units. These are the ones keeping the assassination and intimidation program going. Iran has given these Iraqis a license t0 kill, which means if you get caught Iran will get you out and prevent prosecution. What Iran desperately needs in Iraq is more cash and Iran is trying to make a deal with the new American government to lift economic sanctions. Officially, Iraq backs the lifting of sanctions because Iran will work against government officials who say otherwise. Off the record, Iraqi leaders and most of the population want Iran sanctions to continue. The Iranians are very much still in Syria, but in reduced numbers because of the cash crisis back home. The Iranian mercs and their IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) supervisors are mostly concerned with establishing a military presence near the Israeli border so they can carry out terror attacks using missiles or rockets. So far this has proved slow going and expensive. The Israeli airstrikes regularly hit weapons shipments from Iran and secret Iranian bases. Israel has more friends in Syria than Iran does in Israel, or Syria for that matter. Israel is not alone in wanting the Iranians to just go home. That sentiment is shared by many Syrians, Lebanese, Turks, Kurds, Iraqis, Russians and Americans. While Afghanistan has been hostile to the religious dictatorship in Iran, this is one Iranian neighbor that sees Iran as a source of help if the Taliban again seek to gain control of the entire country. Most Afghans oppose the Taliban and if there is another civil war it will not, as in the past, go well for the Pushtun minority. The Taliban are a Pushtun movement. During the late 1990s civil war, after Pakistan armed and recruited the Taliban to defeat the armed factions and take control, there was one insurmountable problem. The one part of Afghanistan the Taliban could never conquer was the north, especially the Tajik northeast. The Tajiks are undefeated, while the Pushtuns were beaten in late 2001. If there is another civil war the Tajiks will again be the main opponent. The Tajiks have allies that include the other minorities, especially Turkmen, Uzbeks and Mongols (Hazara). This anti-Taliban opposition is still known as the NA (Northern Alliance). The Hazara are a special case because they are largely Shia Moslems and look to Iran for protection from attacks by Afghan Sunnis. This was not a problem until the Taliban showed up, backed by Pakistan. The Taliban were particularly brutal towards the Hazara and Iran has been very active in protecting Afghan Shia ever since. In the Arabian Peninsula Iran has a military presence in northern Yemen and one thing Saudi Arabia and most Yemenis can agree on is that they both want Iranians out of Yemen. There is potential for a deal here because Iran wants the economic sanctions lifted or at least modified and the Saudis want Iranian forces gone from their southern border. Making that happen is how deals are made in the Middle East. So far, the Iranians are unwilling to give up their ability to launch missile attacks on Saudi Arabia from northern Yemen. The Iranian government believes that getting economic sanctions lifted can be accomplished without leaving Yemen. This has led to a disagreement between the IRGC and the Iranian government, which has had growing problems with the independent minded IRGC. This has come up in negotiations Iran is conducting with the Americans and Europeans to lift the sanctions. With a new government in the United States since January the Iranians believed they could get the sanctions lifted. This has proved difficult because it is no longer secret that IRGC-run operations in Syria, Iraq and Yemen were seriously weakened after the sanctions were reinstated by the Americans in 2017. At the time it was also becoming clear that widespread anti-government protests inside Iran were largely about IRGC grabbing most of the money provided by the 2015 treaty that lifted sanctions. Iranians were told that this additional cash and export sales would be used to raise the standard of living in Iran. That did not happen and Iranians began calling for the end of the religious dictatorship. The IRGC exists mainly to keep that government in power and cracked down against the protests, killing over a thousand Iranians and wounding and arresting tens of thousands. The increasingly independent IRGC faction became an issue in Europe as the Iranian negotiations have not been able to assure the Americans and Europeans that the IRGC will tolerate any sanctions deal that involves a reduction in IRGC activity in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. All this leads the Saudis to believe that there will be another revolution inside Iran and the misbehavior of the IRGC will be a major reason. For both sides, its a gamble but because both sides are run by Islamic governments that believe God is on their side, logic and history have less impact on decision making. To an outsider Iran seems to be in a weaker position. Yet the Iranians have been more successful at gaining and holding onto power for thousands of years and even the wealthy Gulf Arab states recognize that. The word from rebel held territory in Yemen is that Iran has been visibly in charge since late 2020, after Iran sent a Quds Force general to be the Iranian ambassador to Yemen. Few nations, including Iran, have had ambassadors in the Yemeni capital after 2015. The rebels insist that because they occupy the capital and control over a third of the population, they are the real government and their opponents are southern separatists or foreigners. This ignores the fact that many of the people in rebel territory are kept in line via threats to cut off access to food, medical supplies and imported items. Tribes that try to break away risk starvation and a blockade of roadblocks and attacks on smugglers trying to get in. More and more tribes have been able to break away but the rebels have maintained a presence around many towns and cities. The new Iranian ambassador came to Yemen mainly to supervise Iranian support for combat operations and take a more direct role in running the war. That meant keeping the rebels under Iranian control no matter what. Quds felt so confident that they bluntly rejected UN and American offers for ceasefire talks and instead increased the number of offensive operations. For more than a month after the Quds general took over in Yemen, Quds force officers outside Yemen boasted to foreign journalists about what the Quds Force was up to in Yemen. The Iranian senior clerics, who have the final say in what Iranian policy is, realized that openly discussing the direct Iranian control of rebel operations was a mistake. Quds was ordered to leave media interviews and Internet announcements to the government. What the Iranian leaders could not do was order the IRGC to shut down their operation in Yemen, or Syria or Iraq. Iran is taking more direct control over the Yemen Shia rebels in order to use this control as part of the negotiations to end economic sanctions on Iran. If Iran pulled out of Yemen the Shia tribal forces would be defeated, as they have many times before. Quds force commanders are reluctant to give up gains made in Yemen and may have been told that they could revive support for the Yemeni Shia after the economic sanctions on Iran are lifted. Because of these sanctions Quds force saw its budget cut by half since 2017, forcing major reductions in Quds activities in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Yemen was always the least expensive Quds operation and did not suffer noticeable aid cuts. Yemen was the only IRGC operation that was able to attack arch-enemy Saudi Arabia directly and that counted for something. June 6, 2021: In northern Yemen (Sanaa city) the leaders of Hamas and the Yemen rebels met in a very public event. Hamas, a Sunni Arab Islamic terror group in Gaza, is one of the few Sunni groups openly supported by Iran. This meeting was all about Iran showing off how well it controls and coordinates the overseas Islamic terror groups it often denies having any influence over. The Hamas visit was unpopular with Yemeni Sunnis because most Yemenis are hostile to Israel and inclined to support the Palestinian goal of destroying Israel. Yemenis saw Hamas praise of the Yemeni rebels as an insult to Yemenis Sunnis, who are at war with Shia rebels that are increasingly using Iranian guided missiles against Sunni civilians. June 5, 2021: In central Iran (Kerman province) a steel plant suffered major damage due to a fire caused by mishandling of molten metal. The large number of fires breaking out in ships and industrial facilities in the last week is not believed to be the result of sabotage or foreign attack but something far worse. Lack of investment in infrastructure and the economy for decades is catching up with Iran. Since the 1980s the religious dictatorship has been obsessed with destroying the United States and Israel as well as achieving military domination throughout the region. These goals were pursued at great cost to the economy and the living standards of most Iranians. June 4, 2021: In Yemen Saudi Arabia agreed to lift the air blockade of Sanaa airport so that a group of Omani officials and rebel leaders from pro-peace factions could meet with senior rebel officials and discuss ways in which peace negotiations could proceed despite Iranian resistance. Getting the Omanis involved was a clever move by the Saudis because Oman has always been on good terms with Iran. This was the reason why Iran continued to get weapons, ammo and missile and UAV components into the Shia rebel stronghold in northwest Yemen. Oman shares a 293-kilometer border with Yemen and the Saudis knew the Omanis were tolerating Iranian weapons smuggling. It took several years of negotiations before a deal was worked out and Iran lost regular use of the Oman land route to the Yemen rebels. There is still the water route through the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. That route is guarded by the naval blockade and Iran has to spend a lot of money to hire experienced smugglers that can get past that. While Oman maintains good relations with Iran, it also maintains even better relations with the United States and Britain. The Saudis are an ally, so Oman does not take orders from the Saudis but does get along with them. Now the Saudis have the support of Oman in getting the Iranians out of the Arabian Peninsula. Such is not the case with Qatar, which sides with Iran, in part because of family feuds with the other Arab monarchies. Arabia is ruled by monarchies and the royal families have numerous links via past marriages, with the other Gulf dynasties and the resulting family feuds as well. Ending the family feud between Qatar and the Saudis is still a work in progress. June 3, 2021: In the southwest (Khuzestan province) two pilots in an F-5 jet fighter died when their ejection seats were activated while the aircraft was on the ground. These older ejection seats do not protect pilots from such mishaps and both pilots died. The elderly U.S. made F-5s are now used by Iran mainly for training. In eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor province) two IRGC officers were killed by an ISIL ambush. June 2, 2021: Iran, and four African countries, have lost their voting rights in the UN General Assembly because they have not paid their annual dues for two years. Iran blames this on American sanctions. Most Iranians blame it on the continued heavy spending to support IRGC operations in Iraq, Syria. Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and elsewhere. Iran has to pay $16 million to regain its voting rights. In the north, outside the capital (Tehran) an accident at an oil refinery, caused by a leak in a liquified natural gas pipeline set fire to over a dozen large storage tanks. The fire was raging throughout the night and could be seen throughout the sprawling city, the largest in the country with a population of nearly none million. June 1, 2021: In the south, off the coast, the largest warship in the IRGC Navy, the Khrag, caught fire and sank off Jask , an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman. There were 400 crew and trainees on board and while 33 were injured, everyone got off the ship. The fire burned out after a day and the ship sank. Khrag was built as a fleet oiler (tanker) in the 1970s and became part of the post-1979 revolution. Kharg went through several refurbishments since the 1990s that ultimately converted it to what Iran called a warship and aircraft carrier. Kharg was armed like a corvette, with a 76mm gun and lots of smaller caliber autocannon. There was a helicopter landing pad and hangers for two helicopters. With that Kharg could carry three helicopters but has never been seen doing so. Kharg retained some replenishment ship capabilities as it still had some of its hold space devoted to fuel and other supplies for transfer to other ships at sea. Israel was suspected as responsible for the loss of Kharg, but given the Iranian use of so many elderly ships and aircraft, which naturally are more prone to accidents, it is more likely Kharg self-destructed. That has been the case with several other Iranian warships, including new ones. Officer and crew inexperience as well as shoddy construction standards leads to more accidents. May 29, 2021: In the northwest (West Azerbaijan Province) IRGC troops clashed with some separatist Kurds crossing the border from a camp in northern Iraq. The IRGC killed two of the intruders and forced the others to flee back into Iraq. In doing this the Kurdish separatists left some weapons and equipment behind. May 27, 2021: In neighboring Iraq a new voting fraud scandal was exposed when it was discovered that some political parties had managed to buy thousands of non-biometric voting IDs. These are used to sway close elections. The only solution to this sort of fraud is to change the law and require all voters to have a biometric ID, which includes an electronically recorded fingerprint as well as a photo. With enough money, especially from Iran, a lot more of these non-biometric voter ID cards can be obtained. Biometric cards are nearly impossible to fake and the most serious impediment to voting fraud in a country notorious for such illegal activity. Iran-backed groups in Iraq have, next to ISIL, been the biggest threat to voter registration, especially when it involves biometric IDs. For that reason, the 2021 elections allowed some areas to accept non-biometric IDs. May 26, 2021: In neighboring Iraq, Baghdad security forces arrested Qassim Musleh, the commander of the 13th PMF (Popular Mobilization Forces) brigade. The dawn arrest was ordered by the prime minister, who had compiled well-documented charges of Musleh supporting Islamic terrorism and Iran. Musleh was also responsible for attacks on American forces in Anbar, often while the U.S. troops were housed in Iraqi military bases. The 13th Brigade has long been accused of causing more problems in western Iraq (Anbar Province) where the PMF is supposed to be fighting ISIL and any other Islamic terrorists in the area. There arent many ISIL men left in Anbar but there are a lot of Sunni Arabs who oppose Iran and the 13th brigade is composed of and led by Iraqi Shia Arabs who believe Iraq should be more like Iran, which is currently a corrupt religious dictatorship. Most Iraqis want no Iranian influence at all but appreciate Iran helping to create the PMF in 2014, to deal with the IISL threat after the Iraqi security forces collapsed under ISIL pressure. The PMF, along with Iraqi Kurdish militias and a growing force of Iraqi special operations trained by the Americans, plus an American led air support coalition defeated ISIL in Iraq and liberated all ISIL controlled territory in Iraq by 2017. The Kurds and PMF both contributed about 100,000 armed men. The Kurds were more effective and not seeking to take control of the government. The 25,000 Iraqi special operations troops were part of the NATO effort to select and train select Iraqi volunteers for intensive training to be effective troops loyal to the Iraqi government. Retraining the rest of the security forces meant ten times as many personnel and were in the elite special operations units. There were not enough reliable recruits available for that and the biggest problem was tribal and religious leaders who pressured recruits to remain loyal to tribe and religious faction, not Iraq, The Iraqi government planned to eventually integrate most of the PMF fighters into the military. Soon after 2014 the PMF were being paid regularly and wore army uniforms with shoulder patches identifying which of the 67 PMF brigades they belonged to. In 2014 most PMF brigades were loyal to or at least on good terms with Iranian influence. By 2019 the PMF was no longer dominated by pro-Iran brigade officers. At that point Iran realized they were in trouble. At the same time the government was being pressured by the United States to crack down on Iranian weapons shipments being allowed to cross the border into Syria at guarded border crossings. The weapons shipments are often hidden from view by legitimate cargo, but it does not take much effort to reveal that deception. These weapons shipments are guarded by Iran-backed PMF members. The 13th brigade was often involved with this and now the long-feared armed confrontation between Iraqi forces and Iran backed PMF occurred in the heavily guarded Baghdad Green Zone. After the arrest of Musleh earlier in the day, some of the thousands of pro-Iran PMF men in the Green Zone providing security, mainly for the PMF headquarters, promptly went rogue and surrounded the prime ministers headquarters. That was followed by the arrival of loyal army units who surrounded the PMF men blocking access to the prime minister's headquarters. Apparently, the goal was to have this settled by negotiation rather than a firefight. Musleh was transferred to the custody of the PMF and avoided prosecution. Yet this was a major defeat for Iran because it made clear that senior Iraqi PMF officials who backed Iran were vulnerable and becoming more vulnerable. This was not the first such defeat Iran has suffered. In 2020 the government arrested about twenty members of Kataib Hezbollah, a coalition of pro-Iran PMF militias that Iran is trying to turn into an Iraqi version of the Iran-controlled (since the 1980s) Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran was able to force the government to back off in 2020, but that left the government more determined to suppress the Iran-backed militias that the Iraq government was forced to support. May 23, 2021: In west Iraq (Anbar province) and northwest Iraq (Muthanna province) Iran-backed militia attacked American supply convoys with roadside bombs, wounding several Iraqi soldiers guarding the convoys and damaging two trucks. May 22, 2021: In west Iraq (Anbar province) there was another Israeli airstrike against Iranian weapons being stored near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. There were apparently some casualties as well among the Syrian and Iraqi pro-Iran militiamen who guard such Iranian facilities in Syria. May 21, 2021: Iraq officially backed Hamas in its recently ended war with Israel, the second one since 2014. The 15-day 2021 war was even more costly to Hamas, and less damaging for Israel than the 51-day war in 2014. Hamas called it a victory because they were still alive and in control of Gaza when it was over. Most Arab and Western donors to the Palestinians have reduced or cut aid to Gaza because of continued Palestinian corruption, violence against Israel and refusal to make a peace deal. Hamas has been the worst offender in this area and started both wars with a massive use of rockets against Israeli civilians. Iraqs support for the Palestinians is all theater and little in the way of substance. Many opportunistic Moslem politicians worldwide still blame all bad things on Israel while many of them trade with Israel on the side because that is economically (or militarily) advantageous. A growing number of Arab Gulf oil states are establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, which has given the Arab alliance against Iran a member with a track record of producing weapons that can defeat anything the Iranians have and is determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Israel is currently the only Middle Eastern nation with nuclear weapons and the only one that designs and builds space satellites and launches them on Israeli designed rockets. In part because of the increased Iranian threat, Arab states found they have more in common with Israel than fellow Moslem majority state Iran. May 14, 2021: In southern Syria (Golan Heights) someone, probably an Iran-backed group, fired three rockets into Israel. One rocket was faulty and landed on the Syrian side of the border while the other two landed in uninhabited areas of the Israeli Golan Heights. Someone was seeking to trigger another front in which Iran organized mass rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. May 13, 2021: In northwest Syria (near the Lebanese border) an Israeli airstrike destroyed a smuggler truck headed for Lebanon, apparently carrying Iranian weapons for Hezbollah. The Longview Police Department will again have an office in the Highlands neighborhood. The branch office will replace a closed police department office in the low-income neighborhood. The Longview City council unanimously awarded $250,000 Thursday for the building, which will be located in Archie Anderson Park. Police office The previous Highlands office closed in 2019 when the departments lease ended as new property owners took over the building. The office was located at 216 30th Ave. behind the St. Helens grocery store, and served the citys poorest neighborhood for nearly 24 years, according to a previous TDN report. Longview City Manager Kurt Sacha said the lowest bid to construct the new building came in $300,000 over the estimated costs as construction expenses continue to rise. Interim Planning Manager Adam Trimble said the council previously funded $150,260 for the police Highlands office. The Washington State Legislature also awarded the police department $250,000 for the project in 2020. CATHLAMET Graduates were showered with praise and in some cases sporadic downpours at outdoor ceremonies for Wahkiakum, Woodland and Castle Rock high schools Friday as they readied for the next stages of their lives. For three female graduates, that means leaving the halls of high school for the U.S. military. Stand-out grad: Considerate Wahkiakum grad plans to use kindness as nurse CATHLAMET Shannon Dela Cruz has lived in two countries and learned two languages all before graduating from high school. Ellie Wiltse-Hiatt is the first female Wahkiakum graduate to attend a military academy in the schools history, according to superintendent Brent Freeman. She was accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland. At the ceremony, just before a brief downpour, Wiltse-Hiatt spoke of facultys routine character-building exercises like practicing gratitude on thankful Thursdays and reminding students to make a difference at the end of each day. Character that I believe to be essential as we step out into the world and into the next steps of our lives, she said. Nearly an hour south, Woodland graduate Ashley Burney spoke at her high schools ceremony about altruistic aspirations. Burney always wanted a job where she put service before myself, she said, so she followed her fathers military footsteps and is pursuing a career as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. +2 Graduation a welcome celebration together after an unusual year for Kalama High School seniors KALAMA For many of the Kalama High school seniors graduating Friday, the ceremony marked not only the end of high school but the end of 13 y We inside the capital lmfao, he texted, using an abbreviation indicating he thought it was funny, according to the complaint. Chwiesiuk appeared via telephone in federal court in Chicago on Friday. His attorney, Tim Grace, said Chwiesiuk has been a Chicago police officer since 2018 and that he previously served as a Cook County sheriff's deputy. He was stripped of his police powers this week and is on desk duty, Grace said. Police Superintendent David Brown said during a news availability Friday that Chwiesiuk had his police powers stripped on June 2 after the department learned of his participation in the attack. Brown said that if the allegations are true, it is a betrayal of everything we stand for." What happened in D.C. on Jan. 6 was an absolute disgrace, he said. The fact that a Chicago police officer has been charged in that attack on American democracy makes my blood boil. We have a zero tolerance for hate and extremism of any kind within the Chicago Police Department, Brown said. And if you harbor such ignorance in your heart, you should take off your star now and find another line of work, or Ill do it for you. Its not at all inconceivable that the whole shelf could give way and go within a few years, Joughin said. Id say thats a long shot, but not a very long shot. Joughin tracked two points on the main glacier and found they were moving 12% faster toward the sea starting in 2017. So that means 12% more ice from Pine Island going into the ocean that wasnt there before, he said. The Pine Island Glacier, which is not on an island doesnt have pine trees, is one of two side-by-side glaciers in western Antarctica that ice scientists worry most about losing on that continent. The other is the Thwaites Glacier. Pine Island contains 180 trillion tons of ice the equivalent of 1.6 feet (half a meter) of sea level rise and is responsible for about a quarter of the continent's ice loss. Pine Island and Thwaites are our biggest worry now because they are falling apart and then the rest of West Antarctica will follow according to nearly all models, said University of California Irvine ice scientist Isabella Velicogna, who wasnt part of the study. The seven-day average of daily U.S. infections is now fewer than 15,000, a number not seen since the early days of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University. Given the rollouts success and lottery drawings and other incentives to encourage people to get the shots its hard to understand why vaccine hesitancy persists, jeopardizing President Bidens goal of having 70% of Americans fully vaccinated by July 4. The chances of getting COVID are far greater than getting sick from the vaccine, especially with the more easily transmissible delta variant making the rounds. Thumbs down: COVID-19 restrictions Oregon has not allowed Columbia County to reopen more liberally and has kept it mired in a high risk classification. Its one of 11 Oregon counties in that group, which limits attendance at bars, restaurants and churches to 25%. On the surface, the ranking appears justified. Columbia Countys COVID infection and test positivity rates are higher than the state wants, and looks especially unfavorable compared with those of neighboring counties. In addition, vaccination rates are lagging, with 41% of eligible people having at least one shot, well short of the state average of 54%. Zeynep, left, a Gorillas rider from Turkey who declined to give her last name for fear of facing repercussions from the company, blocks with other workers the entrance of a depot for German startup Gorillas, a grocery delivery company, to protest the firing of a colleague in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 10, 2021. The company Gorillas operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber Dozens of workers gathered outside of one of Berlin's most-celebrated startups, the grocery delivery company Gorillas, to protest the firing hours earlier of a colleague. "We want Santiago back!" the young riders chanted last week, threatening to blockade one of the company's inner-city warehouses with their bikes unless he was reinstated. The wildcat strike on a balmy June evening was unusual even by Germany's strong tradition of labor rights, highlighting growing tensions in the capital's freewheeling startup scene. "We came here to show our solidarity, to support our friend," said Zeynep, a Gorillas rider who declined to give her last name for fear of facing repercussions from the company. "We want this decision to be reversed as soon as possible." The riders said their colleague had been fired without warning after turning up late for his shift. In a statement, the company said he his contract was terminated for "serious misconduct" but declined to provide details, citing confidentiality. Founded just last year, Gorillas has benefited from surging demand for quick grocery deliveries during the pandemic. In March, the company raised about $290 million from investors, becoming Germany's fastest 'unicorn'a startup with a total valuation of $1 billion or more. Workers block the entrance of a depot for German startup Gorillas, a grocery delivery company, to protest the firing of a colleague in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 10, 2021. The company Gorillas operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber Gorillas now operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York, where it faces U.S. incumbents such as Gopuff. But strikes like those in Berlin show trouble is brewing in its home market. The rowdy but peaceful protest late Wednesday drew support from employees of rival delivery services, some of whom downed their colorful courier bags to join the picket. Eventually Gorillas agreed to close the depot for the night, drawing cheers from the protesters. The next day, riders blockaded another warehouse, making clear their gripes go beyond the firing of a single colleague. "In the last six months, that I've been here I've noticed so many ways that the company is doing things in an unjustified way," said rider Huseyin Camalan. "We're here to stand against that. It's part of a larger thing." Camalan said many riders suffer from back pain and other health problems due to the heavy bags they have to carry. Faulty bikes, a limited say in their shifts and lack of administrative support are also a problem, he said. Workers block the entrance of a depot for German startup Gorillas, a grocery delivery company, during a protest against the firing of a colleague in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 10, 2021. The delivery service Gorillas now operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber When riders send emails asking for help, they rarely get a reply, Camalan said, adding "They ignore us." Last week four rivalsDelivery Hero, Bolt, Glovo and Woltannounced a joint effort to develop a code of conduct in what appeared to be an effort to head off a regulatory crackdown by the European Union. "We want to establish better governance of working conditions, labor practices and social rights for all workers, regardless of their employment status," Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Spain-based delivery company Glovo said. According to experts, many delivery firms in Germany operate on the edge of legality in their rush to expand before they run out of cash. Gorillas says it doesn't consider itself part of the 'gig economy,' having chosen to employ its riders and warehouse staff. But hourly wages are low at 11.50 euros (less than $14) after tips and the probationary period is six monthsthe longest allowed by law. Riders at the protest complained that the company doesn't issue them with phones they need for work, that salaries are often short and weight limits on bags aren't respected. Workers block the entrance of a depot for German startup Gorillas, a grocery delivery company, to protest the firing of a colleague in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 10, 2021. Founded just last year, Gorillas benefited from surging demand for quick grocery deliveries during the pandemic. The company operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber "The working conditions are at the minimum end of what's normal in Germany," said Sebastian Riesner, who heads the Berlin chapter of the hospitality workers union NGG. "Some of the contracts are pretty outlandish. "There seems to be a strategy of relying on people who don't know the rules in this country." Angry Gorillas riders recently banded together and, with the help of NGG, began the process of electing a works council. Under German law, members of the council get a say on working conditions and firings. Falling in line with Germany's established labor practices could make it harder for businesses like Gorillas to turn a profit. "I don't think these companies are earning any money at the moment," said Werner Reinartz, a retail expert at the University of Cologne. German business monthly Manager Magazin cited internal documents suggesting that Gorillas loses 1.50 euros ($1.82) on every order. At the same time, foreign rivals such as Getir from Turkey and Britain-based Weezy are eyeing a launch in Europe's biggest economy, where they will compete for the same limited pool of ridersalready dwindling as other parts of the economy wake up from the pandemic lockdown. Zeynep, center, a Gorillas rider from Turkey who declined to give her last name for fear of facing repercussions from the company, blocks with other workers the entrance of a depot for German startup Gorillas, a grocery delivery company, to protest the firing of a colleague in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 10, 2021. The company Gorillas operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York. Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber "The strikes show that the current model is difficult to carry forward," said Reinartz. "You need people who want to do this job." The company's chief executive, Kagan Sumer, said in a message to staff that he was "deeply troubled" by the events of the past days, but insisting that the firing of the rider had been a "difficult but necessary decision." Sumer didn't address the protesters' broader complaints, but instead announced plans to cycle to every city where the company operates, to meet staff and ride through the cities with them. The Left party's candidate in September's mayoral election, Klaus Lederer, expressed his support for the striking Gorillas workers. "If these companies want to have a future in Berlin, then they need to immediately respect the minimum standards of treating their employees fairly," he said. Riders such as Camalan insist they can force a change from below. "We live in Germany." he said. "We don't live in some random country that doesn't have any labor laws." Explore further UK Deliveroo riders strike over pay, gig work conditions 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. More could join that list soon. About half the states had emergency orders set to expire before the Fourth of July. And over a dozen additional states have open-ended emergency orders, which could be canceled at any time by governors. Massachusetts has been in an indefinite state of emergency for 15 months. But Gov. Charlie Baker has said that will come to an end Tuesday. He credited the state's high vaccination rate with helping turn the tide in the fight against the coronavirus. Unless something odd happens, I would say that it is pretty much over, said Baker, a Republican. Coronavirus emergencies also could expire Tuesday in Kansas and Vermont. Top Republican lawmakers in Kansas, whose approval is needed for an extension, have signaled they wont continue an emergency order issued by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, though she prefers it remain through August. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has said he will end all remaining emergency restrictions once 80% of eligible residents receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine a threshold the state is close to reaching. Yet many local farmers do not want to get their water back by force. Even if they do manage to open the gates for a short period of time, Hill said, there still won't be enough water for their needs. "When people are desperate and scared, they have all sorts of different reactions along the spectrum," Hill said. "There's enough people that are pushed to the brink this year that options that wouldn't normally seem reasonable are starting to change. As far as any violence, it's not just something I can ever condone." 'If those fish die, the people die' The Upper Klamath Lake is home to two native suckerfish -- the C'waam and Koptu -- that don't exist anywhere else in the world. These fish are also sacred to southern Oregon's Klamath Tribes, which are made up of the Klamath, Modoc and Yahookskin band of Northern Paiute Indians. But biologists and the tribal communities around the Upper Klamath Lake say that warming temperatures and environmental degradation have caused water levels to drop to the bare minimum needed to keep the fish alive. HASTINGS Hastings College hosted Open Space for the Visual and Performing Arts last week, with 65 talented students from Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and Missouri on campus June 6-12. The immersion programs were designed for future artists, musicians and thespians completing their sophomore or junior year of high school. Hastings Colleges art faculty selected 36 students to attend Open Space for the Visual Arts this year, and the Department of Music and Theatre faculty selected 29 students for the performing arts track. Both were a very competitive and rigorous application process. Visual arts students worked directly with Hastings College art instructors in glass blowing, ceramics, sculpture, digital painting and drawing. There was a public showing of the students work Saturday. Performing arts students spent time each day in their selected area-specific technique class, which includes small group sessions for woodwinds, piano, brass, theatre and voice. Electives were designed to include information on stage makeup techniques, tips on auditioning, puppetry, sound painting, improv and a wide variety of skills. There has been a lot of interest in growing field peas in the last five years across Nebraska. A common question growers have though is, which varieties are best for my area? The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is hosting field days this month to help answer grower questions through variety trial demonstration plots. One of these field trials is located near Venango in Perkins County where 26 varieties were tested under dryland growing conditions. UNL speakers and reps from various seed companies will be present at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 16, to answer questions and discuss the variety trial on Steve Tuckers farm. (How to get there: From Brandon, travel two miles southwest on Highway 23 and one mile north on county road 316. The plot is located on the west side of the road.) For more information about the field day, contact Dipak Santra at 308-632-1244 or dsantra2@unl.edu; or Vernon Florke at 308-249-3161. SCAL Weed Management Field Day June 23 Nebraska Extension will host an in-person Weed Management Field Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 23, near Clay Center. Pork muscle cuts followed a similar trajectory, increasing 3% in volume (224,179 mt) and 10% in value ($641.7 million). Through April, pork exports were 5% below last year at 1.05 million mt, valued at $2.82 billion (down 3%). Pork muscle cut exports were down 5% to 883,599 mt, valued at $2.43 billion (down 4%). Looking back at April 2020, it was a difficult month for red meat exports as we began to see COVID-related supply chain interruptions and food service demand took a major hit in many key markets, said USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom. While it is no surprise that exports performed much better in April 2021, we are pleased to see that global demand continued to build on the broad-based growth achieved in March. Halstrom cautioned, however, that the COVID-19 pandemic is still a major concern for the U.S. meat industry, adding uncertainty to the business climate in many export destinations. Logistical challenges, including container shortages and ongoing vessel congestion at many U.S. ports, also present significant obstacles for red meat exports. While conditions are improving in many key markets, the COVID impact is the most intense it has ever been in Taiwan and heightened countermeasures are also in place in Japan and other Asian countries, he said. Ortega didnt know English when he arrived in the U.S., and now he works as a paraprofessional in the ESL program at Bryant Elementary School in Kearney. The 29-year-old wants to teach in a high school ESL program after graduation and provide free English classes for adults. I feel like I need to pay it forward, Ortega said. If we want to bridge that gap between immigrants and natives, we have to be able to communicate. Sharing their stories Although more than 11% of Nebraskas population is Hispanic or Latino double the figure from 20 years ago these residents continue to face discrimination. Its hard for people to be open-minded about something if they have no experience, if theyre not aware of the issues, Ortega said. Thats why Coming to the Plains is so important. Warren, Weisse and Rosdail, an associate professor of communication, give immigrants a voice through their project, which is funded by UNKs Research Services Council, the University of Nebraska Collaboration Initiative, Nebraska Arts Council and Humanities Nebraska. The video-recorded interviews detailing each participants journey will be shared in multiple ways. Dobesh got busy, too. I have three guys who worked with me. We took the gates down and hauled em back to Grand Island. One was cracked and had to be fixed, he said. He used two Grand Island businesses, A&D Welding, and Borer Repair, and had them sandblasted and powder-coated. Powder-coating is a little nicer paint job. Both those businesses had worked for me before. I knew the quality of their work was very good, he said. Everyones a little busy, but they got on it. Then I loaded the gates back into the lowboy and took em back to Kearney. He told Baye he was reluctant to hang the gates because I dont want to scratch them or have something happen to them. But Dobesh wasnt finished. When he took the gates back, he saw that the city was taking the old bricks off the pillars because the bricks needed to be replaced. I told Steve and Lynnda, if you let me, I will bring a big excavator, dig the pillars out and haul them away. Ill donate that as well, he said. Baye said, It saved us hours of labor, with him bringing his large equipment over to do this for us. At this moment, a draft is theoretical. The United States has not compelled citizens to serve in the armed forces for nearly 50 years. But the specter of military conscription has been raised over the years during moments of extreme international tension. In 1980, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, then-President Carter raised the possibility of a draft and reinstated mandatory registration, which had lapsed after Vietnam. (Three years earlier, he had pardoned thousands of young men who had opposed the Vietnam War and evaded the draft, many by moving to Canada.) The idea surfaced again in 2007 when conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan had our military stretched thin. During the Trump years, the presidents bellicose posturing against North Korea and Iraq led some to wonder about the possibility of yet another military conflict. In February 2020, after a high-ranking Iranian military official, Qassem Suleimani, was killed by a U.S. airstrike and Iran threatened to retaliate, the hashtag #WorldWarIII trended on social media along with rumors about a draft. Perhaps the more interesting question is whether there should be military registration at all. Paris, TX (75460) Today Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Paris, TX (75460) Today Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. As an academically gifted student in Daegu, he enrolled in medical school. However, he realized that medicine wasn't his calling, and he changed to studying philosophy, receiving a Master's Degree at Seoul National University, the nation's most prestigious college. Kim had an aptitude for languages and translated on the battlefield during the Korean War for U.S. forces. He eventually worked for the intelligence department of the South Korean government, scanning, translating, and summarizing international news for reports that went directly to the president. In the early 1960s, Kim was invited to work in the United States by an American executive, who had offices in San Jose, California. But before his immigration documents could be processed, he had to spend one year abroad and chose Colombia, where he studied Spanish and learned how to play the classical guitar. Once he arrived in the Bay Area, Kim chose, instead, to begin work on his second Master's program in psychology at San Jose State University. His wife and two children, Elaine and Mirena, remained in Seoul during this time. After four years, he was reunited with his family when they joined him in San Francisco, California in 1970. Three years later, his youngest daughter Serena was born. Cody was also struck in the legs with a taser, according to reports. Sheriff Jack Campbell in his own news release noted that correctional officers were faced "with a nearly impossible situation." "Mr. Cody was harming himself, was non-responsive to officer requests to cease and comply and therefore needed to be restrained quickly for his own safety," Campbell added. "Swift action was necessary and warranted, and it was done with the intent of stopping a harmful situation, not to cause harm. "Our officers used the methods and techniques that they learned through their training." Cody resisted health checks and attempts to handcuff him. After he was tased and handcuffed, Cody became unresponsive. Medical staff immediately began CPR and an AED was brought to the scene. Emergency medical personnel arrived at the jail to take over CPR Cody was transported to Memorial Medical Center where he died shortly after 4:30 a.m. on April 28. In the coroner's report, it was found that Cody had broken ribs and traces of methamphetamine in his system. Local editor's pick alert top story RMC safety grade improves; CEO says hospital committed to best practices LARRY HARDY, T&D FILES Regional Medical Center The Regional Medical Center has improved patient safety, according to the latest survey by a national hospital safety watchdog group. The Leapfrog Group gave RMC a "D" in its spring 2021 survey of hospital safety across the nation. That is up from an F the hospital received in the fall of 2020. "My commitment to the board and the medical staff and to the county is that we will work really hard to improve that," RMC CEO David Southerland said of the "D" grade. "It will take a team effort. It takes physicians and hospitals with goals and objective to work together." Southerland said senior leadership has already talked about how to develop a plan to look at quality outcomes. "We will break the plan down and look at those specific areas," he said. "It will be restructuring our quality reporting process to make sure we are on top of things." The 2021 spring results showed the hospital performed below average in 17 of 26 patient-safety measures and above average in nine. That is an improvement from the 2020 fall results, which showed the hospital performed below average in 19 of 28 patient-safety measures and above average in eight. RMC was one of four hospitals in the state to receive a "D" from Leapfrog. About 47 hospitals in the state were surveyed. Other hospitals receiving a "D" were: the Medical University of South Carolina Health-Marion Medical Center in Mullins; Newberry County Memorial Hospital in Newberry; and Spartanburg Medical Center-Mary Black campus in Spartanburg. In the fall of 2020, RMC was one of two in the state to receive an "F" along with MUSC's Marion Medical Center in Mullins. 'I like the challenge,' new RMC CEO says of hospital turnaround The Regional Medical Center's new chief executive officer, David Southerland, has only been at the helm of the hospital for two weeks but already is addressing the challenges facing the rural hospital. Since the spring of 2018, RMC has received a "D" from Leapfrog in the spring of 2018; the spring and fall of 2019; and the spring of 2020. RMC received an "F" in the fall of 2018 and the fall of 2020. The survey looks at U.S. general acute-care hospitals, which total 2,700. The American Hospital Association has long been critical of the Leapfrog survey, describing it as biased, unreliable and error-filled. Hospital officials have also decried the data for being dated -- it typically releases data that is over 1-1/2 years old. Leapfrog has defended its analysis and data. Southerland noted Leapfrog is one of several quality score indicators and should not be taken in isolation. He said insurance companies like BlueCross and United Healthcare all provide analysis of hospital outcomes. The Joint Commission, which accredits more than 22,000 U.S. health care organizations and programs, is also reviews RMC. The hospital will have a Joint Commission survey done at the end of June. The Joint Commission survey examines more quality indicators than Leapfrog. The hospital has historically received high marks from the Joint Commission. Greatest improvement The areas in which RMC saw the greatest improvement going from below average in the fall of 2020 to above average in the spring of 2021 were: Doctors showing an improvement in ordering medications through a computer. RMC went from below average to above average and received the best possible score in this safety measure. The survey notes that safer hospitals "use Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems in all areas of the hospital and regularly test those systems to ensure they are alerting doctors to potential ordering errors." RMC disputes failing grade on patient safety The Regional Medical Center has a failing grade for patient safety in the latest survey by a national hospital safety watchdog group. The survey notes that scoring high in this measure shows that the CPOE system is effective in alerting doctors if they try to order a medication that could cause harm, such as prescribing an adult dosage for a child. "CPOE systems help to reduce medication errors in the hospital," the survey said. It is the first time the hospital has been above average in this category in the most survey results going back to the fall of 2018. The fall 2018 survey results reported the hospital was average in this measure. Having specially trained doctors for Intensive Care Unit patients. RMC went from below average to above average and received the best possible score in this safety measure. The survey notes that safer hospitals "staff ICUs with physicians who have training in critical care medicine." The survey adds that hospitals "should have special doctors called intensivists working in the ICU" and that "There are higher death rates in hospitals where ICU patients are not cared for by intensivists." Unchanged measures Infections -- The survey says RMC was worse than the average hospital in preventing infections such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), clostridium difficile (C. diff), blood infections due to central line placement, and surgical site infections after colon surgery. The RMC remained worse than the average hospital in treating urinary tract infections but did improve slightly. Problems with surgery -- In the problems-with-surgery category, RMC continued to remain worse than the average hospital in preventing death from serious and treatable complications, blood clots, accidental cuts and tears, serious breathing problems and collapsed lung issues. The hospital remained better than the average hospital in removing dangerous objects within individuals after surgery, according to the survey. "The hospital team follows a strict procedure to count sponges and tools in the operating room," the survey says of safer hospitals. "The hospital may use an electronic scanning system where each object is scanned before and after surgery to ensure they havent left any objects inside the patient." The hospital also remained above average as compared to other hospitals in preventing surgical wounds from reopening. Practices to prevent errors -- The hospital remained worse than average in effectively communicating about medicines and discharges. The hospital remained better than the average hospital in safely administering medications. "When hospitals use bar coding technology effectively for all orders, medication errors happen far less frequently," the survey said, describing what safer hospitals do. Hospital staff working together to prevent patient errors saw the best possible score and was above the average hospital. "Hospitals regularly survey their physicians, nurses and other staff on the culture of safety to measure how well staff works together to keep patients safe," the survey states in describing above-average hospitals. "Then, hospitals provide feedback on the results to leaders and hospital staff and create plans to improve." Hand-washing protocols and procedures were not surveyed. In the fall of 2020, the hospital saw the best score possible in this category. Safety problems -- RMC remained below average in effectively preventing bed sores but above average in preventing air embolisms. "Staff is careful when inserting or removing a tube from a major vein to guard against air or gas getting into a patients bloodstream," the survey said in describing hospitals that are safer. "All staff is trained to safely put in and take out catheters and other tubes." The hospital was also worse than average in preventing patient falls. Safer hospitals have staff members who "assist patients when they want to get up to use the restroom or move around the hospital." "Leadership and staff make sure that the hospital environment is clear of hazards that could cause a fall or other trauma," the survey said of safer hospitals. "Patient beds may be equipped with alarms to alert staff if a patient who is at risk of falls tries to get out of bed on his or her own. Hospital staff responds quickly to these alarms if they go off." Doctors, nurses and hospital staff -- The hospital received the best possible score with its leadership's effectiveness in preventing errors, maintaining its score from the fall of 2020. The survey notes above-average hospitals have leaders that are aware of the patient safety problems, work with hospital staff to fix them and share their efforts with the larger community. "Leaders also make it a priority to learn about and use the best methods to prevent errors and are held accountable for identifying and reducing unsafe practices," the survey notes. The hospital also was above average as compared to other hospitals in having enough qualified nurses, receiving the best possible score and maintaining its 2020 fall average. The survey notes that above-average hospitals like RMC "hire enough nurses to care for all of the patients. They also ensure that those nurses have the right training to provide safe care for their patients." RMC continued to be worse than average in patient satisfaction with nurse communication and low satisfaction with hospital staff responsiveness. Leapfrog survey The Leapfrog data were collected between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2019, from outcomes measures including errors, accidents and injuries. Process measures including the management structures and procedures a hospital has in place to protect patients from errors, accidents and injuries data were taken in 2020 and from Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019. Source of data came primarily from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services and through a 2020 volunteer survey. The grades are based on safety data and represent a hospitals overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors, according to Leapfrog. Overall in South Carolina, of the 47 hospitals that were ranked, 16 received a grade of "A." Nationally, South Carolina ranked 19th among all states with 34% of its hospitals scoring "A." The Leapfrog Group was created in 2000 by a group of businesses and other large health care purchasers who sought to reduce preventable medical mistakes. Since 2012, the Leapfrog Group has published hospital safety scores to create transparency in the U.S. health system. The bi-annual surveys -- one in the spring and one in the fall -- looks at infections, problems with surgery, practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses and hospital staff. Leapfrog graded more than 2,700 hospitals nationwide: 33% earned an "A," 24% earned a "B," 35% a "C," 7% a "D" and less than 1% an F, according to a press release issued by the group. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety grade is reviewed by a national expert panel and receives guidance from Johns Hopkins Medicines Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, according to its website. While the data do not yet include findings collected during the height of COVID-19, Leapfrog said the data offer an indication of how well hospitals implemented fundamental safety precautions prior to the pandemic. For more information about the safety grades, as well as individual hospital grades and state rankings, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org. The complex would include the sheriff's office, health department, Veterans Affairs office and the county coroner's office. While the county also snagged a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to go toward the building of the new Bamberg County Health Department office, securing funding for the Department of Social Services portion will be different, the administrator said. Preston said that more funding is also being sought for the inclusion of an emergency operations center. Were going to have storage space for all of our voting equipment. In addition to this, were looking to see if its a possibility we can find space to perhaps maybe relocate the voter registration and election commission to that building if we can find space, and if we can find available funding with not having to go out and seek any new funding, Preston said. The administrator also reported the County Voter Registration and Election Commission is seeking applicants for a new Voter Registration and Election director. Commission Chairman Curtis Tyler said following the meeting that Director Melinda Johnson resigned for health reasons. Lawmakers want to start the process for centralizing sales tax collections through a commission, rather than dozens of local government agencies. That's a long sought goal of business organizations that argue the current system is too complicated and discouraging to companies. And that should be a fairly easy concept to explain to voters. The income tax proposal is more complex because it's a multi-bill package tied to the constitutional amendment. It would get rid of personal income tax and corporate tax deductions for federal income taxes paid in exchange for lowering the states overall income tax rates. Louisiana also would eliminate the corporate franchise tax for small businesses and lower the rate for others. Schexnayder, a Gonzales Republican, noted that tax experts, economists and government watchdog groups had recommended the changes for decades. They said it couldn't be done. It got done, Schexnayder said. But the ballot language doesn't really incorporate all that or even explain that the public would be voting to give away a tax break it currently receives. Instead, the proposal facing voters will read: Do you support an amendment to lower the maximum allowable rate of individual income tax and to authorize the legislature to provide by law for a deduction for federal income taxes paid? The nations largest, most influential doctors group is holding its annual policymaking meeting amid backlash over its most ambitious plan ever to help dismantle centuries-old racism and bias in all realms of the medical establishment. The dissenters are a vocal minority of physicians, including some white Southern delegates who accuse the American Medical Association of reverse discrimination. Dr. Gerald Harmon, the group's incoming president, is a 69-year-old white native of rural South Carolina who knows he isnt the most obvious choice to lead the AMA at this pivotal time. But he seems intent on breaking down stereotypes and said pointedly in a phone interview, This plan is not up for debate. The six-day meeting that began Friday is being held virtually because of the pandemic. It offers a chance for doctors to adopt policies that spell out how the AMA should implement its health equity plan. But some white doctors say the plan goes too far. Announced last month, the plan is unusually bold for the historically cautious AMA, acknowledging that racism and white privilege exist in the medical establishment and have contributed to health disparities laid bare during the coronavirus pandemic. My church friend, Harold Rice, insisted on putting $6 a month into my Guidestone retirement fund when I was a 17-year-old pastor. He did this every month for about a year or so until I graduated from high school and left the church. I Long forgot about that but started checking into it a couple of years back and discovered that little account has grown to over $53,000. My salary at the age of 17 was $60 per month. My Guidestone retirement investment was 10% of what I made, which was $6. Both financial figures sound funny and somewhat they were barely enough to buy my gas to the Liberty church in rural Johnson county. Over 35 years that little bit of money, which might have been $100, grew to over $53,000 and is now a nice addition to my retirement portfolio. The bottom line to that story is that I was performing a service of work that I loved. I received a small amount of compensation and even miniature retirement pay. However, eventually it became something. Find the best job you can find and work that job. Work as many hours as are available. Negotiate the best pay you can negotiate. Take care of your family and look for every opportunity to save money for down the road. The political world has been focusing on the serious splits in Republican ranks -- and rightly so. Purging party members who won't worship before the altar of Trumpism is an exercise in self-demolition. But the GOP's fratricidal impulses distract attention from the widening fissures that divide the Democrats, especially as the party's left wing becomes increasingly impatient with President Joe Biden. Those tensions have always been there, but they were shelved during the campaign by a common commitment to defeating Donald Trump at any cost. Now, long-standing rivalries are starting to resurface on a range of issues, from supporting Israel and spending on infrastructure to the highly sensitive question of restraining police practices. As Biden told David Brooks of The New York Times, "The progressives don't like me because I'm not prepared to take on what I would say and they would say is a socialist agenda." Biden wears those negative opinions as a badge of honor, and he should. If he's going to be a successful president -- and preserve the Democrats' very slim majorities in Congress next year -- he has to resist the pressures coming from those progressives. There's a good reason he defeated Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic nomination: He understood political reality. This subscription will allow existing subscribers of The World to access all of our online content, including the E-Editions area. NOTE: To claim your access to the site, you will need to enter the Last Name and First Name that is tied to your subscription in this format: SMITH, JOHN If you need help with exactly how your specific name needs be entered, please email us at admin@countrymedia.net or call us at 1-541 266 6047. The way the Natrium SMR stores the energy it creates makes it more accident-proof too. The reactor that Wyoming is getting can store energy in molten sodium pools for long periods of time, which makes the reactor much less susceptible to meltdowns. What this means in practice is if the temperature of the reactor increases, the reactor is designed to naturally reduce power early enough that it will have a considerable amount of time to respond to any unusual event before anything dangerous can happen, a TerraPower spokesperson explained. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} When it comes to natural disasters, the Natrium SMR is already at a much lower risk for accidents than older reactors. Take Fukushima for example: One of the major causes for that nuclear disaster was the damage to the external energy sources and the lack of human intervention, neither of which the Natrium SMR uses. A Fukushima-like event could not happen with the nuclear power plant Wyoming is getting, according to Buongiorno. For this system, that accident is physically impossible because there are no engineered safety systems that can be disabled by flood, he said. There are many details left to learn, but at first glance, there is a lot to like about this project. It would mean hundreds of permanent jobs, and many more during construction. It would provide a use for retiring coal plants and the transmission infrastructure that already exists. And it would be an investment in clean energy at a time when demand for it is growing. If the first plant proves safe and effective, its quite possible there could be even more investment in our state. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Still, there are questions that need answering. For example, what kind of workforce is needed to build and operate this generation of nuclear power plant? Do our workers possess the right training, or do we need to provide that now so were ready? And while were discussing our workforce, whats a realistic expectation for jobs? And then there is the question of safety. Nuclear power fell out of favor in the 1980s after the Chernobyl disaster and the accident at Three Mile Island. A nuclear accident has the potential to cause environmental damage that will outlive all of us. In the worst-case scenario, it could sicken or kill people. We need an accurate, honest assessment of the risks involved in this venture. AT 32 years old, Zwede Hewitt is building out an app that he is confident is going to take the world by storm. The name of the app is LUHU, which stands for Let Us Help U and Hewitt describes it as social marketplace. It is a place where people can do social networking, but it combines that with the ability to shop. So the concept is essentially social networking meets e-commerce, says Hewitt. July 3, 2021, is the 200th birth anniversary of my maternal great-grandfather, Norman McNeil. According to the February 1822 Annual Return of Plantation Slaves, he was born on the Dunvegan Estate, in the Whim district of Tobago, on July 3, 1821, to a mother simply called Cathrine (sic). In the column headed Colour, he is listed as a mestee, which in the Tobago of the time usually meant the child of a white man and a mulatto or quadroon woman. 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 Because of my previous association with the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), several persons have been asking why am I not commenting on the two self-government bills for Tobago. If the scenes of despair circulating around the nation and the desperate pleas by people are not enough to get the Government to understand the generational crisis we are facing, what will? Improper flashing: Usually a direct result of the original installation. Rather than flashing around pipes, concrete or mortar is used. This will cause the roof to eventually fail. Improper tile spacing: Excessive water can seep into the underlayment. It can destroy a roof 30% to 50% faster than intended. Shingles Shingles are typically composed of a fiberglass mat that is saturated with asphalt. Granules are added for color and sun protection and installed with underlayment. Shingles do not require the same maintenance as a tile roof, but they should be checked and maintained periodically. Granular loss: As shingles lose their protective granular covers, they will age at a more rapid pace as the sun wears down the asphalt. Sealant: Some areas on a shingle roof require sealant. Sealant typically has a lifespan of less than the roof and should be refreshed midlife of the system. Debris: A shingle roof is water-shedding. That means if there is debris accumulated, water can back up and leak. It can also accelerate the aging of the shingles. Fla t roofs These are the most common residential flat roofs. Talks resume this week to come up with a plan. Time is running out, with a new fiscal year beginning July 1. And that will give Hoffman another chance to try to quash any increase in jobless benefits. Key to Fanns budget vote Fann said Hoffman and any of his followers dont seem to understand the ramifications of their efforts. Im a no on the budget without it, she said, meaning the increase in benefits has to be part of the final plan including the tax cuts that Hoffman wants if it is to get adopted. Her anger goes beyond the immediate future of the spending plan and tax-cut package. I dont normally talk like this, Fann said. Im one of these people that tries to work with everybody and help each other out, she said. But that pendulum has swung a little too far in the other way where theres definitely a lack of respect for leadership, much less the other (legislative) chamber. The political reality of the legislative process, she noted, is coming up with proposals that can get the support of the majority of the Senate and House as well as the backing of the governor, who has the power of veto. You cant have everything your own way, Fann said. This is why we work together as a caucus. This is why we work together as an entire legislative body. But this confluence of events should lead us to bigger reconsideration of where were at, and a more ambitious program of conserving the water and climate that weve got. Tim Steller is an opinion columnist. A 25-year veteran of reporting and editing, he digs into issues and stories that matter in the Tucson area, reports the results and tells you his conclusions. Contact him at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter Tim Steller is an opinion columnist. A 25-year veteran of reporting and editing, he digs into issues and stories that matter in the Tucson area, reports the results and tells you his conclusions. Contact him at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter PHOENIX (AP) The parents of a Texas man fatally shot five years ago by a Mesa police officer at an Arizona hotel has agreed to settle their legal claims against the city over their sons death. The Arizona Republic reports that the city has declined to reveal how much it will pay to settle the lawsuit over the 2016 shooting death of 26-year-old Daniel Shaver of Granbury, Texas. Then-Officer Philip Brailsford shot Shaver as Shaver lay on the ground outside his hotel room and was ordered to crawl toward officers. Brailsford was charged with murder in Shavers death, but a jury acquitted him of the charge. The newspaper reported that the city and police officers settled with Shavers parents on May 28 but have failed to reach an agreement with Shavers widow, Laney Sweet, and two children, court documents show. Mesa refused to provide the settlement amount with Shavers parents until it finalizes the full terms of the settlement. He likened the new office to the Drug Enforcement Administration opening a call center to help drug dealers get lawyers and amnesty for their crimes." The Department of Homeland Security is a law enforcement agency, not a legal help center for criminals and lawbreakers," Miller said. Jon Feere, an ICE official during the Trump administration, said he referred a man to VOICE whose sister was killed by an intoxicated driver and that the office helped families understand the status of immigration cases. The change of tone regarding immigration has been striking between the two administrations. While studies suggest immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born, Trump relentlessly sought to establish a link. He launched his 2016 presidential campaign by portraying Mexicans in the country illegally as violent criminals and frequently highlighted the MS-13 gang, which was started by Salvadoran immigrants. To advance his immigration agenda, Trump invited angel families people whose loved ones had been victims of crimes by immigrants to campaign rallies and high-profile speeches. Trump's office for victims of violent crimes appears to have had little impact. DETROIT (AP) In a reversal from Trump administration policies, U.S. auto safety regulators say they will move to require or set standards for automatic emergency braking systems on new heavy trucks. The Department of Transportation, which includes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced the change Friday when it released its spring regulatory agenda. It also will require what it said are rigorous testing standards for autonomous vehicles, and set up a national database to document automated-vehicle crashes. The moves by the administration of President Joe Biden run counter to the agency's stance under President Donald Trump. NHTSA had resisted regulation of automated-vehicle systems, saying it didn't want to stand in the way of potential life-saving developments. Instead it relied on voluntary safety plans from manufacturers. NHTSA had proposed a regulation on automatic emergency braking in 2015 before Trump took office, but it languished in the regulatory process. The agency says it has been studying use of the electronic systems, and it plans to publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register in April of next year. When a regulation is published, it opens the door to public comment. OPINION: Water is the subject of the day. How to conserve, the proposed water rate increase and building of more houses and the where the water will come from. Join the discussion, writer at letter at tucson.com/opinion. Chamber Music Tulsa will present musicians from the early music ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston in concert 3 p.m. Sunday, June 13, at St. Johns Episcopal Church, 4200 S. Atlanta Place. Led by artistic director and harpischordist Matthew Dirst, Ars Lyrica Houston draws from that citys early music specialists to create unique concerts that explore the wealth of repertoire of the Baroque era, from solo instrumental works to full-scale operas. The groups recording of Hasses opera, Marc Antonio E Cleopatra, earned a Grammy Award nomination in 2011. The program for Sundays concert, Semper Fantasticus, features works for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord by German composers done in fantastical style, which is noted for its quirky dance rhythms and ingenious harmonies. The concert will last about an hour and will be performed without intermission. For safety reasons, in-person attendance will be limited to 100 people. The performance will be live-streamed on Chamber Music Tulsas Facebook page for those who would prefer to watch from home. He chronicles his growing fascination with uncovering the truth about the massacre, which led to his first book on the subject and to his work to help uncover more of the history of the massacre, including the efforts to locate places where bodies of those killed might have been buried. However, Ellsworth takes pains to be clear that the new book is not a memoir. I tried to keep my presence out of the story as much as I could, although because Ive been so deeply involved in this process that it was difficult at times, he said. I wanted to give credit to the survivors, to the researchers, to the people who have worked to keep this story alive, and push for justice. So I used my presence as a device to bring them into the story. He also uses his presence to reveal the attitudes he saw growing up in Tulsa that show the virulent racism of some people, such as in the anecdote about Ellsworths time working at a lamp store, and the owners reaction when a well-dressed Black couple entered her establishment. He also wanted to try to debunk many of the myths and legends that have grown up in the aftermath of the massacre, such as stories of bodies being dumped in the Arkansas River or buried under what is now the Crosstown Expressway. In the Oklahoma area, we only have about two or three (opportunities for those with developmental disabilities), where the opportunities I had to go to post-secondary education were seemingly limitless, Robinson said. Danielle deserves to go and get a post-secondary education because weve seen the benefits of a post-secondary degree with employment and jobs, and all sorts of wage increases and things like that. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced local contest winners to wait an additional year before competing for the state title, Robinson said the additional time was well spent on preparation. I dont think there was a drawback to waiting, I would have waited a thousand more days to serve this state and to be the person that Ive become because of this organization, Robinson said. I know that the wait definitely gave me a little bit more time to prepare things like my talent (performance) and prepare myself for the job responsibilities. Ive been out of college for two years now, and I think the development Ive seen in myself outside of college has definitely prepared me to serve our state better. Robinson will represent Oklahoma in the 100th anniversary of the Miss America competition. The contest, which will be held in Uncasville, Connecticut, is scheduled for December. David Webb, a principal with Veteran Services USA, acknowledged that the facility would be open to all qualified tenants not exclusively veterans but stressed that organizations primary mission is to provide quality care and housing to those who have served in the armed forces. It has been my experience, and the VA has expressed this concern, that our veterans were not treated well for too long, they were not treated with the level of care, the promise that (President) Lincoln issued to care for those who fought for us, Webb said. That is a problem. So a part of this model was that we had to provide a culture within the company, but that same culture applies to the community. (That is) why we are integrating other things that do not close the walls around the property to those that live there. VSUSA is working with Lockwood Development Partners, Commonwealth Hotels and SarahCare to develop similar facilities across the country. However, none of the proposed developments are open yet, one of several factors critics of the Tulsa project point to when explaining their opposition to it. The applicant has no demonstrable record of success with the type of project it is proposing for the property, states a protest petition filed with the City Council. When it first opened to the public in 1975, the Pedestrian Bridge began at 29th Street and Riverside Drive and ended abruptly in the middle of Early reports suggested a small tornado might have touched down, but weather officials never confirmed it and historical records simply describe heavy rain and high winds. Either way, on Sept. 6, 1971, the roof of Frougs department store collapsed at Northland Shopping Center, a sprawling retail development near 36th Street North and Hartford Avenue. Frougs, a local clothing chain that once had 10 locations across the city, was a total loss. And building inspectors later closed the entire shopping center until more roof supports could be added. Northland soon reopened. But some say it was never quite the same. With 234,000 square feet of retail space on 31 acres of land, it became Tulsas largest shopping center when it was built in the late 1950s. Newspaper articles described it as a city within a city and a magnificent tribute to the growth and development of eastern Oklahoma. The same developer, I.A. Jake Jacobson, built two other shopping centers with similar names Southland in 1965, followed by Eastland Mall in 1986. And Southland, at 41st Street and Yale Avenue, sometimes get blamed for poaching customers away from Northland. He used colored pencils and a terrycloth towel, and worked on it in secret. Later while on a 300-mile forced march, he kept it under his clothes. Every time he looked at his handmade flag, he told us, it gave him renewed hope. At the same time Grisez was a POW, American troops on the other side of the world were also finding hope in a flag. Weve interviewed veterans of the Battle of Iwo Jima, and most have recalled the famous scene on top of Mount Suribachi where a group of battle-weary Marines were photographed raising the flag. They are always quick to note that there were actually two flags raised. The first was a smaller one. The iconic photo captured the raising of the second, larger flag. Regardless, it provided a moment witnesses would never forget. Although the fighting was far from over, the sight of that flag inspired hope. Hearing stories like this has made it easier for me to understand why the flag matters so much to so many veterans and why the sight of it, when the moment is right, has the power to move them to tears. It has also helped me understand why so many want to display it. Dots and dashes: Lankford joined other Republicans in calling for sanctions against Chinese officials who block key information about the origins of COVID-19. Inhofe said the current defense authorization bill has Pacific deterrence all wrong. Second District Congressman Markwayne Mullin is again backing legislation to give tribes full access to public health data. Similar legislation passed the House last Congress but was not heard in the Senate. Inhofe defended the continued use of some long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on the grounds that no suitable replacements for them have been found. Inhofe and Lankford were among those voting against the Senates U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. Lankford said it was too big and unfocused; Inhofe said it didnt include enough for defense. Lankford wants $500 million for a U.S.-Israel missile defense program. Lucas joined several other House members in asking Attorney General Merrick Garland for an update on a year-old Justice Department investigation into the meat industry. Lankford backed Oklahomas House Bill 1775, which limits how controversial subjects are handled in the classroom, on Newsmax. Child care: Oklahoma is eligible for almost $590 million from two federal child care programs that were part of this springs American Rescue Plan, according to figures released Friday by the Biden administration. That figure does not include Oklahoma tribes share of the $1.2 billion earmarked for native governments nationwide. According to the White House, the state is eligible for $226.4 million in child care development block grants and $362.9 million in child care stabilization funding. The block grants are primarily intended to boost pay for child care workers in order to coax better-qualified people into the field. The stabilization fund is intended to help child care providers dig out of financial difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Session notes: Gov. Kevin Stitt cleaned up some unfinished work from the legislative session by signing House Joint Resolution 1046, which rejects a handful of administrative rules. His office also disclosed that Stitt vetoed House Bill 2510 on June 2. That measure would have allowed private attorneys representing local governments in opioid lawsuits to be paid with proceeds of a state settlement of a related case. The states COVID-19 metrics are very, very good news these days, but Oklahomans must do a better job of encouraging young people to get vaccinated before school is back in session in the fall lest the disease ramp up, too, said Dr. Dale Bratzler, OUs chief COVID officer. Only 13.6% of Oklahomas minors ages 12 to 17 have had at least one dose of vaccine, and only 6.7% are fully vaccinated, according to federal data issued Thursday. I do have concerns that if we get to the fall and were bringing students back together those younger age groups, and those vaccination rates in those age groups remains quite low that we could see spread of the disease once again, Bratzler said. Bratzler, who spoke Thursday during a COVID update news conference, noted that the age demographics with the most cases in Oklahoma now are the 12- to 17-year-old and 18- to 35-year-old groups. Its something we really need to work on a lot encouraging young people to get vaccinated, he said. Only 35% of Oklahomans 1.16 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated are fully immunized, according to the state data released Thursday. Bratzler said that is far short of President Joe Bidens goal of having 70% of the country vaccinated by July 4. Sweeping reforms will take years, but the USDA can begin to mobilize a plan immediately with the $4 billion allocated for food supply chain resiliency under the American Rescue Plan Act. Tuesday, Vilsack outlined how he intends to spend these funds, and while I applaud his plan to subsidize farmers practicing regenerative agriculture inherently more resilient than industrial production he should clarify his goals and timeline, and at least triple the $60 million in grant money that has been earmarked to help expand smaller-scale meat and poultry processors across the country. The USDA is conducting a large-scale study on resilient meat and poultry processing that is expected to be published this summer. Vilsack should listen carefully to the small and mid-sized processors and producers to find out what they need to expand their operations while meeting federal food safety standards. Because it is difficult for school faculty to leave classrooms during the school day to get shots, clinic staff packed up supplies and traveled to area schools to vaccinate faculty and staff. By early April, they had fully vaccinated all Ottawa County schools (Miami, Wyandotte, Fairland, Afton, Commerce, and Quapaw) and all the faculty and staff of NEO A&M College. In the process, the tribe was able to vaccinate dozens of students as well. This is particularly important to the international students who cant go home for the summer unless they are fully vaccinated. In addition to schools, the clinics staff has traveled to several tribal businesses to vaccinate employees. The tribe administers between 40 and 70 shots a day at the clinic as a normal course of business, and over 250 shots on days when a team goes offsite to take vaccines out to the community. As of June 1, the tribes small clinic had administered 5,484 doses of the vaccine (over three-times the tribes population) and had fully vaccinated over 2,500 people. As we all look forward to returning to some sense of pre-pandemic normalcy, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Native American tribes, big and small, that have used ingenuity and resources to the benefit our community as a whole. The Lost Cause is dead, said the Rev. Robert W. Lee IV. A new cause is upon us, one of equality and justice and peace and concord. Stoney summoned the words of the always-eloquent James Baldwin: History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. Richmond has become so fixated at carrying the weight of history that it failed to realize what a burden it was, until the demonstrators made it impossible to ignore. Northam spoke of how a little girl might feel upon standing in the 100-foot Lee circle and gazing up at a 12-ton monument, six stories high. When its the biggest thing around, it sends a clear message: This is what we value the most. The monument, by its sheer scale, was designed to evoke shock and awe. It gave white supremacy a symbolic imperviousness and worse, a veneer of virtue. In 2020, we can no longer honor a system that was based on the buying and selling of enslaved people, the governor said. The oppression of black folks will not end with the removal of these monuments. As Northam noted, racism is a system that touches every person and every aspect of our lives. But its a start. Biden has been trying to negotiate a deal with Republicans on infrastructure, but after weeks of meetings the two sides are still far apart. The president has cut his initial request by more than half and is asking for about $1 trillion in new spending; GOP leaders have countered with an offer of $307 billion, less than one-third as much. Democratic political strategists are beginning to sound desperate; they want to pass big legislation now, so they can campaign on it for next years congressional election. But Manchin, who isnt up for reelection until 2024, is unhurried. These [things] take time, he said last week. Even if Manchin agreed to abandon the quest for GOP support, to win his vote Democrats would have to settle for half a loaf on infrastructure, and may not be able to get a voting rights bill at all. If progressives want to change these outcomes, criticizing Manchin wont help; they need to go out and elect more Democrats. And that actually might be possible at least in the Senate. The main reason is the peculiar arithmetic of the 2022 congressional election: Twenty Senate seats currently held by Republicans will be on the ballot, compared with only 10 held by Democrats. More than 20 employees at a COVID-19 treatment hospital in Ho Chi Minh City have tested positive for the novel coronavirus despite having received two shots of COVID-19 vaccine. As of Saturday night, 22 staff members at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases in District 5 had been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control (HCDC). The local health department had decided to turn this hospital into a specialized COVID-19 treatment facility earlier this week. Among the 22 patients, seven work in the IT department while the other 15 are members of the administrative office. The first case of the cluster, an employee of the IT department, was detected on Friday. After stating in his health declaration that he had a mild fever, body aches, and coughing, the employee was directed to a testing area. His result later came back positive for COVID-19. The hospital collected samples from 596 employees and inpatients on Saturday and detected the other 21 cases. The entire hospital was locked down from Saturday afternoon for disinfection and contact tracing. Forty-six COVID-19 patients are being treated at the hospital, of whom ten are seriously ill. The coronavirus treatment area is completely separated from the rest of the hospital. There are spaces for these health workers to stay after work as they are not allowed to come into contact with people outside of the treatment area. A total of 80 health workers in charge of treating COVID-19 patients at the infirmary have tested negative for the novel coronavirus. Following the lockdown of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, a hospital for COVID-19 treatment in Cu Chi District and the COVID-19 treatment unit of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital in District 5 were put into operation. Health workers are pictured inside the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, June 12, 2021. Photo: Duyen Phan / Tuoi Tre According to the HCDC, the source of infection of this cluster may come from outside of the hospital. One of the cases in the administrative office is a resident of Block A1 at Ehome 3 Apartment Complex in Binh Tan District. Blocks A6, A3, and A4 of this apartment complex were previously locked down following the detection of several COVID-19 patients. On June 5, health workers collected random samples from residents of Block A1 for testing but the hospital employee was not among the tested. The Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases was the first unit in southern Vietnam to begin COVID-19 inoculation based on the decision of the Ministry of Health. It has about 900 employees, all of whom have received two shots of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. They got their first shots in March and second in April. The vaccine potency reaches 76 percent within 90 days after the first dose and will be maintained until the second does, a representative from AstraZeneca said, citing clinical trials. If the interval between two doses is 12 weeks or more, the potency increases to 81 percent. Dr. Le Quoc Hung, head of the tropical diseases department at Cho Ray Hospital, said that vaccinated people can still contract COVID-19. The biggest benefit of vaccination is to help patients avoid severe progression of COVID-19 and limit the possibility of spreading the disease to others, Dr. Hung added. Vietnam has documented 10,337 infections as of Sunday morning, with 3,827 recoveries and 58 deaths. The country has recorded 7,135 local infections in 39 provinces and cities, including 719 cases in Ho Chi Minh City. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A criminal gang from southern Vietnam has been nabbed after fatally attacking a 25-year-old man, then storming the hospital to pounce on the victim and his friends. The incident transpired on Thursday night, police in Dong Thap Province confirmed on Friday. According to a preliminary inspection, L., 25, was on a motorbike driven by his friend when a young man attacked him with a sharp weapon from behind. L. was promptly sent to Sa Dec General Hospital in the southern province's Sa Dec City in an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival. As the automobile arrived at the hospital, a group of armed youths also showed up, shoving the guards aside and confronting L.s friends in the ER ward that the victim was sent to. Two of the friends were lacerated multiple times in the back, but these wounds were not fatal, according to doctors at Sa Dec General Hospital. Tran Tan Phuc, 30, the main suspect in the rampage, was subsequently arrested. Phuc admitted that he had a feud with L., which urged him to team up with friends to storm the hospital after knowing the victim was there. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The number of vaccinated employees at a COVID-19 treatment hospital in Ho Chi Minh City diganosed with the respiratory disease jumped to 53 on Sunday after a score were detected a day before. An additional 31 employees at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Sunday as the institution finished screening all 887 staff members. The hospital had found 22 infections among its employees on Saturday. All 53 patients were already inoculated with two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine before their diagnosis, the hospital said, adding all but one case were asymptomatic. The source of contagion may come from outside the hospital, according to an epidemiological investigation. Contact tracing is underway to break this infection chain while 88 seriously-ill patients treated for tetanus, encephalitis, HIV/AIDS, and chronic liver disease have tested negative for the virus, according to the hospital. The local health department decided to turn this hospital into a specialized COVID-19 treatment facility earlier this week. The hospital, now locked down, is treating a total of 94 coronavirus patients, 35 of whom are in critical conditions. Vietnam has been hit utterly hard by a fourth virus wave since April 27, with 7,230 local infections having been recorded in 39 of its 63 provinces and cities ever since, according to the Ministry of Healths data. By comparison, Vietnam confirmed 106 community cases in the first wave from January 23 to April 16, 2020, 554 in the second from July 25 to December 1, 2020, and 910 in the third from January 28 to March 25, 2021. Bac Giang Province in the north is leading the fourth rounds tally with 4,012 patients, followed by northern Bac Ninh Province with 1,327, Ho Chi Minh City with 745, and Hanoi with 459. Health authorities have tested almost 4.5 million people nationwide in this wave. The country has documented an accumulation of 10,435 patients, including 8,799 domestic and 1,636 cases, since the pathogen first struck it on January 23, 2020. Recoveries have reached 3,827 while 59 patients have died, most with critical underlying medical conditions like cancer and chronic renal failure. Almost 1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccine shots have been administered to medical staff and other frontline workers since inoculation was rolled out on March 8. More than 54,000 people have been given two doses as of Sunday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Tropical storm Koguma weakened into a tropical depression on Sunday morning, hours after striking Vietnams region from the northern province of Thai Binh to north-central Nghe An Province, the national weather agency has reported. After making landfall at around 3:00 am on Sunday, the storm was located in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa at 7:00 am, with winds of up to 60 kilometers per hour, and began to be downgraded to a tropical depression, the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting said. The depression would become weaker and continue moving west before reaching the border with Laos at 1:00 pm on the same day, the agency forecast. As impacted by Koguma, the area from Thanh Hoa to Quang Binh Provinces suffered downpours with rainfall ranging between 120 and 280 millimeters during 24 hours from 7:00 am Saturday. The Gulf of Tonkin, including Vietnams Bach Long Vi Island, had rough seas with strong winds of up to 88 kilometers per hour and high waves reaching three meters from Sunday morning. Simultaneously, winds on the mainland reached a speed of 49 kilometers per hour in the northern delta and Thanh Hoa, and up to 88 kilometers in coastal areas. The center also forecast moderate to heavy rain, with maximum precipitation of 120 millimeters, for the northern delta and the provinces from Thanh Hoa to Ha Tinh on Sunday. From Sunday afternoon to Monday morning, the northwest region will have torrents with rainfall of up to over 120 millimeters. Koguma is the second storm to have struck the East Vietnam Sea in the year to date, after Choi-wan, which made landfall in Taiwan on June 4. It is forecast that up to 14 storms and tropical depressions will appear in this sea area this year, of which five or six will directly affect Vietnam, the center said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! UNICEF welcomed on Friday the government of Vietnams approval of the first-ever National Program on Child Online Protection for 2021-25, which aims to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse on the Internet and support them to have safe and healthy online interactions. I congratulate the government for this milestone achievement, Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative to Vietnam, was quoted as saying in a press release the same day. Growing up online offers limitless opportunities. But with these opportunities can come some serious risks. The new national program takes into consideration the need to balance addressing risks for children with the promise that digital access is a game changer for them. It is intended to connect them to creative ways to learn, to solve problems, to build their understanding, and to provide them with the skills they need to succeed in a digital world, Flowers said. Addressing online abuse requires a shared commitment of the government, self-regulation by online platforms, the will of regulators but stopping it will only be successful when parents are informed and aware and children themselves empowered with information on the risks and strategies to avoid and report such abuse. UNICEF expresses concern for childrens online safety in five key areas, including unwittingly giving too much information away that allows predators to stalk, or criminals to commit fraud; too many hours spent playing violent online games; children convinced to share sexual images of themselves by friends or predators; vulnerability to grooming by pedophiles who pretend to be the same age; and cyberbullying and abuse. Because this abuse occurs online, as parents we are often not aware of the risks, and we are not informed of the online experience that our children are suffering, Flowers said. For the children, it is tragically isolating. When bullies bully in school, others are aware, but when it happens online, the cruelty, the abuse can dramatically impact childrens mental health and confidence, leaving them feeling isolated and alone. We encourage parents to have a conversation with children, to identify protective strategies, and we encourage children to stand up for each other, to share kindness and protect each other from abuse. A recent survey by UNICEF indicates that one in five children and adolescents in Vietnam has fallen victim to cyberbullying and harassment from peers, yet, three quarters are not aware where to seek help. There is a growing number of cases reported in Vietnam of child sex offenders and traffickers, predominantly men, using the Internet and mobile phones to groom, entice, and blackmail children into subsequent exploitative situations. For children who are online, little has been done to protect them from the perils of this abuse of the digital world or to increase their access to safe online content. Under this new program, the Vietnamese government will work hand in hand with the ICT industry to keep up with the pace of change and to protect children from the new risks and harm they are exposed to and ensure that the Internet stays safe for them. The private sector is encouraged to bring in different expertise, experiences, understandings, solutions, and opportunities to protect children online. The program also aims to empower children and young people, as the central part of the solutions, to take advantage of the great opportunities the digital world offers, while equipping them with knowledge and skills to self-identify and be able to protect themselves when in cyberspace. It sees a key role for parents, caregivers, and teachers in providing guidance and support to young people for safe and healthy online interactions. With this program, the government is committed to developing laws, policies, practices, and products that can help children harness digital opportunities and protect them from harm. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A man tested positive for both the coronavirus and narcotics after disturbing public order and threatening officers at a coronavirus checkpoint in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh earlier this week. Police in Bac Ninh City, the capital of the namesake province, confirmed on Saturday that they were completing necessary procedures to charge Nguyen Van Quy, 31, for causing public disorder. At around 8:10 pm on Thursday, Quy was riding his motorbike when he was pulled over at a COVID-19 checkpoint in Kinh Bac Ward. After being asked to present his personal documents, the man aggressively resisted, provoked, and threatened on-duty officers at the checkpoint. He went on to insult the officers and block the roadway with his motorcycle. Quy was later apprehended and escorted to the local police station. A quick test showed that he was under the influence of narcotics. Quy was then brought to the 110 Military Hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19. About 60 direct contacts, including the officers at the checkpoint, have been taken to local quarantine facilities in accordance with regulations. Police records showed that Quy is a drug addict and was previously convicted of theft. Bac Ninh Province is currently the second-largest coronavirus epicenter in the country with 1,323 local infections recorded since April 27. Vietnam has documented 10,337 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday morning, with 3,827 recoveries and 58 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Recently announced data from parental control application Kaspersky Safe Kids provides a glimpse into the most searched websites by Vietnamese children and their time spent on apps during the COVID-19 pandemic, with YouTube being the app most used by the kids. Once installed, Kaspersky Safe Kids collected search queries and web browsing activities on devices that children use to access the Internet in oder to notify parents of content in undesirable categories, including adult media, alcohol, narcotics, tobacco, racism, and profanity. In their newly published 'Kids on the Web in 2021' report, the company looks into website hits, as well as screen time on mobile apps of children worldwide from May 2020 to April 2021 to deduce trends and obsessions among youths during the pandemic. As pointed out by the report, searches for websites in the 'Internet Communication' category continued to slip, from 24.16 percent last year to 22.08 percent this year, despite the pandemic and the fact that children around the world were attending school remotely. The share of hits for 'Video Games' also fell more than two percentage points to 13.67 percent. Meanwhile, online shopping is proving an integral part of life in lockdown, reflected by the two-point rise to 13.46 percent of pages in the 'Online Stores, Banks, Payment Systems' category. Children around the world were most interested in video games: they were the subject of 34.71 percent of the YouTube search queries examined, which almost doubles the interest in vlogging content and music. In Vietnam, websites' 'Software, Audio, Video' fared the most popular categories, gathering 44.7 percent of searches, followed by 'Internet Communication' (32.53 percent) and 'Video Games' (8.62 percent). YouTube sits atop as the platform most used by children, with local instant messaging app Zalo and social media app Facebook ranking second and third, respectively. Two mobile multiplayer games 'Mobile Legends: Bang Bang' and 'Free Fire MAX' also made the top ten apps most used by children during the pandemic. As Kaspersky sees it, screen time is not necessary a bad thing, as apps are encouraging children to be creative in creating original content rather than simply consuming it. The company suggests that parents not rush to block access to online resources once their children have been exposed to something questionable, but rather sit down and talk to discover the childrens endeavor. They also recommends the use of parental control settings, which can help parents examine the websites their children are visiting, what they are searching for, and which apps they are spending time on. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The subject this week on Anhs Brush with Fame is the legendary Marcia Hines. Marcia Hines is an Australian music icon. She arrived in Australia, from Boston, as a 16-year-old to perform in the musical Hair and then made Australia her home, becoming one of our bestselling artists. Marcia was raised during the civil rights movement in Boston, in a culturally defining era. She shares her experiences of growing up amongst the hippy culture, of trying to bail her brother out of jail and how the music of the time influenced and inspired her. As a teenager Marcia went to Woodstock and witnessed first-hand the iconic performances. Marcia knew nothing about Australia before moving here and not long after her arrival she found out she was pregnant. Her inspiring story is one of resilience, hard work and the willingness to embrace opportunities. In 1973, Marcia played the role of Mary in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and in the same decade was crowned the Queen of Pop. Marcia went on to host her own show and release albums, making her a household name. She became the highest-selling female recording artist in Australian history, outselling Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin. In 2003, Marcia was introduced to a whole new generation, with the launch of a brand-new TV series, Australian Idol and more recently as guest mentor on The Voice, where she has been able to pass on some of her wisdom. Marcia has come a long way since her childhood in Boston. She is independent, brave and has an adventurous spirit. Anhs challenge is capture all of that in his portrait of an iconic Australian. Production credits: A Screentime Production. Executive Producer Johnny Lowry. ABC Commissioning Editor Julie Hanna. 8pm Tuesday on ABC. A gay man who fled disturbing conversion therapy in Gabon is surviving on just 6 a day while the Home Office considers his asylum application. Eric, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, told the i that he escaped from Gabon in January 2020 after he was drugged, subjected to conversion therapy and threatened with prison for being gay. Eric has now been waiting for 18 months in the UK, unable to work or find a home, while the Home Office considers his asylum application. He is provided with 40 per week by the government, just under 6 a day. He said that at home he wasnt openly gay, but secretly hooked up with other men. While being gay is not currently illegal in Gabon, it was criminalised between July 2019 and June 2020, during which time Eric fled. He said: My family is one strong Christian family, where homosexuality is a big no no. If youre not cured yet, its because youre not praying hard enough, or not fasting hard enough. When one family member discovered that Eric was gay, he was subjected to disturbing and horrific conversion therapy. He was drugged, and when he woke up he found himself in a shrine with a traditional healer, half naked with a piece of cloth around my waist. People were chanting, he said. I wasnt fully conscious, and I didnt know what had happened. It could have been several days, and several nights. He was told by his family that he had six months to find a woman to marry, before they would fix his sexual orientation permanently. As time went on, and he did not introduce his family to a future wife, he heard that his relatives were planning on kidnapping him and sending him to prison to teach him a lesson. Eric described boarding a plane to the UK, leaving his family, job and life behind, as one of the scariest things hes ever done. But delays to asylum claims because of the COVID-19 pandemic have left him in limbo. He asked: Will I just die in this process, in this system, this pandemic? Am I just going to be another statistic? Story continues A Home Office spokesperson said in a statement: The processing of asylum claims was impacted by the global pandemic which restricted our ability to conduct interviews in person, but we have taking steps to increase capacity and have focused on improvements to deliver decisions more efficiently, including prioritising older claims and those made by vulnerable individuals. But Eric is not alone in his experience. Last month, Nadim Uddin, a volunteer for the charity African Rainbow Family, which urgent support for queer asylum seekers of African heritage and other Black and Asian communities, told PinkNews: We have some people whove been waiting five years. In 2019, it was revealed that the UK had refused at least 3,100 people who had fled nations where being queer is illegal, and were seeking asylum on this basis. The next year, researchers from the University of Sussex found a pervasive culture of disbelief against LGBT+ asylum seekers both in the UK and across Europe. Uddin added: These people are the most vulnerable. They dont have the right to work, they dont have access to anything. It doesnt matter what your immigration status is, your legal status is, youre a human being. You should at least be able to have enough food to eat every day. We dont want anyone to sleep on an empty stomach. Ever since Dr. Michael Rifenburg became a college professor, he has wanted to conduct a study abroad. "I had the chance to study abroad in Russia when I was a student," the associate professor of English at the University of North Georgia (UNG) said. "Now, I want to do a faculty-led program with my students." The Center for Global Engagement (CGE) is helping Rifenburg turn his vision into a reality. After attending the inaugural Education Abroad Academy, he will propose a study abroad program to London in summer 2022. CGE sponsored two separate academies in the spring to help faculty develop and execute education abroad and study away programs. Education abroad allows students to take courses overseas that fit with their degree. Study away programs provide students short-term domestic study options outside of north Georgia to engage in experiential learning, build relationships with faculty, and gain confidence to participate in other high-impact practices. "The academies give faculty time to think through and develop the learning goals and logistics for their program," Daniela Martinez, associate director of CGE, said. A scientific article on Truong Thi Thuy Trang's project on a new material made from rice husks, an agricultural by-product, that removes antibiotics in wastewater has been published in an ISI-Q1 international scientific journal. Truong Thi Thuy Trang Trang is a student in the advanced training program of the Chemistry Faculty at the Hanoi University of Natural Sciences, a member school of the Vietnam National University, Hanoi. In the article, Trang describes treating polluting organic compounds in medical wastewater by an adsorption method using Nanosilica material made from rice husks modified by self-synthetic polymers. The method helps prevent the release of antibiotics that affects the environment. The material used for adsorption is sustainable and environmentally friendly. Rice husks, which are thrown away by farmers, are now useful, thanks to Trangs project. Dreams turns reality In her childhood, Trang, when seeing wastewater going directly to the canal near her house, dreamed that she could clean up the canal when she grew up. The dream became more realistic when she began to study chemistry at university. In her childhood, Trang, when seeing wastewater going directly to the canal near her house, dreamed that she could clean up the canal when she grew up. The dream became more realistic when she began to study chemistry at university. When she was a second-year student, she worked in the laboratory of Dr Pham Tien Duc, (Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi University of Natural Sciences, Vietnam National University, Hanoi) and had the opportunity to study the creation of Nanosilica material from rice husks under Ducs guidance. The student found the project interesting as it could take full advantage of the rice husks generated during the agricultural production process to create new materials that support environmental cleaning. After reading documents left by predecessors and international articles, she created an experiment execution plan and manufacturing process with the support of the teacher and co-workers in the laboratory. To create the material, I had to spend hours to carry out the stages of heating and drying rice husks, she recalled. "The teacher required that experiments be carried out repeatedly and carefully in each stage, saying that a minor mistake will lead to big failure, she said, adding that she could not remember how many times she failed and had to repeat the experiments. My experiments for one month did not bring any results. I felt so discouraged as I could not find the reasons, she recalled. However, Trang finally found the problem and fixed it. With great effort, Trang and her team succeeded and the project won first prize at the schools competition for students scientific research and a consolation prize at a competition at the ministerial level. Duc then encouraged Trang to collect data to write a scientific article. The article was published in Progress in Organic Coating (ISI, Q1, IF 4.469). Success Trangs research found that the absorption capability is over 90 percent in laboratory conditions. The efficiency of removing antibiotics in hospital wastewater is over 75 percent. The material can be reused three times. Trang said that it was difficult to write the article because good English skills are needed to exactly express her ideas. I try to practice English every day. Luckily, all the subjects at the school are taught in English, she said. Trang is now the author of two ISI-Q1 articles with high IF (impact factor), and the first author of one of the two articles. Trang is an excellent student with a GPA (grade point average) of 3.5/4.0 during her four years at school. She is going to defend her graduation thesis in June. She plans to continue studying for a masters degree and follow scientific research. Asked about his student, Duc said she is a good student with a passion for scientific research. It is her determination to discover new knowledge through scientific research that has brought her success. Ngoc Linh Female scientist wants to start public awareness campaign about organ donations Dr Do Pham Nguyet Thanh, born in 1995, an expert at the Biomedical Research Center under the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, has been honored as one of HCMC 2020 Outstanding Young Citizens thanks to her active contributions to the community. Make in Vietnam online conferencing platforms show that Vietnams problems are best solved by Vietnamese, but Vietnamese people need to give these platforms an opportunity to be used and improved. The June meeting is organized online Several days ago, the June meeting of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) digital technology division was organized online, via the netMeeting online conferencing platform developed by NetNam. Nearly 500 officers from 100 points nationwide attended the meeting. Online conferencing has become more and more frequent for agencies and businesses in Vietnam during Covid-19 with the support of digital technology, including Make in Vietnam platforms. Previously, most meetings of an agency or enterprise took place in a direct form, with limited attendees, depending on the organizational model. But a revolution has occurred which has flattened the traditional tree-shaped organizational chart, eliminating limits and creating a no-distance working environment. Many state agencies are using next-generation online conferencing platforms, allowing officers to attend meetings at any time and anywhere with mobile devices and at negligible cost, instead of high-cost TV conferencing system as used before. The quality of netMeeting, as shown at the meeting, is in no way inferior to foreign products. eMeeting, another Make in Vietnam online video conferencing developed by AIC and Bkav Corporation, was chosen by the National Assembly for the first online conference in history of the legislative agency, the ninth session of the 14th National Assembly. eMeeting allows National Assembly Deputies to participate in sessions from a distance. It allows the Deputies to attend sessions via iPads in their offices in their home provinces with standard quality images and sound. There is no need to go to specialized meeting rooms with expensive equipment. Vietnamese cannot solve the worlds questions well, but they can solve Vietnams problems the best, because they understand Vietnams culture, habits and its existing problems. In the digital technology era, Vietnamese are continuing to make every effort to solve problems. The next-generation conferencing platforms are an example. Vietnams digital technology firms have researched, developed and put into use a series of platforms, including Zavi of Zalo, eMeeting of AIC and netMeeting of NetNam. Vietnams platforms use domestic connection bandwidth and can be customized to enhance security and safety. Agencies and institutions can use the platforms on their infrastructure and control everything themselves, with no information leaking to third parties. They can further develop or rent to others to tailor the platforms to their needs. Make in Vietnam products needs support However, the online conferencing solutions developed by foreign technology firms are still favored and more commonly used by institutions and individuals in Vietnam. Make in Vietnam online conferencing platforms show that Vietnams problems are best solved by Vietnamese, but Vietnamese people need to give these platforms an opportunity to be used and improved A NetNam representative said that in the last two to three years many agencies and businesses have begun encouraging and creating a driving force for Vietnams technology firms to boldly make investments and develop new solutions. As a business, we believe that cooperating to build and improve competitiveness is very important. Vietnamese technology firms need to take full advantage of their understanding of the market demands and Vietnamese tastes, and use the worlds open technology to solve questions raised by domestic institutions and businesses, he said. He also expressed the hope that the Government would prioritize the use of Make in Vietnam services and technological solutions that have high quality and competitive prices. Like a seed that needs good soil and regular watering to grow, Make in Vietnam platforms will only be able to dominate the domestic market and reach the world market if they are given opportunities to be used and perfected. The market of 100 million people is a great asset of Vietnam. Each user and each comment about the weak points of products is extremely useful. Van Anh High-tech solutions are helping in the fight against Covid-19 With many variants and outbreaks, Covid-19 is expected to be a long-term struggle requiring the contribution of the entire society. Many young Vietnamese women have fallen into traps set by men on dating sites. In a chic white dress, T.N.P.N, 27, who lives in HCM City, told VietNamNet that she was a victim of a man who made friends with her on Tinder. N said she was warned about cheating on dating sites and tried to learn something about her friend before having relations with him. N, who works in the information technology sector, had always looked up information about the men and had been able to avoid bad people. But she could not escape the sophisticated trap set by YiLi. YiLi was at another rank, she said. He had a youthful and manly appearance like a supermodel. He was knowledgeable with a strong personality. Though I was very cautious, I could not find anything shady about him." My doubt was replaced by belief, and I followed YiLis advice to make a forex investment on Ausforex-x.com, N said. She later discovered that she had been cheated and lost over $10,000. YiLi designed a perfect scenario and acted so well that I absolutely believed in him. I even fell in love with him. After one month of talking, YiLi never mentioned the investment, she recalled. We only talked about our hobbies. During the process, I realized that YiLi was calm and knowledgeable. I fell in love because I found that both of us had many common interests such as taking pictures and watching Japanese anime, N explained. One morning, when N still had not gotten out of bed, YiLi sent sweet text messages. He also sent images of him going shopping and buying luxury items. When asked about the shopping, the man said he had made big money from forex investments. It was a job that he was doing to earn extra money as he, a pilot, could not fly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many young Vietnamese women have fallen into traps set by men on dating sites. Another woman, N.M.Y, 24, from Tien Giang province, was also hurt by someone on the dating app. She had been involved in a billion dong swindle. Y was cheated out of VND1 billion, but the biggest pain for her was the emotional cheating. The cheater was the first love of the young woman. Y felt so depressed that she had to be hospitalized after a long period of not eating. Y is an assistant for a CEO of a large food corporation. As she was busy, she had no time to seek friends and find lovers. So she decided to seek friends on Tinder. On the dating website, she met Li Rui. After some conversations, Li Rui called me to chat on Line, an online chatting app, and we began our relation, Y said. After two or three days of talking, Li Rui began flirting with sweet messages. He talked about a future where there is you, me and our children, about a happy home full of laughter, where I wont have to do anything but take care of him, our children and our home, she said. She said he had all the things she wanted, from a good appearance to character. He took great care of me and made me feel that I was really pampered. We called and chatted every day. When I fell sick, he called and messaged all the time and made careful recommendations on what to eat, what not to eat, and how to avoid stimulating drinks, she recalled. If I said I could not sleep, he would call and coax me to sleep. In general, he understood womens psychology, she said. The feeling of being loved quickly blew any doubts away. Some months later, Li Rui told her that he "wanted the love to be built on wealth and money". He lured Y into pouring money into a BO investment (binary option contracts) on Jian Hong Era website. Y invested Jian Hong Era $46,000. What makes me feel wretched is not the possible loss of money, but the emotional cheating. My love was toyed with, she said. This was my first love. When I discovering the cheating, I asked Li Rui if he once loved me and I received an angry answer, she said. I was in great pain. That pain still haunts me," she said. Nguyen Son Vietnam calls for more support to victims of sexual violence in conflict Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN), has called on the international community to further support victims of sexual violence in conflict. Representatives of 10 Vietnamese and international non-profit organisations working in nature and wildlife conservation have sent a petition to the Prime Minister to stop the trade of wild birds nationwide. Wild birds for sale at Thanh Hoa Market in southern Long An Province. Representatives of 10 Vietnamese and international non-governmental organisations working in nature and wildlife conservation have sent a petition to the Prime Minister to stop the trade of wild birds. Photo courtesy of PanNature The group of NGOs include WWF-Vietnam, ENV, PanNature, WildAct, Save Vietnam's Wildlife, Traffic Vietnam, HSI, GreenViet, Four Paws Vietnam and VietNature. The letter said: In the already challenging times of the 4th wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam, the rampant trade in wild birds nationwide that has recently been reported by the press may cause more outbreaks of other new emerging zoonotic diseases. This would pose a risk of creating epidemic catastrophes, destroying efforts and achievements in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and bring anxiety among the entire society. The World Health Organization (WHO) has scientific evidence to confirm that 70 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases in people are spread from animals, most of which are from wild ones. Wildlife markets (including wild bird markets and restaurants) have been reported to have linkages to SARS, avian influenza and COVID-19. It continued that the killing of wild and migratory birds has caused biodiversity loss and affected ecosystem functions and Vietnam's image in the international arena. Without drastic and effective measures to quickly end this situation, Vietnam is at high risk of being included in the list of countries with many wild and migratory bird species threatened with extinction due to poaching and trade, although Vietnam is a state member of many international conventions and commitments related to the protection of wild species. Vietnam has been identified as one of the most important areas in the East Asia-Australia bird flyway network. The country became the 34th member of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) in 2014 and it showed strong commitment to protecting wild and migratory birds. Vietnam officially approved the Pledge of World Leaders for Nature in Resolution 05/NQ-CP dated January 15, 2021, approving Vietnams support for the World Leaders' Commitment to Nature on the occasion of the UN Summit on Biodiversity within the framework of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The letter explained: In Article 6 of the Pledge, Vietnam has joined 84 countries around the world in committing to ending supply chains of illegal wildlife trade and working with international communities to ensure sustainable solutions for people and nature. The current massacre of wild and migratory birds does not show that Vietnam has been in compliance with Article 6 of the Commitment." A bird on a beach in Da Nang. The migrant bird species often stop at safe destinations on their long journey to warm areas. Photo courtesy of Minh Ha According to International and Vietnamese NGOs, wild and migratory birds have long been hunted, and illegally traded widely and openly on a large scale in many places throughout Vietnam, especially in some hot-spots around protected areas and biosphere reserves such as Xuan Thuy, Cat Ba, Tram Chim, Ca Mau National Parks and in big cities such as Hanoi, HCM City and Long An (Thanh Hoa Market). It said many rare, precious and protected bird species of Viet Nam and the world are captured, slaughtered, stored and sold in the restaurant chain named Birds grow bigger, and in shops selling wild birds, challenging law enforcement agencies. Recently, the problem has been exposed in many investigative press reports, attracting public attention who requested an immediate end to these destructive activities. Vietnam is also home to more than 900 out of 10,000 bird species in the world (accounting for 9 per cent), widely distributed throughout the country. Unfortunately, according to the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), Vietnam has 11 Critically Endangered bird species, 19 Endangered, 28 Vulnerable and 50 Near-Threatened species. With the current situation of hunting, trapping, catching and consuming wild and migratory birds, the number on those lists will increase rapidly. The NGOs said they highly appreciate the number of laws and regulations on the protection of wildlife issued by Vietnams Government. However, the lack of specific regulations on the protection of migratory and wild birds has weakened the enforcement by relevant authorities. Especially, a number of wild birds and most of the migratory bird species are not listed as endangered, rare and precious species under Decree 06/2019/ND-CP, Decree 64/2019/ND-CP amending Article 7 of Decree 160/2013/ND-CP, so the law enforcement agencies have no legal basis to handle the cases or allow for very light punishment. To maintain populations of wild and migratory birds, conserve biodiversity, ensure functional ecosystems and prevent disease outbreaks, they request the Vietnamese Government to take a comprehensive approach with a series of specific measures as follows: Strengthen monitoring of the implementation of Directive 29/CT-TTg dated 23 July, 2020 of the Prime Minister on a number of urgent solutions for wildlife management: requesting Ministries, agencies and localities to lead, supervise, evaluate, promptly reward good examples and apply stringent discipline for agencies that do not strictly follow the Directive. People's Committees at all levels should be made responsible for protecting wild and migratory birds; Amend, supplement and issue new laws and specific regulations for protection of wild and migratory birds, especially birds that have the roles of pollination and insect pest control in agriculture, as well as strengthening punishments on related violations; Issue legal documents to prohibit advertising, selling, buying, using traps to catch and kill wild and migratory birds and other destructive specialised handmade tools; Issue legal documents to ban the eating, killing, storing, transporting, selling and buying of wild and migratory birds, their meat and body parts; Develop a national action plan to protect and enable recovery of wild and migratory birds; and participate in the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). The group of NGOs said it believes that the Government's strong decisions to protect wild and migratory birds are actions of practical significance for Vietnam to achieve the goal of reversing the trend of biodiversity loss worldwide towards 2030, and prevent the risks of diseases caused by trade and consumption of wild and migratory birds. Source: Vietnam News Over 1,130 wild animals rescued in VN in 2020 As many as 1,132 wild animals were successfully rescued in Vietnam last year, according to the Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV). She said the housing authority ultimately could receive up to 60 emergency housing vouchers. I think we need about 60, she said. We might need a little more. We have a lot of homeless. The Waco Housing Authority already administers the federal Section 8 voucher program in the Waco area, with about 2,600 vouchers in McLennan County. The program often has a long waiting list, which can be daunting for someone at immediate risk of becoming homeless. The new emergency housing vouchers allow the housing authority to create a separate waiting list for that vulnerable population and expedite their search. Anyone can refer a person or family to the program, and caseworkers from the Salvation Army and the Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition will assess their need for the emergency vouchers. The vouchers will address a dire need for emergency housing, said Whitney Thomas, executive director at the Family Abuse Center in Waco. The center runs an emergency shelter for families for 14 to 45 days. The centers clients often face a long wait when they are referred to the housing authority for Section 8 vouchers, if they can get them at all. In that time, they are at risk of returning to the abusive relationships they left, Thomas said. Women will return seven to 10 times before they leave for good, she said. We try to stop that through education, but of course we cant keep them from going back. If theyre on track to get housing and to be independent and free from a violent home, the chances of them returning are very slim. 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. This is intended to bring people downtown this summer, help them park and get around while they are here, she said. This is a two-month project. So anyone whos terrified of what Seventh Street will be like as a pedestrian plaza, you know, were just like, give it a chance. Check it out. CivicBrand also intends to direct foot traffic in downtown with a temporary, decorated walkway that will run along Sixth Street between Webster Avenue and Austin Avenue. Gragg said barriers would separate pedestrians from cars, and the area would have signs directing tourists to locations and free parking. It sort of flies under the radar, but it could be a corridor that flows through downtown, Gragg said. Elements of the trial project that are well-received could become permanent. As much fun as these two months are going to be, theres also a lot of intention behind it to see if permanent interventions need to be made, Gragg said. Dorrell said he will pursue housing options on their behalf. He has scheduled a meeting Sunday afternoon at the Church Under The Bridge offices on North 18th Street, hoping to get comments and updates. He said he will invite individuals who live or have lived in cheap hotels to serve as advisors. Unfortunately, Dorrell said, most leaving Oak Lodge will have no place to go, will end up sleeping on someones couch or in a car. There will be people who step up, social workers, but the issues run much deeper than having a good heart, having a Pollyanna mindset. There will be a spurt or two of desire to help, but its a systemic issue. Even if they find a place in a week, if theyre mentally ill, they wont be there long. It can be said, We found them a place, the conscience is satisfied. But where will they be a few weeks from now? Colwick said, If Jimmy cant help, Ill go to Walmart and buy a tent. Colwick, 65, grew up in Waco, attended Richfield High School and served aboard an ammunition ship, the USS Haleakala, during the Vietnam War. Colwick called the boat a floating bomb, and said his captain once joked that if it ever blew up, theyll find our fingernails on the moon. Flag retirement ceremony Monday Lake Shore Funeral Home and Crematory, 5201 Steinbeck Bend Road, will have a Flag Day celebration followed by a flag retirement ceremony at 3 p.m. Monday. The brief ceremony will celebrate President Woodrow Wilsons 1916 proclamation setting aside June 14 as a day to recognize Congress adoption of the American flag. It will include the national anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, playing of taps and the folding of a flag. That flag will represent all the flags to be retired at the ceremony which follows. Fall prevention class forming The Area Agency on Aging of the Heart of Texas will host A Matter of Balance Falls Prevention from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday at Crestview Church of Christ, 7129 Delhi Road. The class is free and will meet once a week for eight weeks. For more information, call 254-292-1857. Juneteenth Parade Saturday Why would Baylor condemn sex within second marriages (or third, or fourth)? Because Jesus does, in the Bible. In Mark 10, we find this: Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. A variation (with an exception for divorce based on unchastity) is found in Matthew 19. This is a much clearer directive than we ever see Jesus levy against same-sex relationships. So why isnt this part of Baylors supposedly Biblical statement on sexuality? We all know the answer, of course. It is because Baylors leaders selectively read the Bible to favor some (the many administrators, regents and professors who are remarried) while disfavoring others (LGBTQ people), despite the fact that they would seem to face the same fate one way or another under a consistent reading of the Bible. Im not suggesting that remarried people be forced to divorce. Rather, they should just have the same status as those in same-sex relationships at Baylor, and face the same exclusions and humiliations. We can all reject this natural gas future and support a livable planet by selecting a 100% renewable plan from our electricity provider. Alan D. Northcutt, Waco Guns in court, too It is very interesting that the Texas governor wants to sign a law that allows anyone who wants to carry a gun to do so. Since he is putting all the rest of us into the danger, the people demand that no politicians or even courts can stop anyone from carrying a loaded gun into their offices. You want loaded guns, then lets have it and see how it goes. The truth is politicians think they will quickly disallow anyone from carrying a gun if they are in their office, so we will just vote them out of their office and put people in that allows guns anywhere. The fact is we should really vote the ones who approved this idiotic law out as fast as possible. Jim Denton, Gatesville Meghan revolution Joels father has been superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools since 2010 and raised Joel mostly in Beatrice. It just so ended up that the father-son duo happened to have their district lines border one another. My southern boundary line and his northern boundary line as a district touch, he said. I never meant to get that close. Joel said the opportunity with Raymond Central not only checked that goal off, but also checked off certain stipulations with Joel and his family. My wife and I with our young family fell in love with the area through the interview process, really impressed with the district as a whole, Joel said. We could see our family going through the Raymond Central Public School system. Despite this, Joel said while his personal roots are in Nebraska, his familys roots are in Iowa. Joel met his wife Kari, an Iowa native, in Iowa and all three of their children were born in Iowa. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} My familys roots are in Iowa and so I knew at some point that we were going to go back to Iowa, Joel said. I just did not expect it to be this soon. Local alert featured Stratacache takes over former Ocwen building, ramps up operations in Waterloo WATERLOO After moving into the former Ocwen building on Hammond Avenue, Stratacaches Waterloo operation is starting to take off. And the company is looking to hire more employees. In our business, you want bright people, but you dont have to have college degrees, said Stratacache CEO Chris Riegel. Based in Dayton, Ohio, Stratacache manufactures, programs and maintains digital signs across the world. Think of the computerized menu at the local fast-food drive thru and the menu inside that store. They have images of burgers along with the prices. The outdoor menu shows a list of what the customer is ordering as they sit in their car make a selection. In addition to the burger menus, Stratacache makes and runs digital signs in hotels, shopping malls, stores, convention centers, casinos and other businesses all over the globe. The company has 3.3 million signs across the world. Contributed Example of a Stratacache digital sign in an airport. Workers at the Waterloo facility push content to those signs, making sure they are up and running and handling technical support. It can 2 p.m. in Waterloo, and a Stratacache worker will be updating information for a sign at a casino in Singapore, where it is 3 a.m. The Waterloo site also houses data storage for the company. contributed photo Example of a Stratacache digital sign in a store. Riegel said the company is a good place for people with a technical background to advance their careers, and its also a good place for people without the background to get a foot in the door and learn and develop their skills. Stratacache plans to up have to 250 to 300 employees at the Waterloo site within the next six to 12 months. The building has 1,100 desks, and Riegel said it will take about three years to fill them through phased growth. Salaries for workers are in the $38,000 to $50,000 range, he said. The company also has opportunities to travel and to relocate to its other operations elsewhere in the United States and overseas. Stratacache has offices in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Chicago, San Francisco and other 11 other major cities. Jeff Reinitz / JEFF REINITZ, jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com Ohio-based Stratacache builds and maintains digital signs across the world. Stratacache bought the former GMAC/Ocwen Financial Corp. building at 3451 Hammond Ave. in November. The 17-acre site has 162,000 square feet with an extensive raised floor data center. The purchase will allow Stratacache to more than double its network support operations capacity in North America. Riegel said the buildings past life as a call center means it has much of the technical infrastructure his company needs, and the Iowa work ethic figured into the companys decision to set up shop in Waterloo. Jeff Reinitz / JEFF REINITZ, jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com Ohio-based Stratacache purchased the former GMAC/Ocwen Financial building at 3451 Hammond Ave. in November 2020. As a Midwesterner, you like the friendly people. It struck us as a very good place to invest in, Riegel said. Job applications can be submitted through the companys website at Stratacache.com. The openings are also posted on employment sites like Indeed.com and LinkedIn.com. In a news release issued Thursday, Reynolds office laid out a timeline of the flight that brought refugee children to Iowa. According to the governors office, on May 2 the state became aware of an April 22 flight that landed in Des Moines and carried unaccompanied minor children. After reviewing surveillance footage, the state May 6 reached out to multiple federal agencies. Federal agencies May 7, May 10, and May 11 told the state the flight was not a federal immigration flight. On May 17, a federal immigration agency told staff at U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassleys office it was not involved in the flight. On May 21, the federal Health and Human Services Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Office of Refugee Resettlement confirmed to Grassleys office that the April 22 flight was in fact one of its flights. The agency confirmed 19 children were flown from Long Beach, Calif., to Des Moines. Two buses transported the children to various locations to join their sponsors. We werent aware of anything that was happening, Reynolds said Friday, saying she believed potentially two of the children stayed in Iowa but the rest were moved outside of the state I believe to four different states, she said. Vilsack told the farmers that organics needed one brand and that the rise of the Real Organic Project and its own label will lead to the rise of the Real Real Organic Project and then the Real Real Real Organic Project. And he might be right, concedes Thicke. But what he [Vilsack] gets wrong is that organic is not a brand to most farmers. Its a philosophy, a life, a way to farm that hopes to leave everyone and everything better off the soil, our health, the animals, our surrounding communities. That belief, that vision cant just be a USDA brand if much of todays USDA Organic milk and eggs and chicken comes from what are, essentially, CAFOs, concentrated animal feeding operations, says Thicke. Sure, he points out, changes to USDAs organic production standards have gotten us more food on the shelf that is certified as organic, the big goal of Big Ag. What it hasnt gotten us, however, is better food on the shelf or more organic farmers putting it there. Thicke and Chapman are hopeful that ROP can gain enough membership to challenge USDA as the go-to source for real organic food. It will be a long, tough uphill slog, though. Still, organic food isnt about branding or politics, he says. Its about how we grow our food. Thats as important as what we eat. The Farm and Food File is published weekly through the U.S. and Canada. Source material and contact information are posted at www.farmandfoodfile.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 This problem is not confined to Iowas universities but exists in all businesses. We want young people to move here or stay here, and that means making the state attractive to them. Our governor and Legislature are working against this. They are governing for a small, elite group. Frankly, Iowa is not welcoming. For example, we have made it more difficult to legally vote, resulting in what will be a discriminatory practice. We allow racial profiling by law enforcement. We have alienated the LGBTQ community with silly restrictions. We are trying to dictate womens reproductive practices. We have cut taxes on businesses with the excuse that will attract them when studies show taxes are way down the list for business location decisions. Where are the controls on agriculture to clean up our polluted waterways? Stalled in committee. And we have made it easier to buy and use guns, making residents less safe. These are just a few of the anti-welcome actions of the Republican Party in power. We love our state and want to share it with others. The Republican leaders are governing for their friends and not in the long-term interests of the state. Iowa: Its time to wake up. We must start getting rid of the right-wing extremists who now control our government and state for their special interests. Until that happens, Iowa will continue to languish and decline. We deserve better than what they are providing us. Fred Abraham is professor emeritus at the University of Northern Iowa. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect those of the university. Love 4 Funny 7 Wow 2 Sad 1 Angry 1 Houston Methodist Hospital set a deadline this week for its 26,000 employees: Get vaccinated against the coronavirus, or lose your job. Almost everyone complied, except for a small group of dissenters, who are now suing the hospital. Jennifer Bridges, the nurse who leads the anti-vaccination forces, told Texas Monthly magazine: This is supposed to be America; youre supposed to have civil rights and constitutional rights, your freedom of choice. ... Nobody should be forced to put anything into their body if theyre not OK with it. Vaccine reluctance is a complex issue with many causes, from sincere religious objections to false conspiracy theories. But those reasons are often rooted in the misguided assumption voiced by Bridges: that an individuals civil rights and constitutional rights always supersede the rights of society to mandate personal behavior, to place the common good ahead of freedom of choice. I have been listening to the soundbites of the G7 Summit.all I can conclude is its just the same old political rhetoric we have been hearing since the end of WWII. As expected Moscow and China are being depicted as the Worlds Bogeymen all because they refuse to be subservient to Western Colonial Imperialism (other words: They Upset the western Status Quo!) Then they announced: President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will not have a joint news conference after they meet in Geneva next week, according to a White House official. Source: Biden Will Hold A Solo Press Conference After Meeting Putin : NPR Then, after all the stupidity being spouted by the G7.I had to laugh.could you imagine Putin and Biden on the same stage? Neither can the USA and found it much better to run away. The USA could never attempt to control the narrative if they try to allow Biden to stand next to Putin and tell his prefabbed lies over and over Remember George Carlin? Its a big club and you aint in it. George Carlin WtR Yesterday I had to deal with a crooked Ryazan cop. Not a Big Village cop, but a cop from the Ryazan Oblast. Every once in awhile I meet a bad egg in Russia. Just like everywhere in the world. The worst was at the border of Moldavia. Oh well.we survive Ryazan experience many years ago Nuff said about that Lets talk about another rotten bad egg This morning, Birdbrain sat on the window sill outside my bedroom window and tried to look in. It was 3:30 a.m. and it was a male. He started to chirp like crazy It sound like, Chirp chirp chirp, get up you lazy bum, chirp chirp chirp He actually was trying to press his head against the screen and look in at me. I guess he missed me and wanted company? I wont say what I told him.better left unsaid! Now he is sitting on the roof and watching and chirping at me as I go about my business Birdbrains! At least he is not a Rooster and trying to see in.Nuff said about that WtR Lubbock, TX (79423) Today Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low near 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low near 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... SANTA FE, N.M. I have noticed in recent years that more grocery shelf space has been devoted to milk alternatives than to dairy milk. That includes not just soy and almond milk, but also oat milk, hemp milk, pea milk, cashew, hazelnut and flax milk, and rice milk, as well as coconut milk. This is a clear market trend. Americans are drinking 37% less dairy (cow) milk than they did in the 1970s and alternatives are fighting for their market share. Much of this shift is driven by climate change. According to a University of Oxford study, producing a glass of dairy milk results in almost three times the greenhouse gas emissions than non-dairy milk. It also uses far more water and land. But it isnt that simple. Many consumers want to be eco-conscious, but not all plant-based milks are created equal. Consider the popular almond, hazelnut and coconut milks. They all grow on trees that absorb carbon, but their impacts are vastly different. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Most almonds are grown in industrial low water monoculture environments in Californias central valley. I recently drove through miles of them and they looked starkly out of place. They require enormous amounts of water. In comparing nut milks, Conversation.com reports that one kernel of California almond requires 12 liters of irrigated water. Annette McGivney, writing for the Guardian, reports, Nearly 70% of commercial bees in the U.S. are drafted each spring to pollinate almonds. Last year, a record number over one third of them had died by seasons end. The culprit appears to be pesticides, such as glyphosate. Coconut trees use less water, but grow in tropical areas where increasing demand means tropical forests are destroyed for coconut production. Coconut is an absolute tragedy , states Isaac Emery, a food sustainability consultant. I love cooking with coconut milk, but I dont feel good about buying coconut products. Hazelnut milk, the Guardian concludes, is better for the environment as trees are cross-pollinated, so bees are not at risk, and they tend to grow in areas with more rainfall and in less intensive operations. Then there are legume-based milks, such as protein-rich soy milk, which has been a global favorite for thousands of years. Legumes are nitrogen fixers, so can improve soil and do not use a lot of water or require a lot of land. However, consider that half a million acres of Brazilian rainforest have been lost to soy production. Some grain-based alternatives are also popular, but questionable. Rice milk uses lots of water and may have high arsenic levels. Conversation.com also points out that rice production generates high greenhouse gas emissions due to the methane-producing bacteria that develops in rice paddies. Rice production also uses a lot of fertilizer. Then there is oat milk. In terms of overall environmental benefit, it may be the winner. But most oats are grown industrially and use glyphosate-based pesticides. However, an organic, healthier and sustainable Swedish brand, Oatly, uses whole oat groats and natural enzymes, and does not filter out the heart-healthy beta glucan that some over-processed companies discard. In reality, it is hard to analyze the environmental effect of these different milk alternatives. The literature is limited. Many of the current studies are industrially funded and do not consider each stage of production, or other factors, such as how much waste is produced. And each company has different production processes, some of which are proprietary. And wait just a minute, says the dairy industry. Milklife.com emphasizes that dairy milk contains eight times more protein than alternatives such as rice milk and almond milk, which have little naturally occurring calcium, Vitamin A and D. There are no additives in milk. None are needed, they stress. Unlike plant-based alternatives, you always know what youll get when you grab a glass of real milk, they say. In contrast, they say, most plant alternatives are filled with additives, including salt and sugar, stabilizers and emulsifiers, such as locust bean gum, sunflower lecithin and gellam gum. The Business Insider says the money may be on oat milk. Oatly recently got a $2 billion valuation and investments from the Blackstone Group, as well as from such individuals as Oprah Winfrey. I tried oat milk. It is a bit grey-looking, but has a rich, milky taste. I was recently at a California restaurant and asked about dessert. Oh, I was told, we have a great flourless chocolate cake made with olive oil instead of butter paired with a gelato made with oat milk. I passed on dessert. I wasnt ready. Judith Polich, a longtime New Mexico resident, is a retired attorney with a background in environmental studies and is a student of climate change. She can be reached at judith.polich@gmail.com .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal From targets to the neon lights of Bakersfield, Mary Weatherford honed a unique practice fueled by overwhelming curiosity. Open at SITE Santa Fe, Mary Weatherford: Canyon Daisy Eden is the first solo survey exhibition of the California artists work created between 1989 and 2017. As constant experiments in color, scale and materials, her paintings reveal the continuity of an obsession with memory and experience. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Weatherfords expansive, gestural canvases overlaid with neon glass tubing first drew admirers to her work in the 2010s. The artist places her large canvases on the floor, painting them from above A la the abstract expressionists Helen Frankenthaler and Jackson Pollock. Weatherford screwed the rods directly into the canvas, connecting them with thin wires and creating a three-dimensional drawing on top of the painted background. Weatherfords 2014 painting Canyon features custom-made neon tubes bisecting the bottom of a canvas painted in a wash of vinyl paint. These came from a moment when she was making works in Bakersfield, (California) co-curator Ian Berry of the Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery at Skidmore College said. At the time, Weatherford was teaching, driving between Bakersfields California State University and her Los Angeles studio. She was reflecting on the neon lights of Bakersfield the honky tonks, Berry continued, reflecting on the neon lights while she was driving around at dusk. The addition of neon really clicked for her. These neon lights are like another brushstroke or another pencil line, he said. She can move them around the canvas like another line. They make her work very unique in the world of painting. Weatherfords earlier work of the late 1980s consisted of target-like imagery. Theyre very large (82 inches square) circular paintings, Berry said. You really feel them in your body. They look like targets, but they come from her thinking about the circular timelines of tree rings. She was really fascinated by how these trees grow and keep a record of a forest fire or a drought, Berry said. Originally from Ojai, California, Weatherford earned a bachelors degree in art history and visual arts at Princeton University, and her masters in fine art degree at Bard College. In 1985, she took part in the Whitney Independent Study Program, where she developed her earliest paintings. Some of these consisted of colored targets, and silkscreened images of flowers, vines and female figures named after literary heroines. In 2005, she started a pivotal series of paintings based on plein air (outdoor) drawings she made of a sea cave on Pismo Beach, a coastal area a few hours north of Los Angeles. In 2012, she began the Bakersfield Project, her first series incorporating neon tubing, a new style that occupies her today. The colors and textures indicate shifting sights, atmosphere and mood, often evoking a specific time, locale and temperature, such as Greek seafood restaurant murals and liquor store neon signs seen while driving through the dusk. I think Mary is a great example of an artist who is unsatisfied in the greatest way, Berry said, an artist who is always looking to reinvent. I think that is a trait of a great artist. You can see that glorious unsatisfied-ness. Its what Im looking for when Im looking for artwork I can look at over and over again. It rewards repeated viewings. If you go WHAT: Mary Weatherford: Canyon Daisy Eden WHERE: SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe WHEN: Thursday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday: 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.; Sunday: Noon-4 p.m. through Aug. HOW MUCH: Free; register before visiting at 505-989-1199 or sitesantafe.org. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... By JAKE KARLIns The New Mexico Public Education Department, known to teachers like me as NMPED, recently released a report. The Roadmap 2.0 details a plan to help schools recover from problems engendered by the quarantine and COVID. As many know, COVID hit our schools hard. We did our best and triumphed in some, but not all, ways. It seemed unfair in a way. Our schools struggle so much and are a kind of black eye to the state, and even as we try to rise out of the bottom of the rankings, were hit with an epidemic that makes learning nearly impossible. It seems entirely reasonable, then, that our Public Education Department would come up with a plan to address this. However, the plan is flawed on many fronts. Ill give a few quick examples, although this isnt my main point. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ So, issues with the Roadmap include its being poorly written and padded with useless information such as definitions of words educators already know well and quotes from various websites. The plan suggests that tutoring will somehow help us fix gaps in knowledge that developed during the past two school years, but this is questionable. How will students be made to attend tutoring? I worked with some good and committed tutors over this past school year, but students rarely showed up. It only works when kids show up, and that can be hard to enforce. The plan recommends using careful assessments (think tests and assignments) and high-quality activities. Teachers already do this and have been reminded of this for three years. This isnt a new idea or anything innovative. Another idea is an informational list of best practices. We are constantly talking about and making lists of best practices, even if we havent seen huge changes in how well students learn or if they even show up to school. This amounts to busywork, and a waste of time (and money). The report also comes back, numerous times, to culturally sensitive materials. Its not clear how this is new, or how this would address the losses incurred by COVID. Its trendy and a rehashing of previously suggested ideas (as with best practice listing). As before, its a waste of the states money and time. Maybe you see where Im going with this. NMPED does many things to try to help improve our schools. Sadly, it consistently misses the mark and either makes things stagnate or even more chaotic. New plans are constantly rolled out, implemented poorly and done so with little thought to scheduling. As teachers, we work to organize things and make them run, and we do this running constantly counter to the work of NMPED. We need to drastically change funding to the Public Education Department. There are some well-intentioned folks working there, but there are also many people with jobs that waste time, jobs basically involving coming up with useless reports and unneeded professional development for teachers. Jobs must be cut from this bloated and corrupt department. Then, this funding could be allocated to schools, which could hire teachers, make repairs on time, and buy books and paper. The Public Ed Department is ignoring common sense and common sense is probably the one thing that could save our public schools. Jake Karlins lives in Santa Fe. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Have you ever visited Monticello, the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson? Nestled in the woods of the Charlottesville countryside, it is a magnificent place. As the descendant of enslaved Africans, I visited the plantation with the same apprehension with which I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. expecting my heart to be broken. What I came away with instead was a strange sympathy for Jefferson. As I walked the rolling, manicured lawns and explored the well-ordered geometry of his architectural masterpiece, for the first time in my life, as a Black man, I think I really understood the attraction of slavery. Despite his better judgment, Jefferson embraced the institution of slavery because he enjoyed its benefits. The moral conflict that inspired him to introduce a Virginia law prohibiting the importation of enslaved Africans in 1778, even as he personally committed all manner of horrors against the Africans he owned, is an illustration of the strong pull selfishness can have on all of us. Like freedom, selfishness is a foundation stone of the American experience. Our history is one long pattern of certain people satisfying their selfish needs at the expense of a select few beginning with a dispossession of the Indigenous peoples and then the exploitation of enslaved Africans. The observant learn quickly that racial justice in America arrives and recedes like the sweep of a pendulum: out toward justice for a time and then back again toward selfishness. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ It is for this reason that we know the Black Lives Matter movement is on borrowed time. If past is indeed prologue, one day soon, the heat of the BLM movement will fade away like all previous similar movements, to be replaced by some bland, nostalgic approximation. Weve witnessed the pendulum of racial justice swing back and forth for centuries in America, and yet we continue to be surprised that racism persists. In the late 1860s, after centuries of slavery, the pendulum swung in favor of Reconstruction and hung there in the air for a time until the opportunity to seize the reins of presidential power in 1877 convinced supporters of justice in the North to turn a blind eye to injustices in the South setting the pendulum in motion toward Jim Crow. In the late 1960s, television brought the horrors of the segregated South into American homes with a power and immediacy that was difficult to ignore, setting the pendulum in motion toward justice again. For a time, ordinary people were suddenly open to the idea that it might be wrong to beat a man bloody for simply wanting to vote. This acceptance fueled support for the civil rights advances of the 1970s and 80s and, for a time, the pendulum swung in favor of policies supporting school desegregation and Affirmative Action. But the pendulum swung back again as soon as the majority recognized that equal justice often means equal sacrifice. Today, the pendulum is poised in judgment above the debate over Critical Race Theory. At the heart of CRT is the concept that racism is woven into the fabric of the American psyche, its systems and its institutions, and that only deliberate action can correct the damage it has done. Across this country, there is a movement afoot fed and fueled by such groups as the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute to oppose the spread of Critical Race Theory. You can see the fruits of their labor on TikTok in tutorials about Black people owning slaves; in Twitter rants equating CRT with public sanctioned racism; and in state legislatures and among House Republicans in Congress, where there is a push to ban its teaching in public schools. Opponents of CRT push back, despite a preponderance of evidence that even people new to this country can see. Why else would Indian Sikh Bhagat Singh Thind and Japanese American Takao Ozawa sue the United States to be classified as white if they did not equate whiteness with justice in America? Immigrants watch and make their judgments as the benefits of the GI Bill, and favorable home mortgages and places at our elite universities accrue with abundant regularity to certain people. They see how the cards are stacked. At present, the pendulum hangs in the favor of supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and Critical Race Theory, but the pendulum waits for no one. Now is the time for those seeking lasting racial justice to grab as much psychic, moral and political real estate as they can before its too late. K. Ward Cummings is a former senior congressional staffer and the author of The Capitol Hill Playbook (2nd Edition), written under the pen name Nicholas Balthazar. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Its rare when one of Los Alamos National Laboratorys watchdog critics is flabbergasted in a positive way. Thats what happened last week when news broke that the Biden administration announced its budget proposal would increase U.S. Department of Energy funding for environmental cleanup at LANL by 32%, up from $226 million now to $333.5 million, in fiscal year 2022. The amount allocated for cleanup of the labs longterm legacy hazardous waste radioactive and otherwise has been stagnant for many years, even as LANLs overall annual budget has ballooned to more than $3.7 billion. Last year, the Trump administration even tried to cut the cleanup allocation, by nearly half. The items that need attention include radioactive material that was buried in shafts over the years since the Manhattan Project, drums of transuranic waste, such as contaminated clothes and gloves left over from plutonium work, and a plume of chromium in groundwater beneath Los Alamos. The immense size of the job of environmental remediation at Los Alamos can be measured by the years projected to complete the work. The latest federal budget plan calls for spending up to $8.4 billion, possibly through 2090. Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico who long has pushed for removal of buried waste at LANL over a cheaper cap and cover plan initially said he was pleasantly surprised by the proposed funding increase. He then added, Perhaps better put, (Im) flabbergasted. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The New Mexico Environment Department has sued DOE over an alleged continuing pattern of delay and noncompliance with a state/federal consent order on cleanup. NMED Secretary James Kenney said he was cautiously optimistic that the new budget numbers mean the DOE is listening to New Mexico at last. New Mexicans hold varying views on LANL. It brings thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to a poor state, but critics oppose the labs nuclear weapons mission and its high cost. Still, everyone should be able to agree that removal of the hazardous waste left behind by the labs decades of weapons work should be a priority for the federal government. So its good news that the Biden administration is stepping up and showing support for LANL cleanup where it counts in the federal budget. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The streets of Santa Fe have become busier as of late, and could become even more crowded still. The citys tourism industry the lifeblood in many ways for the local economy has continued to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic as restrictions loosen and more people begin to receive vaccines, according to newly released figures from city officials. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Tourism Director Randy Randall told reporters last week that the city received 49,000 out-of-area visitors each week for two weeks in May. Thats compared to the 51,000 average weekly visitors Santa Fe received throughout the course of 2019. It was only a few months ago, before vaccines were widespread, that Santa Fe County faced severe restrictions that subsequently deterred many from visiting the area. Numbers had been improving slowly, but the number seemed to explode in May, Randall said. I think were going from 0 to 100 miles an hour, with nothing in between, Mayor Alan Webber said of the sudden increase. Around 65% of those visiting are from out of state, with Colorado, Texas and Arizona among the top states from which visitors travel. Randall said theyre hoping to capitalize on in-state visitors taking day trips to the city. And that increased interest has become very evident as hotel parking lots fill up and hundreds have descended onto Santa Fe Plaza, filling businesses that have seen only a trickle of customers over the past year. La Fonda General Manager Rik Blythe said the reopening of such large-scale attractions as Meow Wolf and museums was what convinced many visitors finally to come to Santa Fe. The floodgates just opened it was amazing, Blythe said. State Tourism Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said the willingness to travel stems from an increased feeling of safety among tourists. Data from her office shows peoples fear of the virus dropped 10 percentage points in just a week. That success has also been seen in Taos and the rest of the Enchanted Circle, as well. That whole region is almost all the way back up to where they were in 2019, Schroer said. Those visitors have city officials confident that gross receipts tax (GRT) revenues will continue to improve. At this point in 2020, GRT revenues the backbone of the citys budget had collapsed, forcing the city to make sudden and severe cuts, which included temporary furloughs for employees. The most recent budget appears much more optimistic. With an expected influx of cash, most city employees will get a 4% raise, and Webber spoke of new investments in affordable housing. But the influx of visitors has raised concerns about potential outbreaks of different variants of COVID-19, especially with New Mexico far ahead of other states in terms of vaccinating local residents. And, with mask restrictions in New Mexico becoming looser, it has become less common to see people wearing masks in public. Many businesses, though, still require masks on entry. Around the plaza this weekend, I dont think you wouldve made much money being a mask salesperson, Randall said. The state currently still has some restrictions on business capacities in place. Webber said any spike in COVID-19 could be followed by tighter restrictions if need be. We are still taking precautions because our number-one priority is public health, he said. Schroer said those who arent vaccinated should wear a mask, although she admitted thats not something officials can actively enforce. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The Santa Fe Plaza is normally bustling during the tourist season, with different art or food vendors on every corner, and people milling about and visiting retail shops. Its fair to say that the past year has been anything but normal. But the Plaza is now beginning to return to its iconic status after lying barren for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Native American artists returned Friday to selling jewelry beneath the portal of the Palace of the Governors after an absence of more than a year, bringing a sense of normalcy that has been missing for months. Native American Artisans Portal Program Committee Chairwoman Maya Quintana, a fifth-generation silversmith from Zia Pueblo, said shes happy and relieved the program has started up again. The committee and the artists who have been deprived of their source of income have been through a lot this past year and the committee has been working with the New Mexico History Museum, which administers the program, to reopen. Before the pandemic began, Quintana said she was planning to buy a house. But, now, due to financial hardships caused by the pandemic, shes had to deplete her savings and use her credit cards just to survive. And Quintanas story is not unique. She said many artists in the program have also suffered during the pandemic. She said the committee sent several letters and reopening proposals to the museum and state officials, and that artists were frustrated when other businesses were opening up, but the portal program was still closed. A lot of the reactions have been finally and about time because I myself and a lot of the artists feel as if we could have opened safely when all the other businesses opened up in Santa Fe, she said. The state was hesitant to let us reopen and Im not too sure why. Whenever the committee would turn in operation proposals, the state kept telling them not yet, not yet, she said. Most of the Native American vendors are vaccinated through their tribal governments, she said, and were willing to reopen a while ago. Our program is mostly intended to educate the public, she said. If it werent for the program, a lot of the tourists that do come to New Mexico, a lot of them dont know that Native Americans are still alive or that were still very intact, with our traditional aspects of life. Billy Garrett, executive director of the New Mexico History Museum, said the museum got approval to reopen the program Wednesday from Debra Garcia y Griego, Cabinet secretary for the Department of Cultural Affairs. He said vendors will be spaced at least 6 feet apart and, given these requirements, theres room for only 26 vendors under the portal. As a result, the museum is expanding the program to Washington Avenue and Lincoln Avenue surrounding the portal. With this added space, theyll be able to accommodate 51 vendors, which is fewer than the usual 69. Under the portal itself, there will be one-way-only pedestrian traffic to help cut down on face-to-face encounters. This will provide more protection for the public and the vendors, he said. All vendors will be wearing masks, as well, he added. This has been a real economic hardship for a lot of the artisans who rely on the sale of their work for their primary income, he said. Were taking all reasonable precautions to protect people and, of course, if a participant isnt quite ready to do this, then thats fine. For the Plaza Park Artist/Artisan and the Pushcart Vendor Program run by the city, sellers were allowed to begin hawking their wares on the Plaza on May 3, according to Isabella Sharpe, a city constituent services specialist. I really left it up to them (vendors). If they feel comfortable and if they want to be up there, its completely up to them, Sharpe said. She said that, of the six pushcart vendor licenses, two are currently available. As for the artisans, she has 23 total vendors. Its great to have them back, she said. This is how they make their living and it was very difficult to suspend the program during COVID-19. I go on my runs downtown and it brings so much peace and lightness to my heart to know that its not a ghost town any more, she said. They add so much life to the Plaza. Pushcart vendors Daniel Caldera and his daughter Gabriella have been on the Plaza for about 30 years. The two run the fajita stand, El Molero Fajitas, on the Plaza. Gabriella Caldera said reopening has been a little stressful because business is still kind of slow. She said theyre still trying to get back to normal after being shut down for so long. She said the stand has been open off and on for the past couple of weeks, but that she plans to start opening more often. She said that once the summer concert series starts again, they will be there all night. And people wont have to wait much longer to hear the music, according to Jamie Lenfestey, director of AMP Concerts in Santa Fe and Taos. Live music is coming back, baby! he said. In April, Lenfestey wasnt sure if they would even be able to have concerts. But now its assured that people will be able to enjoy live, and free, music on the Plaza and at the Railyard this summer. He said AMP Concerts has been announcing shows on its website and more shows will be announced June 21. He said the shows will be at the Santa Fe Opera, The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Company, a Santa Fe Music Week at HIPICO Santa Fe and more. On the Plaza, free concerts will start July 8, and run Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sept. 2. The free concert series at The Railyard will begin on Friday, July 9, and run seven Fridays through Aug. 27. Lenfestey said all concerts will follow the guidelines laid down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the New Mexico Department of Health. He said all the concerts he mentioned will be outdoors, and they dont intend on having any indoor concerts until late summer or fall. Were just monitoring (the states guidelines) and paying attention, and trying our best to create an environment for music to return safely, he said. Ken Bonner, an artist vendor on the Plaza, said it feels strange to see people maskless and walking around now that restrictions have been eased, but its also exciting because it means things are returning to normal. On Bonners second day on the Plaza as a new vendor, he said hes happy with the experience. Hes had his work in Santa Fe galleries for seven years, but he enjoys the direct touch with the public on the Plaza. Bonner said hes talked to a lot of people from all around the U.S., and thinks people are getting out and exploring the country, rather than going overseas due to the pandemic. I think thats whats my message is to people explore the town again. Weve got to do it and get to know our own town again, he said. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. For the second time in as many years, Joy Harjo, the current Poet Laureate of the United States, has opened a window to celebrate the wide, diverse world of Native American poetry. Last summer, Harjo, Muscogee (Creek), was the main editor of the anthology When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through. That comprehensive collection contained works by more than 160 Indigenous poets dating from the 17th century to the present. Harjo returned last month with what she terms her signature project as the 23rd Poet Laureate. Its a digital project with the companion publication Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry. For this anthology, Harjo wrote the introduction and collected the poetry written by 47 contemporary Native poets. She is one of the 47. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ In the introduction, Harjo boldly states her reasons for this collection: As the first Native Nations poet laureate, I was aware that Indigenous peoples of our country are often invisible or not seen as human. You will rarely find us in the cultural storytelling of America, and we are nearly nonexistent in the American book of poetry. So she conceived of the concept of mapping the country, not through geography, but rather through poetry. Each of the 47 chose a poem based on the theme of place and displacement with four contact points. Those points are visibility, persistence, resistance and acknowledgement. Harjo writes that the poets also chose where on the story map they wanted to place themselves. In the books foreword, Carla D. Hayden, Librarian of Congress, explains, By clicking on the map, users can immerse themselves in these poets worlds: (With location markers) see where each poet lives or feels most rooted, read their poems and biographies, and best of all hear their voices and languages as they recite and (briefly) discuss their poems. The map is in three sections. It begins with the East, or Becoming. Two of the tribes rooted on the Eastern Seaboard the Iroquois and Muscogee (Creek) inspired American democratic government even as history diminished them, Harjo writes. The poem Daybreak by Jake Skeets, Dine (Navajo), opens the section and is a template for the shape of the anthology, she notes. Then theres the Center, or the North/South. Though a physical place, the area metaphorically represents what Harjo calls the heart of presence and knowledge, of understanding. The last section is West or Departure, but according to Harjo it also looks to the future. The digital information about the project including the map is on the Library of Congress website. Go to loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html. Scroll down to Living Nations, Living Words, one of a series of presentations on subjects listed alphabetically. These are some of the other poets in the anthology/digital project with links to the Southwest: Layli Long Soldier, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and a resident of Santa Fe; Sherwin Bitsui, Dine (Navajo), who teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and is a faculty member at Northern Arizona University; Luci Tapahonso, Dine (Navajo), who grew up in Shiprock, was the inaugural Navajo Nation poet laureate and is emerita professor of English literature and languages at the University of New Mexico; and Laura Tohe, Dine (Navajo), recipient of the 2020 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. Harjo, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, resident, studied and taught at UNM. And there is b: william bearhart, a direct descendant of the St. Croix Chippewa of Wisconsin. He died during the projects production. However, bearhart lived to recite and discuss his poem Transplant: After Georgia OKeeffes Pelvis IV, 1944. He graduated from the Lo Rez MFA program at the IAIA. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Decades in the making, a powerful new exhibit will soon open at the Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner. In a town best known as the burial site of Billy the Kid, the memorial powerfully tells the history of the Dine-Navajo people who were forced marched in the Long Walk from their Native areas to the barren reservation in eastern New Mexico. It also tells of the forced banishment of the Mescalero Apaches, who too were sequestered in that place far from their homelands. And it does it from the Native perspectives, said Aaron Roth, manager of the Fort Sumner Historic Site. Virtually every part of the 6,000-square-foot gallery is used to bring these tragic days from the 1860s to light in deep ways, he said, bringing together the use of modern technology with Native manners. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ There isnt a square inch that is not used in this gallery, Roth said. Even the ceiling has features and fixtures that are thought-provoking. The exhibit, which cost about $650,000 to install, should be open in some capacity by mid-summer and fully open by the fall, Roth said. And the collaborative effort of the exhibit not only is a rarity, but a tremendous example of what can be achieved by a collaborative effort from the beginning, said Manny Wheeler, who participated in the project and is the director of the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona. Its emotional, and its absolutely truthful as all exhibits should be, he said. It is a powerful and moving exhibit. It doesnt take lightly the atrocity that happened. I think thats definitely one of its strengths. It treats the Long Walk incident and that part of the Navajo and American history with the carefulness that it needs to have. Its not just another exhibit that people dont pay attention to. The effort to include all participants in the project produced an exhibition that everybody will be appreciate, said Holly Houghton, who helped with the project and is the Mescalero Apache tribal culture preservation officer. Its very hard to include every aspect of what wed all like to see. Funding is always limited, she said. But they really sought to look at it from all of the perspectives. The times that the Navajo and the Apache were there were different. The Navajo had to walk a great distance and there was not enough food and water to maintain that many people, and they were there much longer that the Apaches. They did focus on both of those things. The exhibit was designed not only to properly bring to light what occurred at Bosque Redondo 160 years ago, but how what happened then and its subsequent fallout has reverberated down through the years, continuing to having a lasting effect, Wheeler said. Its not just meant for Navajos and its not just meant for Native people, he said. Its definitely an experience all Americans should know about and understand what happened and the results of that and how it changed the course for Navajo people. Additionally, Wheeler said, it sends a powerful message that can be recognized and acknowledged far beyond New Mexico and even the United States. It has a world-wide message of having that understanding of what happens when people of one culture are forced into a tragic situation, he said. We need to be aware of how and why it happened for it not to happen again. The whole point is so people can have an understanding and a tolerance for people who are different. Another point is to understand why it was wrong to do that to the Navajo and Apache people. There are so many things that people can learn from this exhibit. When the grim circumstances are presented with such stark reality, it can be a bit overwhelming, Wheeler admitted. In my experience as a museum director, for topics, especially topics of tragedy in history, it seems they are best learned through emotion, he said. And emotion is definitely a part of this exhibit. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... In a time ravaged by a pandemic, an insurrection and police killings of Black citizens, Monroe Gallery of Photography will show a series capturing it all. For 20 years, the gallery has hung mainly historic photographs by such legends as Margaret Bourke-White, Harry Benson and Tony Vaccaro, although it has long included current work in its group shows. Past exhibits have paired Black Lives Matter images with photographs of the 1964 Selma March. Opening June 18, Present Tense marks Monroes first multi-journalist exhibition of current news events during this epoch-changing era. It was time to pause the rush of virtual imagery with its storm of constantly flickering perceptions, gallery co-owner Michelle Monroe said. This is a first, she said. It seems obvious to us that we are living in a completely unique history. The question of survivability is upon us. We wanted people to stand before this moment and stay with it. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ David Butows print of National Guardsmen sprawled across the U.S. Capitol floor after the Jan. 6 insurrection coincidentally captured the New Mexico statue of PoPay, the leader of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. During the pandemic, Butow also shot an image of a masked couple walking the Hoboken, New Jersey boardwalk with an ominous Manhattan skyline in the background. The hazy light in Ashley Gilbertsons image of the Capitol Rotunda reveals a chilling truth. Ashley said the air inside was filled with teargas, bear spray and the fire extinguishers they had carried in, co-owner Sidney Monroe said. Gilbertsons shot of Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman frames him in a doorway beneath the raised hands of insurrectionists. To the left of him you can see the stairway that he led them through away from the Senate, Michelle Monroe said. It recalls the man standing in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Gilbertson also captured the sense of desperation and despair in her photo of a food line in New Yorks Chinatown during the pandemic. Ryan Vizzions photo of the U.S. Capitol through its new fencing encapsulates the story of the insurrections aftermath. The photographer also shot an image of the late Civil Rights leader Sen. John Lewis marching in Atlanta. Sanjay Suchaks eerie photo of Charlottesville marchers at the University of Virginia Rotunda appears almost reverent until you realize they are white supremacists. Suchak also produced a compelling image of a college graduate giving a triumphant Black Power salute in front of a graffiti-scrawled Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia. New Mexico photographer Gabriela Campos shot a scene closer to home when she photographed an Ohkay Owingeh dancer atop the empty platform where a statue of Don Juan de Onate once stood in Rio Arriba County. She also cemented a picture of COVID-19 exhaustion in her portrait of a trio of masked nurses at Santa Fes St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. The impact and urgency of some of these photographs were immediately iconic, Sidney Monroe said. Sometimes it takes decades. We dont need to wait a decade to look back. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... SANTA FE, N.M. An Albuquerque man was shot and injured after exchanging gunfire with a Taos Police officer early Saturday. Antonio Olivares, 18, was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital for non-life threatening injuries and later released, said New Mexico State Police, which is investigating the officer-involved shooting. The officer was not injured. According to a State Police news release detailing the incident, around 3 a.m. Saturday a Taos Police Department officer tried to stop a passenger vehicle for traffic violations on N.M. 68. The vehicle didnt stop and, after a short pursuit, crashed. At that point in the encounter shots were fired between Olivares and the officer, police said. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Olivares was struck by gunfire but was able to evade the officer on foot, according to the release. He was found a short time later. Olivares was taken into custody without further incident and transported to a local hospital for treatment before being airlifted to Albuquerque, State Police said. Its not clear what charges Olivares is facing. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... This month, federal scientists published new data on what normal now means when it comes to New Mexicos climate. The results come as no surprise: normal is anything but. Temperatures in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe region over the last 30 years were a full two degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th-century average. Thats a major reason why more than 96% of the state is suffering from severe drought and why our fire seasons are starting earlier and getting worse. However, we can still prevent the worst impacts of climate change. To get the situation under control, New Mexico and the world must quickly reduce pollution from burning oil, gas, coal and other fossil fuels. There are immediate actions Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham can and should take this year to drive progress. Near the top of the list should be adopting clean car standards. This established policy would limit climate-changing pollution from vehicle tailpipes in New Mexico and require auto manufacturers to deliver an increasing number of zero-emission electric vehicles to the state. There are many compelling reasons to adopt clean car standards. First, transportation is New Mexicos second-largest source of climate-changing pollution. Reaching the governors goal of reducing pollution 45% by 2030 will require bold action to ensure New Mexicans can get where they need to go in cleaner, more sustainable ways. By accelerating electric vehicle adoption, clean car standards can help put New Mexicos growing supply of clean, renewable electricity to work powering cars and trucks as well as homes and businesses. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Second, clean car standards will improve our health. The American Lung Association just ranked Albuquerque as the 26th most-polluted city in the country for ground-level ozone in part because of vehicle emissions. Reducing tailpipe pollution will help lower ozone levels and make the air near busy roadways less dangerous to breathe. Third, clean car standards will save New Mexicans money. The standards will save gasoline, reducing fuel costs for those who choose to drive combustion vehicles. Further, driving on electricity is comparable to gasoline at $1 per gallon. And electric vehicles dont need oil changes, so maintenance costs are much lower. Those savings add up to thousands of dollars over the life of each electric vehicle. Deploying electric vehicles at a pace sufficient to meet New Mexicos climate goals will collectively save New Mexicans more than $20 billion through midcentury. In September 2019, the governor publicly pledged to adopt clean car standards. According to the 2020 New Mexico Climate Strategy, the state plans to act this year, with the New Mexico Environment Department due to hold public meetings this spring, put forward a petition for rulemaking in July, and hold a hearing at the Environmental Improvement Board later in 2021. However, spring is quickly coming to a close, and the state has not yet begun the formal process for adopting these rules. Time is of the essence. The state needs to give automakers two years lead time to begin complying. Adopting the rule this year would mean more clean cars in New Mexico beginning in 2024. If we wait until January or later, that will add at least a year of unnecessary delay and slow our progress in fighting climate change. As the governor wrote in 2020, Our future depends on winning this fight. Todays climate will be the closest thing to normal our children will likely ever know. But we can prevent the worst impacts of climate change with strong action now. Adopting clean car standards should be New Mexicos next step. Governor, lets charge ahead. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... SANTA FE Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday defended her handling of accusations of harassment by a former campaign spokesman that resulted in a financial settlement of at least $62,500 in payments from her political campaign, saying the pandemic demanded her attention. In her first in-person comments concerning the settlement with James Hallinan, Lujan Grisham briefly described her decision to resolve the matter. Hallinan, who worked as a spokesman for Lujan Grishams 2018 campaign for governor, has accused Lujan Grisham of dropping water on his crotch and then grabbing his crotch in the midst of a campaign staff meeting before the election accusations that the governor denies. I was focused on the pandemic, and Ill stand by that decision every minute of every day, said Lujan Grisham, describing the decision to settle. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Asked whether there have been any other financial settlements and nondisclosure agreements of a similar nature, the governor said no. Lujan Grishams political committee paid at least $62,500 to an attorney for Hallinan. Payments were made in five monthly installments to a law firm representing Hallinan, who now runs a public relations and political consulting firm. Lujan Grisham previously issued a denial of Hallinans public allegations through a campaign spokesman. It is unclear whether Hallinans harassment accusations ever were independently vetted. I have not seen anywhere in the country where theres an independent investigation over an employment claim, Lujan Grisham said Friday at a news conference. Ive been open and transparent and will continue to do that. Multiple sexual harassment and groping allegations against Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have prompted an investigation by that states attorney general and are included in a probe by the New York Assembly into possible impeachment charges. Lujan Grisham said, Those are not issues you find anywhere in this administration. She noted there was no substantiation of Hallinans claims by witnesses. The incident allegedly took place at the home of state Rep. Deborah Armstrong, a former campaign treasurer and private business partner to Lujan Grisham. Armstrong has said she never witnessed anything inappropriate. State campaign finance regulators say that the settlement payments from a political campaign account are permissible because they involve an employment dispute related to Hallinans time with the governors election campaign. The Governors Office and campaign have declined to say whether further payment is still due to Hallinan. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The widow of a New Mexico State Police officer fatally shot during a traffic stop in February has filed a wrongful death lawsuit contending that her husband died because of the agencys negligence. Gabriella Jarrott filed the lawsuit Friday in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe on behalf of her minor children and as personal representative of the estate of Darian Jarrott. The lawsuit names the state Department of Public Safety as a defendant and alleges negligence. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ State Police declined to comment on the lawsuit. The suit seeks unspecified damages, including costs of this action and any other relief the Court deems just and proper. Gabriella Jarrott is represented by attorney Sam Bregman. Omar Cueva fatally shot the 28-year-old on Feb. 4 after Jarrott pulled him over along Interstate 10 east of Deming. Cueva, 39, then got into a chase and gunfight with authorities that ended with his death in Las Cruces. State Police documents previously released to the Journal reveal that Cueva had been targeted in a federal drug sting involving a confidential informant and undercover agent. Officials with Homeland Security Investigations were hoping that State Police could take Cueva into custody during a traffic stop so that he wouldnt suspect that he had been set up by the undercover agent and confidential informant. Bregman said Jarrott was slaughtered in an ambush that never had to happen. The reason he was killed was because Homeland Security Investigations valued the identity of a confidential informant more than the life of a State Police officer, Bregman told the Journal. This all could have been avoided. He said he will also be filing a lawsuit against HSI, which tasked State Police with Cuevas capture along I-10 as an alternative to arresting him during an undercover drug buy in Las Cruces. The lawsuit alleges that State Police and HSI had Jarrott make the traffic stop without any backup or protective gear and without informing him of how dangerous Cueva was known to be. To protect its confidential informer, HSI chose not to simply arrest Cueva, who was heavily armed and had a large amount of drugs, at the drug buy but have State Police arrest him during a traffic stop between Deming and Las Cruces, the lawsuit states. Another pair of State Police officers and Jarrotts sergeant were aware of the operation and Cuevas history but Jarrott, the lawsuit alleges, was not informed or invited to the HSI briefing beforehand. Most of the allegations made in the lawsuit were detailed in State Police records previously made public. But the suit also alleges that Jarrott who enforced commercial vehicle regulations with DPS before coming to State Police was not provided the full training and law enforcement academy curriculum given to other State Police officers. Jarrott had no substantial training in special tactics or the kind of high-risk operation that was being carried out with respect to Cueva, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit contends Jarrotts superiors were aware of Jarrotts background and knew he did not have the proper training or experience to apprehend Cueva. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... SANTA FE Overnight summer camps will be allowed in all 50 states this season, but COVID-19 rules and a pandemic labor crunch mean that many fewer young campers will attend, and those who do will have to observe coronavirus precautions for the second consecutive year. The Southeast is the first region to open camps this month, with other parts of the country to follow in July. Camp might look a little different, but camp is going to look a lot better in 2021 than it did in 2020, when it didnt happen, said Matt Norman of Atlanta, who is getting ready to send his 12-year-old daughter to camp. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Even though most camps will be open, reduced capacity necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions and the labor shortage will keep numbers well below a normal threshold of about 26 million summer campers, said Tom Rosenberg of the American Camp Association. Many camps face competition for counselors in a tight job market. Traditional recruitment tactics like job fairs on college campuses have been canceled. Its been hard to get people to work, said Josh Nelson, at Glorieta Adventure Camp, a facility in the pine-covered foothills outside Santa Fe. A group of Glorieta camp staffers started their orientation by rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated in an area between the mess hall and the water slides. But many campers are too young to get the shots as the vaccines have not been approved for children under 12. That means this years camp experience will still involve many of the same prevention practices that were adopted at the small number of camps that operated last year. Those measures include grouping kids in cohorts, mandating masks, emphasizing social distancing and lots of hand washing. Some states, like Vermont, are offering free virus testing for campers. At an all-girls camp called Fernwood in Maine, about 200 of the 300 counselors and campers will be vaccinated by the time the six-week term starts. Its a much better scenario for us. Because instead of being worried about 300 people, were worried about 100 people, Fernwood Director Fritz Seving said. Norman plans to send daughter Jane Ellen to Camp Illahee in Brevard, North Carolina, and hes glad the camp is encouraging vaccinations. Jane Ellen agreed and said the focus on vaccines is a good idea. If most people are vaccinated, the more people can go, she said. Back at Glorieta, staff arrived in May from Oklahoma, Texas and Puebla, Mexico, where an in-person recruiting fair took place. They has been training on safety protocols, including virus protection, zip-lining and life guarding. The camp is running at one-third capacity 1,100 out of 3,000 slots are filled and staff will be grouped in pods. Kids are expected to wear masks, even outdoors, except when the are eating meals or in their sleeping dorm. More than 90% of the staff agreed to be vaccinated, but there was no mandate for vaccinations. Even with those limitations, the outlook is much better than last year, when camp was canceled and 80% of the staff was laid off by March, Nelson said. Federal Paycheck Protection Program loans helped but didnt alleviate all of the financial pain, he said. Rosenberg said camp is more important than ever in terms of providing normalcy for kids who have dealt with remote learning, canceled events and boredom, not to mention health worries. Kids have been traumatized. Theyve had some real academic losses. We still havent talked enough about the social and emotional learning losses, he said. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal It takes an army of volunteers and scores of fresh troops every year to keep New Mexicos myriad literacy programs, for both children and adults, operating and doing so smoothly. The lifeblood of these programs, the volunteers, can have specialized training in how to serve as mentors or they can be trained by the various programs in need of volunteers. Many are retired teachers and professionals. Some work with kids who have learning disabilities. Others assist those learning English as a second language, including adults seeking employment and those looking to become U.S. citizens. Regardless, these volunteers to a man, woman and teenager are motivated by a genuine desire to help those who struggle with the written word. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Serving these readers in need is one of the most meaningful things Ive ever done is a fitting, central sentiment from one individual in this story that applies to most volunteers. Reading experts say the single most important thing that can be done to raise a childs literacy level is to read to that child, and encourage a love of reading through exposure to books. Children, they say, must learn to read by third grade so that they can then read to learn by fourth grade. Further, the inability of a child to read at grade level by the end of fourth grade is a predictor of a child who will not graduate from high school on time or will drop out. Finding opportunities The Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring Program in Albuquerque has a team of about 400 volunteers to call upon, said program director Vicki DeVigne. Tutors go into the schools and work with kids primarily in first through third grades, and include children who have been identified by their teachers as not reading at grade level. Each year, tutors sit with about 600 students at 65 schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Belen and Bernalillo. As an organization, Albuquerque Oasis is best known for the classes it offers typically for retired people on topics such as art, politics, culture and cooking. Fees from those help pay for the tutoring program, which is free to schools and students. Im supported by the staff here at Oasis, but really what it comes down to for the tutoring program is volunteers, said DeVigne. Tutors go into the schools, normally during the school day, and they work one-on-one with the same students for one hour, one day a week for the entire school year. The idea is that the volunteer and the student form a bond, and together select books and reading material that will keep the student interested in reading. A lot of times, students dont read because they dont realize theres things out there that are interesting and exciting for them. A most meaningful thing Retired occupational therapist Valerie Dalton has been volunteering at Oasis for more than four years. I dont have children and grandchildren, so this is how I get my young person fix, she said. When I worked in middle schools in Albuquerque, I worked with a number of children who got in trouble and had behavioral issues. What I found was they would rather get into trouble and look bad to their friends than look dumb to their friends because they couldnt read well or do what was being tasked. Id like to help as many children as I can from feeling like that. Although Oasis tutors dont formally assess a childs reading progress, Dalton said she can tell that by the end of the school year the kids she works with read better and comprehend more of what theyre reading. Reading test scores of students are confidential and Albuquerque Public Schools does not release those to Oasis. However, a voluntary teacher-principal survey submitted to the schools by Oasis indicates that 85% of students mentored by Oasis are reading at grade level by the end of the school year, said DeVigne. Reading to us Reading with students has been one of the most meaningful things Ive ever done as a volunteer, said Bruce Mulligan, a volunteer with For The Love of Reading, a literacy program sponsored by the Taos Milagro Rotary Club. Mulligan spends two half-hours each week reading to two kids at elementary schools in the Taos area. The program, which has about two dozen volunteers, including Mulligans wife, also targets first through third graders. We usually set up in the school library and bring an array of books that are appropriate for the age level, Mulligan said. The teachers identify kids who need the extra attention and we sit down with those kids and start by reading to them. As students improve their reading skills, they start reading to us. The kids also regularly get to select books to keep and take home to create their own home library, Mulligan said. Ive seen kids who just really hated to read, kids who struggled through it, just suddenly blossomed in a year and started to read books that were up a grade level from what they were reading before, he said. Serving those in need Albuquerque Reads a project of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce is another literacy program with a goal of providing tutors for young students. Its volunteers work with kindergarten and first grade students at three APS Title I schools. Pat Dee was on the original steering committee that helped set up the program 18 years ago, and for most of that time he has been among the pool of 300 tutors working with the program. I do it because I love the reaction from the kids, he said. Its probably one of the most rewarding pieces of volunteer work that Ive ever done, and you can see the progress that these kids make. Working in tandem with classroom teachers, the volunteer tutors, trained by certified teachers, provide two half-hours of one-on-one reading and literacy instruction each week to two children, who remain with them throughout the school year. The program serves an average of 250 children a year. Volunteers also include former teachers, retired and active duty members of the military, college students and working professionals. Seeing noticeable progress And the progress the kids make in their reading is readily noticeable, Dee said. Its really tremendous for a lot of them, you know, reinforcing what theyre learning in the classroom. Albuquerque Reads tutors follow a scripted curriculum. There is normally at least one test children get at the beginning of the school year just to get a feel for where they are in terms of their literacy level, and at least one test later in the year so that progress can be measured, Dee said. And its not just the kindergarten teachers who notice the improvement, Dee said. Some of our biggest fans have been first grade teachers, who all of a sudden saw these kids coming into first grade, much better equipped to read and ready to accomplish first grade work. According to APS evaluations and national assessments, at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, an average of only 24% of the kindergartners and first graders at these schools were reading at grade level, while 45% of students were considered seriously below grade level, meaning 1.5 to 3 years behind. By early March, as schools were forced to close because of the pandemic, the average of the students reading at or close to grade level had jumped to 42%. Cultural appreciation A volunteer with the ReadWest adult literacy program for more than 30 years, Dee Bovenzi has worked mostly with adult learners of English as a second language, tutoring both speakers of Spanish and Vietnamese. She is among the 175 or so tutors available to the Rio Rancho-based nonprofit organization. Tutors work with the students on a primarily one-on-one basis, although there are some group classes as well, said Bovenzi. First I teach them the vowels and then the long and short sounds associated with the different vowels and letters, she said. As students ability to sound out and recognize words improves, Bovenzi puts together sentences and paragraphs using subject matter about things from their respective cultures a key to their learning process, she said. I used to volunteer to teach nights at SIPI (Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute), and there were people who had never been off the reservation. I found that some of them, who never went to school, did not know how to read. But if you had a mechanic in the class, and you brought a book in about transmissions, they could read the words because they recognized them. Many of the adults she tutors are motivated by a desire to read about the U.S. Constitution and take a citizenship test, others want to find decent employment or further their education, Bovenzi said. I get such satisfaction being able to help somebody to become an American citizen, help somebody get a better job, help somebody go to school and get a degree, she said. I believe in community, and so do they and they know that to be a productive member of that community they have to be able to speak and read and write the language of that community. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... JERUSALEM Israels parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The vote, capping a stormy parliamentary session, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four deadlocked elections. Those votes focused largely on Netanyahus divisive rule and his fitness to remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. To his supporters, Netanyahu is a global statesman uniquely capable of leading the country through its many security challenges. But to his critics, he has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents. Outside the Knesset, hundreds of protesters watching the vote on a large screen erupted into applause when the new government was approved. Thousands of people, many waving Israeli flags, celebrated in central Tel Avivs Rabin Square. President Joe Biden quickly congratulated the new government. I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations, he said in a statement. He said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region. Bennetts office said he later spoke by phone with Biden, thanking him for his warm wishes and longstanding commitment to Israels security. The leaders agreed to consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran, the White House said, adding that Biden said his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on advancing peace, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. Much of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu was personal. Three of the eight parties in the new government, including Bennetts Yamina, are headed by former Netanyahu allies who share his hard-line ideology but had deep personal disputes with him. Bennett, 49, is a former chief of staff to Netanyahu whose small party is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers. As he addressed the raucous debate, he was repeatedly heckled and shouted down by Netanyahus supporters. Some were removed from the chamber. Bennett, an observant Jew, noted the Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting. This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility, he said. To continue on in this way more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss. The new Cabinet met briefly, and Bennett recited a prayer for new beginnings and said it was time to mend rifts. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, Bennett said. The millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur faces a tough test maintaining an unwieldy coalition from the political right, left and center. The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. We will forge forward on that which we agree and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side, Bennett said. He also promised a new page in relations with Israels Arab sector. Israels Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections. Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. He also vowed, like Netanyahu, to oppose U.S.-led efforts to restore the international nuclear accord with Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, he said. Israel is not party to the agreement and will maintain full freedom to act. But he also thanked Biden for his support of Israel. He promised to take a different approach than Netanyahu, who has alienated much of the Democratic Party through his antagonistic relationship with then-President Barack Obama and close ties with former President Donald Trump. My government will make an effort to deepen and nurture relations with our friends in both parties bipartisan, Bennett said. If there are disputes, we will manage them with fundamental trust and mutual respect. While Bennetts speech was conciliatory, Netanyahus was confrontational. He boasted of his achievements, including diplomatic treaties with four Arab states and a successful coronavirus vaccination drive, before belittling the man who is replacing him. He accused Bennett of abandoning Israels right-wing electorate and joining weak leftists to become prime minister. He said Bennett did not have the backbone to stand up to Iran or pressure from the U.S. to make concessions to the Palestinians. I will lead you in the daily struggle against this evil and dangerous leftist government in order to topple it, he said. God willing, it will happen a lot faster than what you think. In the opposition, Netanyahu remains head of the largest party in parliament. The new coalition is a patchwork of small and midsize parties that could collapse if any of its members decide to bolt. Bennetts party, for instance, holds just six seats in the 120-seat parliament. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver. For that, they need time and achievements, he said. Still, Netanyahu will continue to cast a shadow, Plesner said. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years in a rotation agreement with Bennett, if the government lasts. Lapid called off a planned speech, saying he was ashamed his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Netanyahus place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years more than any other, including the countrys founding father, David Ben-Gurion. But his reputation as a political magician has faded particularly since he was indicted in 2019 for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu had hoped to form. WENN/Instagram TV The 'American Idol' host turns detective for a new podcast series in an effort to uncover the mystery behind his mentor's passing, which prompted a lawsuit by his children. Jun 13, 2021 AceShowbiz - Ryan Seacrest has teamed with the daughter of late U.S. radio and TV star Casey Kasem to investigate his mentor's final days and mystery death in a new podcast. The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" producer and "American Idol" host was a protege of Kasem, who was famous as the host of the American Top 40 pop chart and was also the first actor to voice Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers in the "Scooby-Doo" franchise. Now Ryan will join Casey's daughter Kerri and his close pal, Cobra Kai's Mike Curb, for a new eight-part audio series examining the last few years of the legend's life and his 2014 death, which triggered a wrongful death lawsuit, filed by his three oldest children and his brother against Jean Kasem, the broadcaster's widow. Kerri, her brother Michael, and sister Julie teamed with Mouner Casey in the legal action, alleging their father's death occurred as "a direct and proximate result of Jean's neglect and physical abuse." Casey's widow countersued, claiming her stepchildren were motivated by money. The two parties eventually settled their dispute in 2019 although Kerri said at the time she was "distraught and heartbroken over her family and lawyers' decision to force her" into the agreement. "This is everything the public would have heard if we had a trial," said Kerri in a new statement, obtained by Deadline, about the podcast, titled "Bitter Blood: Kasem vs. Kasem". "Listeners will hear from me, but Bitter Blood also includes a wide range of never-before-heard eyewitness accounts, including the depositions from the doctors, caretakers and staff who were with my father in his final days." "I'm proud to be part of this in-depth series that will expose the ugly reality and raise awareness for elder abuse, while also honoring my dad's incredible life and career." "Bitter Blood: Kasem vs. Kasem" will debut on Audible on 15 June (21) - the anniversary of Kasem's death, which also falls on Elder Abuse Awareness Day. WENN Music The Mother Monster has recruited the 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' hitmaker to give her single a new flavor for the upcoming re-release of her 2011 self-acceptance album. Jun 13, 2021 AceShowbiz - Lady GaGa has snagged another huge gay icon for her 10th anniversary re-issue of "Born This Way" - Kylie Minogue. Gaga unveiled the latest artist slated to appear on her upcoming special edition album in the form of Minogue's cover of "Marry the Night", which dropped on Friday morning (11Jun21). The Australian pop veteran joins the likes of Big Freedia and Orville Peck on the reimagined album, which is due out on 25 June (21). Big Freedia and Gaga's new take on "Judas" is out now and the new album will also feature revamped versions of "Highway Unicorn", "You & I", "The Edge of Glory", and the album's title track, which has been given a country music spin by Peck. To mark the 10th anniversary of GaGa's 2011 self-acceptance anthem, West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath declared May 23 "Born This Way Day". The star was also was awarded with a key to the city. Additionally, the Mayor unveiled a street painting featuring the album and the song title as a pride flag on Robertson Boulevard, right outside the legendary Los Angeles gay bar The Abbey. In a statement, the Mayor told GaGa, "Thank you for encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud!" Meanwhile, the star said, "Thank you for this key. You've been the motherf**king key to my heart for the long time. I'll honour this, I'll cherish this and I promise that I'll always be here for this day. To be here for this day, to celebrate with you, to feel joy with you, to cry with you, to laugh with you." Netflix TV The Robin Buckley depicter is tapped for a new podcast series titled 'Rebel Robin: Surviving Hawkins' that is going to explore her TV character's backstory. Jun 13, 2021 AceShowbiz - Maya Hawke is to reprise her "Stranger Things" role for a new podcast series inspired by her character Robin Buckley's backstory. The six-episode series, titled "Rebel Robin: Surviving Hawkins", will also star Sean Maher, and is described as "the first Stranger Things podcast and the monster you didn't see coming." An official description of "Rebel Robin" reads, "Robin's favourite teacher, Mr. Hauser, offers his classroom if she ever needs a quiet place to eat lunch away from the stress of school. Over the next few months, Robin and Hauser meet regularly to discuss philosophy, books, friendship, independence and the disturbing number of Tom Cruise movies in 1983." "A coming of age story about the struggle of being different in a small town, Surviving Hawkins explores how learning to be ourselves is truly the bravest thing we can do, because it brings out the scariest monster of all: the judgement of other people." The first episode of the podcast will be released on 29 June (21), with new episodes dropping weekly, while a companion novel about Robin - penned by A.R. Capetta - will drop the same day. Meanwhile, Alfred Molina has become the latest actor to sign up to play Agatha Christie's beloved sleuth, Hercule Poirot. The "Frida" star will lead the cast of L.A. Theatre Works' new stage production of "The Murder on the Links". The cast also includes Simon Helberg, Adhir Kalyan, Kevin Daniels, and Joanne Whalley. The world premiere of "The Murder on the Links" will be released as a state-of-the-art audio recording on 1 July (21), and digital downloads can be reserved now here: latw.org/digital-season. Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Israel's new prime minister on Sunday, after winning a confidence vote with the narrowest of margins, just 60 votes to 59. His victory ends a 12-year grip on power by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving leader. After four elections in two years, Bennett's incoming government breaks a long political deadlock and ushers in the most diverse coalition Israel has ever seen, including the first Arab party to serve in the government. In his speech before the Knesset confidence vote, Bennett celebrated the diversity and warned of polarization within the country. 'Twice in history, we have lost our national home precisely because the leaders of the generation were not able to sit with one and another and compromise. Each was right, yet with all their being right, they burnt the house down on top of us,' Bennett said. 'I am proud of the ability to sit together with people with very different views from my own.' Bennett became the premier as the leader of Yamina, a right-wing party with only seven seats in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, making him the only prime minister in the country's history with such a small faction. By contrast, Netanyahu's Likud party won 30 seats in March's election. Once again, however, Netanyahu could not cobble together a governing coalition with a majority of the 120 members of Knesset. US President Joe Biden on Sunday congratulated Bennett in his first statement about the political situation in Israel, saying he looked forward to working with the new prime minister. Biden also spoke with Bennett on the phone, according to a readout of the call from the White House. 'The leaders agreed that they and their teams would consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran,' the White House said. 'The President also conveyed that his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on efforts to advance peace, security, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians.' A statement from Bennett's office said the two leaders 'emphasized the importance of the alliance between Israel and the United States, as well as their commitment to strengthening ties between the two countries, and maintaining the security of the State of Israel. During the call, Bennett also expressed appreciation for Biden's 'support for Israel during the recent operation in Gaza,' according to the readout. 'We'll be back soon' During the debate ahead of the swearing-in, Netanyahu had assailed the coalition that ousted him from the Prime Minister's Office after a record 12 consecutive years, calling it a 'weak' and 'dangerous' government. Long considered the 'magician' of Israeli politics, Netanyahu had survived years of challenges to his power, outlasting and outmaneuvering his opponents. But on this night, he had too many opponents who wanted to see him gone. After touting his accomplishments throughout his years in office, Netanyahu assailed his rivals. 'You call yourself the guardians of democracy, but you are so afraid of democracy that you are ready to pass fascist laws against my candidacy -- the language of North Korea and Iran -- in order to maintain your regime,' he said, referring to speculation that the new government would impose term limits or make it illegal for someone who has been indicted to be Prime Minister. Warning that the new government would not stand up to Iran, Netanyahu warned his internal rivals and outside enemies, 'We'll be back soon.' Common ground Bennett's path to victory seemed all but lost during 11 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants last month, when Netanyahu appeared to scuttle any chances of the opposition parties forming a government to replace him. But Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party which holds 17 seats, forged the agreements between the different parties that led to the end of Netanyahu's grip on power. The arrangement places Bennett at the head of a coalition that includes right-wing, left-wing, and Arab parties, united largely by their desire to dethrone Netanyahu. These disparate interests will challenge the coalition to find common ground on key issues, such as what policy to pursue with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank or how to manage the relationship with Gaza. The international community, including the United States, are pushing for the renewal of a peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians, but this government is ill-equipped to handle such negotiations, since two of the parties are vocally opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Instead, Bennett will focus on domestic issues during his two years as prime minister, before he hands the reins to Lapid according to their coalition agreement. These will include the relationship between religion and state, the cost of living, and quality of life issues. Israel also has not passed a budget since March 2018; the newly anointed government has three months to enact one or the Knesset will dissolve and the country will once again head to elections by law. Yet the neophyte administration will have no choice but to deal with some of the thornier issues. In East Jerusalem, the eviction of several Palestinian families in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah is still awaiting a High Court decision. The final ruling was delayed in an attempt to avert tension and violence in Jerusalem last month, but it nevertheless sparked a chain of escalation that led to more than a week of conflict between Israel and Gaza, leaving hundreds dead, most of them Palestinians. Throughout his political career, Israel's new prime minister has served as the defense minister, economy minister, education minister and more. But it was always under Netanyahu, and Bennett began his political career as Netanyahu's chief of staff. In replacing his former boss, Bennett has already etched his name into the country's political history, especially after years of unprecedented political stalemate. Bennett's success and political survival ultimately depend on his ability to forge compromise between the different parties in the coalition, even if only on a narrow domestic agenda. If not, he risks ending his time as prime minister shortly after it begins. Former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife received disclosures from Apple last month that their account records were sought by the Justice Department in February 2018, while McGahn was still the top lawyer representing the presidency, according to a person familiar. The New York Times first reported McGahn's situation on Sunday. The pursuit was under a nondisclosure order until May, indicating the Justice Department went to a judge multiple times to keep it secret throughout former President Donald Trump's years in office. It is extraordinary to subpoena a White House counsel's records. The Justice Department appears to have accessed McGahn and his wife's information the same month the department swept up Apple's data related to dozens of phone numbers and email accounts connected to the House Intelligence Committee, including for two of its Democratic members. The DOJ's move also happened a few weeks after Trump became unhappy with McGahn as he tried to pressure McGahn to cover up his request to fire then-special counsel Robert Mueller, a pivotal move of Trump's that added fuel to Mueller's investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. The subpoena for McGahn's records did not come from Mueller's team of investigators, the source added. There's no indication at this time whether the pursuit of McGahn's records was politically motivated, or what possible case investigators were pursuing. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were not aware of this request for information related to McGahn and his wife, according to another source familiar. Thursday's revelations about prosecutors seeking records for members of the House Intelligence Committee have led top congressional Democrats to call on former Attorneys General Sessions and William Barr to testify on the matter. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday demanded Senate Republicans join Democrats to subpoena Barr and Sessions, as well as John Demers, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's national security division. Key Republicans have mostly issued statements focusing on the potential leaks DOJ was investigating rather than the methods, and withheld judgment on whether the department was following the rules. 'This is not just some kind of Washington insider thing,' Schumer said at a Sunday news conference in New York City. 'It's about people's phone records being subpoenaed without them even knowing about it, and who knows who would be next. Everyday Americans are appalled by the notion that any President via their political appointees could manipulate the democratic system, and tap into personal phone data -- that's not American. What has happened here are fingerprints of a dictatorship, not a democracy.' Sessions -- the attorney general at the time of the Apple subpoena -- was recused from all matters related to the Russia probe so a related leak investigation would have fallen under Rosenstein, CNN has reported. Rosenstein has told people in recent days he was not aware of the subpoena that targeted the data of Democratic members of Congress while he was deputy attorney general, a source familiar with Rosenstein told CNN on Saturday. Barr, who took office a year after the subpoena was issued, also said Friday he does not recall discussing a probe of lawmakers. The Justice Department's inspector general is launching an investigation into the department's handling of the leak investigation. This story has been updated with additional developments. Alton, IL (62002) Today Mostly clear. Low 57F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 57F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. As temperatures reached into the 90s and even triple digits in some places, and with little rain, durum prices rose slightly in early June. With the durum market we did see a little bounce back in prices. Buyers may be a little bit on edge with the dryness and then the recent shift to some pretty hot temperatures for the early part of the growing season, said Jim Peterson, marketing director with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. He added that some nearby bids are back up to the $7.50 range after they had fallen off a little in May when the region did get some rain. New crop bids are back up to $7.25 in some areas and $7.50 in others. Buyers may be a little on edge, and obviously, producers are not looking to sell as uncertain as the moisture patterns have been this spring, he said. Anytime you get an extended period of 90-degree temps on a wheat crop, no matter what stage of development other than harvest, its typically not a good thing for yield potential. Peterson pointed out that the durum crop in North Dakota and Montana is not rated as low as the North Dakota spring wheat crop yet, which is some of the lowest condition ratings since the 1988 drought. For durum, in the first rating report for the current growing season, the most recent ratings for North Dakota were 52 percent good-to-excellent. About 15 percent of the crop was rated poor-to-very poor. In comparison, the North Dakota spring wheat crop is down at 30 percent good-to-excellent. For this time of year, this early in the growing season, we should be 70-80 percent good-to-excellent, he said, adding that both rain and hot conditions are in the forecast for the next couple weeks. Whichever forecast comes the closest to reality will likely show what crop ratings will be going into the rest of June. Attorney Jay Kramer of the Fennemore law fi rm said employers are asking a lot of questions as they ponder future office rental needs. Lynette Alm, a stylist and offi ce manager at ISH Salon in Ahwatukee, is encouraged by eff orts to help her fi nd an eff ective treatment for the pain she suff ers as the result of an antibiotic she took 12 years ago. https://www.aish.com/jw/id/I-Moved-to-Israel-Alone-When-I-was-15.html It wasnt easy. But it was worth it. Announcements blared over the loudspeakers; people pushed past us to get to their flights. I didn't notice. Despite the bustle and noise around us at JFK airport, I could only focus on my family. It was August 28th, 2012, and I was about to move to Israel. Alone. Until that point, I had lived in a sheltered and comfortable Jewish community in Chicago. I was surrounded by people who looked and acted like me, people who spoke the same language and held similar beliefs. It was hard to imagine leaving my community, especially when moving away had never been on my mind. All that changed when I heard about Naale, a program that provides Jewish teenagers a free high school education in Israel. Somehow, I felt that this was something I was meant to do, which was hard to explain to other people. Why not wait until after high school? some asked me, while others couldnt understand the appeal of Israel in the first place. My original reasoning was that I wanted to explore beyond my communitys bubble. I wanted to experience a new culture, to taste a life Id never lived. I also figured that if I eventually made aliyah (immigrated to Israel), it would be easier if I had already acclimated to the country. But standing at the airport looking at my family, these reasons felt hollow. Moving halfway across the world didnt seem like a necessary step to experience something different or to prepare for maybe making aliyah. I could have just gone to summer camp in Israel instead. My conflicted thoughts were interrupted when Naales representative told me it was time to leave. I hardly got the chance to hug my family one last time before I was ushered into a long line for security. I looked back at them, tears filling my eyes, but I had a flight to catch. I waved one last time and turned the corner. They were gone. I was 15 years old and I was leaving my old life behind. On My Own Becoming Israeli took a lot more work than I had originally expected. I stuck out in every way. I dressed like an American, had an American accent, and asked for things too politely. Learning to speak Hebrew caused me the most embarrassment. I always made mistakes, stumbling over my words. I ended the school days with a headache and kept wondering when Id finally get it. I couldnt imagine myself managing to have a full conversation in Hebrew without messing up. It seemed so impossibly distant. I also had to learn independence. Maybe I shouldnt admit this, but Id never done my own laundry. Or washed the floors. Or anything much beyond clearing out the dishwasher and matching socks after the laundry was done. For the first time I was completely responsible for myself. I needed to make my own doctors appointment. I needed to call host families for Shabbat, week after week, looking for places to stay. The hardest part for me was the distance from my family. I always knew what time it was in Chicago and waited until I could call them. I missed having the support system of people who put me first. As much as the staff at my high school was there for me, they couldnt replace my parents. Despite the challenges (or because of them), I was changing for the better. Naale constantly took us on new outings and hikes, exposing us to Israels beauty. I was hosted by Israeli families all over the country, where I learned about different cultural practices and tasted food Id never even heard of, like jachnun and petitim and injera. I met people from all over the world, from South Africa and Holland and France and so much more. And I was learning that much of Israeli slang was just words in English pronounced with an Israeli accent. My first year in Israel was an adventure. Thats how I held on when times were tough; I remembered how much more there was to do the next day. And I always told myself that if I wanted to, I could come back home. To Chicago. It wasnt until my second year in Israel that my resolve was truly tested. It was the very first day of 11th grade, and Id just come back from an incredible summer in Chicago. While I was there, I didnt have to worry where Id spend Shabbat every week, or if I sounded stupid when I spoke. Returning to Israel no longer was a shiny new toy, with adventures to be had and experiences to gain. As I looked around at my dorm room, at the joint bathroom I shared with seven other girls, at the cafeteria food I hated, I ached for the life I used to have and wondered why I gave it up. That was when I called my parents, sobbing. I cant do this, I said, gasping for air through my tears. I gave up my childhood. And for what? I dont want to do this anymore. I want to come home. My parents listened sympathetically, and after a long discussion, came up with a solution: I would stay in Israel through the holidays, until the end of Sukkot. If I still wanted to go back to Chicago, theyd buy me the next flight out. I had to question my logic once again. Why did I really move to Israel? And beyond that, why should I stay? I was sure Id be on the first flight back to Chicago after Sukkot was over. It was Rosh Hashanah that brought new understanding. I watched in awe as the entire country transformed. The stores all sold apples and honey, holiday cards, and honey cakes. The buses announced the New Years arrival on their screens. And everyone was preparing for the holiday. I had seen it the year before but was too overwhelmed then to properly appreciate it. But in that season, my second year in Israel, I felt a tremendous sense of peace. I suddenly knew that I was doing something right. I was used to living in a country where my religion was an afterthought during the Christmas season, if that. But in Israel, being Jewish was normal. That was the year Israel was not just an adventure, but where I truly lived. Suddenly, the challenges that I had seen as unnecessary and painful were now helping me grow into the person I was supposed to be. The language I couldnt understand was becoming accessible, my Hebrew and English vocabulary slowly merging into one. And the culture Id found so confusing was becoming my own. I could no longer say that when I went back to Chicago, I was going home. I was already home. https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Bestselling-Author-Brad-Meltzer-Teaches-New-Generation-about-Anne-Frank.html His most personal book, Meltzer wrote I am Anne Frank as a way to combat global Jew-hatred. Ive never seen a reaction like Ive seen for I am Anne Frank, explained bestselling author Brad Meltzer in a recent Aish.com exclusive interview. Brad Meltzer is a familiar name to millions of readers around the world. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous books for adults and kids, Brad has hosted television programs and is also the creator of the 27 books in the Ordinary People Change the World series of biographies of notable people written for young children. These books, written in the first person, bring famous figures such as Amelia Earhart and Abraham Lincoln to life, describing what their life was like from the time they were children to the fame they earned as adults. One of his most successful books in the series is I am Anne Frank. I started this book series to give my own kids heroes to look up to, Brad explains. He tries to write about historical figures who modeled kindness, compassion and perseverance, and with I am Anne Frank he also tried to convey hope. Who better to teach hope than Anne Frank? Brad asks. This is the girl who hid from Nazis in an attic and still felt that people were good at heart. Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt on June 12, 1929. Her parents Otto and Edith Frank were cultured and middle class; Anne also had an older sister named Margo. In 1934, after Hitler came to power in Germany, the Franks fled Germany, finding relative safety in nearby Amsterdam. But when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1942, life changed drastically or Jews there. Unable to work or go to school, Dutch Jews were forced to wear a yellow star whenever they went out in public. After local Nazi officials notified the Frank family that Margo was to be deported to a labor camp, the family had no choice but to hide. After local Nazi officials notified the Frank family that Margo was to be deported to a labor camp, the family had no choice but to hide. Along with another family of three, then another man as well, the Franks spent over two years living in a secret set of rooms behind her fathers business office. Aided by some non-Jewish Dutch neighbors, the Franks and other Jews in the secret annex had to live in near silence most of the time. Even a footstep or an overheard whisper would have alerted the workers toiling in the building and would have led to the Jews discovery and arrest. Anne spent much of her time writing in her diary. Her words have been inspirational to generations of readers. In August 1944, the Franks and other Jews were discovered, probably because a local worker or neighbor heard or observed their presence. Arrested and sent to concentration camps, almost all of the Jews in the secret annex perished at the hands of the Nazis. Edith Frank died in Auschwitz. Both Margo and Anne Frank suffered from overwork, malnutrition and disease; they died of typhus in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Of the eight Jews in the annex, only Otto Frank survived. He oversaw the publication of his Anne diary after the Holocaust. With the current alarming rise in antisemitism around the world, Brad Meltzer wrote I am Anne Frank as a way of combatting global Jew-hatred. The real truth is that antisemitism is at this brand new high, he explains. There are millennials who dont know basic facts about the Holocaust, let alone that six million Jews died. A recent poll found that 63% of young adult millennials and Generation-Z didnt know that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Shockingly, 11% believed that Jews had caused the Holocaust. More information about the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi persecution of Jews and other groups is more crucial now than ever. When I read that statistic about millennials who dont know about the Holocaust, I knew I had to write for non-Jewish readers too, Brad notes. He points out that he has no memory of hearing Anne Franks story for the first time; her story has always been a part of his life. "Knowing about the Holocaust was part of growing up. Today, the majority of youth do not have this same understanding and base of knowledge. Brad Meltzer grew up in Brooklyn. A trip to Israel at the age of 19 changed his life. Visiting the Jewish state made him feel like he was part of something I started going to synagogue and saying Shabbat prayers. As hes grown older, Jewish practice has become a more central part of his life. As a father I realize that our kids need hope again. Telling Anne Franks story to a new generation of children is a way to give readers hope. Anne Franks diary contains some moving passages, a few of which Brad quotes in his book. In one inspiring section, he shows four passages from Annes real-life diary: Who knows, maybe our religion will teach the world and all the people in it about goodness. As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how sad can I be? As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, youll know that youre pure within and will find happiness once more. I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. Readers have told him its the most important book theyve ever read with their children. Brad observes that Anne was born with this light in her, an ability to be optimistic and inspiring despite the traumas that he endured in her short life. Great horrors in our lives dont just take us apart, Brad notes, they also reveal us. Annes situation revealed her unique ability to look at life with positivity." After I am Anne Frank came out, Brad recalls that his sister phoned him up to say shed just read the book to Brads seven-year-old niece. He asked how it went and his sister replied, I dont believe it I just had an hour-long conversation with her about the Holocaust. At the end of this long emotional talk, Brads niece confided, Im proud to be Jewish. "Your book worked, his sister told him. Readers have told him its the most important book theyve ever read with their children. Ive never seen a reaction like Ive seen for Anne Frank. I think theres something about this book thats necessary we get the heroes we need. The book tries to give parents the tools they need to teach children about the Holocaust in age-appropriate ways. Notice of Annes tragic death at the age of just 16 is placed at the end of the book in a section that can be skipped over when reading the book to younger children. Aimed at elementary school readers, Brad has found the book has wide appeal. At the end of his book, Brad notes, In the Jewish faith theres a saying: If a person saves one life, its as if theyve saved an entire world. This beautiful concept, found in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a), is a lasting message that Brad wants readers to understand. As soon as he began working on the book, he knew he was going to use that quote. I am Anne Frank is the first book in Brads Ordinary People Change the World series in which the hero doesnt grow old. She lives on in her writing. And thanks to Brad Meltzer, Annes life and words continue to be read by young readers around the world today. https://www.aish.com/tp/i/sacks/Miriam-Moses-Friend.html It is one of the great mysteries of the Torah. Arriving at Kadesh the people find themselves without water. They complain to Moses and Aaron. The two leaders go to the Tent of Meeting and there they are told by God to take the staff and speak to the rock, and water will emerge. Moses subsequent behaviour is extraordinary. He takes the staff. He and Aaron gather the people. Then Moses says: Listen now you rebels, shall we bring you water out of this rock? Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff (Num. 20:10-11). This was the behaviour that cost Moses and Aaron their chance of leading the people across the Jordan into the Promised Land. Because you did not have enough faith in Me to sanctify Me in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I have given them (Num. 20:12) The commentators disagree as to which aspect of Moses behaviour was wrong: His anger? His act of striking the rock instead of speaking to it? The implication that it was he and Aaron, not God, who were bringing water from the rock? I proposed in an earlier Covenant & Conversation that Moses neither sinned nor was punished. He merely acted as he had done almost forty years earlier when God told him to hit the rock (Ex. 17:6), and thereby showed that though he was the right leader for the people who had been slaves in Egypt, he was not the leader for their children who were born in freedom and would conquer the land. This time, though, I want to pose a different question. Why then? Why did Moses fail this particular test? After all, he had been in a similar situation twice before. After emerging from the Red Sea the people had travelled for three days without finding water. Then they found some, but it tasted bitter and they complained. God showed Moses how to make the water sweet. (Ex. 15:22-26) Arriving at Rephidim, again they found no water and complained. Despairing, Moses said to God, What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. God patiently instructs Moses as to what he should do, and water flows from the rock. (Ex. 17:1-7). So Moses had successfully overcome two similar challenges in the past. Why now on this third occasion did he lose emotional control? What was different? The answer is stated explicitly in the text, but in so understated a way that we may fail to grasp its significance. Here it is: In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. (Num. 20:1) Immediately after this we read: Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. A famous Talmudic passage1 explains that it was in Miriams merit that the Israelites had a well of water that miraculously accompanied them through their desert journeys. When Miriam died, the water ceased. This interpretation reads the sequence of events simply and supernaturally. Miriam died. Then there was no water. From this, you can infer that until then there was water because Miriam was alive. It was a miracle in her merit. However there is another way of reading the passage, naturally and psychologically. The connection between Miriams death and the events that followed had less to do with a miraculous well and more to do with Moses response to the complaints of the Israelites. This was the first trial he had to face as leader of the people without the presence of his sister. Let us recall who Miriam was, for Moses. She was his elder sister, his oldest sibling. She had watched over his fate as he floated down the Nile in a pitched basket. She had the presence of mind, and the audacity, to speak to Pharaohs daughter and arrange for the child to be nursed by an Israelite woman, that is, by Moses own mother Yocheved. Without Miriam, Moses would have grown up not knowing who he was and to which people he belonged. Miriam is a background presence throughout much of the narrative. We see her leading the women in song at the Red Sea, so it is clear that she, like Aaron, had a leadership role. We gain a sense of how much she meant to Moses when, in an obscure passage, she and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite (Num. 12:1). We do not know exactly what the issue was, but we do know that Miriam was smitten with leprosy. Aaron turns helplessly to Moses and asks him to intervene on her behalf, which he does with simple eloquence in the shortest prayer on record five Hebrew words Please, God, heal her now. Moses still cares deeply for her, despite her negative talk. It is only in this weeks parsha that we begin to get a full sense of her influence, and this only by implication. For the first time Moses faces a challenge without her, and for the first time Moses loses emotional control in the presence of the people. This is one of the effects of bereavement, and those who have suffered it often say that the loss of a sibling is harder to bear than the loss of a parent. The loss of a parent is part of the natural order of life. The loss of a sibling can be less expected and more profoundly disorienting. And Miriam was no ordinary sibling. Moses owed her his entire relationship with his natural family, as well as his identity as one of the children of Israel. It is a cliche to say that leadership is a lonely undertaking. But at the same time no leader can truly survive on their own. Yitro told Moses this many years earlier. Seeing him leading the people alone he said, You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone (Ex. 18:18). A leader needs three kinds of support: (1) allies who will fight alongside him; (2) troops or a team to whom he can delegate; and (3) a soulmate or soulmates to whom he can confide his doubts and fears, who will listen without an agenda other than being a supportive presence, and who will give him the courage, confidence and sheer resilience to carry on. Having known through personal friendship many leaders in many fields, I can say with certainty that it is false to suppose that people in positions of high leadership have thick skins. Most of those I have known have not. They are often intensely vulnerable. They can suffer deeply from doubt and uncertainty. They know that a leader must often make a choice between two evils, and you never know in advance how a decision will work out. Leaders can be hurt by criticism and the betrayal of people they once considered friends. Because they are leaders, they rarely show any signs of vulnerability in public. They have to project a certainty and confidence they do not feel. But Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, the Harvard leadership experts, are right to say, The hard truth is that it is not possible to experience the rewards and joy of leadership without experiencing the pain as well.2 Leaders need confidants, people who will tell you what you do not want to hear and cannot hear from anyone else, people in whom you can confide without having your revelations spill back into the work arena. A confidant cares about you more than about the issues. They lift you when you are low, and gently brings you back to reality when you are in danger of self-congratulation or complacency. Heifetz and Linsky write, Almost every person we know with difficult experiences of leadership has relied on a confidant to help them get through.3 Maimonides in his Commentary to the Mishnah counts this as one of the four kinds of friendship.4 He calls it the friendship of trust [chaver habitachon] and describes it as having someone in whom you have absolute trust and with whom you are completely open and unguarded, hiding neither the good news nor the bad, knowing that the other person will neither take advantage of the confidences shared, nor share them with others. A careful reading of this famous episode in the context of Moses early life suggests that Miriam was Moses trusted friend, his confidante, the source of his emotional stability, and that when she was no longer there, he could no longer cope with crisis as he had done until then. Those who are a source of strength to others need their own source of strength. The Torah is explicit in telling us how often for Moses that source of strength was God Himself. But even Moses needed a human friend, and it seems, by implication, that this was Miriam. A leader in her own right, she was also one of her brothers sources of strength. Even the greatest cannot lead alone. QUESTIONS (AROUND THE SHABBAT TABLE) How do you prioritise your siblings and closest friends? Does it surprise you that, in Rabbi Sacks experience, leaders are so sensitive? What can we learn from Miriam? NOTES Taanit 9a. Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Boston, Harvard Business School Press, 2002, 227. Ibid., 200. Maimonides, Commentary to Mishnah Avot 1:6. CONNECT WITH THE CHIEF RABBI Download the Chief Rabbis new iPhone and iPad app via www.chiefrabbi.org for mobile access to his video study sessions as well as his articles and speeches. Alternatively, search for Chief Rabbi in the App Store on your iPhone. SUBSCRIBE TO COVENANT & CONVERSATION To receive Covenant & Conversation and other news from the Office of the Chief Rabbi direct to your inbox each week, please subscribe at www.chiefrabbi.org. * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! Lake Charles, Louisiana (70615) Today Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 75F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 75F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Antisemitism is an abstract construct that describes people who hate Jews and/or the Jewish State. The question here is why they are hated. To this question, there are as many answers as there are anti-Semites but there are some general categories into which Jew-haters fall. Jews need to understand that they cant run away from anti-Semitism by being less Jewish. The hatred comes from the haters, whether lazy thinkers or true psychopaths, and there are many reasons for their essentially unreasoning hatred. Some people dislike Jews though they have never met one. They accept the opinions of high-status haters without fully considering the merits of those opinions. The source of antisemitism here is the human foible of being unable or unwilling to think about the information they have been fed. Many people are anti-Semites because they are afraid not to hate Jews. These include academics and business people who fear losing their positions or profits if they do not conform to the lefts demand for anti-Semitism. These spineless individuals believe the Jews reactions to antisemitism will be less damaging to them than the anti-Semites nastiness. Some people dislike looking at Jews in their separate garb or while performing their rituals. This aesthetic sense involves a strong repulsion to differences between people. Why? Who knows? It might stem from conditioning during their teen years when only slight novelty or deviation in dress codes was permitted. For these people, passing a Jewish-looking person on the street might arouse embarrassment, extending even to revulsion. For these folks, conformity equals acceptability. People hate Jews for nationalistic reasons or who governs whom. These anti-Semites, when confronted with Israels successfully defending itself, feel justified in attacking all Jews everywhere (even in the United States and Europe), screaming at them that they want to kill the men and rape the women. These threats a very primitive, extending from the dawn of mankind through the Dark Ages, when the easiest way to acquire wealth was to steal from the weak. Women and children were considered forms of wealth, so the trick was to kill the male protectors to acquire all their possessions. Those who yell about wanting to kill Jews and rape their wives and daughters reach far back into their hereditary history of hatred, perhaps even to a point before Jews existed. To know that such hatreds can persist unchanged, seemingly forever, is quite disconcerting. Then there are ideological reasons to hate Jews. Jewish practice and belief compete with other belief systems for individual loyalty. Stalin killed thousands of Jewish communists because even, though they had abandoned their Jewish roots, including family ties, they were still too Jewish. How so? They continued to speak Yiddish to each other, not Russian. To Stalin, Yiddish-speaking communists were a sufficient threat to require death! No need for any more information! In some cases, the forces that killed the Yiddish-speaking Jewish communists were Russian-speaking Jewish communists. Ideological impurity cannot be tolerated because it suggests there may be a way back to sanity from feverish revolutionary commitment. One of the most influential groups of anti-Semites can be designated as opportunistic. These people make their living, in whole or in part, from working against Israel. NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International would be hard-pressed to survive financially if they took an evenhanded or pro-Israel attitude towards the Israeli-Arab conflict. These people are anti-Semites because they genuinely do not care how their actions can hurt or kill Jews. There is a group of people who view themselves as a principled opposition to Judaism and, thus, to the Jews. Jews are tolerant of homosexual behavior but remain committed to the few sentences in the Bible that see such behavior as seriously against everyones best interests. As well, religious Jews remain opposed to adultery, incest, bestiality, pedophilia, and rape because, starting in the Bible, and extending through the masses of Jewish legal writings, these behaviors have been deemed not to advance humanitys long-term interests. Today, we know with great certainty these behaviors are not victimless. At the very least, the victims of these assaults have their lives degraded and often permanently changed for the worse. There are some who dislike having Jews around because Jews make them feel guilty. For some, this is because they do believe in Jewish morality and wish they didnt because they keep running afoul of it. For others, as someone said of the Europeans, they will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz. That is, their own bad behavior toward Jews doesnt inspire them to abandon the behavior; it just makes them dislike Jews. Often, they have some inner feelings of inadequacy. For them, it is easier to find an external scapegoat than to do the hard work required to come to a better place for their souls. Lastly, there are political anti-Semites. These are the policymakers who construct their plans without regard to their effects on the Jews and their state. Biden desperately wants a return to Obamas nuclear agreement with Iran. Why is a complete mystery to me. Cui bono, who profits? We know, though, who is hurt. Either the JCPOA was designed to weaken the Jews in their state or it was a perfectly predictable side effect of the agreement. Either way, the amorality of the Iran agreement stinks like a rotting corpse on a hot summer day. Those who can completely ignore the effects of their machinations on the Jews and the Jewish state are perhaps best described as psychopathic anti-Semites To be defined by ones antisemitic beliefs is like a religious or existential experience gone awry. We only live once, so it is a fundamental waste of human life to be so hotly obsessed with hating Jews. No matter what the flavor of antisemitism the haters espouse, it seems to this observer they would profit from the mental health equivalent of a car wash for their brains. I will not call for the annihilation of anti-Semites unless they take actual steps towards another Holocaust. Still, self-imposed repentance would be a very good thing for everyone concerned. IMAGE: An antisemitic sign in a language common to all haters. Photo by Yonderboy. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. When Jews imprisoned in German concentration camps in 1945 were freed, we thought, nothing of this magnitude could ever happen again. Sadly, history repeats itself. Once again, we are seeing deliberately planned antisemitic attacks against Jews, this time by pro-Palestinian/Muslim mobs. Lets explore what led to this criminal assault on Jews once more. The antisemitic violence started in the UK, France, Germany, and Canada. In London, Muslim mobs drove through Jewish neighborhoods yelling, F--- the Jews, F--- their mothers, Rape their daughters. Daniel Rosenberg, a British Jew, vividly was angry and frustrated with the reality Jews are facing worldwide: A Jewish woman in London showed the same justified anger and determination: Almost immediately after the violence and harassment in Europe, we saw the same in New York, Los Angeles, Florida, and other US cities. Thus, in 2021 America, large numbers of American Muslims feel they have carte blanche to seek out and attack Jews in their businesses, residential neighborhoods, and synagogues. In Florida, a van bearing a Hitler Was Right sign circled a pro-Israel rally. Mobs are attacking and beating Jews in the streets for wearing religious clothing and looking for mezuzahs on front doors so they can attack Jews in their homes and businesses. This worldwide spike of violent antisemitism arose because of the eleven-day war that Hamas instigated by firing over 4,000 rockets into Israel. This iteration of the Arabs endless fight against Israel ostensibly started because of a landlord/tenant dispute now in the Israeli court. (The court held that Arabs who didnt pay their rent on Jewish-owned property could be evicted.) Simultaneously, Israeli police responded to rioting at the Al Aqsa mosque. Democrats and Arabs, of course, misrepresented the facts. The big question, of course, is why a fight between Israel and the self-governed Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza should precipitate antisemitism here and why should the anti-Semites feel so unconstrained? One of the main reasons is that the Squad the young Marxist Democrats in the House are spreading lies. For example, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed Israel is an apartheid state. Thats a serious accusation. Apartheid means no citizenship, no representation in government, and no property ownership. However, in Israel, the Arab population has the same citizenship and opportunities as the Jewish population. They are represented in the Knesset, are judges, doctors, engineers, etc., and are now a part of the controlling government. In addition, the American left generally accuses Israel of committing genocide. BLM has been making that claim since 2016. Population statistics show this is utter nonsense. The Palestinian population grew from 1,172,100 in 1951 to 5,139,000 in 2021. By contrast, the Nazis systematically and diabolically murdered six million Jews. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) also pushes the claim that Israel is a malefactor, completely ignoring its obligation to reflect the UN values such as neutrality, human rights, tolerance, equality, and non-discrimination regarding race, gender, language, and religion. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that UNRWAs curricula demonize Jews, perpetuate hostility that provokes hatred, advance conspiracy theories, and use terms such as the Occupation, the Zionist Occupation, the Zionists, or simply the Enemy to discuss Israel. Israel is a very peculiar enemy, one without animus to those who openly state their desire to kill Jews. I saw a video of a journalist speaking with a ten-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza asking her what her life was like. She looked around at the rubble and said, This is what I grew up with. The reporter then interviewed a ten-year-old Israeli girl and asks what her life was like. She looks around at the rubble and says, This is what I grew up with. He then asked the Israeli girl what she would do if she met the Palestinian girl. She replied, I would give her a hug. There was no video of him asking the Palestinian girl the same question? In another story about Israelis humanity, the wife of a Jewish man whom an Arab mob lynched in May donated his organs. Remarkably, an Israeli-Arab woman received his kidney. What irony! Would the Arabs have done this for a Jew? Of course, the lies about Israel certainly dont justify violence against Jews outside of Israel that is unless you understand that for the leftists and Muslims, the problem isnt Israel. Its Jews themselves. So what is Congress doing to protect American Jews from blatantly anti-Semitic attacks? Not much. Unlike the speed with which the House spoke out about anti-Asian violence (the Asian Americans House Resolution 275, passed on May 19, 2021), Congress, as a body, has been silent. Moreover, its last effort to condemn anti-Semitism was weak at best. On March 7, 2019, Congress passed House Resolution 183, which started out as an effort to condemn antisemitism in response to Rep. Ilhan Omars openly antisemitic statements. However, by the time the Democrats were done, the Resolution simply condemned all sorts of -isms, specifically including anti-Muslim violence which is almost nonexistent. And theres the real answer to anti-Semitic violence in America: Currently, Arabs in America attack Jews in America with impunity over Muslim violence in the Middle East because they know the modern Democrat party will protect them. Until the government steps up and condemns anti-Semitism and only anti-Semitism in the strongest terms, and makes it plain that any anti-Semitic acts will be harshly punished, America is going to feel like 1937 Germany all over again. Adrienne Skolnik serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Conference of Jewish Affairs and is Project Manager for the New Jewish Exodus Project. IMAGE: Attack on a Jewish man on the streets of New York. YouTube screen grab. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Plato never forgave the tyrants of Athens for putting Socrates to death. Socratess death was a watershed moment in Athenian history. In many ways, it marked the end of the Athenian golden age as the sun set over Athens as her imperial ambitions vanished in the Peloponnesian War and the Thirty Tyrants would be installed by Sparta with support from the Athenian ruling class. The charges were concocted: he was corrupting the youth of Athens. In other words, he didnt adhere to the propagated ideology of the newly tyrannical Athenian state. Socratess questioning of the Athenian tyrants marked him as a dangerous enemy that needed to be silenced, canceled, forever. Two realities flow concurrent to politics throughout history. Art and intellectuality are companions to politics in history. In eras when peoples and society flourish, their art and intellectual enterprises flourish. The golden age of Athens is marked by the explosion of art, poetry, and the birth of philosophy. The slid into despotism and irrelevance is marked by the death of Socrates and the suppression of the poets. One can see this played out time and again: Renaissance Italy, Jacobean England, and early nineteenth-century America and its revival after the Civil War, especially in the early twentieth century. It is commonplace to hear how the Constitution made America great. More specifically, it should be said the Bill of Rights made America greatespecially the First Amendment. Unlike other countries, Americas cherished commitment to free speech and freedom of religion helped foster a spirit of intellectual humanism and curiosity that stimulated cultural vibrancy and vitality without the expressed fear of suppression or arrest. While it is true that there have been prejudices, American anti-Catholicism, for instance, never resulted in an equivalent St. Bartholomews Day Massacre or the oscillation between Protestant and Catholic martyrs and religious civil wars as in Europe. Catholics in America were able to cultivate and retain their own self-identity and build their network of schools and hospitals which remain indispensable for the vitality of civil society and educational excellence and choice in the United States. All because the First Amendment ensured that degree of freedom necessary for the flourishing of the human life and soul. When there is no freedom of the soul to engage in the activities of the mind, the artistry of inspiration, or the spiritual quest for God, societies are ensnared in the dark web of totalitarianism that not merely crushes the body but seeks to eviscerate the soul. The best and brightest of the population either sheepishly surrender to the prevailing political Zeitgeist out of fear, or they flee to places with greater liberty and take their talents to new placesleaving the place they once resided barren and decrepit. Civilizations rise and fall with their intellectual wellspring. When one considers the greatness of civilizations, past and present, it is almost always synonymousnot with a political systembut with cultural flourishing. When we think of the golden age of Athens it is adorned with the Parthenon, the pre-Socratics, the Greek playwrights. When we think of the apogee of Rome, likewise, we think of the Roman writers and poets, especially Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger. Down through history, this is common: Renaissance Italy with the great flourishing of poetry and art that bequeathed Dante, the Sistine Chapel, the majestic domed landscape of Florence; post-Reformation England with Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, and revived in the Victorian era with Dickens, Tennyson, Trollope, among many others. What all these civilizations have in common during their golden age was their commitment to intellectual diversity, true intellectual diversity and not the empty multiculturalism celebrated today, religious vitality and vibrancy, and open atmosphere in exploring new art, literature, theology, and modes of thinking rather than a condescending hatred to ones roots and singular intellectual thread of indoctrination. What all these civilizations also have in common during their nadir was their rejection of spirit that made them great: the death of Socrates, the imposition of dogmatic political orthodoxies, the silencing of dissenters. In killing Socrates, Athens sent a message to other aspiring intellectuals, artists, and those who might otherwise object to the dictatorship of the tyrants. The precedence of squashing dissent, eliminating intellectual diversity and openness in the name of protecting feelings (preventing the youth from being corrupting), and enforcing a one-way highway has always led to darkness, despotism, and destruction. Democracy truly does die in darkness, too bad the Washington Post doesnt realize it is the one promoting darkness and the destruction of democracy. The United States has weathered this storm better than all other civilizations and nations in history precisely because the Bill of Rights is in the Constitution. The first amendment has long acted as a buttress against the worst impulses of human nature and the dictatorially lusts that any politician can have (irrespective of whether they are participants in a democratic system). We mustnt forget, Athens was also a democracy before the tyrants were installed with the support of the Athenian ruling class. This brings us to the assault against the Western humanities in the name of diversity. The second killing of Socrates, in our educational system, represents the fullest maturation and movement to the new tyranny we are currently struggling against. By destroying Socrates and imposing the uniformity of ideological indoctrination across the United States (in the name of female, minority, and transgender authors and writers who otherwise all agree on the same ideological, political, and metaphysical principles), those servants of the new despotism hand us the hemlock cup and force it down our throats. We dont even have the luxury of swallowing for ourselves. Yet we can also look toward the coming sunrise if we have the courage and the fortitude to persevere. Athens regained her democracy after the Thirty Tyrants. England ebbed and flowed between periods of grandeur and decadence, civil war, and enlightenment. So too has the United States been tried by fire and temptation before. But we have persevered only by fighting back, not acquiescing to our own demise in the name of civility, unity, or toleranceor whatever other fake buzzword masking totalitarian lusts is thrown out by the partisans of despotism. We mustnt allow the spirit of Socrates to die, for while there are examples of regaining freedom after it has fallen, it is also much harder to recover what has been lost rather than fighting to preserve what remains. The fight for Americas future begins and ends with the First Amendment. Because the human aspiration for freedom in all its important varieties is embodied in the First Amendment which is the true wellspring of American greatness and will be the source of American greatness once again. Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. The Republican Party is sitting on a goldmine if only it has a lick of sense to notice (too much to ask?). If it positions itself as a strong advocate for personal freedom right now, it will become the natural home for all Americans (of all backgrounds) who object to the growing shadow of government authority. That conflict between total State power and individual liberty is at the heart of all policy battles being fought today from the West's omnipotent surveillance state and its quixotic pursuit of amorphous "extremists" hiding behind every door to its experimental vaccine mandates and climate change fear-mongering intentionally used to justify government control over the economy. If there were any doubts as to how threatened Americans' liberties now are in the twenty-first century, the last year of arbitrary lockdowns, forced economic ruin, and suspension of constitutional rights dispelled those doubts for good. The war pitting personal autonomy against State coercion will define the decades to come. It is clear which side the Democrats have chosen. They are the party of bigger and more expansive government intent on intruding into the personal lives, thoughts, and choices of every American. They are the party of new and bigger taxes and a more powerful and politicized IRS. They are the party of Big Business, so long as those businesses adhere to the State's official messaging and promote the State's official goals. They are the party of Big Tech and Big Media, both of which have become instrumental to the Democrats' control over information and their throttling of Americans' free speech. They are the party of unconstitutional lockdowns and a pandemic police state that they have sought to make permanent through a "Great Reset" of society. The Democratic Party enthusiastically endorses censorship by first pretending anything said in opposition to its worldview is "hate speech" or "misinformation" and then criminalizing unsanctioned "hate" or "misinformation." (BLM and Antifa hate, in contrast, is not only legal, but also glamorized and honored, and the Intelligence Community's Russia hoax disinformation, government health professionals' cover-up of COVID-19's origins, and State-backed propaganda attack ing Christianity all get a pass.) Democrats have transformed once mocked "political correctness" standards into biting "cancel culture" edicts that quickly end careers, livelihoods, and reputations. Instead of working to avoid the atrocities, humiliations, and violence that occurred during China's Cultural Revolution, those same Democrats have imported and nurtured that intellectual virus here in America. And just as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Fidel Castro, Idi Amin, and Pol Pot did before them, the Democratic Party believes in confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens while increasing the lethality of federal police forces. With no self-awareness whatsoever, Democrats embrace authoritarianism, racial conflict, the rewriting of history, and the politically expedient redefini tion of words while accusing their opponents of those transgressions. Holding up their copies of 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 as if they understood the lessons of those novels (and some tyrants in the Democratic Party no doubt do), they have ironically become the spitting image of everything against which Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury forewarned. What is less clear is where Republicans stand. For too long, they have embraced the mantle of a stodgy, conservative party, happy to oppose first the threats of Soviet communism and then the rising menace of Marxist-socialism, more generally, by merely slowing down their opponents' push for revolutionary change and seeking to preserve traditional institutions of American culture and power. Fighting growing government power by conserving traditional government power, however, has predictably aided the government in only becoming more powerful. So-called "progressives" have succeeded in expanding government control over the individual, and so-called "conservatives" have succeeded in preserving the progressives' new devices of control in the name of "tradition." This is the conservatism of Paul Ryan and his acolytes so focused on the preservation of institutions and the lofty glorification of "permanent things" that it has consistently failed to formulate and promote any kind of a platform for protecting and strengthening Americans' freedoms. Institutions originally designed to limit government power and promote individual liberty are only as good as they are effective. If America's institutions have become increasingly co-opted by Democrats' collectivist power-grabs, then conservative efforts to protect institutional power perversely protect Democrats' authoritarianism. That's why after years of Republican Party promises to the contrary, Obamacare is still the law of the land, and none of the perpetrators behind the Russia hoax or the IRS's persecution of Tea Party groups has been punished. It's as the old joke goes: what will Republicans fight to defend today? Whatever the Democrats fought to create ten years ago. No wonder Chuck Schumer still talks nostalgically of the days when Paul Ryan's leadership guided Republican Party politics! In his seminal essay, "Why I Am Not a Conservative," F.A. Hayek repudiates the conservatism advocated by the likes of George Will and Paul Ryan for having no forward-thinking philosophy capable of adapting and responding to ever newer threats to an individual's liberty (particularly when those threats come from government itself). Stuck between the binary choice of Republicans' efforts to conserve whatever they deem worth conserving from one decade to the next (marriage, free trade with communist China, democracy seeding in the Middle East) and Democrats' relentless campaign to progressively advance toward a totalitarian State, American voters have had no viable political party dedicated to defending personal freedom and individual liberties against attacks from wherever they might come. That reality should shock Americans that a country founded in the spirit of expansive personal liberty and a commitment to combat all forms of government tyranny is represented by two political parties that pursue neither! The end result has been a profound failure in the United States to uphold the Constitution's protections and to prevent the steady transformation of the "land of the free" into another expansive socialist State. That failure does not have to continue if Republican officeholders wake up to the reality that the only thing left worth conserving in the United States today is liberty itself. Republican voters have been awake to this troubling reality for decades, but until Donald Trump came along, their concerns were ignored. How have voters reacted to his defense of America's constitutional freedoms? They overwhelmingly prefer his policy goals to those of the Republicans who controlled the party in the past. If the Republican Party is to survive in the years to come, it cannot remain the lesser of two Big Government evils. It must stand as a contrast to the authoritarianism gripping the Democratic Party by advocating not that this marble palace or that marble palace be conserved for posterity, but that American freedom be preserved at all costs. Rebelling against government control is America's birthright, after all. If Republicans choose America's birthright, they will win America's future. Image: hansgklein via Pixabay, Pixabay License. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. What will the military, the Supreme Court, and the people eventually do? How will the military, the Supreme Court, and the masses react to the outcome? How will the military move, how will the Supreme Court rule, and eventually do the masses rise up and take to the streets...if it becomes clear that the presidential election of 2020 was compromised, was stolen, or at the very least had way too many abnormalities and illegalities and thus the wrong person is possibly sitting in the White House? What happens if it becomes clear that President Trump was re-elected and the Progressives actually stole the election? What happens if we find out that the election was manipulated? What happens if? We might find out these answers in the coming months. Maybe. What about the forensic audits of the popular votes in the contested key states? Before the actual election in November, President Trump predicted cheating as you've never seen before. President Trump said there would be voter fraud like never before in U.S. history. Many people throughout the White House believed and were certain that something felonious was about to happen. At 10:30 on Election Night, President Trump was up by good margins in the key states. Then the key states shut down the election tabulations of votes "for the night." (By the way, the stopping of counting votes for the night had never happened before in presidential history.) And then when we woke up in the morning, after the tallying of votes was supposedly shut down "for the night," Joe Biden had pulled ahead, stayed ahead, and assumed the White House. As of this writing, Biden has 306 Electoral College votes, and President Trump has 232 votes. Two hundred seventy votes is the magic number to win the presidency. But what about the forensic audits in the key contested states? Starting with Arizona, then Georgia, then Pennsylvania, then... The forensic audit of the popular votes in Arizona being conducted right now is intriguing and also a little scary. The forensic audit of the popular votes should be able to catch and identify voting irregularities, cheating, abnormalities, and felonious actions. What happens if not only Arizona flips, but also Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin? The vote-winning margins in these four states were about 1%, or even much less. Not a whole lot of cheating and theft required to flip the states, if that is what actually historically happened. With Arizona's 11 Electoral College votes, with Georgia's 16, with Pennsylvania's 20, and with Wisconsin's 10, if those slim margins went to President Trump rather than Biden, the Electoral College vote would be 289 votes for Trump and just 249 for Biden. With Trump needing only 270 for the win, maybe that is why the Progressives are so determined that the forensic audits should not happen. Maybe that is why the Deep State cabal does not want light to shine in on the actual votes last November. What would happen next? What does the military do? How does the Supreme Court rule? And then how do the masses react? How do both the Patriot and also the Progressive citizens react? Does the military put troops and tanks on the streets, especially in Washington, D.C., to keep Biden in the White House? Does the military arrest Trump for winning? Does the Supreme Court finally "man up" and hear the case of election fraud? Does the Supreme Court rule that President Trump is actually president? Does the Supreme Court rule that Trump is President Trump, but then the military vetoes the Court's decision and keeps Biden in the White House? What then do the people do? How then do the masses react to a probable fraudulent election? Do the Patriots finally take to the streets for a "mostly peaceful protest" of the election? Or do the Patriots say they have had enough of the election fraud and fake president, and it gets violent? Does it become the Reds/Patriots versus Blues/Progressives on our streets? What happens to America if? It is looking more and more as if, no matter what, the military stays with Biden. The military is looking more "woke" than the Berkeley campus as the military drives out Christians, conservatives, and constitutionalists. The military is more concerned with fighting a nonexistent threat of global warming and a trickle of "white supremacy," appearing unconcerned about a rising Chinese communist menace. The Supreme Court might be different. There were three Supreme Court members who actually wanted to hear the cases of presidential election fraud. They wanted to see the facts, but it takes four Court members to agree to hear a case. The two key members of the Supreme Court would be Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. It is probable that Barrett and Kavanaugh feel guilty and impotent because of their weak refusal to be actual Supreme Court members and hear tough, politically charged cases. The two of them might have actually changed their minds and toughened up and will agree to hear new challenges of the 2020 presidential election that is, if, if, if the four states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin flip their Electoral College votes to Trump, and thus Trump has exceeded the 270 hurdle. Or will the Supreme Court cower again, just as it did last December? It is hard to tell at this date if all this reads like a historical chapter of an election held in a banana republic south of the border, or does it read like a cheap novel that no one would believe could play out in America? The military, the Supreme Court, and the masses will have a lot to say either way. Do the Patriots simply wait until 2022 or 2024 and let Biden stay, even if not actually elected? Do the Progressives say that under no circumstances, including the jailing of political opponents, does President Trump ever get back into where he was legally elected? Keep a sharp eye on the audits going on now and throughout the summer. What happens if, by Labor Day weekend, more than half of the American people believe there was indeed election fraud and criminality? It might not be pretty. It might get seriously ugly. But these professional forensic audits are necessary. They must be done professionally and accurately. They will have a big say in who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the next three years. Maybe. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Ive never been a Bill Maher fan because his politics and mine diverge so completely. However, Ive always given Maher credit for having the courage to speak out against the mindless leftists who lets be honest make up his fan base. He was back Friday night with a monologue telling his fellow progressives to get over their progressophobia. That term, from the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, refers to progressives who, when they see actual progress, refuse to acknowledge it. In his almost nine-minute-long monologue, Maher points out that America has embraced most progressive causes, from gay rights to feminism to the end of institutional (as well as personal) racism in America. However, thanks to progressophobia, young leftists have something akin to situational blindness, only what you cant see is that your dorm in 2021 is better than the South before the Civil War. Maher also lashed out at the anti-White animus that animates young progressives. He said that the same situational blindness that has progressives claiming that we live in the worst times ever leads to a growing belief in Whiteness as a malady and White people as irredeemable. What was especially appealing (to me, at least) about his riff was that Maher explicitly attacked Kevin Hart, a fabulously wealthy ($200 million) and admired Black actor, for moaning about the times in which we live: There is a recurrent theme on the far left that things have never been worse. Kevin Hart expressed a view many hold when he told The New York Times, Youre witnessing White power and White privilege at an all-time high. This is one of the big problems with wokeness -- that what you say doesnt have to make sense or jibe with the facts or ever be challenged, lest the challenge itself be conflated with racism. But saying White power and privilege is at an all-time high is just ridiculous. Higher than a century ago -- the year of the Tulsa race massacre? Higher than the years when the KKK rode unchecked and Jim Crow went unchallenged? Higher than the 1960s when the Supremes and Willie Mays still couldnt stay in the same hotel as the White people they were working with? Higher than slavery? And I mean actual slavery, not Prince doesnt like his record contract slavery. The other thing that made his monologue so appealing was that he gave it with Meathead sitting next to him and by Meathead, I mean Rob Reiner, whose talent as a movie director has to be attributed to some sort of idiot savant thing because, when it comes to history, politics, economics, etc., youll seldom meet a man more devoid of knowledge, common sense, or decency. See for yourself. Youll enjoy the time you spend watching. If you think America is more racist now than ever, more sexist than before women could vote and more homophobic than when blow jobs were a felony, you have #Progressophobia and you should adjust your mask because its covering your eyes. #BY pic.twitter.com/qFUFwO3eNJ Bill Maher (@billmaher) June 12, 2021 As for me, Im going to continue hoping that honest, if mostly deeply misguided Maher, is yet another Jewish American who is beginning to realize that the Democrat party is not his friend and that it is antithetical to the liberties he believes it represents. IMAGE: Bill Maher calls out leftists for progressophobia. Twitter screen grab. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Exactly five years ago, Omar Mateen entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where he killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. AP now reports that Biden plans to name the nightclub as a national memorial standing for all targeted gay victims of gun violence which outraged reporter Glenn Greenwald, who believes in facts. Weve known for years now why Mateen shot up the Pulse nightclub: He was committing a religious jihad. His goal was to shoot up a nightclub any nightclub as revenge for American airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. Facts make it clear that he didnt target Pulse because it was a gay nightclub; he targeted it because it was a crowded nightclub. Nevertheless, thats not how either the Democrats or the media (but I repeat myself) are selling the decision to establish Pulse as a memorial: President Joe Biden said on the fifth anniversary of a mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that he will sign a bill naming the site as a national memorial. [snip] The president emphasized that the country must do more to reduce gun violence, such as banning assault weapons and closing loopholes in regulations that enable gun buyers to bypass background checks. Biden said the nation must acknowledge that gun violence has hurt members of the LGBTQ community We must drive out hate and inequities that contribute to the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women especially transgender women of color, Biden said. The first problem with that statement is that there is no epidemic of violence against Black men who subscribe to the belief that they are, in fact, women. The leftist media would have you believe that there is (Axios says that 28 of these poor creatures have been murdered this year already) but the fact is thats one weeks worth of murders in Democrat cities across America. Every one of those 28 deaths is tragic but, again, its not a Holocaust. The second problem is that, as I noted, Mateen didnt shoot up the Pulse because it was gay. And the person who went completely ballistic about this latest deceitful action from the Biden administration is Glenn Greenwald. Although Greenwalds anti-Israel sensibilities mean he will never be on my favorites list, hes one of the few media personalities from the left who will call out the mainstream medias fake narratives. (Hat tip: Twitchy) Democratic Senators and activist groups promoting a false, conclusively disproven narrative about the Pulse shootings for their own benefits. Anti-LGBT animus was not part of that massacre. It dishonors the memory of the victims - & the LGBT cause - to lie about what happened. https://t.co/bhjpeaVSS5 Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 12, 2021 This tweet is an absolute lie. Every journalist who covered the PULSE shootings and trial will tell you this. It's infuriating to watch Senators blatantly lie this way. https://t.co/tYxqNEU8pZ Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 12, 2021 Omar Mateen had no idea PULSE was a gay club. He spent the prior day looking at Disney locations, but they were too secured. He entered "Club, Orlando" in Google - not "gay club" - to find it. He never uttered an anti-LGBT syllable, saying his motive was US bombing in Iraq/Syria. Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 12, 2021 Maybe some people keep claiming that the PULSE massacre was motivated by anti-LGBT animus because they were told that and never learned otherwise. It's a horrible enough massacre - and it did devastate the LGBT community - without lying about it:https://t.co/VFuTGFpmwp Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 12, 2021 More here from @quasimado, who covered the trial and acquittal of Mateen's wife for @HuffPost. That trial definitively proved Mateen wasn't motivated by LGBT hatred. There's no benefit -- except to some NGOs -- to allowing an outright myth to survive:https://t.co/vF8oX3Dhty Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 12, 2021 Even NBC News has acknowledged that the PULSE massacre was not motivated by anti-LGBT sentiment. Their article is definitive as it should be. The evidence leaves no doubt. There's no excuse for Senators and LGBT groups perpetuating this lie:https://t.co/V36i1ZHfS8 Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 12, 2021 I dont mind making the Pulse nightclub, in which so many poor souls died, a memorial but lets make it a memorial to the right thing: An Islamic jihad massacre on American soil, second only to 9/11. For that reason, we would do very well to remember it. By the way, this isnt the first time that the gay community has created gay martyrs where gayness had nothing to do with anything. Gays still claim that Matthew Shepard, the man horribly beaten and left to die on a fencepost in Wyoming back in 1998, was a gay martyr. In fact, as Stephen Jimenez explained in exhaustive detail in The Book of Matt: The Truth about the Murder of Matthew Shepard, Shepard didnt die because he was gay. He died because both he and his killer were part of the same shady underclass of methamphetamine users and dealers, and his death was a drug hit. In the broadest sense, if youre looking to burnish your faith with martyrs, the important thing about your martyrs is that theyre dead and they died badly. However, I cant help but feel that its a cheap faith when martyrdom must be created out of whole cloth. At least when it came to the early Christian martyrs, as well as todays Christian martyrs in China and across the Muslim world, they really did die for their faith. In the same vein, think about all those BLM martyrs who were lifetime criminals who died or were injured violently resisting deserved arrests. If the causes are good, they shouldnt be cheapened this way. IMAGE: Memorial outside of Pulse (thats Jeh Johnson in the picture). To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Congress recently hosted the CEO of Colonial Pipeline, Joseph Blount, at a hearing where he was asked a series of questions about May's cyber-attack that halted the delivery of fuel to the East Coast. The attack led to fuel shortages and price increases and displayed the vulnerability that many vital industries still show in a world littered with sophisticated hacking groups, many of which are sponsored by foreign governments. One of the key issues discussed was the $4.4-million ransom payment netted by Russia's DarkSide Ransomware Gang. The decision to pay the hackers was seen as a major mistake that many on Capitol Hill believe encourages hackers to continue their criminal activities. In an effort to halt these actions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had already taken action last October in the form of an advisory that warned against making ransom payments to individuals or groups under U.S. sanctions and threatened civil damages for entities found in violation of the advisory. Colonial's Blount, citing the uncertainty in the days following the breach, made the decision to pay DarkSide while acknowledging that he was aware of the OFAC directive. Blount specifically told lawmakers, "I do know that repeatedly throughout the process, the fact of whether DarkSide was on the sanctions list or not was fact-checked repeatedly." Although most Republican lawmakers generally tend to prefer a hands-off approach to the private sector, because of the potential disaster posed by major hacking attacks, many of these lawmakers are demanding additional oversight. "As I've said before, no one is safe from these attacks, including us," the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman, said at the hearing. Part of the reason why bipartisan support for additional oversight is building is that for major hacks like Colonial, the government is being forced to intervene. In fact, the FBI was responsible for helping Colonial Pipeline recover most of the $4.4 million in ransom ($2.3 million in Bitcoin) that was paid to DarkSide. Additionally, it seems that the cyber-insurance industry may likely come under scrutiny shortly. Many American businesses carry insurance against hacks, and now many experts, including former security and counterterrorism official, Richard Clarke, are amplifying their belief that insurance companies' willingness to cover ransoms in lieu of paying their customers to rebuild their networks is contributing to the rise of major attacks. In a N.Y. Daily News column from May, Clarke and Robert K. Knake wrote regarding corporate hacks, "Usually it is a corporation that never tells the public about the attack. The companies do tell their insurance carriers, and they, in turn, pay up. It's cheaper for the insurance companies to pay the hackers to unlock the networks than to pay computer security companies to rebuild the corporate network from scratch." Regardless of the past week's hearing, the march toward additional government intervention on cyber-matters has already begun. Just weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established new cyber-related measures aimed at protecting America's leading pipeline businesses and will require them to immediately disclose the details of any hacking incidents. Although the headlines are generally dominated by hacks against large corporations, the vast majority of cyber-crime victims are still individuals. The average American is regularly faced with the decision of whether to pay hackers what is generally a much smaller ransom. In most cases, the amount of the requested ransom is less than the trouble involved in replacing infected software or hardware. Seasoned ransomware gangs that target individuals will generally price their ransom in a way likely to compel payment. One of the most often seen attacks nowadays involves members of the STOP/Djvu Ransomware Family. These strains share similarities and are distinguished by a unique four-letter sequence appended to every encrypted file. The STOP/Djvu Family includes the variants Ehiz, Pahd, Nusm, Mppq, Paas, and countless others. Potential victims of these gangs can avoid a crisis by maintaining offline backups of their files. This would be the easiest way to avoid having to pay ransoms, as you can always re-upload your important files to a new device. As a result of the Colonial hack and others, including a major attack against Ireland's health care infrastructure, the next few months should be key in establishing a new American defense against hackers. There are changes expected at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and we will also likely see additional congressional hearings on the matter. The question is, will America suffer another major infrastructure attack in the interim? 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 via Peakpx. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Democrats are famous for treating the men and women who would take a bullet for them as their personal valet service. But few seem to be taking it quite to the level that Kamala Harris has. It ought to be no surprise that she's constantly making life hell for them. The latest such incident was Harris's insistence on marching in a loud crowd at the gay pride parade in Washington, D.C. According to Fox News: Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at the Pride event in Washington on Saturday but it was one of her protectors who drew the attention of many Twitter users. Any time a president or vice president mingles with the public becomes a challenge for those charged with guarding them simply because the situation is less under securitys control. Much of the Twitter attention was directed at a Secret Service agent near the vice president, a tall man in sunglasses who was seen behind Harris in photos and videos as she traversed the parade area. It's not clear if he was unhappy or not, actually, based on his poker-face appearance, but it's very much a certainty that she created more work for him. Secret Service agents, for those who know them, maintain that apparent deadpan expression on their faces because they've got the extremely difficult job of reading non-verbal cues and expressions on the faces of all the people in the vicinity of the politician they are protecting, and must not give bad guys any expression or even eye contact to react to. If it's a big crowd, that means a lot of faces to scan and read the intentions of correctly. And it's not just the six feet around the protected pol that they've got to watch, it's as far as a rifle can be fired or an incoming aircraft can come in from, it's a significant range of surveillance. The agents, of course, have to work in teams for this to cover the entire area for protection. But at least one of them, in this case, the tall man described in the story, has to be in close enough vicinity to take a bullet, which is why he ended up with all the attention. Suffice to say, Harris made a lot more work for him by preening and prancing for the cameras in her 'love is love' t-shirt as she declared herself "making history." As for Harris, well, it was a photo op for her, something to draw the media's attention away from her failed trip to Mexico and Guatemala, and her even bigger failure to visit the border as Joe Biden's border czar in charge of halting the migrant surge. It was all gravy to her as if this symbolism and photo op were some kind of substitute for her presumed acts as vice president. It's kind of unseemly for the sitting vice president in power to go to a protest against her own government, which is at least part of the mission here. If she doesn't like the way the government is run, shouldn't she be doing something more constructive than protesting? Meanwhile, it's not the first time she's forced the Secret Service to go above and beyond the call of duty for her. In this piece here, she made them jog up and down steps for her so that she could be in the vicinity of the cameras. She also misused the Los Angeles Police Department as her illegally-procured personal security detail so she could go party it up among her fellow leftists, according to this incident here. A Google search shows that they nevertheless did the job professionally. In this piece here, they caught a maniac with a gun who seemed to be after her and put him away, where he belongs. That doesn't stop Kamala, though, from making extra work for them. It's all part of a long line of Democrats who have always treated Secret Service agents as their personal servants as they rudely went about creating more rather than less work for them. The great Ronald Reagan once refused to fly home to California for Christmas because of the burden it would place on his Secret Service agents who would be deprived of Christmas holidays with their families. Kamala, on the other hand, leaps in to make more work for the Secret Service, like a spoiled rich woman for whom money is no object. At a minimum, it's inconsiderate. It's also wasteful. And what is she doing it for again? Yes, her own aggrandizement. The rest of us should be as disgusted-looking as that Secret Service agent in that detail next to her, in our case, for real. Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. In the early morning hours of June 12th, the city of Austin, Texas experienced the latest in a long line of mass shootings that have plagued this country. Unfortunately, one of the first things that can also be expected is the knee-jerk reaction by those who follow the left-wing progressive mindset, who will immediately decry the violence and call for a mandate that will restrict access to guns even more. However, before the left-wing politicians stand indignant upon their soapboxes, there are a few facts that need to be considered. Fact number 1: the shooter was a criminal. This is not a snap judgment but an informed one. Simply put, in the State of Texas, it is illegal to carry a firearm of any type into an establishment that receives more than 51% of its revenue from alcohol sales. Any individual who holds a license-to-carry (LTC) in Texas is made aware of that law repeatedly during the training course. In short: law being broken = criminal act. Fact number 2: Nothing legally could have been done to stop the shooter, or to reduce the number of injuries. While the mass shooting at the church in south Texas was stopped by a person armed with an AR-15 style weapon, this option was not available in Austin. Why? Those same laws that make the shooter a criminal would prevent an LTC holder from carrying his weapon or using it for the safety of others. 51% restriction = more people hurt. Fact number 3: Currently, the Texas legislature has passed a bill that would permit constitutional carry of firearms. At the time of this writing, it is still pending the signature of Governor Greg Abbott. Even if this were in effect, it also would not have had any effect on the tragedy that occurred that morning. With these facts, the gun-control left really needs to answer the following question: What law(s) would you propose that could have prevented this? This is a rhetorical question, of course. Fact number 4: It is necessary to remember that laws only work if people follow them. Criminals refuse to obey them, by their very definition. The only thing that these laws do is restrict law-abiding people and tie their hands behind their backs. The only other thing it does is make it appear that you are doing something. That may look good for your constituents, or get your face in a news story, but it does not make a difference to the criminals. There is another possible outcome to your reactionary restrictions. What you may not realize is that a large portion of those individuals that own firearms (in any form) believe that when you pass these laws restricting ownership or availability, you are putting their families in harms way from the very criminals that you are posturing against. These are the patriots, the constitutionalists. These are the people, conservative and moderate, who are tired of governments interference. These are the people who have sat by quietly, watching what the government is doing. These are the people that you fear for your political careers. These are the people who will vote in the next election cycle. These are the people who are going to tell you, No more! Now, before the politicians and pundits start to pull their hair and gnash their teeth while wailing about their patriotism and doing the right thing, it is necessary to clarify a couple of things. As for the label of patriot, people misunderstand the meaning. A dictionary defines a patriot as "a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors." There is a significant difference between "country" and "government" or "party". To many true patriots, it really does not matter which party is in power, so long as the country is cared for and that their rights and freedoms are not impugned in any way. Certainly, I would prefer it if a more conservative agenda were being followed. I would much more prefer if the government would stop trying to fix problems that it created itself. As many of you may remember from studying our history, our founding fathers rebelled against Great Britain because they were not being represented and were being unfairly taxed, among many other things. Yet, if you compare how the government is regulating things in our everyday life, how much different is it from how those same founding fathers were treated? Unfair taxes, government overreach, even direct government involvement in how we go about our daily lives, from licensing requirements to assaults on our rights by police to government agencies telling us how we should raise our children. Our country was founded to stop these abuses, and yet it does just the same. As George Santayana so aptly said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." One thing that is misunderstood about the Constitution is that it was not built to tell us what rights we have. The Constitution was designed to tell the government only what it would be permitted to do, and how it was to function. It was our Declaration of Independence that pointed out that we all had "inalienable rights". We look at the Bill of Rights (which, by the way, only is a reference to the first ten constitutional amendments) as the basis of the Constitution. But it is not. Those are amendments that the founding fathers felt necessary to include as an enumeration of specific restrictions on the federal government. That is why the 10th Amendment says that rights that are not specifically given over to the federal government are reserved (belong) to the individual states. Our founding fathers knew that government intrusion is not a good thing. That is why so many people fought and died to start this experiment we call the United States. We need to stop looking to the government to fix our problems. We need to remind the government that our country was founded as a democratic republic, not an oligarchy nor plutocracy. Yes, as citizens we all should have a voice in our government and help to guide it in the future, but it is time for the tail to stop wagging the dog. It is time for patriots to rise and take back the country exercising our rights at the voting booth. It is time for patriots to remind our legislators and party leaders that they no longer run this country. It is run by the principles embodied in our Constitution. It does not matter whether you are liberal or conservative. We all know that this country is deeply divided between the two camps. No matter how you define yourself: liberal or conservative, left-wing or right-wing, Democrat or Republican, socialist or nationalist, we are all Americans and want our country to thrive. Regardless of where you sit on that fence, however, we should all be constitutionalists. Graphic credit" Mylk Roventine CC BY-NC-SA license To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. After more than a year of dismissal, mockery, and outright suppression by parties some of whom have obvious conflicts of interest, the theory that COVID-19 was intentionally created in a lab is now ascendant. The possibility that its creation was secretly part of a bioweapons program of the Chinese military is gaining some support. In an exclusive, Jennifer Van Laar of Red State reports, Defector Provides Evidence That the Chinese Military Orchestrated the Creation of COVID-19 and Lab Leak. While far from conclusive, and certain to be repressed by the plutocrats of the social and agitprop media, the hypothesis that COVID-19 was bioweapon deserves investigation. An online friend offers a Sherlock Holmes-style analysis: 1. Youre the Chinese Communist Party. 2. You are faced with the biggest threat ever to your power in the person of Donald Trump. 3. Donald Trump looks to be on a glide path to another four years setting Americas foreign policy towards China. 4. Trump is presiding over one of the best economies in Americas last fifty years. 5. So, what can you, the Chinese Communist Party, do to prevent that? 6. You must destroy the American economy. How? Theres only one way: biowarfare. It might mean a million or more Chinese deaths but youve never cared about that before. Is there a serious person who thinks that the above argument is far-fetched? I think it's not just a possibility. I think its a certainty. To think otherwise you have to believe in a series of coincidences. Creating and releasing their bioweapon was their only option. The gangsters in Beijing care for only one thing: themselves. They will kill as many people as necessary to continue living lives of privilege and comfort. This was the only way to protect themselves. Back in the old days, beauty queens would tell us their fondest desire was for ... whirled peas. Nowadays, it's all about telling gringo how to run his country. Which is the buried news we got from an interview with the newly crowned Miss Universe from Chihuahua, Mexico, Andrea Meza, who told Fox News with characteristic breathiness: Meza: I want to take advantage of every single moment. I want to do the most I can with it. I worked with the consulate general in New York and we had this amazing conversation about women empowerment and gender-based violence. Thats one of my main focuses. I want to give women a voice. I want to let the world know the conditions of the Latin community here in the States, as well as in general. I want to raise awareness of gender-based violence because it happens all around the world, not just in Mexico or the Latin community. We need to create awareness for it. And for me, its only beginning. She wants to let the world know the conditions of the Latin community here in the states? Why not the Latin community in some place like Russia or China? Or better yet, Mexico? Somehow America's the target because America's the bad guy and she's inclined to use her beauty-queen megaphone to tell all the world's nations about it. Somehow, I don't think this "conditions" statement is a bid to tell migrants not to emigrate to the states illegally, paying coyotes thousands of dollars for the illegal trip up norte. More likely, it's that gringo doesn't do enough for them. Is she going to tell the Mexicans just how terrible life in the states is so they don't emigrate here illegally? I'm gonna say 'no' especially since she said she's meeting with the Mexican consulate in New York and we all know that they've got an agenda. Maybe she can explain why she seems to think her country is all a bunch of saints with only gringos the predators and the United States the maw of death, with criminal illegals who plague the states somehow non-existent. Naturally, she thinks Mexico is some sort of paradise, serving as "ambassador" to her native Chihuahua, and explaining in her video how wonderful it is: That's fine and dandy, so why would anyone want to leave such a place to head to the states where all the bad conditions are, for her to want to make the matter her platform issue? Seems she came here to do some political activism, aiming to shower the benefits onto the illegals as a foreign national, politically campaigning in the states, the very country that gave her her crown. Let's see what she would say if one of us went down to Mexico to campaign about "conditions" for Latinos in her country. The whole thing is unseemly and crosses the line between the generically vapid but good-intentioned "whirled peas" of traditional beauty queens into full-blown wokester activism of the Kaepernick set. One hopes it was just a beginner's mistake on her part and not a truly stupid wokester platform, but who knows in this day and age? Get woke, go broke, lady. Same for your organization. Image: Screen shot from shareable Instagram video To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Who knew that the Hispanic left would go loco over a building a border wall? Down in Texas, Governor Abbott announced plans to build a wall. This is the story: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his state has allocated $1 billion in its fiscal year budget toward border security, telling The Ingraham Angle on Thursday he will use part of that money to resume the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall started by Donald Trump but hastily halted by President Biden. Abbott, joining the program from the border near Del Rio, said he has had enough of the White Houses willful disregard for rule of law and for the well-being of Texans and Americans, especially those in places like Del Rio and other border towns. To make a fine point on it, we have to build a border wall, said Abbott. Ive been down here talking to the people in the Rio Grande Valley and the way they are being overrun is reprehensible, its disastrous what the Biden administration has done. And the punches start! Governor Abbott is frustrated with the Biden administrations total disregard for border enforcement or immigration laws. He is taking action and it wont be long before the left refers to him as The Austin Stalin. Can Texas build a wall? We will wait for the details. As I hear, the wall will be built with the consent of ranchers rather than some kind of eminent domain. Also, the people who jump will be charged with trespassing not violating federal immigration law. What happens when the federal government refuses to do its job and puts border states in this predicament? This is the question that many in Texas are asking. P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk). IMAGE: governor Greg Abbott. Fox News screengrab. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. 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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* Leaders at the G7 summit in Cornwall have been told to demonstrate the global will to tackle climate change by Sir David Attenborough. The television naturalist said the scientific response to the Covid-19 pandemic had demonstrated what was possible when there was a clear and urgent goal. But the fight against climate change was as much a political and communications challenge as a scientific one, he said in a video address. Sir David told the leaders gathered in Carbis Bay: The scientific collaboration on Covid treatment and vaccines showed just how much we can achieve together when the goal is clear and urgent. We know in detail what is happening to our planet. And we know all of the things we need to do during this decade. Tackling climate change is now as much a political and communications challenge as it is a scientific or technological one. We have the skills to address it in time. All we need is the global will to do so. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was urging G7 leaders to drive a global green industrial revolution to help developing nations reap the benefits of clean economic growth. The leaders were setting out plans to reverse biodiversity loss and to fund infrastructure development around the world. Mr Johnson also launched a 500 million blue planet fund to protect the worlds oceans and marine life. Mixed in with the environmental intentions of the G7 is an attempt to reassert the values of the worlds leading democracies. The build back better for the world plan will bring together G7 countries to develop an offer for high-quality financing for vital infrastructure, from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia. Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs G7 talks in Cornwall (Leon Neal/PA) The move is part of an attempt to counter Beijings belt and road initiative which has spread Chinese influence around the globe. The new approach is intended to give developing countries access to more, better and faster finance, while accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and sustainable technology. G7 nations are expected to commit to almost halving their emissions by 2030 relative to 2010, a commitment already exceeded by the UK which has promised a 58% cut. The countries will set out the action they will take to slash carbon emissions, including measures like ending all unabated coal use as soon as possible, halting almost all direct government support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas and phasing out petrol and diesel cars. The G7 will also endorse a nature compact, aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 including supporting the global target to conserve or protect at least 30% of land and oceans by the end of the decade. The UKs blue planet fund will offer 500 million to help countries including Ghana, Indonesia and Pacific island states tackle unsustainable fishing, protect and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs, and reduce marine pollution. The fund will run for at least five years. Greenpeace UKs executive director, John Sauven, said: While commitments to provide more support to developing nations are absolutely vital, until they cough up the cash, were taking nothing for granted. The dismal track record of rich nations to honour commitments made over a decade ago on international climate finance, alongside the UKs decision to slash its aid budget, makes it hard to take the so-called build back better for the world plan with anything more than a pinch of salt. Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has apologised to a Cornish theatre after Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden incorrectly claimed it had benefitted from coronavirus support funding. The Minack Theatre was visited by leaders spouses including Prime Minister Boris Johnsons wife Carrie and US President Joe Bidens wife Jill during the G7 summit. In a tweet that has since been deleted, Mr Dowden reportedly said the outdoor venue had benefitted from the Governments Cultural Recovery Fund (CRF), which aims to support the arts through the pandemic. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. The theatre then rebuked the Cabinet minister in a reply on Twitter. Sorry @OliverDowden, but this is not true, the tweet said. We did not benefit from any CRF money as we were not eligible to apply. It turned out having a good level of cash reserves meant we had to fend for ourselves and utilise our own reserves. (David Davies/PA) A DCMS spokesman confirmed that an apology had been issued to the theatre. He said: Over 650 theatres have benefitted from over 250 million of support through our Cultural Recovery Fund to date. A tweet was briefly issued in error that the Minack was one of them and we have now spoken directly to the theatre who have accepted our apology. The Minack looked stunning yesterday as part of the G7 summit and we congratulate all at the theatre involved. The fund has made awards to more than 700 culture and heritage organisations across the South West worth up to 135 million, with funding decisions being taken by the Arts Council England, the British Film Institute, Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. After visiting the theatre on Saturday, Ms Biden tweeted: Beautiful and powerful program for G7 spouses today at the @MinackTheatre. Thank you to Carrie Johnson and all those who helped put it togetherespecially all the local children who performed for us! The Minack Theatre, which is in Porthcurno near Lands End, is positioned on top of a cliff looking out to sea. Police were called to Blyth Road in Hayes on Friday morming where Jalan had been stabbed. (PA) Police have released a picture of a teenager stabbed to death on his way to school in London on Friday. Jalan Woods-Bell, 15, was stabbed in Hayes, west London, on Friday, 11 June and died at the scene. A 15-year old from Hillingdon, who cannot be named, was charged with his murder on Saturday (12 June) and appeared at Willesden Magistrates' Court on the same day. The Met Police previously said that it received reports of a fight on Blyth Road, near Global Academy, at around 8.30am on Friday morning. Jalan Woods-Bell was stabbed on his way to school. (Metropolitan Police) Officers called to the scene found Jalan with stab injuries. He died at the scene. A post-mortem examination was due to be carried out on Sunday. The Met said detectives from its Specialist Crime Command are investigating. Teacher Tia Rek-Williams, 21, told the PA news agency she had seen the aftermath of the stabbing as people tried to help Jalan. She said: "This happened literally in the middle of the street, not down a back alley, in front of people's houses. It's just awful." US President Joe Biden has told a Catholic priest many serious matters were discussed at this years G7 summit. He and First Lady Jill Biden attended morning Mass in Cornwall on the final day of the gathering of world leaders. The couple arrived at the Sacred Heart and St Ia Catholic Church in St Ives, a short drive from where they have been staying in Carbis Bay, at 9.15am. Several security people lined the streets of the town, while people stood outside their homes and were told to stand back and wait during the service. Mr and Mrs Biden left the church just after 9.40am. Father Philip Dyson told the PA news agency that he had not been given advance warning that the president and his wife would be joining them for the service. We realised people were coming with security so I thought maybe the president would be coming along so we just welcomed him, he said. He admitted he was slightly nervous while conducting the service. Its the President of the United States of America, he said. Its a great occasion to welcome him into our parish, into the church, and its lovely to know he made the time in his busy schedule in order to come to Mass. US President Joe Biden, centre, leaves after attending Mass at Sacred Heart and St Ia Catholic Church, in St Ives, Cornwall (Patrick Semansky/AP) The priest added that he had managed to have a quick word with Mr Biden. I welcomed him to Cornwall and he said he was enjoying his time here and there were many serious matters they were discussing and just hope its going to come to fruition, he said. I think the G7 has been such a great occasion. The scripture readings were appropriate because it was about creation and climate, and things growing, so it absolutely suited the occasion. He added that the scriptures were not selected by choice, adding: Its just the way it always is. The word of God always fits in. Mr and Mrs Biden left in separate cars and the president was seen lowering his black face mask and giving his wife a kiss before she got into her vehicle. The president wore a navy suit, white shirt and blue tie, while the First Lady wore a black and white suit with a pearl necklace. Several security people lined the streets of St Ives while US President Joe Biden and his wife attended Mass (Patrick Semansky/AP) Reporters at the church asked Mr Biden for his thoughts on the church, and he said it was beautiful. He was then asked about the G7 and China while getting into his car, but did not answer. The motorcade drove off moments later. One parishioner, known only as Margaret, was in the church with the Bidens during the service. It was very nice, she said. Were not a very large Catholic community but we have a very good priest. It was lovely that Joe Biden and his wife wanted to join us. The president is open about his Catholic faith and famously visited the St Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Delaware on the morning of the US election last November. His speeches regularly include biblical references and he reportedly received a congratulatory phone call from Pope Francis after winning last years election. Warning: Graphic Image Police are investigating after the bodies of 18 dead lambs were found at a farm in Warsop. (Nottinghamshire Police) Police have launched an investigation after 18 lambs were left dead following what is believed to be a deliberate attack. The lambs are believed to have had dogs deliberately set on them at private property linked to a farm in Warsop, Nottinghamshire, sometime between 9pm on Friday (11 June) and the early hours of the following morning. Nottinghamshire Police said it is thought offenders entered the property and set dogs onto the sheep. The distraught farmer found 13 dead and the remaining five seriously injured, the force said. One of the injured lambs died while officers were at the scene and the other four had to be humanely destroyed by a local vet. The loss of the livestock alone is thought to have cost the farmer over 1,600, police said. The force said the majority of the lambs were left in a pile and others were scattered around, leading investigators to suspect it was a deliberate act. Chief Inspector Chris Sullivan, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: "This was a terrible and despicable act and has understandably left the farmer completely distraught. "One theory is that dogs have possibly been set loose in the field during the night. Some of the lambs were found dead but others had to be put to sleep because their injuries were so severe. He added: "Our officers and our specials rural crime team are now working with the RSPCA to track down who has committed such a brutal and inhumane act like this. "This is totally unacceptable behaviour and will not be tolerated at any cost." Watch: UK farmer shows how to help sheep that lose their balance and can't get up The Queen will welcome US President Joe Biden to Windsor with a Guard of Honour and tea at the castle. The American leader and First Lady Jill Biden will visit her Berkshire royal residence on Sunday, after attending the G7 summit in Cornwall. The couple met the Queen on Friday when she attended a reception for G7 leaders at the Eden Project. The Queen speaks to US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill at a reception at the Eden Project with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and G7 leaders (PA) Their latest meeting comes the day after the Queen received her official birthday gift from the nations armed forces a ceremony of pomp and pageantry in her honour which was held at the castle. The traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony, which is normally staged in London, was ruled out for the second successive year because of the threat of coronavirus. The carefully-choreographed arrangements to welcome Mr Biden echo the welcome given to Donald Trump in 2018, when the controversial then-US president travelled to Windsor to meet the monarch. The Queen during a ceremony at Windsor Castle to mark her official birthday (Steve Parsons/PA) Mr Trump and the Queen had afternoon tea together in the castles Oak Room, with the meeting lasting longer than expected. It was due to last around half-an-hour, but overran by almost 20 minutes. In 2008, when then US president George W Bush met with the monarch at Windsor, he enjoyed a traditional English afternoon spread of tea, small sandwiches and cakes in the White Drawing Room. The Queen with then US president Donald Trump and his wife Melania at Windsor in 2018 (Steve Parsons/PA) The Queen will greet the Bidens at the dais in the castles quadrangle. A Guard of Honour formed of The Queens Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards will give a Royal Salute, and the US national anthem will be played. Mr Biden will then accompany the Officer Commanding the Guard of Honour, Major James Taylor, and Major General Christopher Ghika to inspect the Honour Guard, before returning to the dais to watch the military march-past with the Queen and First Lady. In 2018, the Queen accompanied Mr Trump to inspect the Guard of Honour at Windsor. Donald Trump and the Queen inspecting a Guard of Honour in 2018 (SGT Paul Randall RLC/MoD/PA) Escorting a visiting head of state to inspect the troops is a role which usually fell to the late Duke of Edinburgh, before he retired in 2017. There have been 14 US presidents during the Queens 69-year reign from Harry S Truman to Mr Biden. Mr Biden, who is in the UK for the G7 summit, will be the 13th American leader to meet the monarch, with Lyndon B Johnson the only one the Queen has not met. Take shorter showers. Only use the sprinklers in the cooler parts of the day. Run the dishwasher less often. Recycle sink and shower water for plants. Turn off the water while your brushing teeth. I don't. Other. Vote View Results 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 Owosso, MI (48867) Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 53F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 53F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Have any questions? Please give us a call at 541-889-5387 We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit Mike Crapo, R-Idaho Falls, is a senior U.S. Senator for the state of Idaho. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Independent-Enterprise. Craig Carter is an Ontario resident and can be reached in care of The Argus Observer, 1160 S.W. Fourth St., Ontario, OR 97914. The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Argus Observer. According to information released by the British army on June 7, 2021, the British Army Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) Battlegroup (BG) equipped with Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) has been preparing for a deployment to Estonia at the British Armys Sennelager Training Centre in northern Germany. Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link British Army Challenger 2 main battle tank. (Picture source British army) Seven hundred and fifty soldiers are involved in the Operation Cabrit rehearsals ahead of the next British-led NATO Battlegroup to go to Estonia in September 2021. The BG comprises of RTRs Dreadnought Squadron, equipped with Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank, C Company of the Royal Welsh, equipped with Warrior armored infantry fighting vehicles in addition to elements of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Army Medical Corps and the Royal Logistic Corps. The demanding exercises were an arduous mix of simulation, live-firing (day and night) and field training exercises involving armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and a whole range of supporting capabilities fixed together to develop the level of competencies, capabilities and integration. The 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw set the conditions for the establishment of an enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security. Operation Cabrit is the name of the UK operational deployment to Estonia where British troops are leading a multinational battlegroup as part of the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP). UK Armed Forces have a leading role in NATOs eFP in the Baltic States, in order to enhance Euro-Atlantic security, reassure our Allies and deter our adversaries. The eFP in the Baltic States is a deployment of robust, multinational, combat-ready forces to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, on a persistent, rotational basis. British personnel rotates on a continuous basis alongside Danish, French, and host nation Estonian forces. The Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank (MBT) is the backbone of the British Army and according to the Military Balance 2020, 227 Challenger 2 are still into service with the British Armed Forces. The British Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world. The regiment is equipped with Challenger 2 MBTs, the Scimitar tracked reconnaissance vehicles, and the Spartan tracked armored personnel carrier. In May 2021, the British government has announced a contract to upgrade the Challenger tanks to Challenger 3 standard. The family of CVRT vehicles as the Scimitar and Spartan will be replaced by the Ajax, a new family of tracked armored vehicles, currently under development by the company General Dynamics for the British Army. McCONNELSVILLE, Ohio Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Director Mary Mertz celebrated Ohios outstanding inland fishing Saturday at the second Inland Fish Ohio Day at Hook Lake at Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area. Appalachian Hills boasts more than 300 lakes and ponds teeming with bluegills, catfish, and largemouth bass. Ohios inland lakes offer wonderful opportunities to get out and enjoy a day on the water, said Governor DeWine. With hundreds of lakes and thousands of acres, Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area and Jesse Owens State Park and Wildlife Area are two of Ohios best public inland fishing locations. "I encourage all Ohioans to experience the beauty and tranquility of these unique wild spaces. Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area is located in southeast Ohio. It provides public access to fish, hunt, and bird with 350 lakes, 63 million trees, 293 campsites, and 24 miles of the Buckeye Trail. The adjoining Jesse Owens State Park and Wildlife Area offers additional public access, and four primitive campgrounds are provided at no charge. Visitors to the Inland Fish Ohio Day enjoyed events at both locations featuring shore angling, kayak angling, and small boat fishing. Although bluegill were primarily targeted, the biggest catch of the day was a 14-inch largemouth bass. Anglers caught more than 300 fish throughout the course of the day. Governor DeWine and Director Mertz hosted the first Inland Fish Ohio Day at Cowan Lake State Park in Clinton County in 2019. Ohio offers extraordinary fishing opportunities in its lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams. The Division of Wildlifes six state fish hatcheries stocked 46 million sport fish in more than 200 locations in 2020, including walleye, saugeye, yellow perch, rainbow trout, brown trout, muskellunge, channel catfish, blue catfish, and hybrid-striped bass. An estimated 1.3 million Ohioans fish in the Buckeye State every year. Visit wildohio.gov for more information. The reduced tax rates were based on a recommendation of a group of ministers, headed by Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Conrad Sangma New Delhi: The GST Council on Saturday slashed tax rate on Covid-19 drugs such as Remdesivir and Tocilizumab as well as on medical oxygen and oxygen concentrators but ignored demands for reduction in taxes on vaccines. The Council, acting on the recommendation of a group of ministers from different states, cut to nil GST on Covid-19 drug Tocilizumab and black fungus medicine Amphotericin B, from existing 5 per cent. Besides, hand sanitiser, pulse oximeter, BiPAP machine, testing kit, ambulance and temperature check equipment were among the 18 items on which GST rates were lowered. A 5 per cent GST levy on vaccines will continue which will allow manufacturers to get benefit of settling taxes paid on inputs. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman explained that the 5 per cent levy will not put any additional burden on common man as the government was procuring all vaccines and giving them to citizens for free. The reduced tax rates were based on a recommendation of a group of ministers, headed by Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, and would remain effective till September 30, 2021. It was felt that the GoM's recommendations has brought in a lot of substantial change. Many items, that were at 18 per cent and 12 per cent, brought down to 5 per cent. So there was a lot of substance in the recommendation made by GoM. The Council largely agreed to go with GoM's recommendation..., Sitharaman said while briefing reporters after the 44th GST Council meeting here. Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate on Covid vaccines was, however, retained at 5 per cent as the Council felt that majority of the vaccine procurement was being done by the Centre and given free to people. Central government is purchasing 75 per cent and is paying GST also. But the impact of this GST on people will be nil since people would be getting vaccines free of cost at government hospitals. Centre is purchasing and it is given free to people, Sitharaman said. Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said vaccines would continue to attract 5 per cent rate and the GST Council discussed that the Centre is purchasing all the vaccines -- at least 75 per cent is being purchased by the Centre. The GST will also be borne by the Centre. But out of the income from GST, 70 per cent will be shared with the states... As far as people are concerned who are coming to get their inoculation done, it is tax free. It is not an issue with the people, they are not paying any tax, cost of the vaccine. So it is free for them, Bajaj said. He said the notification of lower GST rates would be issued tomorrow or day after. While GST on Tocilizumab and Amphotericin B is slashed to nil from 5 per cent, the rate on Remdesivir and anticoagulants like Heparin is lowered from 12 per cent to 5 per cent. GST rate on ambulance has been cut to 12 per cent from 28 per cent. Tax on medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrator (including personal imports), ventilators, BiPAP machines and high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) devices has been cut to 5 per cent from 12 per cent. Also, tax on Covid testing kits, pulse oximeter (including personal imports) has been brought down to 5 per cent from 12 per cent. Hand sanitisers, temperature check equipment, gas/electric furnaces for crematoriums too will attract lower 5 per cent tax, compared to 18 per cent earlier. In the previous meeting of the GST Council on May 28, taxes on Covid-19 vaccines and medical supplies were left unchanged after the BJP- and Opposition-ruled states sparred over whether the tax cut benefits will reach the common man. An 8-member GoM, under Sangma, was set up to recommend GST rate on Covid essentials. The other members of the GoM are Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitinbhai Patel, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Goa Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho, Finance ministers of Kerala (K N Balagopal), Odisha (Niranjan Pujari), Telangana (T Harish Rao) and UP (Suresh Kr Khanna). To a query on Congress saying that they were not made part of the GoM, Sitharaman said, ... I don't want to comment on what was said outside. In the Council, the three Congress ministers said that in the future at least you should consider having us in GoM. The selection into a GoM is never made on party basis, neither is the exclusion. There are several GoMs and several ministers are made members of the GoM. All states are given representation in one or the other GoM. Neither the inclusion, nor the exclusions happen on political party affiliations. Industry chamber PHDCCI said the calibrated reduction in the rates of GST on Covid relief essentials will go a long way in treating Covid cases and to provide required relief for treatment of infections. PHDCCI looks forward to the continued reform measures by the government to mitigate the daunting impact of Covid on people and to make India free from the pandemic, it said in a statement. EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said majority population will not be affected on account of no GST rate. The hospitals have sought a proper mechanism and a single-window system to be put in place A student receives COVID-19 vaccine dose during a special vaccination drive organised by the Karnataka government for the students, who are going abroad for education and employment, in Bengaluru, June 2, 2021. (PTI /Shailendra Bhojak) New Delhi: Several private hospitals across the country said they have no clarity on procuring COVID-19 vaccines under the new policy announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that it has led to the vaccination being put on hold at their centres. The hospitals have sought a proper mechanism and a single-window system to be put in place for procurement of vaccine doses. They also claimed that they had approached the vaccine manufacturers -- Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) -- and also state governments, but to no avail. Meanwhile, in a recent communication to the Union health ministry, Prakash Kumar Singh, director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, is learnt to have written, As per your direction, we are not accepting any further orders/payment from any private hospital in the country. We await your further direction with regard to roadmap for future supplies to private hospitals. Elaborating the problems faced by private hospitals, S C L Gupta, medical director, Batra Hospital said, "The problem is that there is no clarity on how we will be procuring the vaccines. When we ask the state government officials, they say wait till June 21 stating that the policy is not yet clear. The central government also has asked us to wait. We have approached the companies too, but they are also not clear on the methodology of procurement, he said. In the whole process, Gupta said, vaccination of people is getting delayed. "With fear of a possible third wave hitting India, we want to vaccinate as many people as possible. Also several people and many of our healthcare workers who have taken the first dose are waiting for their second dose," he said. P K Bhardwaj, Chief Executive Director and Head of Department of Surgery, Saroj Hospital also said that nothing has been clearly spelt about procurement by private hospitals and how much vaccines will be given to each private hospital. The vaccinations at most of the private hospitals are on hold and the public, especially those patients who need to get the second doses, are at the receiving end. "The government should soon come out with transparent and clear guidelines so as to avoid any further delay in this crucial exercise of inoculating people against the deadly virus," Bhardwaj, who is also secretary of the Delhi Voluntary Hospital Forum, said. Sarvesh Saran Joshi, president, Rajasthan Doctors' Association and also managing director of Shekhawati Hospital, Jaipur said, "We have spoken to manufacturers of both Covishield and Covaxin and they said the government has asked them not to supply the vaccines directly to private hospitals. So, the majority of medium to small hospitals are suffering the most." Jitendra Saraf, director, Sita Memorial Multispeciality Dental Clinic, Raipur said when he approached the state government officials, they said they are yet to receive proper guidelines on how private hospitals would be procuring the jabs. "We have been writing to both Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute, but there is no response from them," Saraf, also a member of the Indian Dental Association, said. Some of the private hospitals also flagged the service charge for vaccination being capped at Rs 150, saying it may not be feasible for them to to organise sessions outside their own centres at that rate. "At a service charge of Rs 150, we can provide vaccination only at our centre. We had started to go to RWAs and private sector companies, but now organising such sessions at this rate will not be possible. Capping the price at Rs 150 will also impact the entire vaccination drive. So a mechanism needs to be worked for this too, Gupta said. Organising outside camps requires additional resources and manpower, and holding such sessions at Rs 150 is not feasible, another private hospital said. Under the revised guidelines which will come into effect from June 21, the Centre will procure 75 per cent of the COVID-19 vaccines being produced by manufacturers. Domestic vaccine manufacturers are given the option to also provide jabs directly to private hospitals which would be restricted to 25 per cent of their monthly production. According to the guidelines, states/UTs will aggregate the demand of private hospitals keeping in view equitable distribution between large and small private hospitals and regional balance. Based on this aggregated demand, the central government will facilitate supply of vaccines to private hospitals and their payment through the National Health Authority's electronic platform. Athens, TX (75751) Today A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight. Low near 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight. Low near 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%. This is because since the launch of the Galaxy S21 earlier this year, buyers of the device, including those who opted for the top-of-the-range Ultra version, complained of various problems with Android Auto, some of them making the app pretty impossible to use.For example, one of the most widespread glitches encountered with the S21 Ultra causes Android Auto to crash when the screen is unlocked. And according to users who turned to Googles forums for assistance, none of the generic workarounds helped.These include downgrading Android Auto and updating to the latest version, clearing the cache and the rest of the data, updating the head unit in the car, changing cables, and so on.But the good news is Samsung has been working on a fix for quite some time, and the South Koreans are now ready to ship it to users. Google itself confirmed that it reached out to Samsung to provide details about the glitch, and now the next operating system update should finally fix it once and for all.In other words, the July monthly security update projected to ship to the Galaxy S21 in a few weeks should get Android Auto up and running for everybody using Samsungs latest flagship.Thanks for all the reports. We informed the Samsung team and they have applied a fix on an upcoming upgrade as part of the regular July maintenance release to resolve this issue. Please keep checking for system updates on the device, a member of the Android Auto team announced The only concern right now is to get the upcoming July monthly security update in a timely manner, as these releases have always landed with a more or less substantial delay for some regions across the world. Some users, for example, are yet to get the June update, despite its rollout actually starting a couple of weeks ago. EV On the other hand, Xiaomi claims its ready to spend no less than $10 billion on its car projects, and most people believe these would include building an autonomousthat would directly compete against the highly anticipated Apple Car But while Xiaomi is trying to embrace a strategy similar to Apples, and therefore avoid disclosing too many details about its ambitious car model, its now believed the project has now reached a phase where the Chinese tech giant needs to find someone to take care of the manufacturing process.In other words, Xiaomi is now struggling with the same thing as Apple, as the iPhone maker has previously discussed with a series of traditional carmakers, including Hyundai and Nissan.For Xiaomi, however, the whole process appears to be a little bit more convenient, as the company wants to work with domestic partners. And one of them could be Great Wall Motors, as Xiaomis founder and CEO Lei Jun has recently visited the carmakers Research and Development Center in China, possibly to discuss early details regarding a production collaboration for a self-driving EV.Very little has been said about the visit, however, as neither Xiaomi nor Great Wall discussed the meeting, but on the other hand, it wouldnt necessarily be surprising to see the two joining forces for the release of a vehicle whose purpose would be to compete against the Apple Car.According to people familiar with the matter, Xiaomi is planning to release its car at about the same time as Apple, so we should expect the EV to see the daylight in 2024 or 2025 at the earliest. A prototype, of course, is likely to hit the road a little bit earlier. 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. FILE - In this July 31, 2013, file photo, tourists visiting the Mendenhall Glacier in the Tongass National Forest are reflected in a pool of water as they make their way to Nugget Falls in Juneau, Alaska. The federal government has announced plans to repeal or replace a decision by the Trump administration to lift restrictions on logging and road building in a southeast Alaska rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's plans for the Tongass National Forest were described as consistent with a January 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden that called for reviewing agency actions during the Trump administration that could be at odds with Biden's environmental priorities. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) 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. President Biden said in a statement Monday his administration is developing "appropriate options" in coordination with the EU to hold Belarus accountable following the country's diversion of a flight to arrest an opposition leader. Driving the news: Earlier Monday, the European Council called for an independent investigation into the episode, the submission of sanctions proposals and advised EU-based carriers to avoid and airspace. The big picture: A Ryanair flight en route from Greece to Lithuania was forced by Belarusian air control to land in Belarus' capital Minsk Sunday, under the pretext of "a potential security risk on board." Belarusian authorities then detained Raman Pratasevich, a journalist and activist who was critical in organizing mass anti-government protests in Belarus last year, and his partner Sofia Sapega. Belarus' actions have been described a "hijacking" by some European leaders, who have vowed the country will face consequences. What they're saying: "I welcome the news that the European Union has called for targeted economic sanctions and other measures, and have asked my team to develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible, in close coordination with the European Union, other allies and partners, and international organizations," Biden said. President Biden touched down in Brussels on Sunday evening ahead of two days of talks with NATO and European Union leaders as part of his first foreign trip as president. Driving the news: Biden was greeted on the tarmac by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and a slate of other officials, including Douglas Jones and Mark Libby, the U.S. Permanent Representatives to NATO and the EU respectively. Biden will meet with NATO leaders on Monday and EU leaders on Tuesday, per Reuters. Also penciled into Biden's schedule Monday is a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The state of play: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One that Biden plans to discuss the ongoing withdrawal from Afghanistan with NATO allies as well as the "increasingly important" issues of cyber security and defense. Erdogan said Sunday that he hopes his meeting with Biden will help diffuse tensions between the United States and Turkey. Sullivan noted that the two will discuss a number of critical issues, including developments in Syria and Libya. The big picture: Biden's trip to Brussels is intended to "reassure allies that America is indeed back while also encouraging them to invest in their own defense," writes Axios' Dave Lawler. U.S. President Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron were all smiles and handshakes during their first formal, in-person meeting on Saturday, with Macron telling pool reporters "it's great to have the U.S. president part of the club." Why it matters: Biden has made rebuilding the United States' global leadership central to his foreign policy, frequently touting, "America is back." "What you demonstrate is that leadership is partnership," Macron told Biden during their breakout session on the side of the G-7 summit in England Details: The two leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including NATO, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. "We have to deal with this pandemic, and the COVID-19," Macron said, according to CNN. "We have to face a lot of challenges, a lot of crises, climate change, and for all these issues, what we need is cooperation, and I think it's great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate." We feel very, very strongly about the cohesion of NATO and I for one think that the European Union is an incredibly strong and vibrant entity that has a lot to do with the ability of pushing Europe to not only handle its economic issues but provide the backbone and the support for NATO," Biden said, according to Politico. This was the only bilateral meeting on the American president's agenda for Saturday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also seen in attendance, according to pool reports. Go deeper: What to expect from Biden's trip to Europe First lady Jill Biden spent part of Saturday meeting with British veterans, first responders and their families on the sidelines of the G7 summit, according to pool reports. Why it matters: The first lady has prioritized participating in military-focused events during the trip to highlight her Joining Forces initiative. Biden and former-first lady Michelle Obama led the program during the Obama administration. Biden said this April that the relaunch of the initiative will focus on U.S. military family employment and entrepreneurship, as well as making sure families can get quality child care when needed. Zoom in: The U.S. president met with members of the group Bude Surf Veterans, according to Reuters. A federal judge on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 Houston Methodist staff over the hospital's policy requiring all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Why it matters: This is the first federal court ruling on a coronavirus vaccine mandate. Attorney Jared Woodfill, representing the plaintiffs, told KHOU 11 it's "the first battle in a long fight," as he vowed to file another lawsuit soon. Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes noted in the ruling that the federal government has advised that companies can require workers to get vaccines. He rejected the lawsuit's argument that the mandate of the hospital in Houston, Texas, was unlawful. "This is not coercion," Hughes said. "Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus. It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer." Hughes called the plaintiffs' argument equating the injection requirement to medical experimentation in Nazi concentration camps "reprehensible." The big picture: Houston Methodist suspended 178 employees without pay for 14 days last Tuesday for failing to comply with the mandate. Hughes earlier this month denied the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order to block the suspension. The judge said the public interest in "caring for patients during a pandemic far outweighs protecting the vaccination preferences of 116 employees," noting the staff were "jeopardizing" their own health" and that of others. What they're saying: Houston Methodist said in an emailed statement that it was pleased the judge had dismissed the "frivolous lawsuit" that "falsely claimed" COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe. The hospital pointed to the administering of over 300 million doses in the U.S. and falls in positive cases and hospitalizations as proof that vaccines do work. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist said in the statement: "We can now put this behind us ... All our employees have now met the requirements of the vaccine policy and I couldn't be prouder of them." Read the judge's ruling in full, via DocumentCloud: Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout and to correct the gender of the judge. Hours before a vote to oust him, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused President Biden of endangering Israel's security by taking a soft line on Iran, and claimed his successor, Naftali Bennett, would be too weak to stand up to Washington. Why it matters: Netanyahu waged a desperate but unsuccessful campaign to stop a "change coalition" from joining together to replace him after an inconclusive election in March. Facing an imminent demotion to opposition leader, he foreshadowed a willingness to damage the U.S.-Israel relationship to put his rival under pressure. "He decided to damage the U.S.-Israel relationship for his own personal interests and is trying to leave scorched earth for the incoming government." Senior Israeli diplomat on Netanyahu Driving the news: Bennett, a right-wing former tech entrepreneur, will lead the most ideologically diverse coalition in Israeli history, with its members united by little more than a desire to remove Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption and battled through what seemed like a never ending cycle of elections over the past two years. Bennett spoke before Netanyahu, but as he was trying to present his platform, allies of Netanyahu continuously interrupted him with shouts of "liar" and "fraud." Bennett took a hard line on the Iran deal in his speech, saying it was a mistake in 2015 and remains one today. He also thanked Biden for his support for Israel, stressed that he wants good relations with both parties in Washington, and drew a contrast with Netanyahu by promising that any disagreements with Biden will be managed with "mutual trust and respect." Bennett's coalition partner, centrist Yair Lapid, forwent his opportunity to speak next, citing the interruptions during Bennett's speech, which he said were a disgrace. Then Netanyahu rose to speak. He accused Bennett of being weak and untrustworthy (noting that he'd broken a campaign pledge by forming a government with Lapid), and said his protege-turned-rival would refuse to stand up to Biden on Iran. Netanyahu claimed that the Biden administration had asked him to keep their disagreements on Iran private, but that he refused to do so, valuing his hard line on Iran over smooth relations with the U.S. Netanyahu positioned himself as the only man standing between Iran and an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and claimed Iranians were celebrating his departure. He also compared Biden's Iran policy to the refusal of the U.S. to bomb the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. He also said he'd rejected U.S. demands to freeze settlement construction and opposed Biden's plan to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which handled relations with the Palestinians before being shut down by Donald Trump. Again, he claimed Bennett lacked the stature or credibility to take similar stands. Between the lines: Despite Bennett's right-wing politics and hardline positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many senior officials in the Biden administration will be be happy to see the end of Netanyahu's tenure. The latest: The new government survived a confidence vote with the narrowest possible majority 60 to 59 with one abstention and Bennett was sworn in as prime minister. Netanyahu vowed to bring the "dangerous" government down, and "much sooner than you think." Go deeper: Netanyahu rejects Trump comparisons, pledges peaceful transition of power Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced their release as he campaigned for snap parliamentary elections slated for June 20. Pashinians press secretary, Mane Gevorgian, said that the POWs were repatriated to Armenia via Georgia. The process took place with U.S. and Georgian mediation, for which the government of Armenia thanks the U.S. administration and the Georgian government, Gevorgian wrote on Facebook. Azerbaijan said it freed the POWs in exchange for an Armenian military map detailing the location of nearly 100,000 land mines in the Aghdam district east of Nagorno-Karabakh which was handed back to Baku under the terms of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped last years Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The 15 Armenian captives were turned over on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border with the participation of Georgian representatives, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed their release. We also welcome Armenias decision to provide Azerbaijan with important information that will facilitate humanitarian demining and avoid future casualties, he said in a statement. The United States is pleased to support these steps and hopes they will lay the groundwork for additional cooperation. We continue to call for the return of all detainees and stand ready to assist the countries of the region in their efforts to continue cooperation and resolve outstanding issues between them, added Blinken. The Georgian government reported, meanwhile, that Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili personally helped to arrange the deal by negotiating with Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last November calls for the unconditional release of all prisoners held by the conflicting sides. Russian peacekeepers deployed in Karabakh after the six-week war have arranged several prisoner swaps in recent months. No Azerbaijani prisoners are known to be held in Armenia or Karabakh at present. A total of 88 Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians have been freed to date. More than 100 others are believed to remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Yerevan regularly demands their immediate release. Baku says that they are not covered by the truce agreement because they were captured after it took effect on November 10. Azerbaijani officials have branded the remaining Armenian detainees as terrorists. At least 16 of them are facing what the Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned last week as trumped-up criminal charges. It is evident that Azerbaijan is using the captured people as political hostages and tools to pursue other goals, the ministry said in a June 4 statement. It accused Baku of concealing the real number of prisoners and denying the captivity of dozens of Armenian servicemen and civilians. PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - Another Republican is throwing his hat into the ring for the U.S. Senate seat. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced on Thursday he's launched his campaign for the Senate. His campaign video says he is focusing on restoring trust and freedom in the state. It highlights how he's the son of immigrants, joined the Army National Guard, and was elected as Arizona's 26th attorney general in 2014. He won reelection in 2018. He says he has fought for Arizonans as the state's top law enforcer with his 2017 lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents over high tuition costs, his lawsuit against Facebook and its alleged monopoly, and "stood up again and again for religious freedom and the right to life." Brnovich claims he's tough on border security and will defend the Second Amendment. Retired Gen. McGuire jumps into Arizona Senate race McGuire introduced himself with an online video highlighting his military career and presenting himself as a political outsider tired of weak leaders and politicians who sit on the sidelines. Brnovich was one of a handful of Republicans looking to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022. Retired Gen. Michael "Mick" McGuire formally started his campaign for U.S. Senate on Tuesday. He led the Arizona National Guard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Solar energy entrepreneur Jim Lamon was the first major Republican candidate to jump in the race. They are all trying to unseat Democrat Mark Kelly, who won a special election last year to complete the late John McCain's Senate term. Kelly is running for a full six-year term. Experts believe it'll be a high-profile race and help determine which party will control the Senate. FBI raids home of LA-based actor who entered US Capitol on Jan. 6 with right-wing protesters Robert Price is a journalist for KGET-TV. His column appears here Sundays. Reach him at RobertPrice@KGET.com or via Twitter: @stubblebuzz. The opinions expressed are his own. Bluefield, WV (24701) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible. The Jack Brooks Regional Airport will be getting some much-needed renovations thanks to nearly $18 million it received from the CARES Act, which was passed last spring. Six projects utilizing some $330,000 of the funds were outlined during a Jefferson County Commissioners Court meeting earlier this month. The commissioners had to postpone the vote to ensure the county followed the federally-mandated process of finding contractors. Jefferson County Purchasing Agent Deb Clark did not give an timeline for when the items would be back on the agenda. But once approved, the proposed projects are expected to fund some of the first steps needed to rehabilitate the aging airport, said Brooks Regional Airport manager Alex Rupp said. The grant also covers the airports payroll and operational costs, and Rupp expects the rest of the airports CARES money will be use for future construction. Like other buildings owned by the county, the airport has a list of projects that need to be done at any given time. However, the grants and other money coming often leave some of those projects unfunded. This grants really allowed us to take care of projects weve had planned in the past and help offset some operating costs, he said. The projects largely focus on keeping the airfield open and safe, which takes on particular importance when its used during a hurricane or other flooding event. With that priority in mind, the groundwork step with the lowest cost could be most important. The development of a fee estimate for airport drainage analysis and design project comes in at nearly $4,000. Rupp said the airfields drainage system is some 70 years old, and in that time, its seen failures. Over time, the ground wet and dry contracts and separates and swells and it disturbs the underground drainage pipes, he said. We think thats a contributing factor. We also think maybe some of the underground drainage pipes have failed, broke, eroded, whatever, due to age. As part of the larger drainage system rehab project, Rupp said the airport is also looking at regrading the airfield so water drains faster. (Next) would be improving the land-side drainage, Rupp said. Thats basically everything you see out front from the tower to the highway. The idea there would be to improve drainage but plan for overall development of that airport frontage. Rupp said these projects, particularly rehabbing the drainage systems, will be necessary for the airports longevity and will allow the airport to aid in emergency situations like natural disasters. Anything that we can do to improve drainage helps keep the airfield open during inclement weather, for instance like Harvey and Imelda, he said. That allows assets to come in without interruption survey aircraft, search and rescue, bringing in humanitarian aid, the National Guard, you name it. The longer the airfield stays open and safe, the better response Southeast Texas and Jefferson County will have in an emergency situation, Rupp said. But the rehabilitation goes beyond drainage systems. The county also is proposing to use the remaining nearly $325,000 to design five other projects, including the construction of a new electrical vault, rehabilitating parts of the runway and improving the airport terminals air conditioning system, among others. The project to update plans for a new electrical vault to house various airport wiring carries a proposed cost of $95,850, according to the Commissioners Court meeting agenda. Basically, all the airfield electrical systems, all the wiring comes to a vault located in the Jerry Ware terminal, Rupp said. Theres limited space in there. The new vault will be a standalone building hardened to withstand storms, (with) raised elevation, in case of flooding. The new vault will house the airports electrical systems with all new equipment inside, including current regulators and a standalone generator, Rupp said. And with the additional vault space, he says it will be easier for crews to diagnose future repairs than having to get through a building that was built in the 1950s. The county also is proposing to use nearly $117,000 to design repairs and replacements to concrete panels on the runway and fuel farm. We have some pavement we need to repair around our tank farm, Rupp said. Basically, just replacing concrete. He said the airport is working on a pavement maintenance management plan that brings in an expert to evaluate the pavement, determine the useful life and make recommendations on short- and long-term management practices that would increase the life. The airport also is looking at land-side pavement repairs, he said. The design for that work on the Airport Terminal Service Road comes in at just over $35,000. those are the roads coming into the terminal and looking at rehabbing the general aviation terminal, specifically to better accommodate emergency operations, Rupp said. Finally, the county is proposing the use of just over $77,000 to design improvements to the HVAC system. Were making some repairs to the main terminal air conditioning system, replacing an old tiller, and some air handling units, Rupp said. Its air conditioning a huge necessity down here, especially with the high heat and humidity. At the same time, the airport also is working on its master plan, which identifies capital improvements to be undertaken within the next 20 years, and welcoming back passengers as the number of new COVID-19 cases confirmed each day continues to fall. Were seeing just an overall return to normalcy, Rupp said. As an airport, we want to have the airlines that are here have as many passengers as they can possibly to maximize capabilities. That's our top priority. The money the airport received was only a portion of CARES Act money allocated to Jefferson County. oliviasmalick@gmail.com twitter.com/OliviaMalick With more and more music released every day, it's a near-impossible task to keep track of all the tunes that you like. From pop to hip-hop to alternative to K-pop to country, the choices made available feel endless but no need to fret. Chron's got you covered. UP NEXT: Here are 5 Houston artists you should be listening to Here's all the new music that's coming out this weekend. 1. Megan Thee Stallion, "Thot Sh*t" (photo by Marcelo Cantu) Megan Thee Stallion makes her big return after a brief hiatus from social media with her latest track, "Thot Sh*t." It seems as if the emcee is leaving her Hot Girl Meg persona behind and bringing back the widely adored "Tina Snow." 2. Larry June, "Orange Print" Courtesy, The Freeminded Records / EMPIRE California-based rapper Larry June is back with more smooth tunes with his latest project, "Orange Print." The newest project from the luxury rapper features verses from popular rappers like Money Man, Dej Loaf and Houston's very own Trae Tha Truth. 3. Garbage, "No Gods, No Masters" Courtesy, StunvolumeInfectious Music Garbage's "No Gods, No Masters" marks the seventh full-length studio release for the alternative rock band over their veteran career of 20+ years. "No Gods, No Masters" was co-produced with Billy Bush. 4. Pierre Bourne, "The Life of Pierre 5" Courtesy, SOSSHOUSEINTERSCOPE 2021 The fifth installment of the rapper-producers long-running series shows growth from his last effort and gives us new work from rap's favorite rockstars, Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti. 5. Maroon 5, "Jordi" Courtesy, 222/Interscope Records Jordi is the seventh studio album by Maroon 5, and the album bleeds over from pop to hip-hop and R&B, with guest appearances from Megan Thee Stallion, Bantu, H.E.R., YG, and late rappers Juice Wrld and Nipsey Hussle. 6. Migos, "Culture III" Courtesy, Quality Control Music/Umg Recordings, Inc From their humble beginnings with projects like "No Label" to their success on mainstream radio, the rap trio Migos has always seemed to deliver catchy bars and quotables, and the group maintains that same pace with their latest release in their "Culture" series, "Culture III." The album marks the fourth studio album release from the group after all three artists have managed to make solo projects or be seen individually on other artists' albums. 7. Polo G, "Hall of Fame" Courtesy Columbia Records Polo G's "Hall of Fame" is the follow-up to the rapper's "The Goat" project last year, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Having recently earned his first No. 1 hit with RAPSTAR earlier this month, the Chicago native is well-positioned to add a No. 1 album to his list of accolades. 8. Sleater-Kinney, "Path of Wellness" Courtesy, Mom + Pop Music The 10th full-length studio release for the Portland, Oregon-based alternative rock duo was self-produced, a first in the duo's 27-year run. The project is the group's first release after their drummer, Janet Weiss, left the group over creative differences. Offices linked to Donald Judd, the iconic artist and architect who helped turn Marfa into a West Texas cultural destination, were "severely damaged" in a fire last week. In the early morning hours of Friday, June 4, the Judd Foundation's Architecture Office caught fire. The foundation, a nonprofit that maintains and preserves Judd's libraries and archives, confirmed that no one was in the building at the time and the extensive artwork collection that is normally housed inside the offices had been removed. The fire was contained by the Marfa Volunteer Fire Department and the cause of the fire remains unknown. Housed at 102 North Highland Ave. in Marfa, the headquarters had recently undergone an extensive restoration. The two-story building is part of the Marfa Restoration Plan, a project that "focuses on the critical protection and restoration of Donald Judds spaces and the completion of his architectural plans" throughout the beloved West Texas town. READ MORE: 'This is so sad': Fans react to Liam Payne ending engagement to San Antonio's Maya Henry Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas. Photo Alex Marks Judd Foundation. There was a fire last week in downtown Marfa in Dons Architecture Office, a turn of the century building that has held a central place in the community since its construction," Flavin Judd, the Judd Foundations artistic director, says in a statement. "The fire was contained to the building and fortunately no one was injured. As the building was deinstalled for the restoration, it was empty and there were no artworks or objects damaged in the fire. Its unfortunate as we were weeks away from finishing the restoration but we will rebuild, thats what we do. In a statement provided to MySA, the foundation says that since Friday, SCHAUM/SHIEH, the architects leading the restoration, along with project engineers, have been on-site to stabilize the remaining structure of the building so that the full damage may be assessed. On Monday, June 7, work to shore the building with braces began. According to Surface, the eventual restoration will include a first floor that is open to public, and will house Judd-designed furniture and artwork as well as architectural exhibits with models, drawings, and design objects. The building's second floor will include the restoration and installation of Judds bedroom, office, and sitting room to support scholars working with the Judd Foundation. This week, former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro made an appearance on the new Showtime series Ziwe. The 2020 presidential hopeful had an expansive conversation with comedian and host Ziwe Fumudoh. During the interview, the pair bounce from topics like conservative democrat and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to Texas' devastating winter storm (which proved difficult to address without a takedown of Senator Ted Cruz). During their interview, Ziwe asked Castro if it was worse that Cruz abandoned Texas during the storm or that he threw his children under the bus in the process. Castro's response offered a detailed list of Cruz problems. 3 1 of 3 Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Mario Tama/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3 READ MORE: Johnny Manziel claims he once earned $30K a month while at Texas A&M Yeah, Ted Cruz has been so bad for the state of Texas. Getting down to Cancun, calling the army weak when he looks like he couldnt even do five push-ups, just pick your poison, replies Castro. i asked julian castro if joe manchin is a democrat pic.twitter.com/LzQV4nJgNQ ziwe (@ziwe) June 8, 2021 Ziwes show, for those not in the know, is shot on an enviable millennial-pink set where she puts famous faces on the spot. Once a quarantine-era Instagram live show, the new Showtime series craftily plays to the tension and discomfort surrounding race and politics. The San Antonio politician continued his critique of Cruz after the host shot him an enthusiastic drag him! Donald Trump called his wife ugly and suggested his father had something to do with the JFK assassination, and he still went over there and kissed his butt, continues Castro. It just doesnt make sense,. Castro's remarks have officially been certified as Texas-grade beef. When Tropical Storm Harvey inundated Southeast Texas, it took thousands of homes and uprooted livelihoods. While much of the devastation has been repaired and reconstructed, the trauma reverberates to this day. In Vidor, two schools were flooded beyond repair, leaving beleaguered staff to return to teach with limited resources in temporary buildings. Students, some with no homes and few clothes, returned, too. One student The Enterprise interviewed in 2019 was excited to learn he would spend his fifth-grade year on the campus of Vidor High School. His older brother was there and now he, too, would feel like a high-schooler. But it wasnt long before his excitement gave way to crushing anxiety. Being crammed in unfamiliar classrooms with some 30 other students made him so claustrophobic that he threw up almost every day. His parents got him treatment, but the symptoms persisted into the spring. Vidor ISD took notice of the widespread mental health issues. I knew right away. It didnt take a lot to see the suffering that kids and adults were going through, Superintendent Jay Killgo told The Enterprise. We had a lot of grant funds, but you can only give so many clothes and so many backpacks. So, what can you use it for? We just knew mental health was a priority. In response, the district took an unusual approach for the area bringing behavioral health specialists in to work for the district. Most school districts contract with either individual therapists or non-profit agencies to provide therapy for students, said Amanda Chism, one of Vidor ISDs behavioral health specialists. One therapist comes one day each week and visits with the students with the greatest needs. Its an important service, but only available to a very limited amount of students. The approach Vidor is taking, Chism said, is closer to that taken by larger school districts like Austin ISD. Vidor ISD (has) pioneered in our area what larger school districts have been doing for a while: Hiring an actual team of professionals to meet the mental health needs of the students, Chism said. With initial grant funding from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, VISD approved the hiring of two behavioral health specialists to focus on addressing widespread mental health issues across the district. Tegan Henke, the senior director of Program Implementation for Child and Family Policy for the Institute, said several schools in the region received post-Harvey grants. We at The Meadows Institute were granted funds from the Red Cross to support school districts in their behavioral health response to (Harvey), Henke said. We had partnered with the Texas Education Agency shortly after (Harvey) to do a survey of school districts to just assess their needs for mental health supports and what they perceived. Vidor ISD reported that students, staff and caregivers were struggling with mental health needs that increased across the district after Harvey. The Meadows Institutes initial goal for the money was to increase the ability for staff to recognize mental health needs. We know that ... at least 75% of mental health needs present before age 14, Henke said. So, it is a pediatric illness, and we want to improve a school districts ability to recognize a mental health need among students. The secondary goal, Henke said, was to help schools link students to various mental health services, either at the school or through an external source. Port Arthur ISD and Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District also received funds but did not hire behavioral specialists to work directly on campus. For each school it is really an individualized decision, Henke said. They may or may not have the capacity to provide something like that, but whether they can work with their community partners, they can bring in specialists who could provide services within the school or employ somebody who can provide trauma or other intensive services, that is certainly important. Oftentimes in more rural districts, there are fewer mental health professionals available. But because of Vidors proximity to Beaumont, the district was able to find mental health professionals who could come, she said. The team at Vidor said they are in the unique position of helping students with run-of-the-mill mental health issues as well as those that come along with the looming possibility of natural disasters that has seemed increasingly more likely over the past few years. Its one thing to help a student learn coping skills to manage his or her anger, Chism said. Its something very different to help a student do so who is in a class full of fellow students each with their own emotional issues from the trauma they have endured, with a teacher dealing with her own stresses of having a house repaired and a loved one in the hospital with COVID, in a town where every person, every age, every gender has been touched in some way by these events and where an untouchable, undefinable sense of stress and weariness hangs in the air over every conversation and interaction. That, Chism said with emphasis, Is not therapy as usual. The district has just started to gather data on the programs impact, but one quantifiable side effect has been a noticeable decrease in disciplinary referrals. At the end of the 2017 school year, there were more than 2,200 disciplinary referrals in Vidor ISD, according to district data. At the close of the 2019-2020 school year, there were fewer than 900. While the data was cut short due to COVID-19, district officials estimate that the entire district would have had fewer than 1,200 referrals had the year continued in person. With the success of the program, the institute offered funding from the American Red Cross to expand it. Three more specialists have been hired, two of which are full-time licensed professional counselors. All campuses now have the benefits of a dedicated individual counseling students on a regular basis. The additions also lightened the load on campus counselors. School counselors will be the first people to tell you that they cannot truly counsel, District spokesperson Sally Andrews said in a report to donors. They are too busy working on testing, 504 meetings and scheduling, to name a few things. Having behavioral specialists who are able and ready to meet on a regularly-scheduled basis with students has made life-changing differences. While the initial program was a response to a dire need, a regular succession of disasters in the years since have proven the program still relevant and effective. I think the trauma from all of those events has built over the past few years and its really taken its toll in our region, said Heather Champion, Director of Quality Assurance for the Spindletop Center. Weve seen an increase in the trauma response for individuals whenever theres a hard rain or whenever theres news of another storm in the Gulf possibly headed in our direction. Spindletop, which provides mental health services in Southeast Texas, also provides specialists to provide similar school support. Champion said more schools are participating in such programs as schools return to in-person learning. Having behavioral health specialists dedicated to school children means there is little wait, Chism said, compared to other districts that refer students to outside mental health organizations. With another active hurricane season on the horizon, Vidor ISD is looking to the future. Two new campuses are under construction, and the portable buildings are seeing their final years of use. The Red Cross funding has come to an end, but VISD acquired local funds to continue the program from Hancock Whitney and other donors, including an anonymous VISD alum who donated $155,000. In the coming years, Chism and Killgo said they hope to make the program a permanent part of the school, as students and the community continue to heal. Major traumas like the floods and pandemic can have ripple effects for generations after they occur, Chism said. The research on generational trauma is eye opening to say the least, but by providing therapy to our students we are doing so much more than offering a free service. We are helping an entire community heal. isaac.windes@hearstnp.com twitter.com/isaacdwindes NEW ORLEANS (AP) A Democratic state representative from New Orleans has won the Louisiana state Senate seat his uncle left for Capitol Hill. State Rep. Gary Carter Jr. had 60 percent of the vote Saturday against three opponents in the 7th District, which includes parts of the West Bank of New Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes, according to complete but unofficial returns. Carters uncle, Troy Carter, is now in the U.S. House. He won a special election runoff after Cedric Richmond left Congress to work in President Joe Bidens administration. Republican Patricia McCarty received 17% of the vote Saturday, the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office reported. Democrat Joanna Cappiello-Leopold, had 14% of the vote. State Rep. Mack Cormier was fourth with about 9% of the vote. All three are from Plaquemines Parish and focused their campaigns in part on opposing the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a $2 billion project in the states coastal Master Plan, The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported. The project would let sediment-rich Mississippi River water flow into Barataria Bay with the goal of building and nourishing new wetlands. The seafood industry and some environmentalists oppose it because the freshwater would harm oysters, shrimp and dolphins in the area. Carter said all alternatives need to be studied and efforts made to minimize its impacts. Gary Carter's election means another special election must be held to fill his seat, which represents Algiers, New Orleans' westbank section. Only about 10.1 of the district's registered voters participated in Saturday's election, the Secretary of State's Office said. If President Joe Biden has any private words with Russias Vladimir Putin at their meeting next week, U.S. interpreters and diplomats will be standing by to document their high-stakes encounter. Its a decades-old system meant to ensure that senior officials, and ultimately historians, have a record of what American presidents say to international leaders. And it's one that held up mostly even under former President Donald Trump, including when he confiscated the notes taken by his American interpreter at a meeting with Putin in 2017. Trump's determination to keep his talks with the Russian president confidential sparked concerns about what might have occurred in those private meetings, particularly given Trumps cozy relationship with Putin. Former U.S. officials acknowledge the unusual and concerning nature of Trump's desire for secrecy, which a former official familiar with the matter says also included Trump routinely waving away the usual immediate debriefings by aides after his one-on-ones with world leaders. But in the run-up to Biden's own first session with Putin as president in Geneva, the U.S. official described to The Associated Press the swift steps taken to preserve records of Trump's private talks with Putin. That included the veteran State Department interpreter for Trump at his hours-long private talk with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018 alerting senior U.S. officials instantaneously after the meeting to concerning details, including that the two men had broached invoking an existing treaty that could have allowed Russians to take part in interrogations of U.S. officials, the former official said. And at the summit a year earlier in Hamburg, Germany, where Trump seized the interpreter's notes, Americans were able to debrief Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who also jotted down notes, the former official said. Some diplomats and journalists have questioned how thorough the Trump Cabinet secretarys version would have been, however. When Trump unexpectedly sat down next to Putin and first lady Melania Trump that night at dinner for a long chat, press reports at the time said it appeared no other Americans were within earshot. However, the former official said they were able to build a record of what was said from the first lady's aides, who were sitting next to her. Trump in one way made it easier for listeners to follow and document his private words with Putin. Appearing dazzled by the pomp and import of the summits, Trump would have to ask interpreters to repeat Putins comments half the time, the former official said. The results were detailed accounts that were shared among top officials and preserved, according to the former official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. They ultimately will likely be declassified, like the records of past presidencies. The former officials account, and accounts from other officials and interpreters, shed light on a critical part of the upcoming Biden-Putin meeting and other presidential summits that normally receives little attention: the crucial work of diplomats, interpreters, aides and others in providing policymakers with a detailed account of what was said even when a president wishes they didnt. Presidential historians say its critical for the functioning of a democratic government. I believe very strongly that our protections under the Constitution depend on the transparency of our government. Because its in the dark spaces, its in the unlit spaces of government activity that abuses occur, or can occur, said Timothy Naftali, an associate professor at New York University. Michael McFaul, a former White House official and ambassador to Russia in Barack Obama's administration who served as the official record-taker for Obamas occasional one-on-one pull-asides with Russian leaders, described how the routine of capturing and documenting such talks played out for him. At the close of those presidential conversations, McFaul said he would immediately rush to debrief both Obama and the State Department interpreter, while memories were fresh. Sometimes I really had to crowd people out of the way, but it was super important, McFaul said. For the U.S. government, that was how they knew what was decided. Up until the Reagan administration, the same State Department interpreters who translated during the one-on-ones between U.S. presidents and international leaders were charged with preparing the official memoranda of conversations, or memcons, said Dimitry Zarechnak, a retired State Department employee. Zarechnak translated for Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev and others. At the time, the practice was always that interpreters would be taking notes to do the interpreting, and then use those notes to prepare the memos, Zarechnak said. It was a practically verbatim record of what was said. Those memos as a rule had to be completed the same day, McFaul and Zarechnak said. After one Reagan summit, when Zarechnak found himself working into the next morning to prepare the memos from a day of interpreting, the U.S. routine expanded, so that a separate note-taker began sitting in on the talks and prepared the official records, he said. Many decades later, the U.S. government typically declassifies the memcons, as with Reagans historic talks and folksy stories with the last leader of the Soviet Union. The former official said Trump was able, however, to evade the record-takers for one kind of conversation: those with leaders who could speak directly to him in English and needed no interpreter. Trump would leave entirely private his conversations with President Emmanuel Macron, pointing inquiring American officials to the bilingual French leader, the former official recounted. Ask Macron, Trump would tell his aides, the former official said. - Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. The Latest on the Group of Seven nations meeting being held in England: BRUSSELS President Joe Biden has arrived in the capital of Belgium for the upcoming NATO summit, wearing a mask because of the coronavirus as an honor guard and trumpeters greeted him. The U.S. president wrapped up a three-day meeting for the Group of Seven nations on Sunday and after a tea with Queen Elizabeth II flew to Brussels for the NATO meeting scheduled to begin Monday. Biden says that a strong NATO partnership is vital for maintaining U.S. national security for the remainder of the century. Cyber defense and climate change are among the topics being discussed at the summit. Biden will also meet Tuesday with European Union leaders as well as visit Belgian King Phillipe. The president will finish the eight-day trip Wednesday by meeting in Geneva with Russian President Vladimir Putin. ___ WINDSOR, England - U.S. President Joe Biden says he has invited Queen Elizabeth II to stay at the White House. Biden and his wife, Jill, had tea with the 95 year-old queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday. The 78 year-old president says he felt a maternal warmth from the monarch, who now has met 13 U.S. presidents. Biden said: I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother. The president says the queen asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Biden has a summit with on Wednesday, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The queen also inquired about living at the White House. Biden says he told her, We could fit the White House in the courtyard of the castle. Asked if he invited Elizabeth to come to the White House, Biden replied, Yes. ___ NEWQUAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron stressed his appreciation for the return of the United States to the world stage and what he said was the boost President Joe Biden has given to the European Union, in particular. His remarks were in part a dig on the distance former President Donald Trump created with trans-Atlantic partners. With Biden, we found once again a real common vision and, above all, a way to work together. That means a conviction that the leadership is stronger through partnership, Macron said at a news conference at the close of the G-7 summit hosted by Britain no longer part of the EU. Macron had his first meeting with Biden at the summit. He had tried hard to win over Trump, making him the guest of honor at a Bastille Day military parade, but the former president turned his back, notably pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. Biden returned the United States to the accord. ___ WINDSOR, England -- U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are greeting the United Kingdoms Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. The Bidens emerged from a Land Rover on Sunday to meet the awaiting queen, who stood on a dais dressed in a pink hat and floral dress. The U.S. president wore his aviator sunmark glasses as he joined the monarch, only to remove them as he inspected the red-uniformed and bearskin-capped Guard of Honor assembled on the castle grounds. The queen and the U.S. first lady stayed on the dais as Biden walked along the guard. During President Donald Trumps 2018 visit, Trump broke royal protocol by walking ahead of Queen Elizabeth II during the inspection. Once Sundays inspection was completed, the queen and the Bidens went into the castle for tea. ___ CARBIS BAY, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain wants further investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the end of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, Johnson says that while it doesnt look as if this particular disease came from a lab, the world needs to keep an open mind. Though the notion was once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab is now under a new U.S. investigation ordered by President Joe Biden. The G-7 leaders endorsed calls for a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based further investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. Many scientists still believe the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans. ___ NEWQUAY, England Italian Premier Mario Draghi says the dominant theme of the Group of Seven summit was how to respond to China and other autocratic governments. Draghi said Sunday that China has the right to a great economy but that practices like coercive detention and using forced labor were out of step with the vision of the worlds democracies. He said the position taken wasnt particularly tough, but was rather realistic, in view of the necessity to cooperate on climate change, rebuilding the world after the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. He also said his Cabinet would be reviewing the controversial 2019 trade and infrastructure deal Italys previous government signed with Beijing. Over U.S. and other objections, Italy in 2019 became the first G7 country to sign onto Chinas Belt and Road initiative, Beijings global investment project that envisions overland and maritime routes connecting China with Europe. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden is hinting that he could make a change to the steel and aluminum tariffs originally imposed during the Trump administration. Asked Sunday at a news conference how Biden justified the tariffs to European allies now that Trump is out of office, Biden suggested that future action could be taken without specifying what that would be. 120 days, says Biden, who technically became the U.S. president 144 days ago. Give me a break. Need time. ___ NEWQUAY, England -- President Joe Biden says helping the world battle the COVID-19 pandemic will be a constant project for a long time. Biden spoke Sunday of a clear consensus among the other leaders attending the Group of Seven summit that commitments they made to donate vaccines wouldnt be the end. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit host, announced on Sunday that G-7 leaders had pledged over 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer nations. Biden is responsible for about half of that donation, or about 500 million doses. He says the U.S. may be able to contribute 1 billion more doses. The U.S. president says its a gigantic, logistical effort to get shots in arms around the world, a the goal he said may not be achieved until 2023. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden is taking a series of subtle jabs at Donald Trump at the end of the Group of Seven summit, suggesting there was a genuine sense of enthusiasm among foreign leaders that the United States was engaged on world issues. The president is highlighting very fundamental differences with Trump over climate change and national security at a news conference Sunday. Biden says that he does not view NATO as a protection racket. Thats a contrast to Trump who said that foreign countries should pay for the presence of the U.S. military abroad. Biden is following the G-7 by attending a NATO summit Monday. Biden says that climate change is the existential threat facing humanity, stressing that Trump did not recognize it as a problem. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden has closed his first Group of Seven leaders summit, saying it was an extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting. Biden on Sunday praised agreements to help the world combat COVID-19 and to set a global minimum tax for corporations everywhere. He spoke at a news conference in Newquay, England, after the conclusion of a three-day summit in nearby Carbis Bay of leaders of the worlds largest economies. Biden is on the first overseas trip of his nearly 5-month-old presidency. His next stop is London and Sunday afternoon tea with Queen Elizabeth II, joined by first lady Jill Biden. Afterward, Biden flies to Brussels to attend a NATO summit. The trip ends Wednesday in Geneva, where Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet. ___ CARBIS BAY, England The leaders of the worlds richest countries have agreed to endorse a global minimum tax on multinational corporations. The decision had been widely anticipated after finance ministers earlier this month embraced placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes and thus robbing some countries of much-needed revenue. The minimum rate was championed by the United States and dovetails with the aim of U.S. President Joe Biden to focus the three-day G-7 summit in England on ways the democracies can support a more fair global economy by working together. The summit ended Sunday with broad agreements for cooperation on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, challenging China's economic and human rights policies and other issues. ___ CARBIS BAY, England Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are calling on China to respect human rights in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong and in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur minority lives. The group also lashed out at China's economic policies in a statement published Sunday. The group said it would continue to "consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. The G7 summit aimed to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. ___ CARBIS BAY, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the Group of Seven wealthy nations will pledge over 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses for poorer nations. Speaking at the end of a G-7 leaders summit in southwest England on Sunday, Johnson said the doses would come both directly and through the international COVAX program. The commitment falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. ___ FALMOUTH, ENGLAND The International Monetary Fund managing director says there's a moral imperative for the worlds richest countries to back programs to end the COVID-19 pandemic but the donation of excess vaccines is only the first step. Kristalina Georgievas comments in a virtual press conference at the Group of Seven summit Sunday came after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped G-7 leaders would agree to provide at least 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer countries. Humanitarian groups have welcomed the donations, but are calling for money, increased production and logistical support to help developing countries where the virus is still raging. Georgieva said the donations are a good step but more needs to be done to overcome the hurdles needed to deliver shots into arms. This is a moral imperative, but it is a necessity for the economic recovery to stick, because we cant have the world split into two tracks without negative consequences, Georgieva said. While almost half of the combined population of the G-7 nations has received at least one dose of vaccine, the worldwide figure is less than 13%. In Africa, its just 2.2%. The war is not yet won, she said. ___ FALMOUTH, England Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office has defended coronavirus arrangements at Saturday nights G-7 beach barbeque after criticism that the event did not comply with England's COVID-19 social distancing requirements. World leaders and their partners were seen mingling on the beach as they were treated to a barbeque dinner including steak, grilled fish and lobster after a second day of talks in a seaside resort in Cornwall, southwest England. Johnsons spokesman Max Blain said there were fewer than 30 guests at the barbeque in accordance with the U.K.s restrictions. It was done in an entirely COVID-secure way within the existing rules, he said. You can see it was a relaxed atmosphere and gave the leaders a chance to discuss outside of a formal setting. Many in the U.K. are concerned about a resurgence of coronavirus infections in the country, driven by the Delta variant. Johnson is widely expected to announce a delay in the next stage of Englands roadmap out of lockdown restrictions. ___ FALMOUTH, England Churchgoers in a seaside resort in England say they have been left gobsmacked when U.S. President Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden dropped in for a Sunday service. The Bidens are in Cornwall, southwest England, where the U.S. president is attending a Group of Seven wealthy democracies summit. On Sunday morning, ahead of the summits conclusion, they were seen attending mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in St. Ives. I think gobsmacked is probably a very true word, said Annie Fitzpatrick, 58. Its quite amazing, we went into the church and they took some details from us and I thought this is a bit unusual. About 10 minutes into the service the doors opened up and President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden walked in and just sat in the pew just across from me. The president quietly got on with his prayer like everyone was doing, she said, adding: He looked around and said peace be with you, and I was one of them so Im delighted. Im not sure I will ever get over this moment completely. Gayle Wood, 63, said Biden appeared to make a very generous donation to the church before leaving. ___ FALMOUTH, England Britain is accusing European Union of holding the offensive view that Northern Ireland is not fully part of the United Kingdom, as Brexit continues to cast a shadow over the Group of Seven summit. Britain and the EU are in a spat over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could see British sausages banned from entering Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that borders the 27-nation bloc. The dispute is raising political tensions in Northern Ireland, where some people identify as British and some as Irish. British media are reporting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked French President Emmanuel Macron when they met at the summit in Carbis Bay, England, how he would feel if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. They said Macron replied the comparison did not work because Paris and Tolouse were part of the same country. The French presidency did not deny Macron had made the comments. It said he meant that Toulouse and Paris were on a geographical unity of territory, Northern Ireland is on an island. The president wanted to stress that the situation was quite different and that its not appropriate to hold that kind of comparison. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the idea Northern Ireland was not an integral part of the U.K. was not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. ___ FALMOUTH, England Group of Seven leaders are talking about climate change on the final day of their summit in England, with naturalist David Attenborough warning they must take urgent action to avoid human-based environmental catastrophe. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too late. The leaders also plan to announce new green-financing plans to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions. Attenborough, who is due to address the leaders on Sunday by video, said global warning and loss of biodiversity are beyond doubt, as is the fact that our societies and nations are unequal. He said the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet? If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history, Attenborough said in comments released by summit organizers. ___ FALMOUTH, England The head of the World Health Organization has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says we need more, and we need them faster. The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday at the summit in southwest England. To do that, we need 11 billion doses, Tedros said, adding that it was essential for countries to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit's host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year. Tedros reiterated his target of vaccinating 30% of the population of every country by the end of 2021. He said that reaching the goal requires 100 million doses in June and July, and 250 million more by September. ___ FALMOUTH, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie, have welcomed leaders from South Korea, Australia and South Africa, as well as the secretary-general of the United Nations, to the Group of Seven summit taking place on the coast of southwestern England. The leaders elbow-bumped and posed for photos Saturday on a pristine beach in Cornwall. The G-7 nations are the U.K., the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. The British government said the guest nations were invited to take part in the summit as part of Johnsons Global Britain agenda and that the expanded group can help the G-7 intensify cooperation between the worlds democratic and technologically advanced nations. India was also invited, but its delegation is not attending in person because of the severe coronavirus outbreak in the country. The leaders, whose 3-day summit is scheduled to end on Sunday, are expected to commit to a new plan, called the Carbis Bay Declaration, to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days. ___ CARBIS BAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron says its good that U.S. President Joe Biden is able to lead through cooperation, adding that the United States is definitely back as Europe's partner. Biden and Macron met Saturday as part of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, where they and other leaders of the world's wealthy democracies are discussing the coronavirus pandemic, the environment, national security, relations with China and economic issues. Former U.S. President Donald Trump took an adversarial approach with NATO allies, but Macron said Biden has shown that leadership is partnership. The desire for cooperation cuts both ways. Biden described the European Union as incredibly strong and vibrant, which he said not only helps with tackling economic challenges but also provides a backbone for NATO. ___ BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Joe Biden have met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in England. A spokesman for the German chancellor tweeted two pictures of the leaders sitting at a table in Carbis Bay on Saturday. At noontime on the second day of the G7 summit the chancellor talked to U.S. President Biden in between the work meetings," read the caption accompanying the photos. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert didnt give any details about what the two discussed. Merkel, who is leaving office later this year, plans to visit Biden in Washington next month. The president invited her to the White House earlier this week. ___ FALMOUTH, England Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside Saturday morning in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the G-7 summit. Some protesters paddled out to sea, while others sunbathed on the beach wearing masks of leaders' faces. A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass paddle out protest organized by the group Surfers Against Sewage, which is campaigning for more action to protect oceans. U.S. President Joe Biden and fellow leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting near the town of St. Ives for talks focusing on the pandemic and climate change. Earlier, activists from Oxfam assembled on Falmouth beach to protest climate change and put on masks depicting the leaders attending the G-7 summit. Max Lawson, Oxfams head of policy, said activists want the G-7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the United States - to commit to bigger reductions in carbon emissions and to financing to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. WASHINGTON (AP) The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in the U.S. and admitted that she helped her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. Emma Coronel Aispuro, wearing a green jail uniform, appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded guilty to three federal offenses as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. The charges include knowingly and willfully conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine for several years. She also pleaded guilty to a money-laundering conspiracy charge and to engaging in transactions with a foreign narcotics trafficker. The 31-year-old was arrested in February at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and has been jailed since then. She is very happy to put this behind her, Coronel Aispuros attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said outside the courthouse. She didnt expect to get arrested after her husband received life in prison. So, this is obviously a troubling time. But were going to get past it. Prosecutors have alleged Coronel Aispuro worked closely with the command-and-control structure of the Sinaloa cartel and conspired to distribute large quantities of drugs, knowing they would be smuggled into the U.S. As Mexicos most powerful drug lord, Guzman ran a cartel responsible for smuggling cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign, prosecutors say. They also said his army of sicarios, or hit men, was under orders to kidnap, torture and kill anyone who got in his way. The prosecutor, Anthony Nardozzi, said his wife had aided and abetted the Sinaloa cartels objectives to smuggle drugs into the U.S. and helped to import more than 450,000 kilograms of cocaine, 90,000 kilograms of heroin, 45,000 kilograms of methamphetamine and about 90,000 kilograms of marijuana. Lichtman insisted that Coronel Aispuro was a very minimal participant in the drug empire. She was a very small part of this much larger thing, he said Her arrest earlier this year was a surprise in part because authorities had made no move to arrest her over the past two years, even after she was implicated in her husbands crimes. During Guzmans trial in 2019, prosecutors said she helped orchestrate Guzmans two prison breaks in Mexico. Nardozzi said Coronel Aispuro served as a go-between to deliver messages to cartel members after her husband was arrested and also conspired with Guzmans sons to plan and coordinate his prison escapes. Coronel Aispuro listened quietly as prosecutors described how they could prove her illegal activity if she chose to go to trial. Yes, she said through a translator, when asked by the judge if she had actually committed the crimes the government described. Litchman said his client did not agree to cooperate with federal investigators but hoped she would receive below a statutory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison when she is due back in court in September for sentencing. ___ Associated Press journalists Dan Huff and Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report. The Biden administration threatened Monday to pursue legal action if Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doesn't rescind his order shutting down federally funded shelters that house migrant children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the Republican governor that even though the state issues the licenses for the shelter, Congress has tasked his agency with caring for unaccompanied children. He warned Abbott not to interfere with those operations and said HHS intends to pursue legal action if the state proceeds to close the shelters down. Jerry Lara, Staff / Staff photographer (The Office of Refugee Resettlement) operates 52 state-licensed facilities in Texas, which comprise a significant portion of ORRs total operational footprint, and represent an indispensable component of the federal immigration system, Paul Rodriguez, HHS deputy general counsel, wrote in the letter two Abbott and two other Texas officials. The proclamation would be a direct attack on this system. The letter urges Abbott to clarify by June 11 whether his proclamation last week applies to 52 shelters that are licensed by the state but funded with federal grants. It argues that federal law states these migrant children do not accrue unlawful presence while they are in the United States, challenging Abbotts labeling of these children as unlawful immigrants. More than half of migrant children sheltered by the U.S. government in licensed facilities are in Texas. The last census taken on May 19 showed 4,223 children in the facilities of about 7,000 in the entire network of licensed shelters. Experts and advocates say shutting down these shelters could seriously disrupt the program for unaccompanied children, which already faces capacity problems forcing the government to open up a dozen emergency sites to process thousands of children. The Biden administration has worked to speed up the transfers from Border Patrol to HHS custody, and the releases of children to relatives in the U.S. In the past month, HHS has reduced the number of children in shelters or emergency sites by releasing more of them to their families. However, as of Sunday, there are still about 16,000 children in HHS custody, and the federal government has struggled to increase the number of beds in licensed shelters, which are preferred by advocates. The so-called emergency intake sites were opened beginning in March at convention centers, military bases and other large venues. They look like hurricane evacuation shelters, with little space to play and no privacy. Advocates and lawmakers who have visited have voiced concerns about the childrens mental health. Abbott also has been critical of emergency facilities that lack state licenses, but advocates say his directive could transfer more children to the large-scale sites. The letter says the state would be discriminating against providers who have federal government grants to run these shelters. That would violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, which impedes state interfering with federal activity, and the Supremacy Clause, which says federal law takes precedence over state or local laws. The order to strip away licenses from shelters is part of a disaster declaration Abbott issued last week, arguing the federal government cant force Texas to keep issuing state licenses in response to a federal problem. The proclamation was a highly unusual move by the governor that comes amid criticism of record numbers of border crossings in recent months. More recently, Abbott is saying that state troopers will soon begin arresting migrants at the border, promising an announcement later this week. The letter sent Monday was addressed to Abbott, Texas Deputy Secretary of State Jose Esparza and Executive Commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services Cecil Erwin Young. 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. Filipina Marites Flor is seen after she was released by Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants in Jolo, the southern island of Mindanao on June 24, 2016, a week after her Canadian boyfriend was beheaded by the gunmen. A nephew of the Islamic State leader in the Philippines and an Abu Sayyaf commander accused of beheadings were among four militants killed by security forces in a dawn raid Sunday in the southern Sulu islands, the military said. Among those slain was Al-Al Sawadjaan, a suspected bomb maker and the youngest brother of Mundi Sawadjaan, the military said. Both men are nephews of Abu Sayyaf commander and IS leader in the Philippines Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan. The Sawadjaans have been blamed for orchestrating bomb attacks in Jolo, Sulus capital town, including a bombing in August 2020 that left 14 dead and an attack by two Indonesian suicide bombers at Jolos cathedral in January 2019 that killed 23. The target of Sundays raid was Injam Yadah, an Abu Sayyaf militant notorious for a string of high profile abductions and beheadings, the military said. Two other Abu Sayyaf militants, including one identified only as Rauf, were slain. The other has not been identified. Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr., commander of Western Mindanao Command, said joint security forces from the 35th Infantry Battalion and Sulu Provincial Police Office conducted the raid to serve the warrant of arrest against Yadah before dawn Sunday near the village of Alat. As the troops approached the target house, Yadah and his three followers opened fire and triggered the brief firefight which resulted in the instantaneous deaths of the terrorists, Vinluan said. Yadahs wife and the couples three children were taken into custody, although Vinluan said the children were subsequently rescued and would be turned over to social workers. Seized from Yadahs home were ammunition as well as components for making bombs, including 15 mobile phones, Vinluan said. Maj. Gen. William Gonzales, commander of Joint Task Force Sulu, said Yadah was notorious in beheading captives, both foreign and local who were unable to produce ransom. He has a reputation of being extremely violent - beheading captured innocent civilians and security forces alike. Finally, his hideous acts will now come to a full stop," Gonzales told reporters. Yadah was accused of being involved in snatching eight Indonesian fishermen in waters off Malaysia in January 2020. Three were immediately released, one was executed in October 2020 and four were rescued by Filipino troops in March 2021. Yadah was also linked to the kidnapping in 2015 of two Canadian tourists who were later beheaded after a deadline for a ransom payment passed, military officials said. Gonzales said troops were also closing in on Mundi Sawadjaan. His brothers are now all dead and we are optimistic that he will also be neutralized. And when that day comes we can say that we have achieved total peace in the province as the local government and the people here are one with us in this endeavor, Gonzales said. The Abu Sayyaf is believed to number just about 200 militants, and it operates largely out of Sulu and the nearby island of Basilan. One faction is led by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who represents the IS in the archipelago after the death of Isnilon Hapilon during the siege of southern Marawi city in 2017. The rest are believed to be engaged in kidnapping-for-ransom and other criminal enterprises. Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan has not been heard of since last year, and is believed to have died in a clash with the military. His body has never been recovered. Reporter Heather Bellow, a member of the investigations team, joined The Eagle in 2017. She is based in the South Berkshire County bureau in Great Barrington. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the U.S. SHEFFIELD Voters at a special town meeting Monday capped the number of outdoor pot cultivators allowed in town at five, closing the door to new farms. Except, the town actually has six, all now grandfathered and exempt from the new zoning bylaws. With a 184-37 tally on a vote that required a two-thirds majority, residents pushed back on the notion that their town would be a future target for more outdoor cannabis growers than the six facilities already operating. In 2019, the town already had limited pot shops to three, which now leaves room for one more. Commercial farms currently operating are Theory Wellness, Nova Farms, Canna Provisions, Ten-Ten Craft Cannabis and Berkshire Welco, parent company of The Pass, which has two outdoor facilities. Resident Tammy Pipa, who worked on scuttling grower Wiseacre Farms plans for a Bull Hill Road site in Ashley Falls, said residents are relieved by the new limit. Now, we can breathe a bit easier, she said of the battle to stop more cultivators from coming to Sheffield. Hopefully, this will help the town to settle a bit. A resident who lives near that Bull Hill site said the issue has broader ramifications about the vulnerability of citizens, and the power of participation. People should educate themselves on the issues and understand the impact, Sally MacKenzie said. And like residents and town officials across South County, Sheffield also didnt anticipate the impact of legal pot, she added. You find out over time that things need to be adjusted and modified, she said. Were hoping this is the end of it. Jon Piasecki, principal of Wiseacre Farm, said that while he thinks it folly for the town to clamp down, at a loss to future revenue and employers, he shares the passion for local control. Its the citizens rising up to do what they want, and I appreciate that, he said, noting how mild the impact of pot farming is, compared with other farms here that are constantly spreading manure, and the numerous health benefits of cannabis. A citizens petition with more than 200 signatures sparked the meeting, attended by 225 voters more than twice the attendance at annual town meeting last month. The meeting came more than two months after residents of an Ashley Falls neighborhood fought two permits for top-tier commercial grow farms, which the Planning Board denied. One of those was for Wiseacre. Yet, towns also are weighing the potential for much-needed revenue; in Sheffields case, that is $579,240 total since the first company began operating in 2019. The town is one of several in South County whose residents have mounted campaigns against commercial growers trying to stake land anywhere near homes. Fear of marijuana odors often tops the list of concerns. At the meeting, some residents who live near one of Berkshire Welcos facilities complained about just that. One town official later said that while Town Hall has not yet received any complaints, officials will be looking into how to compel these grandfathered-in growers to control any problems. It will be addressed very soon, said Select Board Chairwoman Rene Wood, who added that the board has spoken to Welco CEO Christopher Weld. Wood said there are several potential avenues to compliance that include filing nuisance complaints with the Board of Health and combing through what growers have promised in community outreach meetings or in host community agreements. Wood herself lives near one of the farms and sometimes can smell it. It doesnt bother me, but I know people are sensitive, she said. Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a November 2016 campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa. Since Trump really is likely to be the Republican nominee in the next election, its worth taking alarmist scenarios seriously, in case next time turns out worse. But taking them seriously doesnt mean treating them as some kind of certain doom, writes New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat. President Joe Biden says the U.S. has restored its presence on the world stage, as he has used his first overseas trip to connect with a new generation of leaders from some of the worlds most powerful countries and more closely unite allies around addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and Chinas trade and labor practices Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations have staked their claim to leading the world out of the coronavirus pandemic and other crises If President Joe Biden has any private words with Russias Vladimir Putin at their meeting next week, U.S. interpreters and diplomats will be standing by to document their high-stakes encounter The Outlook is today's look ahead at the week's weather, its impact on the Berkshires and beyond. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com. Lori Harvey decided to keep it classy in her response to her ex-boyfriend Futures diss toward her. The 37-year-old connected with Detroit, Michigan rapper 42 Dugg for the track Maybach. On the song, Future takes jabs at his 24-year-old ex-girlfriend, Lori Harvey. Tell Steve Harvey I dont want her, Future raps during his verse, even repeating the line again a few bars later. During her interview with Bustle, Harvey explains why she didnt extend a response to Future. I think they get from me that I try to just not let any type of negativity or rumors or anything like that make me stoop down to that level and go back and forth with it or whatever, Harvey says. Just maintain my position of, I know who I am, I know whats going on, she said. I just try to stay up here and take the high road in every situation. So I think that would probably be what they get from me, because I am private, so I like to just give enough. RELATED: Lori Harvey Dishes On Her Pandemic Style, Which Resulted In A Successful Fashion Collab With Naked Wardrobe [Exclusive] Harvey and Future were first connected back in 2018, but their romance was cut short last August. Since their public split, both have entered new romantic connections. Harvey is dating 33-year-old actor Michael B. Jordan, while Future is involved with 23-year-old rapper Dess Dior. Although both have gone their separate ways, it appears that Future hasnt let some energy go from their past relationship. Harvey is only focused on her current endeavors and relationship. While being in the public eye, she maintains the balance of public sharing and privacy with Jordan. I think were both very private people naturally. So we just decide, if we take a picture or whatever it is, do you want to post this? Do we not? We have a conversation about it, like, You want to post this or we keep this to ourselves? Gosiame Thamara Sithole, a South African woman, has reportedly given birth to 10 babies in what is a new world record, reports say. Sitholes husband, Teboho Tsotetsi, told Pretoria News that they were astonished by the group of ten, also known as decuplet, after preliminary scans showed only eight children in the womb. "It's seven boys and three girls. I am happy. I am emotional. I can't talk much," he said to the news outlet. RELATED: Florida Twins Become First American Basketball Players To Sign With A Pro Team Without Finishing High School A family member, who did not want their identity to be revealed, told the BBC that five of the births came naturally, while five others were via caesarean section. Darnella Frazier, the teen who captured George Floyds death on her cellphone, was awarded an honorary Pulitzer Prize on Friday (June 11). The video, which lead to worldwide protest over the 46-year-old Minneapolis residents murder by former officer Derek Chauvin, his conviction, and police reforms accross America, was recorded on May 25, 2020. The Pulitzer Prize board commended the teenager for courageously recording the tragic incident and bestowed Frazier with a special citation. The board said Fraziers video spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists quest for truth and justice. RELATED: Darnella Frazier, The Teenager Who Filmed George Floyds Death, Posts Emotional Message Following Verdict Chauvin kneeled on Floyds neck for over nine minutes while the detained gasped for help and yelled that he couldnt breathe outside of Cup Foods convenience store. Three other officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao face charges of aiding and abetting a murder and are expected to stand trial next year. All four, including Chauvin, also face federal civil rights charges. Frazier, who was a minor at the time of Floyds death, testified during Chauvins murder trial, and told the court she was haunted by what she had witnessed after the incident. Its been nights I stayed up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life, she said. But its like, its not what I should have done, its what [Chauvin] should have done. Additionally, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune won a Pulizer for its coverage of the aftermath of George Floyds murder. Actor Morgan Freeman has joined forces with a criminal justice professor at the University of Mississippi to donate $1 million to the school to establish a Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform. The university announced Tuesday (June 8) that the donation from the actor and the professor, Linda Keena, establishes a one-of-its-kind center in the southern state and represents only a few in the nation, according to USA Today. The universitys Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies said the center plans to train law enforcement in Mississippi and around the country. Part of the training will include better community engagement. RELATED: This Is How Morgan Freeman Is Urging People To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine Look at the past year in our country that sums it up, Freeman said in a press release. Its time we are equipping police officers with training and ensuring law enforcement is not defined only as a gun and a stick. Policing should be about that phrase To Serve found on most law enforcement vehicles. University leaders plan to use data collected and relationships built with other agencies to enhance the preparation of students in criminal justice. Linda Keena and Morgan Freeman are helping found and equip an academic center, where our professors and students can not only develop realistic solutions but also offer training to police forces, Chancellor Glenn Boyce said, according to USA Today. Our flagship university wants to strengthen the work of police forces in our state and beyond, particularly those in more rural communities that might not have as many resources as departments in large metropolitan areas. Following criticism, Historic Latta Plantation in Huntersville, North Carolina has canceled an event that promised to share the story of white refugees. On Friday (June 11), Latta Plantation shared a Facebook post with a racist description of an event that was set to take place next Saturday, June 19 (Juneteenth). The description omits Black peoples enslavement to white people in the United States, but focuses on an anonymous slave owner who referred to himself as massa '' and the struggles he faced as a so-called white refugee. Latta Plantation faced backlash following the Facebook post and website description, with people calling the event -- which doesnt acknowledge the importance of Juneteenth -- unbelievable and disgusting. Attendees were set to hear stories from the slave owner about being chased out of his own house by Yankees and how slaves were getting good cuts of meat, which Black people (referred by Latta as former bondsmen'') were not allowed to have. White refugees have been displaced and have a story to tell as well, a now-deleted Facebook description read. Confederate soldiers who will be heading home express their feelings about the downfalls of the Confederacy. RELATED: Oregon Votes To Make Juneteenth A Holiday On Friday afternoon, Mecklenburg County issued out a statement in response to the event promo. Mecklenburg County has zero tolerance for programs that do not embrace equity and diversity. Parks and Recreation was not aware of the planned event at Latta Nature Preserve until it appeared on social media, the statement reads. We immediately reached out to the organizers and the event was canceled. As a result of this incident, Mecklenburg County is looking at its contract with the facility vendor regarding future programming. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyle added her take on the matter via Twitter, noting that Juneteenth should be celebrated and honored in the most humble way possible, with laser focus on the perspective of the inhumane treatment of an enslaved people. Despite intent, words matter, she added. And the Historic Latta Plantation should know better. The Huntersville Board of Commissioners will not give an annual $20,000 contribution to the preserve until more investigation is done around the facts surrounding this program. News Heavily redacted WKU sexual harassment records reveal misconduct Grace Ramey / Photo illustration by Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com The heavily-redacted WKU Title IX sexual misconduct records are shown after being obtained by the Bowling Green Daily News via an Open Records Request. Grace Ramey / Photo illustration by Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com The heavily-redacted Western Kentucky University Title IX sexual misconduct records are shown. The heavily-redacted WKU Title IX sexual misconduct records are shown after being obtained by the Bowling Green Daily News via an Open Records Request. (Photo illustration by Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com) The heavily-redacted WKU Title IX sexual misconduct records are shown after being obtained by the Bowling Green Daily News via an Open Records Request. (Photo illustration by Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com) The heavily-redacted WKU Title IX sexual misconduct records are shown after being obtained by the Bowling Green Daily News via an Open Records Request. (Photo illustration by Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com) Heavily redacted records documenting sexual harassment committed by Western Kentucky University employees reveal numerous instances of misconduct that resulted in faculty and staff being allowed to quietly leave their jobs or retire. And in some cases, those who knew about the transgressions failed to report them even when students came forward to complain. The newly released though heavily blacked out employee sexual misconduct and harassment records are the result of an Open Records Act request that a student journalist with WKUs College Heights Herald placed in November 2016. The reporter, Nicole Ares, asked for documents of Title IX investigations into faculty and staff sexual misconduct against students that spanned the previous five years, and she made the same request of every public university in the state. Six universities complied with Ares request, redacting the names of students and their identifying information. Ares award-winning report In the Dark: Records Shed Light on Sexual Misconduct at Kentucky Universities found that many university faculty from across the state who were accused and ultimately found to have committed acts of sexual misconduct were allowed to quietly leave their jobs or stay with just a slap on the wrist. Only two schools Western Kentucky University and Kentucky State University outright refused to hand over the records to Ares, with or without redactions. The following year, in 2017, WKU sued its own student newspaper to keep the records out of the public eye even after then-Attorney General Andy Beshear found that the university failed to adequately explain why it was denying the request. Beshear ruled at the time that WKU must allow immediate access to the records with the exception that the names and personal identifiers of complainants and witnesses be withheld. In March, after a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling on a similar lawsuit between the University of Kentucky and its student-run newspaper, WKU said it would provide to the College Heights Herald documents related to all Title IX investigations asserted against WKU employees from November 2011 to November 2016. WKU has maintained that federal privacy law prevented it from releasing information which could lead to the identification of complainants. We made it clear that we would follow legal precedent, and this ruling provides much needed additional clarity, Andrea Anderson, WKUs general counsel, said in a statement at the time. Our focus from the beginning has been on protecting the identity of those filing the complaints. We look forward to bringing the litigation with the Herald to resolution. The Daily News obtained and reviewed its own copies of the heavily redacted WKU employee sexual misconduct and harassment records through its own Open Records Act request. The substance of the records In most cases though not all the names of employees accused of sexual misconduct or harassment were redacted. The names of the respondents are not redacted in the cases in which there was a finding of a policy violation, Anderson wrote in an email to the Daily News. However, a Daily News analysis found that, in at least two case files, the names of two WKU employees who were accused of misconduct remained unredacted. The Daily News is not disclosing the names of these individuals because the university ultimately found that a policy violation had not occurred in both cases. There are, however, five case files in which the names of the accused employees were intentionally left unredacted and a violation was found to have occurred. Anderson confirmed Friday to the Daily News that four of the individuals are no longer employed at WKU. The fifth employee was allowed to retire from the university, according to his case file, and a Daily News obituary states that someone by that name died last year. The five individuals are: Michael Kallstrom Female students complained that Kallstrom, a university distinguished professor in WKUs Music Department, subjected them to inappropriate touching, comments and looks. During one such occasion, when a student was visiting Kallstroms office and was accompanied by a male student, Kallstrom grabbed the female students thigh when the male student turned his head to take a phone call, the records said. The Anonymous Complainant said as soon as she walked out of Dr. Kallstroms office she told her friend what occurred, but he said he did not witness it. The student also recounted another episode during which she wore a T-shirt and Kallstrom told her if it was lower cut, it would look better, according to the investigation documents. After speaking with more than 20 witnesses, the universitys investigator wrote that due to the numerous reports of inappropriate physical contact from witnesses interviewed and inappropriate comments mentioned, the corroborating evidence is overwhelming. Kallstrom was found to have violated university policy, and he longer works at WKU. However, the investigation revealed that the student who brought forward the complaint told at least three faculty members of Kallstroms behavior before the university began its investigation. The conclusion of the investigation found that some of the faculty chose not to report their meeting(s) with the Anonymous Complainant to the Title IX Coordinator, a Deputy, and/or one of the Investigators. Every employee at WKU is considered a responsible employee and is required to report allegations of sexual misconduct and assault especially those reported by students. The investigation found that several faculty members failed to live up to that responsibility. Kenneth Johnson Johnson first got the attention of WKUs Title IX investigator in March 2014 when a student complained that Mr. Johnson threatened to place a hold on her TopNet account, which would prevent her from registering for classes, if she did not stop by his office to visit him and/or have dinner. Johnson had no authority to place a hold on the students account, the file said, but before she discovered the truth, she agreed to have dinner with him. She specifically stated, I had knots in my stomach. It bothered me how he used his position as a form of manipulation. The student told investigators that she knew of other students who had been coerced by Johnson, and that she once witnessed him having dinner with another student. Rumors about Johnson dating female students and having sexual relationships with them were common, the investigation said. Investigators also learned that Kenneth has made negative remarks in front of others about a WKU male student potentially being gay, including while this student was also present. The investigation found that Johnson did in fact violate WKUs Standards of Conduct Policy and Discrimination and Harassment Policy, in addition to Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. Johnson is no longer employed by the university, Anderson told the Daily News. Colleen Donovan Records show that WKU investigators found Donovan did violate university policy when she was employed as an academic readiness instructor at WKU. Although some of Donovans behavior is obscured by the universitys redactions, the investigation cites testimony from students that on the first day of class, Ms. Donovan told the class that the highest grade each of the students would receive would be a C, except for one or two students who would receive an A or a B. When one student arrived late to class and protested being marked absent, Donovan yelled at her, began walking circles around her, and telling her that she (Donovan) was in charge of the class, according to the records. Donovan encouraged the student to drop her class, the student complained, and records show that the university also investigated the case as a possible instance of sex discrimination because the student was the only female in her class. The university was not able to prove that discrimination had occurred, however. Multiple students complained that Donovan refused to take their questions in class and to accept their work: Colleen continuously rejects drafts of their papers, requests them to re-do assignments, but never accepts their work as final submissions, the file states. Records make clear that administrators recommended disciplinary action be taken against Donovan, but they do not spell out exactly what kind of action, leaving that up to her unit and department leaders to decide. Donovan is no longer employed by WKU, Anderson confirmed Friday. Steve Briggs Briggs case file reveals that he was issued a verbal warning by his supervisor in 2013 regarding your inappropriate touching of and comments towards at least one other employee. It was a warning that Briggs allegedly failed to comply with, and in November 2014, he drew the attention of the universitys Title IX officials once more, earning him another warning though this time it was written. In January 2015, he was notified that these incidents including your poor judgment and non-compliance with my prior directive serve as the basis for this written reprimand. Any further incidents/complaints or violations of this nature will result in a recommendation for termination of your employment. Its unclear who sent the memo to Briggs because the persons name is blacked out. As a consequence at the time, Briggs was required to undergo training to address appropriate workplace interactions. Briggs is no longer employed at WKU, the universitys general counsel confirmed. Timothy Mullin Mullins case file indicates he was allowed to retire (though it is not clear when because the date of his retirement memo is redacted) after complaints surfaced of him sexually harassing male students and belittling and berating the female employees he supervised. One female employee complained that he has publicly humiliated me, habitually speaks to me in a condescending manner usually reserved for small children and animals. The case file also documents Mullins behavior around male students: how he would openly stare at students behinds and make inappropriate comments about their appearance, according to the files. Another complainant stated that Timothy Mullin is a lawsuit against WKU simply waiting to happen. If he remains employed by the university it is simply a question of when. If his serial sexual harassment of male students becomes public knowledge, it will result in irreparable harm to WKUs reputation with students, parents and the community at large. A Daily News obituary for a man by that name states that Mullin died in November 2020. Despite those details regarding five individuals, the heavily redacted records obscure basic details of WKUs misconduct and harassment investigations. In total, WKU provided 17 case files to the College Heights Herald, spanning 1,896 pages of internal memos and emails, investigation notes and administrator interviews with the accused, witnesses and complainants. Some records are so heavily redacted that the exact nature of the complaint including the alleged misconduct is obscured. In many cases, the personal notes investigators took are rendered unreadable, the contents of entire pages withheld. Michael Abate, an attorney with the Louisville-based law firm Kaplan, Johnson, Abate and Baird who is representing the College Heights Herald, called the redactions totally inappropriate and, in his view, are a sign that the university is acting in bad faith. The only thing that should have been redacted from this is any specific identifying information regarding a student involved in the investigation, Abate told the Daily News. After the Kentucky Supreme Court decision in the case between the University of Kentucky and its student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, Abate said he made clear to the university that only student names and identifiers should be withheld from the records. Abate said he notified the university that the names of accused employees regardless of the universitys finding in each case should be disclosed to the College Heights Herald. He said he provided examples backed up by case law and opinions from various attorneys general on the matter to make his point. They utterly ignored that, Abate said. They did this knowingly without any justification, and its wrong. In our view, this was not done in good faith, Abate told the Daily News, calling the redactions just a continuation of the culture that is totally adverse to transparency. Jon Fleischaker, also an attorney with Kaplan, Johnson, Abate and Baird, is credited with helping to draft Kentuckys Open Records Act and said he found the extent of the redactions baffling and extremely disappointing. Fleischaker called the sheer breadth of the redactions inappropriate and that they are not authorized by the states Open Records law that he helped author. Speaking for himself and his wife, Kim who have supported the universitys journalism program over the years with awards and endowed courses Fleischaker condemned the universitys conduct in the case. We are extremely disappointed in the way that the administration at Western (Kentucky University) has handled the records request, Fleischaker told the Daily News. The purpose of Kentuckys Open Records Act, Fleischaker said, is to dispel speculation and rumors and to promote government transparency and accountability with the clear light of day. This case is not about any individual professor or administrator, Fleischaker said, but about how the university is comporting itself in sexual misconduct and harassment cases. Are they doing a good job? Fleischaker said. For his part, Abate anticipated that the matter would wind up back in court. Were prepared to continue asserting the publics right to know what happened, Abate said. Related 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. 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 Sometimes when you see a name featured in the Bible, you can automatically picture that person and remember the story that accompanies them. But when you see the name, Mephibosheth, probably your response is Who? Briefly appearing in 2 Samuel, Mephibosheth is the disabled son of Jonathan, the son of Saul. Jonathan was King Davids best friend, and defended him when Saul wanted to kill him. Upon his death in battle, King David made a vow that he would care for the needs of Jonathans family in thanks for his friendship. There are actually two Mephibosheths mentioned in the Bible. The other is an actual son of Saul by a concubine who was killed by the Gibeonites as an act of defiance against the late Saul (2 Sam. 21:8-10). But the story of Jonathans son Mephibosheth is one to be remembered for how King David honored a man he called a friend, even after his death, by caring for the needs of his disabled son. Its also a reminder that when you least expect a blessing or miracle in life, that is when God ushers one in for you! Whats Mephibosheths Story? Mephibosheth, which means dispeller of shame in Hebrew, was the son of Jonathan, who was the son of Saul and best friend to King David. Jonathan was beloved by David for not only the commonality they shared, but also because of Jonathans defense of David, which almost resulted in Saul killing him with a spear. When Jonathan and his father died in battle at Mount Gilboa, David wanted to show kindness to their family for his friendship with Jonathan. He also felt led to bless others because of all the blessings of battle conquests that God had provided him (2 Sam. 7-8). David had requested the help of a servant, Ziba, from the house of Saul, for assistance in finding a relative of Jonathan and Saul to help, to which he was told about Mephibosheth. Now Mephibosheth had a difficult childhood early on. With the news of his father and grandfathers passing, young Mephibosheth was taken away from his home in Gilbeah by his nurse, probably to avoid retaliation from enemies. Unfortunately, in the process of escaping, he was accidentally thrown to the ground and his feet were permanently maimed. In that time period, people with severe injuries or disabilities werent proudly shown or welcomed, especially if they were of royalty. So Mephibosheth was probably hidden away to ensure his safety from David and because it was considered better not to recognize disabilities connected to well-known authority figures. David made it a point to meet with Mephibosheth at once and sent for him to be taken from where he was staying. Mephibosheth went from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar, and was brought to David (2 Sam. 9:4). King David and Mephibosheths Complicated Relationship When the new king and former enemy of your grandfather requests your presence before him, chances are its not for anything good. You can guess what Mephibosheth must have been feeling: fear. He had already gone through so much in his life due to his childhood injury and losing his father and grandfather at a young age, so he wasnt hopeful for this meeting ahead. Yet the complete opposite happened. Mephibosheth fell down in front of David in surrender and humility, but the king advised him not to fear; that he was not only to be given the land Saul owned, but that he was to be a permanent guest at Davids table. This was all to honor Davids friendship with Jonathan (2 Sam. 9:7). He didnt end there, as David also requested that Ziba and his sons care for the newly restored land given back to Mephibosheth, while Mephibosheth would continue to eat bread at Davids table. This probably included Mephibosheths own son, Micha, as well (2 Sam. 9:10, 12). To say Mephibosheth was shocked would be an understatement. But more he was probably curious about why David would show such favor to not only a former enemys son, but one who couldnt give anything back to him due to his disability. He even referred to himself as a dead dog when questioning the king on why he would look so fondly upon him (2 Sam. 9:8). This was how their relationship continued, with Mephibosheth living well in Jerusalem at the kings table, until sometime later when David requested his presence after being away for a while. Mephibosheth was homely and dirty at their meeting, having not cared for himself since David left (2 Sam. 19:24). When David asked why Mephibosheth didnt come with him, Mephibosheth instead launched into an accusation about his servant Ziba, who said that Mephibosheth had slandered Davids name in his absence. Ziba advised David that Mephibosheth was seeking to restore his grandfathers land back to himself, so that he would become king of the land instead of David. This was while David was in hiding from enemies in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 15:14; 16:1-3). David had given Ziba Mephibosheths land for revealing this truth to him, but this created animosity between Ziba and Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth lost favor with David as well (2 Sam. 16:4). All that is recorded of Mephibosheth in the Bible after this incident is that David saved him again from being executed by the Gibeonites who wanted to kill everyone connected to Saul (2 Sam. 21:7). Photo credit: Unsplash/Matthew Henry What Lessons Can We Learn from Mephibosheth in the Bible? Even though his story doesnt end on an uplifting note, the legacy of Mephibosheth reminds us about the benevolence of others and being appreciative and respectful of blessings youve been given. We learned that God uses people to bless others who feel forgotten, as David was used by God to bless Mephibosheth when he was least expecting it from a former enemy. This is because if people are truly engaged with God, when led to make unbelievable choices like what David did for Mephibosheth, it is not shocking but meant for a higher purpose instead. We also learn the value of not following the footsteps of the wrong mentor, as Mephibosheth unfortunately did when he tried to claim the kingdom of his father while David was held in Jerusalem and was then later on the run (2 Sam. 16:3). Even though we cant help who we are related to, we can make the choice not to follow in the bad decisions of our loved ones and take the stand to do what is right instead. Mephibosheth should have remembered all that David did for him when he didnt have anything, and instead want to help his disgraced king instead of seeing it as an opportunity to reclaim power. Finally, we learn that even when someone has wronged you, as Mephibosheth did to David, a promise of helping another is always a promise. Though he had Ziba and Mephibosheth divide the land between them because of Mephibosheths disobedience, David continued to protect Mephibosheth against sworn enemies and he still remained a guest at the kings table. Blessings Come from Unexpected Places The story of Mephibosheth is one that shows the blessings and struggles that can come from helping a former enemy. King David wanted to help the son of his best friend Jonathan as a thank-you for his friendship, but later discovered his son didnt have the caring spirit that his late friend once had. However, even though he found that the maimed man he took care of basically stabbed him in the back, he remained faithful to his promise to God and to Mephibosheth that he would protect him and provide for his needs for the rest of his life. The story of Mephibosheth is to show readers that blessings from God can come from the most unexpected of people, even past or former enemies. And with blessings we are given, it is understood that we are to show kindness in return to those who helped us, for we never know when God will position us as the vessels of blessing for them. Photo credit: Getty Images/Lucky Business Blair Parke is a freelance writer for BibleStudyTools.com and editor for Xulon Press. A graduate of Stetson University with a Bachelor's in Communications, Blair previously worked as a writer/editor for several local magazines in the Central Florida area, including Celebration Independent and Lake Magazine in Leesburg, Florida and currently freelances for the Southwest Orlando Bulletin. KOOSKIA - On Friday, June 11 at approximately around 7:30pm, deputies from the Idaho County Sheriff's Office, along with ICSO K9's Mick & Nation conducted a traffic stop at Esther Street and 1st Ave in Kooskia, ID. The occupants of the vehicle were identified as 30-year-old Florence Annie Walker and 31-year-old Michael Anthony Pearson, both of Spokane, WA. During the course of the contact, both Walker and Pearson gave false information to the Deputies. After finding that Pearson had a Felony warrant out of Washington Department of Corrections he was taken into custody. During the arrest, drug paraphernalia was located and a subsequent search of the vehicle located Fentanyl, Heroin and Methamphetamine. Both parties were arrested and placed in the Idaho County Jail. Pearson is charged with possession of heroin, possession of Fentanyl/Oxycodone, Fugitive to Idaho, possession of drug paraphernalia, providing false identity to law enforcement and resisting/obstructing an officer. Walker is charged with driving on a suspended drivers license and failing to provide proof of liability insurance. Walker will have additional charges forwarded to the Nez Perce Tribal Police for possession of methamphetamine, providing false identity to law enforcement, resist/obstruct an officer and possession of drug paraphernalia. LIMA, Peru (AP) Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori on Saturday said she trusts she will not be sent back to prison after a judge reviews her freedom in a money laundering case and insisted that fraud was committed by her rival in a recent election she narrowly trails. With all the votes tallied from last Sundays presidential runoff, the leftist Pedro Castillo had 50.2% support against 49.8% for the conservative Fujimori. But electoral authorities said they are scrutinizing a small number of ballots amid unproven fraud claims and an official winner might not be announced for a week. Amid the uncertainty, Peruvian prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez has asked a judge to return Fujimori to prison for failing to abide by the terms of her release granted a year and a half ago. He contends she spoke to an investigation witness who is also a spokesperson for her campaign. Fujimori was released after spending more than a year in jail as part of a probe into millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions she allegedly received from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. She denies the accusations. I trust that the judiciary will not accept the argument for preventive detention made by prosecutor Perez, Fujimori said in a press conference Saturday. On Wednesday, she said she would seek to annul 200,000 votes for Castillo, who leads the count by just over 50,000 votes. Her campaign has yet to substantiate the claims of fraud. Castillo is a former rural schoolteacher and an outsider who many feared would upend Perus free-market model largely based on mineral exports. Fujimori is fighting allegations of corruption that could land her in jail alongside her father, former President Alberto Fujimori. In March, Perez asked for 30 years in prison for Keiko Fujimori, along with sentences for her husband and 38 other people. It is an absurd argument as my lawyer has explained, said Fujimori. The judges decision comes on June 21. Both sides supporters have held rallies in Lima in recent days. If electoral authorities agree with Fujimoris bid to annul the votes, she would not only win the presidential election but also be able to freeze her corruption trial for five years. It would also allow her to fulfill her campaign promise of freeing her father, who is imprisoned for three corruption convictions and another conviction related to the killing of 25 Peruvians during his 1990-2000 government. Increased occurrences of myocarditis and pericarditis after the second dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations have been observed overseas The Expert Committee at Singapore government has been closely monitoring international reports that the second dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines may be associated with a small risk of myocarditis and pericarditis in young men. The experts have reviewed the currently available international and local data. Their assessment is that the benefits of receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, i.e., reduction in COVID-19 infections and severe complications even if infected, continue to outweigh the risks of vaccination. Myocarditis and pericarditis are inflammatory conditions affecting the heart muscles and the outer lining of the heart respectively. They occur more often in men compared to women. Patients present with symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath or abnormal heartbeats. Most cases are mild, recover without the need for significant intervention and do not suffer any long-term effects, although very rarely, severe cases may result in damage to the heart muscles. Myocarditis and pericarditis are separate and distinct conditions from heart attacks which are caused when blood flow to the heart is blocked. Increased occurrences of myocarditis and pericarditis after the second dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations have been observed overseas (Israel and the United States [US]) in adolescents and young men below the age of 25 years. The risk of this has been estimated to be 1.6 cases per 100,000 doses for mRNA vaccines in the US, which is comparable to the risk of anaphylaxis observed in Singapore. To date, there is no observed incremental risk of myocarditis and pericarditis after the first dose of vaccine. As a precaution, experts recommend that vaccinated persons, in particular adolescents and younger men, should avoid strenuous physical activity for one week after their second dose. During this time, they should seek medical attention promptly if they develop chest pain, shortness of breath or abnormal heartbeats. Israel's longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been ousted from office by a loose coalition of rivals from across the political spectrum, united by their wish to end his 12-year run in power. Israel's parliament voted 60-59 in favour of a new government on Sunday, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year consecutive tenure as premier. Following the announcement, Benjamin Netanyahu stated to Reuters: "We'll be back, soon." Netanyahu said he would work in the opposition to "topple this dangerous government" and return to power. Ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett will head the new cabinet. Bennett, who has ruled out an independent Palestinian state and wants Israel to maintain ultimate control over all the lands it occupies, will be prime minister for the first two years of a four-year term before handing over to his centrist ally, Yair Lapid. The self-described "government of change" a mix of ideologically opposed politicians from hardline Jewish religious nationalists to a small Arab Islamist party will be sworn in later on Sunday. Reacting to the news, Hamas spokespersos Fawzi Barhoum said "Regardless of the shape of the government in Israel, it will not alter the way we look at the Zionist entity. It is an occupation and a colonial entity, which we should resist by force to get our rights back." Pandemics are like terrorist attacks: We know roughly where they originate and whats responsible for them, but we dont know exactly when the next one will happen. They need to be handled the same way by identifying all possible sources and dismantling those before the next pandemic strikes. This statement was written in the New York Times earlier this year by Peter Daszak. Daszak is the longtime president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based non-profit whose claimed focus is pandemic prevention. But the EcoHealth Alliance, it turns out, is at the very centre of the COVID-19 pandemic in many ways. To depict the pandemic in such militarized terms is, for Daszak, a commonplace. In an Oct. 7 online talk organized by Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs, Daszak presented a slide titled Donald Rumsfelds Prescient Speech.: There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we know we dont know. But there are also unknown unknowns there are things we dont know we dont know. (This Rumsfeld quote is in fact from a news conference) In the subsequent online discussion, Daszak emphasized the parallels between his own crusade and Rumsfelds, since, according to Daszak, the potential for unknown attacks is the same for viruses. Daszak then proceeded with a not terribly subtle pitch for over a billion dollars. This money would support a fledgling virus hunting and surveillance project of his, the Global Virome Project a doable project he assured watchers given the cost of the pandemic to governments and various industries. Also on the video was Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs is a former special advisor to the UN, the former head of the Millennium Villages Project, and was recently appointed Chair of the newly-formed EAT Lancet Commission on the pandemic. In September, Sachs commission named Daszak to head up its committee on the pandemics origins. Daszak is also on the WHOs committee to investigate the pandemics origin. He is the only individual on both committees. These leadership positions are not the only reason why Peter Daszak is such a central figure in the COVID-19 pandemic, however. His appointment dismayed many of those who are aware that Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research, including virus collection, at the Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV) and thus could themselves be directly implicated in the outbreak. For his part, Daszak has repeatedly dismissed the notion that the pandemic could have a lab origin. In fact, a recent FOIA by the transparency group U.S. Right To Know revealed that Peter Daszak drafted an influential multi-author letter published on February 18 in the Lancet. That letter dismissed lab origin hypothesese as conspiracy theory. Daszak was revealed to have orchestrated the letter such as to avoid the appearance of a political statement. Sachs for his part seemed surprised by Daszaks depiction of Rumsfeld but Daszak reassured him. Its an awesome quote! And yes, its Donald Rumsfeld, Jeff, and I know hes a Republican, but what a genius! Following the EcoHealth Alliances money trail to the Pentagon Collecting dangerous viruses is typically justified as a preventive and defensive activity, getting ahead of what Nature or The Terrorists might throw at us. But by its nature, this work is dual use. Biodefense is often just as easily biowarfare since biodefense and the products of biowarfare are identical. Its simply a matter of what the stated goals are. This is openly acknowledged [See below] by scientists associated with EcoHealth Alliance when talking about alleged programs in other counties like Iraq. For much of this year, Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance garnered a great deal of sympathetic media coverage after its $3.7 million five-year NIH grant was prematurely cut when the Trump administration learned that EcoHealth Alliance funded bat coronavirus research at the WIV. The temporary cut was widely depicted in major media as Trump undermining the EcoHealth Alliances noble fight against pandemics. The termination was reversed by NIH in late August, and even upped to $7.5 million. But entirely overlooked amid the claims and counter-claims was that far more funding for the EcoHealth Alliance comes from the Pentagon than the NIH. To be strictly fair to the media, Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance obscures its Pentagon funding. On its website EcoHealth Alliance states that A copy of the EHA Grant Management Manual is available upon request to the EHA Chief Financial Officer at finance ( at ) ecohealthalliance.org. But an email to that address and numerous others, including Peter Daszaks, requesting that Manual, as well as other financial information, was not returned. Neither were repeated voicemails. Only buried under their Privacy Policy, under a section titled EcoHealth Alliance Policy Regarding Conflict of Interest in Research, does the EcoHealth Alliance concede it is the recipient of various grant awards from federal agencies including the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense. Even this listing is deceptive. It obscures that its two largest funders are the Pentagon and the State Department (USAID); whereas the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which accounts for a minuscule $74,487, comes before either. Meticulous investigation of U.S. government databases reveals that Pentagon funding for the EcoHealth Alliance from 2013 to 2020, including contracts, grants and subcontracts, was just under $39 million. Most, $34.6 million, was from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which is a branch of the DOD which states it is tasked to counter and deter weapons of mass destruction and improvised threat networks. Most of the remaining money to EHA was from USAID (State Dept.), comprising at least $64,700,000 (1). These two sources thus total over $103 million. (See Fig). Another $20 million came from Health and Human Services ($13 million, which includes National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control), National Science Foundation ($2.6 million), Department of Homeland Security ($2.3 million), Department of Commerce ($1.2 million), Department of Agriculture ($0.6 million), and Department of Interior ($0.3 million). So, total U.S. government funding for EHA to-date stands at $123 million, approximately one third of which comes from the Pentagon directly. The full funding breakdown is available here and is summarized by year, source, and type, in a spreadsheet format. Pdf versions of this the spreadsheet are available to download. The summary is here and all Federal grants and contracts are here. More military connections The military links of the EcoHealth Alliance are not limited to money and mindset. One noteworthy policy advisor to the EcoHealth Alliance is David Franz. Franz is former commander of Fort Detrick, which is the principal U.S. government biowarfare/biodefense facility. David Franz was part of UNSCOM which inspected Iraq for alleged bioweapons what were constantly referred to as WMDs or Weapons of Mass Destruction by the U.S. government and the media. Franz has been one of those eager to state, at least when discussing alleged Iraqi programs, that in biology everything is dual use the people, the facilities and the equipment. (NPR, May 14, 2003; link no longer available). Just this year Franz wrote a piece with former New York Times journalist Judith Miller, whose stories of Iraqi WMDs did much to misinform the US public regarding the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Their joint article, A Biosecurity Failure: Americas key lab for fighting infectious disease has become a Pentagon backwater, urges more funding for Fort Detrick. Miller and Franz are long-time associates. Miller co-wrote the book Germs, released amid the 2001 false flag anthrax attacks, which repeatedly quotes Franz. Miller at the time received a hoax letter with a harmless white powder, increasing her prominence. Franz continued hyping the existence of Iraqi WMDs even after the invasion of Iraq. While she was still with the Times, Miller quoted him in a story U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs To Germ Arms on May 21, 2003 pushing the theory that Iraq had mobile biological WMD units. (This theory was debunked by the British scientist Dr David Kelly, who would die, apparently by suicide, soon thereafter.) Four significant insights emerge from all this. First, although it is called the EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak and his non-profit work closely with the military. Second, the EcoHealth Alliance attempts to conceal these military connections. Third, through militaristic language and analogies Daszak and his colleagues promote what is often referred to as, and even then somewhat euphemistically, an ongoing agenda known as securitization. In this case it is the securitization of infectious diseases and of global public health. That is, they argue that pandemics constitute a vast and existential threat. They minimize the very real risks associated with their work, and sell it as a billion dollar solution. The fourth insight is that Daszak himself, as the Godfather of the Global Virome Project, stands to benefit from the likely outlay of public funds. Acknowledgements Thanks to James Baratta and Mariamne Everett for researching the funding sources. Footnote The figure for EHAs USAID funding was obtained from the University of California at Davis, a major grantee of PREDICT funds, which EHA has been a major sub-grantee of Davis confirmed that EHAs funding from PREDICT totaled $64,722,669 (PREDICT-1: 2009 to 2014: $19,943,214; PREDICT-2: 2014 to present (2020) $44,779,455) Sam Husseini is an independent journalist. Help Our Community Please help local businesses by taking an online survey to help us navigate through these unprecedented times. None of the responses will be shared or used for any other purpose except to better serve our community. The survey is at: www.pulsepoll.com $1,000 is being awarded. Everyone completing the survey will be able to enter a contest to Win as our way of saying, "Thank You" for your time. Thank You! Take The Survey The Winnipeg Police Service arrested 34-year-old Jordan Nolan McDougall on Wednesday after he allegedly stole a Brandon-area ambulance that was parked at the Health Sciences Centre. Advertisement Advertise With Us The Winnipeg Police Service arrested 34-year-old Jordan Nolan McDougall on Wednesday after he allegedly stole a Brandon-area ambulance that was parked at the Health Sciences Centre. According to a Thursday Facebook post from Winnipeg Police Service, McDougall originally approached the ambulance in question at approximately 2 p.m. and requested assistance from the paramedics who were inside the emergency vehicle at the time. Suddenly, McDougall climbed in through the back doors and made his way to the drivers seat. The paramedics managed to safely exit the ambulance before the suspect reportedly drove it away. McDougall eventually crashed the ambulance into another vehicle that was parked in the 1500 block of Wall Street and fled the crash site on foot. After making his way into the 1300 block of Downing Street, McDougalls erratic behaviour reportedly continued, since he broke some residential windows and stole an axe from someones yard. One local homeowner decided to confront McDougall, who then attempted to assault the resident with the axe. The suspect missed and fled the scene. Local police eventually apprehended McDougall after conducting a search of the area. Even though he was still armed with an axe at the time of his arrest, McDougall was safely taken into custody and nobody was physically hurt. McDougall was detained in custody and is now facing a variety of charges, including: Theft of Motor VehicleTheft Under $5,000Mischief Under $5,000 (x2)Identity FraudFailure to Comply with the Condition of a Release OrderPossession of a WeaponAssault with a WeaponHighway Traffic Act driving offences (x2) The Brandon Sun MONTREAL - The Quebec and federal governments unveiled plans on Saturday a central place for the province's Indigenous communities to go for support over former residential schools, easing concerns that the process would be mired in red tape. Quebec Minister Responsible for Indigenous Affairs, Ian Lafreniere, centre, and Federal Minister of Indigenous Services, Marc Miller, right, look on as Mohawk elder Kevin Deer speaks during a news conference in Montreal, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Lafreniere says the creation of a post where communities can go eases concerns they had that the search for answers would become a jurisdictional back-and-forth between the federal and provincial governments. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes MONTREAL - The Quebec and federal governments unveiled plans on Saturday a central place for the province's Indigenous communities to go for support over former residential schools, easing concerns that the process would be mired in red tape. Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafreniere said Saturday the province would create a liaison officer post, easing concerns among communities that they would face a jurisdictional back-and-forth between the federal and provincial governments. The message (from the communities) was we do not want to play a game of ping-pong between the provincial and the federal government," Lafreniere said. The announcement of a one-stop, simplified portal to help local Indigenous communities comes following the discovery of the remains of what are believed to be 215 Indigenous children buried at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site in British Columbia. Lafreniere says the facilitator will be on the job as of Monday and will help Quebec First Nations and Inuit communities in whatever decisions they take regarding former residential schools in the province. That could include helping them uncover documents, secure sites and obtain resources to conduct physical searches or organize commemoration ceremonies. In Quebec, some communities have signaled they're ready to search while others want to consult. The facilitator will be Michel Martin, a retired police officer who was police chief in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, and is well versed in navigating with government departments. Lafreniere noted Martin's work will be done directly with the communities. I want the decisions to be taken by the communities, they are best placed to make decisions on whats best for them, our role is to support them in those efforts," said Lafreniere, joined by federal counterparts Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller. The point were making today is nothing will happen without the full consent Indigenous communities affected by these schools, Miller said. Quebec and Canada wont be pointing fingers at each other to say why we cant do things. Bennett said the simplified approach put forward is a first step in finding answers. Other unmarked graves surely exist, Bennett said, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found at least 4,000 Indigenous children died in residential schools, a number that is likely higher, she said. And Miller said the archives of the Catholic church are likely incomplete. "These are archives that are in Winnipeg, but they are not complete," Miller said. "We don't know the extent of the truth, frankly. There are several orders that may or may not have records. It's a question that still hangs over our heads. Richard Kistabish, an Algonquin and former chief of the Abitibiwinni First Nation who attended residential school, recounted how the schools ripped children from their parents, leaving lasting physical, moral, psychological and spiritual hurt that spans generations. Kistabish said he'd also had enough of "futile apologies." We have to undertake the reparation of what was done and it must be done in different ways," he said. "Acknowledging your wrongs is one way. Telling the truth is another way, admitting is another way to make amends. Kevin Deer, an elder from Kahnawake, near Montreal, said he welcomed the announcement. But first and foremost, theyll have to engage with the leadership of each community and ask: how can we help?, Deer said. Then you listen and you can be of assistance in the best possible way. The province said it wants to ensure whatever is done is culturally secure, and Lafreniere said a consultation circle that includes Indigenous elders will help with the decisions and ensure no one is forgotten in the process. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2021. ENFIELD, NOVA SCOTIA - Nova Scotia residents near a lake with a suspected blue-green algae bloom are being offered bottled water and shower facilities amid ongoing warnings to avoid using water from Grand Lake, north of Halifax. A sign marks a closed beach on Grand Lake in Oakfield Provincial Park in Oakfield, N.S., Thursday, June 10, 2021. Nova Scotia residents near a lake with a suspected blue-green algae bloom are being offered bottled water and shower facilities amid ongoing warnings to avoid using water from Grand Lake north of Halifax. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan ENFIELD, NOVA SCOTIA - Nova Scotia residents near a lake with a suspected blue-green algae bloom are being offered bottled water and shower facilities amid ongoing warnings to avoid using water from Grand Lake, north of Halifax. Nova Scotia's Environment Department says people with wells that have a depth of 30 metres or less and are located within 60 metres of the lake near Enfield, N.S., should not use their well water for drinking, bathing or cooking until further notice. Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency says it will be providing bottled water to residents who draw water from the Grand Lake area and are impacted by municipal orders to not consume or use water. The bottled water will be available on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at fire stations in Grand Lake and Wellington, where residents will also be able to fill their own containers from the fire hall's supply. The Municipality of East Hants is also opening the East Hants Aquatic Centre in Elmsdale for people to access shower facilities and fill up water containers from Saturday to Monday. Residents of the area around Grand Lake were informed of the danger of the water earlier this week after one person was hospitalized and two dogs died on Wednesday. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2021. CARBIS BAY, CORNWALL, ENGLAND - The thorny issue of how to handle increasing competition and aggression from China came up as leaders of the world's wealthiest countries gathered Saturday in an English seaside resort, although it remains to be seen how far they will go in standing up for human rights. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and United States President Joe Biden listen to United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliver opening remarks at a plenary session at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, United Kingdom Friday June 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld CARBIS BAY, CORNWALL, ENGLAND - The thorny issue of how to handle increasing competition and aggression from China came up as leaders of the world's wealthiest countries gathered Saturday in an English seaside resort, although it remains to be seen how far they will go in standing up for human rights. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced calls for stronger action on the issue, including from the Opposition Conservatives, who have urged him to press his fellow G7 leaders to take a collective stand against China and push for the relocation of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The Associated Press reported that United States President Joe Biden is set to make such a move by asking the G7 leaders to call out China for its use of forced labour practices against ethnic minorities, including Uyghur Muslims. It cited two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, saying the president wants to see the denunciation included in a communique signed between all participating countries when the summit hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson concludes on Sunday. The G7 leaders also presented an infrastructure plan called "Build Back Better for the World," a name that echoes Biden's presidential campaign slogan but also a phrase used often by the Trudeau Liberals when talking about post-pandemic recovery. The plan calls for spending hundreds of billions of dollars alongside the private sector, while adhering to climate standards and labour practices. It is designed to compete with China's "Belt and Road Initiative," which launched a network of projects in large parts of the world, primarily Asia and Africa. Critics say China's projects often create massive debt and expose nations to undue influence by Beijing. Trudeau has been under increasing pressure at home over Canada-China relations, most recently around two scientists at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg who were escorted out of the premises in July 2019. The two scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were eventually fired in January. The Liberal government has now turned over documents relating to the issue to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. Both Liberal backbenchers and opposition MPs voted back in February in favour of a Conservative motion that labelled China's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in its Xinjiang province as a genocide. Trudeau and most of his cabinet abstained from the vote. Stopping short of calling it a genocide, the prime minister has characterized China's treatment of Uyghursand other ethic minorities as amounting to "systematic human rights abuses." Canada also joined the United Kingdom, U.S., and European Union in imposing sanctions on Chinese officials over these actions, which it said was supported by "mounting evidence." Canada's relationship with China has fractured and under a microscope since Beijing detained Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadian citizens, days after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport on an extradition request from the United States. Trudeau has said officials are working hard to get both men home and views their detention as a retaliatory pressure tactic from China over Meng's arrest. Canada is also under pressure to decide how much longer to keep the border with the U.S. largely closed as more of its population is getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Speaking on condition of anonymity to reporters on the trip, a federal official said Trudeau and Biden discussed the border when they talked on the side of another session with G7 leaders. The two leaders talked about the steps both countries are considering to "cautiously" and "gradually" make changes to the border closure, the official said. The Canada-U.S. border has been closed to non-essential travel for more than a year after an agreement was struck between both countries in hopes to keep COVID-19 from spreading. Trudeau and Biden also talked about China, and the work happening to get Kovrig and Spavor released, according to the official. Canada's prime minister started the second day of his summit bumping elbows and smiling for the cameras with French President Emanuel Macron ahead of the pair's bilateral meeting. A readout from Trudeau's office said they agreed to collaborate on a list of initiatives, from developing cultural exchanges and making new commitments to promoting gender equality, particularly in the economic recovery from COVID-19. He also met with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Next to Merkel, who doesn't plan to seek re-election after her current term in office expires, Trudeau is the second-longest serving leader out of his G7 colleagues. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2021. With files from The Associated Press Nuix financial chief Stephen Doyle is poised to leave the forensic data analytics company barely a fortnight after it issued a second revenue downgrade and following fresh revelations the corporate regulator is investigating the $1.8 billion float of the business. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal that Mr Doyle cleared his desk at Nuixs Sydney head office shortly after the mastheads published an article that contained details of his share transfers to his brother in tax-friendly Switzerland, and he hasnt been sighted there since. Stephen Doyle, CFO at Nuix, set to leave the scandal-ridden company. Mr Doyle left for Runaway Bay, on Queenslands Gold Coast, on May 31, the same day Nuix rocked investors with a second downgrade of its revenue forecasts that pushed its shares to a record low. When asked about Mr Doyles employment status, a Nuix spokesperson instead spoke of the exceptional and committed people currently employed by the company. Pressed as to whether Mr Doyle was one of these people, the spokesperson did not respond. Mr Doyle also failed to respond to questions about his position at Nuix. Its been almost 20 years since Scott Ryan came up with a character whos destined to become part of Australian screen folklore. And a story that perfectly illustrates how, from little things, big things can grow. Back then, he was studying multimedia at RMIT. A staff member there suggested that a feature hed been planning about a hitman was unlikely to be a goer, but Ryan refused to abandon the idea. With a budget of around $3000, he shot version one of The Magician on-and-off over a period of three years, ending up with a cut of 88 minutes. Scott Ryan plays hit-man Ray Shoesmith in Mr Inbetween. Credit:J. Pratley In 2003, the film swept the awards at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. But, when cinema distributors failed to come flocking, he cut it back to 30 minutes and entered it in the 2004 St Kilda Film Festival. At the urging of Sydney filmmaker Nash Edgerton, Ryan restored the film to feature length, adding footage hed previously discarded and generally restructuring and fine-tuning the material. The film went into limited release around the country in 2005. A mockumentary shot in the back streets of Melbourne and on the outskirts of Moe, its a low-budget gem born in the wake of Pulp Fiction (1995), its DNA laced with some deliciously black humour. The gloriously Australian mode of euphemistically-driven, po-faced understatement also characterises the TV series that followed. A fire truck has become stuck in a sinkhole in in Brisbanes south-east after the road caved in. Firefighters went to Juliette Street in Greenslopes at 3.30am on Monday after a water main burst. A QFES spokeswoman said the incident was causing localised flooding. As the truck was driven over the road, part of a wheel got stuck and the road caved in, she said. James Pickford was lucky to escape after a large tree smashed through his bedroom, missing his bed by less than a metre in Olinda. Credit:Joe Armao Weve got no heating, no telecommunications ... electricity is undeniably a staff of life, we dont exist without it. Im convinced the government has to look at how the hell this is being run. This should not be happening. Mark Cattell, State Emergency Service state agency commander, said he expected SES crews to remain in the Dandenong Ranges helping out for at least a week and that telecommunications failures meant the full scale of the destruction was still not clear. Weve got no new requests for assistance right now. However, the caveat on that is that theres been no power and no telephones in some circumstances, Mr Cattell said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video As the power returns and phone systems come back online, we might get a tail of people calling for help. Were looking at a fairly unprecedented situation where therere significant impacts ... it does take a long time for the community to recover from those sorts of situations. Mr Cattell said current estimates from power companies were that not all customers would be back connected to power before Friday, because of the number of power poles and transformers damaged. Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp confirmed there were communities that still did not have access to triple zero. Fixing this would be a priority. Emergency crews rescue a woman in Olinda on Thursday. Credit:Joe Armao Red Cross volunteers were doorknocking in those areas and community meetings were being held to try to aid the flow of information where telecommunications were cut, he said. With his Olinda home damaged in the storm, roads blocked, landlines down and no mobile coverage, Steve de Lisle and his wife had to walk out of their property with bags in hand after Wednesday nights storms because they could not call anyone. Mr de Lisle said this was the second time in the past two years fallen trees had caused a lengthy Telstra outage at his property, and the internet was vital to his role working from home as a psychologist. The NBN and landline are tied together here and once that goes down, if the mobile phone towers are out theres no way to talk to emergency services, he said. Living in an area like the Dandenong Ranges, were at risk of bushfires and significant storm damage; peoples lives are stake here. Telstra have a responsibility to provide updates and ensure some form of service, like temporary towers. When theres no communication about when the internet will return, its very stressful. In response to reports that residents were not evacuated early enough from the Traralgon area when flooding began on Thursday morning, Mr Crisp said most rescues were for those who drove into floodwater against recommendations. But he said emergency services would review how warnings were provided to communities during the unprecedented rain and whether text messages could have helped. A moderate flood warning remains in place for the Thomson River downstream of Wandocka and Sale, the Latrobe River from Yallourn to Traralgon Creek and the Yarra River from Millgrove to Coldstream. The SESs Mr Cattell said there was residual flooding in the states east but the floodwaters were receding. An aerial view on Thursday of flooding in Traralgon. Credit:Blake Bourne The Bureau of Meteorology has said there is potential for a further east coast low pressure system to develop late this week and cause more heavy rain in Victorian areas already affected by flooding. Mr Crisp said there was every chance we could see up to 50 millimetres in East Gippsland and back into south and west Gippsland. This is not over yet. We have to continue focusing on the potential risk to communities. Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp in Traralgon on Sunday. Credit:Blake Bourne Acting Premier James Merlino and acting Emergency Services Minister Danny Pearson visited flood-affected Traralgon on Sunday. There were about 350 outstanding requests for help from the SES across the state on Sunday. Mr Cattell said the focus now for SES crews would be accessing roads and communities which have been cut off and without power and telecommunications, such as in mountainous areas near Lilydale, Belgrave and Ferntree Gully. They have pretty big trees up that way, so its taking a bit longer to get some of those areas clean, he said. The other part of it is power lines on some of those trees, which does slow things down a bit. Mr Crisp said two SES members who were injured suffered a broken shoulder blade and a broken wrist but were both out of hospital. Two people lost their lives in floodwaters. Power company EnergyAustralia said limited mining activities were now taking place at the Yallourn mine in the Latrobe Valley after the site was evacuated on Friday because of flooding concerns. The power station has continued to generate electricity but was running only one of its four units. However, the spokesman said the Australian Energy Market Operator had confirmed there was sufficient power supply to meet demand in Victoria. On Sunday the government slightly softened its stance on the testing rate being central to lifting of restrictions, after COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said on Saturday that the state needed about 20,000 tests a day to flush out undetected cases. Professor Sutton said testing would not be the be all and end all but repeated the plea for people to get tested for the mildest of symptoms after testing rates plummeted to about 15,000 a day over the weekend down from 50,000 in the days Victoria was plunged into its latest lockdown. He said it was too early to say whether crowds would be allowed at AFL games next weekend but there was a possibility restrictions at matches played in Melbourne would be different to the settings applied to the Cats v Bulldogs game in Geelong. Home visits also would not necessarily be among restrictions about to be lifted, Professor Sutton said. Visitors are banned in Melbourne and restricted to two a day in regional Victoria. We need to consider what it means as a cumulative risk when people are allowed to move between households, but we also know that people are doing the right thing and they are getting tested early, isolating until they get the negative result, he said. Victoria recorded one new coronavirus case on Sunday, a primary close contact linked to the Maidstone Arcare aged care outbreak who tested positive on their day-13 test. The person is not a resident of the facility. This case in quarantine is a good thing but cannot be taken as mission accomplished, Health Minister Mr Foley said. Mr Gschwind said there was hope in the Queensland tourist industry that the Victorian government would lift travel restrictions before school holidays started on June 26. Every time there is a border closure anywhere, it takes consumer confidence back a notch, he said. People had become accustomed to making bookings at the last minute, as restrictions changed. Weve seen so many fluctuations in the last 16 months since COVID was here, he said. Sometimes bookings pick up very quickly, as soon as borders are open, but they also tend to be cancelled immediately when a border closes. Operators have had to deal with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of fluctuation. It doesnt make life easy for them. Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism chairman Wayne Kayler-Thomson said pent-up demand from Melburnians would drive an increase in coastal holidays once restrictions were lifted on the city. Mr Kayler-Thomson said he had heard of Victorians being reluctant to travel interstate due to concerns about snap border closures and changes to restrictions. While there would still be many heading north if allowed, he said Victorian operators were also hoping to benefit: I expect if [Melbourne] does open up it will be very busy. The state delivered 14,390 vaccine doses on Saturday. The government said on Sunday it would prioritise people who had received the first dose of their Pfizer vaccine to get their second jab, following complaints from frustrated Victorians unable to book a second appointment. COVID-19 commander Mr Weimar said there were 1000 staff answering calls on the states coronavirus hotline. He reassured Victorians they would be able to contact the hotline, which buckled under a deluge of calls a fortnight ago. The Commonwealth has promised Victoria will receive about 95,000 Pfizer doses a week for at least the next three weeks, Mr Weimar said. As of Sunday, there were fewer than 2000 primary close contacts in isolation, with 6400 contacts cleared and released from their two-week quarantine after returning negative results on day-13 tests. The government was waiting for the genomic results of a man in his 30s who tested positive to the Kappa variant of the virus on Saturday. Mr Morrison emerged from the meeting on Saturday with Mr Biden and Mr Johnson to say the situation in the Indo-Pacific reinforces the need for deeper co-operation with the US and Britain. Australia has benefited greatly from Chinas economic success. China has benefited greatly from Australias trade with it. And, of course, we want to see that continue, he said. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video With Chinese leaders repeatedly rejecting talks with their Australian counterparts, Mr Morrison reiterated he wanted to resume a dialogue but said it was very much an issue for the Chinese government. Mr Morrison had sought a one-on-one meeting with Mr Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit, but this turned into a 45-minute discussion with Mr Johnson as well, focused heavily on strategic issues and the rise of China. Mr Morrison is also scheduled to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. While the G7 was often at odds when former US president Donald Trump was in power, the group is negotiating a strong statement that rebukes China over its economic coercion and human rights abuses against the Uighurs in Xinjiang. I would say there was unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms that invoke our shared values, a White House official said of the communique due within days. You look at where the G7 was three years ago with China not even explicitly mentioned, though entire paragraphs were devoted to North Korea and Russia I think it just underlines where the G7 has come from there, and the fact that we have a strong, common foundation on our approach to issues that matter. Defence Minister Peter Dutton has argued in recent days in favour of bringing more US Marines to Australia under a rotation that is fixed at 2500 personnel, but Australias agenda at the G7 includes encouraging European powers to focus on the region. Loading Mr Morrison will go to Paris on Tuesday for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on security issues including Australias $90 billion submarine contract with Naval Group. Labors foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said Mr Morrison had paid a price at the G7 for not joining Mr Biden and other leaders with a pledge to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Mr Morrisons stubborn refusal to sign up to net zero emissions has left him isolated and has left Australia isolated. Im disappointed that Mr Morrison couldnt secure a one-on-one meeting with President Biden, she said. But Trade Minister Dan Tehan emphasised the regional security issues raised in the trilateral talks. They were able to talk about the challenges in the Indo-Pacific and how the three countries can work together, and that is something which I think all Australians should take reassurance from Mr Tehan told Sky News. The second thing is that the US, under President Biden, have come out very clearly and said that theyve got our back and they wont leave us on the field by ourselves, and I think that also is incredibly reassuring. Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the addition of Mr Johnson to the meeting showed Britain now wanted to be actively included in conversations about the Indo-Pacific. I rather liked that they had a trilateral meeting with Boris because it shows partly that the Australian strategy to try to build as many new connections as we can is working, he said. It is also very important that they mentioned Taiwan. I think thats a really important message to convey to China that the global democracies consider this to be really significant and therefore not just a case of China being able to pressure Taiwan and get away with it without there being an international reaction. Its encouraging that theyre paying attention to whats going on. There was a period in early 2020 when it felt like Australia was by itself in dealing with an aggressive China. The British carrier strike group, led by the HMS Queen Elizabeth, is in the Mediterranean and is expected to make its way through the South China Sea in two to three weeks. Mr Jennings said the visit of the Queen Elizabeth was a strong expression of the British realisation that security in the Indo-Pacific matters to them as well. He said the highlighting of its visit may also be because the US has moved the USS Ronald Reagan out of the region to the north Arabian Sea to deal with the Afghan troop withdrawal. The consequences of that is there are no US aircraft carrier group in the Pacific at a time when we have significant tensions with the Taiwan, he said. The British are not there to take part in a military standoff - this is a bit of diplomacy at sea This is a showcase of British technology, not about taking part in a tough-minded standoff with China. First home buyers would get a $25,000 grant to help them enter the market as the NSW government moves to overhaul property tax at the same time as home ownership for people under 40 plummets. A grant would replace existing stamp duty concessions for first home buyers under the property tax reforms, which would initially allow buyers to choose paying stamp duty or an annual levy. House prices in Sydney rose 3.5 per cent last month, one of the biggest monthly gains since the late 1980s Credit:Peter Rae NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet announced his plan to scrap stamp duty and move to a land tax in last years state budget, although it will not feature in next weeks budget as consultation continues. Instead, the government has released a progress paper, which says the proposed reforms could see home ownership rise 6 per cent, allowing 300,000 more NSW residents to buy a home. London: Fiona Reynolds may not be a household name in Australia but the effects of her work are evident across the globe and in boardrooms of some of the worlds biggest carbon-emitting companies. As chief executive of the London-based Principles for Responsible Investment, she has turned mainstream a once-niche drive to force some of the worlds largest investors to spend their trillions on sustainable projects, as well as encouraging banks to refrain from financing new fossil fuel projects. Fiona Reynolds in London in June. Credit:Liliana Zaharia For example, signatories to the United Nations-backed network were among the activist shareholders who late last month successfully forced energy giants Exxon to appoint their nominees to the board and persuaded a majority of shareholders to vote that Chevron cut its emissions. Reynolds, originally from Melbourne, planned to clock up at least a decade in the global role that she started in 2013, but five weeks ago her father suffered a stroke. Lapid scrapped his own speech and instead apologised to his 86-year-old mother for the heckling. I assumed you would be able to get over yourselves, Lapid told his fellow MPs. Instead, she and every other Israeli citizen is ashamed of you and reminded why its time for you to be replaced. The government breaks new ground by including the first independent Arab party to sign on to an Israeli governing coalition. The Islamist Raam party, which was courted by both Netanyahu and Lapid, has demanded new programs and spending for Arab citizens of Israel, who account for about 20 per cent of the population. Meanwhile, ultra-Orthodox parties will not be part of the government for the first time, with two brief exceptions, since 1977. Their absence, after forming an unshakeable foundation for Netanyahus governments, could endanger the controversial grip of ultra-Orthodox rabbis on religious and family law and the communitys exemption from compulsory military service. Netanyahu delivered a bellicose parting shot to Bennett and his allies, belittling the coalition as incapable of maintaining his record of economic growth, relative peace and standing up to US pressure to acquiesce to a renewed nuclear deal with Iran. Loading Ill be back, Netanyahu told MPs. Try to ruin our wonderful economy as little as possible, so we can fix it as quickly as possible when we return. Netanyahu compared the Biden administrations push to renew the Iran deal to the US failure during World War II to bomb the Nazi trains that took European Jews to the gas chambers. Bennett hasnt got the international standing, the integrity, the capability, the knowledge, and he hasnt got the government to oppose the nuclear agreement, Netanyahu said. An Israeli prime minister needs to be able to say no to the leader of the worlds superpower. US President Joe Biden congratulated Bennett and Lapid immediately in a statement. My administration is fully committed to working with the new Israeli government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and people throughout the broader region, Biden said in a statement that didnt mention Netanyahu. The government ends 12 consecutive years of Netanyahu rule, a period during which Israel has enjoyed a flourishing tech boom, relative quiet on the countrys periodically explosive fronts from Lebanon to Gaza, and no return of a general Intifada among Palestinians of the West Bank. A 12-day air war with Hamas in Gaza last month was thought likely to derail the new coalition, but the parties resumed negotiations almost immediately after a May 21 ceasefire. But the tenure of Netanyahu, who also served as prime minister for three years in the 1990s, also produced political tumult that has dragged increasingly disillusioned and exhausted Israelis through an unprecedented cycle of elections, stalemate and acrimony. Though his Likud party won the most votes in each round, his usual coalition of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties failed to secure the 61 seats needed to form a government. Netanyahu has remained atop a caretaker government that has been largely paralysed since the end of 2018. Even a short-lived emergency unity government that formed last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic failed to pass a budget. As the government remained effectively frozen, Netanyahu was indicted and began a trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust that has further divided an acutely polarised Israel. Netanyahus devoted base of supporters echo his claims that a politically biased deep state has concocted a witch hunt against him. On the other side of the divide are those who say his attacks on the judiciary, demonisation of opponents and refusal to step aside are corroding institutions and Israels rule of law. Tensions spiked in the run-up to Sundays vote, sparking fears of violence in a country still raw from the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing extremist. Netanyahu called the new coalition a dangerous, left-wing government. Religious-nationalist rabbis called on supporters to do anything to prevent it from taking power. Protesters demonstrated outside of MPs homes; death threats spurred police to assign them security details. Israels Shin Bet, the internal security service, issued a rare warning last week that the uptick in incitement could turn lethal. In the midst of surging hostilities, Bennett said in recent interviews that his government will not seek to change policy on hot-button issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank, state benefits granted to ultra-Orthodox families or peace with Palestinians. He and Lapid, as they take turns in the role of prime minister, will effectively have veto power over each others major initiatives, which will in theory limit the government to consensus actions. They have pledged to approve a budget within 140 days. Political observers say Netanyahus continued presence in parliament as leader of the opposition could help the new government, given that aversion to his bellicose style is the glue that holds the coalition together. In any case, Netanyahus Likud and his allies enter the minority as practised and well-organised opponents of the fledgling government. The reported details of the coalition agreement include a measure that would limit the term of future prime ministers to two terms, or eight years, which would prevent future runs such as Netanyahus record-setting total 15 years. The MPs could also consider barring departing prime ministers for a four-year cooling-off period before they run again, outraging Netanyahus supporters. The Washington Post Lansdale, PA (19446) Today Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. What happened? Our response to catastrophe is often bewilderment. This past year, much of the world found itself in a daze as an unknown virus appeared, rushed through countries and continents, and killed more than three and a half million people. Sixteen years ago, in another moment of earth-shattering destruction the Indian Ocean my family was taken from me. While our personal confusion about these unimaginable events will always linger, we are grateful for the clarity that comes from trying to comprehend the larger story. Lawrence Wrights The Plague Year is his testament to the year of Covid in The book disentangles the countrys failure to properly respond to the pandemic how was it possible that more than half a million people perished in the country with the most powerful economy in the world? Mr Wright a staff writer at The New Yorker has performed a virtuoso feat and given us a book of panoramic breadth. Its quite different from his other definitive nonfiction book on an American cataclysm, The Looming Tower, which was tightly focused on the roots of Al Qaeda and the events that led to 9/11. In The Plague Year he ranges from science to politics to economics to culture with a commanding scrutiny, managing to surprise us about even those episodes we have only recently lived through and thought we knew well. We enter the core of Americas pandemic response the White House, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, Bellevue Hospital in New York City. This is a book filled with personalities and biographies and histories. It has conversations. Some are chilling. We read about George Fu Gao, head of Chinas equivalent to the CDC, starting to cry as he tells his American counterpart, I think were too late. And this was in early January 2020, when the full impact of the virus was still two months away. It is almost a truism to say that natural disasters are not caused by natures wanton acts alone. History, politics, society, economics and chance, all combine to put us in harms way. was ranked the most prepared country in the world to confront an infectious disease. There was a playbook, simulations had been done. So, what happened? There is no one villain here individual or institutional. In the early months, it was mainly politics that allowed the virus to breach. There were intelligence failings to confirm a key piece of information about SARS-CoV-2 that it spreads asymptomatically. Then early testing was shambolic. The esteemed public health institution, the CDC, was the sole producer of tests and could not scale up to the sheer numbers needed. Worse still, this test was faulty because of contamination. THE PLAGUE YEAR: in the Time of Covid Author: Lawrence Wright Publisher: Alfred A Knopf Price: $28; Pages: 336 And then wearing masks became politicised. President Trumps personal dismissal of masks is one aspect of the grave collapse of leadership that Mr Wright examines in this book. Often, he uses an expert guide to walk us through these events in real time. In the White House, we have Matt Pottinger, deputy national security adviser, fluent in Mandarin, eyebrows a brighter blond than his hair. When it comes to the virus, he is consistently ahead of the curve in stark contrast to an administration reluctant to accept the full measure of the threat. In his unflustered company we witness the high drama of decision-making about travel bans. When Mr Pottinger arrives at a task force meeting wearing an N95 mask he is told that, next time, no masks will be worn. The book shows us what it really looks like when government fails during a disaster. I found the policy bedlam described jaw-dropping. With no national plan for this unprecedented national calamity, the pandemic was broken into 50 separate epidemics and dumped into the reluctant embrace of surprised and unprepared governors. Surreally, states bid against one another to buy ventilators on eBay and empty trucks arrive in places where protective gear is desperately awaited. The president dismisses criticism the government is not a shipping clerk. It fell to science to put up resistance to contagion. The book has lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves. And Mr Wright keeps us hooked with his details. Young doctors write their wills. Barney Graham, who designed the vaccine produced by Moderna, tells of his extreme terror about making a mistake. In a chapter titled Thelma and Louise, we see Deborah Birx, the White Houses response coordinator, going on road trips crisscrossing the country eight times to promote masking to state governors. And turns out, the bogus idea that hydroxychloroquine can cure Covid originated as a mindless tweet from a mountain-dwelling white supremacist who also predicted that the would destroy feminism. Who knew! In an intriguing chapter on the origins of the virus which includes mention of the increasingly discussed theory that the virus leaked from a laboratory Mr Wright observes that coronavirus is a harbinger of things to come. The threat of another new hazard setting upon a nation so flagrantly splintered is terrifying. State-owned CIL's 114 ongoing coal projects, costing Rs 20 crore and above, are under different stages of implementation, according to a report. Implementation and completion of these projects depend upon critical extraneous factors such as possession of land, green clearances and evacuation infrastructure, the Coal Ministry said in its annual report 2020-21. In 2020, total 34 projects were sanctioned and nine mining projects completed by Ltd (CIL), it said. The coal behemoth took various measures to ensure timely completion of projects. There was persistent persuasion by CIL with state governments for expediting land authentication in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. "Further, land owners are being constantly persuaded to accept compensation and handover land acquired by the company," the report said. There is also constant coordination and liaising with state governments for expediting the process of grant of forest clearance, it added. "State governments have been constantly persuaded by the coal at all levels to initiate necessary action for curbing the frequent law and order issues," it said. The implementation of the projects is reviewed regularly at the level of CIL and its subsidiaries. The coal ministry also reviews projects costing more than Rs 500 crore and having capacity of three million per annum and above in every quarter. Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output, is eyeing one billion tonne production by 2023-24. (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 another fund created to support the startup ecosystem, PES University and CoCreate Ventures have come together to roll out a fund that operates in the pre-prototype phase, focusing on industry professionals, student entrepreneurs, and academicians. The fund, called PESU Venture Labs, provides up to $150,000 in funding and other services to help build products and test out unit economics. PVL was set up with the objectives of making the brightest of our students, entrepreneurs, leveraging entrepreneurship to fund researchers and students, and creating a funnel of fundable, deep-tech for the VC ecosystem from the campus, said Suresh Narasimha, a serial entrepreneur, founder of CoCreate Ventures. Apart from funding, PVL will also offer resources to startups to turbo-start their idea. It will provide PVL entrepreneurs with in-house talent in design, marketing and product management. It will also incubate based on the deep research by researchers. PVL has so far incubated over 10 companies in the deep tech space, which are present in the final stages of their product launch. Four of the companies are expected to hit the market next month. This unique initiative will help our have an early exposure to the entrepreneurial ecosystem we have created at PESU. This is a beginning to amazing things that await at PESU Venture Labs, said Jawahar Doreswamy, Pro-Chancellor, PESU. Online math learning platform is looking to make inroads into 30 new markets in 2021-22, and is keen to go for another, bigger round of funding later this year to support its expansion and growth blueprint, according to its founder. founder and CEO Manan Khurma said that while an IPO is "still some time away", the company hopes to raise at least USD 100 million from new and existing investors later this year. In February, had announced the closure of its Series-C round of financing. The USD 40-million round was led by Lightstone Aspada and Alpha Wave Incubation and saw participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India, CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) and Manta Ray. A global after-school math and coding program for K-12 class, Cuemath, is currently present in 20 markets, including India, the US, and parts of the Middle East, and the company expects to expand its presence to over 50 countries in the financial year 2021-22. "India is our home market where we started, but today we also have major presence in the US, the UK, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. By the end of this year, we intend to be present in over 50 countries," Khurma told PTI. He added that the company is moving swiftly to deepen its presence, reaching out to new markets within Europe, Southeast Asia, and Middle East. The Cuemath platform is eyeing the global math market, which some estimates say is at least USD 20 billion opportunity on an annual basis. "Math is a universal need. And, if you look at these countries mentioned, we get a lot of organic demand already from these places. "For instance, in Philippines, we get a lot of enquiries and website traffic, it is a large market. And, that is true for other countries as well," Khurma said. The math edutech start-up, which has over two lakh students across world and 10,000 teachers, is looking to build "math platform for the world". Currently, India accounts for two-thirds of its overall students. So far, the company has raised USD 67 million from various investors, including the last round of USD 40 million. "The proceeds are being used for building an even stronger product. We are working on making the curriculum a lot more adaptive and personalised," Khurma said adding that the company is equally focused on brand building and market expansion. Asked if Cuemath is looking at an initial public offering (IPO), Khurma said the immediate focus for the company is to build a global math brand, and grow rapidly. "While we are unit economics positive, we are not profitable at an overall basis since we are still investing money into growth. That is something we want to continue doing," he said. Cuemath wants to raise "some more rounds of capital", including one later this calendar year to drive its global ambitions. The next funding round is expected to be bigger than the previous round, and Cuemath is keen to raising around USD 100 million, he said. "To get to a stage where you can become a public company requires demonstration of profitability over a period of time, and our immediate short-term focus is rapid growth across the world. "Hence, an IPO will still be some time away. Although, it is difficult to put a specific timeframe," he said. Access to capital is "not an issue" if growth is exciting, Khurma said. "We have a compelling story. We are the only ones saying we are math-focused company. Our customer satisfaction numbers are strong. That makes it exciting aspect for new investor," he said. Recently, Cuemath partnered with Google for Education to help transform the teaching and learning experience. As part of the partnership, Cuemath teachers and students will be given a Google for Education certificate. Overall, the Cuemath model is supported by an adaptive learning platform, interactive visual simulations, and the guidance of a live teacher. (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.) Total outstanding dues owed by electricity distribution utilities or to power producers fell 11.2 per cent to Rs 81,628 crore in April 2021 from a year ago. Distribution (discoms) owed a total Rs 91,915 crore to power generation firms in April 2020, according to portal PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators). However, outstanding dues of towards electricity producers have been increasing year-on-year as well as month-on-month for years showing perennial stress in the power sector till February this year. It has started tapering off from March 2021. Total dues in April increased sequentially compared to Rs 78,841 crore in March this year. Total outstanding dues of had dipped 3.4 per cent in March this year from Rs 81,687 crore in the same month last year. The PRAAPTI portal was launched in May 2018 to bring in transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms. In April 2021, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 45 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 68,732 crore as against Rs 76,117 crore in the same month a year ago. The overdue amount stood at Rs 67,656 crore in March this year. Power producers give 45 days to discoms to pay bills for electricity supply. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most cases. To give relief to power generation (gencos), the Centre enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1, 2019. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply. The Centre had also given some breathers to discoms for paying dues to gencos in view of the COVID-19-induced lockdown. The government had also waived penal charges for late payment of dues. In May, the government announced Rs 90,000 crore liquidity infusion for discoms under which these utilities would get loans at economical rates from Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and REC Ltd. This was a government initiative to help gencos remain afloat. Later, the liquidity infusion package was increased to Rs 1.2 lakh crore and further to Rs 1.35 lakh crore. Under the liquidity package, over Rs 80,000 crore has been disbursed. Discoms in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu account for the major portion of dues to gencos, the data showed. Overdue of independent power producers amounted to 53.04 per cent of the total overdue of Rs 68,732 crore of discoms in April 2021. The proportion of central PSU gencos in the overdue was 30.52 per cent. Among the central public sector gencos, NTPC alone has an overdue amount of Rs 5,167.11 crore on discoms, followed by Damodar Valley Corporation at Rs 5,156.34 crore, NLC India at Rs 3,416.18 crore, NHPC at Rs 2,261.05 crore and THDC India at Rs 1,134.17 crore in April 2021. Among private generators, discoms owe the highest overdue of Rs 18,608.11 crore to Adani Power followed by Bajaj Group-owned Lalitpur Power Generation Company at Rs 4,817.12 crore and SEMB (Sembcorp) at Rs 2,364.56 crore in the month under review. The overdue of non-conventional energy producers like solar and wind stood at Rs 11,296.24 crore in April, 2021. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Private sector is offering compensation equivalent to four times of the CTC as well as continuation of salary for two years to the families of the who lost their lives due to the infection. Among others, the bank is also offering loan waivers of such so that their families do not feel pressured due to the economic burden. "The bank's are usually young people. Their families will be taken by shock. So we put together a composite programme covering all angles. We are giving four times the annual CTC as compensation plus continuing the salary for two more years so that the family can get the time to economically recover," V Vaidyanathan, Managing Director and CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank, told PTI. The bank is taking initiative to contact the families of those deceased and informing them about what the bank has to offer to them, he added. "Among others, as part of this scheme we are waiving employee loans as families will have to bear the burden otherwise. If an employee has taken a personal loan, car loan, two-wheeler loan or education loan, etc, that is 100 per cent waived by the bank. Housing loan waiver is up to Rs 25 lakh (before June 30, 2021)," Vaidyanathan said. Suppose, if an employee had taken Rs 30 lakh loan, IDFC FIRST will waive Rs 25 lakh and residual loan will become 5 lakh, he explained. "The family can pay the reduced EMI from the salary credits we will make to them for 2 years. We are asking employees to insure their loans going forward (after June)," he said. Vaidyanathan said around 20 employees of the bank have lost their lives to Covid. "We are reaching out to the families of the deceased employees and telling them that you are entitled to this. We will give employment to the spouse if they are eligible on merit, if not then we will give them Rs 2 lakh for skilling them," he said. The compensation is applicable retrospectively and will continue as long as the pandemic remains. Among others under this 'Employee Covid Care Scheme 2021', the lender has made provision of scholarship of Rs 10,000 monthly to two children up to graduation, funeral expenses up to Rs 30,000, relocation assistance of Rs 50,000 as well as pro-rata bonus payout for the period served this year by the deceased employee. Apart from this, Vaidyanathan said the bank employees have taken an initiative on their own to help the needy customers belonging to the low income group by generating a corpus from their salaries. Under this employee funded Ghar Ghar Ration programme, the bank employees will supply ration kits to 50,000 low income customers whose livelihood has been impacted by the pandemic. Employees are procuring ration kits comprising 10 kg rice/flour, 2 kg lentils, 1 kg sugar and salt, 1 kg cooking oil, 5 packets of spices, tea, biscuits and other essentials, he said, adding employees have contributed one day to one month's salary for this. He said as many as 16,000 benefits have reached across Rajasthan, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh under this programme launched recently. The lender has also identified 250 vulnerable families who have lost an earning member of their family to Covid-19 with a cash relief support of Rs 10,000 in a partnership with 'Give India'. (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.) Limited today announced that it will raise Rs 1,325 crore by issuing preferential shares and warrants to its parent, Post conversion, combined stake of and other promoters will rise from the current nine per cent to around 38 per cent. will issue upto 59.5 crore equity shares and upto 73 crore warrants convertible into equivalent number of equity shares at Rs. 10 each by conversion of debt, to The pricing is at a 21.5 per cent discount to Reliance Power's share price of Rs 12.74, as per Friday's closing on BSE. With this, Reliance Power's standalone debt will reduce by Rs 1,325 crore and along with its other planned debt reduction in subsidiaries, its consolidated debt will further fall by Rs 3,200 crore in FY22, which will reduce its debt-equity ratio to 1.80:1, a company statement said after its board meeting today. Reliance Infrastructure and other promoter holding in will increase upto 25 per cent after issue of equity shares and will further increase to over 38 per cent on conversion of warrants. As of now, the promoter owns 9.06 per cent stake in Reliance Power, as per statistics submitted to the stock exchanges for the quarter ending March this year. The Board in a meeting held today also approved plans to issue foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs); and raising funds by issuing securities to qualified institutions. The proposed size of FCCB issue is up to 50 per cent of the then networth of the Company, and QIP's upto 25 per cent of the then networth. Reliance Power runs power plants based on coal, gas and renewable energy, with an operating portfolio of 5,945 megawatts. On June 6, the Board of Reliance Infrastructure had announced that it will raise up to Rs 550.56 crore from its promoter, the family and and Varde Investment. Of this, the family will invest Rs 400 crore raising its stake from 5 per cent to 23 per cent while the rest will be invested by Varde Partners for a seven per cent stake. It plans to raise creeping acquisition. Various group including Reliance Communications and Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd were dragged to the bankruptcy courts by the Indian lenders after they failed to repay their debt. While Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries has emerged as the highest bidder for Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, UV Arc has emerged as the highest bidder for Reliance Communications. The RBI later clarified that asset reconstruction cannot bid for in the bankruptcy courts and the offer by UV ARC is currently pending. Reliance Naval failed to find any buyers despite breaching deadlines set under the IBC. India, which has entered into the B2C segment in the housing solutions business, is looking at a revenue in the range of Rs 750 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in three to five years, a top company official has said. The company expects the housing solutions segment to be a Rs 15,000 to 20,000 crore market in around five years and to have a minimum of 5 per cent market share, B Santhanam, CEO (APAC and India), Chairman and Managing Director India. Besides, the company, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, a French multinational in the habitat and construction space, will be completing investments of Rs 2,500 crore in India in FY22 and FY23. Saint-Gobain India through the concept brand of "MyHome" is offering solutions to customers for products including windows, shower cubicles, ceilings, kitchen and wardrobe shutters, roofing products and mirrors. "We are focusing and growing our presence in this segment. Taking a conservative estimate of Rs 5 lakh spends for interiors, the addressable market is Rs 15,000 to 20,000 crore. We hope to get a minimum share of 5 per cent of this market in the next 3-5 years," Santhanam told PTI. According to him, there is a "huge opportunity" for organised players in these categories to gain market share. "The housing accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the construction industry. The need for housing will only go up in the future as nearly 70 per cent of India's population is still non-urban," Santhanam added. There are several categories like shower cubicles where the market penetration is quite low and the opportunity here is to grow the categories. "We are focused on gaining share in the fragmented categories and creating new categories," he said. Saint-Gobain India, which as per the strategy is trying to gain a share of the fragmented downstream markets and create new categories, is going "phygital" by combining its physical stores with digital experience to homeowners. "We have created dedicated MyHome physical stores where our solutions are available under one roof. Customers get to experience the solutions in real-time and can visualise how they would look in their homes," he said. It is investing in developing consumer touchpoints and retail stores and has opened MyHome stores in Chennai and Kochi. "We plan to open another 18 such stores in major cities before the end of the year," he said. While talking about Saint-Gobain's ongoing investment in India, Santhanam said FY22 and FY23 will be "fairly strong" for investments. "In the next 2 years, we will be ahead of the curve on the investment front. Based on the long-range plan, as a group in FY22 and FY23 we will be completing investments Rs 2,500 crore," he said. It is creating larger facilities, looking at potential acquisitions, investments in start-ups, accelerating spends on digital transformation, and increasing the R&D spend, Santhanam added. "These are the investments that will take place across our major sites in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh," he said. Saint-Gobain India has more than 20 factories located across major states in India -- Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh as well. In 2019, Saint-Gobain has registered sales of a billion-plus (around Rs 7,300 crore). Saint-Gobain had entered India in 1996. Two large entities - Grindwell Norton Limited (GNO), a publicly-traded company, and Saint-Gobain India Pvt Ltd (SGI) - house Saint-Gobain's businesses in India. (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 Madhya Pradesh government was fully committed to taking care of who had lost their earning parent or had been orphaned due to COVID-19, said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday. He had recently announced a scheme under which such would get several benefits, including financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per month. "The state government, along with civil society, will provide education, refuge, food and other needs to orphaned kids. A scheme on this is going to come up shortly. We can't leave such in the lurch," Chouhan said while addressing district crisis management committees online. A state government official said a scheme for children orphaned by COVID-19 came into effect from May 21 and covers the period from May 1 to June 30. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Sunday asked all its employees who have received two doses of COVID- 19 vaccine to join offices from Monday even as a partial lockdown across the state will be in force. The General Administration Department Commissioner and Secretary M S Manivannan issued an order and said the decision has been taken for the smooth functioning of the government offices. "In order to ensure smooth functioning of government offices, all the employees of Government of who have received both the doses of COVID-19 vaccine are hereby directed to attend office from 14/06/2021 regularly," he added. The order further said that the eligible employees should follow all Covid related protocols issued by the government while joining the work. "This has the approval of the competent authority," Manivannan said. On June 4, the government had extended the partial lockdown imposed due to the surge of COVID-19 till June 15. The curfew was imposed from 1 pm to 5 am with a total ban on movement of individuals. All shops and commercial establishments close down at 12 noon on all days. All inter-district transport services and movement of people to and from other districts are suspended. The odd-even formula for plying of vehicles is in force across the state. (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 effort to mobilise the funds needed for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dream project of giving credit cards to students and post Cyclone Yaas restoration and reconstruction work, the state Finance Department has asked all the departments to refund unutilised funds lying in various accounts. On June 7, state Finance Secretary Manoj Pant wrote to all the departments to surrender all the funds of the previous financial year lying unused by June 15. These funds, according to the letter, are those that have been transferred to the bank accounts of the departments or are local funds or ledger accounts. According to senior officials of the state Finance Department, the government is presently going through a cash crunch and is in need of funds to tide over the present situation. In the post Yaas situation, the state needs a huge amount of money for the restoration and reconstruction work. Moreover money is also needed for some schemes that the government is likely to announce shortly. "The initial estimation shows that there has been a damage of more than Rs 15,000 crore because of Yaas and the Centre has only disbursed Rs 400 crore and so the state will have to make an arrangement of its own so that the work can be completed within the deadline announced by Chief Minister In the present situation, it is impossible for the government to raise the money and so it is trying to negotiate the financial deficit though unutilised funds," a senior Finance Department official said. The state government also needs money for the 'Students' Credit Card'. A senior official said as the state government is going to implement the students' credit card scheme from July as promised by the Chief Minister, huge funds are also required for it. These unused funds can help a lot, he said. He added that a meeting was held this week to implement the programme, under which students will get credit up to Rs 10 lakh for higher studies at a rate of interest of 4 per cent, on time. According to the Finance Department official, other departments often use a technique to increase their own cash reserve. There are many cases when schemes are not completed within the stipulated time, but the unutilised money is not returned to the government, but parked in the PL or local fund accounts. It is a technique of the departments to transfer the funds to various corporations of the departments or store it as fixed deposit in the banks, so they can use it according to their need at a later phase, the official said. He pointed out that the Principal Accountant General (PAG) had written to the Finance Secretary on April 26 for submitting the final reconciliation statement by June 30, as many departments did not submit proper utilisation certificates. PAG Deepak Narain said that a large number of utilisation certificates were pending for grant-in aid. His letter said that from 2017-18 to 2019-20, the state government should submit utilisation certificates for Rs 23,43,75.78 crore. His letter stated that during inspection of 71 treasuries in 2019-20, it was found that there had been transfer of funds to personal deposit accounts in 15 treasuries. So, state officials are expecting a refund of several hundred crores which had not been properly utilised by various departments but had been parked as FD or in PL accounts. However, the only good news for the state exchequer is that the Finance Ministry has released Rs 1,467.24 crore as part of the post devolution revenue deficit grant in June out of a total of Rs 9,871 crore to 17 states. In the last three months, received Rs 4,401.75 crore out of the total amount of Rs 29,613 crore released as grants as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission to meet the gap in revenue accounts of the states post devolution. --IANS saibal/vd (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Sunday reported a net reduction of 54,531 in active cases to take its count to 1,026,159. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 8.4 per cent (one in 11). The country is second among the most affected countries by active cases. On Saturday, it added 80,834 cases to take its total caseload to 29,439,989. And, with 3,303 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 370,384, or 1.26 per cent of total confirmed infections. With 3,484,239 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Saturday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 253,195,048. The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 28,043,446 or 95.26 per cent of total caseload with 132,062 new cured cases being reported on Saturday. With a daily increase of 80,834 in total cases, Indias tally of coronavirus cases has risen from 29,359,155 on Saturday to an increase of 0.3%. has reached 370,384, with 3,303 fatalities, an all-time high in daily spike. Now the second-most-affected country by active cases, total cases and recovery, and third by death, India has added 630,650 cases in the past 7 days. India now accounts for 8.4% of all active cases globally (one in every 11 active cases), and 9.63% of all deaths (one in every 11 deaths). India has so far administered 253,195,048 vaccine doses. That is 860.03 per cent of its total caseload, and 18.17 per cent of its population. Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Maharashtra (30561565), Uttar Pradesh (27789475), Rajasthan (24352116), Gujarat (23992093), and West Bengal (21707978). Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Kerala (385482), Delhi (379896), Gujarat (375625), Uttarakhand (342420), and J&K (316589). Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 11 days. The count of active cases across India on Sunday saw a net reduction of 54,531, compared with 40,981 on Friday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are West Bengal (1056), Mizoram (159), Bihar (105), and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (25). With 132,062 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 95.26%, while fatality rate increased to at 1.26%. The Indian states and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.64%), Uttarakhand (2.06%), and Nagaland (1.90%). The rate in as many as 18 is higher than the national average. Indias new daily closed cases stand at 135,365 3,003 deaths and 132,062 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 2.21%. Indias 5-day moving average of daily rate of addition to total cases stands at 0.3%. Indias doubling time for total cases stands at 252.1 days, and for deaths at 77.4 days. Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Tamil Nadu (15108), Kerala (13832), Maharashtra (10697), Karnataka (9785), and Andhra Pradesh (6952). Among states with more than 100,000 cases, the five with worst recovery rates at present are Tamil Nadu (91.82%), Karnataka (91.85%), Kerala (94.81%), and Maharashtra (95.48%). India on Saturday conducted 1,900,312 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 378,132,474. The test positivity rate recorded was 4.3%. Five states with the highest test positivity rate (TPR) percentage of tested people turning out to be positive for Covid-19 infection (by cumulative data for tests and cases are Goa (18.73%), Maharashtra (15.59%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (14.45%), Kerala (12.86%), and Sikkim (12.44%). Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added are Goa (14.4%), Mizoram (12.77%), Kerala (12.72%), Sikkim (11.92%), and Meghalaya (10.89%). Among states and UTs with more than 10 million population, five that have carried out the highest number of tests (per million population) are Delhi (1079101), J&K (671008), Kerala (591781), Karnataka (466406), and Uttarakhand (453521). The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (5898550), Karnataka (2757324), Kerala (2716655), Tamil Nadu (2339705), and Andhra Pradesh (1803074). Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 10,697 new cases to take its tally to 5898550. The state has added 122,366 cases in the past 10 days. Karnataka, the second-most-affected state, has reported 9785 cases to take its tally to 2757324. Kerala, the third-most-affected state by total tally, has added 13832 cases to take its tally to 2716655. Tamil Nadu has added 15108 cases to take its tally to 2339705. Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 6952 to 1803074. Uttar Pradesh has added 504 cases to take its tally to 1702172. Delhi has added 213 cases to take its tally to 1430884. The Delhi government has set up a dedicated vaccination centre for its teachers and their family members as a "token of appreciation" for the work done by them during the pandemic. Almost 10 days back, the Directorate of Education (DoE) had said that Delhi government school teachers who had been working as frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic should be vaccinated on an immediate basis. In a letter to district education officers and school principals, DoE Director Udit Prakash Rai had said that arrangements for vaccinating teachers be made at the earliest. "As a token of appreciation for the commendable work done by our teachers at the fore of all fronts set up by the Delhi government to provide various services to the citizens of Delhi during the pandemic, the Directorate of Education has set up a vaccination centre dedicated entirely to our teaches and their families," a letter issued on June 11 said. The vaccination facility for teachers in 18-44 and 45 plus age groups has been set up at a government school near ITO. The letter said there are special arrangements for comfortable waiting, on the spot registration. "Facility of online registration has also been made available at this dedicated centre. Heads of all schools are therefore directed to motivate all their teachers to get themselves and their family members vaccinated at the above centre," 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.) The Goa government on Saturday extended the ongoing Covid-induced curfew till June 21. "The Goa government has decided to extend the state level curfew till 7 am of June 21. Shops, including panchayat and municipal markets, may open between 7 am to 3 pm. Besides, only 50 guests are allowed in a marriage function," Chief Minister tweeted. He also added that a detailed order would be issued by the district administration soon. The state first imposed the curfew on May 9 following surge in Covid cases and deaths. --IANS maya/sdr/ (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.) To plug a major health infrastructure gap in India's fight against Covid-19, especially in rural areas and smaller towns, India has started project 'Extension of Hospitals' in various states. Modular are an extension of hospital infrastructure and can be built adjacent to an existing hospital building. As Covid-19 cases surged in different parts of the country, infrastructure in was under immense pressure. Keeping in view of the need, innovative modular came as a huge relief amidst the crisis. Project 'Extension Hospitals' is one such initiative for which Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) invited private sector companies, donor organizations, and individuals to support the initiative along with various other projects of national importance. The PSA office identified requirements of close to 50 hospitals in states where the highest number of Covid-19 cases were reported. Modulus Housing, a start-up incubated at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) developed the MediCAB hospitals. This enables building a 100-bedded extension facility in 3-weeks' time. MediCAB hospitals are designed with a dedicated zone of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) that can accommodate various life-support equipment and medical devices. These negative pressure portable hospitals have durability of around 25 years, and they can also be shifted in the future for any disaster response in less than a week. These rapidly deployable hospitals will plug a major health infrastructure gap in India's fight against Covid-19, especially in rural areas and smaller towns. The office of PSA has been actively working towards securing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support to implement these projects in different areas across the nation. Modulus Housing has started deploying MediCAB extension hospitals with the help of the American Indian Foundation (AIF). Mastercard, Texas Instruments, Zscaler, PNB Housing, Goldman Sachs, Lenovo, and NASSCOM Foundation have also extended CSR support. The first batch of 100 bedded hospitals is being commissioned at Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh); Amravati, Pune, and Jalna (Maharastra); Mohali (Punjab), and a 20-bed hospital at Raipur (Chhattisgarh). Bengaluru (Karnataka) will have one each of 20, 50, and 100-beds in the first phase. The Office of PSA has also collaborated with Tata Projects Ltd to deploy modular hospitals at multiple sites in Punjab and Chhattisgarh. They have initiated work on 48 bedded modular hospitals in Gurdaspur and Faridkot (Punjab). Expansion of ICU at multiple hospitals in Chhattisgarh including Raipur, Jashpur, Bemetara, Kanker, and Gaurella is also underway. --IANS rak/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.) India is a natural ally of the G-7 nations in defending the shared values from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism, violent extremism, and economic coercion, Prime Minister said at an outreach session of the summit in Cornwall, UK, on Sunday. He said open societies were particularly vulnerable to disinformation and cyber-attacks, and stressed the need to ensure that cyberspace remained an avenue for advancing democratic values and not of subverting them. Over the last two days, Modi spoke in three sessions on issues ranging from health, climate change, and open societies. The prime minister also found widespread support from leaders, including the Australian prime minister, the director general of the WTO, as well as the UN Secretary General, for text-based negotiations for a temporary patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines, proposed by India and at the World Trade Organization (WTO). He sought strong support for the proposal, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs P Harish told reporters. ALSO READ: America is back at the table, says Joe Biden as G7 summit concludes (French) President Emmanuel Macron also highlighted the need to focus on ramping up production capacities in Africa and called on India to lend its expertise globally, Harish said, adding that the UN secretary general identified the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Rights) waiver as an important element of his global vaccination plan, a road map to vaccinate the global population by doubling vaccine production. The proposal for waiving some sections of the TRIPS agreement is expected to help more countries, especially middle- and low-income nations, to access vaccines, amid the Covid-19 crisis. However, it is yet to get a consensus from all WTO member nations. As lead speaker in the session Open Societies, Modi on Sunday highlighted the non-democratic and unequal nature of global governance institutions, and made a strong pitch for the reform of the multilateral system based on the same principles of openness, democracy, transparency, and inclusion. ALSO READ: UK's Boris Johnson confirms G7 pledge to donate 1 billion vaccine doses Talking about Indias achievements on climate action, he pointed out that India was the only G20 country on track to meet its (COP21) Paris commitments. He further said that the planets atmosphere, biodiversity and oceans could be protected by countries acting in silos, and called for collective action on climate change. The Prime Ministers message of global solidarity and unity, especially between open and democratic societies and economies, in tackling the global challenges of health, climate change and economic recovery was well received by the Leaders at the Summit, an official statement said. British Prime Minister had invited the leaders of Australia, South Africa, and South Korea to the outreach sessions at the summit. The G-7 nations have pledged to donate an additional 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines within the next year. We will remain deeply engaged with the G-7 and guest partners on all major issues, health governance, and access to vaccines, climate action and climate justice, diversification of supply chains and building economic resilience, to name just a few, Harish said. Prime Minister on Sunday said India is a natural ally for the G7 and its partners in defending democracy, freedom of thought and liberty from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism, violent extremism and economic coercion. The prime minister made the remarks in a virtual address at an outreach session of a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) richest democracies which was held in the British seaside resort of Cornwall. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that Modi, as the lead speaker at the session titled 'open societies and economies', highlighted India's civilisational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty. "As the world's largest democracy, India is a natural ally for the G7 and guest countries to defend these shared values from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism and violent extremism, disinformation and infodemics and economic coercion," he said. The prime minister also highlighted the revolutionary impact of digital technologies on social inclusion and empowerment in India through applications such as Aadhaar, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity. While underscoring the vulnerabilities inherent in open societies, the prime minister called on tech companies and social media platforms to ensure a safe cyber environment for their users, additional secretary (economic relations) in the MEA P Harish said at a press conference. "The prime minister's views were appreciated by other leaders in the gathering," he said. Harish said the G7 leaders underlined their commitment to a free, open and a rules-based Indo-Pacific and resolved to collaborate with partners in the region. The Group of Seven (G7) comprises the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. As chair of G7, the UK invited India, Australia, South Korea and South Africa to the summit as Guest countries "Was happy to address the @G7 Session on Open Societies as a Lead Speaker. and freedom are part of India's civilisational ethos, and find expression in the vibrancy and diversity of India's society," Modi tweeted. In his address, the prime minister shared the concern expressed by several leaders that open societies are particularly vulnerable to disinformation and cyber-attacks, and stressed the need to ensure that cyberspace remains an avenue for advancing democratic values and not of subverting them. Highlighting the non-democratic and unequal nature of global governance institutions, Modi also called for the reform of the multilateral system as the best signal of commitment to the cause of open societies. The official said India's participation at the G7 sessions reflected understanding within the bloc that resolution to "the biggest global crisis of our time" is not possible without India's involvement and support, in a reference to coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Modi also sought the support of the grouping on lifting patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Modi's call was supported by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, WTO Director-General Okonjo Iweala and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Harish said. Asked whether the issue of Chinese aggressiveness was raised by Modi, he said it was not. "The prime minister spoke on the need for open and democratic societies to work together and strengthen each other's hands to defend the values they hold dear and respond to the increasing challenges," Harish said. "The particular issue was not raised at this meeting. But you know there are other forums where such issues are also being discussed," he added. Speaking at a session on climate change, the prime minister called for collective action, recognising that this challenge cannot be addressed in silos. He mentioned India's achievements on climate action and shared that India is the only G20 country on track to meet its Paris commitments. He also took note of the increasing effectiveness of the two major global initiatives nurtured by India -- the CDRI and the International Solar Alliance. The prime minister stressed that developing countries need better access to climate finance, and called for a holistic approach towards climate change that covers all dimensions of the problem- mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer, climate financing, equity, climate justice and lifestyle change. Modi also called on the G7 to meet their unfulfilled promise of USD 100 billion annually in climate finance. "The prime minister's message of global solidarity and unity, especially between open and democratic societies and economies, in tackling the global challenges of health, climate change and economic recovery was well received by the leaders at the Summit," a government statement said. Harish said India's achievements have been highlighted by the UK in the Presidency statement it has released on the 'Road to COP26'. "As a climate responsible nation, we have shown leadership and innovation in addressing the threat of climate change. However as a developing country we have also brought this perspective to the G7 and highlighted the importance of recognising our different trajectories and historical responsibilities in the making of this crisis," he said. "Our voice and view have been heard and appreciated within the G7," he added. He said India is committed to installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030, and it will work with the UK to provide climate-resilient infrastructure through a new facility under the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) to small island developing states. Harish said India has also endorsed the '30 by 30' targets, which called for protecting 30 percent of the country's land and 30 per cent of oceans by 2030. Asked whether India will join the G-7-led infrastructure initiative, Harish indicated that the government will examine it. "The prime minister said that democracies should reflect that we can deliver on project implementation...The PM also cited India's experience in the neighbouring countries and Africa," he said. He said Modi indicated that India stands ready to do more in this regard keeping in view the ethos of transparency and inclusion. On the specifics of the proposals, Harish said the relevant agencies of the government would study them and will engage as appropriate. (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 proposal by India and South Africa to temporarily waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines to ensure their equitable access received widespread support at the summit in the UK, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Sunday. In a virtual address at an inaugural outreach session of the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought the support of the grouping to lift patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines. The MEA said Modi's call was supported by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, WTO Director-General Okonjo Iweala and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "I can confirm that there was widespread support in deliberations for text-based negotiations on the proposal for TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)," P Harish, additional secretary (economic relations) in the MEA, said at a press conference. The TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) council of the WTO is likely to start text-based negotiations on the proposal. Calling on the to demonstrate leadership, Modi sought the grouping's strong support for the proposal for a TRIPS waiver at the WTO, Harish said about the prime minister's remarks on Saturday at the session titled 'Building Back Stronger-Health' "His call was echoed by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Referring to his conversation with the prime minister earlier, PM Morrison expressed his strong support for the TRIPS waiver, as did the Director-General of the WTO, Okonjo Iweala, and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, who identified the TRIPS waiver as an important element of his 'Global Vaccination Plan'- a roadmap to vaccinate the entire global population by doubling vaccine production," Harish said. He said French President Emmanuel Macron also highlighted the need to focus on ramping up production capacity in Africa and called on India to lend its expertise as an important production hub globally. The Group of Seven (G7) comprises the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. As chair of G7, the UK invited India, Australia, South Korea, South Africa to the summit as Guest countries. The has pledged to donate an additional one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines within the next year. Asked about G7's views on making available finances to boost vaccine production, the additional secretary said there was a general agreement to increase capacity in various regional manufacturing hubs and provide financing, technology transfer and skilling in these regions. On whether the summit deliberated on how the COVID-19 originated in China, Harish did not give a direct reply. "The leaders of the G7 and guest countries had a very intense and detailed discussion on the need for reforming the global health governance," he said. "I would like to emphasise in this regard that India has been actively engaged with the international community at the levels of the G20, the G7 and the World Health Assembly on various aspects related to dealing with the current pandemic, learning lessons and preparing for future pandemics," he added. Harish said Prime Minister Modi thanked the G7 and guest countries for the support shown to India during the difficult second wave of the pandemic and urged caution and vigilance even as things were getting better. Modi also highlighted India's 'Whole of Government, Whole of Society' approach to the pandemic, with the efforts of governments at all levels, civil society and industry synergized for best results. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government on Sunday said it has provided to over 4.5 lakh people who did not have ration card under a new scheme in the capital. Starting from June 5, the scheme allows those who don't have a ration card to avail five kilogram of by showing their Aadhaar card. "The scheme caters to people who do not possess ration cards, including unorganised workers, migrant workers, building and construction workers, and domestic helpers. More than 4.5 lakh people have been aided up until now through this scheme," the said in a statement. Under the scheme, the beneficiaries receive four kg of wheat and one kg of rice each. It added that 5,000 metric tonne ration has been provided to the people and another 5,000 metric tonne will be reaching the distribution centres. A total of 280 schools, one in every municipal ward, have been designated for distribution of "We assure you that things will be further streamlined in the coming days to make the entire process smooth and hassle-free. Your government believes that ration is the right of people," Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain said. The ration can be availed from 10 am to 4 pm on all working days at the designated centres except on gazetted holidays and Sundays. (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 and prices climbing to record high, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday asked Congress governments in Rajasthan and Maharashtra to cut sales tax if the party was concerned about fuel price burden on common man, but did not say if BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, where has crossed Rs 100 mark, would do the same. and have risen to all-time high across the country after fuel rates rose by Rs 5.72 to Rs 6.25 per litre in less than six weeks. This is due to a combination of rising international oil prices and record high central and state taxes. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event organised to inaugurate oxygen plant set up by Indraprastha Gas Ltd at Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, he said central and state governments need additional money from the taxes on petrol and to meet expenses for fighting pandemic as well as development work. "I accept that are pinching consumers," he said, adding the government is spending Rs 1 lakh crore on providing free food grains to poor this year alone besides spending money on vaccines and healthcare infrastructure. Asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's repeated attacks on the Modi government for skyrocketing fuel prices, Pradhan said, "Why is fuel expensive in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab (which are ruled by the party)?" "If Rahul Gandhi is concerned about the poor being hit by fuel prices, he should ask chief ministers of Congress-ruled states to cut taxes. He should ask (Maharashtra Chief Minister) Uddhav Thackeray to reduce taxes," he said. He, however, did not say if BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, which too have seen petrol price cross Rs 100 a litre mark due to local taxes, would follow suit. differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. And because of this, petrol retails at over Rs 100 per litre mark in seven states and union territories -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Ladakh. Of these states, Congress is in power in Rajasthan and is a coalition partner with Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra. BJP rules Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and Ladakh too is under central rule. Andhra Pradesh has YSR-Congress in power while TRS rules in Telangana. Rajasthan levies the highest value-added tax (VAT or sales tax) on petrol and diesel in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. While international oil prices have crossed USD 72 per barrel in anticipation of demand recovery following the rollout of vaccination programme by various countries. Last year when rates collapsed to two-decade low, the union government instead of passing on the benefit to consumers raised excise duty to record high. The excise tax on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre when the Modi government took office in 2014, and that on diesel was Rs 3.56 a litre. Excise duty on petrol now is Rs 32.90 per litre and makes up for 34 per cent of retail selling price. The duty of Rs 31.80 a litre makes up for 36.5 per cent of retail diesel rates. Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan near the India-Pakistan border was the first place in the country to see petrol hit Rs 100 a litre mark in mid-February and on Saturday it also earned the distinction of diesel crossing that psychological mark. Petrol in the city is sold at Rs 107.22 a litre - the highest rate in the country, and diesel comes for Rs 100.05. Premium or additive laced petrol in the town sells for Rs 110.50 a litre and same grade diesel at Rs 103.72. In Delhi, petrol has hit an all-time high of Rs 96.12 a litre, while diesel is now priced at Rs 86.98 per litre. Mumbai on May 29 became the first metro in the country where petrol was being sold at over Rs 100 a litre. Petrol now costs Rs 102.30 a litre in the city and diesel comes for Rs 94.39. Petrol and diesel prices have been raised on 23 occasions since May 4, when state-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal. In 23 increases, petrol price has risen by Rs 5.72 per litre and diesel by Rs 6.25 a litre. (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.) Senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Sunday claimed that the newly formed SAD- alliance will sweep the 2022 assembly elections. More like-minded parties will come on the same platform with the SAD and the in the near future, he added. The and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) stitched an alliance on Saturday for the 2022 assembly election in Punjab, with both the parties coming together after a gap of 25 years. Under the tie-up, the led by former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati would fight on 20 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab, while the rest will be contested by the SAD. Talking to media persons here on Sunday, Majithia said, Two big parties with a similar ideology have come together on one platform. This will result in a clean sweep in favour of the alliance in the 2022 assembly elections. He asserted that the SAD-BSP alliance was a meeting of minds. Both parties opposed the three agricultural bills vociferously in Parliament, with Harsimrat Kaur Badal even quitting the cabinet and the SAD leaving the NDA government. In direct contrast, both the Congress and the AAP preferred to conduct walk-outs and symbolic protests, he said. Majithia said the SAD-BSP combine was committed to ensure welfare of the farmers as well as Dalits and employees who were being discriminated against by the Congress regime. We will also intensify the agitation against ministers Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Balbir Singh Sidhu in the coming days, he added. Majithia said it was unfortunate that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was shielding them. While Dharamsot has been indicted by the additional chief secretary of allegedly embezzling Rs 65 crore meant for the SC scholarship, Balbir Sidhu is involved in the vaccine and 'Fateh' kit scams, he alleged. He asserted that the government and the Centre were discriminating against farmers. While the central government has adopted an "intransigent attitude towards farmers and their demand for repeal of the three black laws", the government was repeatedly increasing VAT on diesel, Majithia alleged. He claimed the Punjab government has earned more than Rs 2,000 crore from value added tax only. Majithia said it was unfortunate that farmers in Punjab were suffering due to labour shortage during the ongoing paddy transplantation season because train services have been halted. Special trains should be run from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to Punjab to ensure migrant labourers could be engaged in paddy transplantation, he said. He lashed out at the Congress government for failing to take measures to retain labourers in the state by extending facilities to them. (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.) Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Sunday said that the Chief Minister MK Stalin will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week and request for more COVID vaccines. Speaking to ANI, Subramanian said, "When Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin meets PM Modi in Delhi next week he will request to provide more vaccine doses to Tamil Nadu." "Death numbers are expected to decrease in coming days. Vaccination is the only solution to get rid of corona infection so people should come forward to get Vaccination," he added. Health Minister Ma Subramanian, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi jointly reviewed the vaccination drive which is going on for vegetable shop vendors in Chennai Koyambedu. Speaking about the drive, Subramanian said, "Koyambedu market was a hot spot in first wave. So Chennai corporation, CMDA, and health department are in the Vaccination drive process here. 9,655 people have been vaccinated in Koyambedu. More than 10,000 will get administered today which will be a huge number per day in a single place." "Vendors are eager to get vaccinated. We have received 1.6 vaccine doses, out of which 98 lakh vaccine doses have been used till now, as per CM's advice," he added. He also informed that the Tamil Nadu government is probably the first in India where handicapped were vaccinated at their place. 5000 handicapped have been vaccinated in the state. (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.) government will provide Rs 7,509 crore as investment support to over 63 lakh for cultivation during Kharif season under Rythu Bandhu scheme. Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy said on Sunday that the government has made all arrangements to credit the amount at the rate of Rs 5,000 per acre to the bank accounts of the from June 15 to 25. This year who received landholding (pattadar) passbooks and registered their details through CCLA on the Dharani portal by June 10 will be eligible to receive Rythu Bandhu assistance. The Minister said CCLA has submitted a list of 63,25,695 beneficiaries to the agriculture department. The departments estimated that an amount of Rs 7,508.78 crore is required for assistance under the scheme for cultivation on 150.18 lakh acres across the state. An additional 66,311 acres have been brought under Rythu Bandhu this year. This will benefit 2.81 lakh farmers. First time beneficiaries will have to submit their pattadar passbooks, aadhaar cards and bank details to the agriculture extension officers concerned to avail the benefit. The Minister clarified that the amount will also be deposited in accounts for which IFSC codes may have changed due to merger of some banks. He said the farmers need not have any worried over this. Among 34 district, Nalgonda district has highest number of beneficiaries (4,72,983). They hold 12.18 lakh acres of land and the district needs Rs 608.81 crore. Medchal Malkajgiri district has least number of beneficiaries (39,762). They own 77,000 acres of land and will get an assistance of Rs 38.39 crore under the scheme. The state government made an allocation of Rs 14,800 crore for Rythu Bandhu in 2021-22 budget. Under the scheme, Rs 10,000 investment support is being provided for every acre every year. The government is crediting the amount in two installments for two crop seasons. It was in 2018 that the government had launched the scheme with announcement of Rs 8,000 investment support per acre per crop. In 2019, the amount was enhanced to Rs 10,000. --IANS ms/sdr/ (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.) Apollo Hospitals and Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital in Delhi will start administering Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V to people by the end of this week, officials said on Sunday. The Centre has fixed the price of the vaccine at Rs 1,145 per dose. "Apollo Hospitals are going to roll out the vaccine for the general public in Delhi by the end of the week," an official told PTI. An official of Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital also said it will start administering Sputnik V jabs within this week. After Covishield and Covaxin, Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be approved by the government for use in India. The maximum price of Covishield for private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) has been fixed at Rs 780 per dose, while that of Covaxin is Rs 1,410 per dose. Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the marketing partner for the vaccine in the country, has been importing the shots from Russia. Over a period of time, the vaccine is also going to be manufactured in India. may soon seek emergency use authorization (EUA) for its DNA-plasmid technology-based Covid-19 vaccine from Indias drug regulator. If approved, this would be the first DNA-plasmid vaccine in the world. This could also be Indias first vaccine for children aged 12 years and above as the company has conducted trials on the age group. The decision, however, lies with the regulator. India has three Covid vaccines already Covaxin (Bharat Biotech), Covishield (Serum Institute), and SputnikV (DRL). Sources in the government and the company confirmed that the Ahmedabad-based firm may seek an emergency use authorization from the Drug Controller General of India in around a week. The data analysis from the phase 3 trials is almost ready. The company may soon seek EUA for its vaccine, a government official said. ZyCoV-D, the second indigenous vaccine after Bharat Biotechs Covaxin, is a three-dose vaccine to be administered at day 0, day 28, and day 56. The firm has said it is also working on a two-dose regimen of this vaccine. Sharvil Patel, managing director of Cadila Healthcare, had said in April that the firm was working on trials to check if a two-dose regimen also worked. The clinical trials are being conducted on children 12 years and above. 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 felt 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. ALSO READ: Covid LIVE: G7 calls for transparent, expert-led study on virus origins The stability data of the vaccine candidate showed that ZyCoV-D can be stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for the long term and 25 degrees Celsius for the short term (a few months). The company is setting up a 120 million dose per year manufacturing plant for this vaccine, which requires a Biosafety level-1 (BSL-1) facility. It is also tying up with partners to have a total production capacity of 200 million doses. The technology is scalable, the company has said. And since the vaccine does not deal with a live virus, a BSL-1 plant is sufficient for manufacturing. This would open up possibilities for manufacturing tie-ups to scale up production for Zydus Cadila, a challenge its peer vaccine maker Bharat Biotech has faced. Covaxin, an inactivated virus vaccine, requires a BSL-3 lab. Conventional active vaccines are made of a killed or weakened form of the infectious agent. DNA plasmid vaccine is a relatively new approach where a piece of DNA that contains the genes for the antigens is injected. The body then learns to develop an immune response against the antigen, and when the actual pathogen attacks, the body can generate specific antibodies against it. DNA vaccines, Zydus claimed, have been shown to stimulate sustained immune responses. The government has estimated that there would be an availability of 50 million doses of ZyCoV-D between August and December. Regulator is looking for an agency to manage its multi-media grievance redressal centre with a view to address complaints of insured public against insurance companies. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) had set up a consumer affairs department (CAD) to oversee compliance of insurers and intermediaries with respect to Protection of Policyholders' Interests Regulations. It will also empower consumers by educating them on grievance redressal mechanisms. To provide alternative channels to receive complaints against insurers, it has set up the Grievance Call Centre (IGCC) that receives complaints through a toll-free telephone number and by e-mail. It also registers complaints apart from furnishing the status of the resolution. The agency will be required to manage its IGCC by providing the state-of-the-art call centre solution based on IP Multimedia platform for seamless handling of channels (telephone calls, e-mails and letters) with unified administration and reporting as well as having the integrated components in a single platform, said the request for proposal (RFP) for IGCC Services. The entity, the RFP said, should be able to take over the operations from the current service provider. According to the RFP document, the duration of the contract will be initial for three years and further extendable for two years on a year-on-year basis. The regulator said the IGCC is envisaged to be a true alternative channel for the insured public consumers by offering comprehensive tele-functionalities (both manual and IVR) to all insurance consumer segments. It serves as a 12 hours X 6 days' service platform, offering multiple languages and integrating channels. "It is envisaged that the IGCC would not only attend to phone calls and e-mails but also complaints forwarded by the consumer affairs department of the authority, subject to internal procedures, complaint registration process and other process requirements," it added. The regulator has also put in place the Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS) as an online system for grievance management. IGCC has an interface with IGMS; and through IGMS, has an interface with grievance systems of all insurers. The Irdai receives complaints on insurers from prospects and policyholders, and takes up these grievances with insurers for resolution. (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.) State-run is looking to raise up to Rs 2,000 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP) route before July-end, its Managing Director and CEO A S Rajeev said. In April this year, the Pune-based lender had received board approval to raise Rs 5,000 crore by way of QIP/rights issue/ preferential issue or by issuing Basel III bonds. "We are planning to raise around Rs 2,000 crore equity through QIP immediately. The process has already started and we will raise it before July-end, Rajeev told PTI in an interaction. The base size of the issue is Rs 1,000 crore and it has a greenshoe option of another Rs 1,000 crore, he said. Following this equity raise, the government's holding in the bank will reduce to below 85 per cent from 94 per cent currently, and the capital adequacy ratio will improve to 17-18 per cent from around 14.49 per cent as of March 31, 2021, Rajeev said. This fund will be deployed for expansion of the loan book, which the bank is looking to grow by 16-18 per cent to around Rs 1.25 lakh crore in this fiscal from Rs 1.08 lakh crore as of March 31, 2021, he said. Of the total loan book of the bank at present, the share of corporate loans is 37 per cent and of retail, agriculture and MSME (RAM) segment is 63 per cent, he said adding, "We want the ratio of RAM to the corporate segment to be 65:35 during the current fiscal." The bank is envisaging a 20-25 per cent growth in the retail, agriculture and MSME (RAM) segment this year. The lender's corporate loan size is close to Rs 40,000 crore and it is targeting to grow it by another Rs 10,000 crore in this financial year. It has a sanction pipeline of Rs 25,000 crore in the corporate and MSME segments for the current fiscal, he said. "We have churned our portfolio with improvement in the share of lending to better-rated corporates. This will minimise the delinquencies and attract lower capital requirement," Rajeev added. In the corporate segment, the bank will continue lending to better-rated corporates, including sunrise sectors such as infrastructure, pharmaceuticals and FMCG, he said. Under the government's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), the bank's total disbursement, so far, is around Rs 2,100 crore, and it plans to lend another Rs 500 crore this year. Rajeev said the bank's exposure to the healthcare sector is Rs 2,000-2,400 crore, which is 2 per cent of the total advances portfolio. In April and May, it had already disbursed over Rs 225 crore to the sector. "We intend to double our portfolio under the healthcare sector and make it 4 per cent of our total advances portfolio during the current fiscal. We have also come out with two to three products in tune with the RBI policy," he said. Last month, the RBI had announced an on-tap term liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 crore under which can provide fresh lending support to a wide range of entities from the healthcare segment. The government has also announced ECLGS 4.0, under which a 100 per cent guarantee cover to loans up to Rs 2 crore will be provided to hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, medical colleges for setting up on-site oxygen generation plants. Rajeev further said since the exit from the RBI's prompt corrective action (PCA) framework in January 2019, the lender has taken several steps to strengthen its balance sheet, which has resulted in a significant improvement in all its financial parameters. "We have been successful in registering profits quarter on quarter since March 2019. Our net profit rose 41.39 per cent to Rs 550 crore during FY21 from Rs 389 crore in FY20. Operating profit also rose 39 per cent to Rs 3,958 crore in FY21 from Rs 2,847 crore last year," he said. The bank's CASA (Current Account and Savings Account) improved to 54 per cent as of March 31, 2021, which according to Rajeev is one of the best in the banking industry. The bank has also managed to bring its gross non-performing assets to 7.23 per cent as of March 31, 2021, from 18.64 per cent in September 2018, when it was under PCA. Net NPAs stood at 2.48 per cent as of March 31, 2021. At present, market capitalisation of the bank stands at Rs 17,500 crore against Rs 3,948 crore as of March 2019, he said. In FY22, the bank is targeting to bring down gross NPA to below 6 per cent and net NPA to below 2 per cent. Net interest margins (NIM) will remain above 3 per cent in this fiscal, he said. It has set a recovery and upgradation target of Rs 2,500-2,600 crore during the current year. The lender is also expecting Rs 500 crore recovery from written-off accounts in this fiscal, Rajeev said. The lender is looking at opening 200 banking outlets with a hub and spoke model in this fiscal, he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A powerful gas line ripped through a residential neighbourhood in central China's Hubei Province on Sunday early morning, killing at least 12 people and injuring 150 others, including 39 critically. The blast took place at about 6:30 am local time in the Zhangwan district of Shiyan city in Hubei province, killing 12 people and trapping a large number of people under the rubble of their homes. Authorities have rescued nearly 150 people from the area, including 39 with serious injuries and rushed them to hospitals, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a thorough probe into the cause of the blast and ordered all-out efforts to rescue the injured. In light of numerous accidents at companies and on campuses, all must work together to shoulder their responsibilities, strengthen their political comprehension and root out the causes of such hazards," Xi said. Images and video footages circulating on social media platform Weibo showed rescue workers pulling out people from the wreckage of flattened houses. The explosion, which took place at a two-story building built in the early 1990s that includes pharmacies, restaurants and other businesses, destroyed and affected residents in nearby buildings, state-run Global Times reported. People from 913 households close to the site have been evacuated, according to the local government. "Hearing the loud bang, I immediately scrabbled beneath the table, thinking it was an earthquake," a resident surnamed Liu, who owns a small restaurant some 20 metres away from the site, told the Global Times. Liu was in his restaurant when the explosion took place. He recalled the scary moment when the floor was shaking and food ingredients on the table in the kitchen being "thrown onto the ground" by shockwaves. A video of the explosion site published by the media outlet youth.cn showed the horrifying scenes of houses being ruined into big concrete chunks and piles of broken wood, and the air ticking with dust. The walls of some buildings are blackened by the heat of the explosion. Gas explosions, especially from poorly maintained pipelines, occur in various parts for every year. The worst being the 2015 explosions in Tianjin port in which 173 people were killed and hundreds of injured. Sunday's explosion came a day after eight people died and three were injured when toxic methyl formate leaked from a vehicle at a chemical handling facility in the southwestern city of Guiyang. (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.) President on Sunday said the had restored its presence on the world stage and that the US is back at the table as he used his first overseas trip since taking office to connect with a new generation of leaders from some of the world's most powerful countries and more closely unite allies on addressing the coronavirus pandemic and China's trade and labour practices. As he wrapped three days of what he called an extraordinarily collaborative and productive meeting at the Group of Seven summit of wealthy democracies, Biden said there was genuine enthusiasm for his engagement. America's back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values, Biden said at a news conference before leaving Cornwall to visit at Windsor Castle. I think we've made progress in reestablishing American credibility among our closest friends. The president, who is on an eight-day, three country trip, left his mark on the G-7 by announcing a commitment to share 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses with the world and pressing allies to do the same. The leaders on Sunday confirmed their intent to donate more than 1 billion doses to low-income countries in the next year. ALSO READ: Naftali Bennett sworn in as Israel's PM, ending Netanyahu's 12-year rule This is going to be a constant project for a long time, Biden said of the global vaccination campaign, adding that he hoped the world could stamp out the pandemic in 2022 or 2023. Its not just the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, Biden said, but also the correct thing to do in terms of our own health." He also said the US might be able to donate an additional 1 billion vaccine doses to the world in the coming years. He again called for a probe to find whether the virus leaked from a Chinese lab. Biden also fought for the leaders' joint statement to include specific language criticizing China's use of forced labor and other human rights abuses as he worked to cast the rivalry with Beijing as the defining competition for the 21st century. The president declined to discuss the private negotiations over the provision, but said he was satisfied with the tough rhetoric, though difference remained among the allies about how forcefully to call out Beijing. The leaders also embraced Biden's call for a 15 per cent global minimum corporate tax rate. The other G-7 allies did their part in creating the impression that Biden was part of the Club and sought to help reinforce Biden's America is back mantra. Benjamin Netanyahu, famous for his ability to maneuver out of the tightest political binds, was unseated Sunday after 12 straight years in power by a brittle governing alliance whose ability to end years of political chaos will be challenged by stark internal divisions. The two-headed government approved by parliament on Sunday coalesced around a desire to remove Netanyahu, the main defendant in a tangled corruption trial, from office. Religious Jewish nationalist Naftali Bennett, 49, a former Netanyahu ally who opposes Palestinian statehood and the Iran nuclear deal, will serve until August 2023. Hell be replaced by centrist Yair Lapid, who was the main architect of this unlikely coalition and will lead the country through November 2025. This is the hour that the burden of leading the nation and the country passes, as in a relay race, to the next generation, Bennett, a high-tech millionaire, said in a speech to parliament before the vote over the unrelenting heckling of Netanyahu allies in the plenum. Bennett, whose are further to the right than Netanyahus, has drawn the ire of nationalists for hooking up in government with leftist and Arab parties. The new coalition will govern with the slimmest majorities -- commanding 61 of parliaments 120 seats -- and runs the gamut of Israeli politics: secular and religious factions, hawks and doves, free marketeers and social democrats, and an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history. Survival could prove a challenge, given the conflicting ideologies. At the same time, the coalitions raison detre -- ousting Netanyahu -- might prove to be the glue that holds it together to block any comeback bid he might make. ALSO READ: G7 agrees to boost climate finance, plans to meet $100 bn a year target Netanyahu signaled such an intent in a speech to parliament before its vote of confidence in the new government. If were destined to be in the opposition, we will do it with our heads held high until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way, he said. Israel's new prime minister, Naftali Bennett speaks during a Knesset session in Jerusalem Well be back -- soon, he added in his American-accented English, cultivated during studies in the U.S. Minutes after the vote, U.S. President Joe Biden -- whos had frostier relations with Netanyahu than predecessor Donald Trump did -- congratulated Bennett and Lapid on the formation of a new government. My administration is fully committed to working with the new Israeli government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and people throughout the broader region, Biden said in a statement. After four elections in two years and one short-lived and dysfunctional government, the disparate new coalition plans to focus on issues where common ground can be staked out. Its set a target to approve a national budget -- last done in 2018 -- within 145 days, with a focus on reducing inequality, boosting employment in the nations booming tech sector, and bolstering policing in Arab areas suffering from higher levels of crime. It has also pledged to immediately pursue a term-limit law to ensure that another run like Netanyahus never happens again. In all, Israels longest-serving prime minister governed for 15 years, including a three-year stint in the late 1990s. Finding agreement on diplomatic and security issues, however, will be difficult given the breadth of political thought housed in a coalition with such a razor-thin majority. And some pressing regional issues may prove destabilizing. The U.S. is calling for reconstruction in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, pummeled by in an 11-day conflict last month. Another impending test will be world powers efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Palestinians were not encouraged by the changing of the guard. Bennetts government is built on occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid like Netanyahus government, said Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. ALSO READ: America is back at the table, says Joe Biden as G7 summit concludes Netanyahu, 71, finds himself outside the halls of the power after former nationalist allies turned against him following more than two years of political turmoil closely linked to his legal woes. A world-lauded coronavirus vaccination drive couldnt save him. Neither could diplomatic deals with four mostly Muslim states in the Persian Gulf and Africa, or close ties with Trump that yielded gifts including U.S. recognition of contested Jerusalem as Israels capital. As the installation of the new government looked increasingly likely, Netanyahu and his allies portrayed it as a menace to the country as they unsuccessfully tried to peel off defectors. Political discourse on social media grew more violent, prompting Israels internal security chief to take the rare step of warning against possibly harmful actions. Media reported that security details accompanying Bennett and his closest political ally were stepped up. Netanyahu, commonly known as Bibi, holds a world view shaped by the history of Jewish persecution. His older brother, Yonatan, was killed leading the 1976 rescue of Israeli and Jewish hostages at Ugandas Entebbe airport, and hes described this personal loss as formative to his determination to combat terrorism. Throughout his career, which included a stint as ambassador to the United Nations, Netanyahu emphasized Israels need to be strong to protect itself from regional enemies. This won him fierce loyalty from supporters who saw him as a guardian of Israels security but at times led to conflict with domestic opponents and world leaders who wanted him to do more to end Israels conflict with the Palestinians and deplored his efforts to undermine the nuclear accord with Iran. He also left a major stamp on the Israeli economy, turning it away from the centralized, state-dominated system established by Israels socialist founders toward a more liberalized, market-oriented Western model. Critics lashed out at him for dismantling the welfare state. Given the vulnerability of the new government, Netanyahus fall from power may be just an interlude. With this government possibly one crisis away from crumbling, hes still the countrys most recognizable politician -- and he possesses an especially strong incentive to reclaim his old job. A return to power gives him the chance to suspend his trial by passing legislation shielding a sitting leader from prosecution. Hes accused of illicitly accepting gifts from billionaire friends and trying to win sympathetic press coverage by shaping regulation to benefit media moguls -- charges he denies. Ultimately, the fate of any comeback could depend on whether allies see Netanyahu as impeding the right wings return to power, said Gideon Rahat, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. G7 leaders agreed on Sunday to raise their contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 billion a year by rich countries to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming, but only two nations offered firm promises of more cash. Alongside plans billed as helping speed infrastructure funding in developing countries and a shift to renewable and sustainable technology, the world's seven largest advanced economies again pledged to meet the target. But climate groups said the promise made in the summit's final communique lacked detail and the developed nations should be more ambitious in their financial commitments. In the communique, the seven nations - the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - reaffirmed their commitment to "jointly mobilise $100 billion per year from public and private sources, through to 2025". "Towards this end, we commit to each increase and improve our overall public contributions for this period and call on other developed countries to join and enhance their contributions to this effort." After the summit concluded, Canada said it would double its pledge to C$5.3 billion ($4.4 billion) over the next five years and Germany would increase its by 2 billion to 6 billion euros ($7.26 billion) a year by 2025 at the latest. There was a clear push by leaders at the summit in southwest England to try to counter China's increasing influence in the world, particularly among developing nations. The leaders signalled their desire to build a rival to Beijing's multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative but the details were few and far between. ALSO READ: India natural ally of G7 in defending democracy, freedom of thought: PM Johnson, host of the gathering in Carbis Bay, told a news conference that developed nations had to move further, faster. "G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions, and we were clear this weekend that action has to start with us," he said as the summit concluded. "And while it's fantastic that every one of the G7 countries has pledged to wipe out our contributions to climate change, we need to make sure we're achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time." PLEDGE OVERDUE Some green groups were unimpressed with the climate pledges. Catherine Pettengell, director at Climate Action Network, an umbrella group for advocacy organisations, said the G7 had failed to rise to the challenge of agreeing on concrete commitments on climate finance. "We had hoped that the leaders of the world's richest nations would come away from this week having put their money their mouth is," she said. ALSO READ: China hits back at G7 summit over human rights violations, Covid origins Developed countries agreed at the United Nations in 2009 to together contribute $100 billion each year by 2020 in climate finance to poorer countries, many of whom are grappling with rising seas, storms and droughts made worse by That target was not met, derailed in part by the coronavirus pandemic that also forced Britain to postpone the U.N. Conference (COP26) until later this year. The G7 also said 2021 should be a "turning point for our planet" and to accelerate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep the 1.5 Celsius threshold within reach. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the G7 leaders had agreed to phase out coal. The communique seemed less clear, saying: "We have committed to rapidly scale-up technologies and policies that further accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity, consistent with our 2030 NDCs and net zero commitment." The also pledged to work together to tackle so-called carbon leakage - the risk that tough climate policies could cause companies to relocate to regions where they can continue to pollute cheaply. ALSO READ: America is back at the table, says Joe Biden as G7 summit concludes But there were few details on how they would manage to cut emissions, with an absence of specific measures on everything from the phasing out of coal to moving to electric vehicles. Pettengell said it was encouraging that leaders were recognising the importance of but their words had to be backed up by specific action on cutting subsidies for fossil fuel development and ending investment in projects such as new oil and gas fields, as well as on climate finance. British environmentalist David Attenborough appealed to politicians to take action. "We know in detail what is happening to our planet, and we know many of the things we need to do during this decade," he said in a recorded video address to the meeting. "Tackling climate change is now as much a political and communications challenge as it is a scientific or technological one. We have the skills to address it in time, all we need is the global will to do so." The Japanese government will start investigating and Alphabets deal with Japanese smartphone makers, which could lead to tightening antitrust regulations, the Nikkei newspaper reported Sunday, without saying where it got the information. A government panel, which consists of officials, bureaucrats and external experts, will kick off the discussion this month as Apples iOS and Googles Android software stands at more than 90 per cent of the Japanese smartphone market, the paper said. The probe will include input from executives from domestic smartphone handset makers as well as manufacturers of smart speakers and personal computers. The panel will evaluate business dealings in and whether they are conducted in a fair manner compared with cases overseas. The government may step up antitrust regulations if the panel finds any issues from the probe, the paper said. Back in June 2020, announced that it will will join forces with the United States and Europe to take on any market abuses by the four Big Tech This was perceived as a sign that Tokyo will join global efforts to regulate digital platform operators. If the size of any merger or business-tie up is big, we can launch an anti-monopoly investigation into the buyers process of acquiring a start-up, Kazuyuki Furuya, chairman of Japan's Fair Trade Commission, had told Reuters back then. Were closely watching developments including in Europe. was perceived as laying the groundwork to regulate platform operators. Among them are big tech giants dubbed GAFA Google, Apple, Amazon AMZN.O and Facebook FB.O that face various antitrust probes in western nations. Multi-national like GAFA have similar business practices across the globe, which makes global coordination crucial. If theres a policy priority for the government, theres no doubt the FTC should think about what it can do on that front, Furuya had said in 2020. By participating in the governments debate on policy issues, we have been reflecting our thinking in the process, he had added. Naftali Bennett was on Sunday sworn in as Israel's new Prime Minister, ousting Prime Minister from power after an uninterrupted 12 years at the helm of affairs. Bennett, the 49-year-old leader of the right-wing Yamina party, took oath of office after the Knesset (Parliament) elected him as the 13th Prime Minister of by a 60-59 vote in the 120-member house. One lawmaker abstained. His government has 27 ministers, nine of them women. The new government - an unprecedented coalition of ideologically divergent political parties drawn from the Right, the Left and the Centre, along with an Arab party - has a razor-thin majority in a 120-member house. Mickey Levy of Yesh Atid party was elected as the speaker of Parliament with the support of 67 lawmakers. Earlier, Bennett presented his new government's ministers in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in a speech constantly interrupted by supporters of 71-year-old Netanyahu. Amid incessant heckling from rival bloc's lawmakers, Bennett said that he is proud "of the ability to sit with people of different opinions". "At the decisive moment we took responsibility," he said. "The alternative to this government was more elections, more hate, which would have broken up the country." "It is time for responsible leaders from different parts of the nation to stop this madness, he asserted. Agitated Likud, ultra-orthodox and ultra-nationalist lawmakers constantly jeered at Bennett during his speech calling him "a criminal" and a "liar". In his speech, Bennett also said that "will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons." " will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action, he said, opposing the US efforts to revive Iran's nuclear deal. Bennett, a former ally turned rival of Netanyahu, is leading a fragile coalition of eight parties - Yamina, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, New Hope, Labor, Meretz, United Arab List, Kahol Lavan and Yisrael Beiteinu. The alliance contains parties that have vast ideological differences, and perhaps most significantly includes the first independent Arab party to be part of a potential ruling coalition, Ra'am. Bennett has entered into a power-sharing agreement with Centrist leader Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, under which the latter would take over Premiership in September 2023, serving for two years till the end of the term. Lapid, the leader of the second-largest faction in the Knesset with 17 seats was invited by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition after Netanyahu, leading the Likud party with 30 seats, expressed his inability to put together a government backed by a majority of the lawmakers. The unstable coalition that Lapid has managed to put together faces severe challenges and the glue that seems to hold them together is the 'unity of purpose' created by the agenda of ousting Netanyahu. The approval of the new government by the Knesset ended 12 years of uninterrupted rule by Netanyahu, who holds the record of being the longest-serving Prime Minister in the country's history. Having served in the position earlier between 1996 and 1999, Netanyahu last year surpassed the record held by one of the Jewish state's founding leaders, David Ben-Gurion. In his address to parliament, Netanyahu vowed to bring down this "dangerous government". "If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way, Netanyahu said as he made clear he has no plans on giving up leadership of the Likud Party. Iran is "celebrating" the formation of a "weak government in Israel, Netanyahu said. "From the moment the US returns to the nuclear deal with Iran, the incoming government won't approve significant operations in Iran," he said. "A government that is not able to forcefully oppose the community on the pressing issues for our fate is not worthy of leading Israel," he said, claiming that Bennett doesn't have the credibility or the global standing to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capability. The formation of the new government ended the political impasse in the country that saw four elections in less than two years leading to inconclusive results. But opinion polls suggest that majority of the Israelis do not look too hopeful regarding the longevity of the coalition of eight parties who do not see eye-to-eye on most of the critical issues facing the country. Many analysts feel that the two factors likely to prolong or determine the tenure of the new fragile coalition are the fear of Netanyahu's return and also a possible political demise of some of the right-wing factions that have gone against the wishes of their voting constituency to join hands. It also includes Bennett's Yamina party which has to score some "major wins" to restore the faith of its supporters in the movement. Interestingly, almost one-third of the people standing in unity to oust Netanyahu would otherwise be his 'natural allies' ideologically, having also worked as his close associates in the past. Many analysts believe that Netanyahu's long-term 'invincibility' led to arrogance because of which he went on pushing his friends away from him each time there were differences of opinion, simultaneously also labelling them as Leftists as if it was a stigma. It is still not all over for Netanyahu, who has dominated Israel's political landscape for years and would remain the head of the right-wing Likud party and become the leader of the opposition. The coalition agreement involving eight factions with the 61 seats required for a majority was signed on June 2, just about half an hour before a deadline was due to expire. Netanyahu is fighting corruption cases on fraud, bribery and breach of trust charges, which he denies. If he were to go into the opposition, he might be denied parliamentary immunity. (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.) Pakistan has placed strict restrictions on travellers from 26 countries including India to contain the spread of COVID-19 cases in the country. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a nerve centre to synergize effort against COVID-19 has placed these countries in the "C category" and revised the inbound air/land travel categories with an immediate effect, Dawn reported. "Countries in A category are exempted from the mandatory Covid-19 test, travellers from areas in B category require a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that must be taken within 72 hours of the travel date while countries in C category are restricted and people can travel only under specific NCOC guidelines," an official of the country's Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) said. The list of 26 countries includes India, Iran, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Tunisia, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Namibia, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago as well as Uruguay in the C category list. Apart from the nations in "C category", the rest have been included in the "B category" and passengers from these countries will be required to present a negative PCR test result. This comes as Pakistan reported 1,194 new cases and 57 fatalities in the last 24 hours. (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.) Several hundred residents in Britain gathered at the site of the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall, calling for action to save democracy in on Saturday. Protestors and their supporters took part in the demonstration in the port town of Falmouth, where the media center is located, reported NHK World. The protesters marched with placards, calling for G7 leaders to take concrete action against military and work to rebuild for democracy and freedom in A 21-year-old student from Myanmar said that he wants the leaders not only to discuss the situation, but to act on it. He added that if democracy is forgotten, the military will advance its control and more citizens will pay the price. A Myanmar woman who lives in London expressed her anger, saying that the G7 statement does not suffice in the face of a worsening situation in Myanmar, and that action is needed. She went on to say that the current situation has to be reversed, but she is disappointed by the response. The elected leaders were overthrown by the army on February 1 in a coup that has plunged the Southeast Asian country into chaos. Meanwhile, in the military crackdown on anti-coup protesters in Myanmar continues, as many as 840 people have been killed so far, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP). The army overthrew Aung Sang Suu Kyi, saying her party had cheated in November elections, an accusation rejected by the previous election commission and monitors. Since then, the army has failed to establish control. It faces daily protests, strikes that have paralysed the economy, assassinations and bomb attacks and a resurgence of conflicts in Myanmar's borderlands. (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 the payments major Paytm board reportedly approving a bumper share sale plan running north of Rs 22,000 crore, the market is set for a big days as over a dozen players, including fintechs, are set to mop up over Rs 55,000 crore this fiscal from the market, say investment bankers. With more than a dozen insurance, asset management, commercial banking, non-banks, microfinance, housing finance and payment bank players already filing draft documents with the market regulator Sebi for public offerings, the sector is set to dominate the primary issues or initial public offerings (IPOs) over the coming months. Some of those who have already filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHPs) with the Sebi include Aadhar Housing Finance (Rs 7,500 crore), Policy Bazar (Rs 4,000 crore), Aptus Housing Finance (Rs 3,000 crore), Star Health Insurance (Rs 2,000 crore), Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC (Rs 1,500-2,000 crore) Arohan (Rs 1,800 crore), Fusion Microfinance (Rs 1,700 crore), Fincare Small Finance Bank (Rs 1,330 crore), Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (Rs 1,000-1,300 crore), Medi Assist (Rs 840 crore) and Jana Small Finance Bank (Rs 700 crore), among others. And the board of the biggest payments bank Paytm has reportedly cleared an over Rs 22,000 crore IPO, seeking to collectively garner around Rs 55,000 crore from the public. If materialised, the Paytm issue will be the largest ever in the country, eclipsing the hitherto largest issue -- the Rs 15,000-crore share sale by the government in national miner Coal India in October 2010, says investment bankers seeking not to be quoted. Investment bankers and analysts consider the boom to be reflective of the ongoing bull run and thus advice retail investors to be cautious while parking money in new companies. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services in Kochi, said the performance of the IPO market usually has a strong correlation to the performance of the secondary market. "If the stock market is bullish, it attracts a large number of investors into IPOs. Particularly, new investors lured by high potential profits, get attracted to new offers and the IPO market has always done well during market booms, Vijayakumar told PTI. Rupen Rajguru, head of equity investments and strategy at global wealth management firm Julius Baer in Mumbai, concurs and cautions retail investors to investors to study the valuations very carefully before investing as the market is a but over-heated now. "The current IPO market buoyancy is expected to continue into the next few quarters. IPOs are in fact, playing on the financialization of savings theme, which is a big structural shift in the country," Rajguru told PTI from Mumbai. He said Julius Baer at the global level is "bullish on India as it considers it to be one of the preferred emerging after China". Though stating that the present bull market provides a favourable setting for IPOs, Vijayakumar also cautioned retail investors to be careful while applying for IPOs as some of the recent IPOs got listed at a huge discount to the tune of 30-40 per cent below the issue price. Kalyan Jewellers and Suryoday Small Finance Bank are even now quoting at a discount to the issue price, he said. "Promoters and merchant bakers have a responsibility to price the issue reasonably to leave something on the table for retail investors. Aggressive pricing will be damaging to all," Vijayakumar warned. Pointing out that even good issues will be impacted by an adverse market, he said since are overvalued now, there is a possibility of a sharp correction. If IPOs are to sail through even under difficult market conditions, the pricing has to be right, he said. Apart from traditional financial services players, several digital payment and fintech players are also planning to tap the IPO market. Digital payments major Paytm board has approved a proposal to raise over Rs 22,000 crore from IPO, while online insurance platform Policy Bazar is also looking to float a Rs 4,000-crore offering, say industry sources. Two small finance banks -- Jana SFB and Fincare SFB -- have also filed their draft papers with the watchdog. While Fincare is planning to mop up Rs 1,330 crore through public offering, Jana is looking to raise around Rs 700 crore. Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, the largest non-bank sponsored AMC, is looking to go public with Rs 1,500-2,000 crore offering. With an AUM of Rs 2.7 lakh crore, this is among the top five asset managers and will become the fourth AMC to get traded on the domestic bourses. From the insurance sector, there are two IPOs Westbridge Capital and billionaire investor Rakesh Jhununwalla-backed Star Health & Allied Insurance, and the largest health benefits administrator Bengaluru-based Medi Assist TPA. Medi Assist has filed IPOS papers last month to raise around Rs 840 crore and it will be the first IPO by an insurance TPA (third-party administrator), while Star Health is firming up a Rs 2,000 crore issue. Private equity firm Blackstone-backed Aadhar Housing Finance and Chennai-based Aptus Housing Finance are also looking to raise Rs 7,500 crore and Rs 3,000 crore respectively through IPOs. Microfinance players like Arohan Financial Services, Fusion Microfinance and digital debt platform Northern Arc are also looking to hit the IPO market. The southern Tamil Nadu-based old generation private sector lender Tamilnad Mercantile Bank is also planning a Rs 1,000-crore issue before the end of the calendar year, according to sources. (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 1955, politics in the USSR had started becoming more normal. When Khrushchev won a power struggle against Molotov, the loser was sent as ambassador to Mongolia: There were no agencies or imprisonment in the picture. The USSR seemed to be coming out of its more radical stage, it seemed to become a normal country. For many in the world, it was a time to normalise the relationship with the USSR, to look for areas of fruitful trade and collaboration, and thus encourage the path of the country towards normalcy. Two milestones reshaped events. In 1983, a Soviet fighter plane shot down ... The Centre has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from experienced Indian agencies for delivering COVID-19 vaccines and drugs by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone at various locations in India. HLL Infra Tech Services Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of HLL Lifecare Ltd, has invited EoI on behalf of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for delivery of medical supplies at remote locations in the country. The objective of the project is to develop a medical supplies delivery model for remote inaccessible areas through UAVs. The last date for submission of online bids through Central Public Procurement Portal is 1 pm on June 22, while the submitted bids will be opened on the same day, as per the EoI. In the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, ICMR had conducted a successful feasibility study to deliver vaccines by UAV in collaboration with IIT, Kanpur with the objective to strengthen delivery of vaccines. "Based on the preliminary results of the study, ICMR has developed a standard protocol for successful delivery of vaccines using a UAV. Now, based on the experience gained in the feasibility study ICMR is keen to develop a model for vaccine delivery by UAV in the field practice area to reach areas to cover last-mile coverage at difficult terrain in selected locations," the document said. ICMR will engage UAV operators to operate Beyond Visual Line of Site (BVLOS) in fixed pre-defined/ pre-approved flight paths and deliver medical supplies payload at selected locations in India and return to the command station. Also read: Govt launches 'Project O2 for India' to increase supply of medical oxygen "The UAV operator shall be responsible for establishing, installing, operating and maintaining UAV based system for delivery of medical supplies (vaccines/ drugs). Also, the UAV operator must adhere to safety guidelines as per the regulations by Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Govt of India for operating BVLOS- UAV," the EoI said. ICMR may support the shortlisted operator in getting DGCA approval for delivery of medical supplies. The UAV should be able to cover a minimum aerial distance of 35 km and carry a minimum payload of 4 kg, as per the EoI. Besides, it should be have a vertical altitude of minimum of 100 metre. The tenure of engagement will be for a period of 90 days initially, which can be extended further depending on the performance of the UAV operator and need of the program. Earlier in April, the Centre earlier granted permission to Telangana government's 'Medicine from the Sky' project to use drones for experimental delivery of COVID-19 vaccine. The pilot project is likely to begin in June, with a total of 10,000 vials to be delivered from a central location to primary health centres. Also read: 5 of 10 most valued firms add over Rs 1 lakh crore in m-cap; Infosys, TCS lead gainers The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government is expected to announce additional COVID-19 lockdown relaxations on Sunday for the coming week as part of its phased unlocked plan for the national capital. Reopening salons and weekly markets in the national capital may be on the table for authorities among other things. "There is a likelihood of the Delhi government announcing more relaxations like reopening salons and weekly markets from next week. Reopening of cinema halls, gyms and allowing dining at restaurants are also under consideration," a source told PTI. Last week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced the reopening of malls, markets, and Delhi Metro services as well as several other relaxations regarding COVID-19 restrictions in the national capital. The Chief Minister had stated at the time that more lockdown relaxations will be announced if the COVID-19 situation in the national capital continued to improve. Traders demand reopening of weekly markets Following last week's announcements, associations of weekly markets had urged the state government to allow them to operate their businesses. Complaining that bigger markets have been allowed to reopen, the associations stated that the government was ignoring the plight of small vendors who have been most affected by the COVID-19 lockdown measures. Some groups have even filed a petition in the Delhi High Court wanting compensation from the state government. Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) has demanded the reopening of salons and gyms from June 14 onwards. The CTI had organised an online meeting of salon and gym owners in the national capital. The attendees have demanded the reopening of gyms and salons, explained CTO Chairman Brijesh Goyal. Goyal added that the CTI has written to the Delhi government as well as Delhi Disaster Management Authority(DDMA). The organisation has urged them to allow the reopening of gyms and salons as the livelihood of over 15 lakh people depends on them. Also Read: Severe COVID-19 may lead to low 'gray matter' in brain after oxygen therapy, says study Addressing the outreach sessions of the G7 summit on the second day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the reform of multilateral institutions as the best signal of commitment to the cause of open societies. The Prime Minister took part in two sessions titled 'Building Back Together-Open Societies and Economies' and 'Building Back Greener: Climate and Nature'. The Group of Seven (G7) comprises the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US. As chair of G7, the UK has invited India, Australia, South Korea, South Africa to the summit as guest countries. In the session on open societies, PM Modi said democracy and freedom are a part of India's civilizational ethos and shared the concern expressed by several leaders that open societies are particularly vulnerable to disinformation and cyber-attacks, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. Modi stressed on the need to ensure that cyberspace remains an avenue for advancing democratic values and not of subverting it. "Highlighting the non-democratic and unequal nature of global governance institutions, PM called for the reform of the multilateral system as the best signal of commitment to the cause of open societies," it said, adding that the leaders adopted the 'open societies statement' at the end of the meeting. Also read: Govt launches 'Project O2 for India' to increase supply of medical oxygen In the session on climate change, PM Modi highlighted that the planet's atmosphere, biodiversity and oceans can not be protected by countries acting in silos, and called for collective action on climate change. Speaking about India's unwavering commitment to climate action, Modi mentioned the commitment by Indian Railways to achieve net zero emissions by 2030 and stressed that India is the only G20 country on track to meet its Paris commitments, the statement said. Taking note of the increasing effectiveness of the two major global initiatives nurtured by India -- the CDRI and the International Solar Alliance, Modi "stressed that developing countries need better access to climate finance, and called for a holistic approach towards climate change that covers all dimensions of the problem - mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer, climate financing, equity, climate justice and lifestyle change". Addressing the first outreach session of G7 Summit on Saturday, the Prime Minister had emphasised the special responsibility of democratic and transparent societies for preventing future pandemics. Also read: G7 summit: PM Modi emphasises responsibility of transparent societies to prevent future pandemics Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for adopting a "one earth, one health" approach to effectively deal with the coronavirus pandemic globally during a virtual address at a session of the G7 summit. Calling for global unity, leadership, and solidarity to prevent future pandemics, Modi emphasised the special responsibility of democratic and transparent societies to deal with the challenge. The prime minister also sought support of the G7 for a proposal moved at the WTO by India and South Africa for patent waiver on COVID related technologies. Also Read: G7 summit: PM Modi emphasises responsibility of transparent societies to prevent future pandemics "The prime minister committed India's support for collective endeavours to improve global health governance. He sought the G7's support for the proposal moved at the WTO by India and South Africa, for a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver on COVID-related technologies," an official statement said. "Prime Minister Modi said that today's meeting should send out a message of 'One Earth, One Health' for the whole world," it said about his address at the outreach session. Also Read: PM Modi to virtually attend outreach sessions of G7 summit on June 12-13, says MEA The Group of Seven (G7) comprises the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. As chair of the G7, the UK invited India, Australia, South Korea, and South Africa to the summit as guest countries. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday expressed "serious concern" about rising infections of the Delta variant of coronavirus, reinforcing suggestions that he is set to delay lifting England's last remaining lockdown curbs. PM Johnson is due to announce on Monday whether the planned lifting of restrictions, which would see an end to limits on social contact, can go ahead on June 21 as set out under a planned 'roadmap'. The government had hoped that the success of one of the world's fastest rollouts of the vaccines would end the limits on indoor gatherings and the requirement of pubs and restaurants to provide only table service. Also Read: UK PM Boris Johnson announces 1 billion pound trade deal with India But the rapid spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant, first detected in India, has thrown those plans into jeopardy, meaning the government will delay the lifting of the restrictions by a month, the Daily Telegraph reported. A four-week delay would push back the easing of restrictions to July 19. Although PM Johnson said officials would continue to study the data before making a final decision, he was less optimistic about the situation than he was at the end of May. "It's clear that the variant which was first detected in India is more transmissible and it's also true that the cases are going up, and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up," Prime Minister Johnson told Sky News. "Now, we don't know exactly to what extent that is going to feed through into extra mortality, but clearly it's a matter of serious, serious concern." Rising Infections Any delay to PM Johnson's unlocking roadmap risks triggering a row with some politicians in his party, who have opposed keeping the restrictions in place. Also Read: UK PM Boris Johnson urges G7 to vaccinate world by end of 2022 Karan Bilimoria, president of the Confederation of British Industry, said companies understood the need to tread cautiously in a health crisis but many firms in sectors such as hospitality were barely breaking even under the current rules. "If there's a full delay for two to four weeks, then it's got to be irreversible: we cannot have stop-start and as long as that is clarified we will have to cope with this delay," he said. The British PM attempted to add some optimism by suggesting the government would not reimpose any restrictions, such as the ban on households mixing indoors or the closure hospitality venues. The government has always said decisions at each stage of unlocking depend on the data. Britain on Saturday reported 7,738 new COVID-19 cases, down slightly from a day earlier, when they were the highest since February. Asked if he was less optimistic about the easing of lockdown than at the end of May, he said: "Yes, that's certainly fair." Any decision Johnson makes only applies to England because the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland make most public health decisions in their nations. PM Johnson has said that an increase in cases was always expected after the most recent stage of lockdown easing in May, but the key to whether all coronavirus restrictions can be scrapped will be the extent to which Britain's vaccine rollout has broken the link between cases and deaths. Britain's total COVID-19 death count is over 127,000 but the number of daily deaths has fallen following a third national lockdown and a rapid vaccine rollout. More than three-quarters of adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The chief of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has convened a meeting of all trade ministers on July 15 to iron out differences with regard to providing fisheries subsidies, sources said. The aim is to conclude the negotiations soon and after that a text is finalised so that an agreement on fisheries can be reached in the forthcoming ministerial meet of WTO in December in Geneva. Hectic negotiations are going on in Geneva on the matter. The objective of these negotiations is to discipline subsidies with the overall objective to have sustainable fishing and to eliminate IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing subsidies and prohibit subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing. "It will be an online meeting of the Trade Ministers. WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has called the meeting of the trade negotiating committee on July 15 on the matter," sources said. While developed nations are pushing for prohibitions on subsidies, India wants an equitable and balanced outcome as the country provides support to its small and marginal fishermen who depend on the sector for sustenance. Unlike rich nations which provide billions of dollars of subsidies to their fishermen, India's subsidy amounts to only about Rs 770 crore. The government provides subsidies on things like fuel and boats. Fishing communities of developed countries use highly mechanised boats for fishing, which are called mother boats wherein they have processing units also. As India's subsidy is minimal and provided to small and marginal fishermen, it has sought more time to implement the norms or disciplines, which would be finalised after complete negotiations, on the prohibition of subsidies for fishing activities in Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). There are primarily three areas of fishing - territorial waters (12 nautical miles from the sea shore), EEZ (exclusive economic zones - 200 nautical miles), and high seas. India wants that fishing activities in territorial waters should be completely out of the ambit of the agreement, while adequate time should be given to implement commitments of the agreement in EEZs. For this, the country has asked for the necessity of an appropriate and effective special and differential treatment (S&DT) for developing countries and LDCs (least developed countries) in the negotiations. Sources said that the WTO rules should not burden poor fishermen who are making their livelihoods from the sector and catch fish in the territorial waters. "Where is the evidence to suggest that the root cause of IUU fishing is the fishing taking place within 12 nautical miles of a coastal state? What we are seeking is an exemption up to 12 NM (nautical miles) for 'U' and 'U...," according to a statement made by India at the open-ended meeting on S&DT provisions in the NGR fisheries subsidies negotiations held on May 31. For fishing in EEZ (exclusive economic zones) and RFMO (regional fisheries management organisations - it is composed of representatives from nations that fish in a set region or target a specific stock) area, India has stated that the S&DT has to be based on criteria that take into account development needs, developing capacities and time to implement these disciplines. "....we need a 7 years S&D transition period for the U&U part of the IUU in the EEZ," it added. India has time and again reiterated that member countries of the WTO that have provided huge subsidies for unsustainable fishing should first take the responsibility of significantly cutting down those harmful support measures which are leading to over fishing. "We are of the view that the latest text further takes us away from concluding this discussion. Not having the ability of developing countries who are not enjoying the benefits of large numbers of industrial vessels to protect the livelihoods of small and artisanal fishers, food security concerns and policy space for developing fishing capacity, it certainly needs due consideration," India has added. At the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference, held at Buenos Aires in Argentina in December 2017, members had agreed to engage constructively in fishery subsidy negotiations, with a view to adopting an agreement by the next ministerial conference, highest decision making body of the WTO. The 12th Ministerial Conference will take place from November 30 to December 3, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland. The sector provides livelihood to about 16 million Indian fishermen and fish farmers at the primary level and about twice the number along the value chain. The share of the fisheries sector in the total GDP (at current prices) increased from 0.40 per cent in 1950-51 to 1.03 per cent in 2017-18. WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies were launched in 2001 at Doha, with a mandate to clarify and improve existing WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. That mandate was elaborated in 2005 at the Hong Kong meet, including with a call for prohibiting certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing. Also Read: India asks WTO members to finish TRIPS waiver on COVID-19 vaccines talks by July-end Four companies will launch their initial share-sales next week to raise Rs 9,123 crore collectively, indicating that the IPO (Initial Public Offering) market is getting back on track after a halt of two months. The last IPO was that of Macrotech Developers (erstwhile Lodha Developers), which opened in April. The companies which will launch their IPOs in the month of June are Shyam Metalics, Sona Comstar, Navoday Enterprises, India Pesticides, Dodla Dairy, KIMS Hospitals, and Arohan Financial. While, Shyam Metalics, and Sona Comstar will unveil their public offerings on Monday, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences and Dodla Dairy will launch their IPOs on June 16, information with exchanges showed. Navoday is also likely to open for public subscription on June 14. Also Read: Adani Group initiates talks to spin off airport biz, launch IPO In addition, Clean Science & Technology expects to hit the primary markets in the first week of July 2021 with IPO size of Rs 1,500 crore, while India Pesticides is likely to come out with its public issue this month or July, Yash Gupta, Equity Research Associate at Angel Broking, said. "The equity markets are flushed with liquidity and retail participation is at an all-time high. It is difficult to imagine a better time frame for small and mid cap companies to raise public money. So, it is quite natural for companies to tap the IPO market," Naveen Kulkarni, Chief Investment Officer, Axis Securities, told PTI. The companies are raising funds to retire their debt, funding capital expenditure requirement and for general corporate purposes. Auto component maker Sona Comstar's Rs 5,550-crore IPO comprises fresh issue of shares amounting to Rs 300 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) aggregating up to Rs 5,250 crore by selling shareholder Singapore VII Topco III Pte Ltd, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group Inc. The issue, with a price band of Rs 285-291 a share, will open on June 14 and close on June 16. The Rs 909-crore IPO of Shyam Metalics and Energy Ltd, leading integrated metal producing company, consists of fresh issuance of equity shares worth up to Rs 657 crore and an OFS to the tune of Rs 252 crore by existing shareholders. The price band has been fixed at Rs 303-306 per share for the IPO, which will open for public subscription during June 14-16. Also Read: Shyam Metalics IPO opens June 14: Should you subscribe to the issue? Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences' IPO comprises fresh issue of shares aggregating up to Rs 200 crore and an OFS of up to 2,35,60,538 equity shares from promoters and existing shareholders. Those offering shares in the OFS include General Atlantic Singapore KH Pte Ltd, Dr Bhaskara Rao Bollineni, Rajyasri Bollineni and Bollineni Ramanaiah Memorial Hospitals. The company has set a price band of Rs 815-825 a share for its three-day initial share-sale, which will conclude on June 18. At the upper end of the price band, the IPO is expected to fetch Rs 2,144 crore. The IPO of Dodla Dairy comprises fresh issuance of shares worth up to Rs 50 crore besides an OFS of up to 1,09,85,444 equity shares by TPG Dodla Dairy Holdings Pte Ltd, Dodla Sunil Reddy, Dodla Deepa Reddy and Dodla Family Trust. The leading dairy company in South India has fixed a price a band of Rs 421-428 a share for its initial share-sale, which will open for public subscription on June 16 and conclude on June 18. At the upper end of the issue price, the IPO is expected to garner Rs 520 crore. Also Read: Paytm to lend Rs 743 crore to two Vijay Shekhar Sharma companies ahead of IPO Shares of these companies will be listed on BSE and NSE. According to Angel Broking's Gupta, this will be a very good opportunity for the retail investors to make money due to listing gains in a very short time of period. So far this year, 17 firms have come out with IPOs to raise Rs 17,503 crore. Apart from this, companies including Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, Glenmark Life Sciences, Rolex Rings and Seven Islands Shipping have received Sebi's go-ahead to float the IPO. Moreover, around 26 companies are awaiting Sebi's approval to launch the initial share-sale, data with Sebi showed. Sandeep Bhardwaj, CEO, Retail at IIFL Securities said that the great IPO story of FY21 will continue well into FY22. There is enough liquidity in the system and robust investor appetite for primary issues. "Also the pandemic has reset businesses across industries and many rising sectors will look to tap the markets," he added. (With inputs from PTI.) There is no law against the practice in China, nor is any legislation against it on the table Jul 01, 2021 08:03 PM 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. St. Johnsbury, VT (05819) Today Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. article $100.00 / for 365 days Sponsored Content Articles Policy & Procedure Only content submissions which satisfy our conditions for publication will be published. 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Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the IRS budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 8, 2021. (Tom Williams/Pool via AP) The Carteret Community College Board of Trustees agreed to consider a proposal Tuesday to allow N.C. State University researchers to build a geohome prototype section, similar to this smaller version, next to the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology. (Contributed photo) Photo: CTV News Bear spotted on CCTV footage rummaging through the car A Coquitlam family got a bit of a shock Thursday morning, after finding out a couple of bears had broken into their car and garage, helping themselves to crumbs under the car seat. Sean McQuillan and his family told CTV News Vancouver that they woke up to a large mess in their front yard and didnt know what had happened. Multiple missed calls and messages from his neighbourhood WhatsApp group and police had come in overnight. The family discovered that around 3 a.m. that morning, two bears found their way into the car in their driveway and somehow managed to open the garage door. My son here was probably playing with the keys and left it unlocked by accident, McQuillan said. Even with two bears rifling through their garage and RCMP vehicles pulling up at their house, the family slept through everything. Im just shocked that we slept through it with a baby and a toddler and two dogs, said Heather McQuillan. It was quite a commotion out here. The two hungry bears opened a number of the car doors appearing to look for food. They had lifted up the car seat in the middle and ripped it and shredded it to try and get at the little crumbs that he left underneath, that I had no idea were even there, Sean said. More rips were found inside the car, on the drivers and back seats. Sean was surprised most by the fact that the bears managed to lift the garage door. This was a coordinated bearglury, he added. The weather stripping was torn off the bottom of the garage door and the bears found the garbage that is stored at the back of the garage. They didnt break anything but they did find the garbage, he said. The family had another bear incident just 10 days before. We were leaving, I had the kids in tow, car seat in my arm, and I open my door and I came within two or three feet. There was a mom bear and her cub right there, Heather said. Conservation officers told CTV News its likely that whatever attracted the bears to their neighbourhood, probably wasnt coming from the familys house since they hadnt left any food out. But everyone is reminded once again to secure garbage and not leave attractants out. The two bears in this case were gone by the time police arrived. I wouldnt want anything to happen to the bears. Obviously were in their neighbourhood as much as anything else, said McQuillan, I hope they find some other food so they dont keep coming back.. The family notes that bear sightings are common in their area. We respect the fact that were kind of in the bears home and we definitely dont want bears to be terminated or anything like that, Heather said. - With files from CTV News Vancouver Photo: LNG Canada A cryogenic heat exchanger, built in Germany, being moved by self-propelled transporter. Three large pieces of equipment weighing nearly 1,000 tonnes have arrived in Kitimat, marking the beginning of the going vertical stage for the $17 billion LNG plant being built there. The equipment arrived earlier this week by ship, and will be placed on self-propelled transporters that will move them three kilometres along a special haul road to the site where the liquefaction plant is being built. The equipment includes a 345-tonne, 50-metre long cryogenic heat exchanger, and two precooler units, which weigh roughly 300 tonnes each. The aluminum cryogenic heat exchange unit and precoolers were built in Germany by Linde plc, which is based in Dublin, Ireland. Later this year, a second heat exchanger and two more precoolers are expected to be delivered. Once in place, they will be erected and will form the heart of the processing plant that will chill natural gas to minus 160 degrees Celsius to turn it into a liquid for storage and then transport via specialized LNG carriers. Taking delivery of our first main cryogenic heat exchanger and precoolers is another significant milestone for the LNG Canada project, and represents a number of firsts for us, LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee said in a written statement. Its our first opportunity to receive critical infrastructure at our new material offloading facility, and our first heavy equipment transport along our new haul road to our main construction site. Thanks to the thousands of highly-skilled Canadians who are working on our project, were making tremendous progress in 2021, and well be reaching more major milestones, safely, in the weeks and months to come. It seems that an apology is demanded whenever some horrendous wrong is discovered to have been committed in the distant past by Catholic priests and religious, on the one hand, and/or agents of the State, on the other hand. By distant past, I mean a period of time far enough back that nobody in the present Church and/or government is responsible for it. Such is the case, for example, with the efforts of both State and Church to more or less forcibly assimilate native peoples in Canada, as brought to light once again through the alleged discovery of a mass grave of Native American children on the grounds of a former Catholic residential school, to which children were consigned by the Canadian government to be educated and formed as good Canadians. (Note: Evidence now suggests that this was a collection of unmarked graves rather than a mass grave, which only strengthens the points I make below.) I do not mention this Canadian instance because the United States has no similar history, but because it is the latest recognition in a whole series of recognitions of the severe deficiencies in any nation's effort to make vulnerable groups fit the desired national pattern, apparently at nearly any cost. The same approach was taken by the government of Australia with the aboriginal population there. As with English colonialism in India and European colonialism generally in Africa, the assumption that modern Western leaders "know best" how to bestow the gifts of "civilization" on their "inferiors" was fully operative when new countries were created by Europeans. But it remains interesting how much emphasis is placed on the need for apologies from, in effect, "future" representatives of the involved entities representatives who had nothing to do with the sins and crimes in question, and who already instinctively repudiate them. You will notice this particularly in the emphasis placed on "apology" in the Associated Press story referenced in our Editor's Note on this report: Pope expresses shock, prays for healing following discovery of mass grave at Canadian residential school. You will notice this even more as a general rule as Phil Lawler pointed out yesterday in Selective indignation: Canadian calls for a Vatican apology when a complicit State can join in deflecting a portion of its own guilt onto the Catholic Church. I agree that the Church really should be held to a higher standard; but there is something very odd about the dominant culture's delight in finding fault with the Church for not upholding her own standards when, in the main, this is precisely what her opponents criticize her for on contemporary issues whenever she does. Of course I admit that the question of belated public apologies is complex. Pope St. John Paul II clearly thought that institutional apologies, even for centuries-old mistakes and wrongs, had some merit in breaking down unnecessary hostilities to, and misunderstandings, of the Church. This beloved Pope offered many apologies for the Church's historical deficiencies, or rather the deficiencies of her members. But though I consider St. John Paul II to be, truly, "the Great", I've never been comfortable with this emphasis on apologizing for the past. When are apologies meaningless? My own theory is that as long as Catholic leaders (and civil officials) are not willing to apologize for the innumerable violations of the natural law which they condone today by which, of course, I mean all the sins that are now fashionable I do not see a great deal of merit in apologizing for past sins that were fashionable in a previous day, but which no longer constitute a temptation in either mainstream Catholic or secular culture now. Moreover, I believe it is essential to recognize that the very same deficiencies in moral judgment express themselves in different specific acts as cultural interests shift over time. This demonstrates the complete uselessness of moral relativism. When we look closely, we find a continuum of abuse; it's just that different abuses are held to be right and good today as compared with yesterday, and that will change yet again tomorrow. In other words, what the dominant culture yesterday thought right and good is now condemned as abominable for no better reason than that the same faulty moral outlook has more or less randomly shifted to favor as right and good a different set of horrendous practices today. Consider the following continuum: Large numbers of people in the dominant culture in a previous era approved of slavery, or at least thought it a necessary evil and so did not work against it. Nobody would dare maintain that position now. It is easy to apologize, on behalf of the dead, for slavery. Large numbers of people in the dominant culture in a previous era approved of forcible assimilation of "inferior" native peoples, or at least thought it a necessary evil and so did not work against it. Nobody would dare maintain that position now. It is easy to apologize, on behalf of the dead, for this sort of "colonialism". Large numbers of people in the dominant culture in a previous era approved of forcible removal of babies born to the poor so that they could be placed with richer parents, or at least thought it a necessary evil, and so did not work against it. But now we are getting closer to our own ever-shifting moral outlook, for this tends to be handled through surrogate motherhood and financially-arranged adoptions today, indicating that we have not quite entirely abandoned the attitudes attendant on this practice. But our differences in technique still make it easy to apologize, on behalf of the dead, for what we might call plutocratic infant management. What the dominant culture yesterday thought right and good is now condemned as abominable for no better reason than that the same faulty moral outlook has more or less randomly shifted to favor as right and good a different set of horrendous practices today. So now, in this litany, things are becoming uncomfortable. Some aspects of what a previous era generally approved still strikes fairly close to home, such as the widespread use of medical "advances" to restrict the number of children bred by the poor; the exploitation of the natural resources and/or the environment in poor countries by the dominant Western interests; and many other practices which make our own lives more comfortable and which we notice only when convenient alternatives become available. And so we morph into our present set of unnatural vices which also cause constant suffering to those incapable of resistance. We come into the full-blown ideological redefinitions of the nature of men and women and the relations between them, as well as the ideological fiddling-for-personal-convenience with the structure of the human family both of which are dominant forms of the exploitation of children, not to mention the adults these patterns tear to pieces. We come also to the ceaseless indoctrination of children in the government schools of nearly every wealthy nation on earth an indoctrination which dwarfs that inflicted on indigenous peoples. We come, in other words, face to face with the horrors of our current situation in which marriage, family, sex and gender have all been degraded and destroyed, in which children have their psychological and spiritual stability undermined in the name of non-existent liberties, in which new forms of exploitation are invented almost daily, and in which innumerable social ills spiral upward along with drug use, self-harm and suicide. My point is that this is the same old viciousness masquerading once again as virtue, and most people would rather be caught dead than apologize for it in the moment of its ascendancy. So, no, I don't care much for apologies for past sins that are found abhorrent today by those who have simply moved on to defend and propagate new-found sins arising from exactly the same source. The blinding blur of evil The worst evils are typically committed not by extraordinarily evil people but by ordinary people who have been caught up in the culturally-dominant banality of evil in their own time and place. The worst evils are typically committed, in other words, by the general acceptance of culturally-dominant lies as truisms. We see this down through history. Often what is good and what is evil are reclassified according to the whims of society's elites, but these shifts retain much of a sameness in their refusal to be grounded either in Divine Revelation or in God's natural laws absolute moral sources that transcend our personal and societal vagaries. Instead, they mirror the dominant culture's erroneous ways of thinking, in which specific heinous practices meet with approval for a time, only to be repudiated in the adoption of new heinous practices which violate the same moral laws in different ways in ways which reflect the potent march of human cultural prejudice. After all, what could be more clever on the part of the Father of Lies than to continually stir people to righteous denunciation of the sins of previous generations so that they can feel exactly the kind of moral superiority which makes it so easy to fall into a different set of sins today! Only those who are genuinely morally perceptive can see the characteristic sins and rationalizations of their own time and place. And those who are genuinely morally perceptive would rather a thousand times over to wean others from today's abominations than to indulge in self-righteous posturing about the past. It is too easy to apologize for what all the right people uniformly regard as terrible while thoroughly approving equivalent or even worse sins and crimes that all the right people uniformly regard as wise and good. All of this this explains why I don't think much of apologizing for past particular sins which do not tempt the current generation in the same forms. An impartial observer could easily demonstrate that those who are demanding the loudest and most abject apologies are busily engaged in equally outrageous horrors which they simply refuse to recognize, because they align with their own moral compass, which is the popular ideas of the dominant culture. Yet the old sins are typically only a slightly different form of that culture's ongoing rebellion against God, against nature, against reality itself. It is too easy to apologize for what all the right people uniformly regard as terrible while thoroughly approving equivalent or even worse sins and crimes that all the right people uniformly regard as wise and good. Unless a human culture can submit itself to the absolute standards of right and wrong which we know by nature through reason and/or by Revelation through Faith standards which do not admit of constant reformulation through cultural whim then I have little interest at all in hearing apologies from present factotums for the transgressions of those who were swept by cultural whim into a different set of equally vacuous prejudices about reality. Show me a person who has no rational capacity to formulate serious concepts of good and evil that go beyond the prejudices of the dominant culture, and I'll show you a person who is heavily supportive of a whole series of grave evils that just happen to be embraced by that culture. Show me a person with no rule of life but what fashion generates based on the personal desires of our elites no rule of life other than what "everybody who matters" says is acceptable or not acceptable and I will show you someone who has no way to recognize and confess his own sins, let alone the sins of those who have come before. So here is my advice to spokespersons: Work to understand the Good and foster it now; don't apologize for what your stupid forbears did. That's a never-ending cycle in which evils are very conveniently condemned only when they have ceased to be popular. If you don't make a start toward the True and the Good in absolute terms now if your morality changes from decade to decade with every cultural shift then your descendants will surely be offering apologies for you which are just as shallow and glib and meaningless as your own apologies are today. Chattanooga got a brief chance to watch top Cincinnati Reds prospect Hunter Greene, but he is moving on to Triple-A Louisville. The 21-year-old hard thrower was 5-0 with the Lookouts with a 1.98 ERA. He had 60 strikeouts against only 14 walks, while reaching 102 MPH occasionally. Greene said on Twitter on Sunday morning, "Wanted to thank everyone in Chattanooga for a great experience and taking care of me. Great food, great people and a great city." Chicago Med alums and real-life couple Colin Donnell and Patti Murin are teaming up to solve a mystery. The pair star in the upcoming movie To Catch a Spy, which airs June 20 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Colin Donnell investigates a murder in new Hallmark mystery Colin Donnell in To Catch a Spy | 2021 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Kurt Paris RELATED: Get a First Look at Chad Michael Murray and Aly Michalkas New Hallmark Movie Sand Dollar Cove Hallmark takes viewers on a trip to Malta in its newest mystery movie. In To Catch a Spy, Nathalie Kellye plays travel writer Chloe Day, while Murin plays her photographer Sara. Chloe, Sara, and the rest of the team travel to the small island nation in the Mediterranean to cover a story about the newly renovated Hotel Optima. On their first night at the hotel, Chloe overhears an argument in another room. Then, she sees a body plummet to the ground from the balcony above her. Following the mysterious death, Chloe is quickly drawn into the investigation, as she is the primary witness to the murder. Aaron Maxwell (Donnell) is an FBI agent staying at the hotel to investigate a separate crime at the U.S. Embassy in Malta. But hes drawn into the hunt for the killer as he and Chloe work together to solve the mystery of who killed the man. Its a race against time as they work to discover clues and fit the pieces together before the killer finds them. Davy Eduard King and Jonathan Dunn also star. This isnt the first time the Chicago Med couple has starred in a Hallmark movie together To Catch a Spy isnt the first time Murin and Donnell have teamed up for a Hallmark movie. They also appeared together in the 2020 movie Love on Iceland. In that movie, Murin played a woman who travels to Iceland with her podcast producer friend Chloe (Kaitlin Doubleday). Chloe then reconnects with her ex Charlie (Donnell), a travel photographer. Donnell and Murin also worked together on the NBC series Chicago Med. Donnell played Dr. Connor Rhodes on the medical drama until 2019. Murin appeared on the Dick Wolf series as Dr. Nina Shore from 2016 to 2019. Colin Donnell and Patti Murin have been married since 2015 Colin Donnell and Patti Murin in To Catch a Spy | 2021 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Mark Cassar Donnell and Murin got engaged in 2014 after falling for each other while working on a musical adaptation of Shakespeares Loves Labours Lost in 2013, Us Weekly reported. The couple married in 2015 and welcomed their first child together in July 2020. Murin, who played Princess Anna in the Broadway version of Disneys Frozen, talked about her experience with a pandemic pregnancy in an interview with NY1, including how she felt when sh got sick with coronavirus (COVID-19). It was terrifying, she said. It was the sickest, I think Ive been in probably my entire life. Once they became parents, Donnell and Murin faced another challenge when their daughter needed surgery at 10 weeks to repair a hole in her heart. Fortunately, baby Cecily is doing so, so well now, Murin wrote on her Instagram in October 2020. To Catch a Spy airs Sunday, June 20 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. For TV fans, few things are more exciting than the upcoming Dexter revival. First airing in 2006, the show followed the life of a crime lab technician doubling as a serial killer. It was an instant hit for Showtime, but after season 4, the show took a downturn before ending with one of the most hated finales. Michael C. Hall (Dexter Morgan), however, promises the revival will offer a more fitting ending. Michael C. Hall on the red carpet at a TV event | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Michael C. Hall said the team has a desire to right the shows wrongs By the eighth and final season of Dexter, most viewers figured hed die or wind up in prison. Ultimately, neither of those things happened, with Dexter faking his death and becoming a lumberjack instead. Looking back on the Dexter series finale, Hall admitted to The Telegraph that he understands why people so angry at the way the show panned out. But theres a silver lining in it for him. The ending of the series was one that was at best confounding, if not deeply frustrating for people. But I do think that the way it ended is a part of what set the stage for us to return to it and find out what happened to him, he said. RELATED: Dexter: The Alternate Ending Makes So Much More Sense to Viewers The revival was first announced in October 2020, with an expected release date of fall of 2021. Were still in the midst of shooting it, but were far enough along that I have a sense of what its going to feel like, Hall continued. And I think for all of us involved in the project, theres some wistfulness over the fact that how mystifying the way it ended was, and a sense of responsibility and purpose that infuses our work this time around. A desire to kind of make things right. What is the Dexter reboot about? Hall wanted to stay hush-hush about the plot. But it was previously revealed that Dexter has since moved from Oregon to New York. He lives in the fictional remote town Iron Lake under the name Jim Lindsay and works as a salesman at a local shop. But thats not to say he has totally shut the door on his past. Dexter always has what we call the dark passenger living inside him, showrunner Clyde Phillips previously told TV Insider. He is more grounded than hes ever been, but that dark passenger is a voice he cannot deny. This is Dexter. People are going to die. RELATED: Dexter Showrunner Hints at Why He Moved From Oregon to New York So far, Hall is the only original actor on board for the reboot. But there are several newcomers, including Clancy Brown, who will play villain Kurt Caldwell. Caldwells character description, according to TVLine, paints him as a community figure. If hes got your back, consider yourself blessed. But should you cross Kurt, or hurt anyone that he cares for, God help you, the synopsis says in part. The show wont premiere for a few more months, but in the meantime, you can find the earlier seasons online now. June 12 marked the official 40th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the Indiana Jones epic adventure series starring Harrison Ford. After playing Han Solo in Star Wars, Ford rose to popularity, and director Steven Spielberg tapped him for the whip-cracking Indiana Jones role after Tom Selleck backed out. Some fans may not realize that the actor performed many of his own stunts, including that famous boulder chase. And Spielberg once called himself an idiot for putting Ford in that situation. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones running from a boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark | CBS via Getty Images Steven Spielberg shot Raiders boulder scene without a stunt double Theres a small celebration happening online for the Indiana Jones franchise. Life Magazine ran a special issue highlighting Raiders of the Lost Ark and dug into the movies backstory about the cast, director, filming locations, and stunts. In addition, theres an anecdote pulled from Steven Spielbergs 2017 essay published in American Cinematographer, where he discusses shooting the boulder scene without a stunt person for Harrison Ford. Spielberg explained that they had to take proper safety precautions to prevent injuries. But filming Ford directly from the front worked best for the scene because the rock was more effective chasing Harrison with Harrison running toward the camera, it just didnt work as well having him doubled. Remember, this was in 1981 before fancy CGI and editing technology. Still, it was risky. A double would have cheated his head down, so Harrison volunteered to do it himself, wrote Spielberg. He succeeded. There were five shots of the rock from five different angles each one done separately, each one done twice so Harrison had to race the rock ten times. He won ten times and beat the odds. He was lucky and I was an idiot for letting him try it. RELATED: Is Indiana Jones on Disney+? The Raiders of the Lost Ark boulder weighed 300 pounds As a viewer, its easy to imagine the adrenaline and fear that comes along with being chased by a massive boulder. But, for Ford and the Raiders of the Lost Ark crew, it was real. Though it was only a fake prop, Spielberg revealed it could have caused real damage to anyone in its path. Like death-level damage. He said it stood 12 feet and weighed 300 pounds. We went to great lengths to make a 12-foot rock out of fiberglass and wood and plaster precisely so that it wouldnt weigh as much as a real 12-foot boulder, Spielberg recalled. So whether it weighed 300 pounds, which it did, or whether it weighed 80 tons, as it would have, it could still have done bodily harm to anyone falling beneath it On the set of Raiders of the Lost Ark! pic.twitter.com/ajdbjHThdb Indiana Jones (@IndianaJones) November 11, 2013 To operate it, they used a special rod hidden among rubber stalagmites on set. The entire contraption required a fully constructed set that could accommodate all its moving parts and enable the fake boulder to move 40 yards. Fast forward to 2021, and making that scene happen would be a different undertaking. Fans will get to see Ford don his famous fedora once more as Dr. Jones in Indiana Jones 5, which is due in 2022. While its unknown whether hell have a stunt double, its highly doubtful hell have to dodge any colossal stones. In the 1980s, Rob Lowe was an infamous member of the Brat Pack. All of a sudden, drugs and alcohol became readily available at the drop of a hat. At the age of 26, the St. Elmos Fire actor decided to get sober. Though there were several factors that led him to make this decision, there was one incident, in particular, that inspired him to seek help. Rob Lowe in 1990 | Paul Harris/Getty Images Rob Lowes Brat Pack days The film that made Lowe a star, The Outsiders, was filmed in Tulsa, Okla. He turned 18 while shooting. Every day when we would wrap wed get in a van, Lowe told Variety. The Teamsters would give us a carton of beer. This was a Warner Bros. movie as mainstream as it gets. 18th birthday on the set of The Outsiders. 57th on the set of 911 Lonestar. In between have been amazing gifts professionally and personally. I am a grateful man. Thank you for the birthday wishes. Means a lot. Love you all! pic.twitter.com/Z1A7TFqlJc Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) March 17, 2021 As Lowes career progressed, he learned, first-hand, of the industrys then-attitude toward illicit drugs, particularly cocaine. This was just how the business was back then, he said. Cocaine was the thing that successful people did. There was always that wonderful moment when as an active drug abuser youd go on the set and figure out which department was selling the coke on the set. It was no different than craft services. Where are the Red Vines, and where is the great Peruvian blow? Those days are long, long, loooong gone, he added. The decision to get sober Nothing can make you get sober except you wanting to do it, he said. The threat of losing a marriage, losing a job, incarceration you name the threat, it will not be enough to do it. Its got to be in you. The reason that people dont get sober 100% of the time when they go into programs is that people arent ready when they go to use the tools. On May 10, 1990, Lowe was ready. Though the actor had previously faced legal trouble in 1989, a year after Lowe made a sex tape with a 16-year-old girl the teenagers family filed a lawsuit against him this was not the moment that made Lowe realize he needed help. Instead, a missed phone call from his mother convinced the Parks and Recreation actor he needed to make a change. I wasnt ready until I was ready, he said. I was ready when one day back in the days of answering machines my mother called me and I could hear her voice on the answering machine. I didnt want to pick up because I was really, really hungover and I didnt want her to know. She was telling me that my grandfather, who I loved, was in critical condition in the hospital and she needed my help. And I didnt pick up. My thought process in that moment was I need to drink a half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone. Today I have 31 years drug and alcohol free. I want to give thanks to everyone walking this path with me, and welcome anyone thinking about joining us; the free and the happy. And a big hug to my family for putting up with me!! Xoxo pic.twitter.com/DHbPegsqoX Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) May 10, 2021 RELATED: Celebrity Family Feud: How Rob Lowe Made His Wifes Dream Come True As hungover as he was, even Lowe knew his thought process was nuts. It was like a badly written moment in a soap opera complete with the walk into the bathroom and looking at myself in the mirror, he said. Lowe had been carrying around a business card of a drug and alcohol counselor in his wallet that a friend had given him. I couldnt keep a pair of sunglasses for more than two weeks, but I kept this card for a year in my wallet, he said. I called it the next day. Rob Lowe still works on his sobriety every day Learning about the science of addiction and how substance abuse can affect the brain was integral for Lowes recovery. Therapy helped, too understanding why he was the way he was and how his experiences had shaped him. All of my understanding about life has come from getting sober and being in recovery, he said. The work that you do once you stop whatever it is youve been abusing thats when the real work begins. And that continues to this day. In many ways, it doesnt get any easier but it does get more fulfilling. Lowe said people always thought he was going to end up like Warren Beatty in Shampoo. Instead, when I got sober, who I really was came out, he said. It turned out I was one of the first of my peers to get married and have kids. That guy was in me all the time, but the life I was leading wouldnt let him out. One of the great gifts of recovery is that you start living your authentic life. You start living your actual values and living as who you truly are, he added. How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357. NCIS: Hawaii is coming to CBS this fall, and pre-production has already begun on the island of Oahu. Numerous cast and crew announcements have been made. Including the reveal that Vanessa Lachey will star as Jane Tennant, the first female Special Agent in Charge in the NCIS franchise. Fans can also be a part of the latest spinoff. Heres how. NCIS: Hawaii lead Vanessa Lachey | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic NCIS: Hawaii has announced more casting news After it was revealed that Lachey would be the lead of the latest NCIS spinoff, the network announced more casting news. In May, it was reported that Yasmine Al-Bustami will play junior NCIS team member Lucy. Jason Antoon will be Ernie, a Cyber Intelligence Specialist and Hawaii expert. Noah Mills will play Jesse, a former homicide detective who is Tennants confidante. Now, its been revealed that two more roles have been cast. According to Deadline, Tori Anderson will play the role of Kate Whistler. While Kian Talan has landed the role of Alex Tennant. Who are these new characters? Kate Whistler is reportedly an ambitious agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency who is determined to make it to the top of her profession. In addition to excelling at her work, Kate is great at workplace politics that are involved in getting ahead. Theres a lot more to the character and her backstory, though, which members of the NCIS team will find out. As for Alex, he is the 16-year-old son of Lacheys Jane Tennant. He is strong-willed and mature beyond his years. At his core, Alex is a good kid who doesnt always make the best choices. Hes also struggling with his parents divorce and all of the life changes it has caused. Jane is a single mother of two, a son and a daughter. However, the network has not yet revealed who will play the role of the daughter or her ex-husband. You can be part of NCIS: Hawaii As CBS rounds out the cast of series regulars, Hawaii casting directors are looking for extras to appear in NCIS: Hawaii. Shayne Hartigan of Alessi Hartigan Casting told Hawaii News Now that he is excited to have all kinds of inclusion on this project. Extras sought for new CBS crime drama NCIS: Hawaii https://t.co/ahMq7w6A40 #HNN Hawaii News Now (@HawaiiNewsNow) June 8, 2021 RELATED: NCIS: Hawaii Will Not Be Known as NCIS: Hawaii Im so excited. We really want to get all, all kinds of inclusion in on this project, so of course, you know, the military, the HPD presence, but also the local community and shop owners and restaurateurs and anybody possible, Hartigan said. The new spinoff is also casting several featured roles If you are interested in being part of NCIS: Hawaii, you can go to the Alessi Hartigan Casting Facebook page to get details on the roles currently available. There are numerous roles available for actors and extras of all ages, genders, body types, and ethnicities. Most of the posts are casting notices for extras. But, there are also featured roles available. Hartigan noted that everyone who is cast must take a COVID-19 test to be on set because there is a safety bubble for the cast and crew. The NCIS: Hawaii production team came from the canceled NOLA spinoff NCIS: Hawaii was created by Christopher Silber and Jan Nash, the former executive producer and showrunner of the now-canceled NCIS: New Orleans. Also included on the creative team is SEAL Team writer and producer Matt Bosack. Larry Teng who has directed five episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles is directing and executive producing the series premiere. Teng has an overall deal with CBS Studios, so he could be back to direct more episodes in the future. NCIS: Hawaii will premiere this fall on CBS, and will air on Monday nights after the flagship series, NCIS. It doesnt look like the once close friendship between Cynthia Bailey and Nene Leakes can be repaired, at least per Leakes. The two have remained estranged since Leakes departure from RHOA. While Bailey admits the two arent necessarily friends but she wishes Leakes peace, Leakes has much harsher words for her former BFF. NeNe Leakes and Cynthia Bailey, Phaedra Parks | Wilford Harewood/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank Nene Leakes says Cynthia Bailey should have not returned to the show Leakes is opening up more about her viewpoints on the latest season of RHOA. To put it lightly, she finds it boring and inauthentic. Furthermore, she believes certain people on the show no longer have a place and says fans are growing tired of a formula that doesnt appear to work anymore. In a conversation with Michelle ATLien, Leakes was asked whether Bailey should return to the show and Leakes gave a hard no. Source: YouTube RELATED: RHOA Alum Nene Leakes Likens Herself to Beyonce Over Her Exit From the Show No. I mean she shouldnt have come back many seasons ago. Leakes said, I think she should have been gone, thats what my opinion is. And I think she is gone. I think shell say she moved to LA or something like that, Leakes says of Bailey, referencing Bailey previously suggesting shed move to LA to be with her new husband Mike Hill. Bailey has since confirmed the couple are staying in Atlanta. Despite Leakes remarks, she says she has no ill feelings toward Bailey. I hope so and I wish her well and all those things but I think that if you ever followed this show since season one, you should see the shift, she says of Baileys storyline or lack thereof. And you would look at the show and say why certain people are still here and certain people are gone. That tells you just a lot right there. The RHOA alum says she doesnt consider Cynthia Bailey to be her friend Leakes and Baileys friendship went south over Leakes feeling that Bailey doesnt hold Kenya Moore accountable for her bad behavior. The two havent spoken much since Leakes exit from the show. She also did not attend Baileys October 2020 wedding to Hill. In an interview with Hollywood Unlocked Uncensored, Leakes told Jason Lee that the friendship between the two is over. Friends, no Leakes stated boldly. Can I speak to her when I see her? Yeah, Ill try and raise my hand as much as I can. Leakes then lifted one finger slightly as an indication to the minimal hello shed give her former bestie. Source: YouTube RELATED: RHOA: Nene Leakes Reveals Why She Did Not Attend Cynthia Baileys Wedding and Shades Baileys Marriage As for her perception of the relationship between Bailey and Moore, Leakes believes its lopsided. If you are a real friend, friends get their friends together, she told Lee. You tell your friend when youre right or youre wrong. You cant just go hard on me and then your friend is doing the same thing and you dont go hard on your friend. Leakes also indicates that she believes Bailey brings little to the show. Theres a couple of people on Housewives season after season they just get to sit there and twiddle their thumbs and say a couple of little things. Leakes made similar comments during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live amid their fallout in season 6. The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond has made a name for herself by creating recipes for cowboys and hungry kids. Drummonds dishes are often on the heartier side, but she does her best to keep things simple, given shes spent years of her life taking care of four kids and a husband on her Oklahoma ranch. Drummond loves an easy recipe and one of her best snacks starts with a $2 store-bought item. The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond in 2019 | Tyler Essary/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank Ree Drummond is known for her hearty recipes Drummond didnt set out to be a celebrity chef. The Oklahoma native married husband Ladd Drummond in the 1990s, and from there, the couple welcomed four kids. Drummond moved to Ladds ranch, and she started a blog in 2006 about being a stay-at-home mom to so many little ones on a farm in the middle of nowhere. But as Drummond began posting the easy recipes she fed her family, people flocked to her website. Eventually, Drummonds Food Network show premiered in 2011. Since then, shes been providing simple recipes for fans, from cheesy dips to easy stir fry and hearty pasta. Drummond has since expanded her empire to include a restaurant, home goods store, hotel, cookware line, magazine, and more. RELATED: The Pioneer Woman: Ree Drummonds Easy Hack for Freezer Storage Will Give You Mouthwatering Meals For Months One of Drummonds easiest appetizers starts with Saltine crackers Drummond knows how to save time. Raising four kids, shes always looking for shortcuts and ways to create easy recipes without spending too much time or money. Often, people get lost in trying to whip up complex appetizers. But Drummond doesnt overlook the simplicity of a tasty cracker. And its base is a box of $2 Saltines, which are available at almost any local grocery store. What youll need: According to her Pioneer Woman website, Drummonds seasoned cracker recipe requires four ingredients: 2 sticks of salted butter, 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt, and 1 sleeve of Saltine crackers. How to make them: Preheat the oven to 275. In a medium pan, melt butter, then add Italian seasoning plus seasoned salt. Simply dunk the Saltines in the butter mixture, then place them on a rack over a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes for the butter and seasonings to set. The crackers can be served warm or at room temperature. The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond in New York City in 2017 | Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Hearst RELATED: The Pioneer Woman: Ree Drummond Gives Fans a Sneak Peek Of Her Newest Cookbook Recipes: Ridonkulously Easy Pair Drummonds Saltine crackers with her sour cream and onion dip Drummonds easy cracker recipe doesnt have to be served alone. The Food Network star has plenty of tasty dip recipes to pair those crackers with, including a one-step sour cream and onion dip. The dip consists of basic household ingredients, such as mayonnaise, sour cream, chives, and various spices. And putting it together is the easiest part: Simply combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, then allow the dip to chill in the refrigerator to help the flavors combine. Find Drummonds full sour cream and onion dip recipe on Food Network. The SBC will be making choices about how we respond to abuse, race, and more at this watershed convention. You may be interested in Eds interview on NPR Morning Edition here . Also, Christianity Today has a helpful primer on the SBC meeting here . Finally, here are Eds thoughts as he heads to Nashville for the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting: I could have titled this piece Southern Baptists are at a Crossroads. Southern Baptists have faced many crossroads in their history. Yet where things sit for Southern Baptists in June 2021 isnt a crossroads moment, but a fork-in-the-road moment. The choices facing Southern Baptists in the year of our Lord 2021 remind me of Robert Frosts poem, The Road Not Taken. In that poem, Frost talks about how two roads diverged in the woods, leaving him with a choice of which road he was going to take. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in a few days will be facing votes on a series of issuesincluding a presidentthat have the weight to set the trajectory of the denomination either positively or negatively for years to come. The Issues First, there needs to be an independent investigation regarding recent accusations of mishandling abuse claims. We need to ask hard questions about what was handled well, what went wrong, and more. Truth be told, survivors and our Baptist family deserve better than leaked letters with accusations followed by counter accusations. Given the severity of the issue at hand, we need clarity on these accusations that only an independent third-party investigation can give. If we are people of truth, we need to seek the truth. Second, we must continue to deal with the issue of race and listen to our African American brothers and sisters more and to the voices claiming CRT has infiltrated the SBC less. Also, race will likely be a key factor in both the resolutions report and the presidential election. The issue is not (usually) blatantly racist comments; it is the inability to recognizeand consequently addressissues of systemic racism that remain. Its failing to listen to African American pastors when they share their experiences, or when they say white Southern Baptist leaders continue to send the wrong signals on these mattersespecially in doubting their theological orthodoxy when their political calculus or manner of cultural engagement differs from most white evangelicals. If you dont think this happens, you can watch this weeks Conservative Baptist Network (CBN) video. Each person accused of liberal drift was either black or their counsel was in reference to the way we engage in issues related to racial injustice. Yet, as my friend (and colleague at Wheaton) Esau McCaulley recently tweeted: The idea that black Christians needed Karl Marx to teach them about *systems of oppression* in a country that had *legalized slavery* and *Jim Crow* might be the wildest take to gain footing in a long time. Wither Diversity? As such, the bigger challenge the SBC faces with regards to race is whether we will continue to grow in diversity as a denomination. Right now, the majority of SBC church plants are minority ethnic congregations. Current SBC president J. D. Greears appointments to leadership on various committees are diverse and worth celebrating. Substantial progress has been and is being made; however, this progress is now threatened. To put things in perspective of how diverse a denomination the SBC is, the largest Lutheran body in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), consists of about 9,000 churches. There are more minority ethnic Southern Baptist churches than the entire number of ELCA churches. Simply put, there are over 10,000 non-Anglo SBC congregationsand they are watching how Southern Baptists address race and ethnicity this week. Our growth in this area is threatened right now by a false charge that the convention has gone liberal because many in leadership are rightly learning to listen better to African American brothers and sisters. In response, discussions on race have unfortunately been weaponized and Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become the nuclear warhead buzzworda catch-all topic that could quickly shut down all efforts in making progress on race. CRT actually is a major issue in our culture. I am not unaware of the concerns; I am engaged with them, publishing a 10-part series from multiple authors. Yes, CRT has real problems. But its not a problem in the SBC. Because Southern Baptist leaders understand the dangers and do not subscribe to it as a worldview, but instead stand firmly on the sufficiency of Scriptureregardless of what some SBC presidential candidates may erroneously claim. Its just not the SBCs biggest problem. Actually, its not in the top five. Most pastors and leaders I know have listened carefully to their African American sisters and brothers. They have soughtnot by using CRT, but by looking carefully at our society, in light of the gospel and the scripturesto find a way to account for the reality of structural racism while simultaneously distancing themselves from ideas of CRT that are, well, counter to biblical truth. Just Focus on Evangelism? I know that many will say lets just focus on evangelism. Let me be clear. I love evangelism and I seek to personally engage in it. The institutions where I lead focus on evangelism. But we cannot just focus on evangelism while sweeping sins of omission or commission under the proverbial rug. Just like the Apostle Paul urged the Corinthians, we must deal with the evil in our midst. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Actually, we can focus on evangelism and at the same time deal with predators preying on the sheep. In Acts 20, when Paul addressed the Ephesian elders, he not only affirmed with clarity the importance of proclaiming the gospel (v. 2024), he also warned vociferously against allowing wolves to harm the sheep (v. 2930). If we continue to mishandle predators, it wont matter how much we focus on evangelismfor we will have harmed our witness. Thats why we (an evangelism center) hosted a summit a couple years back, where women and men courageously told their stories of abuse and called the church to do better. You cant just focus on evangelism when there are predators in your midst. In addition, we can focus on evangelism and at the same time deal with racism. Racism is also connected to missions and thus our witness in the world. Adam Greenway recently tweeted: The time has come to finish the shift from the Confederate culture of our origins to a global vision of mission/ministry embracing all peoples without distinction. We are with Christ after the lostnot the lost cause. His tweet reminded me of a chapter I wrote for a book, The Enduring Lost Cause: Afterlives of a Redeemer Nation. My chapter was The Lost Cause of the Confederacy and the Ongoing Cause of Southern Cultural Superiority and Its Impact on SBC Home Missions in the Mid-1900s. In that chapter, I noted how a failure to understand and embrace racial reconciliation back then hurt missions, just like today it hurts evangelism and church planting. In the 1960s, too many Southern Baptists were on the wrong side of the fire hoses in Birmingham. In 2021, I choose to listen to my African American Southern Baptist friends and to stand with them over the false smears that somehow they are liberal when they affirm our doctrinal statement and yet are targeted simply because they issue specific challenges on matters of race. We cant confuse being challenged on race with drifting toward liberalism. Those two things are not the same, no matter what boat youre in. A New Exodus? If things go poorly this week, we will likely see a mass exodus of black pastors (and many others who stand with them) from the SBC. And for what its worth, thats not just a concern if the CBN gains control or if resolutions go badly. An exodus could also happen if Al Mohler is elected SBC president. Mohlers insistence on the seminary presidents CRT statementwhere six white men who are good and godly men were trying to be faithful, but made a mistake of not listening to and recognizing the signal they were sending to African American leadershas hurt race relations in our convention. As has Mohlers flip-flopping on President Trump. Mohler is already president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Evangelical Theological Societythats enough presidencies to keep one man quite busy. With my vote, Im choosing a pastor with a proven track record of committing to the hard work of racial reconciliation. I encourage you to do the same. Given the issues and challenges facing the denomination, we need someone who will lead biblically, wisely, sensitively, and courageously. We need someone who laments over the brokenness not only in the world but within our denomination. We need a uniter and a bridge-builder. This requires one who has a track record of listening, not dismissing. We need someone who has suffered and been broken but emerged better and more sanctified. The president Southern Baptists need at this fork in the road is Ed Litton. Do the Next Right Thing Now the reality is Southern Baptists are perpetually at war with themselves, with every year bringing yet another controversy. The only way to end these controversies is to do the right thing. And the right thing is to vote on resolutions that support the sufficiency of Scripture and acknowledge that there are places where racism from the past still systemically intrudes in the present. And no, this does not make me a Critical Race Theorist, no matter how many times people on Twitter lie about that. If we fail to do so, we will spark an exodus of black, young, and other leaders who care deeply about these issues. Friends, if you think that Danny Akin is liberal, that black pastors have secretly infiltrated us with Marxism, and that abuse survivors are the enemy, then youve been fooled. Instead, I hope you will be discerning as you make wise choices on resolutions, motions, and elections of officers. We can choose the right path. We can do the right thing this time. What Now? Southern Baptists, we are not at a crossroads with many different options. We are at a fork in the road. We can choose to go down the path of continued in-fighting, name calling, Twitter spats, and division, or we can choose to go down the path of love, honor, and unity. We can choose to go down the path of status-quo managing the decline of Southern Baptists, or we can choose the path of mobilizing Southern Baptists for greater mission impact. As I close, Robert Frost ends his poem, The Road Not Taken, with this famous line: I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Southern Baptists, there have been moments in our history where we have chosen the road less traveledmoments like the Conservative Resurgence and the Great Commission Resurgence. We pushed against the tide. But there have been momentstoo many to namewhere we have chosen the road most traveled. Lets not choose the wrong path. In the year of our Lord 2021, lets choose the right thing. Lets choose the right path. And we will be able to say with Frost, that has made all the difference. O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. City pays over $35K to Christian ministry for canceling event over speakers biblically-based views Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Facing a full hearing of a lawsuit, the Edinburgh city council agreed to apologize and pay over $35,000 (25,000) to the Scotland-based Destiny Church for canceling a three-day conference because its keynote speaker, U.S. Pastor Larry Stockstill, had spoken against homosexuality and abortion. Apart from offering to pay the damages, the council has acknowledged that it had failed to meet its equalities duties to Destiny Ministries in terms of the Equality Act 2010 and therefore acted unlawfully, and that it had failed to take account of Destinys rights as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, Christian legal firm ADF U.K. said in a statement. The authorities canceled the conference that had been scheduled to be held in Edinburghs Usher Hall last summer after some groups complained about views held by its guest speaker, Louisiana pastor Larry Stockstill, former pastor of the multicampus Bethany World Prayer Center. Stockstill is also the author of the 2007 book He Teaches My Hands to War, in which he calls homosexuality not normal behavior and not accepted by God. Along with Stockstill, the head of the U.K.-based Evangelical Alliance, Gavin Calver, was also scheduled to speak. A city council spokesperson had earlier told the Edinburgh Evening News that the event was canceled due to the keynote speakers publicly-stated views about same-sex relationships which are, in the councils opinion, offensive and discriminatory. We asked the council to change its decision but it would not. After speaking to a range of people in the Christian community, we decided that this serious infringement of religious liberty and freedom of expression had to be challenged in the courts, said Andrew Owen of Destiny Ministries, according to The Times. With this behind us we look forward to being able to make use of council premises in the future as we bring forward the good news of the Gospel, Owen added. ADF U.K. conducted a nationwide poll in which two in five students said events were frequently canceled on campus due to the views held by speakers and pressure from other student groups. Half of the Scottish students also said they felt lecturers would treat them differently if they expressed their true opinions on some important issues. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion are foundations of every free and democratic society, and must be protected for all people, ADF U.K. Legal Counsel Jeremiah Igunnubole commented. We were pleased to support Destiny Ministries in this matter because freedom of religion includes the freedom to manifest your faith in teaching, practice and observance no one should be discriminated against simply because of their faith. The case is about the right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion, Brent Haywood, litigation partner of law firm Lindsays, who represented Destiny Ministries, said in the statement. Destiny Ministries is a Christian organization which holds to orthodox biblical teaching. The cancellation of its booking was an obvious act of discrimination under the Equality Act, and an equally clear breach of the Human Rights Act. Virginia parent who survived Mao's 'cultural revolution' in China blasts CRT as communist threat Florida bans critical race theory from being taught in public schools Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A woman who grew up in China during Mao Zedongs Cultural Revolution condemned the teaching of critical race theory in U.S. schools, saying it's "heartbreaking" for Chinese Americans to see the communism they escaped infiltrate the country. I have been very alarmed about whats going on in our schools. You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history, said Xi Van Fleet in a statement at the Loudoun County School Board meeting on June 8 that was later shared by The Virginia Project, a political action committee working to combat what it deems as "un-American" ideologies, including CRT. Growing up in Maos China, all of this seems very familiar, she continued. "The communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people. The only difference is they used class instead of race." Van Fleet, whose son graduated from Loudon High School in 2015, told Fox News Wednesday that she lived through the Mao's Cultural Revolution until she immigrated to the United States. The Cultural Revolution was led by Mao, a brutal dictator who purged so-called impure elements of Chinese society. The Cultural Revolution lasted from 1966 to 1976, and resulted in the death of around 1.5 million people, while millions more were imprisoned, tortured or humiliated, according to History.com. To me, and to a lot of Chinese, it is heartbreaking that we escaped communism and now we experience communism here, Van Fleet continued in her statement to the school board. CRT, which is tied to Marxist critical theory, criticizes the U.S. and Western nations as being oppressive and promoting institutional systemic racism or white supremacy. It teaches that systemic racism is ingrained in every aspect of American life. Many opponents have noted that the ideology uses Marxist tactics of class struggle to divide people among race, gender and ethnicity. Critical theory, which first arose in academic journals three decades ago, is now being taught at public schools, government agencies and business training programs. Van Fleet said CRT reminds her of growing up in Maoist China. They are a communist regime [that] uses the same critical theories to divide people, she said. The only difference is that they use class instead of race. During the cultural revolution, I witnessed students and teachers turn against each other, we changed school names to be politically correct, we were taught to denounce our heritage. The red guards destroyed everything that is not communist ... statues, books and anything else. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein, a former professor at Evergreen State, was among the first to warn the public that critical theory, now CRT, was not going to remain an issue on college campuses but would later affect all aspects of society. The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our schools, Van Fleet said as she concluded her remarks that were met with applause. "I just want Americans to know that their privilege is to be here living in America, that is just the biggest privilege," Van Fleet told Fox News. "I do not think a lot of people understand. They are thinking they are doing the right thing, be against racism sounds really good. But they are basically breaking the system that is against racism." CRT has received pushback and condemned as toxic and divisive in nature. Former President Donald Trump banned critical race theory training in federal agencies, but President Joe Biden reversed it on his first day in office. When Biden reversed Trumps ban, Christopher Rufo, a director at the Discovery Institute, announced a new coalition to stop critical race theory and wage relentless legal warfare against race theory in America's institutions. "Critical race theory is a grave threat to the American way of life. It divides Americans by race and traffics in the pernicious concepts of race essentialism, racial stereotyping, and race-based segregationall under a false pursuit of 'social justice, Rufo wrote at the time. Today, President Biden doubled-down on critical race theory in the federal government. In response, I am announcing a new coalition of legal foundations and private attorneys that will wage relentless legal warfare against race theory in America's institutions. The fight is on. pic.twitter.com/JZJYpjla1k Christopher F. Rufo ?? (@realchrisrufo) January 20, 2021 Floridas Board of Education announced Thursday that it voted 8-0 to prohibit CRT from being taught in public schools in an effort to stop the "distort[ion] historical events, according to The Washington Examiner. "Some of this stuff is, I think, really toxic," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said about CRT in a video. "I think it's going to cause a lot of divisions. I think it'll cause people to think of themselves more as a member of particular race based on skin color, rather than based on the content of their character and based on their hard work and what they're trying to accomplish in life." The woke class wants to teach kids to hate each other, rather than teaching them how to read, but we will not let them bring nonsense ideology into Floridas schools, DeSantis said in a statement. UK church sues city council for canceling 3-day conference over speakers views on homosexuality Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Scotland-based Destiny Church is suing the Edinburgh city council over the cancellation of a three-day conference because the council objects to the participation of Louisiana pastor Larry Stockstill and his views on homosexuality. The Edinburgh Evening News reports that the multicampus Destiny Church launched legal action last week after the Edinburgh Council canceled the churchs June booking of the Edinburgh Usher Hall for its Surge Conference. A keynote speaker scheduled for the conference is Stockstill, the former pastor of the multicampus Bethany World Prayer Center in Louisiana, which is now led by his son, Jonathan. Stockstill also founded the Surge Project, a church planting network. Stockstill is also the author of the 2007 book He Teaches My Hands to War, in which he calls homosexuality not normal behavior and behavior that is not accepted by God. Along with Stockstill, the head of the U.K.-based Evangelical Alliance, Gavin Calver, was also scheduled to speak. In January, the city council told The Sunday Times that it canceled the religious gathering over objections to previous comments Stockstill made about abortion and homosexuality. The church is being represented by the Scottish law firm Lindsays, which argues that the council violated U.K. discrimination law as well as breached the European Convention on Human Rights by canceling the conference. "We understand that this is a fairly clear-cut breach of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the freedom of expression enshrined in ECHR, Destiny Senior Pastor Andrew Owen told the Edinburgh Evening News. "Under the Equality Act 2010, the city of Edinburgh Council is also discriminating on the grounds of religious belief. "We organized an event, which we are free to do, at which speakers will express their religious views, as they are free to do, Owen added. "It is unlawful for the city of Edinburgh to cancel an event because it determines that the views previously expressed by a speaker are not acceptable." A city council spokesperson told the Edinburgh Evening News that the Destiny Church event was canceled due to the keynote speakers publicly-stated views about same-sex relationships which are, in the councils opinion, offensive and discriminatory. The spokesperson stressed that the council will vigorously defend its position in order to protect and promote diversity and equal rights for all. We are committed to promoting diversity and equal rights for all, the spokesperson continued. The proposed event did not meet the standards which we expect from those hiring and visiting our venues to respect and observe and the booking was therefore canceled." The nondenominational Christian charity the Christian Institute announced its support for Destiny Churchs lawsuit last week. Ciaran Kelly, Christian Institutes deputy director for communications, said the church has a strong case which they should win. He said the case seeks to resist the marginalization of Christians in the U.K. This is a clear case of unlawful religious discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, Kelly said in a statement. It is a clear denial of free speech under the European Convention on Human Rights. Destiny Churchs lawsuit comes as U.S. evangelical leader Franklin Graham, the son of the late Billy Graham, and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association filed legal action against three event venues for their cancellations of May events due to Grahams views on homosexuality. If Destiny Church or the BGEA can be banned from hiring public venues today, the same could be true for other Christian groups tomorrow, Kelly contended. We do not want that to happen. Texas hospital will remove pastor's banner, defends chaplain program after atheist group complains Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An atheist legal organization has sent a complaint letter to a public hospital in Texas for displaying a large banner at its parking garage asking God for protection and making multiple chaplain videos with Christian content. The hospital says it plans to remove the banner as part of its original plan, saying it was only supposed to be displayed temporarily during the pandemic. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the letter late last month to the University Medical Center of Lubbock, demanding that it remove the banner. The banner includes a message attributed to Rev. Wendell Davis of Lyons Chapel Baptist Church that reads: Gracious Lord, for all of UMC I pray Your divine protection over them, guidance within them & provision for them daily. ... Firm, not fearful. Written by FFRF Staff Attorney Christopher Line and addressed to UMC President and CEO Mark Funderburk, the letter called the banner display an unconstitutional endorsement of religion over nonreligion. FFRF, which pressures government entities nationwide to end any perceived endorsement of religion, cites the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prevents governments from establishing an official religion. We urge UMC to recognize its obligation to provide all citizens with an environment free from religious endorsement by removing this exclusionary display, wrote Line. Also at issue, according to the letter and statement posted to the FFRF website on Wednesday, were a series of chaplain videos that specifically endorsed Christianity. In addition, a concerned University Medical Center community member has reported that the Medical Center creates videos featuring chaplains that promote and endorse Christianity, stated FFRF in the statement. By publishing overtly Christian messages, the University Medical Center violates the Establishment Clause When a public hospital regularly promulgates religious concepts to employees and the public, it sends a message that the government supports those ideas. UMC provided a statement from Funderburk to The Christian Post explaining that the banner will be taken down in the "near future," keeping with earlier plans for it only to be temporarily displayed. UMC Health System recognizes diversity in our workplace and in our patient population. UMC Health System also understands the delicate balance between the free exercise of religion and government neutrality, read statement. As per our original plan to replace the banner once our COVID-19 census diminished, it will be removed in the very near future and replaced with a new message of support, as we emerge from the pandemic. Regarding the chaplain program and its practices, Funderburk stated that before and since the first COVID-19 patient was admitted to UMC, no patient, employee or visitor has been compelled to participate in any expression or practice of faith. Like many hospitals, University Medical Center has a chaplain program designed to improve patients health and well-being, he continued. These professionals skillfully and compassionately attend the spiritual and emotional needs, and support the health and welfare of UMCs patients, staff, and visitors. Sexual harassment, assault and sending nude photos common in British schools: report Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Sexual harassment and the sharing of nude photos have become commonplace in British schools, while many children feel pressured into sexual activity, a shocking new Ofsted report has found. The review of 900 children spanned 32 state and private schools and colleges, and concluded that sexual harassment, including online sexual abuse, has become "normalised" for children and young people. Around 9 in 10 girls said that sexist name-calling and receiving unwanted explicit pictures or videos happened "a lot" or "sometimes." Inspectors heard how boys use WhatsApp or Snapchat to share nude photos among themselves like a "collection game." Around two-thirds of girls said they felt pressured to do sexual things they did not want to do, while a majority also report unwanted touching. Children also told inspectors during the eight-week review that sexist name-calling had become "commonplace." Yet inspectors found that many "don't see the point of challenging or reporting this harmful behavior because it's seen as a normal experience." "The frequency of these harmful sexual behaviors means that some children and young people consider them normal," the report said. School children also felt that teachers were unaware of the prevalence of sexual harassment. The review recommends that schools "act on the assumption" that sexual harassment is affecting their pupils, and that they take a "whole-school approach" aimed at creating a culture where sexual harassment is not tolerated. Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman said she was "shocked" by the review, and that the findings showed the need to "change attitudes." "It's alarming that many children and young people, particularly girls, feel they have to accept sexual harassment as part of growing up. Whether it's happening at school or in their social life, they simply don't feel it's worth reporting," she said. "This is a cultural issue; it's about attitudes and behaviors becoming normalized, and schools and colleges can't solve that by themselves. The government needs to look at online bullying and abuse, and the ease with which children can access pornography." Simon Calvert of The Christian Institute said that the problem could not be addressed without also addressing sex education. "The fact is, the sex education industry needs to take its share of the blame because it is obsessed with explicitness and hostile to the Christian sexual ethic," he said. "It's time the government made space in sex education for a diversity of opinions instead of the monolithic socially liberal agenda that currently dominates. "Christians should be allowed opportunities to explain the benefits of self-control and the joys of marriage." Read his full comment here. Originally published at Christian Today AMMAN, Jordan (AP) The prosecutor of Jordan's state security court on Sunday filed sedition and incitement charges against two confidants of King Abdullah IIs half-brother Hamzah, marking the latest step in a rare, intrigue-filled palace drama that has rattled the Western-backed kingdom. The affair erupted into the open in early April when Hamzah was placed under house arrest and two senior associates Bassem Awadallah and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid were arrested, amid allegations that they tried to destabilize Jordan with foreign help. Bin Zaid is a member of the royal family, and Awadallah, a former head of the royal court, reportedly has close ties to Saudi Arabias powerful crown prince. The state news agency Petra said Sunday that the trial of the two will begin next week before the state security court. Hamzahs fate remains unclear, including whether his movement and ability to communicate remain restricted. Several days after Hamzah's house arrest, Abdullah said he had resolved the matter with his half-brother through mediation within the royal family and that Hamzah was in his own home under the kings protection. At the time of his initial house arrest, Hamzah alleged that he was being silenced for exposing what he said was incompetence and corruption of the ruling system. The royal has established close ties with some of Jordans powerful tribes, serving as a conduit for growing anger and resentment as Jordan struggles with a widening economic crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Sunday's indictment, parts of which were published by state-linked media, alleged that Hamzah, was motivated by his personal ambition" to rule. Hamzah was stripped of the title of crown prince by Abdullah in 2004, who gave the position to his oldest son. The indictment alleged that Hamzah, Awadallah and bin Zaid were in close contact, with a plan to win external support to strengthen Hamzah's position. It said Awadallah and bin Zaid directed the content of Hamzah's tweets which he allegedly planned to publish to mobilize public opinion." The indictment also alleged that Awadallah criticized the king's handling of the Palestinian cause, with the aim of weakening Jordan's role as guardian of a major Muslim shrine in contested Jerusalem. The role of guardian is a pillar of the Hashemite dynasty's claim to political legitimacy. Abdullah has ruled Jordan since the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein, who ruled the country for close to a half-century. Abdullah has cultivated close relations with U.S. and other Western leaders over the years, and Jordan was a key ally in the war against the Islamic State group. The country borders Israel, the occupied West Bank, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The Greater Houston Builders Associations (GHBA) Benefit Homes Project has raised more than $12 million for local charities since its inception in 1980. It benefits two local charities, HomeAid Houston and Operation Finally Home. Raising funds of this amount would not be possible without the donations of construction materials, supplies and services by GHBA members who share the associations vision to build a home for good. Hundreds of companies have been contributors throughout the history of the project, and many donate in multiple years. One such company is Surface Systems of Texas, a provider of decorative concrete such as epoxy coatings, stamped, textured, and stained concrete as well as other general concrete resurfacing. The company is known for their ColorFlake epoxy coating primarily used for garage floors. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Theres a South Carolina state senator who looks at the furor over changing the design of the state flag much in the way he sees his wife. A photograph of my wife is always different, but its always beautiful, the adoring lawmaker, state Sen. Brad Hutto, told reporters at the Statehouse a few weeks ago. Same thing with the state flag, the Orangeburg Democrat opined. You can be anywhere in this country and you see that flag, you know its the South Carolina flag. And so it will be for at least another year. The 2021 Statehouse session ended with no new version of the Palmetto tree design being declared as official despite attempts by some lawmakers to come up with one. Huttos affection for not touching that most distinctive of images may ensure change never come. Anyone who wants to pigeonhole it into one particular design is going to have to fight with me, he said. The flag design issue unexpectedly became among the hottest debates of the year after a team of historians in 2020 suggested imagery for what that flag should look like. That didnt end well namely because of how the states namesake tree, the scrubby Palmetto, was depicted. Critics said the version makes the palmetto resemble a toilet brush and fails to capture the true essence of the wild ubiquitous stock. The outcry was loud enough that experts went back and generated a second option for lawmakers to deliberate. In March, the Senate Family and Veterans Services Committee selected a choice that depicts a palmetto tree adopted in 1910 on the second official state flag. Legislators expected a lively floor debate to follow, but Hutto immediately contested the bill. So there it sat as the session dwindled. The South Carolina flag is steeped in history and widely considered one of Americas most recognizable. Its indigo color specifically Pantone 282 C is approximate to a shade of uniforms worn by Col. William Moultries 2nd South Carolina Regiment in the Revolutionary War. Indigo dye was also produced from that plant in the Lowcountry during Moultries lifetime, and it became the state color in 2008. Equally recognizable is the angle and shape of the crescent that looms over the tree. Its based on a pattern and military symbol that Moultries troops wore on their hats. Not up for debate in all of this were the modern flags color scheme or crescent, but that left the most distinctive of elements at the root of the battle: the beloved palmetto, whose wood was used to build Fort Sullivan in 1776 and absorbed British artillery rounds during its 1780 siege of Charleston. State Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, chairwoman of the Family and Veterans Services Committee, said shes perplexed at the legislative holdup. People have made it such a big issue, she said. Its not that serious an issue. Its not going to change the world, but it would be nice for it to be standardized. Without a uniform design, advocates say production of the flag is open to interpretation, meaning variants of it can appear on bumper stickers, T-shirts, keychains or any other marketing material. I think the bill is very benign. And we would like for it to be a little standardized because Ive seen some that are terrible and some that are really beautiful, state Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Prosperity, said. But the ones that are too beautiful are so beautiful that they dont depict the actual history of the flag. Weve got to land somewhere in between. Coming out of a session where signature pieces of legislation such as adoption of a hate crimes bill and police reform failed to gain any traction, Hutto said spending time deliberating the flags nuances would have been a waste. But he isnt going to allow haters to win the day, he added. There are some problems that need to be solved for the people of South Carolina. Telling them the flag is blue with a palmetto tree and crescent moon on it is not one of those problems, Hutto said. Its possible for the topic to come up again next year when the General Assembly reconvenes, but Hutto said he may continue to block debate. We dont need somebody to tell us what it looks like. We all know what it looks like, he said. I dont know if somebody is trying to make money off this or what. Its not been a problem for hundreds of years. A flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma due to an unruly passenger. Police officials said Saturday that a Delta flight was heading from Los Angeles to Atlanta when it was forced to land. Other passengers told police that the man was trying to "take down the plane." BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) A 12-year-old girl was arrested and taken to juvenile custody on suspicion of setting four fires in the leafy hillsides above Berkeley on Friday, police said. The fires broke out within blocks from one another during the course of the day, when the girl was visiting family in the area, Berkleyside.com reported. School districts across the United States are hiring additional teachers in anticipation of what will be one of the largest kindergarten classes ever as enrollment rebounds following the coronavirus pandemic. As they await the arrival next fall of students who sat out the current school year, educators are also bracing for many students to be less prepared than usual due to lower preschool attendance rates. The job of the kindergarten teacher just got a lot harder, said Steven Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. He coauthored a report that found that the number of 4-year-olds participating in preschool fell from 71% before the pandemic to 54% during the pandemic, with poor children much less likely to attend in-person. Kindergarten is not required in most states, and in normal times, parents sometimes red-shirt children who would be young for their kindergarten class to give them an extra year of developmental readiness. This year, even children nowhere near the cutoff age were held out of school because of health concerns and the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Among them was the daughter of Christina Neu, who held her back even though her daughter has a December birthday and already would be relatively old for her class because the entry cutoff is the end of August. Across Kansas, kindergarten enrollment fell by nearly 9%. There was a little bit of fear, not wanting her to have to deal with kind of an unknown there, Neu said, adding that her eldest daughter, who is 8, had just been diagnosed before the pandemic with 26 different food allergies and her immune system already was in overdrive. We wanted to make sure that as a family we were being smart and being safe. Neu, who works in retail in Wichita, Kansas, cooked with her daughters, bought educational workbooks and played educational games with them. She said she has no regrets but is apprehensive about the burden facing kindergarten teachers. I would be really concerned about stress and just the teacher getting everything done with a big class, she said. With large amounts of federal relief money available, school districts are taking a range of approaches to prepare. In Orange County, Florida, there are estimates that the incoming kindergarten class will be 17% bigger than in fall 2020 and officials are planning a 5 1/2 week transition program this summer at some of its neediest schools. In Minnesota, the St. Paul district is anticipating nearly 22% more kindergartners than in fall 2020. The district plans to do testing over the summer to identify any special needs that have been missed, such as vision problems and speech delays, said Lori Erickson, a veteran kindergarten teacher who now coordinates the districts pre-kindergarten program. She said the district also just learned it is getting more money to expand its jumpstart to kindergarten summer program, which will include a field trip to a strawberry patch and visits from a dancer and painter. The biggest thing on our radar is recognizing the trauma that has happened, she said, adding that the district has various staffers "who are ready to rumble. It remains uncertain just how big kindergarten classes will be in the fall. The increase could be offset by parents who decide to wait an extra year to send 5-year-olds or opt for homeschooling because of safety concerns. Regardless, education leaders say they expect to be addressing the effects of the pandemic for years. Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Scott Elder said children who skipped kindergarten or were homeschooled last year may be a bit behind on their numbers and letters. The same goes for the kids who were enrolled and studied online, but couldnt always connect or get support from parents. When people talk about learning loss and kids being behind, it wont be a quick solution. Thats going to be a multi-year solution, but it will be solved, Elder said. In Connecticut, some school districts are targeting summer programs at incoming kindergartners who missed out on preschool. Irene Parisi, the state's chief academic officer, said in an interview that districts are also using federal relief money to add staff to help out and training them that they need to adjust their expectations. It is important that teachers realize that the routines are going to be different than perhaps what you may have expected of learners in the past, she said. In the 900-student Freeman School District in Rockford, Washington, Superintendent Randy Russell just hired a new teacher as the district prepares to add a third kindergarten class. He said about one-third of the preschoolers and kindergarteners in the mostly rural district about 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) south of Spokane skipped this school year and that other districts around the region experienced similar drops. But the upcoming school year has him encouraged: Even if you do have a gap, it is going to be closed pretty quickly. We are just excited that we are going to get the kids back." _____ Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Attanasio from Santa Fe, N.M. Attanasio 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 under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter. LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) Anna Istre, a second grade teacher at Lake Charles Charter Academy, had two very unusual starts to her career. She graduated McNeese State University and began teaching right before the March 2020 COVID-19 shutdowns and then began again with the difficulties of the storm ridden 2020-2021 school year. It was pretty crazy! she said recalling both incidents. When she began in January 2020 she took over a second grade classroom halfway through the year. They (students) had a lot of walls up even though it was only second grade. They didnt understand why I was coming in and if I was going to stayIt was very hard to completely gain their trust and build a new classroom culture halfway through the year. Though she was unknowingly working with limited time, Istre determined to make her intent clear. I let them know everyday that someone is here now who absolutely loves you, adores you and wants you to learn. Were were going to do what could and in those few months they definitely made so much progress. The 2020-2021 school year didnt begin until the very end of October, another unusual start to her career. With nearly three months cut out of the school year, she said, That was very difficult because they needed to learn so much and theres only so much time. Storm damage forced Lake Charles Charter Academy students to share facilities part-time with Southwest Louisiana Charter Academy, another oddity to the start of things. So they were not in their classroom and starting with no consistency. Half of them werent even living here, they were driving, or didnt have internet. It was truly wild! Istre did not let that deter her and once the class returned to their home campus a special chemistry began to develop once everyone was able to fully settle into their routine. What I loved most before I started teaching was just creating an environment for students where they wanted to come to school, wanted to learn and wanted to be part of somethingBut it has evolved into teaching beyond the curriculum. Theres so many other things that fall into being a teacher than teaching curriculum, shes learned. Part this includes understanding the demographics and backgrounds of students on a deeper level. Im white but the school I teach at is predominantly Black. A lot of things I had to unlearn coming into the school and I feel like in college we dont really talk about that how cultures are so different. But in order to be culturally responsive, you have to understand those things on a deeper level than what you think you already know. Istre is proud to bring topics like social justice or understanding bias into her classroom because it creates more well-rounded students, she said. At my school they are so open and welcome to having hard conversations with my students and I think it helps them to think deeper than they would if we didnt have those conversations. McNeese professors Debbie King, Angelique Ogea and Trung Nguyen are among Istres mentors and she and Nyguen are part of the National Association for Multicultural Education which helps champion the cause of equity and social justice through multicultural education. Speaking of all three professors, Istre said, I always found myself in their office because they were really passionate about what they didThey helped that passion burn in me and see more for myself as an educator. Istre also credited her mother Kathie Istre as her greatest influence. Ive always been surrounded by education and educators my whole life because my mom has been in it a very long time. I feel like she is my overall mentor, she said. She taught gifted education, then a curriculum coordinator. Ive just seen her in a bunch of different roles and seen those things from the ends and outs. Its not just teaching. Its a lot of different roles that teachers have. Wearing the many hats of teacher is the most rewarding things about the profession, Istre said. They look at you as a mom, someone who is close to them and who they feel open to talk with about things they wouldnt normally tell other people. So thats really my favorite thing having those conversations that help build those relationship which are so important. When she is not working, Istre enjoys resting and traveling. I love being far away. Cruising, flying, any way I can go somewhere far away and explore the world is great because I get to bring those experiences back and share them with my students. The backlash is sparking a backlash of its own. On Saturday, thousands of educators and others gathered virtually and in person at historic locations in more than 20 cities to make clear that they would resist efforts in at least 15 Republican-led states to restrict what teachers can say in class about racism, sexism and oppression in America. Organized by local educators across the country in association with several social justice organizations, the National Day of Action is meant to raise public awareness about the legislation and to send a message that they will not lie to students about the country's racist past and present. MORE NEWS: EXPLOSIVE SECRETS ROCKING THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION Several thousand teachers have signed a pledge that says: "We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events - regardless of the law." Ever since the May 2020 slaying of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis sparked a national social justice protest movement, many public schools have attempted to introduce and expand lessons on the systemic racism that has existed since the nation's founding. That sparked a backlash among conservatives. Republican-led legislatures are or have already passed legislation (whose wording is remarkably similar or identical, reflecting a coordinated effort) with such restrictions. On Thursday, Florida's State Board of Education voted to ban the teaching of critical race theory in the state's public schools. Critical race theory is a decades-old academic framework that holds that racism is systemic, embedded in government policies and laws that are evident in any serious examination of American history. Critics say that racism is the work of individual bad actors, and, they say, teachers are improperly injecting race in the classroom. Teachers say it is impossible not to discuss race in any honest discussion or lesson about American history. As my Washington Post colleagues Laura Meckler and Hannah Natanson reported, the educators who are teaching about racism aren't actually pushing critical race theory into the classroom. What they are doing, they say, is addressing systemic barriers that have harmed students of color. In Iowa, where Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds this week signed legislation banning the teaching of "specific defined concepts," including critical race theory, teachers say the law is already a chilling effect. "I will say it's already playing out," sixth-grade teacher Monique Cottman said in an interview with Jesse Hagopian, a Seattle high school teacher and co-founder of Black Lives Matter at School. "The White teachers who started doing a little bit more teaching about race and racism are now going back to their old way of teaching," she said. "I've had conversations with teachers who said things like, 'I'm getting so much pushback for teaching Alice Walker, I'm going to go back to teaching what I used to teach.' So all the teachers who would have done a little bit of what I was doing - anti-racism work and culturally responsive teaching - they're not going to do anything next year. They're already declaring, 'I'm not doing nothing,' or 'It's not safe,' or 'I don't want to lose my job.' " At dozens of sites across the country on Saturday, educators and others gathered to push back. In Memphis, protesters met at site where Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, ran a market of enslaved people from 1854 to 1860. Then they walked to the marker for the 1866 Memphis Massacre at Army Park and the National Museum of Civil Rights. The event was organized by educators who teach on the downtown lot where Forrest's enslaved person market was located. The organizers of Saturday's Memphis event issued a call for action with the following explanation about why the state's new law, passed last month by the legislature, is so problematic. Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country, said the restrictions on teaching racism are dangerous. MORE NEWS: HOUSTON RESIDENTS REACT TO HARRIS COUNTY'S LATEST "GHOST" CARS "No matter our color, background, or Zip code, we want our kids to have an education that imparts honesty about who we are, integrity in how we treat others, and courage to do what's right," she said in a statement. "But some lawmakers want to play politics with the truth and do more than that. The most feared phrase in education is, 'I'm a politician and I am here to tell you how and what to teach.' " Saturday's National Day of Action was organized by the Zinn Education Project, a nonprofit group that provides learning materials based on the approach to history highlighted in Howard Zinn's best-selling book, "A People's History of the United States," which emphasizes the role of working people, women, people of color and organized social movements in shaping history. Materials from the Zinn Project have been targeted by those promoting state action, including the right-wing Goldwater Institute, which has promoted model legislation for legislators to adopt. Also targeted is the 1619 Project, a collection of essays and stories published in the New York Times magazine in 2019 which argue that America was not founded in 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, but rather in 1619, the year that enslaved Africans were first brought to the land that became the United States. Other organizers of Saturday's event include Black Lives Matter at School, a national social justice movement inspired by Black Lives Matter; the D.C.-based nonprofit organization Teaching for Change; and the Milwaukee-based Rethinking Schools, a nonprofit publisher and social justice advocacy organization. Florida, FL (34429) Today Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Florida, FL (34429) Today Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Wilkes-Barre, PA (18701) Today Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. 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. Hostingul si serviciile internet pentru administrarea portalului CIVIC.MD sunt oferite gratuit de compania Starnet What happens when you have a football team with no drama? Suddenly you need to create some. Case in point, the Cleveland Browns. 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, June 13) -- Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a resolution seeking to look into the preparedness of basic education institutions for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year while the pandemic is ongoing. "Matapos ang isang taon ng distance learning kung saan marami tayong hinarap na mga hamon, mahalaga at napapanahong matiyak natin kung paano natin magagamit ang ating mga natutunan upang matiyak na sa susunod na school year ay magiging mas epektibo ang paghahatid natin ng edukasyon sa mga kabataan," said Gatchalian in a statement. [Translation: After a year of distance learning where we faced many challenges, its important and timely to check how we can apply everything we have learned to ensure that the delivery of education to the youth will be more effective in the coming school year.] Under Senate Resolution No. 739, the senator stressed the need to assess if basic education institutions can deliver quality education this school year, citing the challenges faced by students during the pandemic. These include the lack of gadgets, electricity, internet connection, appropriate learning space, and issues on the quality of modules. He added that the lack of physical interaction, over-exposure to screens, and pressures leading to mental health problems are also considered as challenges in distance learning. The senator cited the survey he commissioned with Pulse Asia, where 46% of parents said their children are learning, 30% cannot say if their children are learning or not, and 25% said their children are not learning. The same survey also showed that answering modules, intermittent internet connection, difficulty in focusing or laziness to listen, and lack of gadgets were the top concerns of parents and students. The resolution also seeks to evaluate if both public and private basic education institutions can safely resume face-to-face classes once the vaccine rollout is expanded to teachers. The Department of Education is eyeing to open classes in August, but it said President Rodrigo Duterte will have the final say on the matter. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 13) -- The country logged 7,302 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, the Department of Healths latest bulletin showed. Of the 1,315,639 total cases nationwide, 59,865 or 4.6% are active cases. At least 91.2% are experiencing mild symptoms, 4.6% are asymptomatic, 1.3% are in critical condition, 1.8% are severe, and 1.26% are experiencing moderate symptoms. Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 22,788 after 137 more patients succumbed to the disease. The number of recoveries also climbed to 1,232,986 with 7,701 new COVID-19 survivors. The DOH said 15 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which nine are recoveries and one death. It added that 65 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation. The DOH also said all laboratories were operational on June 11, while one laboratory was not able to submit its data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System. Based on data in the last 14 days, the non-reporting laboratory contributes, on average, 0.17% of samples tested and 0.18% of positive individuals. Meanwhile, the daily positivity rate, or percentage of individuals who tested positive, is 12.4% based on 50,757 tests done as of June 11. The World Health Organization recommends a percentage below 5% as high rates may mean high transmission. The OCTA research team earlier said the country's average number of new cases fell by 3% to 6,430. On the other hand, the Department of Foreign Affairs recorded one new COVID-19 case and one death among Filipinos in the Middle East. To date, there are 20,093 confirmed cases, 12,077 recoveries, and 1,199 deaths among Filipinos abroad. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 13) A group of Filipino medical technologists in the US urged the Philippine government to ease the healthcare worker deployment cap amid strong job prospects in America, the Department of Labor said Sunday. Labor Attache Angela Librado Trinidad of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Washington D.C. said concerns about the 5,000 quota per year were raised during a meeting with the Philippine Association of Medical Technologists (PAMET). "We recently met with PAMET, which has chapters all over the US, to discuss their concern as their profession is included in the deployment cap," she was quoted as saying in a statement. "They want to know if the limit can be relaxed because they are interested in providing opportunities to their fellow medical technologists," Trinidad added. Quoting the PAMET, she said there was an estimated demand for 110,000 medical technologists in the US. According to Trinidad, "most of the job orders" that they receive are in the healthcare sector. They also expect that about 2.5 million nurses would be needed in the next few years. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration earlier this month temporarily suspended the deployment of healthcare workers overseas after hitting the 5,000 cap. Late last year, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases said the move was needed given the "national demand" for healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. (CNN) -- The United States says it will be a lead partner in a new global, climate-friendly infrastructure program with its Group of 7 partners, part of President Joe Biden's larger efforts at the G7 summit to better position the US and its allies to compete with China in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Confronting China's authoritarianism, however, emerged as a source of contention between the leaders. The White House said the program, presented as an alternative to China's own global infrastructure initiative, will "help narrow the $40+ trillion infrastructure need in the developing world, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic." A senior administration official described the plan, called the "Build Back Better World" initiative, as a "bold, new global infrastructure initiative with our G7 partners that will be values-driven, transparent and sustainable" and will compete with China's Belt and Road Initiative. The G7 will announce "a positive alternative that reflects our values, our standards, and our way of doing business," a second senior official said. China's Belt and Road Initiative, first announced in 2013 under Chinese President Xi Jinping, aims to build ports, roads and railways to create new trade corridors linking China to Africa and the rest of Eurasia. The Chinese-funded, cross-continental infrastructure initiative has been seen as an extension of the country's sharp ascent to global power. As part of the new infrastructure announcement, the US said the Group of 7 will be joining partners and the private sector in "collectively catalyzing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment for low and middle-income countries that need it." Officials described the global infrastructure pitch not as a confrontation with China, but as an alternative path. "This is not about making countries choose between us and China. This is about offering an affirmative, alternative vision and approach that they would want to choose," the first administration official said. And in the coming days when Biden travels to the NATO summit in Brussels, NATO countries will be "addressing the security challenge from China directly in a communique" for the first time, per the first senior official. A second piece of Saturday's session, the officials announced, is aimed at targeting China's forced labor practices. Biden, the second official said, will be "pressing his fellow leaders for concrete action on forced labor, to make clear to the world that we believe these practiced are an affront to human dignity and an egregious example of China's unfair economic competition." The administration is advocating for China to be specifically named in the final G7 communique, though it was unclear if it will ultimately end up in the final agreement that will be released Sunday. Throughout the G7 in Cornwall, England, this week, Biden has doubled down on initiatives aimed at reasserting US leadership on the world's stage and confronting China. While officials at the summit saw the infrastructure as an area of agreement during the summit, leaders aired serious differences over how best to approach China during a session on Saturday, according to a senior administration official. The disagreements, aired during a session that at one point became so sensitive that all internet was shut off to the room, pitted European nations against the United States, Britain and Canada, who urged stronger action against China for its authoritarian practices, including forced labor practices in western Xinjiang province. At one point, Biden made a forceful call to other leaders about vocally calling out China's anti-democratic practices, officials said, emphasizing the need to take action. Earlier this week, Biden announced the US would donate half a billion coronavirus vaccines globally in the G7's larger push for the globe's largest and wealthiest democracies to vaccinate the rest of the world. Biden underscored during his vaccine announcement that there were no strings attached with accepting the US-bought vaccines. And the White House has said it has been concerned by efforts by Russia and China to use vaccines to make geopolitical gains. In a joint statement on Thursday, Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said they support further investigation into the origins of COVID-19, including in China. However, Biden's new call for a global infrastructure program funded by western, developed nations comes as the President faces challenges to stand up his own infrastructure program within the US. Biden's first major legislative priority -- historic, sweeping relief amid the pandemic -- was signed into law less than two months after he came into office. But the White House has yet to reach a deal with Congress on an infrastructure program, missing some of its own deadlines for progress. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Biden aims to counter China's global infrastructure project with new G7 initiative" Sidney Friedman Parklet in downtown State College was adorned with Progress Pride Flags, balloons and other rainbow decorations Saturday evening as hundreds of community members gathered for the town's first "Pride Ride." The event, which was a celebration of Pride month, was organized by the Centre LGBTQA Support Network and the borough of State College. Saturday's Pride Ride was the first in-person Pride event organized by the CLSN, a community-based organization that holds events such as Drag Bingo and movie nights. CLSN also holds support groups, according to the group's treasurer, Mark Hayes. Hayes said CLSN works with youth groups in local schools and holds "educational events" and training sessions. Jared Kehler joined the group in December 2020. Although he began working for CLSN recently, Kehler has already worked with several groups and events, including the Bring Your Own Queer youth group. Hayes and Kehler attended the Pride Ride and were selling T-shirts to promote CLSN during the event. Director of Community Engagement for the borough of State College's LGBTQ Advisory Committee Kevin Kassab was one of several people who helped organize the event on behalf of the borough. Kassab said his "heart is filled with love and appreciation" for the LGBTQ community and acknowledged "how much [the community means] to the State College community." Around 5 p.m., members of the community who registered their vehicles were able to participate in a car caravan down a pre-planned route around the State College area. Dozens of cars draped in rainbow flags and other Pride-themed decorations drove by the park beeping as a cheering crowd gathered along South Fraser Street. The caravan was led by a State College Police Department truck waving a Progress Pride Flag. Several cars were playing loud music on their stereos as they passed, and some participants even followed the caravan on roller skates. Community members in the park gathered to experience live music and free popcorn, where there was a sculpture created by Penn State graduate Leo Wang that many used as a backdrop for photos. Prior to a performance by the local acoustic band Anchor&Arrow, several people addressed the crowd to share their thoughts about the event and what Pride means to them. Draped in rainbow head-to-toe and wearing a rainbow flag like a cape, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman approached the microphone to speak. Fetterman recently hung a Pride flag on the balcony of his state capitol office to celebrate Pride month, but it was removed by state employees just hours later in accordance with a Republican-backed fiscal code provision passed in 2020. The provision prohibits flying any flag other than the American flag, Pennsylvania's state flag or a flag honoring missing American soldiers. In his speech, Fetterman stressed his concern for Pennsylvania's treatment of LGBTQ individuals. "Our state is backwards," Fetterman said. We are the only state in the Northeast that allows this kind of discrimination against the gay and trans communities, and it's unacceptable." Fetterman said he and Gov. Tom Wolf will "never stop pushing" until Republicans are willing to pass anti-discrimination legislation that allows for "equal protection under the law." Another speaker was Pennsylvania State Rep. and United States Senate candidate Malcolm Kenyatta. Kenyatta spoke about the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting and the ongoing Fulton v. City of Philadelphia case, which will affect adoption rights for LGBTQ individuals. He said he believes elected officials can do more to protect LGBTQ rights. "If you are here and you are queer, I want you to run for office," Kenyatta said. The borough of State College plans to host more Pride events and make the "Pride Ride" an annual event. MORE BOROUGH COVERAGE A panel discussion and documentary premiere on the 2020 election and the future of youth voting was held Saturday by Centre County political activists. The speakers discussed the importance of voting in Centre County and Pennsylvania in presidential elections. Speakers included Jacob Klipstein, former president of Penn State's College Democrats, Eli Duncan-Gilmour, founder and president of Our Vote USA, and Kolin Kearns, the national digital campaign manager for NextGen America. To start off the webinar, a short documentary titled How to Flip a State: A Centre County Story was shown, which centered around the importance of Centre County the only blue county in a sea of red to Pennsylvania. A large college campus in the center of the county has something to do with this, the documentary said. The documentary highlighted the voices of students and their concerns for the future of the United States, and one expressed they are "tired of waking up every day in fear. In the discussion following the documentary, panelists explained what made the 2020 election unique, with Duncan-Gilmour referring to it as the perfect storm. Klipstein said he believes there were three main factors affecting the 2020 election first, the current generation had been beaten over the head for three years by former President Donald Trump. Second, he said because of the coronavirus pandemic, people were turned away from Trump, and Everyone was inside and doom scrolling all day on social media. And third, Klipstein said people went to protests following the death of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and this drove a lot of people out to vote. Floyd was a Black man who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis on Memorial Day and whose death has sparked nationwide protests. Taylor was a Black woman who was fatally shot in March by Louisville police officers who raided her apartment. The panelists also discussed the importance of digital organizing when campaigning, and how this relates to the pandemic. When it comes to digital organizing, we have to meet voters where [theyre] at [thats] pretty natural with a younger audience, Kearns said. Klipstein said political activism in social media was spreading like wildfire organically during the election, and his generation was coming out to vote in higher numbers than usual. Ben Cohn, the host of the webinar, added there has been an 8-10% increase in 18- to 29-year-old voters between 2016-20. Kearns said moving forward, the Democratic Party can no longer rely on using Trump as a strategy. The question for young voters going into midterm elections and the 2024 presidential election, Klipstein said, should be Do you want to work towards this vision [of multiracial democracy], or do you just not like Trump? The panelists then changed the course of the discussion to the future of President Joe Biden's administration and what he has done already during his time in office. I think that Joe Biden is doing a pretty decent job considering where he stands politically [It will be] exceptionally hard to hold ground or gain seats in the midterm election, Duncan-Gilmour said. Duncan-Gilmour said the coming years will be do or die." The odds dont matter At this point, we just have to win," Duncan-Gilmour said. Kearns said he would like to see Biden move forward with the most ambitious version of the climate plan and said he believes next year will be critical to see what promises [Biden] can keep. However, Biden is doing a good job on the front of restoring how [the United States looks] in the eyes of the world," Klipstein said. MORE BOROUGH COVERAGE Downtown State College welcomes new mobile bakery business Melissa Wilson is offering a mobile approach to selling baked goods with her new business On UTAH US sued over road project in Mojave desert tortoise habitat SALT LAKE CITY A coalition of conservation groups on June 4 sued the U.S. government over the Trump administration's decision to allow construction of a new four-lane highway through a national conservation area in southern Utah that includes protected habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise. The group Conserve Southwest Utah argued the road through part of the "sensitive and scenic" Red Cliffs National Conservation Area would violate environmental laws and put the tortoise and several other species at risk. There are alternative routes that would solve vehicle congestion problems in the fast-growing area and the decision to cut through protected land sets a dangerous precedent, said the lawsuit filed against the U.S. Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management. The Interior Department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the lawsuit. The Bureau of Land Management declined to comment. Mojave desert tortoises, a threatened species, weigh up to 15 pounds and grow to about 6 inches high. They can live up to 80 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and spend up to 95% of their lives underground. Their historic range includes parts of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. Roads are problematic for the tortoises because they bring noise, garbage and lights, as well as the possibility of the tortoises being hit by cars as they slowly make their way across pavement, said Tom Butain, board president for Conserve Southwest Utah. Highway supporters have said the four-lane highway is needed to keeping traffic flowing in the area around the city of St. George, which has a metro area of about 170,000 people and is one of the fastest-growing parts of the U.S. Mormons scrap conference session once reserved for men only SALT LAKE CITY A session that used to be reserved for men only at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' twice-annual signature conference has been permanently scrapped, the faith announced June 7. The decision came three years after the church changed the Saturday evening session to alternate each six months between being for only men and only for women and nearly eight years after the faith began broadcasting the male-only session. Some women in the faith objected to the male-only session, contending it was an illustration of a gender inequality in the faith. Only men are allowed to be considered priesthood holders in the faith's lay clergy, a distinction that allows them to lead congregations and hold the highest leadership positions in the Utah-based faith that counts 16.5 million members worldwide. Church leaders said in a statement that the decision was made because the session is now available online for anyone to watch. WYOMING Bill Gates company to build reactor at old coal plant CHEYENNE A next-generation, small nuclear plant will be built at a soon-to-be retired coal-fired power plant in Wyoming in the next several years, business and government officials said June 2. The plant featuring a sodium reactor and molten salt energy storage system will perform better, be safer and cost less than traditional nuclear power, Microsoft co-founder and TerraPower founder and chairman Bill Gates said. Bellevue, Washington-based TerraPower is working with Rocky Mountain Power, an electric utility serving Wyoming and other Western states, to put the Natrium reactor at one of four of the utility's power plants in Wyoming, with the location to be decided later this year. Wyoming is the top uranium-mining state, and the reactor would use uranium from "in situ" mines that extract the heavy metal from networks of water wells on the high plains, officials said. Wyoming also is the top coal mining state. The U.S. coal industry has suffered a dramatic downturn over the past decade as utilities switch to cheaper and cleaner-burning gas to generate electricity. The reactor proposal creates common ground between Wyoming, one of the most Republican states, and Democratic President Joe Biden's administration. If it's as reliable as conventional nuclear power, the 345-megawatt plant would produce enough power for roughly 250,000 homes. The plant also would produce hydrogen, which can power trucks and other vehicles with fuel cells. The plant will be a "multibillion-dollar project" with costs to be split evenly between government and private industry, TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said. The plant would produce two-thirds less waste by volume than conventional nuclear plants, Levesque said. NEW MEXICO Review of contamination at air bases moves ahead CLOVIS New Mexico is several months into an investigation to determine the extent of contamination at two U.S. Air Force bases, and state officials said June 4 that the work is on track to be completed by summer 2022. Environment Secretary James Kenney said his department has reviewed data, drafted analysis and sampling plans, and visited areas around Cannon and Holloman air bases. Once the study is done, the department will evaluate the next steps based on the risk to public health, available funding and any actions taken by the federal government at that point. The state sued in 2019, saying the federal government has a responsibility to clean up plumes of toxic chemicals left behind by past military firefighting activities. New Mexico officials consider the contamination "an immediate and substantial danger" to the surrounding communities of Clovis and Alamogordo. They say sampling has shown the levels of contamination linked to a class of chemicals known as PFAS exceeds lifetime health advisory levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Growing evidence that exposure to the chemicals is dangerous has prompted the EPA to consider setting a maximum level for PFAS in drinking water nationwide. NEBRASKA Prosecutor, attorney reprimanded for 'banishment' scheme OMAHA A prosecutor and a defense attorney in Nebraska have been reprimanded for a scheme reminiscent of the Wild West in which they told two convicted criminals to get out of town and never return. On June 4, the Nebraska Supreme Court issued public reprimands for Custer County Attorney Steven Bowers and Broken Bow defense attorney Christopher Wickham for carrying out the "banishment plan." The high court said Bowers and Wickham violated rules of professional conduct and their oaths as attorneys. Under the plan brokered by Wickham and Bowers, the defense attorney advised his clients, who had been charged with felonies, to plead guilty then flee the state before sentencing, with the understanding that they would not return. Bowers, the prosecutor, agreed that if the men skipped out on their sentencing hearings and left the state, he would direct the county sheriff to not seek extradition to have them returned to Custer County, the high court said. Wickham and Bowers also schemed to seek a low bail for the men, so they could be freed before the sentencing hearings. The court's reprimand orders don't reveal the names of the men who were charged, what charges they pleaded to or when the scheme was carried out. In the reprimand order against Bowers, the high court said at least one of the men fled Custer County before his sentencing hearing and was later arrested about 200 miles away near Omaha. Bowers did not seek to extradite the man to Custer County, and he was released from custody, the court said. The court did not say what happened to the other man. 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 Code3directory.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 21 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the code3directory homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the code3directory homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the code3directory homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the code3directory homepage on Twitter + the total number of code3directory followers (if code3directory has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the code3directory homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if code3directory has a Facebook fan page). Basic Information PAGE TITLE CODE3DIRECTORY- FREE REGULAR LINK DIRECTORY DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache (PHP/5.2.17) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux The language of code3directory.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for code3directory.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The type of Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND 100% Website toyota.com.sa uses latest and advanced technologies. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 65137 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 111131 bytes (108.53 kb uncompressed) and 13590 bytes (13.27 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-10-14, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 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. Given the food prices, the food security provided to two-thirds of the population looks very good. But when we look at the quantity of food grains, there is some frustration because 5 kg of food grains per person per month works out to 164 grams per day, which is not enough to satisfy the hunger of the workers. Ever since the enactment of this law, reports of non-receipt of ration, underweight, and very poor quality of food grains from various states of the country have been making headlines in newspapers / television channels. Apart from these facts, one aspect that requires a lot of attention is to understand the true meaning of food security. According to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security, food security means a socio-economic approach for all people to have access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food at all times in order to live an active and healthy life. If we look at this definition of hunger, there will be more frustration. To understand hunger and lack of food security in India, it is necessary to review the development model adopted in the country. After the independence of the country, the Planning Commission was set up in 1950 and Five Year Plans were introduced from 1951. The period 1951-80 is considered as the Planning Period. During this period, the rulers of the country adopted a mixed economic development model under which public sector enterprises were established, expanded and developed and private sector enterprises were regulated and monitored. Various research studies conducted in the country revealed the fact that during the planning period (1951-80) employment opportunities in the public sector had increased, permanent jobs and services at concessional rates or free of cost were provided to the masses which led to reduction in economic inequalities. After 1980, planning was put into reverse gear. The country's adoption of the New Economic Policies of liberalization, privatization, and globalization since 1991 has targeted the planning and the NDA government by abolishing the Planning Commission has created NITI Aayog in which the capitalist / corporate world has been given an important place. About half of the country's population depends on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. Dependents on the agricultural sector include farmers, agricultural labourers, and rural artisans. Different categories of farmers include large, medium, semi-medium, small, and marginal farmers. According to the 2015-16 Agricultural Census, the number of marginal and small farmers (who have less than 2 hectares of land) in the country is 86 per cent. These are farmers who, after meeting their household needs, have very few commodities to sell in the market. Use of herbicides and machinery in New Agricultural Strategy to meet food grains needs has significantly reduced employment days in rural areas Apart from this fact, the economic condition of marginal and small farmers has been deteriorating day by day due to the sluggish rise in MSP or market prices of agricultural commodities and skyrocketing prices of inputs used in agricultural production. In some states these farmers sell A-grade commodities in the market to meet their needs for clothes, medicines, etc., and to meet their needs related to these commodities, they buy the lowest grade commodities in the market. Apart from farmers, there are two other classes in the agricultural sector agricultural labourers and rural artisans who generally belong to the Dalit and Backward classes, are the two rungs at the bottom of the ladder of the agricultural economy. They are kicked more often. As these two classes are landless, they have no other means of production except to sell their labour. The ever-increasing use of herbicides and machinery in the package of New Agricultural Strategy to meet the country's food grains needs has significantly reduced the employment days of these two categories in the agricultural sector. Due to government policies making agriculture a loss-making business, weak unions of agricultural labourers and rural artisans and some other reasons, the wage rates of these sections have not increased sufficiently due to which their income and consumption levels are low. The issue of gender equality is important for the development of women. According to the laws of the country, any kind of discrimination against women on the basis of gender is illegal and punishable. Despite this, various socio-economic, political and other forms of discrimination against women are common in the country. In addition to wage discrimination against women workers for equal work on the basis of gender, when the problem of declining employment arises, the sword of retrenchment is more on women. Infrastructure can make a significant contribution in the Sustainable Development of a country. The Great Depression of the 1930s and many subsequent events in the world have proved that public sector infrastructure is important for the Sustainable Development of any country as it is not for profit but for the welfare of the people. During the planning period after the independence of the country, the public sector played an important role in the establishment, development, and expansion of infrastructure which contributed a lot to the Sustainable Development of the country. As a result of the New Economic Policies adopted since 1991, great achievements are often claimed in terms of infrastructure establishment, development, and expansion. In this regard, the public sector has been pushed back and the private sector brought forward. The ultimate goal of the private sector is to maximize its profits. Thus, the achievements made in infrastructure during this period have benefited the private sector, while the general public has been / is being deprived of infrastructure facilities. Industrialization can make a significant contribution in the Sustainable Development of any country. Since 1991, there have been many claims of industrial development in the country. In fact, large industrial units are developing very fast in which the increasing use of machines and automatic machines has greatly reduced the employment opportunities and changed the nature of employment from permanent to casual. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are being ignored from various angles. These are the industrial enterprises which provide more employment opportunities to the workers. These facts show that the country has moved towards unsustainable industrialization which will further increase economic inequalities. By adopting scientific thinking, new inventions can bring a lot of changes. New inventions will only be meaningful if they reach the masses. Research and development work in public sector institutions plays an important role in doing so. Some important inventions are being made in the country, but often it is happening in the private sector which is benefiting the capitalist / corporate world and keeping the general public away from the benefits of those inventions. Such phenomena are found in the fields of agriculture, industry, and services. Grants for research and development to government universities and other institutions are either being reduced or eliminated altogether. When salaries and pensions are not paid on time in most of these institutions, how will the researchers working there be able to focus on making inventions? India's rulers are never tire of propagating that the country would become an international economic superpower in the near future. They have become more skeptical about the country's economic growth rate by not paying attention to the country's Sustainable Development. When the economic growth rate is accelerating, they leave no stone unturned to pat themselves on the back. When the economic growth rate stagnates or goes down or comes in negative, our rulers are quick to take pro-capitalist / corporate world and anti-people decisions in the name of economic reforms. For attaining Sustainable Development in any country, it is imperative that a development model be adopted in the country which ensures the establishment, expansion and development of public sector enterprises as well as regulating and monitoring the private sector enterprises. To do that we have to come back to planning. In addition to doing so for Sustainable Development of the country, it is also important to pay close attention to the environment as India ranks 168th in the United Nations report on the Environmental Performance Index prepared for 180 countries of the world. --- * Former Professor, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala According to a report released by the United Nations on June 6, 2021, India's ranking of achieving Sustainable Development based on the 17 Social Development Goals (SDGs) set by the 193 countries in the 2003 agenda, which was 115th last year, has slipped to 117th position this year. India ranks not only the lowest among the BRICS countries -- Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa but also below the four South Asian countries -- Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.The United Nations ranks sustainable development out of 100 points in the Social Development Goals. India scored 61.9 out of 100 points, while the rest of the BRICS countries China, Brazil, the Russian Federation, and South Africa scored 73.89, 72.67, 71.92, and 63.41 points respectively. In this regard, India's four smaller Asian neighbors Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh have scored 69.27, 66.88, 65.93, and 63.51 points, respectively.The report attributes India's decline in Sustainable Development to the challenges of eradicating hunger and food security. In addition, gender equality, solid infrastructure, sustainable industrialization, and the absence of innovations are some of the reasons why India's ranking has slipped.The Global Hunger Index is created by Welthungerhife and Concern Worldwide Institution to raise awareness about hunger around the world. To understand the multifaceted nature of hunger, different countries are ranked on the basis of 4 indicators. The first indicator relates to people who are malnourished. The second indicator relates to children under 5 years of age who are underweight according to their height. The third indicator is for children under the age of 5 who are shorter in height. The fourth indicator relates to the death of children under 5 years of age.Reports of hunger in various countries of the world under the title of 'Global Hunger Index' every year show that India is often ranked low in this regard. Ensuring food security for all the people of the country is essential to eradicate hunger. The country enacted the Food Security Act in 2013, which provides food security to 67 per cent of the population. According to the law, the beneficiaries are entitled to get 5 kg of food grains per month-rice at Rs 3, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Rs 1 per kg. Whether government took timely initiative or prevented the outbreak of Covid to the extent it was in its hands? Question of reverse migration and food infra in rural areas Role of institutions like NGOs. Is theory of survival of the fittest coming true? And how to bring institutions together? Human-centric approach Systemic collapse Community-based approach Digitalization and communication Livelihood security Public healthcare Way forward To discuss the impact of the spread of the second wave in rural areas, the Centre for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS) and Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi, organized a panel discussion on Rural Realities: Karnataka Practitioners Experiences in Tackling the Second Wave in Indian Villages.The panelists were Dr Basavaraju R Shreshta, Executive Director, Grassroots Research And Advocacy Movement (GRAAM), Mysore; Dr Priya Shanmugam, Faculty, Department of Economics, Mount Carmel College Autonomous, Bengaluru; Leo Saldanha, Founding Trustee and Coordinator, Environment Support Group, Bengaluru; Nitesh Kumar Jangir, Co-Founder, Coeo Labs Pvt. Ltd (An InnAccel Division), Bengaluru; Dr Purnima Madhivanan, Associate Professor, Public Health, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College, The University of Arizona; Dr Nazrul Haque, Assistant Professor, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru; Dr M R Seetharam, consultant orthopedic surgeon, Vivekananda Memorial Hospital; nd Dr Jyotsna Jha, Director, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), Bengaluru as the discussant.The moderator of the session was Prof Krishna Raj, Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. He initiated the discussion by asserting that India is facing an unprecedented health and livelihood crisis. Coronavirus spread in rural and urban areas and subsequently India reported highest death rate in the world. Health and infrastructure system are inadequate. Due to focus on election campaigning and religious congregations, the Government neglected the second wave, thus its a man-made disaster.As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has mentioned, during the famine of 1942-43 the major reason for deaths was not availability of food but lack of supply to the needy people at the right time; the same situation is repeating now in 2021. Mismanagement is a huge issue. Availability of life saving medicines and beds are less. Children with malnutrition in rural areas is another grave concern, Dr Raj said, adding, frassroots NGOs can play a vital role in rural areas in creating awareness as there are layers of health issues.Prof Krishna Raj presented the following questions before the panelists:Dr MR Seetharam, who has three-decade community connect as a doctor, said that health is not just absence of infirmity or disease but a positive state of well- being. The objective is to ensure that person is stable and is productive physically, economically and socially and leads a happy life. A human-centric approach is crucial.It is important that health security reaches the right people. We have to build resilience for the long- term future. Covid is more of a behavioral issue. We need to focus more on lifestyle and strengthen the system, he said.In rural areas, there is reliance on traditional home remedies. There is collective response to illness in the family. People in rural areas have a culture of doing things together and have calendarized public events, like festivals and temple fairs which are unavoidable according to them.The major issues in rural areas are dependence on quacks, preference on small time clinics, lack of trust in Government hospitals, gossips and rumours, incomplete disclosure of information. There is a ladder to disaster in rural areas and the conception that it will not happen to me. There is widespread stigma.There is a need for an epidemiological approach and not just a medical or clinical approach. Health determinants need to be addressed adequately. We have to reach rural communities on their terms and keep it simple. A holistic multi- pronged approach is the need of the hour. Capacity building programs for the local people can go a long way. We have to network and work together.There has to be an ABCD Model: A -attitude change, B- behavioral change, C- control spread, and D- Disease management. Equitable and inclusive approach is needed. Community institutions embedded in the health system like ARS and ASHA workers and institutions embedded in other departments can be really helpful. There has to be collaborative initiative, he said.Leo Saldanha pointed out that suicide is an indicator of public health. The quality of governance needs our attention. Corporate sector taking over major sectors like food and health is an issue of concern. Panchayati raj systems role is of vital importance. No attention to primary health centers in rural areas needs our attention. It is a systemic collapse which has happened over the time.A culture of specialized services being concentrated in urban areas has led to systemic subversion of public health outreach in rural areas. For example, in Thailand, there is compulsory two-year service rendered by doctors in rural areas to promote the doctors to serve in rural areas, similar models can also be adopted by India, he said.Lockdown is leading to malnourishment in rural areas as some people have hand to mouth situation. Investment in health sector is the need of the hour. Migration is due to lack of opportunities in rural areas. There is a distress cycle. Fundamental structural change is the solution, he added.Investment in infrastructure is an indicator of political class building a legacy. Wasteful investments have to be stopped and there has to be a public outcry. Civil society organizations have to come together for the betterment of India.Dr Basavaraju R Shreshta remarked that when there is a war, everybody is a soldier; therefore his organization is working at the ground level to help people. Karnataka showed positivity rate over 25%. Testing was reduced substantially and syndromic approach to treat the cases was followed. The reality of rural areas is: We eat well, work hard and we do not have to worry.The challenge of an infodemic world wherein myths and rumours spread quickly as people believe hospitals are not safe and at-least they will die at home peacefully. There are small houses and shared toilets in rural areas making home isolation difficult. There are no oximeters and thermometers at the community level and focus is more on treatment than prevention. Also, there is lack of basic safety materials to frontline workers, he said.Lack of information about hospitals at the village level is a major challenge. The role of village panchayat is important and critical. Coordination and cohesiveness are needed to reach the community, he added.He favoured Panch-Tantra Grama-Mantra: Strengthening the gram panchayat; building team of youth volunteers; engaging community- based organisations; supporting community health personnel; and mobilising civil society support.Dr Nazrul Haque said following points are important to note: Panchayats need to form Covid task forces; disseminating information should be done in a simpler way; women panchayat heads should be encouraged, as they are more sympathetic and responsive; there should safety materials for frontline workers; there should be second line staff to support front line doctors; and vaccine hesitancy should be overcome with proactive role of panchayats.Dr Purnima Madhivanan highlighted that vaccine shortage is a huge issue. As many as 550 million people in India do not use smart mobile phones and therefore cant register for vaccine slots. It will take three years to vaccinate people at the current rate of vaccination. Entire country cant run on apps, she insisted.Digitalization has added a new layer of exclusion. Policies are changing quickly reflective of flaws in the planning process. Short term perspective needs to be done away with and sustained public health policy needs to be focused upon, she added.According to her, pandemics and epidemics are predictable, they occur within a span of 30-40 years. We should focus on evidence and science. It is a public health situation. Crisis communication has to be adopted as Government has to be accurate as it is critical for credibility. Empathy and respect towards people is very important during this unprecedented situation.Neurological disorders in old, people with disabilities, concerns of indigenous people, Mental health, collective trauma (PTSD) etc. are the challenges before us. It is a shared tragedy. We will take time to heal. Reach out and support mechanisms need to be strengthened, she added.DrPriya Shanmugam pointed to the nexus between lives and livelihood security. Government alone cant do it, we need to cooperate to tackle the pandemic. The role of NGOs and volunteers is of utmost importance during these hard times. Bengaluru as IT hub has used technology efficiently. Task forces have been constituted. Sought help with Infosys to revamp BBMP bed allocation software to ensure transparency.A big rural concern is helplessness of ASHAs as they lack proper protective gears. Urban centric COVID response has added to the agony. Decentralized decision making and mental health is deteriorating more. Door to door vaccination intensification to prioritize rural areas, Dr Priya Shanmugam said.Humane approach required in adhering to the norms. Gender gaps would widen post pandemic; therefore, we need to strengthen our institutional framework and policy mechanisms. Also, there should be special window borrowing programs for states to strengthen health care and fund vaccination programmes. Crime rates would increase because of livelihood concerns, she added.Dr Nitesh Kumar Jangir asserted that lack of health care knowledge is a huge problem. Proper use of devices is important. Lack of bio medical staff in hospitals needs more attention. Lack of oxygen connectors and standardization of the same adds to the existing problems. Maintenance of medical equipment is crucial at this juncture.Dr Jyotsna Jha underlined following three characteristics of the second wave: High infection rate, prevalence in rural areas, and younger age group getting infected. According to her, it is a behavioral and cultural issue. Lack of health preparedness led to this rapid upsurge in cases.There are critical gaps which needs our attention. Good communication is needed for reaching to the public effectively. Problems are deeper than they seem. We have poor accountability mechanisms. We cant be apolitical now. Weak public health system is the result of corporatization. Technology is a divider. Definitely it is a federal issue. Long term horizon of decision making is needed. Strengthening public health care is the solution. We have to be better prepared. We have to hold the leadership accountable, she said.Prof Krishna Raj said that the Government has to be proactive. Policies have to be consistent and NGOs role is of vital importance. Jyotsna Jha concluded by saying that an open and transparent system can solve many problems. We have to allow everyone to have a role. There has to be collaborative effort which is clear, precise and consistent.Dr Basavaraju said that it is a public health issue and we need public support. Dr Priya Shanmugam advocated on strengthening the state fiscal capacity. PURA (Provision of Urban Rural Amenities) mission of APJ Abdul Kalam needs to be adopted.According to Dr Seetharam, decentralized contextual approach and development perspective with long term vision is a viable solution. We have to use this as an opportunity and be optimistic. And build resilience at the community level.Dr Purnima concluded by propounding that we have to start thinking about rehabilitation and disabilities. A long -term lens is needed and start thinking from now as we will have more widows and orphans post-Covid. We have to use trusted mechanisms for transmitting trusted messages. We have to involve communities. We have to go door to door and educate people. Communication is crucial for building trust. 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 the pantheon of fictional malefactors and ne'er-do-wells, the "evil clown" character trope certainly feels like a newer thing, attributable to maybe the Joker in the 1940s, or Pennywise in the '80s, or even the Great Clown Panic of 2016, when college kids in costumes stalked the shadows of the land. But, it turns out that the first notable murder-clown was actually created in the 1800s by none other than Edgar Allan Poe. Public Domain This guy ruined clowns forever? No! Youre kidding! Poe's short story "Hop-Frog," first published in Boston's The Flag of Our Union in 1849, features a court jester with dwarfism the titular Hop-Frog getting revenge on an ableist king. In true Poe fashion, he does this through trickery and gruesomely described death, and all in five short pages crapped out specifically for the money. Continue Reading Below Advertisement The story starts with an unnamed king, shockingly, acting like a dick to everyone who isn't also a king. He employs both Hop-Frog, a "motley fool" in "caps and bells," and a dancer, Trippetta, also a dwarf, and then proceeds to torment them, mocking them and laughing at them (for non-jester reasons) and forcing Hop-Frog to get drunk to the point of violent illness. But it's when the king throws a goblet of wine at Trippetta that Hop-Frog truly decides he's had enough and begins his revenge. With a masquerade approaching, the jester convinces the king and his minions to dress up as orangutans, slathering them in tar and flax because Party City hadn't been invented yet. He then chains them all together because the king is remarkably trusting for a guy who regularly insults everyone. This weekend marks 40 years since Indiana Jones first bullwhipped his way onto movie screens with Raiders of the Lost Ark, to the delight of moviegoers and presumably the disdain of snake-lovers. Looking back at the original film from here in the future year of 2021 (in which a fifth Indy adventure is currently being filmed), it's certainly difficult to untangle the legacy of Raiders from its many sequels. In many ways, an Indiana Jones franchise was inevitable since the character was borne out of Steven Spielberg's frustration with the James Bond producers who refused to hire him. But while Indiana Jones may have started out as a Bond substitute, unlike 007, the mere existence of further Indiana Jones sequels undercuts the central message of the original film. Continue Reading Below Advertisement A recent article on Collider dismantled the old "Indiana Jones doesn't matter" theory -- and they're right, considering this a "plot hole" is to miss the point of the entire movie, which is that it's Indy's inaction that ultimately leads to his victory. Pretty much every choice Indy makes just leads to screw-up after screw-up. As we've mentioned before, the climactic moment when Indiana Jones closes his eyes as the ark is opened, when he abandons his ego and accepts the possibility of the otherworldly, is what makes him a hero -- not that he can capably gun down street toughs in order to save the victim of his past sex crimes. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Indy's journey is from a guy who doesn't give a crap about pillaging other cultures' temples and stealing their sacred idols to someone who is humbled into acknowledging that he should respect others' beliefs even if he doesn't share them. The moral of Raiders of the Lost Ark is not to do the stuff Indiana Jones is famous for doing. The movie tells us this visually as well; while the movie begins with Indy ascending a mountain towards adventure, it ends with him descending a D.C. staircase with Marion, suggesting that he is moving away from his days of being a filthy treasure hunter. Lucasfilm Crossville, TN (38555) Today Thunderstorms, some with heavy rain this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms, some with heavy rain this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. DANBURY The YouTuber behind a video showing city polices response to a situation at the public library has filed an intent to sue a city sergeant involved. The response by police is not only raising questions about their actions, but also over whether it should be allowable for someone film or record inside a public building. The Danbury Police Department launched an internal investigation this past week into the officers actions on Wednesday after the video surfaced and the YouTuber filed a complaint with the department. Four police officers and later the sergeant were called to the Danbury Public Library on Wednesday after the YouTuber, SeanPaul Reyes, refused to stop recording video in the building, despite a library policy banning filming or photography without permission from the library director. Im engaging in a First Amendment protected activity, Reyes says in the video. Im gatherings content for a story. I have freedom of the press. This is a public building. Im allowed to be here and Im allowed to record. Regardless of what their policy says, policy does not trump law. Reyes, who is from Long Island, films similar videos for his YouTube channel, Long Island Audit, with the goal to educate officers and spread awareness about First Amendment rights, he said. He plans to make more videos in Connecticut, he said. Ill definitely be exposing any tyranny out here, he told Hearst Connecticut Media on Friday. My intention is not to antagonize the police. My intention is to exercise my rights peacefully and educate the police. Danburys town clerk and city attorney confirmed an intent to sue was filed with the city on Thursday. Sgt. John Dickinson, the supervisor called to the library, is the only person named, said Laszlo Pinter, deputy corporation counsel for Danbury. Mayor Joe Cavo said the city is reviewing the footage from the newly purchased body cameras to get a better picture of what happened, as well as claims the YouTuber made about First Amendment violations. There is a lot of investigation that has to happen right now, he said. Reyes said he intends to add the library director and three more of the five officers who responded. Others could be named, as well. He plans to represent himself in the suit and ask for a to-be-determined amount in monetary damages, as well as apologies from the officers and more training sessions for cops. Chief Patrick Ridenhour said in a Thursday statement he has significant concerns with how the officers and sergeant handled the situation. He did not return requests for comment on Friday about whether the officers are on duty, the full names of the officers involved, and other details about the investigation. Hearst Connecticut Media has requested the footage from the body cameras, as well as a copy of the police report and the records of the involved officers. The citys library director did not return a request for comment. First Amendment A growing number of people are filming at libraries with the intent to argue they have the right to do so and to share on social media their interactions with police, security and other public officials, according to the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. In a blog post, the association recommends libraries not engage with First Amendment auditors who are not violating policy. Allowing them to film without incident means that they will not obtain the videos that support their social media accounts, writes Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the intellectual freedom office and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. Reyes said he has watched First Amendment Audit videos for years and was inspired to do his own following George Floyds murder. He started making the videos in March of this year and has about 22,800 subscribers. He said he got a bad reaction from an officer in his first video in Suffolk County, N.Y., but that officials in his area are learning and being educated on our First Amendment right to film. He said he has filmed in some places for 10 to 15 minutes and officials have not had a problem. The Connecticut Library Association has been aware of the issue nationally for several years, said Tom Piezzo, president. It has been quite infrequent in CT to date, he said in email. A case in New Jersey found that libraries are a limited public forum, which means they are only mandated to permit the public to exercise rights that are consistent with the nature of libraries, the court found. Libraries have the right to regulate photography and recording because of the potential threat of harassment, a possible chilling effect on patrons use of the library, and a threat to patrons right to privacy, Caldwell-Stone writes. Connecticut state statutes allow library boards of directors to adopt bylaws, rules and regulations for the government of the library and reading room. Danbury Librarys policy states that filming or photography is not allowed inside the building without permission from the library director. Patrons may not take photos or videos of other library users without their permission. Its a limited public forum, so its not open to every kind of activity that you want Pinter said. In the video Reyes claims two of the officers touched him at different points during the incident. The YouTuber and some of the officers mock each other throughout the video, which appears to be edited. Reyes calls the officers bozos and tyrants in the video. Im not harassing anybody, Reyes says almost 27 minutes into the 34-minute video. Im a journalist gathering content for a story. Youre a journalist, Officer Tibbitts says. Get a real job. Reyes claimed to Hearst Connecticut Media that Officer Tibbitts grabbed and pushed him after the YouTuber started to leave the building at the request of the sergeant and under threat of arrest. The video does not show whether Tibbitts did so. Dont touch me, Reyes says about 17 minutes into the video. Hold on, Tibbitts says. We need your ID. No you dont. No you dont, Reyes says. We have to identify you, Tibbitts says. I have not committed a crime, the YouTuber says. Yes, you have, the officer says. No, I havent, Reyes says. Listen, man, youre touching me. A few minutes later, Reyes tells Tibbitts again to stop touching him. In the video, Tibbitts arms are down. Later outside, Reyes claims to Hearst Connecticut Media that Officer Utter grabbed his wrist and twisted it with the intention of turning the camera on him. The footage does not show whether the officer is touching him, but the video shakes slightly as the cop leans his head closer to the camera and says, Youre wrong. At one point inside the library, Reyes and Tibbitts quibble. Im sorry that I know the law more than you, Reyes said. Its very sad. Youre sad, Tibbitts says. The sergeant puts up his hand. You really are, another officer says off camera. Its pathetic. Stop, the sergeant says before addressing Reyes. Youre going to talk to me now, all right. Other incidents For other videos, Reyes said he normally sees this many officers show up to incidents like this. The response is disproportionate to the crime or the alleged crime that is taking place, he said. Its just a show of force. Reyes claimed he filmed a similar video at the Post Office in Waterbury and was arrested. Court records show he was charged with criminal trespassing in the first degree on May 19 in Waterbury. He has not posted a video from the incident because his phone and camera were seized by police, he said. Waterbury Sgt. Robert Davis confirmed Reyes camera and things were turned in as evidence in the case. The Waterbury internal affairs department is investigating the incident, as well, Davis said. Hearst Connecticut Media has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the police report in the Waterbury case. Reyes was also arrested in Hartford County, Maryland in May after filming during a traffic stop there, according to Fox 45 Baltimore. The deputy pulled out his stun gun, but did not fire it at Reyes, the TV station reports. Reyes said he expects to post another video soon potentially on Saturday showing his visit to Danbury City Hall to file his intent to sue. He refused to give his name to the security guard at City Hall, so three officers and a supervisor were called, Reyes said. These officers were a lot different than the officers that responded at the library scene, Reyes said. They werent escalating it. They werent trying to be bullies. They were like, Hey, we really dont know. City Hall is asking for visitors names in order to contact trace in case of a COVID-19 outbreak, Cavo said. I didn't really hear much about the City Hall visit, he said. I was at the high school graduation all afternoon when that transpired. I do know he had some interaction with the guard and the police came and he left. Reyes said he is thankful and proud Ridenhour has launched an internal investigation and hopes to speak to him about training sessions for officers. Thats the only way change is going to come through education and, unfortunately, legal actions, such as civil lawsuits, he said. NEWQUAY, England (AP) President Joe Biden on Sunday said the United States had restored its presence on the world stage as he used his first overseas trip since taking office to connect with a new generation of leaders from some of the worlds most powerful countries and more closely unite allies on addressing the coronavirus pandemic and Chinas trade and labor practices. As he wrapped three days of what he called an extraordinarily collaborative and productive meeting at the Group of Seven summit of wealthy democracies, Biden said there was genuine enthusiasm for his engagement. Americas back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values, Biden said at a news conference before leaving Cornwall to visit Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. I think weve made progress in reestablishing American credibility among our closest friends. The president, who is on an eight-day, three country trip, left his mark on the G-7 by announcing a commitment to share 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses with the world and pressing allies to do the same. The leaders on Sunday confirmed their intent to donate more than 1 billion doses to low-income countries in the next year. This is going to be a constant project for a long time, Biden said of the global vaccination campaign, adding that he hoped the world could stamp out the pandemic in 2022 or 2023. Its not just the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, Biden said, but also the correct thing to do in terms of our own health." He also said the U.S. might be able to donate an additional 1 billion vaccine doses to the world in the coming years. Biden also fought for the leaders' joint statement to include specific language criticizing China's use of forced labor and other human rights abuses as he worked to cast the rivalry with Beijing as the defining competition for the 21st century. The president declined to discuss the private negotiations over the provision, but said he was satisfied with the tough rhetoric, though difference remained among the allies about how forcefully to call out Beijing. Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Japan largely endorsed the Biden administrations position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed hesitancy during the talks, according to a senior official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, played down the division, but acknowledged countries had different levels of conviction about the depth of the challenge." But when you add it all up, actually the whole became greater than the sum of its parts because there is a broad view that China represents a significant challenge to the worlds democracies, on a number of different dimensions," Sullivan said. The leaders also embraced Biden's call for a 15% global minimum corporate tax rate. The other G-7 allies did their part in creating the impression that Biden was part of the Club and sought to help reinforce Bidens America is back mantra, including by embracing the his campaign slogan to Build Back Better from the pandemic. Most European allies had been disenchanted with President Donald Trumps grumbling of global freeloaders and espousing an America First policy, so Biden had the challenge of convincing a skeptical audience that the last U.S. administration was not a harbinger of a more insular country. We're totally on the same page, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of Biden. Implicitly criticizing his predecessor, who had said other countries should pay for the presence of Americas military presence abroad, Biden said he does not view NATO as a protection racket. Biden also reported that global leaders were gratified that the U.S. president accepted the science of climate change. One of the things some of my colleagues said to me when I was there was, Well, the United States leadership recognizes there is global warming, Biden said. The president was ending his day in Brussels for meetings with NATO and European Union leaders on Monday and Tuesday before his summit with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva. U.S. officials said that one-on-one meeting would test whether the two men could develop a constructive relationship even as Biden was poised to rebuke Putin for a range of rights abuses and election interference. Pressed at the news conference on why Putin has not changed his behavior after waves of U.S. sanctions, Biden replied with a laugh. Hes Vladimir Putin. The summit marked some of Biden's first face-to-face meetings with global leaders since taking office in January amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including Frances Emmanuel Macron, with whom he was meeting for the first time. The 43-year-old Macron, who came into office in May 2017, months after Bidens two terms as the U.S. vice president ended, appeared to have quick chemistry with the 78-year-old American. The two draped their arms around each other and chatted animatedly when they walked together after the leaders' photo at the beginning of Fridays summit. In remarks to reporters, Macron did not utter Trumps name but offered an unambiguous shot at the former president. Macron noted his his relief that with Biden, he was now working with an American president willing to cooperate. What you demonstrate is leadership is partnership, Macron said of Biden. During Trump's term, Macron tried to find common ground but often bristled at Trump's nativist rhetoric. Macron, who has worked to portray France as a more prominent power in recent years, also used the rise of Trumpism to make the case for greater global European leadership. He complained in November 2019 that a lack of U.S. leadership was causing the brain death of NATO, insisting in an interview with the Economist that the European Union must step up and start acting as a strategic world power. Biden, in his remarks, seemed to acknowledge Macrons concerns, noting that Western Europe was providing backbone and the support for NATO. During the summit, Biden also met with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa. At the news conference, Biden briefly confused Syria and Libya when he described the importance of providing humanitarian aid to countries torn apart by civil war. It was among a handful of verbal stumbles the president made. Biden then traveled to Windsor Castle for a private audience with the queen becoming the 13th president to have met with the 95-year-old monarch. Biden greeted the queen on a dais in the castle courtyard and reviewed an assembled ceremonial guard before he and first lady Jill Biden joined her for tea. He said in a brief exchange with reporters that the queen asked him about Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin during their meeting. The president described her as very gracious and invited her to visit the White House. I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, Biden said. ___ Madhani reported from Brussels and Miller from Washington. JACKSON, Miss. (AP) New COVID-19 cases are declining across most of the country, even in some states with vaccine-hesitant populations. But almost all states bucking that trend have lower-than-average vaccination rates, and experts warn that relief from the pandemic could be fleeting in regions where few people get inoculated. Case totals nationally have declined in a week from a seven-day average of nearly 21,000 on May 29 to 14,315 on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. For weeks, states and cities have been dropping virus restrictions and mask mandates, even indoors. Experts said some states are seeing increased immunity because there were high rates of natural spread of the disease, which has so far killed nearly 600,000 Americans. We certainly are getting some population benefit from our previous cases, but we paid for it, said Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. We paid for it with deaths. More than 7,300 Mississippians have died in the pandemic, and the state has the sixth-highest per capita death rate. Dobbs estimated that about 60% of the states residents have some underlying immunity. So were now sort of seeing that effect, most likely, because we have a combination of natural and vaccine-induced immunity, Dobbs said. Just eight states Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Missouri, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Wyoming have seen their seven-day rolling averages for infection rates rise from two weeks earlier, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. All of them except Hawaii have recorded vaccination rates that are lower than the US average of 43% fully vaccinated, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 10 states with the fewest new cases per capita over that time frame all have fully vaccinated rates above the national average. Medical experts said a host of factors is playing into the drop in case counts across the country, including vaccines, natural immunity from exposure to the virus, warmer weather and people spending less time indoors. But Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, said she is concerned that the natural immunity of those who have been exposed to coronavirus may soon wane. And shes worried that states with low vaccination rates could become hot spots. Just because were lucky in June doesnt mean well continue to be lucky come the late fall and winter, said Wen, the former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore. We could well have variants here that are more transmissible, more virulent and those who do not have immunity or have waning immunity could be susceptible once again. In Mississippi, about 835,000 people have been fully vaccinated, or 28% of the population. But despite the lagging vaccination rate, the state's rolling average of daily new cases over the past two weeks has decreased by about 18%, according to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Albert Ko, who chairs Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale, said there is no accurate data to show what percentage of the population in high burden states such as Alabama or Texas have been exposed to the virus, but he said estimates have put it as high as 50%. I think it doesnt deny the importance of vaccination, particularly because the levels of antibodies that you get that are induced by natural infection are lower than that of what we have for our best vaccine, Ko said. Ko said it is important that even those exposed to the disease get vaccinated because natural immunity does not last as long as vaccine immunity and the levels of antibodies are lower. Wen said research strongly suggests that vaccinations provide a benefit to those who already have some antibodies due to infection. "I think it is a fallacy that many people have that recovery means they no longer need to be vaccinated, she said. ___ This story has been updated to correct the national average of fully vaccinated, 43% not 39.7%. ___ Lovan reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Pat Eaton-Robb contributed to this report from Connecticut. CARBIS BAY, England (AP) Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations staked their claim Sunday to leading the world out of the coronavirus pandemic and crisis, pledging more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations, vowing to help developing countries grow while fighting climate change and backing a minimum tax on multinational firms. At the group's first face-to-face meeting in two years, the leaders dangled promises of support for global health, green energy, infrastructure and education all to demonstrate that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. During their three-day summit in southwest England, the G-7 leaders wanted to convey that the club of wealthy democracies Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. This isnt about imposing our values on the rest of the world, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters at the end of the seaside summit on the rugged Cornwall coast. What we as the G-7 need to do is demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to the rest of the world. U.S. President Joe Biden, who was making his first foreign trip as leader, said it was an extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting" that showed "Americas back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values. But health and environmental campaigners were distinctly unimpressed by the details in the leaders' final communique. This G-7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at the international aid group Oxfam. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Despite Johnson's call to "vaccinate the world" by the end of 2022, the promise of 1 billion doses for vaccine-hungry countries coming both directly and through donations to the international COVAX program falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. Half of the billion-dose pledge is coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain. Canada said it also would give 100 million doses, and France pledged 60 million. Altogether, the leaders said they pledged 870 million doses directly over the next year," with further contributions taking the total to the equivalent of over 1 billion doses. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the lack of a more ambitious vaccination plan was an unforgivable moral failure. But Biden said the leaders were clear that the commitments they made to donate doses wouldnt be the end. The U.S. president said getting shots into arms around the world was a gigantic, logistical effort and the goal might not be accomplished until 2023. The G-7 also backed a minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes, a move championed by the United States. Biden also wanted to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing and strongly call out Chinas nonmarket policies and human rights abuses. The language on China in the G-7 leaders' communique from the meeting was more muted than the United States has used, but Biden said he was satisfied. On China's economic behavior, the group said it would "consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. The leaders also said they would promote their values by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. Not every European power has viewed China in as harsh a light as Biden, who has painted the rivalry with the techno-security state as the defining competition of the 21st century. The G-7 is not a club hostile to China," French President Emmanuel Macron said. Its an ensemble of democracies that (would) work with China on all world topics that China is ready to work on with us. Johnson, the summit's host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a Global Britain, his government's push to give the midsized country, newly detached from the European Union, outsized global influence. Yet Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland. But overall, the mood was positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The prime ministers and presidents also mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception, ate steak and lobster at a beach barbecue and watched an aeronautic display by the Royal Air Force Red Arrows during their stay by the sea. Americas allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player after the America First policy of the Trump administration. Johnson called Biden a breath of fresh air. Italian Premier Mario Draghi said the president wanted to rebuild what were the traditional alliances of the United States after the period of Trump, during which these alliances were seriously cracked. Biden flew from the summit in Carbis Bay to have tea with the queen at Windsor Castle. He is scheduled to attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday and to hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday. The G-7 also made ambitious declarations during their meetings about girls education, preventing future pandemics and financing greener infrastructure globally On climate change, the Build Back Better for the World plan promises to offer financing for infrastructure from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia to help speed up the global shift to renewable energy. The plan is a response to Chinas belt and road initiative, which has increased Beijings worldwide influence. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too little, too late. Naturalist David Attenborough addressed the leaders by video Sunday, warning that humanity is "on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet. If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history, the veteran documentary filmmaker said. As the leaders met behind fences and barbed wire, thousands of environmental protesters gathered throughout the weekend outside the ring of steel to accuse the G-7 of missing a chance to prevent climate catastrophe. Members of the Extinction Rebellion climate activism group blocked the main road of the town of St. Ives on Sunday, banging drums and sitting on the road. Elsewhere, hundreds of surfers and kayakers paddled out to sea to urge better protection for the world's oceans. G-7 is all greenwashing, protesters sang during one march. Were drowning in promises, nows the time to act. ___ Lawless, Kirka and Hui reported from Falmouth, England. Nicole Winfield in Rome and Kirsten Grieshaber and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed. ___ Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate. TRUMBULL When schools reopen in September, they will resemble pre-pandemic conditions with a few changes one of which is unlikely to sit well with a contingent of parents. Students returning to school in the fall would be required to follow the state regulations on wearing masks inside the buildings that means masks for students and staff if the state requires it. We will be following the law around wearing masks, whatever that law is at the time, said schools Superintendent Martin Semmel. Semmel laid out what he expected the 2021-22 school year would look like at the recent Board of Education meeting. Im going to do my best to put on my future-seeing hat and try to give a guess about what 2021-22 will look like, but understand that things can certainly change, he said. When school resumes, Semmel said, students will resume attending classes in person five full days a week. This year, the schools had started with Wednesdays as a remote learning day, and when five-day in-person learning resumed, Wednesdays remained a half-day. That practice will end in September, Semmel said. We expect everything to be going back, in terms of the timeline, as normal, he said. One major difference, though, is that teachers no longer will be teaching students in classrooms and remotely at the same time, Semmel said. The state recognizes we are no longer in a state of emergency, and remote learning is not a requirement, he said. So this means our teachers can focus on students in their classrooms. Also, starting next school year, students and staff who have been vaccinated will not be required to quarantine in the event they have close contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive. That means that getting as many school staff and students vaccinated as possible takes on extra importance, Semmel said. This is a huge point that we should focus on, he said. Currently, about 30 percent of those from age 12 to 15 in Connecticut have been vaccinated, he said. Thats a decent number, but its not where (the Department of Public Health) would like to see it, he said. The summer months would be a great time for students to get fully vaccinated so they can go back to school that way. Also, at the elementary school level, the schools will no longer quarantine an entire class for positive cases. Instead, we will simply identify the close contacts and quarantine them, Semmel said. Thats what weve been doing at the middle and high school level, and because very few (students) have become positive, we believe it is in the best interest of students to try to reduce the number who become quarantined. And there is a good chance that masks may be part of the equation. Semmel said he personally did not support a mask mandate while COVID-19 numbers are as low as they currently are. He also personally believes vaccinated individuals should not be required to wear a mask, since the purpose of a cloth mask, according to the Department of Public Health, is to prevent the wearer from transmitting germs to others. However, the Board of Education is an agent of the government, and is required to follow all of the laws, he said. So thats important to note (because) were hearing tonight from parents saying Please talk to the governor about not having this mandate. We are expecting additional guidance, and theyre hearing from superintendents often. About 20 parents have expressed their opposition to mask mandates either at the meeting or in written correspondence to the board. Secretary Jackie Norcel reported nine parents had written to the board expressing their desire to have the mask mandate repealed immediately or for it not to be in effect when students return in September. Patricia Kelly said parents should be the ones who decide whether their children wear masks in school. Children need to see and show emotions and expressions, she said. Our kids are not responsible for other peoples households, and should not be held to these facemasks for the so-called greater good. Kelly said COVID-19 was something society would have to adapt to. Hiding behind masks and keeping kids separated by plastic partitions is not the answer, she said. deng@trumbulltimes.com JERUSALEM (AP) Israels parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. The vote, capping a stormy parliamentary session, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four deadlocked elections. Those votes focused largely on Netanyahus divisive rule and his fitness to remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. To his supporters, Netanyahu is a global statesman uniquely capable of leading the country through its many security challenges. But to his critics, he has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents. Outside the Knesset, hundreds of protesters watching the vote on a large screen erupted into applause when the new government was approved. Thousands of people, many waving Israeli flags, celebrated in central Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. President Joe Biden quickly congratulated the new government. Ariel Schalit/AP I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations, he said in a statement. He said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government "to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region. Bennett's office said he later spoke by phone with Biden, thanking him for his warm wishes and longstanding commitment to Israel's security. The leaders agreed to consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran, the White House said, adding that Biden said his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on advancing peace, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. Much of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu was personal. Three of the eight parties in the new government, including Bennetts Yamina, are headed by former Netanyahu allies who share his hard-line ideology but had deep personal disputes with him. Bennett, 49, is a former chief of staff to Netanyahu whose small party is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers. As he addressed the raucous debate, he was repeatedly heckled and shouted down by Netanyahus supporters. Some were removed from the chamber. Bennett, an observant Jew, noted the Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting. This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility, he said. To continue on in this way -- more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook -- is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss. The new Cabinet met briefly, and Bennett recited a prayer for new beginnings and said it was time to mend rifts. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, Bennett said. The millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur faces a tough test maintaining an unwieldy coalition from the political right, left and center. The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. We will forge forward on that which we agree -- and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side, Bennett said. He also promised a new page in relations with Israel's Arab sector. Israels Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections. Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. He also vowed, like Netanyahu, to oppose U.S.-led efforts to restore the international nuclear accord with Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, he said. Israel is not party to the agreement and will maintain full freedom to act. But he also thanked Biden for his support of Israel. He promised to take a different approach than Netanyahu, who has alienated much of the Democratic Party through his antagonistic relationship with then-President Barack Obama and close ties with former President Donald Trump. My government will make an effort to deepen and nurture relations with our friends in both parties -- bipartisan, Bennett said. If there are disputes, we will manage them with fundamental trust and mutual respect. While Bennetts speech was conciliatory, Netanyahus was confrontational. He boasted of his achievements, including diplomatic treaties with four Arab states and a successful coronavirus vaccination drive, before belittling the man who is replacing him. He accused Bennett of abandoning Israels right-wing electorate and joining weak leftists to become prime minister. He said Bennett did not have the backbone to stand up to Iran or pressure from the U.S. to make concessions to the Palestinians. I will lead you in the daily struggle against this evil and dangerous leftist government in order to topple it, he said. God willing, it will happen a lot faster than what you think. In the opposition, Netanyahu remains head of the largest party in parliament. The new coalition is a patchwork of small and midsize parties that could collapse if any of its members decide to bolt. Bennett's party, for instance, holds just six seats in the 120-seat parliament. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver. For that, they need time and achievements, he said. Still, Netanyahu will continue to cast a shadow, Plesner said. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years in a rotation agreement with Bennett, if the government lasts. Lapid called off a planned speech, saying he was ashamed his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Netanyahus place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years more than any other, including the countrys founding father, David Ben-Gurion. But his reputation as a political magician has faded -- particularly since he was indicted in 2019 for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu had hoped to form. As summer approaches, students nervously await their final grades. But its in the weeks that follow that teachers brace themselves for their own evaluations, both the institutionally mandated variety and the unofficial ratings on ratemyprofessor.com and ratemyteacher.com, where students especially the disgruntled ones get to grade them back. Students on these sites mostly complain about teachers who give too much work (no such thing!), play favorites or never give As. Teachers tend to be the kind of folks who loved school. Most of us were the obnoxious kids who lived to see that beautiful vertical line of As on our report cards. As adult professionals, we pretend to be above such things. But, however much we pretend to scoff at these digital slights, I think they unnerve us. So do the criticisms implied by political signs that have popped up in Greenwich lately. Likely created by a group calling themselves the Greenwich Patriots, the signs call for a halt to the teaching of critical race theory, and urge residents to attend this Thursdays Board of Education meeting, presumably to express their displeasure with teachers who undermine western Judeo-Christian values. In case youre worried, I am pretty certain critical race theory, or CRT, a very specific academic critique of the role racism plays in law and even mainstream racial justice strategies, isnt being taught in Greenwichs K-12 public schools, or any K-12 public schools, anywhere. Your kids are not being taught CRT, any more than theyre learning tort law. You can take it off your list of concerns. But this hasnt stopped legislatures in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Idaho from banning the teaching of CRT. At least 20 other states are debating similar measures, though none seem to define CRT very accurately and all the measures Ive seen have such vague language that it is very likely teachers may be scared into avoiding the discussion of race, gender, class, immigration status or indigenous identity altogether. Which Im guessing is the goal. But how does an instructor with integrity teach the framing of that Constitution, for example, and pretend race was not part of the discussion? Any deep dive into the writings left behind by the Founders, those brilliant graphomaniacs most instrumental in its drafting, will attest to this fact. Or lets say an English teacher plays it safe and limits his reading list to dead white males. How would he teach, say, Moby Dick without contending with the Pequods multiracial crew? Should his colleague in the history department simply avoid teaching Jim Crow, the Indian Removal Act, the Civil War? How many topics will he be tempted to avoid that your child needs to know to pass her AP exam? I admit it threw me the first (and so far only) time I received a negative review on Rate My Professor.com that accused of teaching with a political agenda. Not because the no-star review said I was a bad teacher, but because it was incredibly well written. I thought I had good rapport with all of the strongest writers in my class that semester, that we had formed that kind of student-teacher bond that transforms both parties. Who was this talented student who so despised me? Who must have been sitting in my class seething in their seat all semester just waiting to unleash this well-worded take down? I can still remember that it accused me of only awarding students who agreed with my extreme left-wing feminazi viewpoint. Which was weird, because that semester, out of dozens of short texts on my syllabus, only one, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, could be counted as feminist and it was written in 1916. Wed spent the semester focusing on controversial writing skills such as building sentences into paragraphs, providing attribution for quoted and paraphrased material, and crafting transitions. In fact, some of my chattier students had requested we spend more time talking about our readings political implications (Im really selling myself as a teacher here, huh?). How had I failed to notice such a talented student? And then my husband said, Maybe you didnt. Instead, he suggested, maybe theyd cribbed it. Sure enough, when I looked online, the exact wording of the students review appeared as suggested language on the now-defunct web site notdoctrinaire.com. I guess someone fell asleep during my unit on plagiarism that semester. At the end of the day, students need to know as much as we can teach them about soul-stirring pleasures of literature, and the hefty service that can be provided by a properly leveraged semicolon. This is especially true when it comes to our democracy. Our kids need to know all of it. The good and there is so much that is so very good about America but also the bad and the ugly. Anything else will doom our experiment in self-rule to the same limited lifespan as other great democratic projects, Athens (about 200 years) and Rome (about 300), when we ought to be striving for a legacy to rival the worlds oldest running representative government, one that inspired Constitutional architects Franklin and Madison. Did you ever learn it for the test? Because despite having wonderful high school history teachers and growing up in Madisons backyard, I never did. Answer: The Iroquois Confederacy, still running strong at 879 years and counting! If the Greenwich Patriots have their way, students at Greenwich High may not be learning it any time soon, either. Lisa Pierce Flores is a Newtown resident, instructor at Fairfield University, author of The History of Puerto Rico, and past editor of The American Mosaic academic database. William Gary Kimbrel, 69, of Cullman passed to his heavenly home on June 25, 2021. A graveside service will be held 1 p.m., Tuesday, June 29, 2021, at Oak Level Cemetery. He was saved at an early age and baptized into the Baptist faith. He remained a lifelong Baptist. Mr. Kimbrel was predece Edenton, NC (27932) Today Partly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low near 75F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low near 75F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Mr. Trevor Garrett Cobb, age 31, of Chatsworth, GA, passed away on Monday, June 28, 2021 at the Murray Medical Center. He was born May 17, 1990 in Dalton, GA. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Ralph Wheat, Glenn and Dorothy Ann Cobb. He is survived by his son, Granger Atlas Cobb There's a sneaky plot afoot to knacker a watchdog already lacking any bark or bite, I can reveal. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) known here as the Advisers for Cashing-In and Brazen Avarice has gained an unhealthy reputation for rubber-stamping departing Ministers' new paydays as they sell their inside knowledge to the private sector. But now the Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister and his Ministers, is reviewing its role. The Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister and his Ministers, is reviewing the role of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) It's hard to think of lighter-touch regulation than Acoba's. Its only weapon is to publish correspondence with Ministers on its website. It can't order them not to take post-Government jobs, and concerns over lobbying are usually ignored. Worse, former Ministers often wave Acoba letters as proof that the new job, however dubious, was officially signed off. Acoba's defenders claim its published letters shine a light on the revolving door between Government and business. But it doesn't always get that right. Take, for example, Nikki Da Costa, a former lobbyist for the outsourcing giant Serco who became director of legislative affairs in Downing Street. After informing Acoba before taking a job with lobbyists Cicero in early 2019, the regulator spelt out its concerns in a letter that it forgot to publish because of staffing issues. The Cabinet Office the same gang that runs a blacklist of journalists making 'awkward' Freedom of Information requests across Government is not about to make Acoba more effective By the time the error was discovered, Da Costa had returned to her old job in Downing Street. The Cabinet Office the same gang that runs a blacklist of journalists making 'awkward' Freedom of Information requests across Government is not about to make Acoba more effective. Reading the small print, I notice one of the aims of the review is to see whether a 'lighter-touch regime is appropriate' for certain appointments. Meanwhile, the revolving door keeps spinning. Electric shocker for Ed Ed Miliband, who notoriously once made a meal of eating 'normal' food, has now reversed into a ditch over his use of electric cars The spectre of the bacon sandwich is once again haunting Ed Miliband. The former Labour leader, who notoriously once made a meal of eating 'normal' food, has now reversed into a ditch over his use of electric cars. The Doncaster North MP was initially mocked for calling for 'an electric car revolution', before admitting he didn't drive one himself. This month, in the Evening Standard, Miliband revealed he was 'trying out' an electric Renault Zoe. Cue outrage from both Tory and Labour colleagues who've got in touch wondering why the Shadow Business Secretary didn't choose a British car. Asked if he owned the car, Miliband kept mum. This week's 'nothing to see here' award goes to Mike Freer, Tory MP for Finchley and Golders Green, who appears to have tired of the cladding scandal. When a constituent emailed to say she faces a hefty bill because her block of flats doesn't qualify for Government money, he replied: 'The issue has been well aired and exhausted in Parliament and I do not believe there are further avenues to be explored.' Just the sort of reply you'd expect from someone with three rental properties that return more than 30,000 in extra annual income on top of his 82,000 parliamentary salary. Roman Abramovich, billionaire Russian owner of Chelsea FC, is willing to spend bundles suing journalist Catherine Belton over her book Putin's People, which the oligarch says wrongly claims he bought the London club in 2003 on Vlad's orders. In a rare statement to the press on the libel action, which has seen a pile-on by other oligarchs also mentioned in the book, Abramovich said his mission was 'to ensure [Chelsea] plays a positive role in all of its communities'. He could start by cleaning up the damage caused after Chelsea won the Champions League last month, when the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was defaced with graffiti saying 'Chelsea' and 'CFC'. Newly released records show the clean-up bill met by London taxpayers came to 640, around the hourly rate for Abramovich's libel barrister. Foreigners, the Duke of Edinburgh once complained, often regard the UK as a theme park. Britain is not just an old country of tottering ruins, he told a gala lunch in New York some years ago. Nor is it a country where yokels quaff ale, where all soldiers are dressed in scarlet tunics and spend their time marching up and down for the benefit of visitors from abroad. Well, Joe Biden may beg to differ. That was pretty much all the new US President and the First Lady have seen during their trip to Britain, which concluded last night at Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth II with US President Joe Biden during their visit to Windsor Castle in Berkshire Queen Elizabeth II (centre) with US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden in the Grand Corridor This was the Presidents first trip outside the USA since last years election and he was certainly getting the best of British Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (C) stands with US President Donald Trump (R) and US First Lady Melania Trump (L) in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle in Windsor, west of London, on July 13, 2018 The Queen asked the commanding officer of the Household Division to escort the President Having arrived in Cornwall for this weekends G7 summit to be greeted by Coldstream Guards on the runway at Newquay Airport the couple spent the weekend staying in an old castle (the Tregenna Hotel), ate fish and chips with an ale-quaffing Prime Minister, and were then invited to tea with the Queen at Windsor yesterday afternoon. There, they were treated to more scarlet tunics and marching, this time from the Grenadier Guards. But the Bidens certainly werent complaining. They loved it. This was the Presidents first trip outside the USA since last years election and he was certainly getting the best of British. He and his wife, Jill, had already met the Queen at her reception in Cornwall for the G7 leaders last Friday. Yesterday, it was just the three of them chatting over tea in the Oak Room in the private wing. Windsor Castle was looking every bit as splendid as it did for Saturdays scaled-down Birthday Parade. The Queen seemed on equally sparkling form yesterday as the Bidens pulled up in the castle Quadrangle. They had flown from Cornwall to Heathrow in Air Force One and then made the short hop to Windsor Home Park in their Marine One helicopter. For the final leg of the journey, however, the Queen had sent her best Range Rover (complete with dog rack). The monarch and her guests squinted into the late afternoon sun as the Grenadier Guards played the Star Spangled Banner. The Queen then invited the President to inspect the guard of honour. After that awkward choreography in 2018 when President Donald Trump was seen to walk in front of the Queen (as he had been told to, it must be said), there was no repeat. This time, the Queen asked the commanding officer of the Household Division to escort the President. The tea party then overran by 20 minutes. Later, the President revealed that he had invited the Queen to pay a visit to the USA, her first since 2007. However, given that she has not been overseas even to Europe for six years, that seems unlikely. No one anywhere, including America, has known as many US presidents as the Queen. Joe Biden is the 13th to greet her in office, though her overall tally is actually fourteen since she also lunched with former President Hoover in 1957. The most famous visit is still that of Ronald Reagan who came to stay in 1982 and went riding in the park with the Queen. To many Americans, it is astonishing that the same head of state was there yesterday to welcome the Bidens (and even more astonishing that she is still to be seen riding in the park). It is why the other G7 leaders were so keen to see the Queen and her family at the royal reception at the Eden Project on Friday. When it comes to what politicians call soft power (persuasion and charm versus brute force) Britain really does have some unique assets from the monarchy to fish and chips on a Cornish beach. All have been deployed in recent days at what must be one of the most memorably eccentric gatherings in nearly 50 years of G7 get-togethers. The final conclusion may have been yesterdays communique about vaccines and climate change, but summits are about more than worthy statements. They are about bolstering relationships and sending a message to the world. Rewind to the most famous summits over the years Maastricht, Yalta, the Congress of Vienna and you wont find another one which involved rolled-up trousers, three generations of royalty and a toddler still in nappies. Certainly, the guests at the 2021 Carbis Bay bucket-and-spade summit will not forget it. Even Professor Joachim Sauer, better known as Angela Merkels husband, put in an appearance. Germanys answer to Denis Thatcher normally avoids such events but he was determined to be at this one. The G7 was originally conceived as a fireside chat, though it would soon morph into a vast and grandiose yawnathon, usually held in some soulless conference hotel. Not this weekend. It was a case of getting back round the fireside or the firepit to be precise, as the leaders toasted marshmallows on the beach. They were all squeezed into the homely Carbis Bay Hotel, except for the Bidens (US security goons decreed that he stay at Tregenna Castle up the hill). Space was at a premium on the Carbis terrace and interestingly, it was the EU delegation, led by the German President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who seemed always to get the best seafront table. Of course, there were those silly photocalls on the podium. These are officially known as family photos with the positions dictated by strict G7 protocols. But it is not the formalities which are the key to a successful summit. The Queen smiled as she spoke to the President and the First Lady at the reception on Friday The Queen is seen in a car ahead of arriving at the Eden Project in Cornwall for a reception with G7 leaders It is the personal touches, like the Prince of Wales own event where he made a heartfelt plea for Covid-style global action on climate change before a dinner of local turbot and clotted cream ice cream. Given it was the new Mrs Johnsons debut co-hosting an international event, it explains why the couple had been keen to squeeze in their marriage ahead of the summit. This was just the sort of barefoot boho-chic beach bash Carrie might have had for her wedding reception if it hadnt been for the lockdown. As well as ordering Cornish ale, the Johnsons had invited an ensemble of local shantymen, called Du Hag Owr, to perform. Their final song was an audience participation number requiring all the guests to bounce up and down in turn as they hit the chorus. Oh, to have seen Chancellor Merkel and Joe Biden doing the Cornish hokey-cokey. As other leaders began to chuckle, Prime Minister Boris Johnson jokingly replied: 'We have been enjoying ourselves, despite appearances.' Pictured: The leaders were seen speaking to the Queen after the photo The Queen sent G7 leaders into fits of giggles when she quipped 'are you supposed be looking as if you're enjoying it' while posing for a photograph The hosts had brought young Wilfred, too. The sight of the US First Lady, the Prime Ministers wife and the baby paddling on the sand will linger in the mind rather longer than the leaders gawky waxwork routine on the podium. Wilfred made another appearance at the start of Saturday nights beach barbecue (proving to guests that the PMs troublesome hair is not contrived but hereditary). Similarly, images of Jill Biden sharing an education symposium with the Duchess of Cambridge or the leaders spouses at the open-air clifftop Minack Theatre above Lands End have set the bar high for the hosts of the next G7 summit Germany. This could all have gone badly wrong, of course, especially if the fickle Cornish weather had turned. Cooped up indoors in the rain, tempers might have frayed. Bringing a toddler to a global summit in a small hotel was a gamble, too. However, it worked. Today, we will be reminded of what these events are usually like as world leaders move on to the Nato summit at a conference centre in Brussels. There will be no shanties. Travel-starved Australians in search of a different kind of holiday can now stay in a towering three-storey truck on a countryside farm. The 1971 'International' started life on a vegetable farm near Kyneton, Central Victoria, where it toiled as a workhorse for 40 years before a four-year conversion transformed it into a unique getaway suitable for entire families. An eight-hour journey took the truck to a farm in Jung, 316km northwest of Melbourne, where it has played host to guests since December 2020. The fully renovated vehicle - which has enough space for two adults and two children - now boasts two bedrooms, a shower, a flushing porcelain toilet, and a full gas oven. Australian travellers in search of a different kind of holiday can now stay in an enormous 1970s farm truck in the middle of nowhere It also comes equipped with a hotplate, a standard-size fridge and freezer and a wood-burning stove, perfect for rustling up your own meals. The truck, which is available to book for $129 (AUD) per night on travel website Tiny Away, is self-sustained by solar panels dotted across the farm. A queen-sized bed complete with side tables and a bookshelf sits above the driver's cab, while a double mattress has been tucked away on the third floor - an ideal spot for kids. A couch in the ground floor living area can be turned into a sofa bed if children prefer to sleep separately. The truck (pictured) started life on a vegetable farm near Kyneton, Central VIC, where it toiled as a workhorse for 40 years before a conversion transformed it into a unique getaway A queen-sized bed complete with side tables and a bookshelf sits above the driver's cab The truck comes equipped with a gas oven, flushing porcelain toilet and wood-burning stove Outside, a deck shaded by trees overlooks a creek that bubbles along beside the truck. It's the perfect perch to sunbathe in summer and snuggle up around the stove during winter. Four kayaks - two for adults, two for children - are kept in the truck for visitors to take to a small lake just 10 minutes' walk away. A double mattress has been tucked away on the third floor - an ideal spot for kids A couch in the ground floor living area can be turned into a sofa bed Guests have been raving about the quirky accommodation in glowing reviews since it opened late last year Guests have been raving about the quirky accommodation in glowing reviews since it opened late last year. 'What more could you ask for! A beautiful little spot, peaceful and quiet and the best night sky you could ask for those stars,' one woman wrote. Another said: 'Fantastic for people looking to get off the beaten track.' An unlucky-in-love radio producer has opened up about the massive dating gamble that cost her thousands of dollars and hours of tears. 'Perennially single' Jana Hocking said she once travelled across the world to see a former flame who had moved to London - but after just two nights an explosive row saw her jump straight back on a flight to Australia. The 36-year-old, who works at Sydney's Triple M station, recounted the drama on this week's episode of news.com.au's podcast, Kinda Sorta Dating. 'Perennially single' Jana Hocking (pictured) said she once travelled across the world to see a former flame who had moved to London - but the move backfired spectacularly 'I was going to move my whole life over there,' she told guest star, Bachelor in Paradise's Alisha Aitken-Radburn. 'Flew the whole way there, by the second night we were in a massive, giant fight and I just remembered, "oh yeah, you're a massive douchebag," and then had to fly the whole way home.' Jana said she 'bawled her eyes out' for the 24-hour journey home, an ordeal Alisha could relate to after she was brutally dumped by Bachelorette star, Jules Bourne. Jana (pictured) said she 'bawled her eyes out' for the 24-hour journey home to Australia An explosive row with her ex led Jana (pictured) to head straight back to Sydney The reality star, who is now happily dating Glenn Smith, said she ordered a banana split and two bottles of red wine to her hotel room, then cried the whole flight from Fiji to Sydney. And it's not the first time Jana has been candid about her dating disasters. The self-professed 'collector of kind-of-boyfriends', who writes about her romantic escapades online, previously revealed why she thinks women are looking for a different type of man in 2021. Jana (pictured) has carved a career by sharing her romantic escapades and dating disasters While 'bad boys' have historically dominated the dating scene, Jana says 'good guys' are now 'in' as women search for safety and security in an increasingly uncertain world. She argues it is human nature to crave the 'compassion, dedication and kindness' offered by a trustworthy and reliable partner. And as the chaos of the pandemic continues, the talk show host believes an increasing number of women will ditch traditional 'bad boys' for something entirely different. A primary school teacher from the outskirts of Melbourne has been hailed the 'most handsome teacher' in Australia. Dylan Harris, who teaches Grade 5 at a school in Pakenham, 61km southeast of the CBD, became a social media sensation after his motivational videos went viral on TikTok. The 28-year-old's boyish good looks and mega-watt smile have earned him thousands of adoring fans online, including grown women from around the world who say they would move to Australia just to sit in his class. Dylan, who is happily married to wife Lisa, 28, told Daily Mail Australia the attention is 'all a bit surreal' but said he is trying to accept the compliments with grace. Scroll down for video Dylan Harris (pictured) has been dubbed the 'most handsome teacher' in Australia Dylan's TikTok stardom has already translated to real life. He said he has been recognised by 'a few people', including one woman who approached his wife at a wedding reception and asked if he was famous. Dylan said Lisa doesn't use social media but is the 'biggest supporter' of his efforts to spread positivity and kindness online. His students, aged 10 and 11, are equally encouraging. 'It's a running joke for them to try and get me to shout them out on my platform,' he said. Dylan (pictured with wife, Lisa) said the attention is 'all a bit surreal' The 28-year-old's boyish good looks and mega-watt smile have earned him thousands of adoring fans The teacher, who also works as a mental health advocate for schools and businesses, admitted he has been lucky to avoid any real negativity from trolls. 'I've been very fortunate with my following in that all the comments have been constructive and nice,' he said. 'I hear stories about trolls and nasty comments but to be honest I haven't received any. 'It's sad to hear that a lot of female advocates and speakers get the meanest comments.. just some nasty people out there.' One of Dylan's most recent videos, where he asks for fellow teachers to connect with him, has racked up more than 627,500 views since it was uploaded online on May 26. The teacher, who also works as a mental health advocate for schools and businesses, admitted he has been lucky to avoid any real negativity from trolls The clip sparked stunned responses about Dylan's appearance, with one woman writing: 'I think I need to move to Australia and go back to Grade 5.' Another said: 'Sorry not a teacher, I'm a nurse, but just wanted to say I don't recall my teachers looking like this.' Some called Dylan the 'most handsome teacher' they have ever seen, while others even begged him to marry them. 'If you were my teacher in school I'd never have been sick,' one woman said. Chloe Delevingne's husband Edward Grant has today bared his soul for the first time about a quarter century-long battle with crippling anxiety and depression. Despite appearing to be flying high at swanky Chelsea parties with a successful career and a happy family life, Edward says he has been condemned to a 'life prison sentence' since his early 20s. And the father-of-two - whose socialite wife is the sister of famed model Cara - revealed how the Covid-19 crisis has had a profound impact on his mental health because his daily distractions were swept away with lockdown. Writing for the Sunday Telegraph, Edward acknowledged 'on paper I'm extremely fortunate' - but said he had been privately 'locked in an exhausting battle with anxiety and depression.' Chloe Delevingne's husband Edward Grant, pictured in 2014, today bared his soul for the first time about a quarter century-long battle with crippling anxiety and depression The father-of-two - whose socialite wife is the sister of famed model Cara - revealed how the Covid crisis has had a profound impact on his mental health. Pictured, Chloe Delevingne and her husband Edward in 2016 Edward, who lives with wife Chloe and their two children Atticus, seven, and Juno, five, in the Cotswolds, started battling chronic anxiety, extreme panic attacks and crippling insomnia after leaving Bristol University. The property developer began working in west London nightclubs, and while partying hard and rubbing shoulders with celebrities, admits he felt 'pressure' to be the 'life and soul of the party'. At the age of 21, in the mid-2000s, Edward had his first panic attack while at a restaurant with friends - and with no idea what was happening, thought he was dying while unable to breathe. His mental health was so bad that some days Edward was unable to get out of bed, and after confiding in his father a year later, he started seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed antidepressants and twice-weekly counselling sessions. Edward, who lives with wife Chloe and their two children started battling chronic anxiety, extreme panic attacks and crippling insomnia after leaving Bristol University. The couple are pictured in London, 2014 While medication and therapy helped, Edward still experienced bouts of depression and anxiety - and by the age of 30 was drinking heavily and relying on prescription sleeping pills to help him cope. In 2010 Edward began dating Chloe - with the pair marrying four years later - and says that in the early years of their marriage his mental health improved, only to decline again once their first son Atticus was born. Chloe had developed with sepsis after giving birth for the first time, and while pregnant with daughter Juno, Edward describes staying for ten nights straight with extreme anxiety - terrified his wife would fall ill once again. When the pandemic hit last March, Edward's mental health began to crumble, terrified of illness and financial ruin while isolated from his family and friends. Edward says that as the world opens up again following the pandemic, he feels as though he's overcome his illness for the first time in 25 years. Pictured, Chloe and Edward in Battersea, 2014 Desperate to get to the root of his illness once and for all, Edward found an online group of people living with acute anxiety disorder under the recommendation of a friend. 'I began to really try to understand my illness', wrote Edward, 'Where it stemmed from, and what I could finally do to stop it dictating my life' The group meet regularly to support one another, and along with therapy, Edward has began to control his illness with mediation and daily exercise. He says that as the world opens up again following the pandemic, he feels as though he's overcome his illness for the first time in 25 years, insisting that it feels he's been given a 'fresh start'. A mother has revealed the moving moment a one-year-old girl took her first steps in her new prosthetic limb four months after having her foot amputated. Parents Charlotte and James Dodding, both 27, from Blackpool, made the difficult decision to have Willow's foot amputated after she was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia. The rare condition, which is estimated to occur in one in 40,000 births, is a partial or total absence of the fibula bone in the calf. Charlotte made the tough decision to have the front part of the tot's foot amputated in January 2021 - when she was 19 months old - to give her best chance of mobility later in life, saying: 'She was a little upset when she woke up from the operation but she's absolutely fine now.' Four months later, the proud parents captured on camera the first time the tot used her custom-made prosthetic leg. Willow, one, was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia before she was born at her 20-week scan and had her foot amputated in January Adorable snaps, taken last month, shows an elated Willow taking her first steps on her new custom-made prosthetic leg Parents Charlotte and James, both 27, from Blackpool, Lancashire, made the difficult decision to have Willow's foot amputated when she was just 19-months old Charlotte and James, a teacher, discovered they were expecting their first baby in November 2018. At the routine 20-week scan, doctors broke the news that their little girl had a missing fibular bone in her right leg and the unborn tot was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia. Willow still had the two remaining bones in her right leg - the tibia and femur bone - however they were shorter making her legs an uneven length. Charlotte said: 'It was quite a shock to get that news. There's no reason for it, it was just a random mutation.' Willow arrived in July 2019, at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, weighing 5lb 13oz. Willow's proud parents are pictured following her birth Willow still had the two remaining bones in her right leg - the tibia and femur bone - however they were shorter making her legs an uneven length (pictured before her amputation) To give her best chance of mobility later in life Charlotte and James chose to have Willow's foot removed. She is pictured in hospital following the procedure in January Willow (pictured left without her prosthetic) had the limb, (pictured right) designed with the floral material from a top that she wore as a baby by Preston Specialist Mobility Rehabilitation Centre The rare birth defect that occurs in one in 40,000 births: How fibular hemimelia is treated Fibular hemimelia is a partial or total absence of the fibula and is the most common form of lower limb deficiency present at birth. It is estimated to occur in one in 40,000 births. There are two long bones in lower leg, the thicker one is called the tibia and the thinner one is the fibula. With fibular hemimelia the tibia is shorter than normal and the fibula is missing or underdeveloped. A leg affected by fibular hemimelia will look shorter than an unaffected leg. The tibia may be bent and the foot may also be smaller than normal, bent outwards at the ankle and may have fewer than five toes. The knee is often also misshapen and may move abnormally. Males are 50 per cent more likely to be affected than females, and the former Paralympic Oscar Pistorius had the condition. Most cases of fibular hemimelia are thought to occur for no reason. Treatment will depend on the severity of the condition and how normal the foot is. If the foot is reasonably normal it may be possible to lengthen the leg, and if the foot is twisted outwards to the side it may be possible to correct it sufficiently using surgery. If the foot is not sufficiently normally formed and the tibia is too short it may be best to amputate it through the ankle. Prosthetic limbs can be used in almost all cases. Source: Steps Charity Advertisement Before Willow was born, Charlotte and James were told to 'wait and see' how severe the condition would be before deciding on the best course of treatment. She arrived in July 2019, at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, weighing 5lb 13oz, and doctors noticed the two remaining bones in her right leg were shorter than her left leg. Despite the difficultly Willow has faced, the brave tot hit all her milestones - Charlotte claimed she was even crawling and walking earlier than expected. As the determined tot got older, she started walking, but the difference in leg length left her with a limp and reduced mobility. She started wearing an orthotic and a knee brace to support her ankle as a temporary measure. Doctors recommended she undergo a Syme amputation - which involves cutting away the front of the foot and leaving the heel pad. It meant she could comfortably wear a prosthetic and move more freely. Charlotte said: 'She used to walk on the inside of her foot quite badly and her knee would 'pop' out of place. 'We looked at leg lengthening but that would involve lots of operations and we wanted her to have a normal childhood. 'Also, it didn't guarantee she wouldn't need an amputation when she was older anyway.' It took surgeons at Manchester Children's hospital two-and-a-half hours to successfully perform a Syme amputation - which involved removing the front half of her foot and leaving the heel pad. She had a custom-made prosthetic leg built by Preston Specialist Mobility Rehabilitation Centre who used fabric from her favourite top as the material for the outside of the leg. In May 2021, just four months after the amputation, Willow was up walking in her new leg, as seen in the adorable snaps. The proud parents captured the first time the tot used her custom-made prosthetic leg - that was designed with the floral material from a top that she wore as a baby by Preston Specialist Mobility Rehabilitation Centre. Her rare condition, which is estimated to occur in one in 40,000 births, is a partial or total absence of the fibula bone in the calf. Willow is pictured with her parents at home Charlotte said: 'She couldn't wait to get moving again and I remember her trying to crawl the day after her operation. 'In fact, I don't think she remembers having her foot - she is so comfortable with the prosthetic.' An adorable clip, filmed last month, shows an elated Willow taking her first steps on her new custom-made prosthetic foot as her delighted parents spur her on in the background. Charlotte said: 'Our goal is to raise awareness for fibular hemimelia and to support other families. Willow started wearing an orthotic and a knee brace to support her ankle as a temporary measure before her new prosthetic 'She's doing so well and we're really thankful for the amazing prosthetic.' Charlotte added: 'We're so proud of Willow. She so determined and resilient - nothing fazes her. 'It was a tough decision to choose to amputate her leg, but we knew it was the best option. 'She's already walking confidently on the new prosthetic. We're so proud of her.' It took surgeons at Manchester Children's hospital two-and-a-half hours to successfully perform a Syme amputation - which involved removing the front half of her foot and leaving the heel pad A feminist porn director says she started making adult films because it was a 'struggle' watching women behave as 'vehicles' for male sexual pleasure. Swedish-born Erika Lust, 44, is the award-winning creator of over 250 female-focused erotic films - who created adult production house Lust Films after being disappointed with the portrayal of sex in mainstream pornography. The mother-of-two, who lives in Barcelona, first watched porn as a student studying political science at Lund University in Sweden - but was underwhelmed with how focused on male pleasure the film was. 'Instead of being a pleasurable moment, it became a struggle', said Erika in an interview with Glamour. Swedish-born Erika Lust, 44, is the award-winning creator of over 250 female-focused erotic films Erika, pictured on set, created adult production house Lust Films after being disappointed with the portrayal of sex in mainstream pornography 'It felt stereotyped and centred on the man's pleasure, and the women were just vehicles for him to come'. She went on to explain how she hopes her films will not only normalise sexual pleasure for women, but also shatter the view of men in pornography as 'penetrative sex machines'. Erika entered the independent film industry after moving to Spain following university and shot her debut movie The Good Girl, as a side project in 2004 while taking a director's course. The movie, which explores traditional 'pizza delivery guy' cliche from the female perspective, won the prize for best short film at the International Erotic Film Festival in Barcelona. Erika entered the independent film industry after moving to Spain following university and shot her debut movie The Good Girl, as a side project in 2004. She is pictured shooting on of her short films Erika, pictured on set, is perhaps best known for her XConfessions series, the first crowd-sourced project in adult cinema which launched in 2013 Erika is perhaps best known for her XConfessions series, the first crowd-sourced project in adult cinema which launched in 2013. Each month, she chooses two personal accounts or fantasies from the many anonymous submissions she receives through her website, and then transforms them into adult movies. In 2015, a theatrical cut of XConfessions submissions was screened at Chicago International Film Festival and at Raindance Film Festival in London. Erika hit the headlines earlier this year after announcing that she would be allowing her 36 members of staff a half-hour break every day to use a private 'masturbation station' in the office. The erotic filmmaker launched the initiative after noticing that her employees were 'somewhat agitated' and 'performing with less energy' amid the coronavirus pandemic. Erika, pictured on set, won the prize for best short film at the International Erotic Film Festival in Barcelona with her first adult film Erika, pictured in 2018, hit the headlines earlier this year after announcing that she would be allowing her 36 members of staff a half-hour break every day to use a private 'masturbation station' in the office Erika describes her work as 'sex-positive' and told FEMAIL in 2015 that her primary mission is to show both men and women as 'sexually liberated equals'. Women being in control of their sexuality, she says, and knowing exactly what they want and how they want it is incredibly empowering - an ideal that is sadly lacking from most mainstream pornography. She said: 'It's so important to make sure my films are creative, contemporary and realistic, with beautiful and relatable settings, locals and performers. 'My viewers like the realistic aspect to my films as they can see themselves in them, their partners, that guy or girl on the street, or in a bar. Every Monday, best-selling author Joanne Harris, 56, records a one-minute video diary in her shed and posts it on YouTube. She began the series, Writing Life, last September to tell her readers about the challenges of bringing out a book in lockdown. With physical events cancelled because of Covid, she wanted to stay in touch. But she hadnt foreseen that, by January this year, she would be recording her video diary at her home near Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, with her head shaved, or wearing a series of headscarves and beanie hats, because of breast cancer. Harris, who has written more than 20 novels but is best known for the heart-warming Chocolat (made into an Oscar-nominated film featuring Juliette Binoche), was diagnosed with primary breast cancer after a routine mammogram on December 21. That same day she shared the news with her 85,000 Twitter followers: Today in #ThisWritingLife: In which Joanne learns she has breast cancer. Oh, 2020. You are really spoiling us. Later, she added: It is a primary cancer (which makes it sound like a cute toddler), so should respond to surgery and radiotherapy. But, yeah. Its still scary, and it sucks. So send me your pictures of otters, cats and recommendations for box sets. Joanne Harris, 56, (pictured) who lives near Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, was diagnosed with primary breast cancer after a routine mammogram on December 21 Her Twitter feed (@joannechocolat) was soon awash with pictures of cats (and a photo Julian Clary posted of his dog). Black humour is clearly Harriss forte, and she decided to name the cancer Mr C and treat him like an unwanted Christmas guest that you need to evict and clean up after. Today, she tells me that being honest has been the best way through six months of treatment. What Ive tried to do by being very public about my cancer is to take the curse off it, to stop people from worrying whether they should or shouldnt mention it. One of the reasons I chose not to get a wig is its not up to me to do that, to make people feel more comfortable in that way. Its up to them to understand that its not something that they need to feel uncomfortable about. Harris says she also wanted to inspire other women to have regular check-ups. I thought: Can I actually keep it from people? And I realised that no, I couldnt. And that perhaps I shouldnt. Rather selfishly I started off thinking: If I announce it on social media I wont have to explain it to dozens of people over and over. But I also realised, as soon as I did talk about it, there were a lot of people who were responding to that, and altering their own behaviour accordingly. I had lots of women saying: I heard about you and I booked myself a mammogram because Id thought that during lockdown I couldnt. Or: I was going to miss my routine mammogram, but now Im not going to. Or messages from people who had been diagnosed and just felt less alone. Because this is a topic women dont talk about much. You can feel very isolated. I thought: Well, Ive got this little bit of a platform, perhaps it will help people. And it does seem to have done. Joanne (pictured) said she has used all sorts of ways to get rid of 'Mr C' and has found giving him a personality helps Harris talks with real sensitivity about her fellow patients in hospital. But she writes about her own illness with anarchic humour. While waiting for surgery, she dreamed up new ways to torment Mr C and keep him at bay. In January, she wrote on Twitter: Plans to dispose of Mr C, who has long overstayed his welcome: Kill him with musical theatre. Drown him in an ocean of tea. Tickle him until he pukes. Nuke him from orbit, just to be sure. It was a typically ballsy update from Harris, who is also a musical performer (she has been in a band with her husband Kevin and two friends since she was 16). Ive used all sorts of ways to get rid of Mr C, she tells me today. I found that giving him a personality helped enormously. Its interesting the way we perceive the monstrous in our lives, because some people big monsters up, and the bigger a monster gets, the more frightening it is. But actually the way to reduce a monster is through humour and laughter and a certain kind of ridicule. The irony is shed had rather a good first lockdown; completing three books and publishing two more, running her first Couch to 5K challenge, shielding her elderly parents, and keeping in touch with her grown-up daughter, Anouchka, 28, in London, through video calls. There hadnt been a time in the past 20 years when I wasnt travelling every month to a foreign country or a festival event. I had the luxury of space and some savings, so I didnt feel I was in a moment of crisis. Joanne who met her husband at sixth-form college, said the pandemic has brought her closer to her husband. Pictured: Joanne in hospital after surgery Lockdown had also brought her closer to her husband, whom she met at sixth-form college and married in her late 20s. (He now manages her schedules and holds the fort.) We both like our own personal space from time to time, and its good that weve got that, but I really have not seen anybody in the flesh apart from my husband more than a tiny handful of times in the past 15 months. Her diagnosis came as a shock. The good news was the cancer was caught early. She went into hospital on January 13, once shed handed in edits on her 400-page new book Honeycomb, and posted photos of herself in bed after surgery and later reading a haiku poem she had written about her radioactive boob. Each week on the video diary she takes us through her treatment; reading out her pathology report (it looks like the cancer hasnt spread), or explaining that she had cut off her bushy lockdown hair and then shaved her head completely before starting treatment, to save chemo the job of doing it. I just thought Ill get it done, and once youve crossed that little hurdle, which gets higher and higher the longer you wait, then people are pretty good. She mourns the loss of her eyebrows and eyelashes. I look a bit like a potato, but people have got used to it very fast. She is, she stresses, still working; signing foreign contacts, reading film options, promoting the paperback of The Strawberry Thief (the continuation of the story of Chocolats single mother Vianne Rocher, which began 22 years ago). Joanne (pictured) said her husband has been extremely supportive and not controlling, as she continued working through chemo You find yourself marvelling at her energy. In March, in a gap between chemo sessions, she went to London to record the audiobook of Honeycomb; the first time shed left the house properly in eight months. In April, she began weekly treatment cycles of the medication Taxol, and revealed she had embarked on two brand new books, which always brings me back to life creatively. But if she has a bad day or experiences brain fog as a result of the chemo, she is honest about how she is feeling. In one video she is very funny about the raging hunger she felt after chemo, which led her to eat every carb dish in the world. She tells me: I maintain a reasonably cheery outlook, but sometimes I think its OK to go: I feel completely filleted by this. And I think this is something people who have been through this feel guilty about, unless they realise that it happens to everyone. Did her husband worry about her working through chemo? I think he understands that if Im not working Im feeling glum and sitting around. Hes been extremely supportive, but not controlling. I think he expected me to be much more ill than I was. Its perhaps no surprise that Harris revealed her initial diagnosis on Twitter. The social media site inspired her latest book, Honeycomb, in which every story is a piece of a larger picture. It is built from 100 chapters, or cells, and started life as a series of posts on Twitter, written under the hashtag #Storytime. Joanne (pictured) revealed her latest book is inspired by Twitter, with every sentence crafted like a little message in a bottle For years I would write the stories live and from scratch, at odd moments during the day. I wrote them on trains; in airports; in response to current events. And because I was using the character limitation imposed by Twitter [up to 280], I had to structure them in a very different way to writing on the page. Every sentence had to be crafted like a little message in a bottle. She never intended to keep the tweets. I liked that ephemeral feeling that if you werent around for #Storytime, then youd miss it. But fans kept them and sent them on to her. She started a file. Eventually, she realised she had enough material for a book of interconnecting fairy stories. I started to toy with the idea of putting these pieces together to create an original, illustrated book for adults, in the tradition of the classic golden age of fairytales. Harris thinks we need fairytales more than ever in 2021, to help us believe that our own monsters can be defeated; that love can save us; that a kind of magic exists. Fairytales are basically the secret language of the human subconscious. Eagle-eyed readers may spot references to current events from Trump and Brexit to J. K. Rowling being outed as the male author Robert Galbraith. Some reflect things that were going on in politics or in publishing. Some came from items I saw in the news. I quite liked the idea that if I could tell a story about a mad king living in a golden tower, and Trump had said something idiotic, you would get real life and the story intersecting. She also likes the fact readers will interpret stories differently. I like to leave things reasonably fluid so people dont feel excluded, because Ive never really enjoyed putting labels on people. Joanne (pictured) who read modern and medieval languages at Cambridge, had her third book Chocolat shortlisted for the Whitbread award Im interested in voices and in language partly because English wasnt my first language, anyway. And also because I think writing is a performance; its meant to be read aloud. Harriss Yorkshire father met her French mother on an exchange in Brittany, and brought her back to live above his parents sweet shop in Barnsley. The family spoke French at home and Harris always felt a bit different. Hence her interest in outsiders in her novels. At Cambridge, she read modern and medieval languages, and had a brief accountancy career before becoming a French teacher at Leeds Grammar School for boys for 15 years. Her first book, a literary vampire novel, sank without trace in 1989. But her third, Chocolat, was shortlisted for the Whitbread award and put her on the map. The advance wasnt huge, but once all the foreign deals came in, it was enough for Harris to leave teaching and move into her current home; an 1840s mill-owners house with five acres of woodland. In 2012 she became one of four female members of the Millionaires Club of authors (including J. K. Rowling) who have achieved a million UK sales of a single book. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE. She feels passionately that women authors are not always taken as seriously as men, and is a judge for the 2021 Comedy Women In Print awards. Joanne (pictured) who finished chemo last week, said she's hoping that by the end of July, she will be out of the tunnel I would argue that a lot of my books are humour. My new psychological thriller, A Narrow Door, out in August, is really quite dark humour. In Harriss thriller, a headmistress has been appointed to modernise a failing English grammar school but she clearly has a complex past of her own, having survived a teenage pregnancy, career sexism and a double mastectomy. Harris wrote the book before being diagnosed with cancer. I have to watch what I write, she says dryly, because things pop off the page and go into real life. She finished chemo last week. Now Ill have a little bit of radiotherapy and I should be good to go. Im having genetic testing to see if Ive got the BRCA1 gene [which can raise your cancer risk], so I may have to revisit some decisions at that point. But Im hoping that by the end of July, Ill be out of the tunnel. She stresses that its never a given that you will be free of cancer for life. But, by being matter-of-fact, she can break taboos. Its one of those things that people feel almost superstitiously unable to talk about, she says. This idea that if you say cancer often enough, then it will visit you somehow. I just wanted to demystify that and go, OK, this is what happens, its just an illness. There are ways of dealing with it, and these are some of the ways. It doesnt have to be a terrifying monster. Its something you can defeat. You can fight it, you can get your happy ending. Honeycomb (25, Orion) is out now; A Narrow Door (20, Orion) is out on August 4. Ten years ago, Diana Isac rented a minibus and embarked on a wine-and-food tour across France and Italy with her fiance Paul and ten friends. It was a special trip, but the hassle of trying to book wine tours, restaurants and small independent hotels nearly defeated her. I had to do so much research, browse multiple websites, make so many phone calls, Diana, 39, recalls. When we got to Burgundy, it was just before Bastille Day and every vineyard turned us away saying the slots were taken. Even though four of us spoke French, it was stressful. In the end we went to a local shop and sampled some wines, but we were kicked out at 4.30pm and the next restaurant didnt open until 9pm. When they moved on to Italy, many of the wineries they visited felt commercial rather than authentic family businesses. Diana Isac, 39, (pictured) revealed the inspiration behind her business Winerist, which offers 1,500 hand-picked wine experiences in 133 destinations Back home, at her desk in London, working for global investment bank BlackRock, she found herself daydreaming about secret wineries hidden among lavender fields in Provence and the rolling Tuscan hills. I said to Paul, who runs a fine wine merchant: I wish there was a TripAdvisor for wine travel, so people could book hotels, the winery tour and the food experience all in one place. And he said: Youre not enjoying working in the City, why dont you do it? She gave up her very well-paid job to launch her own website. In the early stages, she wondered if shed bitten off more than she could chew. Hard work wasnt a problem in the City, her working hours were often 7am to midnight. But she encountered a fairly old-fashioned world of wine including the lack of technology, the inability to book online, the closed, almost private members club nature of the industry and the fact the world of wine travel was still very much male dominated. She took a wine qualification with the Wine Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and studied e-commerce start-ups such as Uber and Airbnb to see what had made them successful. Diana says: What I could see immediately was that with an online business like ours, the biggest challenge was going to be identifying the right product i.e. the tour, the activity, the winery, the hotel, and finding the customer. Winerist launched in 2014 (with investment from the former CEO of booking.com, Kees Koolen) as an encyclopaedia of tried-and-tested wine and food destinations around the world, from harvesting and grape stomping in Portugals Douro Valley to truffle hunting and wine tasting in Piedmont, Italy, the home of Barolo. Diana (pictured) became pregnant with her son Alexander, as her business was beginning to take flight in 2016 In 2016, as the fledgling business began to take flight, she became pregnant with her son, Alexander. It was the most challenging year of my life, she says ruefully. Winerist was first, and I felt very emotional about it because it was like my baby detaching myself from it was hard. But then my son was born, who was so dependent on me, and in the UK we dont get as much support as you do in other European countries. Nanny costs are high and not sustainable on a start-up salary. I had to hire staff and pay them to grow the business. She adds: I didnt want to send him to nursery as I was concerned he would get sick a lot and then I would need to stay home with him when he was unwell. NOW SEIZE YOUR CHANCE TO ENTER OUR AWARDS Want to take your business to another level? The Daily Mail/ NatWest Everywoman Aphrodite Award gives your venture instant prestige plus access to an elite group of the UKs top female entrepreneurs and mentors. To enter, you must be based, or have your chief operation, in the UK and have set up your business from scratch while raising a child, or children, aged 12 or under. Deadline for entries is July 5, 2021. For full entry details see: Everywomanforum.com/mpage/everywoman-awards Advertisement Her husband Paul is an entrepreneur, and in the thick of his own start-up IG Wines, which offers specialist advice for collectors and investors. He couldnt drop everything either. The only way they could juggle work and Alexander was for Diana to leave the UK for four months and join her mother in Moldova. Diana had left her home country at the age of 16 to come to study in the UK. I really wouldnt advise any couple to launch two businesses at the same time, she laughs. My husband was very understanding and my mother looked after Alexander while I worked solidly from her house. Paul and I met in London, over ten years ago. We bonded over a love of French and Russian literature and, later on, over wine. He used to call me a super taster. I was good at guessing flavours because of my childhood spent on my grandparents farm in Moldova, eating and making jam from berries, white cherries and quince. Today, Winerist offers 1,500 hand-picked wine experiences in 133 destinations and is the largest online travel specialist for wine and food tours, featuring hotels, wineries, wine tours and cooking classes. Prices range from free to 120 for lunch and truffle hunting. We take up to 35 per cent of our experiences off the site every year. It truly has to be the best. Covid has been a huge challenge, of course. Diana refunded all holidays last March, furloughed staff (she has 14 full-time now) and spent time perfecting itineraries to make them truly memorable when travel reopened. Diana (pictured) had to refund all holidays last March and furloughed staff, but had an upside during the past year with the arrival of another baby We emailed customers checking how they were and sent them wine offers. We got photos back and so many messages checking in with us, our family and our health. It was a difficult time. But there was an upside they had another baby, a daughter named Ariadne, and this time they were all able to spend the early months together as a family. Diana continues: I had the luxury of time and was able to enjoy motherhood. My husband was home and it created a great bond. She hopes all EU countries will make it onto the green list at some point this summer and that the traditional wine regions will welcome Brits who are likely to have been double-vaccinated. Sixty per cent of Winerist customers who had to cancel their plans have already rebooked. It shows staying true to your customers is the most important thing, she says. She thinks vineyard tours are ideal for travellers on their first holiday in more than a year theres plenty of space and most activities are outdoors. Diana (pictured) said her business has had to learn to adapt to making last-minute changes on an email campaign or social media This year, Airbnb and TripAdvisor both signed partnerships with Winerist to provide wine-specific outdoor experiences for them (such as a Covid-friendly dinner with a winemaker under the stars). And in June, Winerist launches a luxury concierge platform offering exclusive access to chateaux and private helicopter rides. But the news is constantly changing. We have had to learn to adapt. Its the best lesson from this pandemic. Making last-minute changes on an email campaign or our social media is all part of the job. For Diana, there is the inevitable juggle of work and childcare. I get up at 6am and try to squeeze in exercise, then we have breakfast together, play for a bit and I am usually out of the house by 8am. The upside is Alexander, now five, is a very easy child. Weve travelled with him from the moment he was born. Hes given white, pink and red grape juice instead of wine. And Diana is now on a mission to ensure wine travel is easier for families. With her staff, she encourages flexible working her head of sales is a mother of two. Were often sending emails at 9pm, when the kids are in bed, she says. As a mum, youre used to being constantly on the go. Diana (pictured) said Winerist has defined her as a person and an entrepreneur She can barely remember her past career in finance. Its Winerist that has defined me as a person and an entrepreneur. I was never this brave before, says Diana. After a difficult start, she and Paul are closer than ever. She adds: For most people, the start of a relationship is the most romantic stage. But we spent the first few years going through some of the most difficult events in anyones life. We created two businesses, moved in together and had a baby. We were so young and inexperienced and over the years, we grew up together. It all seems very romantic today and we laugh a lot about the silly episodes of drama. But I am so glad we overcame it. Mistakes make you stronger, she believes. Winerist is still like my child, one I have seen go through many stages. One of our investors, Brett Akker, always says: Remember Diana, its never as bad, or as good, as you think it is. And in challenging times, it really helps to think about the positives; while in the good times, it makes you think twice about celebrating your victories for too long. winerist.com Its thrilling to see activewear brands leading the eco-charge with environmentally friendly, sustainable and ethical clothing choices using innovative materials such as recycled plastic bottles and fishing nets. This is my pick of the stylish fitness kit that will impact your health not the planet Big on bamboo Balance Bamboo Leggings (49, bambooclothing.co.uk) I have a real love of clothing brand Bams fabrics and eco values. These new Balance Bamboo Leggings (49, bambooclothing.co.uk) are created from sustainably sourced bamboo pulp, which is knitted into a form of viscose. Sweat-wicking, naturally breathable and super soft, these high-waisted leggings also have three-way stretch that flatters and doesnt roll down. Potential legging perfection. With added sugar Marlin running trainer (145, veja-store.com ) For trainer style and sustainability, Veja is hard to beat. Its new lightweight Marlin running trainer (145, veja-store.com) has uppers and lining created from recycled plastic bottles and insoles made from sugar cane and recycled plastic. Whats more, the brand makes eco-friendly decisions at every turn, and is fully transparent over its manufacturing, supply chain and working conditions. Even its logistics company is a non-profit organisation that helps the vulnerable find work. Pretty polyester Energise Gym Vest, 40 ( sweatybetty.com ) Sweaty Betty has an entire section of its website dedicated to its Sustainable Edit, an ongoing initiative for the brand. Here youll find Super Sculpt Leggings each made from 17 recycled plastic bottles, Essentials sweatshirts in 100 per cent organic cotton and bikinis born from recycled fishing nets. Im currently loving this Energise Gym Vest, 40 (sweatybetty.com), which is made from recycled polyester, and is body skimming rather than muffin-top hugging. Va-va vegan Charlie Vegan bag (145, sandqvist.co.uk ) Ive commuted using my Sandqvist rucksack for about five years and it still looks amazing. This Charlie Vegan bag (145, sandqvist.co.uk) is made from recycled nylon and recycled polyester, making it lightweight and durable. The brand minimises climate impact wherever it can, including restricting its use of chemicals. Rubber remix Nieuwland 3e wetsuit (295, finisterre.com ) You will find the words Sustainability as standard since 2003 emblazoned across the website of outdoor apparel brand Finisterre. Its a Certified B Corporation (a standard only given to companies with super-high eco credentials). Cornwall-based Finisterre has a deep love for the sea and is dedicated to creating products that wont damage it. This Nieuwland 3e wetsuit (295, finisterre.com) uses Yulex Pure, a sustainable rubber and recycled polyester to keep out the cold. Top tech Cloudridge hiking boots (170, on-running.com ) Theres a big buzz around Swiss brand On right now. It prides itself on unique CloudTec technology, which reacts to your own running/walking style. The Cloudridge hiking boots (170, on-running.com) are made from recycled polyester and rubber, and use no dyed fabric. I can confirm they are lightweight, non-sweaty and super-comfy (no plasters required). Wonder waste Classic swimsuit (140, davyj.org ) My newest eco discovery is swimwear brand Davy J. Its Waste range uses Econyl, a 100 per cent regenerated nylon yarn created from, you guessed it, waste including fishing nets (of which an average of 640,000 are dumped in the ocean every year). My favourite is this Classic swimsuit (140, davyj.org), which is double-lined and created to withstand surf, cliff jumps and dives. Not only will it ensure youll emerge from the water the way you went in, it is pose-worthy, too. @susannahtaylor_ I trust members of the Treasury Select Committee will be at their inquisitive best tomorrow when they quiz regulators over what they are doing to ensure scam victims are treated fairly by their banks. Up before the committee will be Chris Hemsley, managing director of the Payment Services Regulator, and Mark Steward, director of enforcement at the Financial Conduct Authority. Between them, these two regulators are responsible for policing the banking industry's approach to scam victims. All the evidence we have gathered suggests that banks are currently being let off the hook. They are routinely refusing requests from scam victims for their losses to be made good, even when all the evidence suggests that customers were not to blame. As consumer group Which? says: 'Victim blaming is endemic.' The statistics back this. Despite the launch two years ago of a voluntary code to protect customers tricked by scammers into transferring money to them, a majority of victims are still left to bear the losses. Only 46 per cent of losses are reimbursed, resulting in 700,000 a day being lost by bank customers to transfer scams. Scrutiny: Why is the code governing how banks treat scam victims voluntary, thereby enabling some banks to refuse to sign up to it? Although I imagine the MPs that sit on the committee will be well briefed, it's essential they get answers to a number of key questions. Why is the overall reimbursement rate so low? Why are a majority of disputed cases that end up at the Financial Ombudsman Service found in favour of bank customers indicating that banks are far too eager to reject claims for scam losses to be refunded? Why is the code governing how banks treat scam victims voluntary, thereby enabling some banks to refuse to sign up to it? Is enough being done to ensure banks are giving customers sufficient information about how to spot a potential scam? And, most importantly, why isn't the Payment Services Regulator stepping up to the plate and requiring banks to release details of their individual reimbursement rates? Currently, such data is published anonymously, enabling banks with low reimbursement rates (in the teens) to avoid the adverse publicity they deserve. On Friday, Gareth Shaw, Which?'s head of money, said: 'The Treasury Select Committee must hold the feet of the regulators to the fire over the unacceptably slow progress towards getting bank customers the protection they deserve. It must act as a stepping stone towards urgently needed change and an end to the culture of victim-blaming.' Shaw is spot on. The committee should also use tomorrow's session to announce its intention to grill the bosses of the major banks over why they are refusing to help so many customers who have lost life-changing sums of money to scammers. Many thanks Finally, a huge thank you to those readers who have requested a free copy of Andy Bells superb book on investing The DIY Investor. Andy is the co-founder of investment platform AJ Bell and knows a thing or three about how to successfully navigate the stock market. Although we originally planned to give away 500 free copies, your huge response has prompted a rethink. We will now send a free copy to all readers who emailed me before today. Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. Mystery: The reader's Nectar card was hijacked with 22,000 points being spent just minutes after they had used it R.M. writes: Last December, my wife and I wanted to redeem all the Nectar points we had been saving for the past year. This is an annual event for us. We save the points towards our Christmas shopping at Sainsbury's. At the checkout though, we were told our card was empty. In fact, it was even worse than empty. The assistant told us our Nectar card was overdrawn, and all the points we had saved throughout 2020 had gone towards paying off this deficit which we never knew we had. Nectar told me it was too late to do anything about this as no records were kept, and when I asked how it was possible to spend points that did not exist, Nectar did not reply. Tony Hetherington replies: Complaints about stolen Nectar points just keep rolling in. Some aspects crop up time and again. I have yet to see a case where Sainsbury's has not erased the CCTV recording that would show who really spent the missing points. And when push comes to shove, Sainsbury's frequent reaction is to tell victims to complain to the police as if the police are not busy enough without being expected to investigate something that Sainsbury's itself should be perfectly capable of handling. What I really wanted to know was how someone could not just hijack your Nectar card, but could spend points that you did not have. Sainsbury's told me: 'There is a slight lag which on very rare occasions could lead to someone's Nectar account becoming overdrawn.' This is exactly what happened to you, without your knowledge. The explanation goes back to your Christmas shopping in December 2019. You had saved about 20,000 Nectar points, and you spent them at Sainsbury's. Four minutes later, someone used your card details to spend a further 22,000 points that did not exist. This left your Nectar account overdrawn, and every point you earned for the whole of 2020 went towards paying off this overdraft that you never knew existed. But who outside Sainsbury's itself would have known that this was possible, and got their timing so precisely right? Sainsbury's has offered no explanation. When you enquired at your branch in Orpington, Kent, you were told that Nectar was a separate company and nothing to do with Sainsbury's. This is rubbish. Look behind Nectar and you will find it is controlled by Sainsbury's. You were also told by Nectar that there would be an investigation into the theft of the 22,000 points, and that a representative would contact you with the results. Two months later you contacted Nectar and asked how the investigation was going, and you were brushed off with the answer that it was all too long ago and nothing could be done. I would like to tell you that Sainsbury's has finally come up with some answers. Unfortunately, it has not. However, it is refunding all the missing points to your card. It describes this grudgingly as 'a goodwill gesture', rather than any kind of obligation, leaving open the possibility that Sainsbury's suspects you yourself somehow found a way to beat the system and spend non-existent Nectar points. And it continues the scenario in which cardholders are fobbed off, told to go to the police, or told that Sainsbury's itself has destroyed any evidence of who stole missing points. Nectar is supposed to be the drink of the gods, but all the evidence is that it is not as nice as it sounds. How do I get advice when I can't leave my island home? M.G. writes: My wife and I live on the Isle of Man. We are buying our 'forever' home here, but need capital from my Royal London pension plan. Royal London will not release the money unless I first seek advice from a financial adviser in the UK, but the pandemic means I cannot leave the island. Going nowhere: M.G. is on the Isle of Man and the pandemic means he cannot leave the island Tony Hetherington replies: The Isle of Man has been in near-total isolation from the outside world throughout the pandemic. Anyone arriving has needed a permit to land, followed by a period of isolation, backed up by the threat of jail sentences for breaking the rules. If you had left the isle to meet an adviser, you would been confined to home on your return. Because of the large number of scams involving unlocking pension pots, Royal London has no choice under the UK's financial regulations but to insist you talk to a specialist adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. There is some good news though. I suggested you could be advised by phone, letter, or in an online meeting, with no need to travel, and Royal London has agreed. Or, you can take 25 per cent of your pot without having to seek the same advice that is needed if you want to withdraw it all. Our calls for 8k cruise refund go unanswered G.L. writes: We booked flights, hotels and cruises through Classic Travel at a cost of 7,938, which we paid in full. The holiday was cancelled because of Covid, three days before we were due to travel. We have tried numerous times to recover our money without success. The agency does not answer calls or emails. Tony Hetherington replies: Classic Travel has turned out to be a one-man band, a franchisee of a firm called Travel-pa, which in turn is part of Sunset Travel Limited. Hamish Kaumaya, a director of Sunset Travel, told me he was unaware that Classic Travel had failed to reply to you, so he took control as soon as I contacted him. He offered an immediate refund of 4,940 for your flights and hotels, with an improved credit voucher for a future cruise, and you told me you were happy to accept this. Unfortunately, what landed in your bank account was just 4,048. It seems Travel-pa expected you to contact its own salesman at Classic Travel and try to reclaim the commission of 892 that he had been paid. I convinced the company that your contract was with it, under their ABTA number, and not with the individual salesman, and you have now finally received the missing 892 as well. If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned. As the pandemic reaches what we hope is its endgame, millions of us are keen to get out to the coast. This weekend it has been the turn of the leaders of the G7 countries who have made the dash down to Cornwall. Along with their pasties, they have been digesting policies including minimum corporate tax rates and the tricky winding down of coronavirus support schemes. The G7 is as much symbolic as it is decisive. As Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, points out, the discussions have been 'fairly scripted and indications of intent rather than any specific legally binding agreement'. Leaders: Boris Johnson and Joe Biden discussing the way forward in Cornwall For investors, though, the meeting has offered clues about the direction of travel for global economies. The first major conference of world leaders since the pandemic hit has met under the banner Build Back Better referring to everything from rebuilding economies post-pandemic through to environmental sustainability. The themes covered by the summit could create plentiful opportunities for astute investors, especially in areas such as infrastructure and environmental funds. WHAT IS THE G7 AND WHAT DOES IT DO The G7 is regarded as a steering group for Western economies. The decisions and discussions at this weekend's summit will act as a catalyst for measures taken at national level. Yet the summit can't pass any laws and excludes some hugely influential nations. Justin Trudeau of Canada; Emmanuel Macron of France; Angela Merkel of Germany; Mario Draghi of Italy; Yoshihide Suga of Japan; Joe Biden of the US; and Ursula von der Leyen of the European Union have all been present to represent their respective economies. But there has been a notable absence of leaders from Russia and China. Russia is no longer in the G7 due to its invasion of the Crimea in 2014. China doesn't count as a sufficiently advanced economy to join due to its relatively low income per head despite its recent rapid economic growth. Alongside G7 members, guests from Australia, India (attending virtually), South Africa and South Korea have also been invited. WHAT HAS BEEN ON THE MENU AT THE SUMMIT? Along with Cornish seafood, cream teas and St Eval chocolate, there has been plenty for G7 world leaders to chew over. One major theme has been a sweeping reform of the world tax system, with G7 finance ministers backing a global minimum tax of at least 15 per cent on profits made by multinational companies. Keith Bowman, equity analyst at wealth manager Interactive Investor, says that the tax move has been driven by the ability of multinationals particularly tech giants to move their home tax residency to minimise their bills. 'This has now forced governments to collaborate on tax rates,' he adds. Andrew Bell, who runs stock market-listed Witan Investment Trust, says the tax decision represents 'a positive step'. He says: 'Nobody wants taxes to stifle innovation or weigh on economic recovery, but ultimately popular spending plans have to be paid for. A sense of fairness is vital for popular acceptance of tax levels and the spending trade-offs governments have to make.' Winding down coronavirus support schemes without stifling economic recovery has been another major theme. Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary, set the tone, suggesting that countries should keep spending not just maintaining coronavirus support schemes for businesses, but by following the US lead in sustaining massive economic stimulus policies. Kevin Doran, chief investment officer at investment platform AJ Bell, says that any such government spending will have to be paid for eventually. He explains: 'The most significant concern ought to be just who will finance this largesse, especially when consumers are released back into the wild again and household savings return to more normal levels. Longer term, the determination to deliver 'new deals' and promises of new jobs may come at a cost.' Tax and economic stimulus represented substantial G7 starters. But the main course for the G7 was all about environmental commitments. In his inaugural speech Boris Johnson despite arriving at Carbis Bay by private jet linked the climate agenda to economic growth and stimulus, stating that G7 members 'are united in our vision for a cleaner, greener world'. He said a green technological revolution has 'the potential to generate many, many millions of high-wage, high-skill jobs'. The spotlight is now on further tax incentives for green businesses, as well as tighter reporting requirements for companies on their sustainability criteria. Jason Hollands, a director of wealth manager Tilney, says: 'The focus on reducing carbon emissions is already permeating economic policies, such as those aimed at increasing the use of renewable energy and the phasing out of petrol and diesel vehicles.' Finally, the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines has been a fraught topic, as countries race to vaccinate their own populations. The G7 is pledging a billion vaccine doses for poorer nations. Nalaka De Silva and Jennifer Mernagh are joint managers of investment trust Aberdeen Diversified Income and Growth. They warn that without vaccine programmes in place worldwide, many emerging market nations will struggle to recover. 'A global vaccination drive is critical to tackling inequality,' says De Silva. 'It will ensure that countries get widespread access to vaccinations so that they can also benefit from any upswing in global growth.' HOW INVESTORS CAN BENEFIT FROM THE G7 The themes discussed on a global stage may seem broad, but they will impact on the performance of individual companies. Hollands says: 'Investors should see G7 as a reminder of the international drive towards environmental sustainability, the focus on infrastructure investment as economies are rebuilt, and an emphasis on increased international coordination. All with the US at the steering wheel.' For investors hoping to benefit from the push towards environmental sustainability, Hollands suggests that investors look at funds such as Impax Environmental Markets. This fund invests globally in companies that provide environmental solutions, including clean energy, energy efficiency, natural resource management and sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, investment funds with a focus on infrastructure could benefit from the objective to 'build back better'. Hollands likes Renewable Infrastructure Group, an investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange with a portfolio of more than 75 renewable infrastructure projects solar and wind farm based in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and Ireland. Chelsea's Darius McDermott says that broader infrastructure funds could also do well, suggesting M&G Global Infrastructure and Gravis Infrastructure Income. The Gravis fund provides shareholders with an income equivalent to five per cent a year. It invests in a portfolio of listed infrastructure groups including those related to renewable energy as well as healthcare. McDermott also suggests that progress on the Northern Ireland protocol could spell good news for UK investors. 'The UK stock market still has a Brexit discount on it,' he says, 'so a breakthrough on this issue would lead to an increase in market confidence.' Mood music over Northern Ireland has been mixed, with Johnson insisting 'complete harmony' with Biden on the issue, but a no compromise stance has been taken by Macron. Johnson said there was an 'indestructible' relationship between the UK and US. Investment funds well positioned to benefit, says McDermott, include Man GLG Income and Twenty Four Dynamic Bond. Investment veteran Matthew Hudson set up MJ Hudson in 2010 as a one-man band that focused on helping fund managers to run their own businesses. Thousands of people in the financial services industry had been laid off during the financial crisis. Many were looking for new careers and Hudson's firm helped them on their way. The company specialised in back room services like administrative, legal and regulatory support relating to so-called alternative investments, from private equity and venture capital to infrastructure and renewable energy. Today, MJ Hudson has 300 staff, offices in the UK, Europe and America and 1,200 clients, from small start-ups to giants such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as pension funds, including Lloyds Bank and Marks & Spencer. Smart move: Marks & Spencer pensions is one of MJ Hudson's 1,200 clients The group listed on AIM on December 12, 2019, the day of the General Election. The shares were priced at 57p, fell to 38p when the coronavirus pandemic erupted and are now 50p. The price reflects neither MJ Hudson's performance to date nor its prospects and the stock should rise both this year and beyond. A lawyer by training, Hudson has spent 33 years advising businesses on alternative investments. Through that time, he has developed a wide network of contacts and an encyclopaedic knowledge of his field. Hudson is also fiercely entrepreneurial and is determined to build MJ Hudson into a top provider of alternative investment services. The group is well on the way to achieving this ambition in Europe. There is some way to go in America but the seeds have been sown and the outlook is bright. Hudson has not just expanded into new parts of the world over the past decade. He has also branched into new areas of the market. From offering services such as legal and administration, Hudson began to offer advice, such as whether pension plans should invest in infrastructure funds and if so, which were the best ones to choose. In recent years too, the group has developed an analytics division, helping customers to see how they compare with their peers in terms of performance and costs. The subsidiary also helps fund managers and pension funds with environmental issues so they can assess whether the companies they invest in are as green and responsible as they make out. This division alone has grown by around 80 per cent over the past year, after Hudson bought a Dutch specialist in the field two years ago. Based in Amsterdam, Spring Associates are so committed to their cause that the owners cycled for 19 hours from Holland to the City of London when they first came to meet Hudson. Four more acquisitions have been completed since MJ Hudson floated and more deals are in the pipeline, all relating to existing areas of business. The group's financial year ends on June 30 and brokers predict a 35 per cent increase in revenues to 27million, with profits soaring from 0.6million to 2.8million and further strong growth in 2022. Dividend payments are expected to start this year too, with 0.1p pencilled in for the current year, rising to 0.3p next. Midas verdict: Alternative investments are a niche area of the financial markets but interest in them is growing and MJ Hudson provides a range of valuable services to participants in the sector. Matthew Hudson and his wife still own more than 27 per cent of the business so he is highly motivated to succeed. At 50p, the shares should deliver long-term rewards. Buy. Traded on: AIM Ticker: MJH Contact: mjhudson.com or Link Group on 0871 664 0300 Investors could soon have an intriguing option to cash in on the vibrant beauty trade just as shoppers splash out with socialising back on the agenda. Beauty Bay, a Manchester-based online cosmetics retailer, has been touted as a candidate for a stock market flotation and it appears that plans are firming up. The business was set up by brothers Arron and David Gabbie 20 years ago and the pair remain its main shareholders. Eyes on the prize: Beauty Bay has been touted as a candidate for a stock market flotation and it appears that plans are firming up Bankers at GCA Altium were hired last year to size up strategic options for the firm. I hear potential nonexecutives have been interviewed to beef up its board, fuelling speculation an IPO could be on the cards. Beauty Bay specialises in selling hard-to-find make-up brands and is likely to benefit from the switch in shopper habits towards online retail. The demise of Debenhams, known for their vast beauty halls, may also help it mop up customers. Mode shares on the move? Expect movement in the shares tomorrow of London-listed Mode. The financial technology firm has signed a deal to offer its service as a payment option to customers of The Hut Group's UK sites, including Myprotein and Lookfantastic. The technology an alternative to card payment allows customers to stump up using their Mode account and receive Bitcoin as cashback. Think Clubcard points for Generation Z. Mode argues that the rewards make it attractive for people interested in owning cryptocurrencies without the risk of investing in them directly. The Hut Group's shares are up 23 per cent on its float price in September last year, but have waned since their peak at the start of this year. Builders' insight into state of housing market Two major homes builders will this month offer investors an insight into the state of the housing market. Bellway, which sells its properties for around 300,000 on average, will report on trading in a sector buoyed by stamp duty tax breaks. Meanwhile, luxury London flat developer Berkeley the only builder to see shares fall this year should indicate whether trade in the capital has picked up. Just Eat suffering For all the furore around Deliveroo's flotation woes, it is worth noting the fortunes of its rival Just Eat Takeaway.com. The food deliverer last week saw its stock tumble after completing the takeover of US peer Grubhub. The stock is down 24 per cent so far this year as lockdowns which helped the sector begin to lift. The fall has hit boss Jitse Groen in the pocket. The Dutch founder of Takeaway.com is Just Eat Takeaway.com's biggest investor and has seen nearly 300million knocked off the value of his stake, now worth less than 1billion. What's more, he was recently involved in a Twitter spat with Uber's boss, whom he accused of depressing Just Eat Takeaway.com's share price. Ouch. Aviva is set to fire its top fund managers to slash costs just days after an activist investor emerged as a major shareholder in the insurance giant. The FTSE 100 company is planning to oust ten equity managers from its investment arm Aviva Investors, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. David Cumming, chief investment officer for equities, has left. And Mikhail Zverev, head of global equities, is among the high-profile fund managers expected to be fired. A sign of the times: The cull comes after Cevian Capital Europe's largest activist investor was revealed to have built a 5 per cent stake in the insurance firm since buying shares last year The cull comes after Cevian Capital Europe's largest activist investor was revealed to have built a 5 per cent stake in the insurance firm since buying shares last year. Cevian began investing in Aviva just weeks after Amanda Blanc was appointed as chief executive. Cevian said last week it wanted Aviva and Blanc to make bigger cost cuts and to hand back 5billion to shareholders. The activist, which also took a stake in education firm Pearson last year, is pushing Aviva to slash 500million of costs by 2023. It is understood Cevian is supportive of Blanc and Aviva's management team. Blanc has been withdrawing Aviva from overseas markets in Europe and Asia since last summer to focus the business on the UK, Ireland and Canada. A source close to Aviva last night said the insurer had been working on cost-cutting plans at its asset management division for the past 18 months beginning before Cevian started building its stake. However, the timing of the high-profile job cuts will raise questions about Cevian's growing influence behind the scenes. One analyst said the move dramatically scales back Aviva's stock-picking team just as the fund management industry comes under pressure from cheap 'robot' funds that follow the stock market. He said the cuts will leave doubts over whether Aviva Investors will remain a strong player in the global asset management market or become merely an offshoot of the insurance business that manages some of its cash. Aviva Investors said it is in the process of consulting with the affected fund managers. The company said the aim was to 'focus' the business on popular funds including UK and US equities and 'sustainable' investments based on climate change. It is understood that about ten funds will be closed. Aviva has a market value of 16billion. Shares closed on Friday at 4.17, up 28 per cent this year. Blanc announced in February the sale of its French business which represented about 40 per cent of Aviva Investors' profits to insurance broker Aema Groupe for $3.9billion (2.7billion). The group sold off its Polish business in March for 2.5billion (2.1billion), which also accounted for a chunk of Aviva Investors' profits. Ben Cohen, an analyst at Investec, said he expects Aviva Investors to post an operating profit this year of 50million compared with the group's overall 2.1billion profit. Cohen said: 'Life companies are starting to focus more on real assets, like infrastructure and real estate, to generate a longer-term income for pensioners.' The firings will leave Aviva Investors with 25 fund managers. The asset manager had poached a number of its top equity investors from rival Standard Life Aberdeen over the past decade. But it has been hit by a string of high-profile departures in recent months. Euan Munro left as chief executive of Aviva Investors in January and was replaced by Mark Versey. The presence of activist investor Cevian will ratchet up the pressure on Blanc to slash costs. British companies have seen a sharp rise in activist investors over the past few months. It emerged that hedge fund Elliott took a multi-billion-pound stake in pharmaceutical giant GSK, although it has remained secretive about its plans. GSK is expected to update investors on its strategy on its capital markets day on June 23. Malcolm McKenzie, a director of consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, said: 'There is no doubt that the pandemic has laid bare some of the underlying weaknesses and opportunities in UK companies, even in sectors seen to prosper during the pandemic. 'This is particularly true of high-growth companies in sectors like healthcare and tech. Although revenues grew, many of these businesses have seen bottom-line profitability fall below expectations and are increasingly in the activists' sights.' Britain's five biggest banks may be in line for a 5billion windfall that could help to boost dividend payouts later this year. Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered stashed away billions of pounds in case customer loans turned sour during the pandemic. But the chief executive of one major lender told The Mail on Sunday that far fewer customers had defaulted or missed payments on their loans than had been forecast. Far-sighted: Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered stashed away billions of pounds in case customer loans turned sour during the pandemic The executive said banks could start to claw back some of these provisions later this year, freeing up more money to pay dividends. Alastair Ryan, head of European banks strategy at Bank of America, said about 20billion was set aside for possible bad loans last year. He estimates that nearly a quarter would 'likely' be clawed back before the end of the year. Omar Keenan, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said the Big Five UK-listed banks are 'currently carrying about 5billion more in provisions than their current economic projections strictly say they need'. Analysts expect releasing the money will boost bank profitability and help to increase shareholder payouts to as much as 7.6billion this year close to 2019 levels. The Bank of England will update the City within weeks on whether banks can pay out dividends and buy back their shares without limits on the amount they can dish out. The central bank stopped lenders from dishing out dividends last March so they could shore up their balance sheets. It relaxed the rules in December, but left restrictions in place. A top bank chief executive told The Mail on Sunday: 'In terms of late payments and loan defaults, there's been virtually nothing. This is across the industry. It's even quiet in comparison with pre-Covid. 'We've got more cash on our balance sheet than we've ever had.' However, he warned that 'there's a long way to go' because the end of the furlough scheme in September 'could become an issue'. Some banks bought back shares and resumed dividends earlier this year in respect of 2020, but await clarity from the Bank of England on the extent of payouts this year. Gary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital, said he would be 'very surprised' if banks were not allowed to pay more dividends. Russ Mould, analyst at investment site AJ Bell, said: 'The Big Five are now expected to distribute 7.6billion in 2021. If that is achieved, it would be the highest since the 13.3billion peak of 2007.' Hungarian airline Wizz Air is in talks over an aggressive expansion at Gatwick, Luton and other UK airports just as its rivals face a struggle to survive. Group chief executive Jozsef Varadi said he was holding discussions to fly more planes from the UK, where he sees potential for 'long-term growth'. He is also planning to launch flights to India through Wizz Air's new Abu Dhabi airline. Varadi said the FTSE 250-listed firm was able to expand while other airlines were 'very distressed' because it had low costs and an efficient business model. Wizz Air shares have risen by 50 per cent over the past year, to 47.86. Taking off: Group chief executive Jozsef Varadi said he was holding discussions to fly more planes from the UK, where he sees potential for 'long-term growth' Varadi said many of his rivals were 'stuck' and 'locked down', burning through cash to survive. He told The Mail on Sunday: 'The industry has never been more challenged but it's a double-edged sword. You can look at life from the perspective of the problem or from the perspective of the opportunity. 'The real question is whether you have the resources available to take advantage of the situation. Most airlines may not, because essentially they are consuming resources for day-to-day survival. We have been preparing for that, and we wanted to make sure we had the resources available to us to move strategically should that happen.' Wizz Air has more than 240 Airbus planes on order, costing about $100million (70million) each, to expand the fleet by 60 aircraft to 200 in the next two to three years, and to 300 within five to six years. Varadi said: 'Adding 160 aircraft incrementally over the next five to six years is $16billion of investment we are bringing to the party.' The extra capacity will be split between Wizz Air's three airlines based in the UK, Hungary and Abu Dhabi. Varadi plans to add between 200 and 300 new routes in three years to the current total of more than 800. He said: 'We tap into new markets, we are joining the dots, and we keep stimulating traffic on new routes.' In the UK he said Wizz Air was in talks with a number of other undisclosed airports about opening new airport bases, adding to Gatwick, Luton and Doncaster. It will open a base in Cardiff in July. Varadi said he planned to snap up takeoff and landing slots at Gatwick once the Government reinstates pre-pandemic rules that mean airlines must forfeit slots unless they are used 80 per cent of each flying season. 'We could see ourselves operating a fleet of 20 aircraft at Gatwick in a very short space of time,' he said. He is also in talks to secure licences for new routes from Abu Dhabi, where Wizz Air launched a new airline jointly with Abu Dhabi state operator ADQ in January. Future destinations could include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Varadi said: 'The subcontinent is a large market for the United Arab Emirates and we are working on getting access to those markets. Once permitted, we will make an announcement.' Wizz Air, founded in Budapest in 2003, is planning further expansion across central and Eastern Europe its 'bread and butter' market plus the Middle East, Russia and other former Soviet states. It has added 18 airport bases and more than 250 routes since March last year. Wizz Air's cash burn is currently less than 50million (43million) a month, after the airline settled fuel hedges that had affected its costs. It made a loss of 576million in the year to March 31, 2021, against a profit of nearly 300million a year earlier. But Varadi said it would not need to raise further financing, with 1.6billion cash at the end of March, and called its 500million bond 'an insurance policy'. He expects to fly 80 per cent of the network this summer, depending on when restrictions are lifted. Mission: Carol Kane is 'rewiring' the DNA of brands she knows well Carol Kane has the kind of working life that most people at fashion retailers can only dream about. The Boohoo co-founder and executive director is busy nurturing some of the most famous high street brands back to health after a string of retail failures. From Principles to Karen Millen, many of them are brands she shopped at back in the 1980s. Kane has spent months rewiring the 'brand DNA' of Warehouse, Oasis and Dorothy Perkins, and last Thursday signed off a new advertising campaign for Debenhams to be revealed later this month under the strapline Debenhams Delivered To Your Doorstep. This weekend, fresh from a trip to Italy's fashion hotspot Florence to meet new suppliers, she has a few days enforced isolation to sort through her Staffordshire home 'dressing rooms' previously bursting at the seams with her own clothes but now expanded considerably as part of her ongoing house renovation project. It would all sound idyllic if it wasn't for some very public criticism that could erupt once again this week with a controversial vote at Boohoo's annual meeting. Shareholder advisory body Glass Lewis has urged investors to block her reappointment as a director following last year's allegations that Boohoo failed to act quickly enough to stamp out poor working conditions at its Leicester suppliers. The company has made significant efforts to draw a line under the furore. It brought in Alison Levitt QC to investigate, then retired judge Sir Brian Leveson to continue the work, and even former police commissioners to 'forensically' examine its supply base. Kane's position on the board will be cushioned by a block vote from the Kamani family which owns more than a quarter of Boohoo's shares. And sources said Jupiter, the biggest institutional shareholder with 9 per cent, is also planning to support her. However, some institutions may automatically vote in line with the Glass Lewis position. One City source said the continued criticism does not reflect efforts made to right wrongs, nor take into account Kane's key role revitalising a bunch of tarnished brands. Kane says: 'What we're doing now is far more than just regular factory audits. We've gone to a forensic level. We have exposed factories, we have uncovered fraudulent activity, things that you would never see in a factory audit. We've not only cleaned up the manufacturing base for us but for everybody else in the industry that wants to tap into it. It's a move for good.' She admits to being 'humiliated' by last year's scandal. But she insists Boohoo will now act as 'a champion' for Leicester manufacturers while many retailers have been 'frightened' away. She says of the push to have her unseated: 'Taking someone's head is vengeful. But it doesn't actually help the industry. Myself, Mahmud [Kamani co-founder and executive chairman] and John [Lyttle, chief executive] are the team that are putting this right.' But how sure can Boohoo be that new processes are watertight? 'It's difficult now for them to do it because of the processes. But people are creative,' she says. 'As they find a way around our system, we'll have to keep strengthening our system. We're taking them on a new journey as well. They understand we are an important player the size and scale we've got and if they don't play by the rules they will be exposed and that will be very visible.' Kane admits she's going at '100 miles an hour' despite her overarching creative role at each brand from fashion design to marketing. She says: 'I think I've become the guardian within the team. I'm looking at the DNA of each brand, to hold it precious. We keep each brand team within their own floor and we don't cross-pollinate.' Kane says she has her fair share of Gucci and Louis Vuitton but prefers to wear black skinny jeans and a shirt to the office. 'It's funny, people who work in fashion are relatively conservative in their own dress.' And it's the high street she knows best. 'I knew the brands well [when we acquired them] and knew what they stood for, possibly better than the recent owners. I was the girl who shopped them. Now I have an opportunity to get them back to their former glory and make them relevant in an online only business.' She says that includes educating teams coming in on Boohoo's sophisticated 'test and repeat' model of seeking out the hot sellers. She adds: 'That middle market has really been struggling in recent years but it does still exist and I am that woman, I do work, and I need something more professional to wear at work and I do have occasions where I want something a little bit more expensive when I go out.' While in Florence and nearby Prato she met quality suppliers to help in her mission to improve the brands. She adds: 'We were also talking with them about what we can do that's sustainable.' Sustainable fashion? A contradiction surely for one of Britain's most successful fast-fashion giants? 'No I don't believe that at all,' Kane hits back. 'We're looking into growing our own cotton so we can go from farm to factory. It's part of the big change in a large organisation that has to be responsible for the fashion it produces. 'I never throw anything in the trash. I have high street stuff like Topshop or Miss Selfridge that I've had for ten or 15 years.' She admits fashion and sustainability 'don't necessarily go hand in hand'. Boohoo's business model has very much been driven by 5 tops and 10 jeans that hardly seem designed for the long term. But she explains: 'There hasn't been such a demand [for sustainable fashion] in the last few years. But I'd say that has changed in the last 12 months. Maybe with people working from home and they've been wearing more cotton products and natural fibres they've really been thinking about it a little bit more. But I think there has been more noise [about environment issues] in the news generally.' Most importantly, perhaps, the next generation appears to be steering the changes. 'There's a massive drive from the influencers who are wanting to work with sustainable brands that tells me there's a sea change to come.' Regional airline Stobart Air has collapsed this weekend after rescue talks with investors fell through, putting almost 500 jobs at risk. It operated flights between the UK and Ireland through a franchise with Aer Lingus but has flown almost no planes since March last year. Its owner, London-listed Esken, agreed a deal in April to sell Stobart Air and Carlisle Lake District Airport to start-up airline Ettyl. Collapse: Stobart Air operated flights between the UK and Ireland through a franchise with Aer Lingus but has flown almost no planes since March last year But this month Ettyl raised concerns with the Isle of Man Constabulary over irregularities with paperwork supplied by one of its financial backers. Ettyl, led by Isle of Man-based entrepreneur Jason Scales, failed to find a new cornerstone investor by Friday's deadline. Stobart Air is appointing liquidators and has cancelled all its flights after ending its franchise agreement with Aer Lingus with immediate effect. It employs 480 cabin crew, pilots and ground handling staff. David Shearer, Esken's executive chairman, said: 'It is disappointing we have been unable to conclude the sale of Stobart Air as a going concern.' Aer Lingus apologised for the short-notice cancellation of Stobart Air flights and is advising customers of their options for refunds or rebooking. One of Emma Walmsley's former lieutenants has called for the GlaxoSmithKline chief to be given more time as she comes under pressure from a US hedge fund. Amir Reichman a GSK director under Walmsley for four years said: 'I admire her skills in managing the direction of the company and improving its innovation and culture'. Under pressure: Emma Walmsley has faced scrutiny since it emerged Elliott Management had taken a multibillion-pound stake in GSK in April In charge since 2017, she has faced scrutiny since it emerged Elliott Management had taken a multibillion-pound stake in GSK in April. The hedge fund is yet to make its intentions public, but The Mail on Sunday has revealed it has had talks with major investors and asked whether she is the right person to lead the firm. Reichman, chief executive of Israeli firm BiondVax Pharmaceuticals, was head of GSK's global vaccines engineering core technologies until earlier this year. He said: 'She needs up to ten years. It is too big a behemoth to change the direction easily. She needs at least a few more years to see her work through.' Car dealer Vertu Motors has risked an investor backlash by proposing a bonus to its chief executive despite slashing jobs and taking 36million in Government support. Robert Forrester is set to be handed a 200,000 bonus after the firm claimed 27.8million under the furlough scheme and received 8.7million in business rates relief after the pandemic forced its dealerships to shut. It cut 345 jobs last year. Backlash: Vertu Motors claimed 27.8 million under the furlough scheme and received 8.7million in business rates relief after the pandemic forced its dealerships to shut Vertu now faces a revolt at its AGM next week. Last month, fellow listed motor dealer Pendragon was condemned at its AGM for handing a 413,000 bonus to chief executive Bill Berman. Pendragon had taken 52million in taxpayer support and cut 1,800 jobs. Andrew Speke, of the High Pay Centre, said: 'It's absurd for a company that has taken millions in taxpayers' money to be awarding its CEO a six-figure bonus.' Vertu said executives initially waived their entitlement to a bonus but its remuneration committee after 'engaging directly with several of the largest shareholders' elected to award reduced bonuses following 'significant progress' by the firm. The secretive tycoon who has become BT's largest shareholder has arranged to meet union bosses in a highly unusual move. French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi will soon meet with Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, The Mail on Sunday understands. It is not known why Drahi, 57, wants to meet Ward, but the move comes just as unions threaten BT with strike action. In focus: Patrick Drahi stunned the City by taking a 12.1 per cent stake in BT worth 2.2billion Drahi is not expected to intervene in the dispute and may seek to reassure BT workers about his long-term intentions as an investor. Last week, he stunned the City by taking a 12.1 per cent stake in BT worth 2.2billion through Altice UK. He publicly backed BT's strategy, including its roll-out of superfast full-fibre broadband. It is understood that the billionaire has told unions he is not planning a full takeover of BT. Drahi's arrival comes at a delicate juncture in talks between BT and union bosses over redundancies, pay and terms relating to a plan to slim down its property portfolio. Talks began last month and were extended last week, but sources said further negotiations this week will be 'make or break'. If talks fail, CWU members will be balloted on a first nationwide strike since 1987. The CWU represents around 45,000 staff across BT, EE and infrastructure arm Openreach. The Mail on Sunday first reported Drahi's interest in BT last year amid rumours that an Altice company had secured backing from JP Morgan with a view to paying 20billion for Openreach. BT, Altice UK and the CWU declined to comment. Incredible pictures from a popular shop on the Manly Corso in the 1920s provide an insight into how the iconic strip once looked. The black and white image, from the Manly Public Library, shows the Jazzland Refreshment Room at 55 Corso bustling with life and energy. The establishment burned down in 1925 and was eventually demolished. An Oakley sunglasses store now stands in its place. The Jazzland was owned by James Pitcher, who could be the man standing behind the counter, and wife Jemmima who lived above the Refreshment Room with their daughter and two sons. The picture is among a number of photos obtained by Daily Mail Australia of Manly's evolution from a small coastal town into one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. The Jazzland Refreshment Room was once a popular milk bar along Manly's iconic Corso. Run by the Pitcher family, the Jazzland burned down in 1925 and was demolished in the 1960s The bar featured a marble soda fountain, large marble pillars and table tops, and a mirrored back bar, It sold ice creams, chocolate and milkshakes. The Corso, which links the Manly Wharf to the beach, was built in 1855 with the Hotel Steyne and The Pier hotels bookending its walkway. By the 1920s it was the business epicentre of the Northern Beaches and was filled with people and trams. On May 2, 1925 the Pitcher family awoke to smoke and flames after a blaze broke out in the storeroom, according to files in the Manly Public Library. Jemmima and the children fled but James stayed to battle the inferno. Once the beloved Refreshment Room at 55 Corso in modern day 2021 is now an Oakley store - one of many outlet stores that line the iconic walkway The Manly Corso is now a highly-developed strip lined by cafes, restaurants and bars Unable to extinguish it, he tied a rope to the family sewing machine to use as a weight and lowered himself out of the upstairs window to safety. The local fire station eventually put out the fire, which caused 1,000 worth of damage - a figure that would now be more than $100,000. The Pitchers declared bankruptcy in 1931 as a result of the Great Depression. The milk bar was demolished three decades later in the early 1960s. Pictured: The south Steyne Surf Paviliion in the 1960s - a popular beach for surfers and still remains that way today Decades later Manly is still one of the most popular beaches for residents of the Northern Beaches and tourists alike The Fairy Bower end of Manly and its now demolished surf club. The large structure on the left was the beach's shark tower Manly has undergone a complete transformation since its early days as a mere link between the Northern Beaches and central Sydney. The iconic Manly Wharf was purely for transport, a large structure that hosted ferries, trade ships and fishing boats. The upgrade to make the Spit Bridge a bascule bridge (partially lifts to allow for larger boats to pass underneath) in 1926 saw the removal of tram tracks - due to the lack of industrial demand. Lined with double-decker buses and with a large clocktower, it's unrecognisable from the bustling structure that sits at the end of the Corso today. The wharf is now home to dozens of upmarket restaurants, boutique stores and a wide range of fast food options. The Manly ferry transports as many as 50,000 people per day in summer as people travel between the Northern Beaches and the city - with spectacular views of the CBD. The Wharf under construction in 1940 paints a vastly different picture to its current form - the double decker buses and old-fashioned cars providing an insight into the British influence of the time It's now home to dozens of restaurants, shops and bars as the Manly Ferry services as many as 50,000 people per day The Steyne, Manly's most famous and popular bar, was built in 1859 and is one of the few buildings in the area that remains largely unchanged - at least from the outside. Developer Henry Gilbert Smith took a gamble placing the hotel on the corner of the Corso and opposite the beach, given waterfront views were not in fashion at the time. The move has paid dividends for the hotel owners and its patrons, as it now provides one of the best locations for a drinking session in Sydney. In 1859, not long after its opening, a huge swell smashed through the Steyne and swept publicans across the Corso. There was no seawall in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By 1863 the majority of Manly's then 200 residents called the Steyne their second home. Recent renovations have taken some of its soul, but it still remains one of the most popular spots for Northern Beaches locals of all ages. The Manly Sea Eagles' beloved fortress Brookvale Oval has also undergone a dramatic facelift over the past century, with the famous stadium once sitting on a bare paddock. Images from 1903 show a festival being held on the field which would eventually become home to the NRL side, with a horse and cart visible in the foreground travelling up what would become Pittwater Road. Brookvale used to be called Greendale, but changed its name to adopt that of an estate built at the time. Some eight years after the image was taken Brookvale Park was established, before becoming a showground by 1921. The stadium now has a capacity of 23,000 - highlighted by the traditional hill where Manly fans gather on matchday. Opposition fans of the Sea Eagles would suggest the surface itself has not improved in the 118 years since the photo was taken. Incredible images from 1903 show the paddock where Brookvale Oval once sat - with people gathering for a meeting of some kind as a horse and cart travels past on what would eventually become Pittwater Road Brookvale Oval in 2021 - home of the Manly Sea Eagles who have played at the fortress since their inception in 1946 An advertisement for the Hotel Steyne pre-dating 1920. It is one of the few establishments that not only remained throughout Manly's history but largely remains unchanged on the outside The Steyne in 2021 - the beating heart of Manly's social scene and the bookend to its famous Corso The harbourside of Manly once boasted a large ocean pool moated by a promenade extending off the wharf. The walkway has since been demolished to allow for more boats, larger ferries and better views for waterside bars Hugos and The Bavarian. The ferris wheel and carnival rides in the picture below made up Manly Fun Pier, which opened in 1930 - the Northern Beaches' very own Luna Park. Combined with the aquarium, which opened months earlier, the area quickly became a tourist hotspot. The Fun Pier would eventually close in 1989 when new developments saw the wharf become largely as it resembles today. The ferris wheel and carousel would remain after its closure, but were removed shortly after as Manly Cove residents complained of noise as the area began to increase in residential density. Despite its many cosmetic changes, there are still nostalgic fragments of Manly's romantic beginnings. A ferris wheel rises above the Manly Wharf as part of Manly Fun Pier that was opened in 1930. It was eventually demolished in the late 1980s due to development and complaints from locals Israel's longest serving prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted from power on Sunday after dominating the country's politics for more than 25 years. Netanyahu was replaced by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid who took the reins after forming a coalition government with six other parties, including Mansour Abbas's Islamic conservative Raam party. Netanyahu became the country's longest-serving prime minister in 2019, surpassing Israel's founding father David Ben Gurion, after holding the office office continuously for 12 years since 2009. During his reign, the Israeli prime minister oversaw the unveiling of the Deal of the Century; signed four normalisation deals with Arab states; and presided over three conflicts with the Gaza Strip. He also railed against the Iranian nuclear deal, and became the first sitting Israeli president to be indicted. Benjamin Netanyahu served as the 9th Prime Minister of Israel between 1996 and 1999, he returned to the role in 2009 (pictured attending a Likud Party meeting at the Knesset in March 2009) Four conflicts in Gaza Strip In November 2012, Netanyahu oversaw his first operation in Gaza - Operation Pillar of Defence. The conflict started when after rocket fire from Gaza prompted Israel to strike back, killing Hamas' military chief in an air attack and carrying out hundreds of assaults on militants' underground rocket launchers and weapons stores. An Egyptian-brokered truce was eventually agreed on November 21, ending the war. A second conflict came in 2014 - Operation Protective Edge - after Hamas allegedly kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers, prompting Israel to launch a military operation with the stated aim of ending rocket fire and destroying tunnels used for smuggling. The war left 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 74 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers. A ceasefire was agreed on August 26 and both sides claimed victory. Smoke from explosions are seen over Gaza City following Israeli strikes on November 19, 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defence Following the conflict, Netanyahu vowed a 'very strong action if fire is resumed', warning Hamas not to restart the war. He also said he was no longer willing to renew peace talks with Abbas, saying the Palestinian leader would have to first distance himself from Hamas militants. 'He has to choose,' Netanyahu told Israeli Channel Two in an interview at the time. 'It's either yes to Hamas or no to Hamas.' Mass protests then erupted in Gaza in March 2018. Demonstrators demanded the right to return to homes in Israel that Palestinians fled or were expelled from after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. The protests sparked a surge in violence on the border where Palestinians gathered every Friday. From March 2018 to December 2019, at least 352 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. Eight Israelis also died in related incidents. Protests intensified in May 2018 after the new US embassy opened in Jerusalem following Donald Trump's announcement that it would move from Tel Aviv. Rockets seen in the night sky fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021 On May 10, 2021, the fourth conflict of Netanyahu's premiership broke out following days of unrest in east Jerusalem. Hamas issued Israel an ultimatum to withdraw soldiers from the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on May 10. When the ultimatum expired without response, Hamas launched several rockets towards Israel, sparking an air offensive by the IDF. At least 256 Palestinians, including 66 children, and 13 Israelis were killed during the 11-day conflict. Netanyahu later claimed victory in the conflict and said Israel's bombing campaign had killed 'more than 200 terrorists' in Gaza. He promised a 'very powerful' reaction if Hamas breached the truce which ended 11 days of bloodshed. He said: 'If Hamas breaks the calm and attacks Israel, our response will be very powerful'. Political turmoil with four elections in two years The right-wing Likud party chief became prime minister for a second time in March 2009, after a first stint between 1996 and 1999. He formed a coalition firmly anchored in the right, with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister. A snap poll in January 2013 returned him to the premiership, this time in a coalition with hardliners keen to build settlements on Palestinian land seized during the 1967 Six-Day War. He returned again to government after winning a confidence vote in parliament in May 2015. Two years later, Netanyahu oversaw the construction of the first new government-sanctioned settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1991, in defiance of international opinion. In a general election in April 2019, Netanyahu's party Likud won 35 of the 120 parliamentary seats in a general election, the same number as centrist challenger Benny Gantz. Netanyahu was tasked with forming a government but was unable to secure a majority and instead decided to call another election on September, which returned the same results. Neither managed to form a coalition, propelling the country into a third poll - the third election in less than a year. Likud won 35 of the 120 parliamentary seats in the April 2019 general election (pictured, Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara celebrate after the vote) An election in March 2020 returned a stalemate, forcing Gantz and Netanyahu to work together. On April 20, the pair unveiled a three-year unity government. The deal allowed Netanyahu to stay in office for 18 months while Gantz, a former army chief, headed the defence ministry. Under the agreement, Gantz would then take over as premier for another 18 months before a new round of elections. But, the agreement only held for a few months. Likud came first in new elections on March 23, 2021, but Netanyahu was not able to form a government within the month-long deadline. On May 5, centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid was tasked with forming a government, gathering support from nationalist hardliner Naftali Bennett - an arrangement Netanyahu warned would be 'a danger for the security of Israel'. Indicted on charges of corruption, bribery, fraud, and breach of trust In November 21, 2019, Netanyahu was indicted by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on charges of corruption, bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases. The three key cases brought against 'Bibi' Case 1000: Fraud and breach of trust Opened in 2016, and involves valuable presents and gifts - such as cigars and bottoms of champagne - allegedly received by Netanyahu and his wife from several wealthy acquaintances in exchange for favours. Case 2000: Fraud and breach of trust Relates to recorded conversations between Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, chairman and editor of Yedioth Ahronoth, one of the largest newspapers in circulation in Israel. The conversations are said to have discussed legislation that could harm a major competitor of the newspaper - Israel Hayom, despite it being seen as pro-Netanyahu. In exchange, Netanyahu is said to have received positive coverage. Case 4000: Bribery, fraud and breach of trust Alleges Netanyahu promoted regulatory decisions favourable to the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq telecom giant, Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for positive coverage on his Walla news site. Advertisement 'It is an attempted coup based on fabrications and a tainted and biased investigative process,' Netanyahu said during a televised speech after the indictment was announced. 'I will continue to lead the country, according to the letter of the law, with responsibility, devotion and concern for all of our futures,' he said, standing at a podium against the backdrop of four Israeli flags in his official residence. Netanyahu added that the indictment was based on 'false accusations' and a systematically 'tainted investigation.' It is the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has been charged with a crime. The first case involves him allegedly receiving gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy friends, including Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In the second case, he is accused of trying to orchestrate positive coverage in a major Israeli paper in exchange for curbing distribution of a free pro-Netanyahu tabloid. The third, dubbed Case 4000, which will be the focus of Monday's first witness testimony, alleges that he backed legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of Israeli telecom giant Bezeq in return for positive coverage on its news site Walla. He was formally charged over the alleged offences in January 2020 after he withdrew his appeal for immunity - which the Knesset was widely expected to reject. Netanyahu has maintained his innocence and denied any wrongdoing in the three corruption cases, saying he is a victim of a political witch-hunt. Netanyahu appeared in court for the first evidentiary hearing of his trial on charges of corruption, fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, on April 21. Israeli law does not require prime ministers to resign while under indictment, and Netanyahu has refused to do so. His trial, in which he pleaded not-guilty, started last year and expected to take up to two years. A protester wearing a mask, depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attends a gathering outside the district court in Jerusalem on April 5 A close relationship with Trump Netanyahu enjoyed a positive relationship with US President Donald Trump after years of strained relations with Barack Obama. Together Netanyahu and Trump worked towards the Deal of the Century - an agreement intended to move towards ending the Arab-Israeli conflict by providing a framework for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The deal, unveiled in January 2020, recognised Israeli sovereignty over major settlement blocs in the West Bank while offering to more than double the territory currently under Palestinian control. Netanyahu and Trump presented the deal as a 'win-win', but it was widely rubbished by Palestinians, who were not involved in negotiations - and termed the deal the 'slap of the century'. US President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to the press on the West Wing Colonnade prior to the unveiling of the Deal of the Century in January 2020 Four Arab countries - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco - normalised relations with Israel in late 2020 in a deal known as the Abraham Accords. The agreements were signed by Trump, Netanyahu, and the Emirati and Bahraini foreign ministers at the White House on September 15. Each of the four leaders signed four copies of the Abraham Accords - one in English, one in Hebrew and two in Arabic. At the time, Netanyahu said Israel was negotiating normalisation deals with five other Arab states, but he did not offer hints as to which ones those may be. He later signed normalisation agreements with Sudan and Morocco in October and December respectively. The deals were a dramatic shift of power dynamics in the Middle East, where Israel had been consigned to relative pariah status. Trump then gifted Netanyahu US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, moving the US embassy there, as well as recognising Israel's annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights. The four leaders hold up the signed copies of the Abraham Accords - they signed one in English, one in Hebrew and two in Arabic - at the White House on September 15, 2020 Netanyah's 'red lines' on Iran - shown with a cartoon drawing of a bomb and a red felt tip In September 2012, Netanyahu warned the UN 'red lines' were needed to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons. In a memorable speech, Netanyahu used a visual aid - a cartoon drawing of a bomb - to demonstrate the necessity of taking action against the Islamic Republic. He told delegates the failure to establish 'red lines' to stop Tehran from building a nuclear bomb 'by next spring, at most by next summer' would be catastrophic. 'At this late hour', he said. 'There is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs and that's by placing a clear red line on Iran's nuclear weapons programme. Red lines don't lead to war; red lines prevent war.' Towards the end of his speech, Netanyahu held up a board showing a cartoon-like diagram of bomb that separated Irans nuclear efforts into three stages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brandishes a cartoon of a bomb during a speech against a nuclear deal between the US and Iran in September 2012 He said that Iran has completed the first stage of developing enough low-enriched uranium and that it was almost at the end of the second stage, the further enrichment of the uranium to weapons grade. Once that stage was completed next spring or summer, a third stage, preparing an actual weapon, could then be accomplished within 'a few months, possibly a few weeks'. Building a detonator for the highly enriched uranium would be relatively simple and easily concealed - and by implication not possible to stop militarily. Using a felt tip pen, he drew a red line across the diagram and said that Iran must be stopped before it completed the second stage. 'I believe that faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down,' he said. Netanyahu later argued the nuclear deal with Iran was a 'very bad' deal that would make the world a 'much more dangerous place'. In April 2015, hours before the US and Iran signed the Nuclear Deal, Netanyahu made a furious televised statement claiming the agreement was a threat to the Jewish state. He said: 'A deal based on this framework would threaten the survival of Israel... such a deal would not block Iran's path to the bomb. It would pave it.' Despite Netanyahu's protestations, the deal was signed in Vienna on July 14, 2015. It came into force in January 2016. An Australian man who split his foot in half from toe to ankle in an horrific motorbike accident in Thailand has embraced his 'Pirate' nickname despite still dealing with the physical and psychological effects of having the foot removed. Jason Mitchell, 46, was working for a mate refitting and photographing superyachts in the resort of Phuket in December 2019 when he jumped on a dirtbike to head home. He'd only travelled 300m when he encountered a group of locals on scooters stationary in the middle of the road. They didn't move as he slowed the bike until, when he had nearly reached them, the group suddenly dispersed. Mitchell changed his line to avoid hitting anyone and was sideswiped by one of the scooters. The impact forced him to scrape along the side of a parked car, smashing its driver's side mirror. 'I was still upright but I felt a little bump as I rode along the edge of the car,' he recalled. 'In Australia, car tyres have to be within the frame of the car but in Thailand, they let the tyres stick out. I hit the tyre... that was the little bump I felt. The compression of it pushed the foot peg of the bike straight through my foot. 'When I looked down I could only see my big toe. Half my foot with the other four toes was underneath the foot peg.' Mitchell pictured in a Thai hospital in the days after his accident. Thai doctors were initially optimistic his foot could be saved Mitchell was riding this dirtbike down a road in Phuket when he encountered a group in the middle of the road. Trying to avoid them, he was sideswiped by a scooter and forced into a collision with a parked car The tyre of the parked car which Mitchell struck as he scraped alongside, forcing the bike's foot peg through the underside of his foot The shots of Mitchell's foot as Thai doctors attempted to save it by wiring it together are truly graphic What followed was a nightmarish few weeks for the former professional fisherman from picturesque Stanage in Far North Queensland. It began with a bizarre trip to the hospital in the back of one of Phuket's 'private' ambulances and ended with $28,000 in Thai hospital fees, a painful plane journey back to Australia, and the eventual amputation of his lower leg in Royal Brisbane Hospital. The bearded Mitchell, a father of two, said he is still dealing with the effects of the incident, including phantom pains and moments of depression, though he can still tell his story in a larrikin fashion. Back in Australia, doctors informed Mitchell his foot was infected and would need to be amputated Despite the pain, Mitchell learned to walk again with the aid of prosthetics as quickly as possible because of his hatred of crutches and wheelchairs Mitchell said he stills feels phantom pain in his left leg, 18 months after the incident Before the amputation, a doctor asked if he wanted to be an Olympic runner with a new prosthetic leg 'They did call me a pirate before the accident,' he said. 'What a comedy of errors. [But] I always liked the pirate lifestyle, the old Jack Sparrow... the beard and the boats. But no one ever wants to lose a foot.' Mitchell said he was in shock and coming in and out of consciousness at the scene of the accident as locals 'stopped their scooters and took photos'. He was put on a stainless steel bed inside a private ambulance - 'some bloke's van with a cross painted on the side', Mitchell said - and woke up on the way to the hospital to find he'd been zipped up in a bodybag. 'I wriggled out of it and I was like, what the f*%$! I actually leapt out of it and the Thais all cowered to the back of the van, like, "hes come back to life!"... because I had already lost a lot of blood.' In hospital in Bankgkok, Mitchell's foot, split from inside the big toe almost to the back of his heel, was wired together. Local doctors were confident the foot could be saved. As his toes began to discolour, however, it became clear Mitchell needed to return to Australia. Stripped of all funds by the cost of treatment in Thailand, a GoFundMe page started by friends and his parents helped him make the trip home. The Pirate of Stanage in his favourite place, on a fishing boat in his hometown 'Everyone looks on social media and thinks, "Ah, hes great, hes doing fine," but thats only the hours I can wear the leg for.' 'The airline was a bit reluctant to let me on because I had all these wires in my foot,' he said. 'On the flight the vibrations of the plane, the jet motor, all that was playing havoc in my head, it was just indescribable pain. 'But I was just glad I was coming home. I think I even shed a few tears flying in over Australia.' In Brisbane doctors unwrapped his foot from its heavy bandages to discover a science experiment. 'They couldn't believe what they saw because there were at least a dozen wires in each toe, wrapped around each other up to my ankle. 'I was missing two metatarsal bones and two tendons... the foot peg had come through and just crushed them up, I dont know what happened to them.' After four days in Brisbane, doctors advised Mitchell the foot was infected and that amputation was the logical choice. 'A specialist came in and said, '"We can make you an Olympic runner, do you want to be an Olympic runner?" 'I said, "I dont want to run anywhere, mate, I just want to f#@*ing walk".' By March 2020, Mitchell was being fitted for a prosthetic leg. His hatred of crutches and the wheelchair meant the knockabout Queenslander ignored the pain of learning to walk again to show he could stand and walk with the aid. 'The nurses were freaking out,' he said. 'I just took off, watching myself walking in the mirror. I was in pain but I didn't show it. 'But everyone sees on social media and thinks, "Ah, hes great, hes doing fine," but thats only the hours I can wear the leg for.' The former professional fisherman sold his licence to take up the work opportunity in Thailand 'Problem is, I think about the accident all the time, it plays havoc with my mind,' Mitchell said Now back in Stanage, Mitchell said he has good days and bad days. He's trying to get back on his feet financially, saving for another fishing boat and running his company Maritime Media Services. 'In the beginning it was all doom and gloom, then ok, you survive, glory days,' he said. 'Youve just got to get through each stage. 'Problem is, I think about the accident all the time, it plays havoc with my mind. Was it just an accident? Did they mean it? If so, why?' One thing he's come to terms with is the fact he'll always be called the 'Pirate of Stanage'. 'Even during the amputation I was saying, "Im going to be a pirate! Im going to be a pirate!" 'I had no choice.' A small suburban Sydney garage found itself at the centre of the FBI's 'AN0M' trojan horse app sting after a $700,000 cocaine shipment allegedly landed on its doorstep. In a hi-tech sting, law enforcement agencies around the world planted phones among crime syndicates carrying the encrypted messaging app AN0M, which allowed investigators to read every text that was sent. The operation has resulted in the arrests of more than 800 people in Australia, the United States and Europe, kneecapping mafia and bikie organisations, busting drug and gun smuggling conspiracies and preventing some 21 murders. Now the FBI and NSW Police have detailed how intercepted AN0M messages resulted in the foiling of an alleged cocaine shipment to a humble south Sydney car workshop, Pro Worx Performance, earlier this year. In US Department of Justice court documents, FBI special agent Nicholas Cheviron alleged that an Australian calling himself Tom Ford after the famous American fashion designer forwarded a message via AN0M on February 25. 'We are on standbys to receive the package today bro,' said the message, sent to a mystery Armenian with the username Sion. This humble workshop in suburban Sydney (above) was named in US Department of Justice documents as being the destination for an alleged cocaine shipment, which police say had a street value of $700,000 The alleged cocaine shipment may have been sent from a Californian Lowe's Home Improvement store to the workshop, US court documents claimed The shipment was allegedly discussed by two code-named individuals, 'TOM FORD' and 'Sion', using AN0M technology After some discussion of how many addresses 'kgs' could be sent, Ford later sent Sion photos of a commercial invoice for a 'chest seat' from a Lowe's Home Improvement store in Carlsbad, California. An accompanying consignment note said that the 'seat' was being shipped to the Sydney workshop, according to the US court documents. Sion said he was relieved. The pair went on to send one another photos of apparently separate cocaine bricks which were being sent from America to Europe. But the unnamed pair may not have known that their alleged cocaine shipment was already unravelling, and their messages read by law enforcement agencies. Unknown to Ford and Sion, the Australian Border Force had intercepted their alleged drug shipment some three days earlier, on February 22. A NSW Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia: 'ABF officers intercepted and examined a consignment of equipment which arrived in Sydney from the United States of America. 'During a subsequent deconstruction, the consignment was found to contain 2kg of compacted white powder concealed within the items.' Testing returned a presumptive positive result for cocaine, with an estimated potential street value of $700,000, police will allege in court. Ford, who the FBI believes was based in Australia, sent his friend a picture of a commercial invoice showing a delivery to Pro Worx in Banksia The pair also sent photos of cocaine bricks to one another, according to the court paperwork. One such picture is above The FBI suspected the pair were speaking about a drug shipment from Carlsbad, California to Banksia, Sydney NSW Police Organised Crime Squad detectives then conducted a 'controlled delivery' - that is, a fake delivery - to the workshop three days later. Just after 2pm on February 25, police executed a search warrant 'at a property at the Princes Highway, Banksia,' officers said. Shocked workshop owner: Businessman Steve Zervas told Daily Mail Australia he knew nothing about the sting when called this week Three men were arrested during the search: James Bouzianis, 48, and two others, aged 42 and 24. Bouzianis was charged with import commercial quantity of border controlled drug, supply prohibited drug (large commercial quantity) and possess prohibited drug. Just what connection the trio had to the garage - if any - remains unclear. When Daily Mail Australia called about the alleged cocaine shipment, Pro Worx Performance owner Steve Zervas said: 'I don't know anything about it.' It's not suggested that Mr Zervas was in any way involved - just that his business's address was named as the delivery point for the alleged cocaine shipment. Bouzianis will face the Downing Centre Local Court on June 20. A bride-to-be who found two cancerous lumps in her breast on what should have been her wedding day is desperate to have her family join her from Ireland to help her fight the cancer battle. Martine Dines and her fiance Sean Keenan were on holiday at Hamilton Island on the day they were meant to tie the knot when she made the life-changing discovery. The fit and healthy 29-year-old from Belfast, who'd moved to Australia seven years ago to live in Sydney, discovered she had breast cancer on the fourth day of the holiday. The Irishwoman now faces a gruelling six-months of surgery, chemotherapy and fertility treatment. 'The advice given by the doctors is to check yourself in the shower but I was laying down when I found the lumps,' Ms Dines told Daily Mail Australia. 'It was quite accidental I found them while on holiday.' Martine Dines with her fiance Sean Keenan - the couple moved to Australia from Northern Ireland seven years ago Martine faces six months of treatment including surgery, chemo and fertility in her battle with the disease The 29-year-old is described as 'extremely fit and healthy' by the friends who set up her Gofundme page In a moving Facebook post, Ms Dines detailed the battle ahead after her first cancer consultation: 'I will have a mastectomy, chemotherapy, fertility treatment to preserve my eggs, and possibly radiotherapy and more,' she said. 'I have never been so afraid in all my life and the word cancer makes my blood run cold.' Ms Dines upcoming battle is made more difficult by the fact her family and friends are stuck 17,000km away in Ireland because of Covid-19 border restrictions. A GoFundMe page started by her friends has raised more than $50,000 to help her bring her parents to Australia to support her as she undergoes treatment, despite the difficulties involved in applying for an exemption, securing a flight and observing the mandatory quarantine period once they arrive. 'I I feel like Ive got an army in Australia supporting me, and an even bigger one in Ireland the support has been incredible,' she said. The money will help with airfares, her treatment and other living costs, with any excess funds to be 'donated towards breast cancer awareness in Australia and Ireland'. 'Being away from family right now is definitely the hardest part as I know they are hurting just as much me but I am in the best country for my treatment and care,' Ms Dines said. Ms Dines, whose grandmother died of breast cancer while young, said she was determined to make her story public so that other women would self-check and see their GP if they discovered anything unusual. 'The doctors are quite positive that my cancer is treatable,' she said. 'Its quite a common form of cancer, IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma), it's just not as common for someone of my age.' Sean and Martine during their Whitsundays trip, during which she discovered the lumps in her right breast 'Now they need our help': Martine and Sean's friends had raised more than $50,000 to help her bring her parents from Ireland to support her during the cancer battle Martine Dines is keen to raise awareness of breast cancer after her sudden diagnosis She and her partner of seven years, Sean, had planned to start a family next year once they were married. Wedding dates in front of family and friends in Ireland were postponed in September 2020 and then again in May 2021, due to Covid. 'The fertility treatment is kind of insurance because some women cant have kids naturally after the treatment but they cant definitely tell how Ill react to it as yet,' she said. Her fiance Sean responded to her post about her treatment by writing: 'Our story isn't over. Seven amazing years of enjoying the small things and having a laugh along the way, plenty more good times to come. Love you.' He also praised his wife-to-be's strength and courage, saying he would always be by her side. 'Once this is over, I'll finally get to marry her at a third time of asking,' he said. Ms Dines said many women had already reached out to her to say they were booked in to get checked since hearing of her story. 'Breast cancer is the most curable cancer if caught early. I never expected it to be me, to get cancer, especially not at 29 years old. 'I want to spread awareness and will live to tell a success story for others who will walk a path similar to mine.' Sean Keenan praised his wife-to-be's strength and courage, saying he would always be by her side She said she had gained mental strength during the Covid period last year which is now helping her deal with her cancer diagnosis. 'Its quite ironic that at the start of this year I started a gratitude journal and every night I wrote down three things I was grateful for,' Ms Dines said. 'That has really taught me how to come to terms with the cancer and the fact that you do have bumps in your life. I do feel Im a stronger person now than I was last year. 'Obviously the diagnosis was a massive shock and immediately after that, its fight or flight, and I'm going to fight.' Top cops say they fear that the US could be hit by a horrific summer of mass shootings - with four states alone witnessing gun atrocities within the last 24 hours. Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr and Chuck Wexler, from the Police Executive Research Forum, said a recent explosion in the number of shootings appears to be a long term trend, rather than a blip. Minter spoke after a man was killed and seven were injured in a mass drive-by shooting in the Georgia city on Friday night. The victim has since been named as Arthur Milton, 20. Seven others were injured. He said: 'It's very disturbing what we're seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we're seeing across the country. 'It's disturbing and it's senseless.' Minter made the remarks as three men were also killed in a shooting at a gas station in Cleveland, Ohio, in the early hours of Saturday, with two of the victims aged 40, and the third aged 36. One of the victims was named as Rahim Head by his grief-stricken mom Brenda Cole. Speaking outside the gas station in the city's Buckhead area where her son died, Cole said her son had seven kids. She answered 'I don't know,' through tears when asked if she knew more about what had led to the shooting. Three other women were injured, with cops yet to share further information on that shooting. A woman was killed and nine injured in a shooting in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, with 14 also shot and injured in downtown Austin, with both shootings also happening in the early hours of Saturday. Commenting on the wider trend, Wexler said: 'There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down. Two gunmen opened fire in Austin, pictured, on Saturday morning, injuring two. Experts say they fear a summer of mass shootings lies ahead A woman was also shot dead in Chicago on Saturday, with nine others injured in the same gun attack, the aftermath of which is pictured Meanwhile, a man was killed and seven people were injured after gunfire broke out in Savannah, Georgia, in the early hours of Saturday Rahim Head, a 36 year-old father of seven, was one of three men killed at a shooting at a gas station in Cleveland, Ohio, in the early hours of Saturday The Cleveland shooting happened at this gas station in the city's Buckhead neighborhood 'That hasn't happened. And that's what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes.' Two of those shot in Austin remain critically ill, with one of two men wanted over the shooting arrested on Saturday evening. No information about that man has been released. The Chicago attack also involved two shooters, both of them men, who escaped on foot afterwards, and who have not been identified. Those injured in Savannah include an 18 month-old toddler and 13 year-old, with Minter saying gunfire broke out following a dispute between two families at an apartment complex earlier this week. No information on arrests has been shared. Police unions say repeated calls to defund - or even abolish - their departments in the wake of George Floyd's murder and other instances of brutality against black Americans have led to mass-resignations, and caused staff shortages. Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr, pictured speaking at a press conference on Saturday, says he fears that a summer of bloody violence lies ahead The attacks come amid an easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in much of the country, including Chicago, which lifted many of its remaining safeguards on Friday. Many hoped that a spike in U.S. shootings and homicides last year was an aberration perhaps caused by pandemic-related stress amid a rise in gun ownership and debate over policing. But those rates are still higher than they were in pre-pandemic times. Tracking ups and downs in crime is always complicated, but violent crime commonly increases in the summer months. Weekend evenings and early-morning hours also are common windows for shootings. According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, only three mass shootings occurred at public places - the lowest total for that category in a decade - out of 19 total mass shootings in 2020. The database tracks all mass killings including shootings, defined as four or more people dead not including the perpetrator. According to that definition, there have been 17 mass killings, 16 of those shootings, already this year, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University. 'Its worrisome,' Fox said. 'We have a blend of people beginning to get out and about in public. We have lots of divisiveness. And we have more guns and warm weather. Its a potentially deadly mix.' The Gun Violence Archive, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines mass shootings as those involving four or more people who were shot, regardless of whether they died. Overall, according to its database, more than 8,700 people have died of gun violence in the U.S. this year. The GVA also found that mass shootings spiked in 2020 to about 600, which was higher than in any of the previous six years it tracked the statistic. According to this year's count, there have been at least 267 mass shootings in the U.S. so far, including the latest three overnight Friday into Saturday. A shooter who killed his parents and two schoolmates when he was 15 has spoken of his 'shame' over his crimes 23 years after the massacre shocked America. Kip Kinkel, who is now 38, said he is full of remorse for killing his dad Bill, mom Faith, as well as schoolmates Mikael Nickolauson and Ben Walker at Springfield High School in Thurston, Oregon, in May 1998. He told HuffPost: 'Ive never done this. Ive never done an interview. Partly because I feel tremendous, tremendous shame and guilt for what I did. And theres an element of society that glorifies violence, and I hate the violence that Im guilty of. Ive never wanted to do anything thats going to bring more attention.' 'I have responsibility for the harm that I caused when I was 15. But I also have responsibility for the harm that I am causing now as Im 38 because of what I did at 15.' Kinkel also spoke of his fears that he may have inspired the Columbine High School massacre, which saw 12 students and one teacher gunned down in Littleton, Colorado, the year after his killings. He detailed his suffering from schizophrenia and amassing weapons before the horrific murders. Kinkel also explained his rehabilitation in prison, including: earning college degrees, certifying as a yoga instructor, reading the classics and nabbing a job as an electrician. He credited the support of his sister for much of his rehabilitation. A recent photo of Kip Kinkel, who has shared his shame over murdering his parents and two of his schoolmates in a 1998 mass shooting in Springfield, Oregon Kinkel, pictured at his arraignment in 1998, says he has been rehabilitated by intensive mental health treatments behind bars, and has earned a degree and yoga teaching qualification Kinkel suffered extreme schizophrenia as a child, which went undiagnosed, and led him to believe Disney had planted a chip in his brain Kinkel said he was 12 when he started hearing voices telling him: 'You need to kill everyone, everyone in the world.' He recalled looking around but not seeing anyone. The frightening voices continued as Kinkel started to believe he was hearing them because Disney and the U.S. government had planted a chip in his head. His paranoia continued to grow as did his interest in weapons. Kinkel started to think that China would invade the West Coast. 'I became obsessed with obtaining weapons. Not just guns, but knives and explosives,' Kinkel told HuffPost. Kinkel said his parents were not gun enthusiasts so he hitched rides to gun shows from a friend's parents. At the shows, he bought books and magazines filled with paranoid warnings about 'foreign invaders' and the 'government plans to seize guns from Americans.' He claims that a lot of his interest in amassing weapons was also because of recent news of the deadly Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs. 'The narrative was, 'They're gonna take our guns.' And my fear, twisted into my illness, was, 'Our own government is going to take away our guns before the Chinese invade, and we're not going to be able to defend ourselves,' Kinkel said. Kinkel told HuffPost that the voices in his head would come and go. Then when he was in eighth grade, he and a friend got in trouble with the cops for throwing rocks off a freeway overpass. His parents found bomb making materials in his room and started taking him to a psychologist, with whom he had nine therapy sessions in 1997. However, Kinkel tried to hide the symptoms of his mental illness and doctors diagnosed him with depression. He took Prozac for three months until the prescription ran out. Kinkel murdered his mom Faith, left, and dad Bill, right, the day after being caught trying to buy a stolen gun, after they took his own 9mm Glock off him Kinkel, at the time, had wanted to join the military and eventually the CIA to figure out how to get the government to remove 'this chip in my brain,' he told HuffPost. 'Being diagnosed as depressed - this was something the voices pushed - meant that I would not be allowed into the military. And I would not be allowed to own guns,' he said. Despite his mental illness, he was able to convince his parents buying him the handgun he had long wanted: a 9mm Glock that he started sleeping with. His father discovered Kinkel was sleeping with the loaded weapon and removed it from his bedroom - so Kinkel started sleeping with a rifle he got for his 12th birthday instead. Kinkel said a school friend agreed to steal a gun from the father of another student and sell it to him for $110 just two days before the shooting. However, the students were immediately caught by a detective who was investigating the stolen gun. Cops arrested Kinkel and charged him with possession of a firearm in a public building and receiving a stolen weapon. Kinkel also faced expulsion. Kinkel said that was the moment the voices in his head started telling him that he and all of humanity was evil - and that 'everything was a threat.' He recalled his father taking him to Burger King after he was released from the police station. But when they got home, he took his two guns from his room and hid them in the attic so his dad couldn't find them. Then that afternoon, Kinkel said the voices in his head told him to shoot his father so he picked up the rifle and walked downstairs where he found his dad sitting. 'Kill him, shoot him. You have no choice,' the voices told Kinkel, he said. He then shot his dad in the back of the head and dragged his body to the bathroom where he covered it with a sheet, then waited for his mom to get home. Kinkel then drove to his school and shot 17 year-old Mikael Nickolauson, left, and 16 year-old Ben Walker, right dead. He chose his victims at random, and injured 22 others Kinkel met his mom in the garage and told her he loved her before shooting her twice in the back of the head, three times in the face and once in the heart before then covering her body with a sheet. 'Get guns and bullets. You have no other choice. Kill everybody. Go to school and kill everybody. Look at what you've already done,' the voices told Kinkel, he said. He took his mom's SUV to the school the next morning with three guns concealed under a trench coat, as well as a hunting knife and two bullets he taped to his chest to make sure he would have enough rounds to then kill himself. 'Shoot these boys,' the voices in his head said when he got to the school. Kinkel said he headed to the cafeteria and shot Ben Walker, 16, in the head with his rifle. Mikael Nickolauson, 17, was also killed, and 22 other children were injured. Both boys killed were chosen by Kinkel at random. The teenage killer was sentenced to life without parole, and has managed to reform himself behind bars thanks to intensive mental health treatments, which helped him control his schizophrenia. His sister Kristin has always been supportive of him, despite the horrific loss of their parents, and attended Kinkel's graduation after he earned a degree in global studies in 2007. Students attend a vigil in the wake of the deadly shooting in Springfield, Oregon, in May 1998 Kinkel was attacked shortly after moving to an adult prison over his notoriety, but has proved a model prisoner. His image was used to campaign against an Oregon Senate Bill which would have stopped serious juvenile offenders from being jailed for life without parole. Supporters said offenders under the age of 18 did not have fully formed brains, and that it was unfair to sentence them as harshly as adults for serious crimes. It also insisted that jailing young offenders for so long breached the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment. That law - whose official title is Senate Bill 1008 - passed, and was signed into law in January 2020. Thurston High School is pictured. Kinkel's shooting there was one of the first to hit a US school, and came a year before the Columbine Shooting in Colorado, where 12 students and one teacher were murdered But the Bill was tweaked before being passed to ensure offenders sentenced before it was signed into law were not automatically eligible to try for parole. That amendment was made with Kinkel in mind. The families of his victims who supported the move say that no amount of reform, rehabilitation or remorse would justify letting someone who had caused them such pain go free. Kinkel told HuffPost that he tries to stay positive, despite currently facing the rest of his life behind bars. Asked if he thinks he will ever be free, Kinkel said: 'I think that theres a few different ways to answer that. 'Ive learned through a lot of years of therapy and self work that I really need to be careful with expectations. So I dont want to have false hope. But hope is always really important. 'So, of course, theres always a sense of hope that maybe I can leave an environment such as this that is miserable and designed to torment and inflict, basically, pain onto my body and soul. With that being said, I dont know what that would look like. 'So, I dont allow myself to spend too much time thinking about that because I think that can actually bring more suffering.' A federal judge has halted Joe Biden's 'unconstitutional' $4 billion program to pay up to 120 percent of black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American farmers' debt, after 12 white farmers sued claiming it discriminated against them. Wisconsin Judge William Griesbach issued a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking the loan forgiveness program Biden put in place after saying he wanted to tackle longstanding inequalities for farmers of color. Judge Griesbach said the plan failed to provide adequate examples of recent hardships imposed on farmers from minority backgrounds. He also claimed that in trying to end one type of discrimination, the program ended up creating another. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan set aside $4 billion to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for loan forgiveness for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. The money would be used to pay up to 120 percent of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers. A group of 12 farmers from nine states filed a lawsuit against the USDA in April alleging the program exempts white farmers and is a violation of their constitutional rights. A federal judge has halted Joe Biden's 'unconstitutional' $4 billion program to pay up to 120 percent of black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American farmers' debt, after 12 white farmers sued claiming it discriminated against them Griesbach sided with the white farmers Thursday temporarily halting the USDA from proceeding with the loan relief payments and saying the 'race-based criteria' is a violation of equal rights. He said the lawsuit is 'likely to succeed on the merits of their claim' that the program's 'use of race-based criteria in the administration of the program violates their right to equal protection under the law.' The USDA has identified 'socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher' to mean farmers 'who are one or more of the following: Black/African American, American Indian, Alaskan native, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, or Pacific Islander,' the judge noted. The agency does not actually consider, he ruled, 'the financial circumstances of the applicant.' Griesbach also said there was 'no evidence of intentional discrimination' of minority farmers in recent government assistance. 'Aside from a summary of statistical disparities, defendants have no evidence of intentional discrimination by the USDA in the implementation of the recent agriculture subsidies and pandemic relief efforts,' he wrote. The judge said the program discriminates against one group in an attempt to tackle discrimination against another. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan set aside $4 billion to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for loan forgiveness for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. Biden is pictured during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall Saturday 'The obvious response to a government agency that claims it continues to discriminate against farmers because of their race or national origin is to direct it to stop: it is not to direct it to intentionally discriminate against others on the basis of their race and national origin,' Griesbach said. 'Congress can implement race-neutral programs to help farmers and ranchers in need of financial assistance, such as requiring individual determinations of disadvantaged status or giving priority to loans of farmers and ranchers that were left out of the previous pandemic relief funding,' he said. 'But it cannot discriminate on the basis of race.' The ruling was welcomed by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty which represented the white farmers - from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Oregon and Kentucky - in the suit. 'The Court recognized that the federal government's plan to condition and allocate benefits on the basis of race raises grave constitutional concerns and threatens our clients with irreparable harm,' President and General Counsel Rick Esenberg told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Wisconsin Judge William Griesbach (pictured) issued a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking the loan forgiveness program siding with a group of 12 farmers who filed a lawsuit against the USDA in April alleging the program violates their constitutional rights 'The Biden administration is radically undermining bedrock principles of equality under the law.' The USDA said it disagrees with the judge's ruling and will carry on with plans for the program when the temporary order is lifted. 'We respectfully disagree with this temporary order and USDA will continue to forcefully defend our ability to carry out this act of Congress and deliver debt relief to socially disadvantaged borrowers,' department spokesman Matt Herrick told NBC News. 'When the temporary order is lifted, USDA will be prepared to provide the debt relief authorized by Congress.' The program was put in place in an effort to tackle longstanding inequities that have plagued farming. It was hailed by civil rights groups as the most significant legislation for black farmers since the Civil Rights Act. The program would be used to pay up to 120 percent of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers Minority farmers have maintained for decades that they have been unfairly denied farm loans and other government assistance Around 17,000 farmers of color would be eligible to access the assistance. Minority farmers have maintained for decades that they have been unfairly denied farm loans and other government assistance. Federal agriculture officials in 1999 and 2010 settled lawsuits from black farmers accusing the agency of discriminating against them. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the disparity had worsened during the pandemic. 'For generations, socially disadvantaged farmers have struggled to fully succeed due to systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt,' he told The Washington Post. 'On top of the economic pain caused by the pandemic, farmers from socially disadvantaged communities are dealing with a disproportionate share of COVID-19 infection rates, hospitalizations, death and economic hurt.' Data from the USDA shows the number of black farmers has shrunk from one million around a century to 45,000 today. A former hospital boss has accused the NHS of putting patients at risk by signing up to Stonewalls controversial Diversity Champions scheme. More than 90 healthcare organisations are understood to be members of the charitys controversial programme, including the Department of Health, NHS England and numerous hospital trusts. But Kate Grimes, a former chief executive of Kingston Hospital in South-West London, has joined a growing chorus calling on organisations to withdraw from the Stonewall scheme. In an article for Health Service Journal, she wrote: I believe working with Stonewall is no longer compatible with NHS values and risks the reputation of the NHS and safety of our patients and staff. Kate Grimes (pictured), a former chief executive of Kingston Hospital in South-West London, has joined a growing chorus calling on organisations to withdraw from the Stonewall scheme Ms Grimes accused Stonewall of undermining the NHSs ability to keep patients safe, stifling free speech and creating a culture of fear among some NHS staff. And she warned some advice risked opening up NHS organisations to litigation and reputational damage. Ms Grimes recalled how she received offensive messages when she came out as a lesbian in the late 1980s, her pride at running one of the countrys leading HIV/AIDS services and appreciation for Stonewalls campaign for greater equality. More than 90 healthcare organisations are understood to be members of Stonewall's programme, including the Department of Health and NHS England But she said the charitys recent lobbying over trans issues had culminated in the incorrect notion that a man who identifies as a woman is allowed by law to access female-only spaces. As a result, she added, female patients no longer have access to single-sex accommodation in wards and bathrooms. The implications for patients are significant, she added. Female patients are exposed to the distress and dangers of sharing private space with men at a time when they are vulnerable. Ms Grimes complained: Hospital workers are losing their rights, enshrined in law, to separate bathroom and changing facilities. Anyone who speaks up may face disciplinary action, as policies are brought into line with Stonewalls view. A Stonewall spokesman said: Were confident the advice we give to NHS trusts is robust and helps to create inclusive and safe environments for everyone. Australians will likely be stuck with snap Covid lockdowns and rolling restrictions even as vaccination numbers rise - while the rest of the world gets on with life. Anti-vaccination hysteria and new virus variants mean the nation is unlikely to achieve herd immunity any time soon, a new study conducted by the Burnet Institute concluded. Therefore, researchers believe preventative protocols like mask wearing and social distancing, as well as 'circuit breaker' lockdowns like those utilised in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia will likely remain the norm. Australians will likely continue having to endure snap Covid lockdowns even as vaccination numbers rise. Pictured: Australian swimmer Cate Campbell receiving her Pfizer vaccine Australians could be encouraged to take the vaccine if the government followed the US and allowed fully vaccinated people to skip mandatory quarantine. Pictured: Families reunited when the border between New Zealand and Australia was dropped in April Preventative protocols like mask wearing and social distancing, as well as 'circuit breaker' lockdowns like those previously utilised in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia will likely remain the norm for Australians moving forward. Pictured: A usually busy Melbourne arcade during lockdown Poll Should fully vaccinated Australians avoid mandatory quarantine and border closures? Yes No Should fully vaccinated Australians avoid mandatory quarantine and border closures? Yes 358 votes No 241 votes Now share your opinion 'You can't just say, "we're vaccinated, let it rip guys", Burnet Institute deputy director Margaret Hellard said. 'There will be occasions where we will need to be aware that we need to be tested and we'd still need restrictions.' Ms Hellard said the Federal Government's goal to vaccinate 80 per cent of Australia's adult population would also be challenging, given a healthy - and vocal - minority of about 30 per cent have expressed a resistance to the jab. In Australia alone, a suspected 48 people have had adverse reactions to the AstraZeneca jab - which is the only dose on offer for over-50s. Two Australians have died from a severe blood clotting disorder after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine. The risk remains extremely low but a growing group are opting to wait for a different vaccine out of fear. Melburnians have just escaped their fourth Covid lockdown, but plenty of restrictions will remain in place. Pictured: Diners on the first day of eased restrictions, June 11 There are concerns about the reward for getting vaccinated, particularly if lockdowns are likely to continue and borders will remain closed, Pictured: Families reunited after border closures There are also concerns about the reward for getting vaccinated, particularly if lockdowns are likely to continue and borders will remain closed. Murdoch University professor of immunology Cassandra Berry told the ABC the Government might have more luck encouraging the Australian public to get vaccinated if they followed the US approach. Over there, a fully vaccinated person is not required to undergo mandatory quarantine - even if they've been directly exposed to the virus as long as they're not displaying any symptoms. Similarly, they're not required to self isolate after travelling internationally or interstate. 'I'm not convinced everybody can see the benefit of being vaccinated. If people [in Australia] got that message, if they were fully vaccinated, they may still have their freedom and not need to go into isolation,' Professor Berry said. In the United States, a fully vaccinated person is not required to self isolate after travelling internationally or interstate - an incentive that could boost vaccination numbers in Australia Pictured: Two women reunited after borders reopened between Australia and New Zealand She said it was likely Australia's rules would also update as time goes on and more people get the jab. The Australian Government has placed an urgent order for more Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but they aren't expected to arrive until late this year. Moderna is yet to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Association. Burnet Institute epidemiologist Mike Toole said Australians should be prepared for up to 10 more lockdowns before those vaccines are widely distributed in the community, based on modelling over the past eight months. 'Since November, we've had on average of one quarantine leak every 11 days, and that's continuing,' he told ABC. 'In that time [of four or five months to distribute the new doses], we'll have at least 10 more quarantine leaks and lockdowns and border closures.' Burnet Institute epidemiologist Mike Toole said Australians should be prepared for up to 10 more lockdowns before those vaccines are widely distributed in the community, based on modeling over the past eight months. Pictured: Victorians on the first day out of their fourth lockdown Australians might be incentivised to get the jab if they know it would grant them access to more travel and freedoms According to Dr Nick Scott, the Burnet Institute's Head of Modelling, thousands of Australians would die if public health measures weren't followed before achieving complete herd immunity. 'Those who are vaccinated would be protected and may only experience mild or no symptoms. But among those not vaccinated possibly up to 30 per cent of the community we could see a large number of hospitalisations and deaths, as well as many cases of 'long Covid',' he said in the report. 'We found that if the virus enters the community when 60 per cent vaccine coverage has been reached and is left unchecked, we could see 4,885 deaths in Victoria within a year if no public health responses are introduced,' Dr Scott said. If 95 per cent of the community were vaccinated, that number immediately plummets to 1,346, even with no other preventative measures. Ms Hellard said the government's goal to vaccinate 80 per cent of Australia's adult population would also be challenging, given a healthy - and vocal - minority of about 30 per cent have expressed a resistance to the jab A naked mother allegedly threw her newborn daughter and toddler son out of the window of her second floor apartment in New York City on Saturday morning. The mother, who was not identified, threw her daughter and two-year-old son from the window before diving out of it herself around 11:20 a.m. in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, according to police. She then kept trying to hurt the children, who were also naked, it is claimed. The woman allegedly pounded the infant's head into the ground because she was 'tired of being by herself', the New York Post reported. Heroic neighbor Carl Chin, 41, then jumped in to try to save the children. He told DailyMail.com he was lying down in bed having a conversation with his fiance when the couple heard the baby crying. 'Within seconds we heard a thump, like the body just hits the ground. So she jumps up to the window and sees the two kids on the floor,' he said. Scroll down for video The naked woman had thrown her children out of the second floor of her apartment, pictured The woman then kept trying to hurt the children, who were also naked, and allegedly pounded the infant's head into the ground because she was 'tired of being by herself' Heroic neighbor Carl Chin, 41, then jumped in to try to save the children His fiance ran out of their home crying: 'Call 911! Call 911!' Chin called 911 as his fiance ran to the back of the home, screaming at the mom: 'Don't hurt the child. Don't hurt the child!' 'I run to the back and I see the mom has the child in one hand and she drops her. The infant. She drops the infant a couple of times,' Chin said. He said he leapt over the fence tried to grab the woman, who sat down with the newborn in a 'headlock.' 'I kind of forcefully took the baby from her, using my forearm, and got her to loosen her grip with the baby. We exchanged a few words and within the seconds the FDNY and ambulance came and took care of it,' he said. He added: 'I wasn't even thinking, I just reacted because I couldn't even believe what I was seeing.' Chin told reporters outside the home that the toddler appeared to be in good condition after the attack and 'wasn't crying' or 'moaning in pain.' The infant, however, seemed to be clinging to consciousness. 'She was trying to open her eyes and it was closing. Half her face was bruised. I hope she didn't hit her head on the concrete, but her head was shaped kind of like after you hit it hard and swelling starts to form,' Chin said. Chin said the woman then appeared to snap back to realty and thanked him while asking him to take care of her daughter. 'I have no idea what was going on with the mom. I had never met her or seen her prior to this but she clearly is not in the right state of mind. She must have been having some kind of mental breakdown because they were all naked,' he said. Chin said that after he wrestled the baby from the woman she appeared to snap back to realty and thanked him while asking him to take care of her daughter The NYPD said the little girl was taken to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition while the woman and her son were taken to Brookdale Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries Shandie Harrison, Chin's sister-in-law, told the New York Daily News she saw the mother hold the newborn by the leg and pound her head twice into the ground. 'We saw the newborn, we started screaming. It was three of them naked on the ground, the mom, the newborn baby and another little child,' she said. She said the newborn was bleeding from her ear and the toddler had bruises on his forehead and his knee. The NYPD said the little girl was taken to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition while the woman and her son were taken to Brookdale Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Further updates on their conditions have not been shared. Headteachers at elite NYC private schools where parents are up in arms about critical race theory lessons are earning salaries in excess of $1 million a year. School tax filings, obtained by the New York Post, reveal that seven school heads took home more than $1 million each in total compensation in the year ending June 30 2020. Another three broke the $900,000 benchmark, putting them all in the nation's top one percent of earners. Their hefty salaries come amid a growing number of controversies at several of the elite NYC prep schools where some parents and teachers have complained about the 'woke' ideology being taught to children. They have accused their schools of 'woke-weaning' the kids by indoctrinating them with critical race theory lessons from an early age. School tax filings, seen by the New York Post, reveal 7 school heads received over $1 million each in total compensation in the year ending June 30 2020. The biggest earner was Thomas Kelly (pictured) Kelly is the principal at Horace Mann (pictured) in the Bronx. He earned $1,272,141 in the last tax year The salaries of NYC's elite prep school heads 1. Thomas Kelly School: Horace Mann Pay: $1,272,141 2. Paul Burke School: Nightingale-Bamford School Pay: $1,195,538 3. John Allman School: Trinity Pay: $1,128,031 4. Jessica Bagby School: Ethical Culture Fieldston Pay: $1,098,788 5. Lee Levison School: Collegiate Pay: $1,087,660 6. Dominic Randolph School: Riverdale Country Day Pay: $1,075,504 7. Patricia Hayot School: Chapin Pay: $1,041,864 8. Bodie Brizendine School: Spence Pay: $942,615 9. Jane Foley Fried School: Brearley Pay: $939,622 10. Jim Best School: Dalton Pay: $937,973 11. William Donohue School: Columbia Grammar Prep Pay: $539,70 Advertisement The biggest earner was Thomas Kelly, who earned $1,272,141 as principal at Horace Mann in the Bronx. Close behind was Paul Burke, the head of Nightingale-Bamford School on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He earned $1,195,538 including a salary of $918,502 and other compensation such as housing of $219,343. The Upper West Side's Trinity, which was among the schools targeted with mobile billboards this week reading 'diversity not indoctrination' and 'WOKE SCHOOL? SPEAK OUT' this week, pays its head $1,128,031. John Allman received a salary of $751,348, $105,300 bonus, $47,250 in deferred compensation, and $224,133 in benefits, including a brownstone house. At Riverdale Country Day school, principal Dominic Randolph took home total earnings of $1,075,504, including $1,018,857 salary, housing and a social club membership. One parent, Bion Bartning, said he was so upset with the ideologies being taught at Riverdale that he pulled his children out of the $54,000-a-year school. Bartning then went further, founding the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) to fight back against what he calls a dangerous new 'orthodoxy' in schools. Spence school, the all-girls school in the Upper East Side, paid head Bodie Brizendine $886,860 in salary, contributing to her total compensation of $942,615. An alum slammed the school in April after it sent out a letter and posted it on the school's website commenting on Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict for the murder of George Floyd. This came after billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson threatened to stop donating to the $54,000 school last year citing 'anti-white indoctrination' in the curriculum being taught to his two daughters. Brearley has also been at the center of controversy after parent Andrew Gutmann said he was pulling his daughter from the all-girls over its woke antiracism 'obsession' which he described as efforts to 'brainwash' students. The head of the school, Jane Foley Fried, was paid $939,622, including a salary of $717,888, $87,500 bonus and housing and maid service valued at $98,879. Dalton's Jim Best took home slightly less with $937,973 total compensation including a salary of $888,377. His school was the first - and arguably the most prestigious - to be hit with a critical race theory scandal last year. Best announced in April he is stepping down this year after being slammed by parents for pushing an 'obsessive', antiracism agenda on students. His resignation came after a group of Dalton parents penned an anonymous open letter to the school describing an 'obsessive focus on race and identity'. The school was embroiled in further controversy this month as parents fumed that its health and wellness educator Justine Ang Fonte showed first-graders sex education videos that appear to include information about masturbation. At Chapin - an all-girls school in Upper East Side (left) Patricia Hoyt (right) received a total package of $1,041,864 Others with salaries upward of $1 million included Lee Levison (left) who was head of the all-boys Collegiate School on the Upper West Side (right) until last June. His total compensation package reached $1,087,660, including a salary of $936,323 Fonte also held a lecture at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on 'electro porn.' She has since agreed to step down from her role at Dalton amid ongoing outrage. Columbia, the $47,000-a-year private school once attended by Barron Trump, paid its own head William Donohue $539,700, including a $442,017 salary and a $75,000 bonus. Local parents say Columbia, which sits on New York's Upper West Side, is not as 'woke' as other schools which have recently hit the headlines. They are said to be pushing back hard against proposals to hire a diversity coordinator at the school, for fears it will end up like other local institutions now accused of being obsessed with racism. Others with salaries upward of $1 million included Lee Levison who was head of the all-boys Collegiate School on the Upper West Side until last June. His total compensation package reached $1,087,660, including a salary of $936,323. Ethical Culture Fieldston's Principal Jessica Bagby earned a total package of $1,098,788 last year, including $795,872 in salary, a $112,500 bonus, $63,096 in 'other compensation' and other benefits including housing and car allowances. And Chapin's Patricia Hoyt received a total package of $1,041,864. The Upper West Side's Trinity (left), which was among the schools targeted with mobile billboards this week reading 'diversity not indoctrination' and 'WOKE SCHOOL? SPEAK OUT' this week, pays its head John Allman $1,128,031 (right) Ethical Culture Fieldston's (right) Principal Jessica Bagby (left) earned a total package of $1,098,788 last year Paul Burke (left), the head of Nightingale-Bamford School (right) on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He earned $1,195,538 including a salary of $918,502 and other compensation such as housing of $219,343 Riverdale Country Day Riverdale Country Day school, where principal Dominic Randolph earned a seven-figure salary in the last tax year, has come under fire over its anti-racism initiatives in recent months. Bion Bartning's two young children attended Riverdale until he pulled them from the school last year over what he described as the dangerous new 'orthodoxy' it is teaching students. Bartning, who is Mexican and Yaqui on one side and Jewish on the other, said he was shocked to learn that schoolchildren are being forced to label themselves as privileged or oppressed by skin color. 'I don't fit into any of those race buckets,' Bartning told the New York Post. 'I think it is wrong to be teaching kids these socially constructed race categories. 'It's a destructive ideology, teaching children to be pessimistic and full of grievance rather than being optimistic and full of gratitude. It goes against all the values I was raised with, and there are many out there who feel as I do,' he said. At Riverdale Country Day school (right), principal Dominic Randolph (left) took home total earnings of $1,075,504, including $1,018,857 salary, housing and a social club membership One parent Bion Bartning said he was so upset with the ideologies being taught at Riverdale that he pulled his children out of the $54,000-a-year school Bartning said he had even encountered instances of children being given color palettes to match with their skin tone to assess their level of privilege. He said even his Soviet Union-raised wife found the anti-racist teachings 'alarming'. Bartning has since launched FAIR, which describes itself as a 'nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding and humanity' on its website. The organization was launched last month to tackle what it calls neo-racism and 'intolerant orthodoxy' in US institutions and has quickly become a champion for those condemning antiracism teachings in schools. Board members include former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss and media pundit Megyn Kelly - who pulled her two sons from their Upper West Side private school last year due to its teachings on race. Spence School Spence came under fire for its diversity curriculum in April when it commented on Derek Chauvin's conviction for the murder of George Floyd. The school, which boasts notable alum including Gwyneth Paltrow and Kerry Washington, sent a letter out and posted a statement on its website. In it, head Bodie Brizendine called the conviction a 'crucible moment for our nation and for our ongoing struggle for racial justice and equity.' 'The jury's verdict, an important step toward accountability and healing, however, does not erase the tragedy of the murder of George Floyd, and there is important work ahead that requires our collective voice and courage,' the letter reads. 'Our charge and our struggle remain the same: to shape a world that rejects injustice and hate, and offers dignity and humanity for all individuals and communities. Our Anti-Racism Task Force Reportdeeply rooted in our mission that has never wavered from the tenets of inclusivity, belonging and justicestands as our important path forward for our school and our community,' it reads. Spence school (left), the all-girls school in the Upper East Side, paid head Bodie Brizendine (right) $886,860 in salary, contributing to her total compensation of $942,615 'More immediately, and in the aftermath of this trial, we turn our attention to our students who look to us to help them comprehend this moment. Our divisional counselors are ready to support our students with developmentally appropriate care and guidance. 'The bottom line is that these types of crimes should not be happening. Full stop. And, as our community continues to move forward, we will also continue to remember the loss of lifemen, women and childrenwho have fallen prey to senseless brutality.' Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. An alum who asked not to be named received the letter and was appalled, telling DailyMail.com she was shocked at 'how they forced students to get involved' in the trial. 'Where is the protection of innocence?' she said. 'I attended Spence School and wrote a letter about their involvement in the Chauvin trial. I was appalled they were subjecting children to such horror.' This controversy came after billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson hit out at the school's 'anti-white indoctrination' as far back as 2017. Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and his wife Jenny (pictured in 2017) accused Manhattan's elite all-girls Spence School of 'anti-white indoctrination' three years ago Paulson, who became a celebrity in the banking industry after raking in billions from his bet against the American housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis and served as an economic adviser to Donald Trump, made the claims in a letter to the school in 2017 that was unearthed this week by Page Six. At the time both of Paulson's daughters, Giselle and Danielle, attended the school on the Upper East Side, which charges nearly $50,000 per year in tuition and boasts many famous alumni including Gwyneth Paltrow. In the letter, signed by Paulson and his wife Jenny, the couple describe several examples of reading materials their daughters received which they claim include malicious portrayals of white people. They argued that the curriculum is 'designed' to promote anti-white ideologies by teaching students, of whom less than a quarter are minorities, that white people are successful because of their race. Brearley Brearley, where head Jane Foley Fried was paid $939,622, found itself at the center of controversy as one New York father hit out at its teaching of Critical Race Theory. Andrew Gutmann, 45, revealed in an April letter that he pulling his daughter from the school, where annual tuition is $54,000, over its woke antiracism 'obsession.' He told the New York Post he sent the 1,700-word letter to 650 different families because 'someone had to speak out.' 'She hasn't been brainwashed yet by the school - but she's had me at home. I'm not so sure that's true of the other kids,' Gutmann told the outlet, referring to his daughter. 'Someone had to do it. Someone had to light the match. Everyone's so afraid of cancel culture. We're going to destroy the city, we're going to destroy the country.' Brearley (left) has also been at the center of controversy. The head of the school, Jane Foley Fried (right), was paid $939,622 Andrew Gutmann, 45, said he was pulling his daughter from the all-girls over its woke antiracism 'obsession' which he described as efforts to 'brainwash' students Fried responded by sending a message to the school's families in which she slammed Gutmann's letter as 'deeply offensive and harmful.' Gutman has appeared in the media several times since, pushing back against Critical Race Theory being taught in schools. 'What the school is saying, what all these schools are saying, is that if you don't agree with us, we don't want a dialogue, don't even want your kid in our school,' Gutmann told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview at his home on April 20. 'They shove it down our throats. Honestly, I have no problem if people disagree with everything I wrote. But there has to be a dialogue. That's my point.' Gutmann said the educational problems can't be fixed until 'we eradicate the insidious cancer that is cancel culture.' The parent also said he had refused to sign the school's anti-racism pledge in October. The school had started the required pledge after black alum accused it of racism in posts made to the Instagram account account 'Black at Brearley.' Dalton Dalton has been plagued by numerous controversies including its teaching of Critical Race Theory and claims first-grade children are being taught about masturbation. Parents last month were left furious that first-graders had been shown sex education videos that appear to include information about masturbation. Justine Ang Fonte, a health and wellness teacher at the school, allegedly showed students a video last fall from the free sex education series for children called AMAZE, in which a cartoon boy asks about erections. Fonte's classes also reportedly included lessons on gender identity and consent, instructing children that their parents and grandparents should not touch them without asking permission. Dalton's (right) Jim Best (left) took home $937,973 total compensation. Best announced in April he is stepping down this year after being slammed by parents for pushing an 'obsessive', antiracism agenda on students Several parents complained about to school administrators but were told they had misinterpreted the lessons. This came after headmaster Jim Best announced in April he was stepping stepped down from his role amid a wave of criticism over the school's teaching of Critical Race Theory. Best said he would see out the year at the $50,000-a-year institution then step down to pursue 'other opportunities'. His resignation came after Dalton parents penned an anonymous open letter to the school earlier this year describing an 'obsessive focus on race and identity'. Parents last month were left furious that first-graders had been shown sex education videos (above) that appear to include information about masturbation In the video, a cartoon little boy asks: 'Hey, how come sometimes my penis gets big sometimes and points in the air?' The video also teaches the first graders about the differences between a penis and a clitoris 'Every class this year has had an obsessive focus on race and identity, racist cop reenactments in science, de-centering whiteness in art class, learning about white supremacy and sexuality in health class. 'Wildly inappropriate, many of these classes feel more akin to a Zoom corporate sensitivity-training than to Daltons intellectually engaging curriculum,' it read. In December, the school published an anti-racism manifesto, saying the school hired 12 diversity officers and proposing 'Black liberation' courses and classes challenging white supremacy. It also suggested that if black students were not performing at the same level as white students by 2023, it would abolish some of its courses entirely. The school has said it would require both pupils and parents to take part in anti-racist training, and to assist in 'identifying and eliminating policies, practices and beliefs that uphold racial inequality.' Dalton said it will 'adapt our policy to better live up to our stated values as a visibly, vocally, structurally anti-racist institution.' Former students at Dalton include Anderson Cooper, Chevy Chase and Claire Danes. Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School Parents at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School have been up in arms this month after juniors were required to attend a lecture on porn entitled: 'Pornography Literacy: An intersectional focus on mainstream porn.' The lecture, held by Fonte, taught around 120 students aged 16 and 17 about how people can be aroused by electrocution videos. 'So electro is like actual ... electrocuting ... that they're doing on porn, but people are actually attracted and aroused by it,' Fonte tells the students in the leaked audio. 'So even if it's actually fake and you know, hopefully the performers are protected or we have real people who are searching for that because that's what they get off to.' She added that her goal 'as a sex educator is that my students, grades one through 100, have a safe, fulfilling and pleasurable sexual lives, wherever it is going to be relevant for them.' Columbia (right), the $47,000-a-year private school once attended by Barron Trump, paid its own head William Donohue (left) $539,700, including a $442,017 salary and a $75,000 bonus Students also learned how porn takes care of 'three male vulnerabilities,' and were shown statistics on the 'orgasm gap' showing straight women have fewer orgasms with their partners than gay men or lesbians. They were also shown photos of partially-nude women, some of whom were in bondage to analyze 'What is porn and what is art?' Another slide cited various genres of porn, such as 'incest-themed,' consensual or 'vanilla,' 'barely legal,' 'kink' and BDSM. The slideshow also included a list of the most-searched pornographic terms in 2019, including 'anal,' 'gangbang' and even 'stepmom,' and discussed OnlyFans, where 'content creators' share photos and videos of themselves naked or having sex with subscribers for a monthly fee. Fonte also held a lecture at Columbia on 'electro porn'. The slideshow presented to students included images of partially-nude women, asking students if it was 'art or porn?' The lesson also included statistics on the 'orgasm gap' showing straight women are less likely to orgasm than straight or gay men and gay women Parents slammed the school - which was attended by Barron Trump before Donald Trump took office - with one telling the Post, 'none of the parents knew this was planned. We were completely left in the dark. 'It makes us wonder what else the school is up to,' the unnamed mother said. School officials later apologized to parents for the lecture, with Donohue saying they were not aware of what the lesson would entail. He wrote that the 'context and tone of the presentation did not represent our philosophy, which is to educate our students in ways that promote personal development and overall health, as well as to express respect for them as individuals.' This haunting photo is one of the last moments bikie associate Kerry Giakoumis was seen in public before he was believed to be killed in a criminal turf war. Giakoumis, 29, caught a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne with two fellow associates of the Hells Angels bikie gang on June 5, 2020. Exactly why he travelled to Victoria is unclear, but the cover story he gave to family was that he was lining up a big concreting contract. Friends said he wasn't keen to go, and had a bad feeling about the trip, but was harassed with calls demanding he fly over - and so he went. He then missed his return flight home five days later and was last seen at the Hells Angels clubhouse in Thomastown in the early hours of June 10. A haunting photo has captured the final moments of a man riding in a taxi before he disappeared following 'a dispute' with bikies more than a year ago Giakoumis, 29, caught a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne with two fellow associates of the Hells Angels bikie gang on June 5, 2020. He was never seen again Police believe a dispute took place and Mr Giakoumis met with foul play - though they were not able to uncover exactly what happened to him. They released CCTV footage showing one of the last moments Mr Giakoumis was seen in public and catching a taxi in Melbourne. The concreter is sitting in the back seat, wearing a yellow T-shirt, and holding his phone in one hand. Police also released footage taken of Mr Giakoumis visiting a convenience store before he boarded his flight from South Australia to Victoria. He is seen wearing black track pants and a distinctive Chicago Bulls jumper, which he was known to wear while in Melbourne. Police say they're almost certain Mr Giakoumis met with foul play and want to know what happened at the Hells Angels clubhouse - or any other location - in the early hours of the morning he disappeared. Hells Angels members and other associates were believed to be there at the time. It's understood the Adelaide man was not a patched member of the club. Homicide investigators searched several properties in June last year, including the Lipton Drive clubhouse in Thomastown. They also followed several lines of inquiry, but have so far been unable to find any trace of Mr Giakoumis or charge anyone over his disappearance. 'Someone out there know what happened to Kerry and why - and we are hopeful they are ready to talk to us,' Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said. Police have also released footage taken of Mr Giakoumis visiting a convenience store before he boarded his flight from South Australia to Victoria The Hells Angels clubhouse in Thomastown, Melbourne where Mr Giakoumis was last seen on June 10, 2020 He was in regular contact with his family throughout his time in Melbourne. A friend of Mr Giakoumis said he noticed the 29-year-old was acting differently before he left Adelaide. 'I never knew him to just up and go like that,' he told Herald Sun. 'He said he was going for work purposes but it didn't seem to add up.' The friend said Mr Giakoumis had been running with members of the North Crew chapter since he was a teenager - but never formally joined the Hells Angels. 'He was never planning on joining the Hells Angels because of the implications it would have on a family,' he said. 'He wanted to be his own person.' A Tory lord is planning to publish a bill this week to put health warnings on individual cigarettes to make the UK smoke free by 2030. Lord George Young plans to introduce a private members bill which he hopes will attract government support. Already parliamentarians are considering plans to raise the age of buying tobacco to 21, to stop teenagers from taking up the habit. Lord George Young plans to introduce a private members bill which he hopes will attract government support to order tobacco companies to print health messages on individual cigarettes The measure is one of several anti-smoking policies currently being considered at Westminster According to the Sunday Mirror, cigarettes could see slogans such as 'Smoking Kills' and 'You don't need me anymore' printed on individual cigarettes. Lord Young told the paper: 'This is cost-free, popular and more effective than health warnings on packets. The Government could respond positively and I would be delighted if it did.' He said he first proposed the measure to Margaret Thatcher, but the tobacco lobby were successful in thwarting the measure. Anti-smoking campaigners ASH praised the plan, whle the pro-smoking lobby group Forest described the proposed law as 'laughable'. Last week, MPs have called for a consultation on raising the age of sale of cigarettes to 21 to end the 'tobacco epidemic' by 2030. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health has recommended raising the age of sale from 18 to 21 as part of tougher tobacco regulations to protect children and young people from becoming smokers and help smokers quit. The recommendations, backed by health charities and medical organisations, also include a 'polluter pays' amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill to secure funding for a tobacco control programme, forcing manufacturers to pay to deliver the end of smoking. The cross-party group of MPs and peers has warned the Government that it can only build back 'better and fairer' from the pandemic by making smoking obsolete and must commit now to the actions needed to secure its vision of a Smokefree 2030. The report notes that more people are likely to have died last year and this year from smoking than Covid-19. It also calls for targeted investment to provide additional support to help smokers quit in regions and communities where smoking does the most damage, including those who are in routine and manual jobs, unemployed, living in social housing, or who have a mental health condition or are pregnant. Meanwhile, Oxfordshire is considering a smoking ban for outdoor hospitality as part of plans to become the first smoke-free county by 2025. The plans will see employers encouraged to promote smoke-free environments and support staff to quit smoking. Local NHS trusts will be smoke-free while encouraging smokers using, visiting or working in the NHS to quit. Local organisations working across the community will be supported to promote smoke-free environments including homes, cars, play parks and school gates. An Oxfordshire County Council spokeswoman said: 'Oxfordshire has set itself an ambitious aim to be smoke-free by 2025. Creating healthy, smoke-free environments including considering proposals for hospitality outdoor seating to be 100% smoke-free is just one small part of a wider range of county-wide plans. 'At present there are no timeframes for smoke-free pavement licensing proposals and nothing has yet been agreed. Any decision on this would be ultimately the responsibility of our individual district councils in Oxfordshire. 'Our tobacco control strategy further outlines our smoke-free 2025 plans, which includes creating healthy and family-friendly smoke-free spaces, helping people stop smoking in the first place, and supporting those who wish to quit.' A lobster diver has been accused of lying about being swallowed whole by a humpback whale he says spat him back out because it didn't like how he tasted. One doctor at Cape Cod Hospital - where self-described whale swallowing victim Michael Packard, 56, was treated - said Michael Packard should have suffered hearing loss following the freak accident. 'He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn't have any evidence of barotrauma?' the unnamed emergency room doctor said to the New York Post. Michael Packard, 56, suffered only minor injuries after being trapped inside a humpback whale's mouth for roughly 30 seconds on Friday morning. Experts are wary of his story Although the physician didn't treat Packard personally, they suggested that someone undergoing such an encounter would have suffered from serious injuries including hearing loss as a result from the sudden change in water pressure. Packard was released from Cape Cod Hospital Friday afternoon mere hours after the incident with no broken bones and just some soft tissue damage. The commercial lobster diver, who works out of Provincetown, Massachusetts said he was swallowed whole last Friday. He claims to have lived to tell the tale because the creature didn't like how he tasted, and spat him back out. 'I realized, oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth ... and he's trying to swallow me,' Packard told WBZ-TV following the encounter. 'And I thought to myself OK, this is it - I'm finally gonna die.' Packard told the Cape Cod Times he was 'completely inside' the massive mammal and that it 'It was completely black.' He has yet to comment on claims he is lying. Other fishermen were also wary of Packard's whale encounter. Experts say being eaten by a humpback whale is extremely rare, with one suggesting the whale made a mistake when it sucked Packard in and quickly spat him out (file photo) 'People who are in the fishing industry, and people who know whales, are finding this hard to believe. It's a first-ever that this would happen,' said another lobsterman. Although humpback whales can grow to 40 tons, their throats are too narrow to swallow a human, experts say. 'For a guy to be in the middle of that giant school of fish corralled by a whale doesn't make sense.' Packard said he thought he had been attacked by a shark, but when he realized he did not feel any sharp teeth and was not in pain, he began to figure out what had happened. 'I realized, oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth ... and he's trying to swallow me,' Packard told WBZ-TV following the encounter. 'And I thought to myself OK, this is it - I'm finally - I'm gonna die.' Packard, who is an experienced diver, started to think about his wife and his 12 and 15 year old sons, and began to struggle inside the beast's mouth until, he said, he saw a light and the whale started shaking his head side-to side. 'I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water,' Packard recounted. 'I was free and I just floated there. I couldn't believe... I'm here to tell it.' He estimates he was in the whale's mouth for about 30 seconds, but continued to breathe because he still had his breathing apparatus in. Packard had been a lobster diver for 40 years at the time of the incident and was rescued by a crewmate who called authorities on the shore Packard took to Facebook following the incident to thank the Provincetown rescue squad for its 'caring and help' Packard was rescued by his crewmate Josiah Mayo who was aboard their boat 'The J n' J.' Mayo claims to have watched in shock as the water beside the boat erupted as the whale surfaced - and Packard flew out of the mammal's mouth. He plucked Packard out of the water, according to the Cape Cod Times, and used his radio to call authorities on the shore. The Provincetown Fire Department later confirmed that a call came in about a diver who had suffered serious injuries to his legs 'after interacting with a whale.' At first Packard said, he thought he had broken his legs in the incident, but doctors later told he he just had soft tissue damage and bruises, and he was released from a local hospital later that day. In a following Facebook post, Packard thanked the Provincetown rescue squad for its 'caring and help' He said that when he was stuck inside the whale's mouth his thoughts turned to his wife and his 12 and 15 year old sons Experts say it is extremely rare to be swallowed by a humpback whale, Peter Corkeron, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium estimating there is a one in 1 trillion chance someone would be eaten by a whale. When a humpback feeds, he said, 'they do what we call gulp feeding, and they an open their mouths up incredibly widely,' which Jooke Robbins, the director of Humpback Whales Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies, said could limit their forward vision. 'Based on what was described, this would have to be a mistake, and an accident on the part of the humpback,' Robbins concluded. 'He was just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,' Corkeron conceded. The humpback likely hoped it would get a mouthful of sand lance fish, which live in the waters off Cape Cod. Experts say whales are generally placid around humans, and show little aggression towards them. But they have warned divers to stay at least 100 feet away from the powerful animals at all times, because even an accidental brush with one can be very dangerous - as Packard claims to have discovered. Robbins said she had no reason to doubt the account. 'I didn't think it was a hoax because I knew the people involved... So I have every reason to believe that what they say is true,' she said. Robbins said she had never heard of an 'accident' of this type, but 'it may be that he (Packard) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.' 'When they (whales) fish... they rush forward, open their mouth and engulf the fish and the water very quickly,' she said, adding they have large mouths, but throats so narrow they wouldn't be able to swallow a human. She added that Packard was unlikely to have been swallowed, as, despite their massive mouths, their throats aren't large enough for a person to fit through. The whale, which according to Mayo's description was on the young side, 'may not be able to detect quickly enough that something is in the way.' Even if all the details weren't yet known, one thing was clear for Robbins: 'It is important for people to be quite aware... And when they see a whale, keep a good distance. It's really important to give whales their space.' Two ultra rare Australian coins have sold for a world record more than $1.5 million each in an online auction in Monaco. One of the unique coins, belonging to Lot 104, is a 5 coin that was minted in Melbourne in 1921, part of a collection of just six others. On Saturday, it sold for $1.56 million and was described by auctioneers MDC Monaco, as an 'exceptional' coin, the rarest type of 5 and a 'very fine specimen'. Two ultra rare Australian coins (pictured) have broke a world record after being sold for over $1.5million each in an online auction in Monaco The coin was inspired by an earlier coin designed by engraver Joshua Payne in 1852, after he got lucky in the gold rush in 1851. Another of the exclusive set is believed to be in the possession of the Victoria Museum in Melbourne, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Ian Russell, president of coin experts Great Collections in Irvine, California, said the sales broke the record for the biggest sale of Australian coins worldwide. He said he noticed increased interest in coin collecting, with record bidders and prices, not just on the 'uber-high end' of the scale. The second record-breaking coin, belonging to Lot 123, is a George V Sovereign minted in Sydney in 1920, displaying St George and the dragon. The ultra rare coin was minted in Melbourne in 1921, inspired by an earlier coin designed by engraver Joshua Payne in 1852, after he got lucky in the gold rush in 1851 'This is the only graded coin and the most beautiful of the four minted known. This is the only specimen strike known', the catalogue description reads. 'There are just three other coins known of normal striking. It is the greatest rarity of the sovereign series.' The coin was originally commissioned for Jacob Garrad, a politician in NSW serving as Secretary for Public Works. The heirloom was a gift for his wedding anniversary which he and his wife commemorated on April 15, 1920. The couple had seven children, so it is assumed that nine of the coins were minted, with each member of the family gifted one. Only four of the coins has survived since the 1920s, the one sold in at a Monaco online auction believed to be the most beautiful. The second record-breaking coin, belonging to Lot 123, is a George V Sovereign minted in Sydney in 1920, displaying St George and the dragon (pictured) Jim Noble from Sydney coin dealer Noble Numismatics, has sold examples of both of the pricey coins and described the asking price as 'extraordinary'. Speculating the buyer was probably from the US, he explained the 5 coin was sold for $16,000 in 1977, $43,000 in the 1980s and $800,000 in 2002. The auction followed another record-breaking purchase of an American 1933 $20 gold piece that sold for $19 million - an all-time record for a coin. An 1887 Australian 5 coin pressed at Sydney Mint sold for $867,000 at an auction in Dallas, Texas, the second highest figure for an Australian coin sold at auction. Named a 'proof' coin, the rare artefact was never meant to reach the public and was only meant for presentation purposes. An off-duty Delta flight attendant was subdued by his colleagues and is in FBI custody after saying he wanted to take a plane down. The man, whose identity was not revealed, was on Delta Flight 1730 from Los Angeles to Atlanta when he allegedly took over the intercom before assaulting two flight attendants, CNN reported. He is said to have told passengers that oxygen masks would drop from the ceiling, leaving some fearing the jet was on the verge of crashing. The plane was forced to land in Oklahoma City on Friday and no passengers or crew were injured, Delta spokesman Eric Zeugschmidt told CNN. Other passengers on the packed flight described the man as 'strange' and told the outlet that he was 'dressed quite oddly' wearing a helmet with elbow and knee pads during his travels. Scroll down for video The man, whose name was not revealed, was on Delta Flight 1730 from Los Angeles to Atlanta when he allegedly took over the intercom He then allegedly assaulted two flight attendants and 'was going to take the plane down,' police said The plane was forced to land in Oklahoma City on Friday and n o passengers or crew were injured Other passengers on the packed flight described the man as 'strange' and said he was 'dressed quite oddly' Passenger Benjamin Curlee, 29, recalled another passenger who was seated next to the off-duty flight attendant alleging that the 'very weird' man had even scribbled a note to flight attendants accusing the other passenger of being a hijacker. Curlee recalled that passenger saying he 'felt very uncomfortable with the guy' who asked 'a lot of very personal questions' such as his name and the spelling, CNN reported. When the plane was still two hours from its destination, Curlee recalled the captain asking over the intercom for 'all able-bodied men please come to the front of the plane for an emergency.' 'I feared the worst. I prayed that God would protect my family in case I was gone,' Curlee told the outlet. Curlee and a passenger next to him jumped from their seats to help but did not get because 'basically every man on the plane stepped up and was in the aisle,' he said. 'It was very tense, very adrenaline fueled,' Curlee said. He said that minutes later he heard an announcement on the intercom telling passengers to return to their seats and prepare to put on their oxygen masks. 'That created quite a stir. People behind me were saying, 'Well, that's really bad.' I mean that only happens when the plane goes down,' he said. The man was taken into custody and transported to an Oklahoma City hospital with minor injuries, Oklahoma City Police Capt. Jermaine Johnson told the outlet. Bomb technicians swept the plane after it landed just after 5 a.m. on Saturday, Johnson said, and the man is now in FBI custody though no charges have yet been filed. 'I was hoping to sleep on that flight and that didn't happen. It feels very surreal,' Curlee said. 'It's a once in a lifetime event. It's something you really always kind of in the back of your head, like, wonder if this will happen. Well today it actually did. I am very thankful that it did not end badly.' The man was subdued by the flight's crew members and has been placed in FBI custody Video posted to Twitter shows the man scuffling with others on the dark plane The incident came as the Federal Aviation Administration has worked to crack down on recent bouts of unruly passengers. Badly-behaved passengers can face up to $35,000 in fines or imprisonment. The Federal Aviation Administration has received around 2,900 reports of 'unruly behavior by passengers' this year, CNN reported. FAA spokeswoman Maria Njoku told the outlet that about 2,200 of those reports involved passengers 'refusing to comply with the federal facemask mandate.' She added that the FAA has identified 'potential violations' in 446 cases and 'initiated enforcement action' in 42 of them. In a press release last month, the FAA said the agency 'is strictly enforcing a zero-tolerance policy toward passengers who cause disturbances on flights or fail to obey flight crew instructions in violation of the FAAs regulations or engage in conduct proscribed by federal law.' Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said in a statement on Twitter that 'the situation is out of control.' 'Another horrific event on Delta, but across the industry reports of unruly pax (passengers) are up more than 60Xs this year. Thats just whats getting reported. Flight Attendants are heroes, but we prefer not to be,' Nelson wrote. The number of unruly passengers has been increasing as airline travel has started to return to pre-pandemic levels. Data from the Transportation Security Administration shows that the agency screened 2,028,961 passengers on Friday - the highest number since March 7, 2020. 'The growing number of travelers demonstrates this country's resilience and the high level of confidence in COVID-19 counter measures,' acting TSA administrator Darby LaJoye said in a statement. 'TSA stands ready to provide a safe and secure screening process as part of the overall travel experience.' Joe Biden has announced plans to turn Orlando's Pulse nightclub into a national memorial on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at the LGBT nightspot. Revealing the memorialization of the site of the shooting where 49 died, President Biden said Saturday: 'In the coming days, I will sign a bill designating Pulse Nightclub as a national memorial, enshrining in law what has been true since that terrible day five years ago: Pulse Nightclub is hallowed ground.' His statement, published on the White House website, also recalled Biden's visit to the site with then-President Barack Obama while serving as vice president. He said: 'Five years ago today in Orlando in the middle of Pride Month, our nation suffered the deadliest attack affecting the LGBTQ+ community in American history, and at the time, the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman. 'Within minutes, the Pulse nightclub that had long been a place of acceptance and joy turned into a place of unspeakable pain and loss. 'Forty-nine people were there celebrating Latin night were murdered, even more injured, and countless others scarred forever the victims were family members, partners and friends, veterans and students, young, Black, Asian and Latino our fellow Americans. Joe Biden has announced plans to turn Pulse nightclub, pictured on Friday, into a national memorial Biden is pictured visiting the Orlando club with then-President Barack Obama in 2016 'A few days later, I traveled with President Obama to pay respects to them and their families, to thank the brave first responders and the community who found strength and compassion in each other, and to pledge that what happened would not be forgotten. 'Over the years, I have stayed in touch with families of the victims and with the survivors who have turned their pain into purpose, and who remind us that we must do more than remember victims of gun violence and all of the survivors, family members, and friends left behind; we must act.' The Pulse massacre was carried out by Omar Mateen, 29, who died in an ensuing shootout with police. Afterwards, the killer's dad Mir Seddique Mateen said his son had previously been infuriated by the sight of a gay couple kissing in a Miami supermarket. Crime scene techs are pictured working at the club in the wake of the massacre, which left 49 dead - as well as gunman Omar Mateen Mateen, pictured, carried out the massacre to avenge US airstrikes on ISIS-controlled Syria. He was killed in an ensuing stand-off with police During Mateen's trial, prosecutors said he had wanted to avenge US airstrikes on ISIS in Syria, and said he had googled 'downtown Orlando nightclub.' They suggested that the attack on Pulse was not motivated by anti-LGBT hatred. The nightclub site has remained shuttered since the shooting, with victims' loved-ones and families continuing to use it as a shrine to those killed. A museum commemorating the massacre it set to open there in 2022. It was usurped as the United States' worst gun massacre by the Las Vegas shooting in October 2017, when gunman Stephen Paddock killed 60 attending a country music festival before taking his own life. Another 411 people were injured. Biden went on to the dangers faced by transgender Americans - particularly black transgender women. He said: 'We must drive out hate and inequities that contribute to the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women especially transgender women of color.' Campaign group Them says 27 transgender people have been murdered in the US so far this year. Biden, pictured on Friday, also used his statement to call for increased gun control And the president also called on the Senate to pass his Equality Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity across all 50 states in areas including housing, services and work. At present, 21 states have their own non-discrimination protections in place but the other 29 have only partial or inadequate protections. Biden also used his announcement about Pulse to call for tighter gun control, with three mass shootings erupting across the US late on Friday, and into the early hours of Saturday. He wants the Senate to take up legislation passed by the House that would strengthen background checks, ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Biden's legislation - proposed in the wake of a March mass shooting at King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 10, would establish red flag laws aimed at alerting cops to potential mass shooters. And it would eliminate liability immunity currently enjoyed by gun manufacturers. He spoke amid warnings of a summer of mass shootings across the US. Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr and Chuck Wexler, from the Police Executive Research Forum, said a recent explosion in the number of shootings appears to be a long term trend, rather than a blip. Minter spoke after a man was killed and seven were injured in a mass shooting in Savannah on Friday night. Seven others were injured. He said: 'It's very disturbing what we're seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we're seeing across the country. 'It's disturbing and it's senseless.' Commenting on the wider trend - which saw a woman killed and nine injured in Chicago, and 14 shot and injured in Austin - both in the early hours of Saturday, Wexler said: 'There was a hope this might simply be a statistical blip that would start to come down. 'That hasn't happened. And that's what really makes chiefs worry that we may be entering a new period where we will see a reversal of 20 years of declines in these crimes.' Two brazen teenage shoplifters shoved and hurled abuse at Woolworths staff when they were caught stuffing items into their hoodies. Footage posted online on Sunday shows the two girls unleashing on staff members at a Woolworths Metro in Broadwater, on the Gold Coast, on March 31. As they lingered near the entrance after being kicked out for stealing, a worker ordered the duo to 'leave immediately or I will call the police'. But one of the girl - wearing a navy Tommy Jeans hoodie with bleached blonde hair and a black face mask around her neck - was determined to have the last word, storming back into the store to abuse the worker. A teenage shoplifter has been filmed (pictured) assaulting a Woolworths worker who asked her to leave the store after the youth was caught stealing 'What c***? You f**king chicken nugget,' the girl said, fronting up to the young female staffer before using both of her hands to push her in the chest. An older worker quickly rushed to her colleague's defence, stepping in front of the girl and demanding she leave. 'Get the f**k out of this store! Get out!' the worker yells, before grabbing the teen's arms and shoving her back. 'Don't f**king touch me s**t,' the teen shouts as she squares up to the woman, puffing up her chest, before goading: 'You think I am scared of you?' The teenager's accomplice rushes over to drag her away, shoving a witness as she yanks her friend away. Customers stopped to stare at the violent outburst, with one father protectively wrapping his arm around his daughter as the commotion unfolded. The youths then marched out of the store's front entrance, with the second girl cradling a bulge inside her jumper near her stomach. Katrina Taylor, a lawyer doing her shopping, said she was pushed by the second girl after she began filming the standoff. Ms Taylor said the girls were boldly packing store items into their clothes before trying to walk out of the store. 'I only filmed the end of it, there was a lot more that happened,' she told the Gold Coast Bulletin. 'Both their hoodies were absolutely packed full of stuff, it was so obvious.' One of the girls - who was wearing a blue Tommy Jeans brand jumper - intimidated another worker who jumped to the defence of her colleague Ms Taylor said the girls became enraged when workers intervened and told them to return the items. 'They just started absolutely screaming at the top of their lungs and swearing they both had the most disgusting mouths on them,' she said. No charges have been laid over the incident, but the girls are banned from the store. Queensland Police said officers attended the store after reports of an assault. She said the girls had not been found and the investigation was ongoing, with anyone with information about their identities urged to contact police. Woolworths said the safety of team members was its top priority. 'We do not accept customer abuse or violence in any circumstance,' it said. 'Our team members do the very best they can to support customers, and deserve to be treated with respect on the job. 'We continue to assist police with their inquiries and have taken steps to ban the customers from returning to the store.' Woolworths offered the employees involved, and others who witnessed the assault, access to counselling services. Jeff Sessions, William Barr and Rod Rosenstein have all denied knowledge of secret subpoenas Trump's Justice Department sent to Microsoft and Apple to access data from members of Congress. Trump and his administration were infuriated after detailed conversations between his aides and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. were leaked shortly after he took office in January 2017. The Justice Department sent a secret subpoena to Apple on February 6, 2018 for 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses that included accounts for Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell while probing the embarrassing leaks. Neither Sessions, who served as Attorney General at the time the administration started probing the leaks, nor his deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein knew about the subpoena, a source close to them told the Wall Street Journal on Friday. Sessions, left, served as Attorney General at the time and Rosenstein, right, served as his deputy. Neither knew about the subpoena, a source close to them said Barr also said he was 'not aware of any congressman's records being sought in a leak case' while he was attorney general Mediate noted that if Sessions and Rosenstein were truly not aware of the subpoenas then it would mean people at the Justice Department who report to them were able to issue a subpoena without them knowing for private records of high-ranking House Democrats, their staff, and families - including a minor child. Sessions' successor William Barr ordered the probe continue well into 2020, after accusing his own investigators of deliberately dragging their feet over the investigation. However, he also distanced himself from the subpoena on Friday. Barr told Politico in an interview that he was 'not aware of any congressman's records being sought in a leak case' while he was attorney general. Donald Trump's Justice Department also secretly subpoenaed Microsoft to access a congressional staffer's email account in a bid to expose the leakers of classified information to the press, it has been revealed. Microsoft said in a statement to The New York Times that the company received a subpoena in 2017 related to a personal email account, and later learned the person was a congressional staffer. That staffer has not been identified. Like Apple, Microsoft was under a gag order to keep the subpoena a secret and recently notified the customer that their data had been handed over after the gag order expired, the outlet reported. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the news in a statement to DailyMail.com. 'In 2017 Microsoft received a subpoena related to a personal email account. As we've said before, we believe customers have a constitutional right to know when the government requests their email or documents, and we have a right to tell them,' the statement reads. 'In this case, we were prevented from notifying the customer for more than two years because of a gag order. As soon as the gag order expired, we notified the customer who told us they were a congressional staffer.' The Microsoft spokesperson said the company then provided a briefing to the representative's staff following that notice. 'We will continue to aggressively seek reform that imposes reasonable limits on government secrecy in cases like this,' the statement reads. Donald Trump's Justice Department secretly subpoenaed Microsoft to access a congressional staffer's email account in a bid to expose the leakers of classified information to the press. Pictured: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Like Apple, Microsoft was under a gag order to keep the subpoena a secret and recently notified the customer that their data had been handed over Justice Department prosecutors seized metadata records from Apple for accounts belonging to Rep. Adam Schiff, pictured, and other members of the House Intelligence Committee Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, pictured, revealed he also had data from their Apple devices secretly seized by the Trump administration The new revelations show the extent of former President Donald Trump's obsession over such leaks and the extraordinary lengths his administration would go through to investigate them. Apple revealed in a statement to DailyMail.com that the subpoena it received had 'provided no information on the nature of the investigation' after the company unknowingly handed over data relating to Schiff and Swalwell - two of Trump's political nemeses. 'We regularly challenge warrants, subpoenas and nondisclosure orders and have made it our policy to inform affected customers of governmental requests about them just as soon as possible,' a spokesperson for Apple told DailyMail.com. The company said that the subpoena was issued by a federal grand jury and included a nondisclosure order signed by a federal magistrate judge. '[The subpoena] provided no information on the nature of the investigation and it would have been virtually impossible for Apple to understand the intent of the desired information without digging through users' accounts,' the spokesperson said. 'Consistent with the request, Apple limited the information it provided to account subscriber information and did not provide any content such as emails or pictures.' Apple received the federal grand jury subpoena seeking 'customer or subscriber account information' that came with the nondisclosure order on February 6, 2018. Prosecutors sought metadata relating to a total of 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses, in a large and seemingly random request similar to others that tech giants, including Apple, frequently receive. Democrats want former Attorney General Bill Barr to testify about federal prosecutors subpoenaing Apple for information on Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff The revelations show the extent of Trump's obsession over leaks and the extraordinary lengths his administration would go through to investigate them The gag order was extended three times under the Trump administration but was not renewed by the Biden administration's Justice Department. The company ultimately notified the customers who were affected on May 5. The House Intelligence Committee then contacted Apple and the company confirmed that it had received the subpoena and directed the lawmakers to contact the Justice Department. The tech giant has recently addressed how it responds to such broad-scope subpoenas and has started to limit its legal requests to just 25 identifiers. When no gag order is in place, Apple typically immediately informs customers of subpoenas. The New York Times noted that Apple, at the time, received an average of 250 data requests each week from U.S. law enforcement agencies. Now, Apple receives thousands of such requests each week. Apple will often challenge subpoenas, but the company declined to comment to DailyMail.com on how many subpoenas it challenged during the year the subpoena for Swalwell and Schiff's data was granted. The New York Times noted that, in the first six months of 2020, Apple challenged 238 governmental request for customer data - amounting to about 4 percent of such requests. Google declined to comment if it received a subpoena related to the investigation on the House Intelligence committee to The New York Times. DailyMail.com has reached out to Google for an explanation on why the company refused to comment. However, Google fought a gag order on a subpoena to give the government data on the emails of four reporters for The New York Times, the outlet noted. That subpoena was a part of the same investigation into leaks by the Trump administration. The tech companies have turned over a variety of data including phone records, device information, and addresses. Law enforcement agencies often request such information because it can be used to prove if one person had contact with another. The Justice Department's internal watchdog has ordered a probe of the Department's use of subpoenas. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced the 'review' Friday afternoon. 'The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating a review of DOJ's use of subpoenas and other legal authorities to obtain communication records of Members of Congress and affiliated persons, and the news media in connection with recent investigations of alleged unauthorized disclosures of information to the media by government officials,' Horowitz's office said in a statement. 'The review will examine the Department's compliance with applicable DOJ policies and procedures, and whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations. If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider other issues that may arise during the review.' That announcement came after Senate Democratic leaders demanded that Barr and Sessions testify about what they called a 'gross abuse of power' following the bombshell revelations. And the deputy attorney general of the Justice Department, Lisa Monaco, has asked the agency's nonpartisan Inspector General to probe the seizure of lawmakers' personal information during the Trump administration, the Associated Press reported. The lawmakers demanded both men appear to testify under oath and threatened to subpoena them if they would not cooperate. Scott Morrison has chewed the fat with US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Britain - but it wasn't the meeting he expected. The Australian Prime Minister was surprised to find British PM and event host, Boris Johnson, chaperoning the pair's first ever meeting. Mr Morrison was invited as a guest at this year's G7 Summit in Carbis Bay near Cornwall and was expected to meet Mr Biden in a bilateral setting. But in a surprise twist, Mr Johnson was also present during the conversation, prompting some Australians to question whether Mr Morrison is on the outer with the new American leader. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has met with US President Joe Biden with the UK's Boris Johnson acting as an 'intermediary' Nikki Sava, a former advisor to prime minister John Howard, said it appeared Mr Johnson was called in to act as an 'intermediary' between the two leaders. 'This seemed to me like it was Boris Johnson stepping in what seemed like it might be a little awkward meeting, given Morrison's full-on support for [former US president Donald] Trump,' she told ABC's Insiders. When Mr Morrison was asked why the scheduled 'one-on-one' meeting suddenly included a third party, the PM said it was a joint decision. 'It was an opportunity that presented because we're all here and so it was mutual,' he said. 'We were particularly keen to have the discussion with both parties.' Several other theories have been floated since word spread that Mr Johnson crashed the meeting, including that he was there to keep conversations about climate change productive. Mr Biden is an outspoken climate change advocate while Mr Morrison has taken a more lax approach, refusing to commit to a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said Mr Morrison had 'isolated himself and Australia' due to his stance on climate change (pictured at the summit) Mr Morrison said: 'Australia has no greater friends than the United States and the United Kingdom' Former Liberal opposition leader John Hewson suggested Mr Biden might 'not be prepared to extend Morrison the privilege [of a one-on-one] given his indefensible irresponsibility and stubbornness on climate'. Senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong had a similar viewpoint, stating that she was disappointed the Prime Minister was unable to secure a one-on-one meeting with Mr Biden. 'Mr Morrison's stubborn refusal to sign up to net zero emissions has left him isolated and left Australia isolated,' she said on Sunday. 'I suggest Mr Morrison reflect on whether or not his stubborn refusal to sign up to net zero emissions along with so much of the rest of the world, is really delivering for Australia and for Australians.' Mr Morrison is in Cornwall as a guest of leaders from some of the world's richest countries and will have separate talks with Mr Johnson early this week in London. 'It was a great opportunity for my first meeting with the President. I've known Boris for many years, and there was a very easy understanding amongst the three of us' Mr Morrison said Britain is also host to a global climate change conference later this year in Glasgow. Greens leader Adam Bandt believes the only reason why Mr Morrison was invited to the G7 meeting is so they can give him a dressing down over Australia's inaction on climate change. 'Climate is a critical issue at this G7. It is the only game in town,' Mr Bandt told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday. 'When they sit down to discuss climate, Scott Morrison will be sitting at the kids' table and I think part of the reason he's been invited to this summit is so the rest of the world can give Australia a dressing down on climate.' Mr Morrison dismissed those claims, stating that climate change was not a point of discussion for the meeting and would instead be a topic of conversation at Monday's G7 Plus sessions. The prime minister is in Cornwall as a guest of leaders from some of the world's richest countries and will have separate talks with Mr Johnson early this week in London Instead, he and the other two leaders released a joint statement at the end of the 40-minute meeting, confirming they discussed issues of 'mutual concern' and indicating the topic of China was brought up. 'They agreed that the strategic context in the Indo-Pacific was changing and that there was a strong rationale for deepening co-operation between the three governments,' the statement read. When asked if the US and Britain supported Australia's handling of the conflict with China, the prime minister would not comment on specifics. Instead, he reiterated that relations with both nations are 'stronger than ever'. Mr Morrison said: 'Australia has no greater friends than the United States and the United Kingdom. 'It was a great opportunity for my first meeting with the president. I've known Boris for many years, and there was a very easy understanding amongst the three of us.' Advertisement Kamala Harris' Secret Service detail was photographed looking 'anxious' during her impromptu appearance at Saturday's Washington DC's Pride event. The agents protected the vice president while she marched among a crowd of people and talked to event participants. Hundreds of Twitter users replied to videos and pictures of Harris' surprise appearance and pointed out the agents' tense looks. Their heads were always on swivel and their facial expressions were stern almost as if they were clenching their teeth throughout public appearance. George Conway, cofounder of the anti-Trump political action committee the Lincoln Project, tweeted that the agents were 'not happy' at the event. 'Secret service clearly not happy about protectee going for a walk,' Conway wrote. 'The no-so-secret service guy is not ok with this stop,' @LizaYuzda Tweeted. At one point, Harris stopped and addressed the crowd for 23 seconds, to which @RachelleFeldma3 tweeted, 'SS looks nervous. Can we blame them?' As stressful as it was for the Secret Service agents, they successfully protected Harris as she made history as the first sitting vice president to march in a Pride event. 'Her security detail REALLY understands the assignment and i'm v glad for it,' @gracieminabox tweeted. Kamala Harris was all smiles as she made a surprise appearance at Washington DC's Pride event, days after returning from her Central America tour where she faced repeated questions over when she will visit the US-Mexico border. One of her Secret Service agents is seen looking tense (back left) Harris made history Saturday as the first sitting vice president to march in a Pride event as she and husband Doug Emhoff briefly joined the Capital Pride Walk and Rally. An agent looks strained (right) while protecting her Many Twitter users were critical of the vice president for putting her Secret Service detail in an stressful, tense situation when she made a surprise visit at the Pride march in D.C. on Saturday Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff walked with the crowd for about a block at the Capital Pride Walk and Rally. Harris sported a pink blazer over a t-shirt that read 'Love is love', and Emhoff wore a t-shirt with rainbow lettering reading 'Love first.' 'Its awesome that they did this, but my first thought was for her detail this kind of spontaneous public engagement (especially in a crowd that size) is anxiety inducing for the agents,' @Angry_Staffer said. While many tweets criticized Harris for putting the the secret service agents in this type of situation, other Twitter users thanked the agents in fun tweets. One of the 'undercover' agents in particular - a tall man with sunglasses and a stripped bowling shirt - who matched Harris stride for stride became a somewhat of a Twitter legend for his outfit and his dedication. He was seen in videos making sure people kept a safe distance from the vice president. He cracked his knuckles and looked around while she made her speech. 'Incongruous Hipster secret service Dude ain't messin! Thank You sir! Protect her at all costs!' @earthdogelevena Tweeted 'Mr strips is NOT playin,' @EppsDorsey tweeted with the tears of joy and clapping emojis. Some Twitter users admired the agents' dedication and made funny quips about one of the agents in particular, a tall man with glasses and a stripped bowling shirt who matched Harris stride for stride The surprise march for Harris came just days after returning from her Central America tour where she faced repeated questions over when she will visit the US-Mexico border. She addressed the crowd, talking about the importance of equal rights for members of the LGBTQ community and the need to pass the Equality Act. 'We need to make sure that our transgender community and our youth are all protected. We need, still, protections around employment and housing,' she said. 'There is so much more work to do, and I know we are committed. 'So happy Pride everybody,' she said, as listeners cheered. Harris also paid tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting on what was the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. On June 12 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. They marched with the group for about a block, waving at other attendees before Harris gave a brief speech where she wished people 'happy Pride' Harris sported a pink blazer over a t-shirt that read 'Love is love'. Emhoff wore a t-shirt with rainbow lettering reading 'Love first' It was the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in American history. Mateem was shot dead by cops following a three-hour standoff. 'Five years ago, 49 LGBTQ+ people and allies were enjoying an evening out at Pulse Nightclub,' Harris wrote on Twitter. 'And then, in an instant, they were gone. Today, we remember those who died and their loved ones-and we recommit to building a world free from gun violence.' Joe Biden also issued a statement saying he will sign a bill naming the site of the nightclub a national memorial. 'In the memory of all of those lost at the Pulse nightclub five years ago, let us continue the work to be a nation at our best-one that recognizes and protects the dignity and safety of every American,' he said. He pointed to the need for stricter gun control and for the passage of the Equality Act. 'We must drive out hate and inequities that contribute to the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women especially transgender women of color,' Biden said. Kamala Harris walks with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Tuesday. They held a meeting in Mexico City on Tuesday with Harris saying she wants to focus on 'root causes' of the crisis. Harris' tour to Guatemala and Mexico was panned by critics Harris' first international trip and the press conferences which took place miles away from the US-Mexico border The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity across all 50 states in areas including housing, services and work. At present, 21 states have their own non-discrimination protections in place but the other 29 have only partial or inadequate protections. This lack of consistency leaves LGBTQ community members vulnerable. The Biden administration has committed to making LGBTQ rights a top priority since taking office and is regarded as the most pro-LGBTQ administration in US history. Earlier this month, Biden issued a proclamation recognizing Pride events. 'During LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we recognize the resilience and determination of the many individuals who are fighting to live freely and authentically,' the proclamation read. 'In doing so, they are opening hearts and minds, and laying the foundation for a more just and equitable America.' So far, Biden has restored transgender healthcare protections and reversed Donald Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military. Harris is still yet to visit the border to see the conditions for herself and this overshadowed much of the trip, with several testy exchanges with journalists. Harris snapped at NBC's Lester Holt Monday when he said she hadn't been to the border Harris' visit to the Pride event comes at the end of a rocky week for the vice president as her first international tour was panned by critics. Harris traveled to the Northern Triangle of Central America Sunday, first stopping in Guatemala and then Mexico Tuesday where she met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The trip's focus was to tackle the migrant crisis along the US's southern border, as record numbers of people crossed from Mexico into the US. But Harris is still yet to visit the border to see the conditions for herself and this overshadowed much of the trip, with several testy exchanges with journalists over the matter. Harris snapped at NBC's Lester Holt in an interview in Guatemala Monday when he asked if she had plans to pay a visit. 'At some point, you know, we are going to the border,' she said. 'We've been to the border. So this whole thing about the border. We've been to the border. We've been to the border.' Harris and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giamattei (right) held a bilateral meeting in Guatemala on Monday Harris waves alongside Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo upon arrival in Guatemala City on Sunday Holt pushed back at this saying: 'You haven't been to the border.' Harris fired back saying: 'And I haven't been to Europe. 'And I mean, I don't understand the point that you're making.' It was a similar story in Mexico City Tuesday where she was forced to shield questions for a second day about when she would visit the border. 'Why not go to the border, as well, so you do see the full complexity?' a reporter asked. 'Listen, I've been to the border before and I'll go again,' she replied. 'But when I'm in Guatemala, dealing with root causes, I think we should have a conversation about what's going on in Guatemala,' she said. The topic came up again later that day, with Harris saying it was 'short-sighted' to focus on the symptoms and said she was focused on the 'root causes' of the migrant crisis on the ground in Guatemala and Mexico. 'I think it's short-sighted, for any of us who are in the business of problem solving to suggest we're only going to respond to the reaction as opposed to addressing the cause,' she said. Harris on Thursday spoke to Univision reporter Ilia Calderon, who grilled her about when she would be visiting the border. A visibly irritated Harris snapped at her for interrupting her The vice president said the 'bottom line' is that the administration has to apply 'equal weight' to what's going on at the border and 'root causes' in Northern Triangle nations. On Thursday, the day after she returned from the tour, Harris had another snippy exchange with journalist Ilia Calderon from Univision who once again pushed her for an answer on when she would visit the border. 'I've said I'm going to the border,' said Harris, visibly irritated. 'And I - ' Calderon, speaking via video link, interrupted and asked: 'When are you going?' Harris continued saying: 'The administration has asked...' She paused, hearing Calderon's question, and pointed her finger while replying curtly: 'I've not finished.' She doubled down on the need to focus on the 'root causes' driving people to flee to the border. When asked for a date for her trip to the border, Harris replied: 'I will keep you posted.' On Wednesday, Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei blamed Biden and Harris for the migrant crisis, saying their mixed and 'lukewarm' messaging had 'created the opportunity to misinterpret.' He told Fox he had 'pushed back' against the Biden administration saying they had created the crisis. New images were taken June 8 of Central American migrants sitting on the ground after being apprehended by Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande River into La Joya, Texas on Tuesday People ride rafts across the Suchiate River between Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico and Tecun Uman, Guatemala on June 7, 2021 Harris also infuriated the progressive wing of the Democrat party - including the likes of New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - with her trip when she warned migrants who try to cross the border not to come. 'You will be turned back,' she had warned. White House insiders were said to be 'perplexed' by the vice president's mixed messages on migration and snippy response to border questions. 'It's left some of the administration officials perplexed, and the vice president's team frustrated,' CNN reported Wednesday. 'There was hope the trip would be a success, and in the end, they feel it may have been overshadowed by some of her answers to these questions.' Reports also suggested Biden is sending USAID Administrator Samantha Power to Guatemala and Mexico next week. But both Harris and the White House have publicly declared her trip was a 'success'. 'The trip was a success. Was there one moment in one interview that is taken out of context and being used? Yes, but she did what she came to do,' a White House official told Politico. Biden appointed Harris his 'border czar' back in March putting her in charge of tackling the surge of migrants who have been pouring into America in recent months Data released on Thursday night says border crossings have surged 674 per cent in May 2021 compared to May 2020, levels not seen since 2006. Authorities recorded 180,034 migrants crossing into the US last month. That represented a slight increase over the approximately 178,000 migrants encountered in April, and the 172,000 encountered in March. Lara Trump has said Americans living along the southern border had 'better arm up and get guns and be ready, and maybe they will have to take matters into their own hands.' The comments were made during an appearance on Fox News with Judge Jeanine Pirro on Saturday evening to discuss the issue of border security. Trump - who is married to Donald Trump's son Eric - spoke as the numbers of illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico continues to rise. Pirro was discussing recent comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris about the border including a moment when she laughed about whether she was going to visit the U.S.-Mexico border to address the current crisis. Lara Trump appeared on Fox News on Saturday night and suggested residents living along the southern border should 'arm up and get guns' Former president's daughter-in-law accused Vice President Kamala Harris of 'laughing off the crisis at the border' 'She thinks she can just laugh off the crisis at the border and it's embarrassing,' former president Trump's daughter-in-law chimed in. 'What do we say to people at the southern border who don't feel like they are part of the country anymore?' Pirro responded. Trump suggested that it must be 'insulting' to the Border Patrol and ICE agents to hear of tens of people crossing the border each day. 'It's like they are being made a mockery of. It's disgusting and disgraceful to see,' she said. 'I don't know what you tell the people that live at the southern border,' Trump continued. 'I guess they better arm up and get guns and get ready, and maybe they will have to take matters into their own hands. People should never make this dangerous journey here. It's bad for Americans. It's bad for the migrants. It's bad all around.' .@LaraLeaTrump joins Justice to react to VP Harris failed diplomacy tour. Check it out. pic.twitter.com/8i2QSOwruu Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) June 13, 2021 Vice President Kamala Harris visited Guatemala and Mexico earlier this week 'This is a vice president who is a woman,' said Pirro. 'You and I want want women to succeed. But this looks so much like the woman is in over her head. I wanted to say put on your big girl pants and stop with the giggling, stop looking like you don't know how to answer a question.' Pirro then asked Trump what advice would she give Harris. Trump responded that she has had 'a lot of recommendations' but didn't know if she could 'say them on television.' 'That's your problem when that's your MO,' Trump said, 'when you don't care about their qualifications or preparedness for a job. It's terrible for women all around. Of course, a woman can be president and vice president. But let's get a woman who is actually qualified and up to the job.' It's not just on conservative news networks that questions are being asked as to when the Vice President might make a trip to the border. On Friday, Univision released an interview where that saw Vice President Harris snap at a reporter for asking when she would make a trip after reports suggested President Biden was sending USAID Administrator Samantha Power to Guatemala and Mexico next week. Harris spoke to Colombian journalist Ilia Calderon, an anchor with the Miami-based network, the day after her return from Mexico and Guatemala, where she spoke to presidents of both countries about ways to curtail soaring arrivals at the border. 'I've said I'm going to the border,' said Harris, visibly irritated. 'And I - ' Calderon, speaking via video link, interrupted and asked: 'When are you going?' Harris continued saying: 'The administration has asked...' She paused, hearing Calderon's question, and replied curtly: 'I've not finished. Harris on Thursday spoke to Univision reporter Ilia Calderon, who grilled her about when she would be visiting the U.S.-Mexico border to see the migrant situation with her own eyes. A visibly irritated Harris snapped at her for interrupting her, to press her on the question In the interview on Thursday night, Kamala said: 'I've said I'm going to the border. And also, if we are going to deal with the problems at the border, we have to deal with the problems that cause people to go to the border - to flee to the border. 'And that is the root cause. So my first trip, as vice president of the United States, was to go - in terms of a foreign trip - to Guatemala. 'To be on the ground there. To address, and to be informed of, the root causes - why are the people of Guatemala leaving.' Calderon asked: 'Do you have a date for your trip to the border, to see the situation with your own eyes?' Harris replied: 'I will keep you posted.' The vice president's two-day trip was dogged by questions about when she would visit the border - to her evident annoyance. She was exasperated by NBC anchor Lester Holt when he asked her about visiting the border She was exasperated by NBC anchor Lester Holt when he asked her about visiting the border with Mexico. 'At some point, you know, we are going to the border,' she said. 'We've been to the border. So this whole thing about the border. We've been to the border. We've been to the border.' He replied: 'You haven't been to the border.' 'And I haven't been to Europe,' Harris snapped, then quickly turned laughed. 'And I mean, I don't understand the point that you're making. I'm not discounting the importance of the border.' On March 24, President Joe Biden announced: 'I've asked her, the VP, today because she's the most qualified person to do it to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.' Harris has insisted since then that her focus is on the root causes of migration, rather than dealing with the specific crisis at the border. Data released on Thursday night says illegal crossings have risen 674% in a year, with 180 apprehensions in May, in levels not seen since 2006 Data released on Thursday night says illegal crossings have risen 674% in a year, with 180 apprehensions in May, in levels not seen since 2006. Authorities recorded 180,034 migrants crossing into the U.S. last month. That represented a slight increase over the approximately 178,000 migrants encountered in April, and the 172,000 encountered in March. In February, roughly 100,000 migrants illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into the United States. Single adults still represented the majority of border-crossers, data from the U.S. Border Patrol showed. In May there was a decrease in the number of unaccompanied minors, from roughly 16,910 to 13,906, Border Patrol found. CBP also said that a majority of those who crossed the border were already expelled due to Title 42, which allows the U.S. government to quickly remove people using the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 180,034 crossers, 112,302 have already been expelled. A Los Angeles man spent $17,000 to propose to his girlfriend in a sky message while also dissing Joe Rogan for his height on Saturday. The identity of the man has not been revealed but Angelenos have since congratulated his now fiance Mollie Pratt after she seemingly said 'yes' to the hilarious proposal. 'Will you marry me Mollie Pratt?' the lettering first read. The messages 'She said yes,' 'I love you more than anything,' 'Excited to spend my life with you,' and 'Until death do us part,' then each appeared in turn in the air above Los Angeles. Another surprise message read: 'One more thing ... Joe Rogan is literally 5 foot 3.' Scroll down for video 'Will you marry me Mollie Pratt?' the lettering first read After the message 'she said yes' the man wrote 'I love you more than anything' Another surprise message read: 'One more thing ... Joe Rogan is literally 5 foot 3' The following message reportedly reads: 'From the rotting German Barron' One of the final messages reads: 'OK SEE YA LOS ANGELES' Joe Rogan himself previously said in a 2015 tweet that he is 5' 8" tall after jokesters on Wikipedia had changed his entry at the time to read that he was just 5 feet tall. He has seemingly not addressed the latest jest at his height. The company Sky Typers confirmed to The Wrap that it had performed the service after someone had paid $17,500 for 10 messages total. According to the company's website, the messages are written one of its five planes using a computer system to send a signal to the plane's smoke system. That allows it to release a 'puff' which then form letters - each of which sits 1,250 feet tall - the same height as the Empire State Building. Each message remains readable for three to seven minutes. People on Twitter praised the stunt with one user noting that the name of the man who proposed is seemingly 'Mike.' Twitter user @novaazalea_ noted that after the Rogan message, the plane continued writing 'something about robber German baron.' 'Oh I love Los Angeles sometimes. Skywriting that says 'joe rogan is literally 5 foot 3',' wrote the Twitter account @faintlyglow. Twitter user @heyu_itsDani wrote: 'Just witnessed an LA airplane message proposal that ended with 'Just one more thing, Joe Rogan is literally 5 foot 3.' Joe Rogan himself previously said in a 2015 tweet that he is 5' 8" tall after jokesters on Wikipedia had changed his entry at the time to read that he was just 5 feet tall Rogan, pictured, has seemingly not addressed the latest jest at his height Some people have even speculated that the stunt may be a prank and even an advertisement for his hit podcast The Joe Rogan Experience People on Twitter praised the stunt and congratulated Mollie Pratt for the proposal In another post, Twitter user @newfoundmass wrote: 'I mean, I hate that someone has that kind of disposable income but on the other hand I respect it.' Another Twitter user responded to that tweet and said that they 'aspire to this level wealth & utter pettiness.' Some people have even speculated that the stunt may be a prank and even an advertisement for his hit podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. The broadcaster recently came under fire for telling young people not to get a COVID vaccine and even conceded he is 'not a respected source of information' and branded himself a 'f**king moron' while walking back those comments. The former Fear Factor host, 53, had said on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience - the most popular podcast in the world on Spotify - that young adults should not get the vaccine. He has also worked as a longtime UFC interviewer and color commentator, and has earned an estimated $100 million from his work. Advertisement President Joe Biden began his last day at the G7 with a trip to Sunday Mass, as he prepared to join his fellow G7 leaders in backing new conservation and emission targets to curb climate change before heading Windsor Castle for tea with The Queen. Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended Mass Sunday morning at the Sacred Heart and St. Ia Catholic Church in St. Ives. The two stayed for about half an hour inside the 19th century church situated near St. Ives Bay. When they departed the service, they shared a kiss outside before leaving in separate motorcades. Biden said the service was 'beautiful.' Biden, a regular church-goer, then headed off to the final two meetings of the summit where thorny issues involving climate change and human rights in China are on the agenda. President Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden share a kiss as they leave church after attending mass in St Ives, Cornwall during the G7 summit on June 13, 2021 The president will focus on environmental issues on his last day at the three-day gathering of the world's wealthiest seven nations. He'll also hold a solo press conference. Biden has spent his time in southern England reviving ties with European allies, pushing them to challenge China's growing economic might, and, in his words, showing 'America is Back.' The subtext: Biden is not Donald Trump. The G7 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United States - were eager to hold their first physical summit since August 2019. Biden has sought to return America to the world stage after Trump's international isolationism and rebuild relations after Trump alienated European allies. He made it a point to hold one-on-one with several world leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday, where he reaffirmed his support for the Tokyo Olympics. The trip to Mass came on the final day of the G7 summit The morning church visit came before two final scheduled meetings The first couple sped off in different motorcades following Mass Biden regularly attends Mass while in Washington and when traveling President Joe Biden arrives for a plenary session, during the G7 summit in Cornwall President Joe Biden on Sunday will join his fellow G7 leaders in backing new conservation and emission targets to curb climate change He also had sit downs with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Macron acknowledged the change in American power, taking a swipe at Trump in his remarks, when he fawned over Biden as being 'part of the club.' 'What you demonstrate is that leadership is partnership. I think it's great to have the US president part of the club, and very willing to cooperate,' Macron said as Biden sat beside him, smiling and nodding. Differences were down played; the photo ops were jovial. Merkel, for instance, soft-pedaled differences with the US on China and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. 'The atmosphere is very cooperative, it is characterized by mutual interest,' she said. 'There are very good, constructive and very vivid discussions in the sense that one wants to work together.' The leaders gathered on the beach Saturday night for a barbecue complete with toasted marshmallows and hot buttered rum. They were treated to a breathtaking flypast by Red Arrows. Leaders and their spouses were all seen smiling in awe as they as they watched the planes soar overhead. At the barbecue, some of the world's most-powerful men and women were treated to a breathtaking flypast by Red Arrows. Leaders and their spouses were all seen smiling in awe as they as they watched the planes soar overhead The fleet of aircraft - known officially as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team - lit up the sky with patriotic red, white and blue as the dignitaries no-doubt watched on On the final day of their gathering on Sunday, the G7 leaders, under a 'Nature Compact,' will agree to protect at least 30 percent of both land and ocean globally by the end of the decade. They will also commit to nearly halve their carbon emissions by 2030. It also includes mandating the use of only so-called clean coal for power 'as soon as possible', ending most government support for the fossil fuel sector overseas and phasing out petrol and diesel cars. Biden, in one of his first acts as president, had America rejoin the Paris Climate Accord after Trump removed the US from the climate pact. Climate change was a key G7 priority for his government, as it tries to lay the groundwork for hosting the UN COP26 environment summit in Glasgow in November. Also topping their agenda were combatting the COVID pandemic - the leaders pledged 1 billion doses of the vaccine for the world - and a US-led plan to counter China in infrastructure funding for poorer nations. The plan is dubbed 'Build Back Better for the World,' which echoes the slogan of the Biden's election campaign. ' It is meant to combat Chinese President Xi Jinping's 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI), which has launched a network of infrastructure projects around the world, primarily in Asia and Africa. Additionally, White House officials said Biden wants G7 leaders to speak in a single voice against forced labor practices targeting Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. China denies such practices. Biden hopes the denunciation will be part of a joint communique to be released Sunday when the summit ends, but some European allies appeared reluctant. Canada, the United Kingdom and France largely endorsed Biden's position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed more hesitancy. It's unclear what language - and if China is called out by name - will appear in the traditional end-of-summit communique when it's released on Sunday. The communique was still being written. G7 leaders will issue their final communique but it's unclear how directly and forcefully they will call out China on labor practices The Bidens will cap off their UK visit with tea with The Queen after joining The Queen on Friday at a reception for G7 leaders White House officials said late Saturday that they believed that China, in some form, could be called out for 'nonmarket policies and human rights abuses.' The group will also issue the Carbis Bay Declaration on health policy. After his final round of meetings Sunday morning, President Biden and Jill Biden will head to Windsor Castle to meet with The Queen. Biden will participate in an Inspection of the Guard of Honor and then the first couple will join her for tea. Jill Biden heads back to America on Sunday night. President Biden goes to Brussels, where he'll meet with NATO and EU leaders. Then he heads to Geneva to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. The head of the universities watchdog has blasted the Oxford dons who are threatening a boycott over the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel College and urged them to 'leave personal politics at home'. Lord Wharton has said the dons are prioritising 'high-flown rhetoric' over the students' education as a group of professors have threatened to abstain from giving tutorials at the college until the statue of the imperialist is removed. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the former Conservative MP said the threat was 'baffling and inexcusable' and would set a 'deeply concerning precedent'. Pictured: Lord Wharton, chair of the Office for Students, has blasted the boycott threats made by a group of dons at Oxford University and warned them to 'leave personal politics at home' He said: 'This is an abuse of their privileged status and is at the expense of students. 'I wonder how many working people would threaten to effectively work to rule to change the building or logo of their employer. 'Many ordinary people will find it baffling and inexcusable, doubly so in such challenging times. 'A boycott would risk disrupting the education of Oriel's students after a challenging year, damage the chances of disadvantaged students getting to Oxford, and set a deeply concerning precedent.' Oxford University descended into civil war earlier this week after academics urged colleagues to 'boycott' Oriel College over its refusal to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes. In an unprecedented move, dons led by Professor Kate Tunstall the head of another Oxford college called on staff to stop holding tutorials for Oriel students until the monument to the colonialist is removed. In an unprecedented move earlier this week, a group of professors called on staff to stop holding tutorials for Oriel students until the monument to the colonialist (pictured) is removed While they will still give lectures, the 'work to rule' will see staff deny the college's 300 undergraduates the chance for in-depth discussion in small groups or one-to-one sessions. One senior don told the Daily Mail: 'This is despicable and mean-minded. 'It is unprecedented for the head of one college to attack and detract from the teaching of students at another college. 'This is politics based on ignorance and bias, and should have nothing to do with Oxford or any other university, where the principal aim should be to educate students and not damage their learning through left-biased agitation.' Yesterday, it emerged that several of the professors who were backing the boycott are benefiting from financial legacies built on forced labour as they were accused of 'biting the hand that feeds them'. Four of the dons have received funding from the Leverhulme Trust, created with funding from Lord Leverhulme, a soap magnate who established plantations in the 1910s in the Belgian Congo. One senior don told the Daily Mail: 'This is despicable and mean-minded. It is unprecedented for the head of one college to attack and detract from the teaching of students at another college. This is politics based on ignorance and bias, and should have nothing to do with Oxford or any other university, where the principal aim should be to educate students and not damage their learning through left-biased agitation' A historian told The Telegraph that Leverhulme's 'private kingdom' in the African nation, which was then under Belgium's colonial rule, was 'reliant on the horrific Belgian system of forced labour, a programme that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi Holocaust'. Others disagree and claim Leverhulme was more progressive than other leading industrialists of his time. Among the boycotting professors are Dr Dan Hodgkinson and Dr Zoe Cormack, who are beneficiaries of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellows. Last month saw Oriel reject calls to tear down the statue of Rhodes, after an independent commission produced a 144-page report on the isssue following a long-running Rhodes Must Fall campaign. An Oxford student in the 1870s, Rhodes left money to Oriel on his death in 1902 and his statue stands on the college's building on Oxford High Street. An imperialist, businessman and politician, he played a dominant role in southern Africa in the late 19th century, driving the annexation of vast swathes of land. More than 1,400 people wrote to the independent commission with their views, including alumni who said removing Rhodes's statue would amount to 'censoring the past' and 'erasing history'. The commission ultimately recommended that the statue be removed but also highlighted how challenging it would be to conduct such work on a Grade II listed building. In addition to the cost, such changes would also require permission from Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary. Previous vows from ministers to protect statues from 'baying mobs' suggest any moves to remove Rhodes would be blocked by the Government. Following Oriel's decision to keep the statue, college provost Lord Mendoza insisted any money needed to pay for its removal and associated legal challenges would be better spent on students. But Professor Tunstall, interim provost of Worcester College, is among Oxford academics who invited colleagues to sign a 'statement of a boycott of Oriel College'. Their joint declaration states: 'Faced with Oriel's stubborn attachment to a statue that glorifies colonialism and the wealth it produced for the College, we feel we have no choice but to withdraw all discretionary work and goodwill collaborations.' Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has backed Theresa May to be the next head of NATO as he described her as an 'excellent candidate'. The current secretary general of the military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, is due to step down next year. The race to succeed him is still in its early stages but Mr Wallace has given his support to the former UK prime minister. The process to choose the NATO chief is famously opaque, with one former official saying it is 'all done by chat and whispers'. Speculation over Mr Stoltenberg's successor comes as the alliance prepares to meet in Brussels tomorrow, with US President Joe Biden due to attend. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has backed Theresa May to be the next head of NATO as he described her as an 'excellent candidate' Mr Stoltenberg has been in charge of NATO since 2014 and tomorrow's summit is expected to feature much discussion behind closed doors and in the margins on who will replace him. Mrs May has not declared herself to be a candidate for the top job, but Mr Wallace gave her his support after he was asked by Italian media about the prospect of her putting herself forward. He told the Formiche magazine: 'Theresa May was a fantastic prime minister in really tough times. 'I worked with her as the security minister. She would be an excellent candidate.' Mr Wallace said the UK Government had yet to propose a candidate to possibly replace Mr Stoltenberg, adding: 'We have a lot of work to do, like in Afghanistan, before we think about this.' While stressing the process to select a new leader, who must be acceptable to all 30 NATO member nations, was at an early stage, Mr Wallace said the UK would always want to play a 'vital role' in the alliance. He said: 'The UK is one of the main contributors to NATO, the country in Europe that spends the most. Of course, we always want to play a vital role in the alliance. 'But there are many other nations and what is important for NATO is to work unanimously.' The current secretary general of the military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, is due to step down next year The Sunday Telegraph reported that former Tory foreign secretary William Hague, ex-cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill and Mr Wallace himself have all been floated as potential British contenders for the role. A former senior Nato official told the newspaper the appointment of the next secretary general of the alliance will 'hinge' on the US. They said: 'There is no papal conclave-type process. There are discussions in the background. It's all done by chat and whispers and the rest of it. 'You've got to get somebody who's acceptable to 30 countries. It all hinges on what's acceptable to the Americans. They will want someone who's reliable.' A young nurse has recalled the terrifying moment she was cornered by two of Australia's most notorious killers after working a late shift on the emergency ward. The woman, known only as Nicole and in her 20s at the time, stumbled out of Ipswich Hospital in Brisbane on a spring night in 1987 before making her way across a dimly-lit street to where her car was parked. It was about midnight and the mother-of-two was completely alone, apart from Barrie Watts and Valmae Beck - a sadistic couple who later raped, murdered and tortured a 12-year-old girl. They are suspected of killing another woman, 31, that same month. Barrie Watts (pictured) was convicted of the rape, abduction and murder of Sian Kingi - a 12-year-old girl Watts brutally killed young school girl Sian Kingi in 1987 with the help of his then-wife and mother-of-six Valmae Beck (pictured) The pair were parked on a median strip in a filthy white Holden station wagon laying in wait for a vulnerable young woman to walk out of the hospital alone. Watts had told Beck that he'd dug a grave in bushland near Lake Wivenhoe - which was about a 10-minute drive from where they rented in Lowood, north of Ipswich. Although the sickening sex predator had a fetish for petite blonde women, they decided to make their move on Nicole, who was a redhead. As she got in her car, the station wagon came roaring down the hill and parked in front of her car. Watts got out and asked Nicole for directions, insisting she step outside the car and point to where they needed to go. Fearing for her safety and with her internal alarm ringing at full pitch, Nicole stepped out but kept the door between her and Watts, while Beck waited in the driver seat with the motor running. When Nicole peered over the station wagon, she noticed something that sent chills down her spine. 'I could see ropes and hessian bags and he (Watts) was getting closer and closer, and everything in my body was saying "something's not right here",' she told the ABC. 'He was about my height his eyes were just black with nothing behind them he was close to me as a book in front of your face and I just felt chills.' Sian Kingi (pictured) was riding her bike home from the local shops when she was lured to a park to 'help look for a poodle' then abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered The man who killed 12-year-old school girls Sian Kingi (pictured) on the Sunshine Coast in 1987 is making a bid for freedom At this point a stranger happened to be passing by, so Nicole decided it was now or never and jumped back in her car, maneuvered out of the tight space and put her foot to the floor, constantly glancing in her rearview mirror to make sure they weren't chasing her. She told her husband as soon as she arrived home and then made a report to police. 'They (the police) said they were after a virgin and my black humour was 'well they were barking up the wrong tree' I had two baby seats in the back of my car.' Just a few months later she would see their faces again after turning on the evening news. Valmae Beck (pictured) was also sentenced to life imprisonment but later died in 2008 Watts brutally murdered young school girl Sian Kingi, on the Sunshine Coast on November 27, 1987 with the help of his then-wife and mother-of-six Beck. The pair lured 12-year-old Sian to help look for a 'white poodle with a pink bow' before Watts abducted her into the backseat of their vehicle as they had tried to do to Nicole. After gagging Sian and driving her to a remote forest, Watts performed a fantasy he shared with Beck by repeatedly sexually assaulting Sian before strangling and stabbing her. Beck and Watts were both sentenced to life imprisonment but Beck later died in 2008, taking her secrets of other potential crimes to the grave to the dismay of detectives. Now Watts, who is serving a life sentence at Wolston Correctional Centre, has applied for parole almost 35 years after his crime. But he remains the prime suspect in the suspected murder of Brisbane school teacher Helen Mary Feeney, 31, who disappeared from Carseldine in Brisbane's north in the same month Sian was killed. State Member for Ninderry Dan Purdie expressed outrage at Watt's plea and said it sent 'a shockwave through my community, police and Sian's family.' Nicole, who was in her 20s at the time, stumbled out of Ipswich Hospital in Brisbane on a spring night in 1987 before being ambushed by notorious killers When Nicole peered over the station wagon, she noticed something that sent chills down her spine (stock image) 'All including her parents who I spoke to again this morning have grave concerns for the persons living in any community in which Barrie Watts may be released into,' the Courier Mail reported. Mr Purdie said Watts deserved to serve his entire life sentence in prison. 'If Watts is given parole, what precedent would this set? How many others child killers would be released while they still represent an unacceptable risk to the community?' he said. Former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson, who investigated Sian's murder as a detective, said Watts 'would be an unacceptable community risk.' Retired detective Neil Magnussen also joined the chorus of dismay and said Watt's will 'never, ever be rehabilitated, ever.' 'He's got a thing about young women and girls. He'll never stop. He's a danger to the public,' Mr Magnussen said. For some of Sian's classmates, they feel that her brutal death stripped an entire generation of Sunshine Coast kids of their innocence. 'He took my generation's freedom,' Sian's schoolmate Melina Fletcher told the Sunshine Coast Daily. 'We grew up in fear.' Ms Fletcher said Watts' vile crime destroyed the entire community and he deserved to 'rot in jail... just as [we] were promised'. Daniel Andrews' government is in secret negotiations with three MPs to try and introduce controversial new pandemic laws, reports suggest. The Victorian government wants to replace state of emergency laws with permanent pandemic laws that would allow authorities to enforce lockdowns and quarantine for any future health crises, The Age has revealed. The opposition Liberal Party who said the proposed laws are not transparent enough do not have a say in them, because the government will only negotiate with three minor MPs in order to pass the new laws. It would allow the Victorian government to impose sweeping rules on its people with a moment's notice, after millions endured a year of relentless Covid-19 lockdowns. The Andrews government has become notorious for snap lockdowns, leaving thousands out of work and school despite other states handling outbreaks with no such draconian orders. Dan Andrews' (pictured) government is in secret negotiations with three MPs to try and introduce controversial new pandemic laws Victorians have already endured several lockdowns during the pandemic (pictured, Melburnians checking into a supermarket on June 4) This includes a three-month-long lockdown in July 2020, as well as a two-week-long lockdown which finished on Friday. The polarising Victorian leader was seen on video for the first time in months on Sunday after getting his Covid-19 vaccine and announcing his return to work after three months off. Mr Andrews said the broken vertebra he suffered on March 9 during the fall at a holiday rental house in Sorrento, south-east of Melbourne, had 'almost fully healed'. He broke five ribs and fractured his T7 vertabra in the fall. Conspiracy theories over his injury and hiatus from public appearances began circulating shortly after. Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam (pictured) wants police to record the racial profile of each person they stop during a pandemic in exchange for agreeing to the pandemic laws Melbourne has just been released from another crippling two-week lockdown (pictured, the city's empty streets on June 11) However, Mr Andrews quickly quashed these rumours when he told Ambulance Victoria to release a statement about their role in his treatment following questions from the state's opposition leader. Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick and Reason Party MP Fiona Patten are making demands in exchange for getting the controversial pandemic bill through Parliament, including mandatory records of the racial appearance of people fined for pandemic rule-breaking. The Victorian government has been able to enforce controversial lockdowns, mandatory mask-wearing and quarantine because in March 2020 it created a state of emergency - which is usually used for weather events like floods and fire. The state of emergency has been extended twice, for six and then nine months, but the new laws are expected to be passed by December when the current emergency provisions run out. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews received a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne on Wednesday Mr Andrews government wants to replace the temporary state of emergency laws which need to be passed through Parliament to be extended or changed - with permanent powers that apply when a health pandemic hits. The cross-benchers are understood to be insisting the government prevent what they consider overreaches, such as a snap lockdown of nine public housing towers in 2020 and expensive fines for Covid-19 breaches. The Greens are demanding police record the racial profile of each person they stop during a pandemic to prevent any bias or racism within the police. We would also like to protect disadvantaged members of the community from disproportionate impacts of lockdown, including public housing residents, people of colour and young people from low-income families, Greens MP Samantha Read said. The two other MPs have indicated they want more public transparency around health directives, although the exact details of the new law are yet to be decided. Shortly before the pandemic, Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the globally respected Wellcome Trust, delivered a speech offering his prescription for protection of public health: it required good leadership, free-thinking scientists and universal trust in their work. The director of the world's biggest philanthropic science funding body said he had 'tremendous responsibility to be accountable for what we do and to be as transparent as we can be'. So it is curious that since the Covid pandemic began, this hugely influential figure has been at the heart of the scientific establishment's efforts to stifle debate on the origins of the virus that emerged in Wuhan. The Oxford, Edinburgh and London-educated infectious diseases expert has claimed scientists 'know' Covid was not created in a lab, suggested such an idea was a 'conspiracy theory' and insisted that 'evidence' indicates it spilled over naturally from animals. Now, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that emails from America's top infectious disease chief, Anthony Fauci, show how Farrar played a key role behind the scenes in marshalling top scientists' response to concerns over the virus's origins, even demanding secrecy on their discussions. The director of the world's biggest philanthropic science funding body said he had 'tremendous responsibility to be accountable for what we do and to be as transparent as we can be'. Pictured: Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan Crucially, he was a central figure behind two landmark statements published by leading science journals that helped to silence dissident views, arguing against the plausibility of 'any type of laboratory-based scenario'. Scientists who have sought a proper investigation into the possibility that the novel coronavirus might have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory accuse Farrar of helping establish a 'false narrative' that has set back understanding of the disease. His actions have also prompted alarm in Westminster. 'Farrar is clearly an impressive individual, so we should all be concerned when someone of his stature appears to be stifling debate,' said Bob Seely, a Tory member of the foreign affairs select committee. 'It is chilling. The job of science is to go where the truth leads, not to stop us going there. 'Distinguished people such as Jeremy Farrar should not have been participating in systematic and organised attempts to shut down open debate on such a vital issue for the entire world. We have a right to be worried.' Sadly, this seems to have been precisely what the 59-year-old Wellcome chief has been doing. The controversy over Farrar's role comes amid growing international acceptance of a possibility that the pandemic began with a leak from one of the vaccine or virus research centres in Wuhan, despite China's vigorous efforts to blame other causes. But after President Joe Biden gave US intelligence agencies 90 days to detail how the virus might have spread from bats to humans, there has been mounting concern over how top scientific figures 'colluded' to divert attention from risky research in Wuhan. Many insisted that science showed Sars-CoV-2 - the strain of coronavirus that causes Covid-19 - was a spill-over from nature, despite known safety concerns at Wuhan labs and some unusual features of the disease. Farrar - a former Oxford University professor who was appointed to lead the Wellcome Trust eight years ago -has been among the foremost voices making such arguments. His position gives him immense power as the head of one of the world's wealthiest charitable foundations, which has funds of 29billion and spent more than 1billion last year alone. He is also a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Just weeks before the pandemic erupted, Farrar helped oversee a report alongside Fauci for the World Health Organisation that highlighted an increasing risk of global pandemic from a pathogen escaping after being engineered in a lab. Significantly, it said scientific advances allowed 'disease-causing micro-organisms to be engineered or recreated in laboratories', warning that 'accidental or deliberate events caused by high-impact respiratory pathogens pose global catastrophic biological risks'. The authors may well have been proved right: the world was not prepared for a 'fast-moving, virulent respiratory pathogen pandemic' and the consequences are catastrophic. Yet Farrar's previous warnings jar with his actions during the pandemic. Last year, for instance, he said that people should 'ignore the conspiracy theories: scientists know Covid-19 wasn't created in a lab'. His comment promoted an article in The Guardian by British scientist Dr Peter Daszak which criticised former MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove for suggesting Covid might have escaped accidentally from a lab, and sneered at those critical of his research partners at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The truth is, scientists have found no firm evidence on the cause of this pandemic, despite testing 80,000 samples from animals to find a possible natural link - but there is some circumstantial evidence to raise concerns over a leak from a Wuhan lab. Yet Daszak and Farrar were among 27 leading experts who published a statement in The Lancet in February last year attacking 'conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin'. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that emails from America's top infectious disease chief, Anthony Fauci, show how Farrar (pictured) played a key role behind the scenes in marshalling top scientists' response to concerns over the virus's origins, even demanding secrecy on their discussions Daszak is a former Kingston University snail researcher who earns $410,000-a-year heading a virus-hunting charity called Eco- Health Alliance. He has long-standing links with Shi Zhengli, the Wuhan Institute of Virology expert on coronaviruses nicknamed 'Bat woman' for her sample-gathering trips to caves in southern China. Farrar's endorsement of that controversial Lancet letter - clearly intended to shut down debate - looks even more intriguing after the publication by the news site Buzzfeed this month of 3,234 pages of Fauci's emails from the early months of the pandemic. They show that on January 31 last year, Fauci was sent a copy of an article in Science magazine that examined how researchers were doing investigative work on genomes to unravel the virus's beginnings. The article detailed work by Daszak and Shi in sampling more than 10,000 bats and finding 500 new coronaviruses. It also examined controversies over risky 'gain of function' work, which uses genetic technology to make natural viruses more dangerous, including mention of a 2015 paper on experiments by Shi and a US researcher that modified a Sars-like bat virus to boost infectivity to humans. Science magazine quoted Richard Ebright, a bio-security expert and professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, New Jersey, stating that data at the time was 'consistent with entry into the human population as either a natural accident or a laboratory accident'. Fauci immediately circulated the article to senior US officials. To one, he marked the email 'IMPORTANT' and attached the 'gain of function' paper. 'Keep your phone on,' he said. A senior figure at the US National Institutes of Health replied that they were trying 'to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad'. The Mail on Sunday later revealed the institute was funding Shi's work, which was stopped by then president Donald Trump. Fauci also sent the article to Farrar, saying: 'It is of interest to the current discussion.' In turn, Farrar set up an urgent conference-call involving himself, Fauci and 11 other global experts -including Sir Patrick Vallance, England's chief scientific adviser. The Wellcome director, who appears to have led the teleconference, warned their discussions were 'in total confidence' and information was 'not to be shared' without agreement. Farrar then became the centre of a flurry of emails that included mention of a discussion with World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, amid fears that he might 'prevaricate'. Two days later, Dr Tedros issued a call to 'combat the spread of rumours and misinformation' and for 'all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity and co-operation'. Farrar also alerted Fauci to an article on ZeroHedge, a financial blog, that linked a Wuhan researcher to the virus outbreak. Five days after Farrar's conference-call, Daszak started circulating a draft around potential signatories for his Lancet letter, saying he was 'dismayed by the recent spreading of rumours, misinformation and conspiracy theories on its origins'. He cautioned, however, that they should ensure the statement was not 'identifiable' as coming from one person or organisation, so that it would be seen as 'simply a letter from leading scientists'. Another key participant in Farrar's call was Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at Scripps Research institute in California who was the lead author on another highly influential commentary published just six weeks later by Nature Medicine journal. This commentary, headlined 'The proximal origin of Sars-CoV-2' and cited almost 1,500 times in other scientific papers, boldly stated that the five authors 'do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible'. However, critics contested its claim of 'evidence' that proved Sars-CoV-2 was not a purposefully manipulated virus - yet like The Lancet letter, this document played a central role to dampen down scientific, political and media discussion of a possible lab leak. When I asked Farrar to share his 'evidence' pointing to natural 'zoonotic' (animal to human) transmission, he cited this article. Significantly, his office told me that he helped convene the five authors of the Nature Medicine commentary- who included the Australian professor Edward Holmes, an adviser to the Chinese health authorities, and Andrew Rambaut, an evolutionary biologist at Edinburgh University. Both were on his conference call. 'The conclusions reached by these world-leading experts have informed Jeremy's views, along with other evidence-based research,' said a spokesman. 'He took a step back once the researchers were introduced and followed their results keenly. 'He does not suggest that all other theories or explanations are conspiracy theories. But, as always in any branch of scientific research, any other theories must be evidencebased to hold any credibility.' Yet the Fauci emails disclose that Andersen, who was sent the Science article, admitted a close look at all the genetic sequences showed 'some of the features (potentially) look engineered' and that several other experts agreed with him that the genome was 'inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory'. After this emerged, Andersen argued that the discussion was a 'clear example of the scientific process' - then deleted his Twitter account that had been full of tweets challenging those calling for a lab leak to be taken seriously. Bio-security expert Richard Ebright said that he was 'shocked' Farrar has given such weight to the 'pseudoscientific analysis'. 'It is disturbing that both Fauci and Farrar have played key roles in establishing the false narratives of the last 15 months and that neither has made a clean break with them,' he said. For his part, Daszak thanked Fauci in April for 'publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for Covid-19 from a bat-tohuman spillover, not a lab release from Wuhan Institute of Virology'. Yet, at least three Lancet signatories have since admitted that the lab leak theory merits serious investigation. They included Bernard Roizman, a University of Chicago virologist, who is 'convinced' the virus was taken to a lab, worked on and then 'some sloppy individual' took it out. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist honoured by China for his work in the country, who was one of the five authors of the Nature Medicine commentary, has also voiced concern over safety standards at the Wuhan institute. Farrar told The Mail on Sunday he believes 'the best scientific evidence available to date points to a scenario where the virus crossed from animals to humans and then evolved in humans'. While saying it is critical to understand Covid's origins to prevent future outbreaks, the Wellcome boss claimed there had been too much 'conjecture and theory without data or evidence' with no evidence to support the idea of a 'laboratory-linked outbreak'. In all this, there is one thing that surely all parties can agree on with Sir Jeremy Farrar - that everyone 'stays open-minded while efforts continue to gather and share the evidence needed' and that regardless of the outcome of investigations, it is absolutely vital to ensure all laboratories are safe. Advertisement Protesters have descended on Cornwall to mark the final day of the G7 summit with rallies against climate change and proposed legislation that could restrict demonstrations. In Falmouth, more than 500 masked protesters marched against the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, which, if approved, would give police increased powers to shut down demonstrations. The beaches and streets of St Ives saw Extinction Rebellion stage theatrical protests calling for the wealthy member countries of the Group of Seven to take action on environmental issues. The leaders of the UK, US, Germany, Japan, Italy, France and Canada have been meeting in Carbis Bay since Friday on issues including the coronavirus pandemic, China and climate change. Extinction Rebellion staged protests at several sites in St Ives, one of which featured partially undressed female members of the group wearing giant papier-mache heads of the G7 leaders. Protesters have descended on Cornwall to mark the final day of the G7 summit with rallies against climate change and proposed legislation that could restrict demonstrations. Pictured: Kill the Bill protesters in Falmouth The beaches and streets of St Ives saw Extinction Rebellion stage theatrical protests calling for the wealthy member countries of the Group of Seven to take action on environmental issues. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives The leaders of the UK, US, Germany, Japan, Italy, France and Canada have been meeting in Carbis Bay since Friday on issues including the coronavirus pandemic, China and climate change. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives Extinction Rebellion staged protests at several sites in St Ives, one of which featured partially undressed female members of the group wearing giant papier-mache heads of the G7 leaders. The women wore the heads, which boasted huge red lips, with shirts, ties, suit jackets and leotards to embody the phrase 'all mouth no trousers'. The group accuses world leaders of making promises on climate change but taking no real action The women wore the heads, which boasted huge red lips, with shirts, ties, suit jackets and leotards to embody the phrase 'all mouth no trousers'. The group accuses world leaders of making promises on climate change but taking no real action. On a beach in St Ives, Extinction Rebellion members dressed as 'Green Spirits,' symbolising the natural world performed a protest in which the earth was wrapped in a cloth marked with terms such as 'consumerism' and 'migration'. Elsewhere on the beach, members in a rat masks marched in front of a flaming globe holding a banner that read: 'Media blackout'. Another rally saw a car painted in blue and green to represent the Earth being washed with green paint by members wearing suits that read 'G7 club'. The demonstration was a nod to 'Greenwashing', a term for disinformation given by companies or governments in order to present an environmentally responsible public image. On a beach in St Ives, Extinction Rebellion members dressed as 'Green Spirits,' symbolising the natural world performed a protest. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives The spirits wrapped the earth in a cloth marked with terms such as 'consumerism' and 'migration'. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives More than 500 Kill the Bill protesters marched into Falmouth town centre on Sunday against the proposed bill, which is currently making its way through the House of Commons. Protesters met just after 1pm at the Princess Pavilion car park, where a punk band put on a performance and the crowd, who were dressed in all black clothing, chanted 'Kill the Bill' and 'Who's rights? Our rights'. They also called for better support for the travelling and Roma communities, and shouted 'Say her name - Sarah Everard' and 'Say his name - George Floyd' before speeches were given. George Floyd was murdered in May 2020 by US police officer Derek Chauvin who detained him and knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Sarah Everard went missing in March 2021 while walking home in south London. She was later found dead in woodland in Kent. Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has admitted raping and kidnapping Ms Everard and has accepted responsibility for her death but has not entered a plea on the charge of murder. The protesters walked down to the front of the G7 media centre where they continued to chant, play music and give speeches. In Falmouth, more than 500 masked protesters marched against the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, which, if approved, would give police increased powers to shut down demonstrations. Pictured: A Kill the Bill protest in Falmouth The protesters met just after 1pm at the Princess Pavilion car park, where a punk band put on a performance and the crowd, who were dressed in all black clothing, chanted 'Kill the Bill' and 'Who's rights? Our rights'. Pictured: Kill the Bill protesters in Falmouth The protesters walked down to the front of the G7 media centre where they continued to chant, play music and give speeches. Pictured: A Kill the Bill protest in Falmouth One speaker, who did not give their name, told the crowd: 'We are here today to protest against the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. 'This is a racist, oppressive and draconian bill that will shift the cause of our democracy from progression to regression,' to which the crowd booed. The protesters then sat down outside of the entrance to the G7 media centre, where they continued to give speeches, including calling for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and chanted 'Kill the Bill'. More than 20 police officers lined the entrance of the media centre while others stood on the opposite side of the road. Political activist Femi Oluwole attended the protest and gave a speech. He said: 'Every time this Government does something wrong, they think the answer is to punish us for doing something about it. More than 20 police officers lined the entrance of the media centre while others stood on the opposite side of the road. Pictured: Kill the Bill protesters in Falmouth 'Fascists!' the crowd then shouted before they started chanting 'Priti f****** fascist' repeatedly, referring to Home Secretary Priti Patel who has put forward the bill. Pictured: Kill the Bill protesters in Falmouth After demonstrating in front of the G7 media centre, the protesters were escorted by police to a nearby beach. Pictured: Kill the Bill protesters in Falmouth 'Every single form of protest is wrong according to this Government.' 'Fascists!' the crowd then shouted before they started chanting 'Priti f****** fascist' repeatedly, referring to Home Secretary Priti Patel who has put forward the bill. Speaking to the PA news agency afterwards, Mr Oluwole said: 'I came down today because I wanted to support the people who are very, very worried about people's rights to protest. 'I had to get up at 4.30am this morning to come down from Birmingham. I think this is a pretty impressive turnout.' The protesters were later escorted by police to a nearby beach. Elsewhere on the beach in St Ives, Extinction Rebellion members in a rat masks marched in front of a flaming globe holding a banner that read: 'Media blackout'. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives The protests took place against a heavy police presence in Cornwall throughout the summit. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives Teams of undercover police have been monitoring protest groups who converged on Cornwall for the three-day G7 conference. Pictured: An Extinction Rebellion protest on Sunday The protests took place against a heavy police presence in Cornwall throughout the summit. Teams of undercover police have been monitoring protest groups who converged on Cornwall for the three-day G7 conference. More than 6,000 police officers from across the UK had been brought in to form a ring of steel around the delegates, and with so few arrests the policing operation will be viewed as a stunning success. Police have so far kept a low profile for the mass demonstrations held by Extinction Rebellion and Surfers Against Sewage over the weekend. As more than 1,000 protestors gathered in Kimberley Park before walking through Falmouth town centre on Saturday, only three officers wearing blue vests that marked them out as liaison officers were visible. Other officers who acted as 'spotters' and videoed the protestors stood discreetly by the side of the road. Much of the police undercover work was directed towards members of the G7 resist group who had threatened to attempt to disrupt the conference. Based in a farmer's field in the village of Gweek about 25 miles from Carbis Bay- police were able to monitor all vehicles going in and out of the field and note down their number plates. Another rally saw a car painted in blue and green to represent the Earth being washed with green paint by members wearing suits that read 'G7 club'. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives The demonstration was a nod to 'Greenwashing', a term for disinformation given by companies or governments in order to present an environmentally responsible public image. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives Extinction Rebellion accuse governments of paying lip service to tackling climate change but not taking sufficient action. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives Undercover officers then carried out spot checks on those vehicles leading to the arrest of the seven people in a van on Friday. Other vehicles that were seen in the vicinity of the camp site were also pulled over by police for spot checks. While the world leaders are due to depart Cornwall on Sunday afternoon, police will remain on duty until the early hours of the morning. Many have had to work 16-hour shifts, but officers from London and other cities have been surprised by the warm welcome they have received from locals. While the world leaders are due to depart Cornwall on Sunday afternoon, police will remain on duty until the early hours of the morning. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives Pictured: Sunbathers in front of an Extinction Rebellion protest poster in St Ives The Royal Navy patrols offshore as protesters demonstrate on the beach at St Ives. Pictured: Extinction Rebellion protesters in St Ives One Met officer based in south London said: 'People actually want to talk to me. That never happens where I am usually based. It has been a pleasant change.' On Saturday night, members of the Ocean Rebellion Group projected protest slogans on to the cruise liner that has been home to 1,000 police in Falmouth Harbour. The slogans included 'as the sea dies we die' and 'cruises spread diseases.' The Silka Europa cruise ship was brought in to provide temporary accommodation for police during the conference. The final day of protests by Extinction Rebellion will include events in St Ives where a model of the logo of the G7 summit will sink beneath the sand. The theme for the day of protests is 'all hands on deck' with the climate activists demanding power be placed in the hands of citizens to bring about change. Supporters of Ocean Rebellion motor their boat past RFA Argus and the cruise ship Silja Europa on SUnday. Pictured: Ocean Rebellion protesters in Falmouth On Saturday night, members of the Ocean Rebellion Group projected protest slogans on to the cruise liner that has been home to 1,000 police in Falmouth Harbour. The slogans included 'as the sea dies we die' and 'cruises spread diseases' On Saturday, police arrested 15 people after a raid on a flower farm near to the G7 summit and seized spray paint, gas horns amid a clampdown on protest groups. Officers acting on a tip off made the arrests after a search at Clowance Wood Nurseries in the tiny village of Praze-an-Beeble about 10 miles from where the summit was taking place in Carbis Bay. Police say they seized items including spray paint, scaffolding and gas horns. The 15 people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance and were taken into custody for questioning, said a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police. The flower nursery is empty. The business was sold by its owners in 2017 and the glass greenhouses and land have not been used for sometime. Those arrested were understood to have been camping on the site. The arrests bring the total number of people held during the weekend to 22. Seven people who were arrested on Friday over suspicion of causing a public nuisance have since been freed. Police have arrested 15 people after a raid on a flower farm (pictured) near to the G7 summit and seized spray paint, gas horns amid a clampdown on protest groups Officers acting on a tip off made the arrests after a search at Clowance Wood Nurseries in the tiny village of Praze-an-Beeble about 10 miles from where the summit was taking place in Carbis Bay. Pictured: World leaders pose for a photo at the summit They were arrested after a stop and search operation on a van and smoke grenades and paint found inside. A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesperson said the latest arrests were made on Saturday afternoon. A force spokesperson said: 'Fifteen people have been arrested following a search at Clowance Wood Nurseries in Praze during the afternoon of Saturday 12 June. 'A warrant was carried out under section 8 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act following information received by police. 'Items including spray paint, scaffolding and gas horns were located and have been seized by police. 'Fifteen people have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance and will be taken into police custody for questioning. 'Enquiries remain ongoing at this time.' Essex and London accents linked with popular programmes such as EastEnders and TOWIE are often judged as being less intelligent and trustworthy, according to a new study. Researchers in the University of Essex found that working class accents are judged as less intelligent, friendly or trustworthy by playing nearly 200 young people from the south east 10 second clips of others from the region. East end accents are judged as being less intelligent and trustworthy according to research Accents including those from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, parts of London and Essex were played, all saying the same sentence. One clip featured Dr Amanda Cole, a postdoctoral research fellow at the university's Department of Language and Linguistics. Despite her credentials and being the person behind the whole project, most of those who listened to her speak felt she was less intelligent than the other voices they heard. Working class accents were also judged to be less intelligent, friendly and trustworthy than middle class people, and people from ethnic minorities were judged less intelligent than white people based on their accent, according to the study. Working class accents were also judged to be less intelligent, friendly and trustworthy than middle class people according to the study by the University of Essex The east end and Essex accents are most commonly linked with shows such as EastEnders 'When we hear someone talk we very quickly make judgements about them and group them into categories,' Dr Cole told the BBC. 'There was this self-bias effect, in which working class people judged other working class people to be less intelligent. 'The same self-bias effect was found for those from an ethnic minority background; they also judged other people from an ethnic minority background as less intelligent than white speakers. 'The self-bias effect shows just how pervasive and entrenched accent prejudice is. Gemma Collins (pictured) best known for her work on TOWIE has the east end accent 'We live in a vicious cycle in which the most privileged speak with the most esteemed accent - and so are judged as the most competent and intelligent which helps them maintain their privilege. 'This way of thinking is so pervasive that it goes completely unchallenged.' In 2019, the Essex accent was voted the sexist in the UK, with Birmingham coming bottom of the charts as the least sexy dialect in the British Isles. A poll in 2020 found that the taste for British dialects had shifted again, with the Yorkshire accent coming out on top. Despite her research, Dr Cole wants to ensure that the diversity of accents remains in the UK. 'We are all diverse and we need diversity in accents', she said. 'No-one should feel that they have to forsake their accent to get along better in life'. Leaders who met for their final day at the G7 in Cornwall have reached a consensus on calling out human rights abuses in a special communique but it is not yet clear that it will mention China by name. Leaders attending the summit have made contending with China's economic ambitions and countering its human rights practices a prime focus, even as they seek to unify the richest democracies against climate change and stamping out the coronavirus. But tactical splits within the coalition have caused aides to keep working on final text of the communique, with late doubts about how far it will go. 'I would say there was unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms that invoke our shared values,' said a senior administration official. President Joe Biden and his team have been pushing for a strong statement on human rights in China at the G7 summit. It was not certain Sunday that a final communique would mention China by name, although a senior official said there was 'unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms' Even if it isn't named directly, Beijing isn't waiting to push back. 'The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone,' a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London told Reuters. 'We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries,' the spokesman added. The G7 leaders also have agreed to coordinate their efforts to keep supply chains online amid semiconductor shortages and other challenges. 'There was commitment to take action in response to what we're seeing,' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity during a press call. I heard from everyone that what binds us together as a G7 partnership, more than anything else, are the shared values of democracies. And that, because of that partnership, you know, it's our obligation to call out human rights abuses and other -- other violations of fundamental freedoms that calls us into -- that really invoke our shared values. The administration's hope for a strong statement has met resistance from some European allies, with Germany and Italy showing more hesitancy about a direct statement. The White House is pushing for strong language that would call out China for forced labor, child labor, and treatment of Muslim Uyguher's in Xinjiang Province. The administration official described several 'areas of convergence.' These included 'working together to respond to China's non-market economic practices that are harmful and distorted to the global economy.' Western nations have long chafed at China's child labor and other practices. The leaders are also 'willing to speak out on human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang' a reference to the treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities. The State Department has labeled their treatment 'genocide.' 'Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,' according to an agency 2020 report on human rights practices in China. The nations have also agreed on 'taking action' when it relates to supply chains, 'including from Xinjiang.. Reuters reported that through the structure of the World Trade Organization, China would be designated as a 'non-market economy' in a way that would set up a process to determine if Chinese exports are being sold at unfair prices which could allow for retaliatory duties. A police investigation has been launched after a man was found with stab wounds and shotgun pellet injuries as London's 'pandemic of violence' continued last night. Officers were called to Ridgway Road, south London, following reports of shots being fired at about 1.30am. They and a team from the London Ambulance Service found a 32-year-old with potentially life-threatening stab wounds and pellet injuries to his legs. Armed police were seen on the streets following the latest incident in which a man was stabbed and suffered shotgun pellet wounds He was taken to hospital to be assessed. Overnight three other males and two females also went to hospital with shotgun pellet injuries. A spokesman for Metropolitan Police said: 'Detectives are investigating an incident in Brixton which left one man with stab wounds and five other people with shotgun pellet injuries. 'At 01:27hrs on Sunday, 13 June, officers were called to a disturbance and reports of shots fired in Ridgway Road, SW9. 'A 32-year-old man suffering stab injuries. He has been taken to hospital where his condition has been assessed as potentially life-threatening. The victim had also sustained shotgun pellet injuries to his legs. 'Three other males and two females also attended hospital with shotgun pellet injuries, primarily to their legs. None is in a life-threatening condition. Four of these five self-presented at hospital, and a fifth was taken to hospital by LAS from a location elsewhere in Lambeth at around 03:40hrs. 'Enquiries are under way to establish the circumstances. There has been no arrest at this early stage.' The incident came a day after 15-year-old Jalan Woods-Bell was stabbed multiple times just after 8.30am on Friday and died at the scene just yards from the Global Academy secondary school. Police have started an investigation into the incident overnight as the victim is said to have potentially life-threatening injuries A masked police officer directs team members towards the scene of the incident in Brixton Another 15-year-old was charged with murder and appeared in custody at Willesden Magistrates' Court yesterday. John Jackson, a pastor in Wolverhampton who is a friend of the young victim's family, told The Times: 'We have a pandemic of violence that is not being treated like a pandemic. 'As long as it stays in inner cities and urban areas then it is not being seen as a problem that needs to be tackled. 'There is a feeling the victims are not actually being seen as victims but have done something to deserve it.' Last night officers were also called to reports of people fighting with bottles near the Sir Robert Peel Pub in Camden. A police spokesman said: 'A 24yo man attended hospital suffering puncture wounds to his arm, believed to be caused by a knife. His injuries are not believed to be serious. Officers were seen outside the Sir Robert Peel pub in Camden on Saturday night 'A woman, aged in her 30s, also went to hospital with minor injuries. There has been no arrest. Witnesses or anyone with info pls call 101.' Also on Saturday officers on patrol near the London Eye were approached by a group of people who started throwing things at them. A spokesman for the Met Police said additional officers, including the Territorial Support Group, Dog Units and the National Police Air Service attended. One person was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. Meanwhile, police investigating the stabbing of a 13-year-old boy in London have made an arrest. The youngster was found with injuries described as 'superficial' at about 6.30pm in Wandsworth. Police near the London Eye were hit by missiles thrown by a large group of members of the public Additional officers were called in to help, including dog units and the National Police Air Service Police confirmed a 14-year-old male was arrested and remains in custody. And elsewhere, in Luton a boy of 16 has today been charged with murder following the death of another 16-year-old boy in a knife fight. He is still being held in hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries following the incident in Luton, Beds, on Tuesday. Humza Hussain died in hospital from his injuries shortly after the fight in Stoneygate Road at 4o'clock in the afternoon. His family issued a tribute to him at the weekend saying: 'He was a young boy with his whole life ahead of him and this should never have happened.' A third teenager also needed hospital treatment. He has now been discharged and bailed on suspicion of violent disorder. The heroic British woman who fought off a crocodile as it dragged her twin sister in a death roll at a Mexican lagoon has joked she is 'like Crocodile Dundee'. Georgia Laurie, 28, cracked the joke as she revealed she punched the beast with both hands to scare it away from her twin. 'It was trying to take her away,' Georgia said. 'I punched it in the nose with both fists and it felt hard, like hitting a table, but it scared it off.' The incident happened last Sunday evening when the sisters were taken on an 'illegal' tour of a reptile-infested Manialtepec lagoon by a rogue German guide, known locally as 'Richie'. Georgia Laurie (right) has revealed how she punched the crocodile with both hands to free her sister Georgia Laurie is seen outside the hospital in Puerto Escondido in Mexico, where here sister is recovering from the crocodile attack The twins were taking a dip in the croc infested water when they were ambushed by the 10ft reptile, which dragged zoo keeper Melissa under water in a vicious 'death roll'. Georgia said: 'No one warned us there were crocodiles there at all. We hadn't been drinking, there was no alcohol involved. 'We were just there for a chill-out. Melissa swan off by herself and got into trouble. I didn't know what was happening but I swan towards her.' As she got closer Georgia, a qualified diver, noticed the reptile viciously attacking her sister. 'I saw her getting jerked around and I saw a croc's head which was about two feet long. The croc swam off, but kept coming back,' she said, the Sun reported. 'That's when it grabbed her by the leg and got her in a death roll. She went round and round and it was trying to drag her away. 'I was pounding it, and that's when it grabbed me and bit my arm. I bashed it with the other hand and it let me go. That happened three times. 'The croc battle seemed to go on a long time but adrenalin kicked in.' Georgia Laurie has jokingly described herself as Crocodile Dundee after saving her sister from a 10ft croc in Manialtepec lagoon, Mexico Georgia (right) added that Melissa is out of the medically induced coma that doctors placed her in to aid her recovery The twins from Sandhurst, Berkshire, are on a world tour and were planning to return to the UK in November Melissa was then pulled from the water by Georgia with the help of Moises Salinas, a 16-year-old deck hand on a tour boat named Espatula Rosada. Salinas jumped into the shallow murky waters along the Manialtepec River and helped pull Melissa onto the boat before rushing her and her sister to a waiting ambulance 20 minutes away. Once Melissa was on the boat, the extent of her injuries became clear, Georgia said. 'She had puncture wounds everywhere but wasn't bleeding out. She was drifting in and out of consciousness, 'The thing that worried me was she was coughing up blood and saying, 'I'm drowning, I'm drowning'. It was scary, and she screamed too. 'I thought of how I had seen her face down in the water for a long time, so I was worried how much water she had swallowed.' Melissa was then pulled from the water by Georgia with the help of Moises Salinas, a 16-year-old deck hand on a tour boat named Espatula Rosada (pictured) Once at hospital, Georgia explained: 'the doctors were worried about her lungs, because they thought she may have got pneumonia from an infection. 'I had to sign some papers saying treatment could go ahead, which included an induced coma. That was scary, because it seemed touch and go.' Melissa was woken from the coma last week and in a short voice message from her hospital bed told MailOnline: 'I am extremely grateful that I came out of this alive. 'And that I had Georgia fight my side for me. So I am very happy for that.' Melissa suffered terrible injuries from the attack including deep bites to her body, legs, hands and wrists some of which turned septic. She also suffered a suspected punctured lung. Melissa Laurie (right) suffered terrible injuries from the attack including deep bites to her body, legs, hands and wrists some of which turned septic Melissa and Georgia Laurie, pictured as schoolchildren, had been on a dream trip to Mexico when tragedy struck The twins' parents, Sue and Sean Laurie, said their medical bill was 'eye-watering!' Mum Sue Laurie told MailOnline: 'Georgia sent us a picture of her in hospital bed in intensive care and we've seen Melissa for the first time. 'She is looking quite a bit better. She has traces of black eyes and a scratch on her face. 'She still has monitors on her fingers she's still all wired up. And she has an oxygen tube going into her nose. But it's great to see to see her. 'She is trying to smile but it's obvious that she is in a lot of pain.' The family have also received the first medical bill for Melissa's treatment, which dad Sean has described as 'eye-watering!' at 11,000. A GoFundMe page set up for the family has so far raised over 43,800. . The sisters had been back-packing around the world. They left the UK in March and planned to return in November. The twins parents are flying out to Mexico to support the girls next week. The tour guide reportedly told the twins it was safe to swim in the water of Manialtepec Lagoon (stock image) Boris Johnson today desperately tried to calm rising tensions between the UK and the EU after Dominic Raab blasted Emmanuel Macron for making 'offensive' comments about Northern Ireland. The so-called 'sausage war' between the two sides escalated this morning after Mr Raab took aim at the French President for suggesting Northern Ireland is not a full part of the UK. But Mr Johnson used a press conference at the end of the G7 summit in Cornwall to attempt to dampen the row over post-Brexit trade checks as he claimed there is a 'fantastic degree of harmony' between the UK and the EU. The PM insisted he will do 'whatever it takes to protect the territorial integrity of the UK' but he tried to play down the significance of the dispute as he argued the subject was nothing more than a side issue at the summit. Mr Macron also appeared to signal a truce during his own press conference as he said 'we all need to stay very calm and 'lets not lose time in disagreements which often are created in corridors or antechambers'. He angered Mr Johnson yesterday by making the initial Northern Ireland claim and Mr Raab hit back, accusing the EU of taking a 'very lopsided, purist approach' to the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol which has disrupted trade and inflamed community tensions. The Foreign Secretary claimed that one in five of all EU checks are currently carried out in Northern Ireland as he urged Brussels to show 'respect' for the integrity of the UK. He called for tensions to be cooled but risked worsening the row as he accused the EU of 'effectively trying to change the status of Northern Ireland contrary to the wishes or the consent of the people'. The current dispute centres on the EU's insistence on barring chilled meats from crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain. That has pushed Mr Johnson to the brink of suspending the Protocol a key plank of the UK's post-Brexit trading relations with the bloc to stop the ban kicking in when the 'grace' period ends in a fortnight. During their encounter yesterday morning at the G7 summit in Cornwall, Mr Johnson asked Mr Macron: 'How would you like it if the French courts stopped you moving Toulouse sausages to Paris?' Mr Macron replied that he did not think it was a good comparison because Paris and Toulouse were both part of the same country to which an irritated Mr Johnson said: 'Northern Ireland and Britain are part of the same country as well.' Boris Johnson today claimed there is a 'fantastic degree of harmony' between the UK and EU leaders amid an ongoing row over trade checks in Northern Ireland The French President angered Mr Johnson during a tense standoff yesterday after he suggested Northern Ireland was not a full part of the UK amid an ongoing dispute over post-Brexit trade checks Banger PM threw into the feud The variety of sausage that Boris Johnson mentioned in his clash with President Macron the saucisse de Toulouse is one of south-west Frances best-known culinary specialities. It is made from coarsely minced pork with salt and pepper being the only other traditional ingredients though some versions also feature garlic, nutmeg or red wine. The original recipe dates back to the 18th Century. Perhaps its most common use is in cassoulet, the rustic French stew made with white beans and duck legs. The traditional Toulouse sausage is minced by hand rather than ground, which gives it a distinct coarse texture. It differs from popular English recipes, such as the Cumberland sausage, because of the minimal number of ingredients. Cumberland sausage gets its flavour from various spices, including white and black pepper, sage, thyme and cayenne. Both the Cumberland and the Toulouse varieties are produced in a long string and often presented in a coiled shape. The variety of sausage that Boris Johnson mentioned in his clash with President Macron the saucisse de Toulouse is one of south-west Frances best-known culinary specialities Advertisement Mr Raab told Sky News that Mr Johnson had been 'very calm but also firm' with the EU over the issue. He said: 'We have seen a very lopsided approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol which is supposed to protect all communities in Northern Ireland, not just the EU equities but also under article six the free flow of trade and goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. 'That hasn't happened. Fully one in five of all of the EU checks and controls to protect its border from central and eastern Europe, through around to the south of the continent up to Northern Ireland, one in five takes place in Northern Ireland. 'That cannot be right. What we want is a more proportionate, flexible approach.' Asked why the UK had signed up to the Protocol given the problems it has caused, Mr Raab said: 'Of course the Northern Ireland Protocol is a package. It has got bits to protect the EU equities, it has got bits to protect the free flow of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland the problem is the Commission are insisting on a very lopsided, purist approach.' The Foreign Secretary said the UK had submitted 'loads of proposals' to the EU on how to improve the Protocol. He said: 'What we need is both the letter and the spirit to be respected. We have come up with proposals, we have given them to the commission. 'What we cannot have is the continuing disruption of trade and effectively trying to change the status of Northern Ireland contrary to the wishes or the consent of the people which is not just contrary to the Northern Ireland Protocol but also the Belfast Agreement.' Asked specifically about Mr Macron's comments to Mr Johnson, Mr Raab said: 'I don't do, as a matter of diplomatic professionalism, come out and spill the beans. 'What I can tell you is no one should be surprised by these reports and it is not just one figure. 'We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it were somehow a different country to the UK. 'That is not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland.' He continued: 'Could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium as different countries? 'We need a bit of respect here and also frankly an appreciation of the situation for all communities in Northern Ireland.' He added: 'We would love to see this issue settled because for us the key issue, amidst some of the ignorant comments that have been made about Northern Ireland, for us what really matters is the businesses from all communities, the livelihoods, the sense of consternation and anxiety in communities on all sides in the Northern Ireland and we need to give them that reassurance.' Mr Johnson attempted to sooth tensions this afternoon as he dismissed suggestions that the Brexit row had soured the G7 summit. He said: Actually, I can tell you that the vast, vast majority of the conversations that we have had over the last three or four days have been about other subjects and there has been a fantastic degree of harmony between the leaders of our countries. He continued: We will do whatever it takes to protect the territorial integrity of the UK but actually what happened at this summit was that there was a colossal amount of work on subjects that had absolutely nothing to do with Brexit and together with our European friends and partners we are launching all sorts of projects for the benefit of the world. Asked directly if he had been offended by Mr Macron, Mr Johnson replied: I think it is the job of the Government of the United Kingdom to uphold the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom. Mr Johnson's comments came after Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said it would be 'very problematic' if the UK again unilaterally extends the grace period for Northern Ireland Protocol checks. But he also insisted a breakthrough between the EU and UK was still possible 'if there's a will there on both sides'. A UK Government source said Mr Johnson was 'pretty struck' by Mr Macron's comments and believed they were 'highly revealing of the EU's position'. The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed as part of the Brexit divorce deal and was designed to avoid a land border on the island, with checks on goods effectively being conducted in the Irish Sea. After the clash with Mr Macron, Mr Johnson announced that the EU should 'get it into their heads' that the province was part of the UK, and declared that he did not think that the EU's insistence on checks which has also affected the supply of vital pharmaceuticals to Northern Ireland was 'sensible or pragmatic'. He said: 'I think that the protocol can work if it is sensibly applied. It's not just a question of chilled meats or sausages, there are all kinds of impediments being constructed, and we need to sort it out. It is up to our EU friends and partners to understand that we will do whatever it takes. 'I've talked to some of our friends here today, who do seem to misunderstand that the UK is a single country, a single territory. I just need to get that into their heads.' The impasse means that the UK is on the brink of invoking Article 16 of the protocol, which allows the EU or UK to unilaterally suspend aspects of its operations if either side considers that aspect to be causing 'economic, societal or environmental difficulties'. Mr Johnson, who also held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said: 'I think if the protocol continues to be applied in this way, then we will obviously not hesitate to invoke Article 16.' French diplomats said that Mr Macron would veto any fundamental renegotiation of the protocol as 'not serious'. Mr Johnson met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel at the G7 yesterday Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said it would be 'very problematic' if the UK again unilaterally extends the grace period for Northern Ireland Protocol checks. He ispictured with Michael Gove in Enniskillen on June 11 An EU source said: 'We have moved on in Europe. The [sausage row] is not something that the people of Europe care about.' A UK Government source hit back: 'It doesn't matter to us whether the people of Europe care about this issue we care. We want a negotiated solution but time is running out.' Number 10 has rejected an EU 'compromise' proposal for Britain to accept ongoing alignment with Brussels rules on the grounds it would make it impossible to strike ambitious trade deals. A source said: 'That is not going to happen. Boris resigned from Theresa May's Government over a refusal to follow EU rules. The EU is trying to reinstate the backstop.' European leaders have warned that unilateral action to suspend the protocol would lead to retaliatory measures, including tariffs. Harry and Meghan want to 'keep the peace' with the Royal Family, but have 'no regrets' about doing their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, it has been reported. Insiders say the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are 'trying their utmost to maintain a good relationship' with the Queen in order to 'keep the peace' within the family, according to Us Magazine. It comes as today it was revealed by The Mail on Sunday that the Queen will no longer remain silent when Harry and Meghan allow 'mistruths' about the Royal Family to circulate in the public domain. But, extending a rare olive branch in the Transatlantic briefing war between the two sides, sources in the US suggest the couple are trying to want move past the fallout from their interview with Oprah. A source told Us Magazine: 'It's no secret that the last year Harry and Meghan have been at war with the royals. Harry and Meghan (pictured with the Queen and William and Kate in 2018) want to 'keep the peace' with the Royal Family, but have 'no regrets' about doing their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, it has been reported Insiders say the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (picutred right) are 'trying their utmost to maintain a good relationship' with the Queen (pictured yesterday during Trooping of the Colour at Windsor Castle yesterday) in order to 'keep the peace' within the family, according to Us Magazine 'All is not forgiven, but after all the backlash regarding their interviews which by the way, the pair have no regrets about they're trying their utmost to maintain a good relationship with the queen in order to keep the peace.' The source also said that the Sussexes want 'to avoid being demoted as a royal at all cost and that the 'worst-case scenario, losing their titles.' It comes as the Mail on Sunday today revealed, in a dramatic departure from her longstanding 'never complain, never explain' policy, that Her Majesty has instructed courtiers to correct any statements which misrepresent her private conversations or those of other senior Royals. The extraordinary move demonstrates the Queen's exasperation at the relentless briefings that allies of the Duke and Duchess have been giving to the media and follows the dispute over Harry and Meghan's choice of name for their new daughter. The Duchess of Sussex has given birth to a daughter named Lilibet 'Lili' Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, after the family nickname for the Queen and the duke's mother Princess Diana An insider said the latest bruising episode had sent the Queen 'over the edge'. The feud began when US-based journalists favoured by supporters of Harry and Meghan reported that the couple had 'asked permission' to name their daughter Lilibet, a deeply personal childhood nickname of the Queen that was used by very close relatives, including her late husband Prince Philip. But a Royal insider described the conversation between Harry and his grandmother as 'a telling, not an asking' confirming a BBC report last week which said the Sussexes had not asked the Queen if she had any objection to their choice of name. Harry and Meghan reacted furiously, instructing their lawyers to contest the BBC story, which they described as 'false and defamatory'. Sources say the Queen's more robust response to the tsunami of media briefings from allies of the Sussexes will go beyond the Lilibet story. 'This is about whether or not what is being reported is an accurate version of what actually happened,' said the insider. The 95-year-old Monarch put aside the controversy yesterday as she smiled and even tapped her feet to the music during Trooping the Colour, her annual birthday parade. After hosting a reception at the G7 summit on Friday where she entertained world leaders by cutting a cake with a sword and joked as a team photograph was taken, 'Are you supposed to look as if you're enjoying yourself?' she will today welcome US President Joe Biden and his First Lady, Jill, to Windsor Castle. The Sussexes chose Lilibet - the name used by Prince Philip for the Queen - for the name of their daughter who was born just days before the Duke of Edinburgh would have turned 100 The new baby will be entitled to be a princess and Archie a prince - both with HRH styles - after the death of the Queen and when Charles becomes king. This is because they will have moved up the line of succession Harry and Meghan, who are now based in California, announced the arrival of their daughter last Sunday, prompting warm messages of congratulations from the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The Mail on Sunday understands that Harry also sent a text message to Kate, cementing her role as a bridge between him and his brother that appeared to be forged at Prince Philip's funeral in April. But the mood began to sour with an article in the New York Post which said it had been 'told' by unnamed sources that 'Harry called the Queen for permission to name his daughter Lilibet'. The story was soon picked up by other media outlets, infuriating the Palace to the extent that a high-ranking, but unnamed, Palace source did not dispute claims by a BBC reporter that no such permission had been sought. The impact was immediate and incendiary. The BBC story, effectively 'killed' the New York Post's account and led, within hours, to the letter from Harry and Meghan's lawyers. A spokesman for the couple said: 'The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement. In fact, his grandmother was the first family member he called. During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.' Friends of Harry and Meghan based in LA have been briefing the US media However, there was further irritation at the Palace when friends of Harry and Meghan suggested to US journalists that the Queen had been introduced to Lilibet over a video call However, there was further irritation at the Palace when friends of Harry and Meghan suggested to US journalists that the Queen had been introduced to Lilibet over a video call. The insider last night denied that, stating, 'No video call has taken place', adding: 'Friends of the Sussexes appear to have given misleading briefings to journalists about what the Queen had said and that took the whole thing over the edge. The Palace couldn't deny the story that this was a mistruth.' Ironically, Harry has spoken out against the 'barrage of mistruths' on social media. While the Palace has largely sought to mollify Harry and Meghan even amid the grenades thrown during their interview with Oprah Winfrey in March and Harry's subsequent TV series on mental health the Queen and other senior Royals have shown there is a limit to their patience. After Harry and Meghan claimed there was racism in the Royal Household, William snapped: 'We're very much not a racist family.' And Buckingham Palace which is investigating the claims pointedly said 'recollections may vary'. MailOnline has today contacted representatives of the Sussexes for comment. Households are throwing away perfectly good food worth as much as 900 million each year because supermarkets routinely put misleading labels on fruit, vegetables and dairy products, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed. A major analysis of key lines of fresh produce in Britain's ten largest supermarket chains showed that nearly every retailer is failing to follow official guidelines on labelling published four years ago. We found 'Best before' or 'Display until' labels on 53 of 70 popular uncut fruit and vegetables at Sainsbury's, Tesco, Co-op, Morrisons, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Iceland, Waitrose and M&S. Households are throwing away perfectly good food worth as much as 900 million each year because supermarkets routinely put misleading labels on fruit, vegetables and dairy products, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed However, the vast majority of uncut fresh fruit and vegetables including potatoes, carrots, onions, apples, garlic and lemons do not require any date label at all. NO NEED TO FREEZE MEAT ON DAY YOU BUY Millions of pounds' worth of uncooked meat including chicken, bacon and sausages could be saved from landfill if supermarkets followed alternative labelling guidelines. According to WRAP, thousands of tons of uncooked meat are needlessly thrown away because of wrong freezing advice. More than one in three chicken products are wasted because supermarkets use a Freeze On Day Of Purchase label, which campaigners say causes confusion. Customers throw away the food because they mistakenly believe that it is unsafe to eat if they do not freeze it on the precise day they bought it. In fact, as long as it is kept in the fridge, meat can be put in the freezer up until the 'Use by' date and then defrosted and cooked later. The guidelines urge supermarkets to use phrases such as 'Freeze by date shown'. Our investigation found that Iceland offered no freezing advice on any of its sausages, chicken and bacon, while M&S advised customers to freeze its chicken 'on day of purchase' rather than by the date shown, as they should. Advertisement A Government-backed report published in 2017 called on supermarkets to remove these labels 'to encourage consumers to use their judgment on when to eat fresh produce, avoiding waste'. It stated: 'For uncut fresh produce, apply 'Best before' only where this is judged to be necessary/useful in order to help consumers eat rather than waste the product. For all other cases, do not apply a date code.' An exception was made for 'short-life products where there is limited time for consumption at home' such as strawberries, where a date label could encourage families to eat food before it goes off. Yet our study found only Tesco and Lidl had removed date labels from their key fruit and vegetable lines. Tesco still shows 'Best before' labels on carrots for around 12 weeks a year at the end of the UK growing season. In the worst examples of poor practice, Iceland and Morrisons are still using old-fashioned 'Display until' dates on fresh potatoes, apples, carrots and lemons. These discredited labels are used by shops as guidance for staff on how long products should stay on shelves. The UK's official food labelling guidelines which were prepared and endorsed in 2017 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Food Standards Agency regulator and the charity WRAP recommended against using them 'to avoid confusing consumers'. The guidelines stated: ' 'Use by' should only be applied for food safety reasons. Therefore fresh, uncut fruit and vegetables need to display only a 'Best before' date if appropriate.' Food retailers have also been advised since 2019 that milk can now show a 'Best before' label rather than a 'Use by' label, unless there is a food safety risk. This advice, which also applies to yogurts and other dairy products, is vital because 'Best before' refers to the quality of food, meaning it is still safe to eat past its best. By contrast, 'Use by' refers to the safety of food, indicating that it should never be eaten after that date. It is also illegal to sell or redistribute food after its 'Use by' date. Yet The Mail on Sunday's analysis of supermarkets in Surrey, Hertfordshire, London and Essex found every store put 'Use by' on its own-brand yogurt and milk cartons. According to food charity Feedback Global, households waste 85 million pints of milk worth about 10 million every year because they follow 'Use by' dates and needlessly pour milk down the sink when still safe to consume. Research by the University of Chester has previously discovered that milk from four UK supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons kept in a fridge at 4C remained safe to drink seven days after their 'Use by' dates. The failure of Britain's biggest supermarkets to update their dairy labels stands in stark contrast to the action taken by several major firms behind branded milk and yogurt. Danone, which makes Activia yogurts, Cravendale milk manufacturer Arla and consumer goods giant Nestle have all switched to displaying 'Best before' dates. Many of the branded manufacturers have also added 'Look, Smell, Taste, Don't Waste' labels encourage consumers to decide for themselves when milk has turned sour. APPLES LAST TWO WEEKS LONGER IN THE FRIDGE Half a million tons of food could be saved every year if retailers used labels that encouraged people to store food properly. Food should be stored in fridges cooler than 5C. But according to studies, the average fridge temperature in the UK is 7C with some as high as 14C. Government guidelines urge supermarkets to print a 'little blue fridge' 5C logo on products to encourage customers to keep their food cool and fresh but only one in seven relevant products carries the logo. Two in three people are not aware that storing apples in the fridge at 4C can prolong life by up to two weeks, an MoS survey found. Meanwhile, Government guidelines say supermarkets should use snowflake logos on the front and back of packaging to indicate it is suitable for freezing. More than half of food that can be frozen doesn't carry the label, and WRAP says using the label would save thousands of tons of bread, meat and milk every year. WRAP estimates that about 300,000 tons of food could also be saved if retailers included on-pack recipe ideas. Advertisement When Arla switched to 'Best before' dates in September 2019, its director of quality, Fran Ball, said: 'If changing the label gives people the confidence that their milk might still be OK for a few further days after the date on the bottle, we'll all play a part in reducing food waste.' Last night, food waste campaigners called on supermarkets to launch an urgent review of their labelling on fresh produce to prevent millions of tons of food needlessly going in the bin each year. Carina Millstone, executive director of Feedback Global, said: 'Supermarkets must own up to their part in creating food waste in their customers' homes, and do all they can to help customers do the right thing, with the right labels. If they don't, we're left to wonder whether selling more food to their customers than they can eat is more important to retailers than tackling the huge climate burden of food waste. 'It's vital that we all pull together to reduce food waste, as one of the simplest actions we can all take to reduce our carbon footprint. Date labels such as 'Best before' on fresh produce, or 'Use by' on milk, are unnecessary and are causing enormous damage.' Analysis for The Mail on Sunday by WRAP found that households throw away 350,000 tons of food worth 900 million every year because of mislabelling. The charity said an increase in product life of just one day of all perishable food could prevent 200,000 tons of food waste potentially saving 600 million a year. When the latest food date labelling guidance was first published in 2017, Defra and the FSA accused supermarkets of using dates that are too 'conservative'. A report by the European Commission in 2018 also accused supermarkets of failing to remove date labels 'for fear of undermining a product's association with freshness and quality'. Retailers are thought to be reluctant to change dates over concern that customers might be made ill. Elizabeth Andoh-Kesson, food policy adviser at British Retail Consortium, said: 'Supermarkets have a duty of care and legal responsibility to use suitable use-by dates on their products to prevent any harm to customers. The safety of customers remains the number one priority.' Yet according to WRAP, 150,000 tons of fruit and veg every year go in the bin each year specifically because households mistakenly believe food can no longer be eaten beyond the 'Best before' date. Our investigation found that on average, supermarket potatoes had only three days left before the 'Best before' date. One branch of Sainsbury's in London was selling 1.5kg of potatoes with just two days left on the 'Best before' date. A branch of Iceland in Addlestone, Surrey, selling 2kg of potatoes had a discredited 'Display until' label with five days remaining. A Co-op in Hertfordshire was selling lemons with just two days left on the 'Best before' label. Aldi in Essex had a cabbage with three days left on its 'Best before' date. All supermarkets said they were committed to reducing waste. Iceland said it was 'updating all yogurt and hard cheese to 'Best before' labels' and was 'in discussions' about milk labelling. It said 'Display until' was used 'in line with customer feedback'. Morrisons said it puts 'enjoy for longer when kept in the fridge' alongside its 'Display until' labels. Sainsbury's and M&S said they constantly review labels in line with best practice. Waitrose said it was 'trialling' the removal of many 'Best before' dates. And Co-op said it had implemented 90 per cent of WRAP's guidelines, with 'more changes to come'. Boris Johnson today said 'anybody sensible' would 'keep an open mind' about the origin of the coronavirus outbreak but the UK does not currently believe the so-called 'lab leak' theory. Mr Johnson told a press conference at the end of the G7 summit in Cornwall: At the moment, the advice that we have had is it doesnt look as though this particular disease of zoonotic origin came from a lab. Clearly anybody sensible would want to keep an open mind about that. His comments came after Dominic Raab echoed a similar sentiment this morning over the suggestion that Covid-19 may have escaped from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The Foreign Secretary said on the 'balance of probabilities' Britain is of the view that the virus did not originate in a lab. He said the Government believes it is 'much more likely' that coronavirus 'jumped' from animals to humans. But he said officials at the G7 summit have been 'comparing notes' on the subject and the world does not yet have 'all of the answers' about how the pandemic began. Boris Johnson today said 'anybody sensible' would 'keep an open mind' about the origin of the coronavirus outbreak but the UK does not currently believe the so-called 'lab leak' theory Dominic Raab today said the UK does not currently believe the theory that Covid-19 may have escaped from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan The head of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the possibility that the pandemic was triggered by a lab leak 'was raised' at the G7 and 'we discussed about the origins'. A WHO investigation into the origin of the pandemic has not ruled out any theory behind the outbreak. A team of experts from the WHO and China said in February that the virus was 'extremely unlikely' to have entered the human population as a result of a laboratory-related incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But the WHO has said 'all hypotheses still remain on the table' and wants to carry out a second phase of its work, while US President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation into the origins, including the leak theory. Asked if he had been involved in G7 discussions about the lab leak theory, Mr Raab told Sky News: 'I haven't personally but of course it has created part of the backdrop and officials have been comparing notes on this. 'If you are asking me whether we think on the balance of probabilities, if you like, that it originated in a lab, our best information for now is that it didn't. 'But we don't have all of the answers, that is why internationally we wanted the review to be able to go into to get all of the answers, to have all the cooperation, so we have the full picture rather than these possible, potential, plausible options. The head of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the possibility that the pandemic was triggered by a lab leak 'was raised' at the G7 and 'we discussed about the origins' 'But on balance we do not believe that it came from a laboratory. We think it is much more likely to have jumped if you like from animals to humans.' A recent report by the Wall Street Journal, citing a previously undisclosed US intelligence report, claimed three researchers from the Wuhan lab sought hospital care in November 2019. The report, which provided fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits, sparked renewed calls for a probe into whether the virus came from a lab. Never-before-seen police bodycam footage has shed light on the notorious Alva Beach stabbings where two men were knifed in the heart by a frightened teenager. In the chaotic video, cops are seen storming Dean Webber's suburban home in tropical north Queensland on the night of the 2018 NRL Grand Final, moments after he stabbed two men. What happened before the pair were knifed to death has been shrouded in mystery, with no charges ever laid and the teenager's actions deemed self defence. Diesel fitter Webber, then 19, stabbed Tom Davy, 27, and his friend Corey Christensen, 37, after they tried to enter his home looking for Candice Locke - Mr Davy's girlfriend - who had fled after a drunken quadbike incident. The bizarre case, which played out in the sleepy oceanside hamlet south of Townsville, has continued to divide opinion across Australia, raising tough questions about what lengths a person can got to to protect themselves in their own home. In the new footage, the men's bloodied bodies are seen sprawled out on Webber's front lawn. Candace Locke (pictured) took refuge at Mr Webber's house on September 30, 2018. The group of men then allegedly broke into the property The teenager is then seen laid on the floor with blood on his arms as police enter the house, before consoling a hysterical Ms Locke who was cowering on the kitchen floor. Police shout 'hands above your head' as they approach the teenager, ordering himt o stay on the ground. The two deceased men had been looking for Mr Davy's injured girlfriend Candice Locke - who went to Mr Webber's home seeking help after dislocating her shoulder in a quad bike accident. The Queensland Supreme Court in March upheld Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley's ruling last year that Mr Webber would only have to give evidence in writing due to the trauma he had suffered. Mr Davy's mother hit out at the ruling and said Mr Webber's mental state should not excuse him from fully answering for his actions that night. The original decision came after the inquest heard he had experienced PTSD from the stabbing and therefore shouldn't have to testify in person. Mr Webber stabbed Tom Davy (left), 27, and friend Corey Christensen (right), 37, after they tried to come into his house in Alva Beach, north Queensland, on October 1, 2018 Mr Davy, who worked as an aircraft engineer, was on holiday with his girlfriend Ms Locke when the two first met Mr Christensen relaxing on the sand. They and were invited to watch the Grand Final at a beach party - an event which had become somewhat of a tradition in the town. As the wild, boozy night went on, Mr Davy went to sleep after the couple had a row. Ms Locke decided to stay up and went on a buggy ride with another man - Louis Bengoa - a local sugarcane farmer. Both were intoxicated on the late-night joy ride and Ms Locke fell out of the vehicle. She ran for help to the nearest home and Mr Bengoa went back to find Mr Davy and Mr Christensen. A shocked Mr Webber answered the door to find the distressed stranger and called Triple 0 before the three other men eventually came to the home and began knocking on the door and trying to force their way inside through side windows and screen doors. Mr Davy (right) who worked as an aircraft engineer, was on holiday with his girlfriend Ms Locke when the two first met Mr Christensen (left) on the sand and were invited to watch the Grand Final at a beach party The teenager had never seen Ms Locke or any of the three men before that night. Investigators believe that everyone involved was just 'trying to save' Ms Locke and thought she was in danger. The terrified young man called emergency services three times in total, before police eventually arrived to find a blood-soaked scene with two dead bodies almost an hour after the first call. Dean Webber, 19, (pictured) stabbed two men who broke into his home on September 30, 2018 Mr Webber maintains that he was defending himself. 'I've never been in a fight in my life and there are three burly blokes trying to break in. I was just trying to protect myself and Candice,' he said in a police interview. Mr Webber claims, the three men were shouting threats from outside the home and warned him against calling authorities. When the men made it through the door, Mr Webber said he was 'thrown on his head' before getting back up and stabbing both Mr Davy and Mr Christensen in the heart. Their bodies would later been found on the front lawn outside the home. Police bodycam footage shows officers entering the home to find a shaken Mr Webber face-down on the ground of his home with Ms Locke laying in the kitchen. Mr Webber claims all three men entered the home after breaking in, but a coronial inquest only found Mr Davy's DNA inside the home. Despite the lack of answers, a landmark legal ruling means Mr Webber will not have to take the stand and give evidence on the grounds his is severely traumatised and suffering PTSD from the ordeal. Mr Davy has hit out the decision not to force Mr Webber to take the stand (pictured: Mr Christensen's wife) Mr Davy's mother hit out at the ruling and said Mr Webber's mental state should not excuse him from fully answering for his actions that night. 'We feel that the person who has taken those two lives should be questioned to explain,' Heather Davy told The Courier-Mail. The family of the two men killed had challenged the move not to force Mr Webber to testify, but their hopes of dismissing a judicial review were ended in March by Acting Supreme Court Justice Anthony Rafter. Lawyer Rebecca Fogerty, who represents Mr Davy's family, had said they wanted the cross-examination process to be as easy as possible for Mr Webber. 'It's an important consideration that if the witness is required to give evidence in person, that he does not have to go through that process anymore than he absolutely needs to,' Ms Fogerty said, according to the Cairns Post. 'This is of course a tragic situation for everybody involved and we are very conscious of the fact that for Mr Webber the process of giving evidence will be a very distressing one.' A coronial inquest was launched into the deaths of Tom Davy, 27, and Corey Christensen, 37. Mr Webber (pictured) was excused from giving evidence in person because of his PTSD Feminist author Naomi Wolf has refused to backdown after being suspended from Twitter for spreading outlandish theories about vaccines and 5G. Dr Wolf, author of third-wave feminist book The Beauty Myth, said she was not a conspiracy theorist despite the recent ban. She slammed Twitter for de-platforming her, arguing the platform should allow people to appeal rather than simply 'hang up' on them. She added a claim the company has a conflict of interest, because the daughter of Dr Anthony Fauci, the US's top Covid advisor, allegedly works for the company as a software engineer. Dr Wolf said the content she had, until recently, been tweeting would not be great for any investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 or Dr Fauci's handling of the pandemic. Twitter suspended American author Naomi Wolf after she tweeted myths about Covid-19 vaccines and 5G The American author was suspended after claiming jabs were a 'software platform that can receive uploads' in one tweet and later comparing Dr Fauci to 'satan' She later backtracked and admitted she does not blame Dr Fauci's daughter for her suspension because she does not 'have any evidence of that'. But, she said, 'it raises the problem with social media platforms that they don't have journalistic ethics preventing conflict of interest,' she told the Sunday Times. She was reportedly erratic during the interview, swinging from making outlandish claims to backtracking, and then becoming defensive. She refused to reveal whether she had received the Covid-19 vaccine, saying the question was inappropriate and adding that medical decisions are up to the individual. She pointedly suggested she had not had the vaccine, however, making a clear note that jabs are under emergency use authorisation pending full clinical trials. The author has claimed to have concerns about 5G radio signals and said she had seen 'strange group consciousness' as a result of the new network. Dr Wolf also railed against the use of emergency laws, explaining how she used her website Daily Clout to help people understand their freedoms enshrined in US law. 'The constitution doesn't say that if there is a bad infectious disease, you have to suspend the constitution and give tyrannical power to the government', she told the Sunday Times' Rosie Kinchen. Elsewhere, Dr Wolf sees the pandemic as a crisis for democracies across the globe - where lawmakers have been unable to meet in person for months, and populations are encourage to wear masks in public. In recent months, Dr Wolf has increasingly strayed into conspiracy theory territory, but she is quick to brand people who throw out the term 'naive'. 'I have been in a room where the decisions are made, where various kinds of political power are deployed at a national level, and I am not naive as a result', she said. In recent months, Dr Wolf has increasingly strayed into conspiracy theory territory, but she is quick to brand people who throw out the term 'naive' Dr Wolf is currently 'touring' American with husband and private detective David O'Shea. Last week she spoke to Steve Bannon, the former Donald Trump adviser, for a podcast, and she recently spoke to 60 state legislators in Maine and again in Michigan. O'Shea now acts as her unofficial Twitter arm, though Wolf has warned her followers will migrate away from the platform with her. Dr Wolf was suspended from Twitter last week after claiming jabs were a 'software platform that can receive uploads' in one tweet and later comparing Dr Fauci to 'satan'. Dr Wolf was suspended from Twitter for making outlandish claims about the vaccine She also tweeted that vaccine passports would 'recreate a situation that is very familiar to me as a student of history. This has been the start of many, many genocides.' In another bizarre tweet, Dr Wolf claimed she had spoken to an Apple employee who told her 'they had new tech to deliver vaccines (with) nanoparticles that let you travel back in time.' The author told her 140,000 followers 'the best way to show respect for healthcare workers if you are healthy and under 65 is to socialise sensibly and expose yourself to a low viral load.' And in her most recent post, Dr Wolf said 'it seems urgent for public health to separate vaccinated people's urine/faeces from general sewage supplies/waterways' until studies on their potential contamination of unvaccinated people's drinking water. She also claimed children should not wear masks, tweeting the bizarre claim she was 'seeing kids with their lower faces hanging inertly, absolutely unmoving facial muscles, when they take their masks off'. Twitter said the suspension was permanent and Dr Wolf would not be able to launch an appeal. The decision was welcomed by many users whoo said they were pleased to see an end to the 'dangerous anti-vaxx nonsense' peddled by Dr Wolf. Dr Wolf's suspension from the platform was welcomed by some users who said she had been banned 'for being too stupid' It is the latest in a string of problematic controversies the American author has faced. Her book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalisation of Love, was publicly rubbished in 2019 after a BBC investigation found she had made serious research mistakes and misunderstood key legal terms. Dr Wolf has also been accused of exaggerating the number of deaths from anorexia in her 1990 book The Beauty Myth and of 'misrepresenting the brain' in her book Vaginas. She also previously claimed the US military imported Ebola from Africa and intended to spread it at home. Imperial measurements like pints, pounds and inches could soon make a come back in the UK, thanks to Government considerations over changes to the current system. The potential changes come off the back of Brexit, with freedoms from the EU allowing greater use of traditional measurements. Today, the only products that are sold in imperial units are draught beer or cider by the pint, milk in 'returnable containers' by the pint, and precious metals by troy ounce. Draught beer or cider are one of the only thing sold in Britain today by the pint EU rules introduced in 1971 required member states to standardise the International System of Units instead of using the Centimetregramsecond system of units (CGS) and MKS system, which uses the metre, kilogram and second as base units. But, Britain was using the metric system prior to this. The decision for the UK to adopt the metric system was made in 1965 after lobbying by British Industry. The metric system as it stands today was designed during the French Revolution in the 1790s, and uses a single base unit for each type of measurable quantity and then adds prefixes to indicate multiples of ten. Warwick Cairns, a spokesman for the BritishWeights and Measures Association welcomed the potential change. 'If you go to the supermarket and you want a pound of bananas or a pound of apples or whatever you should be free to ask for it and to receive it,' he said. Milk in returnable containers (such as glass bottles) are also sold by the pint He added that imperial measurements are a 'living connection with our past.' 'A lot of these measures come from the Romans who in turn took them from other cultures before them,' he said. Business Minister Paul Scully said: 'Now we have left the EU we will consider whether further limited exemptions can be applied for other traditional uses.' But, the changes may not mean the end of the metric system in Britain entirely. Business Minister Paul Scully has said the Government will consider changes to the system 'The Government recognises some people have a preference to use imperial units in their day to day lives,' Mr Scully added. ''At the same time, it recognises that many others are not familiar with imperial units and that the use of metric is a necessity for British businesses to compete in markets around the world.' A brave youngster has recalled the horrifying moment he feared for his life after he was mauled by a shark while swimming at a popular beach in Western Australia. Jackson Bartlett, 10, was airlifted to Perth Children's Hospital after he was bitten by a two-metre bronze whaler shark while swimming at Five Finger Reef on Friday. The Sydney boy had been spearfishing with his dad while holidaying at the popular snorkelling spot 1,000km north of Perth when he noticed a dark shadow' which 'came closer and got faster and faster' before the predator attacked. He is recovering well after undergoing surgery as he recalled his terrifying ordeal from his hospital bed. Jackson Bartlett still managed a brave smile shortly after being attacked by a shark on Friday as he was airlifted to Perth 'I thought I was going to die because it was really scary,' Jackson said. 'Even though it was just my leg I thought I was gonna lose a lot of blood but I didn't lose that much blood.' Jackson had spent the last nine months travelling with his family on a road trip across Australia. He originally thought he'd spotted a dugong in the water and kept on swimming. The shark lunged at Jackson twice before attacking his right foot on the third attempt. 'I thought it might have been a reefy but then it tried to bite me, and then it went for me, missed and got one of my flippers and my leg,' he told The West Australian. Jackson Bartlett (pictured) recalled his terrifying encounter two days later as he recovered in Perth Children's Hospital 'And then after that... it swam right past me. I caught up to dad and I said "shark" and then he was looking at it and then I showed him my big sore. I said "it bit me" and then dad was yelling "help". Jackson was pulled to shore by local tour guide Warwick 'Wokka' Coles, 48, where he was treated by paramedics before he was airlifted to Perth by the Royal Flying Doctors Service. But the terrifying ordeal hasn't destroyed plucky Jackson's love of the ocean and he said he looks forward to getting back into the water as soon as he can. 'I still like sharks but I just don't want to swim too close to big ones like that,' Jackson said. Jackson Bartlett (pictured) is a keen snorkeller and hopes to get back into the water soon His recollection of the ordeal comes after Mr Coles described how he dragged the youngster to safety while Jackson's father stood guard with his spear gun to make sure the shark didn't attack again. 'It wasn't gushing, but there was enough for it to leave a trail of blood behind as I dragged him into the shallows,' Mr Coles told the publication. 'He thought he was just pointing out the shark to him, but then he yelled "it bit me". 'It was a pretty big open wound, open quite wide.' Warwick 'Wokka' Coles (pictured) swam out to Jackson after hearing his father's calls for help Mr Coles praised Jackson on how calm he was while helping him to safety. 'When this sort of thing happens, even if it doesn't end up being that serious, you think about what could've happened,' he said. The beach at Five Finger Reef was closed for 24 hours following the shark attack. The tourist hotspot is popular for snorkelling and only accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicles. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said a bronze whaler shark was seen about 75m off the coast in the area about 10 minutes after the boy was injured. A spear fisherman was bitten at the same spot in March year but escaped when he punched the shark. Takeaway coffee cups will be phased out of Western Australia cafes by the end of next year after the state government expedited its plastics plan. WA Premier Mark McGowan said on Sunday that the state's Plan for Plastics would be fast-tracked by four years to be fully in place by the end of 2022. By the end of 2021, plastic plates, bowls, cups and other utensils will be banned, as will thick plastic bags and polystyrene food containers. Takeaway coffee cups will be phased out of Western Australia cafes by the end of next year after the state government expedited its plastics plan (Stock) Poll Do you agree with the plastics ban? Yes No Do you agree with the plastics ban? Yes 332 votes No 283 votes Now share your opinion Single-use coffee cups and lids will be phased out in WA by the end of 2022, as well as items such as plastic produce bags, some cotton buds, polystyrene packaging, microbeads and oxodegradable plastics. Businesses in WA will be obliged to use environmentally-friendly takeaway cups and lids, and consumers will be encouraged to bring coffee 'keep-cups'. Mr McGowan told reporters WA businesses would be educated and supported as the plastics phase out, rather than being immediately punished. He said he wanted WA to be a plastic-free leader among Australian states. WA residents will have to use Keep Cups (left) soon as single use plastics have been blamed for animal deaths (right) 'We want to do our bit to phase out plastics - plastics are causing grief in the oceans across the world, kill wildlife, other marine life. It is very dangerous for our environment and has been going on for decades,' he said. 'Every state, every country, needs to do their bit and we plan to.' Exemptions to the rules will be provided for those who rely on single-use plastics for disability, aged care or health needs. The acceleration of the Plan for Plastics program comes after lightweight plastic bags were banned in WA in 2018 and the WA container deposit scheme was established in 2019. An estimated 130,000 tonnes of plastic flows into Australia's environment each year. Thomas Markle has launched an extraordinary attack on Oprah Winfrey as he criticised the megastar for 'using' Harry and Meghan to promote her new TV ventures. Speaking publicly for the first time since the birth of his new granddaughter, Lilibet, the 76-year-old also criticised the 'cold' couple for refusing to see him - saying even 'axe murderers' are visited by their family. The retired Hollywood lighting director, who lives 70 miles away from the Sussexes' LA mansion, has not spoken to the Duchess of Sussex, 39, since she married Prince Harry three years ago and has never met either of his grandchildren. 'Of course it hurts, there are axe murderers in prison and their family comes to see them,' he said in a bombshell television interview on 60 Minutes. 'Im not an axe murder. I made one dumb mistake and Ive been punished for it. This show theyve been on, they talk about compassion, theres no compassion for me, no compassion for my family, and no compassion for the world. 'If I had done something terribly wrong, that would be fine, but I haven't.' With his ailing health continuing to deteriorate, Thomas said he fears he will never get to meet Archie, 2, or baby Lilibet, who was born on June 4. Thomas Markle (right) hasn't seen or heard from his daughter Meghan (left) in three years 'I'll be very disappointed that I don't get to hold my granddaughter,' he said. 'On July 18, I'll be 77 years old. Most of the Markle men don't make it much past 80. 'I might never see my grandchildren. I'm not looking for pity. I'm just saying that's a reality. 'All I can say is that I hope eventually I get to see these grandchildren of mine. Im a pretty good grandpa.' He also weighed on the couple's highly publicised and controversial television interview with Oprah in March by accusing the US talk show host of cashing in on the couple. 'I have things to say. Oprah Winfrey, for one, I think is playing Harry and Meghan,' he said. 'I think she is using them to build her network and build her new shows and I think shes taken advantage of a very weakened man and has got him to say things that you just shouldnt be saying on television. Thomas Markle accused US talk show host Oprah Winfrey of playing and cashing on on his daughter and son-in-law (pictured) during a television interview in March 'She will disagree of course, and she may even sue me, I dont care. But the bottom line is she is working Harry.' Thomas was supposed to walk Meghan down the aisle on her wedding day in May 2018 but suffered a heart attack. Prince Charles offered to walk his future daughter-in-law down the aisle in her father's absence, a gesture Thomas said he appreciates. In fact, he explained he would enjoy the chance to catch with Prince Charles over a beer and believes the pair have a lot in common - such as being 'ghosted' by their own children. 'I think we would get on quite well and I think its unfortunate whats happened to him as well,' he explained. Thomas Markle (pictured) hopes he can reconcile with his daughter Meghan Markle before it's too late 'He seems like a likeable guy and I appreciate the fact that he walked my daughter down the aisle. I could certainly not have asked for a better replacement, although I would have liked to do it myself. 'I see them both ghosting their families completely and now they are alone in a huge house where they can probably accommodate 20 people in but its just the four of them. 'I don't think they are going to have relatives over for a barbecue next week or next month. I don't know why.' The Duchess of Sussex hasn't spoken to her father in more than three years after he was caught staging snaps of himself being measured up for a wedding suit before the big day. Asked if he still loved his daughter by host Tom Steinfort, he replied 'of course I do', but said he had 'no idea' whether the feeling was reciprocated. Thomas Markle has pleaded for the chance to meet his grandchildren. He's pictured with daughter Meghan (left) and her mother Doria Ragland (right) 'Like I said, I have not spoken to her until two days before they got married when I was lying in a hospital bed, thats the last conversation we had. Ive not spoken to them since,' he explained. A deep rift between the father and daughter seemed to begin in earnest after he was caught staging the paparazzi photos in the lead-up to the wedding. 'Ive apologised a hundred times for it,' Thomas said. 'Im not bitter, Im confused. I just dont have the answer. I want an answer. If I had done something terribly wrong that would be fine but I havent. I just want an answer. 'I dont know anybody thats this cold to do this, and now Meghans doing it to me and Harrys doing it to his father. 'Thats a cold thing to do and its even more cold to do it to the Queen, who is in her nineties. Thats a cold thing to do.' During the interview, family photographs were seen around Thomas' California home - including of Meghan, his other daughter Samantha and son Thomas Jr. Looking at a photograph of himself holding Meghan as a baby, he commented: 'I would like to have that experience with my new granddaughter'. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia would be willing to send ransomware hackers to the U.S. but only if the two sides can reach agreement on mutual extradition of criminals. Putin issued his comments in advance of his June 16th summit meeting with President Joe Biden in Geneva, on a pressing subject Biden has already said he will raise. It was not entirely clear from his remark if he was signaling cooperation, or once again throwing back an accusation at the West, following a ransomeware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline that is critical to the East Coast supplies. Another recent ransomware attack hit Brazilian meat supplier JBS. Cyber experts cast it as a crime wave taking place right under Moscow's nose. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a TV interview about extradition of ransomware hackers 'If we agree to extradite criminals, then of course Russia will do that, we will do that, but only if the other side, in this case the United States, agrees to the same and will extradite the criminals in question to the Russian Federation,' Putin is quoted as saying, according to the Interfax news agency. The U.S. doesn't have a functioning extradition treaty with Russia although it did reach one with czarist Russia in 1893. Russia did not hand over Russian intelligence officers special counsel Robert Mueller indicted on charges of election interference in 2018. President Joe Biden has said he will raise the issue of ransomware attacks during his June 16 summit meeting with Putin The ransomware attack shut down the Colonial Pipeline and disrupted U.S. energy supplies, although the U.S. government says it was able to claw back ransom money The U.S. identified Russia-based hackers as being behind the Colonial Pipeline attack, but have not accused the Russian government. Putin is also quoted about the opportunity to restore contacts through 'direct dialogue.' It is planned 'to restore our personal contacts, relations, to establish direct dialog, to create really functioning mechanisms in those areas that represent mutual interests,' he said in an interview on state TV that has yet to air. Gordon Brown today said he fears there could be '50 years of conflict' between Scotland and England if Nicola Sturgeon wins her push for independence. The former prime minister said he believes there is 'no future in neighbouring nations fighting each other'. Mr Brown said Labour must demonstrate to voters in Scotland that it is the 'party of solidarity' if it is to repair its reputation and bounce back at the ballot box after a period of sustained decline. Gordon Brown today said he fears there could be '50 years of conflict' between Scotland and England if Nicola Sturgeon wins her push for independence Ms Sturgeon told Boris Johnson after the SNP's election victory last month that she believes a re-run of the 2014 independence vote is 'a matter of when - not if' Scotland used to be an electoral fortress for the Labour Party but it has steadily lost its power base north of the border. Deteriorating support for the party has coincided with a surge in support for the SNP. Ms Sturgeon's party fell one seat short of securing an overall majority at the Holyrood elections in May while Labour slumped to just 22 seats. Mr Brown was asked this morning what he believes Labour should be doing to restore its status in Scotland. He told Sky News: 'Well, we've got to show we are both the party of social justice and that the Scottish National Party are not delivering that, despite all their promises, and we are the party of solidarity. 'In this interdependent world, there is no future in nations that are neighbouring nations fighting each other and I fear 50 years of conflict between Scotland and England if we don't get these problems sorted out. 'So we have got to be the party of solidarity, of talking about empathy, reciprocity, cooperation and sharing. 'Of course, we found during the vaccination effort that when we cooperate, we get things done. 'British pre-purchasing, Scottish delivery in Scotland of the vaccine, now that's a way forward on health but it's a way forward on climate change which cannot be solved without countries working together and the recovery, where jobs are going to be needed to be created and we need all the resources of the United Kingdom in every part of the United Kingdom for it to work.' Ms Sturgeon told Boris Johnson after the SNP's election victory last month that she believes a re-run of the 2014 independence vote is 'a matter of when - not if'. Mr Johnson has repeatedly resisted calls to grant permission for another border poll, insisting the first vote was supposed to be a once in a generation event. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and wife Carrie are facing backlash for using son Wilfred as a 'prop' at the G7 summit after he was pictured charming world leaders this weekend. Twitter users have accused the couple of reducing their son to prop used in photo opportunities while others have suggested Wilfred was being used as a 'distraction' for the world leaders at the summit in Cornwall. The one-year-old was pictured dazzling G7 leaders at a beach barbecue last night, as Britain pulled out all the stops in a bid to woo the world's most powerful. The youngster was seen back to the camera toddling towards his mother in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, as other wives of world leaders - including First Lady Jill Biden - beamed at him. Emmanuel Macron's wife Brigitte was also among the group cooing over Wilfred, who joined his parents for the barbecue which featured locally-sourced seafood prepared by a nearby beach hut. It followed Wilfred's first appearance at the summit on Thursday when he hit the beach with mother Carrie and US First Lady Jill Biden for more photo opportunities with his face hidden. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie are facing backlash for using son Wilfred (pictured) as a 'prop' at the G7 summit after he was pictured charming the world's leaders this weekend Wilfred dazzled G7 leaders at a beach barbecue last night, as Britain pulled out all the stops The youngster was seen toddling towards his mother in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, as other wives of world leaders - including First Lady Jill Biden - beamed at him at the beach barbeque last night Carrie Johnson cradled baby Wilfred alongside First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Carbis Bay in Cornwall. Mrs Johnson, in pictures taken and issued by Number 10, was seen paddling in the Cornish beach's shallow waters with Dr Biden. Meanwhile, one-year-old Wilfred, whose face is obscured as his parents do not wish him to become a 'public figure', sat on the shoreline. And while Dr Biden said it was wonderful to spend time with Carrie and Wilfred, not everyone was impressed with the amount of photo ops the one-year-old was featuring in. Carrie Johnson, wife of the Prime Minister and First Lady of the United States Dr Jill Biden with baby Wilfred Johnson on the beach during the G7 leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall Carrie Johnson and First Lady Jill Biden were pictured with Wilfred on the beach last Thursday Social media users criticised the Johnsons' use of their son at the international event, accusing the couple of using their baby as a 'prop' and a 'distraction' from more serious matters. One user accused them of using 'that Sussex trick' alluding to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who regularly issue pictures of their son Archie without showing his face. The Twitter user added: 'I think it's worse than seeing their face. Turns them into a prop.' Another said: 'Other than staged photo ops, using baby Wilfred as a prop, it's noticeable that none of the leaders bother with Johnson.' A third Twitter user said: 'Confused as to why Boris and Carrie thought to bring baby Wilfred out for a photo-op? Weird choice but OK.' Others accused Johnson of using his son to distract world leaders and the media from other issues. One said: 'Can't they get someone to pay for a babysitter? Are they so mired in corruption and incompetence that they need to use the kid as a sock puppet? 'No don't look at that, look at this, look at his hair, how adorable.' Another added: 'The pair of them using their child to distract from the absolute mess they've made of the country. 'Why am I not shocked? It's what we expect now. Johnson uses everything as an opportunity to showcase himself.' World leaders are split on the theory that Covid leaked from a lab - with Joe Biden giving credence to the theory even as Boris Johnson sought to downplay it. The President told reporters at the end of the G7 conference in Cornwall that he is 'undecided' on the lab-leak theory because some US intelligence agencies back it. But the UK Prime Minister took a slightly different tone, saying 'it doesn't look as thought this particular disease... came from a lab' - though added that he is 'keeping an open mind about that'. The pair spoke as G7 leaders jointly called for a fresh investigation into the virus's origins, after a WHO report released early this year was widely panned. President Joe Biden called for Chinese 'transparency' so investigators can determine whether COVID-19 evolved in nature or 'whether it was an experiment gone awry in the laboratory' Biden, who has ordered his own intelligence review of the origins of COVID-19, called on China to cooperate with the Phase 2 investigation by the WHO. Biden said it was important to get access to uncover 'whether or not this was a consequence of a from the marketplace of bat interfacing with animals in the environment that caused this COVID-19, or whether it was an experiment gone awry in the laboratory.' He was referencing the possibility, that many scientists and public officials are now embracing as a possibility, that the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. 'We haven't had access to the laboratories to determine whether or not I've not reached a conclusion because our intelligence community has not, certainly It's important to know the answer to that,' Biden said. He was speaking to reporters at the end of the G7 meetings in the U.K. He said China needs to 'start to act more responsibly in terms of international norms on human rights, and transparency. Transparency matters across the board.' Biden spoke about the risk of future pandemics he said were sure to happen. 'We have to have access. The world has to have access,' he said. Biden spoke minutes after leaders who met for their final day at the G7 in Cornwall issued a communique where they called on China to respect 'fundamental freedoms' and called for a 'science-based' probe of the origins of the coronavirus. A handout photo made available by the German Government Press Office (BPA) shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2-L) and US President Joe Biden (2-R) at the beginning of their meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in St. Ives, Cornwall, Britain, 12 June 2021. A joint communique called for 'transparency' from China The text of the communique included a detailed passage on China, after haggling between member nations over how far to push Beijing. 'We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law,' according to the communique. The agreement also called for a 'timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study' of the origins of the coronavirus in China, in reference to the World Health Organization. It was a reference to the Phase 2 study on the origins of the virus. Biden has already asked the U.S. intelligence community to produce its own report on the origins of the virus. G7 leaders called out China in an official communique Biden brought up the possibility of a lab experiment 'gone awry' President Joe Biden and his team have been pushing for a strong statement on human rights in China at the G7 summit. It was not certain Sunday that a final communique would mention China by name, although a senior official said there was 'unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms' Said an administration official: 'Three years ago, China wasnt even mentioned in the G7 communique. This year there is a section on China that speaks to the importance of coordinating on and responding to Chinas non-market economic practices and the need to speak out against human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.' According to the document: 'We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions.' Another section deals with forced labor practices, as well as supply chain issues. The language came after it was not yet clear on Saturday that it would mention China by name. Leaders attending the summit have made contending with China's economic ambitions and countering its human rights practices a prime focus, even as they seek to unify the richest democracies against climate change and stamping out the coronavirus. But tactical splits within the coalition have caused aides to keep working on final text of the communique, with late doubts about how far it will go. 'I would say there was unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms that invoke our shared values,' said a senior administration official. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (5L), reacts after posing for a family photograph with, from left, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italy's Prime minister Mario Draghi, President of the European Council Charles Michel, and US President Joe Biden during an evening reception at The Eden Project in south west England on June 11, 2021. - G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States meet this weekend for the first time in nearly two years, for three-day talks in Carbis Bay, Cornwall The document calls for China to respect human rights and mentions Xinjiang, where Uyghurs are being detained China is already pushing back against the document Even if it isn't named directly, Beijing isn't waiting to push back. 'The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone,' a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London told Reuters. 'We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries,' the spokesman added. The G7 leaders also have agreed to coordinate their efforts to keep supply chains online amid semiconductor shortages and other challenges. 'There was commitment to take action in response to what we're seeing,' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity during a press call. I heard from everyone that what binds us together as a G7 partnership, more than anything else, are the shared values of democracies. And that, because of that partnership, you know, it's our obligation to call out human rights abuses and other -- other violations of fundamental freedoms that calls us into -- that really invoke our shared values. The administration's hope for a strong statement has met resistance from some European allies, with Germany and Italy showing more hesitancy about a direct statement. The White House is pushing for strong language that would call out China for forced labor, child labor, and treatment of Muslim Uyguher's in Xinjiang Province. The administration official described several 'areas of convergence.' These included 'working together to respond to China's non-market economic practices that are harmful and distorted to the global economy.' Western nations have long chafed at China's child labor and other practices. The leaders are also 'willing to speak out on human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang' a reference to the treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities. The State Department has labeled their treatment 'genocide.' 'Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,' according to an agency 2020 report on human rights practices in China. The nations have also agreed on 'taking action' when it relates to supply chains, 'including from Xinjiang.. Reuters reported that through the structure of the World Trade Organization, China would be designated as a 'non-market economy' in a way that would set up a process to determine if Chinese exports are being sold at unfair prices which could allow for retaliatory duties. Putin says 'of course' Russia will extradite cyber hackers but only if the US agrees to send unidentified 'criminals' to Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin was interviewed on state TV in advance of his summit meeting with Joe Biden June 16 in Geneva Putin also said it was planned to 'restore our personal contacts' He said Russia would extradite criminals only if the other side 'agrees to the same' Russia did not extradite intelligence officers indicted for election hacking in 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia would be willing to send ransomware hackers to the U.S. but only if the two sides can reach agreement on mutual extradition of criminals. Putin issued his comments in advance of his June 16th summit meeting with President Joe Biden in Geneva, on a pressing subject Biden has already said he will raise. It was not entirely clear from his remark if he was signaling cooperation, or once again throwing back an accusation at the West, following a ransomeware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline that is critical to the East Coast supplies. Another recent ransomware attack hit Brazilian meat supplier JBS. Cyber experts cast it as a crime wave taking place right under Moscow's nose. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a TV interview about extradition of ransomware hackers 'If we agree to extradite criminals, then of course Russia will do that, we will do that, but only if the other side, in this case the United States, agrees to the same and will extradite the criminals in question to the Russian Federation,' Putin is quoted as saying, according to the Interfax news agency. The U.S. doesn't have a functioning extradition treaty with Russia although it did reach one with czarist Russia in 1893. Russia did not hand over Russian intelligence officers special counsel Robert Mueller indicted on charges of election interference in 2018. President Joe Biden has said he will raise the issue of ransomware attacks during his June 16 summit meeting with Putin The ransomware attack shut down the Colonial Pipeline and disrupted U.S. energy supplies, although the U.S. government says it was able to claw back ransom money The U.S. identified Russia-based hackers as being behind the Colonial Pipeline attack, but have not accused the Russian government. Putin is also quoted about the opportunity to restore contacts through 'direct dialogue.' It is planned 'to restore our personal contacts, relations, to establish direct dialog, to create really functioning mechanisms in those areas that represent mutual interests,' he said in an interview on state TV that has yet to air. Russian President Vladimir Putin has put on a show of force with the largest naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean since the end of the Cold War ahead of a meeting with the US President next week. At least 20 ships, submarines, and support vessels, flanked by 20 fighter jets, took part in the large-scale war games. Biden last week warned there would be 'robust and meaningful' consequences for Russia's 'harmful activities' as he started his first international tour as president with the G7 summit. Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has put on a show of force with the largest naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean since the Cold War At least 20 ships, submarines, and support vessels took part in the large-scale war games The naval exercise, which also involves 20 fighter jets, came ahead of a meeting between Putin and Biden later this week US President Joe Biden (left) warned Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) that 'harmful activities' would be met with 'robust and meaningful consequences' Footage of the mass exercise shows the Russians tracking and 'driving out' a mock enemy submarine. 'During the exercise, the crews of the Pacific Fleet's warships fired from the automatic naval gun mount AK-630 and the universal naval artillery A-190,' a Moscow defence ministry statement said. The search and tracking of the mock enemy's submarines were carried out by the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleev equipped with guided-missile weapons, the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov and three corvettes, according to Sputnik. Former chief of the General Staff of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, said: 'In the post-Soviet period, there have been no comparable exercises involving such a large number of forces.' Rear Admiral Konstantin Kabantsov termed the drills 'unique' due to the large area of the Pacific Ocean where they are taking place and added that 'such exercises have not been conducted... in the recent history of the Russian fleet.' The Russian navy's Pacific Ocean drills included 20 warships, including vessels equipped with helicopters Russian naval personnel carried out a submarine tracking exercise as part of the drills held in the Pacific Ocean The search and tracking of the mock enemy's submarines were carried out by the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleev equipped with guided-missile weapons, the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov and three corvettes Footage of the mass exercise shows the Russians tracking and 'driving out' a mock enemy submarine Former chief of the General Staff of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, said there had been no comparable exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union Hundreds of Russian naval personnel were involved in the exercises in the Pacific Ocean this week At least 20 ships, submarines, and support vessels took part in the large-scale war games The naval exercise, which also involves 20 fighter jets, came ahead of a meeting between Putin and Biden later this week 'During the exercise, the crews of the Pacific Fleet's warships fired from the automatic naval gun mount AK-630 and the universal naval artillery A-190,' a Moscow defence ministry statement said The naval exercises are the largest to take place in the Pacific Ocean since the collapse of the Soviet Union Earlier, Moscow also claimed it had intercepted a US reconnaissance plane on its Pacific coast, preventing it from approaching the Russian state border. Video from the cockpit of a Su-35 fighter showed the American RC-135 spy plane, according to reports. Biden and Putin are set to meet at an 18th-century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva later this week for a summit. It's their first face-to-face meeting since Biden became president. Biden has already warned Putin over 'harmful activities', saying as he arrived for the G7 summit that: 'The United States is back and democracies of the world are standing together to face the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future... 'Our alliances weren't built by coercion or maintained by threats, they're grounded on democratic ideals and shared visions for future and where every voice matters.' The sit down comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow, with Biden making it clear he will take a tougher stance on Russian aggression than his predecessor in the Oval Office, Donald Trump. Biden has declined to hold a press conference with Putin following the talks, as is traditional when two world leaders meet. It was an indication both of the administration's reluctance to grant Putin yet another prominent platform in addition to the summit itself - as well as a reluctance on the part of the White House to put Biden in an unscripted situation that could go off the rails. World leaders thumbed their nose at China during the G7 summit by downing a glass of Australian shiraz in a moving show of support for struggling Aussie winemakers. Guest nation leaders from Australia, South Korea and South Africa joined figure heads from G7 countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and United States, over the weekend for the first in-person summit since the coronavirus pandemic began. The summit, held in the stunning seaside community of Carbis Bay in Cornwall examined several major issues facing the globe - including China's growing aggression on the world stage and their ongoing campaign of economic coercion against Australia and others. Scott Morrison is believed to have won over the support of the G7 nations after pushing back against Chinese dominance. This support couldn't have been clearer during a BBQ where alongside a best-of-British menu including scallops, crab claws, mackerel, barbecued beef sirloin, lobster, leeks and brie, was an accompanying vino from Australia. Australia has been the subject of crippling trade sanctions imposed by China, including a 212 per cent tax on wine, normally a top seller with the nation's growing middle class. Scott Morrison (pictured, left) greets British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (centre) and his wife Carrie (right) at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall on June 12 Hostilities between Australia and China have soared in recent years after a number of diplomatic spats (pictured, Penfolds wine is stacked on a shelf in China) Prime Minister Morrison, in a closed-door address, addressed the summit on Sunday emphasising the need to 'embrace a liberal, rules-based order' against ongoing authoritarianism, The Australian reported. Canberra's relationship with Beijing sensationally unraveled in April last year, when Mr Morrison's government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid pandemic. The call for transparency outraged Beijing and the authoritarian state targeted an array of Australia exports with arbitrary bans and tariffs as apparent payback. One of those key sectors hit with a soaring 212 per cent tariff was the $6billion wine industry, which exported 39 percent of all total product to China in 2019. Barley, cotton, seafood, beef, copper, and coal where among the other industries crippled by the fallout. At a beach BBQ hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's wife Carrie (pictured, right), guests enjoyed glasses of Australian shiraz Another issue Mr Morrison was expected to raise in the meeting was the ongoing need for such an inquiry. Last year, lawmakers from around the world who form the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, urged their citizens to buy a 'bottle or two' of Australian wine before Christmas as a show of support to suffering producers. With western democratic nations throwing their weight behind Australia, Mr Morrison doubled down on his criticism of China and told the room 'more work' needs to be done to determine the origins of Covid-19. Although the G7 event is featuring a best-of-British menu including scallops, crab claws, mackerel, barbecued beef sirloin, lobster, leeks and brie, the accompanying vino was from Australia (pictured, G7 leaders at the beach BBQ in Cornwall) 'It's very important that we understand the origins and there has already been discussion around our preparedness for any future pandemic that the world can move quickly on issues like vaccines,' Mr Morrison said. 'It's about understanding it so we all on a future occasion can move quickly and can avoid on a future occasion the absolute carnage that we've seen from this pandemic. 'The process we called for is not yet done, it is recommending further work. And recommending that there be further powers for the WHO to be able to identify these things early, and ensure that information is passed on in a timely way.' On the agenda at the meeting were issues of global security, climate change, vaccines, taxation and trade. World leaders at the G7 summit were treated to a glass of Australian shiraz in a not-so-subtle dig against China. Pictured: Boris Johnson (left), Scott Morrison (centre) and Joe Biden (right) The G7 beach BBQ was hosted by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's wife Carrie (pictured, leaders at the event on June 12) G7 leaders discussed the need for democratic nations to work closer together to fend off increased aggression by totalitarian powers China and Russia. The Western allies also took aim at China's global infrastructure plan - the Belt and Road Initiative - which has been labelled 'debt trap diplomacy' by democratic critics. Mr Morrison also lobbied the summit and President Biden to bolster the World Trade Organisation so it can play a larger role in settling international disputes. With the meeting touted a major success for guest nation Australia, Mr Morrison will now meet with senior British national security officials in London to discuss Indo-Pacific security. Australia's best pie is a classic beef from an unassuming cafe which has won 400 awards for its bakery goods. Rolling Pin Pies and Cakes in Ocean Grove, 25 minutes south east of Geelong in Victoria, snagged 'best pie' at Bakery Association of Australia's Best Pie Competition. The Surf 'n Turf - a chunky beef pie on prawns in a rich garlic cream sauce - is also sold at bakery branches at Leopold and Queenscliff in Victoria. Of the competition's 18 categories, 12 were won by bakeries in Victoria, with three in New South Wales and three in South Australia. Australia's best pie is a chunky beef surf 'n turf (pictured) sold in Ocean Grove, 25km south east of Geelong in Victoria, according to a nationwide competition Rolling Pin Pies and Cakes took out the top gong, eight gold medals and six silver medals at the Bakery Association of Australia's Best Pie Competition The bakery won eight gold and silver medals for other dishes at the 2021 competition. It went up against 346 establishments for the awards, and this is the 11th time the cafe has gone home with a top title for one their pies or pastries. Manager Nathan Williams told the Geelong Advertiser the win still created a 'huge buzz.' 'We've probably won 400 awards over the journey, and this is the 11th individual pie or pastie that we sell that has won a national title,' he said. Rolling Pin Pies and Cakes in Ocean Grove, Victoria (pictured) has 400 awards for their pies and pastries 'We have very high expectations going into competitions now, but it certainly doesn't take away from what we feel when we win one. 'It's an amazing feeling, it creates a huge buzz around the shop and even in town customers celebrate with us. We couldn't be more excited.' Australia's best pastie went to the British Isle Feast pastie from Samuel Gee Pies and Pastries in Balaclava, 45 minutes west of Wollongong in New South Wales. Correction: This article previously stated Rolling Pin Pies and Cakes was located at Olive Grove. It is in Ocean Grove. The commercial lobster diver who made headlines as a modern-day Jonah when he escaped the mouth of a whale last Friday has also lived through another classic survival scenario. Michael Packard, 56, survived a plane crash 20 years ago that left three dead and stranded five passengers in a jungle in Costa Rica, according to an Associated Press article published at the time. Packard has fished recreationally in Costa Rica since 1990 and launched his own business, Mar Huron Sportfishing, in 1998. Packard splits his time between Cape Cod and Costa Rica, diving for lobster off the coast of Massachusetts in the summer and running his sport fishing business out of Porta Jimenez in the winter. Packard, then-38, was on a Sansa airline flight headed to Puerto Jimenez from San Jose in November, 2001, when his plane crashed, killing pilot Ricardo Salazar, co-pilot Carlos Lacayo and passenger Adolfo Predo, all Costa Ricans. Packard was one of five survivors who spent two nights in a jungle on the coast of Costa Rica. They used the planes radio to call for help and were able to emit an emergency beacon from the plane, though it still took rescuers over a day to get to them because the location was remote and hard to reach, according to the Associated Press. Packard sustained multiple injuries to his abdomen and upper body, the article reads. He and his fellow survivors were treated at the crash site by Dr. Luis Blanco, who said, they would not have survived another night at that site. Packard recovered at Clinica Biblica, a Catholic hospital in San Jose. Now, 20 years later, Packard is recovering from another brush with death. Michael Packard, 56, has survived two brushes with death, first after a plane crash left three dead in Costa Rica and now after escaping the mouth of a humpback whale. He suffered only minor injuries after being trapped inside a humpback whale's mouth for roughly 30 seconds on Friday morning Experts say being eaten by a humpback whale is extremely rare, with one suggesting the whale made a mistake when it sucked Packard in and quickly spat him out (file photo) Packard had been a lobster diver for 40 years at the time of the incident and was rescued by a crewmate who called authorities on the shore Packard described the experience in an interview with CBSN Boston Packard splits his time between Cape Cod and Costa Rica, diving for lobster off the coast of Massachusetts in the summer and running his sport fishing business out of Porta Jimenez in the winter I was just about at the bottom and I just felt this . . . truck hit me and everything just went dark, Packard said in an interview with NBC10 Boston after coming back from the hospital on Friday. I said, Oh my god, Im in the mouth of a whale. At first, he said he thought he had been attacked by a shark, but when he realized he did not feel any sharp teeth and was not in pain, he began to figure out what had happened. He was trapped in the whales mouth for almost a minute, before the creature realized what it was trying to eat and purged him, Packard claims. Packard was rescued by his crewmate Josiah Mayo, who was aboard their boat 'The J n' J. Mayo watched in shock as the water beside the boat erupted as the whale surfaced - and Packard flew out of the mammal's mouth. He plucked Packard out of the water, according to the Cape Cod Times, and used his radio to call authorities on the shore. The Provincetown Fire Department later confirmed that a call came in about a diver who had suffered serious injuries to his legs 'after interacting with a whale.' The humpback likely hoped it would get a mouthful of sand lance fish, which live in the waters off Cape Cod, and accidentally gulped Packard instead. At first Packard said, he thought he had broken his legs in the incident, but doctors later said he just had soft tissue damage and bruises, and he was released from a local hospital later that day. He said that when he was stuck inside the whale's mouth his thoughts turned to his wife and his 12 and 15 year old sons Packard is an avid fisherman who, in addition to diving for lobsters, catches Bluefin tuna off the coast of Cape Cod Packard runs his own fishing business out of Costa Rica called Mar Huron Sportfishing Pack and his wife Bibi have two sons, 12 and 15. They were all he was thinking about when he was being engulfed by the whale, he told the Cape Cod Times. 'I saw light, and he started throwing his head side-to-side and the next thing I knew I was outside [in the water],' Packard said to the outlet. 'My first thought was I cant believe I got out of that situation. My second thought was for how injured I was,' Packard said. Shortly after the experience, Packard posted about it in the Facebook group Packard Community Space. I just want to clarify what happened to me today, he wrote. I was lobster diving and a humpback whale tried to eat me. I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out. I am very bruised up but have no broken bones. I want to thank the Provincetown rescue squad for [their] caring and help. Packard took to Facebook following the incident to thank the Provincetown rescue squad for its 'caring and help' Some were incredulous of Packard's experience, however. Peter Corkeron, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, said there is a one in 1 trillion chance someone would be eaten by a whale. 'He was just unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,' Corkeron conceded. One doctor at Cape Cod Hospital said Packard should have suffered hearing loss following the freak accident. 'He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn't have any evidence of barotrauma?' the unnamed emergency room doctor said to the New York Post. Other fishermen were also wary of Packard's whale encounter. 'People who are in the fishing industry, and people who know whales, are finding this hard to believe. It's a first-ever that this would happen,' said another lobsterman. Although humpback whales can grow to 40 tons, their throats are too narrow to swallow a human, experts say. 'For a guy to be in the middle of that giant school of fish corralled by a whale doesn't make sense.' He has yet to comment on any of the above claims. Other experts sided with Packard. When a humpback feeds, he said, 'they do what we call gulp feeding, and they an open their mouths up incredibly widely,' which Jooke Robbins, the director of Humpback Whales Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies, said could limit their forward vision. 'Based on what was described, this would have to be a mistake, and an accident on the part of the humpback,' Robbins concluded, adding that she had no reason to doubt the account. 'I didn't think it was a hoax because I knew the people involved... So I have every reason to believe that what they say is true,' she said. Robbins said she had never heard of an 'accident' of this type, but 'it may be that he (Packard) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.' Despite the most famous encounter like Packards is the biblical story of Jonah and the whale, similar incidents have happened in recent history. Two women were kayaking and whale watching in November 2020 at Avila Beach, California, when a humpback whale tried to engulf their kayak. Julie McSorley and her friend Liz Cottriel escaped unscathed. And in February 2019, Rainer Schimpf, a South African marine conservationist, was swept into the mouth of a humpback whale while snorkelling and filming a sardine run off the coast of the South African town of Port Elizabeth, according to an article written by The Guardian at the time. The Daily Mail reached out to Packard for comment, but did not get an immediate response. An Iowa man who assaulted another man for calling him out for wearing his face mask incorrectly has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after removing it entirely and spitting in the victim's face. 'If I have it, you have it!' Shane Wayne Michael told Mark Dinning after the disgusting attack, implying he had infected him with the COVID-19 virus. Both men were at the Vision 4 Less eyewear store in Des Moines on November 11 of last year when Dinning allegedly asked the 42-year-old to secure his face mask over his nose as Michael had pulled his mask down slightly, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. Michael alleged that it was Dinning who instigated the assault, claiming Dinning 'shoulder-checked him' and 'poked him in the stomach' once the two men left the store, according to the news outlet. Pictured: Shane Wayne Michael, 42, was sentenced to 10 years in prison back in April for the Nov. 2020 attack 'If I have it, you have it!' Michael told Mark Dinning (pictured) after the disgusting attack, implying he had infected him with the COVID-19 virus He told police that the fight eventually went to the ground with both men wrestling one another. Michael said he had him pinned to the ground when Dinning bit his arm, which he countered by poking his finger in Dinnings left eye. However, a witness named Bob Darr, as well as a store employee on scene, both told responding officers that Michael had initiated the confrontation by following Dinning out of the store before attacking him and spitting in his face. Police ultimately arrested Michael, whose mugshot doesn't show any visible injuries, and charged him with assault causing bodily injury. Polk County prosecutors eventually offered him a plea deal in February, which would have allowed Michael to enter a plea of willful injury causing bodily harm, a lesser charge that would have gotten him just two years of probation, according to the Capital Dispatch. Michael rejected the prosecutor's plea deal before deciding upon a jury trial, with charges being upgraded to willful injury causing serious injury, a far more serious offense. Dinning shows off some of the injuries he sustained during the assault at the hands of Michael, who attacked him physically before spitting on his face Michael rejected a plea deal that would have meant just two years of probation, insisting that he had acted in self-defense and that Dinning had been the aggressor Michael was found guilty on April 1 at trial, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the class C felony on Wednesday, according to Polk County court records. The court also temporarily waived a fine of $1,370 in consideration of his impending incarceration. Michael's family members spoke out about the lengthy prison sentence, which seems inordinately harsh given the nature of the crime, according to his father and wife. 'Its like (Dinning) got a black eye in a bar fight, and now my son is getting 10 years in prison,' Michaels father, Dennis Michael told the Capital Dispatch of Wednesday's sentencing. Meanwhile, Michael will leave behind six grown children and his wife, Becky, who told the local news outlet that she doesn't know what she is going to do without her husband for the next 10 years. 'Hes my rock, hes my protector,' she said. 'I dont know what Im going to do without him. Im lost without him.' Michaels father, Dennis Michael, revealed that his son rejected the initial plea deal offered because he still says he was acting in self-defense against Dinning and was not guilty of any crime, before adding that his son wears his mask lower due breathing problems caused by asthma. 'Hes not going to cover his nose and mouth because he cant breathe,' his father said. 'And there was no mask mandate in place. It was just a request by Vision 4 Less that people wear a mask, and he was.' A university forced to apologise for marking the death of Prince Philip has been accused of 'woke hypocrisy' for continuing to honour China's hardline justice secretary in Hong Kong with a prestigious college fellowship, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. King's College London endorses Teresa Cheng as a university fellow despite the fact she was sanctioned by the US administration last year for suppressing democratic rights in Hong Kong. As a student she graduated from King's College with a degree in civil engineering in 1981 before being awarded a fellowship. And a list of fellows published last month reveals she is still honoured by the university despite her central role in cracking down on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. King's College London endorses Teresa Cheng (pictured) as a university fellow despite the fact she was sanctioned by the US administration last year for suppressing democratic rights in Hong Kong It comes after last month the Mail on Sunday revealed how bosses at King's College apologised for emailing a picture of Prince Philip to staff marking his death in April. The picture tribute sparked complaints from staff over the Duke's 'history of racist and sexist comments'. It forced the university's associate director of libraries to send out an extraordinary apology for the 'harm' caused by including the photo in the email. Yet King's College continues to endorse Cheng who was crucial in drafting the extradition bill which sparked protests in Hong Kong in 2019. She is still recognised as a fellow despite Conservative MP Bob Seely writing to King's College last year calling for the withdrawal of Cheng's honour. Mr Seely, a member of the foreign affairs select committee, said: 'King's honours a person who has actually been sanctioned by the US for her role in the suppression of democratic rights in Hong Kong. As a student she graduated from King's College with a degree in civil engineering in 1981 before being awarded a fellowship 'I dont know whether to laugh or cry. If I was a foreign student, why would I want to go to any university that didnt respect its own political culture, freedom of speech or liberal democracy? 'Last time I looked, Prince Philip served in a navy that fought against the Nazis, but clearly that still makes him a racist' to the small-minded halfwits that are busy colonising - and undermining - higher education.' Cheng also backed Hong Kong's controversial National Security Law and was one of 11 individuals sanctioned last year by Donald Trump's administration. She was appointed Hong Kong's Justice Secretary in 2018 and has repeatedly courted controversy as part of the draconian measures taken against people's civil rights. In February she informed the first defendants prosecuted under the National Security law that they would not face a jury trial, and instead three judges would decide their case in a break from the former British colony's 176 years of legal history. Last November she claimed the new law had brought 'stability' to Hong Kong 'thereby encouraging commercial and investment activities'. And earlier this year she attacked press bias for criticism of her department's sentencing reviews and appeals of defendants. Luke de Pulford, fellow of Hong Kong Watch, said of the King's College honour: 'King's is blazing a trail for woke hypocrisy. 'Theyre fine to honour a woman whose job it is to implement a law which is destroying Hong Kong, but not OK with honouring Prince Philip shortly after his death. 'I know people who are in jail in Hong Kong for standing up for the values Kings is supposed to represent. 'It is utterly shameful that, instead of standing with Hong Kong, Kings has chosen to celebrate its oppressors.' In 2019 Cheng was knocked to the ground by protesters in London as she made her way to give a lecture at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators at Bloomsbury Square. King's College did not respond to requests for comment. Dashcam video shows the moment eight Michigan deputies lifted an overturned car to rescue a woman trapped beneath it Thursday. The 24-year-old woman was ejected from her vehicle in a violent crash after a speeding car ran a stop sign and barreled into the side of her red Pontiac, leaving her pinned unconscious underneath. Her two-year-old son, who was in the car with her, was left dangling upside down in a car seat. Police arrested the man they said was responsible for the crash, 30-year-old parolee Dontonio Temone Nichols, who the Oakland County Sheriff's office said was fleeing a traffic stop for speeding when he blew through the stop sign. Eight Michigan deputies worked to free a woman trapped underneath her car Thursday after a violent crash ejected her from the vehicle Video of the crash and subsequent rescue show the woman's feet sticking out from underneath the flipped car. Thirty-year-old Dontonio Temone Nichols was arrested for fleeing the scene of the crash Nichols can be seen stumbling out of the passenger-side door of his SUV after the impact, and running away. 'He had to get out the passenger side of his car because it was so impacted from the crash so he knew it was a traumatic crash and didn't care what happened to whoever he hit,' Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told reporters, according to Fox2. 'The first deputy there obviously knew he would have to call for a lot of help,' he said. 'Thankfully deputies got there very quickly and realized they couldnt wait for any kind of mechanical assistance.' Seeing it was a life 'life and death' situation, Bouchard said the deputies sprang to action, and worked to lift the car themselves. 'They realized this was life and death, shes under the car, they couldn't wait for any kind wreck assistance,' he said, adding that rescue tools such as the Jaws of Life would have likely been ineffective in the situation. The Oakland County Sheriff's office said a deputy had tried to pull Nichols over for speeding in a construction zone Nichols reportedly blew through a stop sign and barreled into the side of the woman's Pontiac, flipping it The woman was thrown, unconscious from the vehicle Her legs could be seen sticking out from beneath the car. She is reportedly in critical condition After fleeing the scene of the crash, Nichols was found and arrested the next day for driving with a suspended license, failure to stop at the scene of an accident and resisting arrest, according to the Oakland Press. He was reportedly a parole absconder after being paroled on July 2, 2019, according to the outlet, and had a criminal record dating back to 2008 with convictions for home invasion, fleeing a police officer, cocaine possession and hiding stolen property in a vehicle. He is being held on $275,000 bail. Nichols stumbled out of his SUV after the crash and fled Nichols is a reported parole absconder and has a criminal record dating back to 2008 A deputy had been trying to pull Nichols over for speeding through a construction zone when he attempted to speed away. The woman involved in the crash was not wearing a seatbelt and is in critical condition. Her son was uninjured, police said. Advertisement Tens of thousands of protesters packed the streets of Madrid on Sunday to rally against plans to pardon 12 Catalan politicians convicted over the region's failed independence bid in 2017. Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo gave the clearest indication yet that the pardons of the Catalan separatists were 'close' in an interview published on Sunday with La Vanguardia newspaper, but the issue has bitterly divided Spaniards, who see Catalan independence as a threat to national unity. Around 63 per cent of Spaniards oppose granting the pardons while some 25 per cent backed it and about 6 per cent were indifferent, according to a poll published on Sunday for niusdiario.es, an online newspaper. 'We should stop this now because for a pardon you must show contrition, and the separatists will not show that,' Carlos Bandecha, 47, a businessman, said at the rally, where many protesters waved the red and yellow national flag of Spain. Madrid's Municipal Police force estimated that 126,000 people took part in the protest, organised by a civil society group to promote a united Spain, while the National Police put the figure at 25,000. Opposition lawmakers from the conservative People's Party (PP), the far-right Vox party and the centrist Ciudadanos joined the rally in Madrid's central Plaza Colon, which has become a symbol for far-right political rallies. Tens of thousands of protesters packed the streets of Madrid on Sunday to rally against plans to pardon 12 Catalan politicians convicted over the region's failed independence bid in 2017 Madrid's Municipal Police force estimated that 126,000 people took part in the protest, organised by a civil society group to promote a united Spain, while the National Police put the figure at 25,000 Opposition lawmakers from the conservative People's Party (PP), the far-right Vox party and the centrist Ciudadanos joined the rally in Madrid's central Plaza Colon, which has become a symbol for far-right political rallies. Pictured: A sign reads: 'Spain will not split up, whoever makes it happen will pay' Asked when Spain's centre-left government might approve the pardons, Calvo told La Vanguardia: 'Soon, they are close. After the Supreme Court report arrives, we will immediately follow up on them. They should arrive soon at the cabinet.' Spain's Supreme Court said in a non-binding report last month that it opposes potential government pardons for the Catalan separatist leaders. It sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders in October 2019 to between nine and 13 years in jail on sedition charges for organising an unauthorised referendum on independence and issuing a short-lived unilateral declaration of independence based on the vote. Three others were convicted of disobedience but not jailed. Spain's Supreme Court said in a non-binding report last month that it opposes potential government pardons for the Catalan separatist leaders. Pictures: Protesters in Madrid, one of which holds a sign reading: 'Sanchez, go away already' The Supreme Court sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders in October 2019 to between nine and 13 years in jail on sedition charges for organising an unauthorised referendum on independence and issuing a short-lived unilateral declaration of independence based on the vote. Pictured: A sign bearing the images of Catalan separatist politicans reads 'The coup plotters, to jail' 'Sanchez is planning pardons to legitimise an ongoing crime... (in) a historic error that won't solve anything, only to keep his government from going under,' PP leader Pablo Casado (pictured in blue shirt) said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has defended the potential pardons as a way to bring Catalans and Spaniards closer together after the divisive prosecutions that put most of the Catalan leaders behind bars. However, Sanchez is also facing criticism in his own Socialist camp, where the potential pardons are seen as a risky political gamble. Detractors say the separatists have not shown any remorse for their defiance of the Spanish Constitution and that Sanchez is making concessions to them in exchange for support from Catalan lawmakers in the national parliament. 'Sanchez should take note: he'll pardon [the separatists], but the Spanish people won't pardon him,' Madrid mayor and PP spokesman, Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, said. 'Sanchez is planning pardons to legitimise an ongoing crime... (in) a historic error that won't solve anything, only to keep his government from going under,' PP leader Pablo Casado said. 'The only thing that Sanchez wants is to hold onto power at whatever price,' one demonstrator, Pablo Martinez, who had come to the rally with his wife and daughter from Oviedo in northern Spain, told AFP news agency. Around 63 per cent of Spaniards oppose granting the pardons while some 25 per cent backed it and about 6 per cent were indifferent, according to a poll published on Sunday for niusdiario.es, an online newspaper Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has defended the potential pardons as a way to bring Catalans and Spaniards closer together after the divisive prosecutions that put most of the Catalan leaders behind bars Detractors say the separatists have not shown any remorse for their defiance of the Spanish Constitution and that Sanchez is making concessions to them in exchange for support from Catalan lawmakers in the national parliament During an official visit to Argentina on Wednesday, Sanchez said he understood that 'there may be people who could have objections over this decision that the government may take, given what happened in 2017. 'But I ask for your trust. I ask for understanding and for magnanimity because the challenge facing all of us - to promote coexistence - is worth it,' he said. Tensions over secession grew in earnest a decade ago amid the economic hardship of the Great Recession and discontent over Spain's opposition to more autonomy for the Catalan-speaking region of 7.5 million people. The issue has also dominated the political debate at the national level and contributed to the rise of nationalist Vox, which has become the third-largest political force in the Spanish Congress. The prisoner serving the longest sentence of 13 years is Oriol Junqueras, head of the ERC (the Republican Left of Catalonia) which is a key parliamentary ally for Sanchez's government. In a letter published on Monday, Junqueras signalled support for the idea of a pardon from Madrid after previously rejecting the idea out of hand, also admitting that the separatists had made errors back in 2017. 'We must be mindful of the fact that our response was also not seen as fully legitimate by part of society,' he wrote. Tensions over secession grew in earnest a decade ago amid the economic hardship of the Great Recession and discontent over Spain's opposition to more autonomy for the Catalan-speaking region of 7.5 million people The issue of Catalan independence has also dominated the political debate at the national level and contributed to the rise of nationalist Vox, which has become the third-largest political force in the Spanish Congress Hardline separatists, among them the JxCat party of ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont who fled Spain to avoid prosecution after the 2017 independence bid, have not given up on unilateralism, and have repeatedly demanded an amnesty for the prisoners - which is not on the table. Pictured: A banner reads: 'No to a pardon for the coup plotters' He also expressed support for a Scottish-style referendum carried out in agreement with Spain - an option which Madrid is not willing to discuss. 'All separatist leaders are aware this will be a very costly decision for the Socialists because most Catalans are in favour of the pardons but most Spaniards are against,' said Ana Sofia Cardenal, a political scientist at Catalonia's Open University. But hardline separatists, among them the JxCat party of ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont who fled Spain to avoid prosecution after the 2017 independence bid, have not given up on unilateralism, and have repeatedly demanded an amnesty for the prisoners - which is not on the table. Although the organisers of Sunday's rally have said no political leaders will be allowed up to the podium, political analyst Cardenal said it would be a mistake for opposition leader Casado to even attend. 'If this decision to grant pardons manages to really steer (the Catalan crisis) towards dialogue, it could benefit Sanchez and harm Casado, who has aligned himself with Vox on this issue,' he said. The White House clarified Sunday that President Joe Biden isn't doing any 'swaps' of cyber criminals with Moscow after Biden appeared to take at face value a proposal floated by Vladimir Putin to extradite any U.S. ransom hackers to Russia in exchange for sending any Russian hackers to the U.S. Biden entertained an idea Putin floated in a TV interview that aired Sunday about extraditing 'criminals' who engaged in ransom hacking against either the U.S. or Russia when he was asked about it at a press conference. It was Putin's response to a top concerning national security issue Biden is planning to raise at their summit next week. Biden said he had been briefed on the idea in flight, and called it a potential sign of 'progress' only to have his security advisor later note the U.S. already holds hackers to account. Walk back: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, right, said the U.S. was not doing 'exchanges or swaps or anything like that,' after President Joe Biden entertained a proposal floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin It all happened at an event where Biden said he did not want to hold a joint press conference with Putin next week because he wasn't interested in getting into a 'contest' once he raises serious issues with his counterpart. In remarks following the G7 in Britain, Biden responded to the latest comments from Putin on Russian state television in response to U.S. concerns about ransomware hackers said to be based in Russia. 'Thats potentially a good sign of progress,' Biden said, adding he had been updated on the topic en route to have tea with The Queen and then head on to Brussels. Said Putin: 'If we agree to extradite criminals, then of course Russia will do that, we will do that, but only if the other side, in this case the United States, agrees to the same and will extradite the criminals in question to the Russian Federation,' according to the Interfax news agency. Biden sounded uncharacteristically open to the idea. 'Yes, I'm open to, if there's crimes committed against Russia, then in fact people committing those crimes are being harbored in the United States, I'm committing to holding them accountable,' Biden said. But on a flight from London to Brussels, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan clarified that Biden was not contemplating any kind of a 'swap.' 'This is not about exchanges or swaps or anything like that.' He also noted that people suspected of cyber crimes in the U.S. are already held accountable. 'What the president was responding to in the affirmative was not the specific proposal of the exchange of cyber criminals,' Sullivan said. 'What he was saying was that if Vladimir Putin wants to come and say Im prepared to make sure that cyber crimes will be held accountable, Joe Biden is perfectly willing to say cyber criminals will be held accountable in America because they already are, Sullivan said. He said when the U.S. knows someone is committing a cyber crime against a foreign target 'we take action against them.' He said Joe Biden is 'all in' If Putin wants a common commitment that no country 'will harbor cyber criminals.' 'I dont want to get into being diverted by did they shake hands who talked the most and the rest,' he told reporters, President Joe Biden said when asked why he doesn't want a side-by-side press conference with Russia's Vladimir Putin next week The quick walk back was an illustration of the type of situation the White House may be trying to avoid by keeping Biden out of a joint press conference with Putin where the Russian former KGB officer might try to steer the event to his advantage. Biden at the presser explained why he did not want to hold a side-by-side presser with the Russian strongman. 'This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other,' Biden said at the end of the G7 summit. 'It's about making myself very clear what the conditions are to get a better relationship with Russia. We are not looking for conflict. We are looking to resolve those actions which we think are inconsistent with international norms,' he said. He spoke after the White House announced Biden would address the media solo following the summit meeting in Geneva, in a move that could prevent a rerun of former President Donald Trump's infamous summit with Putin in Helsinki. The move also ensures Biden won't create and stumbles in front of a top U.S. adversary. as he did Sunday when he inadvertently mixed up 'covid' with the global 'COVAX' vaccine project. Biden chuckled when asked why he didn't want to stand side-by-side with Putin to call out Russian behavior in front of a global audience. He also agreed with Putin saying U.S.-Russia relations were at a low point. 'Well let me be clear, I think he' right in it's a low point,' Biden said. He spoke as he declared the U.S. and western nations to be in a 'contest with autocrats' for the support of people around the world. He said a joint event with Putin could be a distraction from his substantive goals. 'I dont want to get into being diverted by did they shake hands who talked the most and the rest,' he told reporters. 'He can say what he thinks the meeting is about and I will say what I think the meeting was about. Thats how Im going to handle it,' Biden declared. 'Russia has engaged in activities which we believe are contrary to international norms. But they have also bitten off some real problems theyre going to have problems chewing on,' Biden said. Asked why he believed Putin hadn't changed his posture, Biden replied: 'Hes Vladimir Putin.' Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a TV interview about extradition of ransomware hackers Biden was peppered with questions about his upcoming summit with Putin as the G7 wrapped up Biden said after he got elected he spoke to U.S. intelligence about whether Russia interfered in the election. 'He was engaged in those activities. I did respond and made it clear that I'd respond again,' in possible reference to U.S. sanctions. Biden has spoken to Putin by phone as president. The U.S. doesn't have a functioning extradition treaty with the U.S. although there is an 1893 treaty that has not been abrogated. The series of questions about Putin were an indication of how the upcoming storyline is eclipsing the pledges of goodwill and cooperation among the leading economic nations. 'America is back at the table,' Biden declared. Leaders who met for their final day at the G7 in Cornwall issued a final communique where they called on China to respect 'fundamental freedoms' and called for a 'science-based' probe of the origins of the coronavirus. The text of the communique included a detailed passage on China, after haggling between member nations over how far to push Beijing. 'We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law,' according to the communique. The agreement also called for a 'timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study' of the origins of the coronavirus in China, in reference to the World Health Organization. It was a reference to the Phase 2 study on the origins of the virus. Biden has already asked the U.S. intelligence community to produce its own report on the origins of the virus. President Joe Biden and his team have been pushing for a strong statement on human rights in China at the G7 summit. It was not certain Sunday that a final communique would mention China by name, although a senior official said there was 'unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms' Said an administration official: 'Three years ago, China wasnt even mentioned in the G7 communique. This year there is a section on China that speaks to the importance of coordinating on and responding to Chinas non-market economic practices and the need to speak out against human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.' According to the document: 'We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions.' Another section deals with forced labor practices, as well as supply chain issues. The language came after it was not yet clear on Saturday that it would mention China by name. Leaders attending the summit have made contending with China's economic ambitions and countering its human rights practices a prime focus, even as they seek to unify the richest democracies against climate change and stamping out the coronavirus. But tactical splits within the coalition have caused aides to keep working on final text of the communique, with late doubts about how far it will go. 'I would say there was unanimity in terms of a willingness to call out human rights abuses and violations of fundamental freedoms that invoke our shared values,' said a senior administration official. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (5L), reacts after posing for a family photograph with, from left, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italy's Prime minister Mario Draghi, President of the European Council Charles Michel, and US President Joe Biden during an evening reception at The Eden Project in south west England on June 11, 2021. - G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States meet this weekend for the first time in nearly two years, for three-day talks in Carbis Bay, Cornwall The document calls for China to respect human rights and mentions Xinjiang, where Uyghurs are being detained China is already pushing back against the document Even if it isn't named directly, Beijing isn't waiting to push back. 'The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone,' a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London told Reuters. 'We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries,' the spokesman added. The G7 leaders also have agreed to coordinate their efforts to keep supply chains online amid semiconductor shortages and other challenges. 'There was commitment to take action in response to what we're seeing,' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity during a press call. I heard from everyone that what binds us together as a G7 partnership, more than anything else, are the shared values of democracies. And that, because of that partnership, you know, it's our obligation to call out human rights abuses and other -- other violations of fundamental freedoms that calls us into -- that really invoke our shared values. The administration's hope for a strong statement has met resistance from some European allies, with Germany and Italy showing more hesitancy about a direct statement. The White House is pushing for strong language that would call out China for forced labor, child labor, and treatment of Muslim Uyguher's in Xinjiang Province. The administration official described several 'areas of convergence.' These included 'working together to respond to China's non-market economic practices that are harmful and distorted to the global economy.' Western nations have long chafed at China's child labor and other practices. The leaders are also 'willing to speak out on human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang' a reference to the treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities. The State Department has labeled their treatment 'genocide.' 'Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,' according to an agency 2020 report on human rights practices in China. The nations have also agreed on 'taking action' when it relates to supply chains, 'including from Xinjiang.. Reuters reported that through the structure of the World Trade Organization, China would be designated as a 'non-market economy' in a way that would set up a process to determine if Chinese exports are being sold at unfair prices which could allow for retaliatory duties. Advertisement President Joe Biden said the Queen reminds him of his mother as he was welcomed to Windsor with a Guard of Honour and tea today. The American leader and First Lady Jill Biden landed at Berkshire royal residence on Marine One just before 5pm this evening, after attending the G7 summit in Cornwall. Today's celebration consisted of a reduced parade in the grounds of Windsor Castle, instead of central London, due to the Covid pandemic. President Biden met the Queen at the dais in the quadrangle, and a Guard of Honour, consisting of the Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards, performed a Royal Salute. The Officer Commanding the Guard of Honour, Maj James Taylor, accompanied Mr Biden, along with Maj Gen Christopher Ghika, in an inspection of the Honour Guard. The President then entered the castle through the Sovereign's Entrance at 5.18pm to enjoy tea with the Queen. Mr Biden spoke to the press before he took off for Brussels, telling reporters the monarch was 'very gracious', adding: 'She reminded me of my mother.' Catherine Biden, who the family called Jean, died in 2010 at the age of 92. Mr Biden said of the Queen: 'I don't think she'd be insulted but she reminded me of my mother, the look of her and just the generosity.' 'We had a long talk,' Biden said, 'and she was very generous.' The President revealed that the Queen asked him about the leaders of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. He said she also asked what life in the White House was like. 'I said, this is... we could fit the White House in the courtyard', Mr Biden added, referring to the Windsor Castle. Asked if he had invited the Queen to the White House, he said 'yes'. Mr Biden and the First Lady had met the Queen on Friday when she attended a reception for G7 leaders at the Eden Project. Queen Elizabeth II with US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden in the Grand Corridor during their visit to Windsor Castle in Berkshire The Queen is today welcoming President Joe Biden to Windsor with a Guard of Honour and tea at the castle Joe Biden is pictured with his mother Jean on the campaign trail in 2007. Jean died in 2010 Queen Elizabeth II (C), US President Joe Biden (R) and US First Lady Dr Jill Biden (L) at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor, England Queen Elizabeth II waits for the arrival of US President Joe Biden at Windsor Castle near London, Sunday, June 13, 2021 Queen Elizabeth II hosts US President, Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Windsor Castle. The President arrived from Cornwall where he attended the G7 Leader's Summit and will travel on to Brussels for a meeting of NATO Allies and later in the week he will meet President of Russia, Vladimir Putin US President Joe Biden reaches out to hold the hand of First Lady Jill Biden after arriving to meet Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden step off Air Force One at Heathrow Airport in London, Sunday, June 13 Soldiers of the Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards position themselves in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle where US President Joe Biden is arriving to meet Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor, London, Sunday, June 13 Members of the Royal Guard march ahead of the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden with Britain's Queen Elizabeth, at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 13 Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden walk towards US helicopter Marine One at Heathrow, west of London, on June 13 A helicopter flies over Windsor Castle during the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden to meet Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in Windsor Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor, England. Queen Elizabeth II hosts US President, Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Windsor Castle Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor, England. Queen Elizabeth II hosts US President, Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Windsor Castle Marine One arrives at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor, England. Queen Elizabeth II hosts US President, Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden at Windsor Castle US President Joe Biden inspects the ranks of a Guard of Honour formed of The Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards during a visit to Windsor Castle Their latest meeting comes the day after the Queen received her official birthday gift from the nation's armed forces - a ceremony of pomp and pageantry in her honour - which was held at the castle. The traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony, which is normally staged in London, was ruled out for the second successive year because of the threat of coronavirus. The carefully-choreographed arrangements to welcome Mr Biden echo the welcome given to Donald Trump in 2018, when the controversial then-US president travelled to Windsor to meet the monarch. Mr Trump and the Queen had afternoon tea together in the castle's Oak Room, with the meeting lasting longer than expected. It was due to last around half-an-hour, but overran by almost 20 minutes. In 2008, when then US president George W Bush met with the monarch at Windsor, he enjoyed a traditional English afternoon spread of tea, small sandwiches and cakes in the White Drawing Room. The Queen and US President Joe Biden are saluted as they walk on the grounds of Windsor Castle on June 13 U.S. President Joe Biden gestures as he boards a plane at Heathrow Airport on his way to Belgium, in London, June 13 Queen Elizabeth II with US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden during their visit to Windsor Castle in Berkshire Marine One, with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden aboard, lands at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, Sunday, June 13 Queen Elizabeth II (C), US President Joe Biden (R) and US First Lady Dr Jill Biden (L) at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2021 in Windsor A helicopter flies over Windsor Castle during the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden to meet Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in Windsor, Britain, June 13 Air Force One arrives at London's Heathrow airport with President Biden on board en route to Windsor Castle for an audience with the Queen The carefully-choreographed arrangements to welcome Mr Biden echo the welcome given to Donald Trump in 2018, when the controversial then-US president travelled to Windsor to meet the monarch In 2008, when then US president George W Bush (pictured left with the Queen) met with the monarch at Windsor, he enjoyed a traditional English afternoon spread of tea, small sandwiches and cakes in the White Drawing Room. Pictured right: The Queen Elizabeth II and the then US President Barack Obama at Buckingham Palace during a State Banquet in 2011 Queen Elizabeth II speaks to US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill as she attends a reception at the Eden Project with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and G7 leaders, during the G7 summit in Cornwall. Picture date: Friday June 11, 2021 Biden and other G7 leaders call for a 'transparent' probe into the origins of coronavirus as they ask China to 'respect human rights' Leaders who met for their final day at the G7 in Cornwall issued a final communique where they called on China to respect 'fundamental freedoms' and called for a 'science-based' probe of the origins of the coronavirus. The text of the communique included a detailed passage on China, after haggling between member nations over how far to push Beijing. 'We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law,' according to the communique. The agreement also called for a 'timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study' of the origins of the coronavirus in China, in reference to the World Health Organization. It was a reference to the Phase 2 study on the origins of the virus. Biden has already asked the U.S. intelligence community to produce its own report on the origins of the virus. Said an administration official: 'Three years ago, China wasn't even mentioned in the G7 communique. This year there is a section on China that speaks to the importance of coordinating on and responding to China's non-market economic practices and the need to speak out against human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.' According to the document: 'We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions.' Another section deals with forced labor practices, as well as supply chain issues. The language came after it was not yet clear on Saturday that it would mention China by name. Leaders attending the summit have made contending with China's economic ambitions and countering its human rights practices a prime focus, even as they seek to unify the richest democracies against climate change and stamping out the coronavirus. But tactical splits within the coalition have caused aides to keep working on final text of the communique, with late doubts about how far it will go. Advertisement The Queen will greet the Bidens at the dais in the castle's quadrangle. A Guard of Honour formed of The Queen's Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards will give a Royal Salute, and the US national anthem will be played. Mr Biden will then accompany the Officer Commanding the Guard of Honour, Major James Taylor, and Major General Christopher Ghika to inspect the Honour Guard, before returning to the dais to watch the military march-past with the Queen and First Lady. In 2018, the Queen accompanied Mr Trump to inspect the Guard of Honour at Windsor. Escorting a visiting head of state to inspect the troops is a role which usually fell to the late Duke of Edinburgh, before he retired in 2017. There have been 14 US presidents during the Queen's 69-year reign - from Harry S Truman to Mr Biden. Mr Biden, who is in the UK for the G7 summit, will be the 13th American leader to meet the monarch, with Lyndon B Johnson the only one the Queen has not met. It comes as President Biden today said he did not want to hold a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G7 because he wasn't interested in a 'contest' after he raises serious issues with his counterpart. 'This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other,' Biden said at a press conference at the end of the G7 summit. He spoke after the White House announced Biden would address the media solo following the summit meeting in Geneva. He spoke as he declared the U.S. and western nations to be in a 'contest with autocrats' for the support of people around the world. He said a joint event with Putin could be a distraction from his substantive goals. 'I don't want to get into being diverted by did they shake hands who talked the most and the rest,' he told reporters. 'He can say what he thinks the meeting is about and I will say what I think the meeting was about. That's how I'm going to handle it,' Biden declared. 'Russia has engaged in activities which we believe are contrary to international norms. But they have also bitten off some real problems they're going to have problems chewing on,' Biden said. Asked why he believed Putin hadn't changed his posture, Biden replied: 'He's Vladimir Putin.' He also responded to the latest comments from Putin on Russian state television in response to U.S. concerns about ransomware hackers said to be based in Russia. 'That's potentially a good sign of progress,' Biden said, adding he had been updated on the topic en route to have tea with The Queen and then head on to Brussels. Said Putin: 'If we agree to extradite criminals, then of course Russia will do that, we will do that, but only if the other side, in this case the United States, agrees to the same and will extradite the criminals in question to the Russian Federation,' Putin is said, according to the Interfax news agency. 'I don't want to get into being diverted by did they shake hands who talked the most and the rest,' he told reporters, President Joe Biden said when asked why he doesn't want a side-by-side press conference with Russia's Vladimir Putin next week Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a TV interview about extradition of ransomware hackers Biden was peppered with questions about his upcoming summit with Putin as the G7 wrapped up Boris hails 'big step to vaccinating the world' as he confirms G7 will donate a billion jabs to poorer countries Boris Johnson today hailed a 'big step to vaccinating the world' as he confirmed the G7 has agreed to donate a billion Covid vaccine doses to poorer countries. Wrapping up the summit in Cornwall, the PM said leaders at the summit in Cornwall have pledged a combination of jabs and money to pay for them by next year. The commitment includes 100million doses from the UK and 500million from the US, with Mr Johnson insisting they are going 'flat out' to protect populations. However, campaigners have warned that the numbers are far from enough to prevent the virus from running riot among some of the globe's most vulnerable populations - and potentially sparking new problems in richer countries. Speaking at the press conference in Cornwall, Mr Johnson denied that the number of vaccines being donated amounted to a moral failure. 'This is another billion made up of a massive contribution by the United States and other friends,' he said. 'Already of the 1.5 billion vaccines that have been distributed around the world, I think that people in this country should be very proud that half a billion of them are as a result of the actions taken by the UK Government in doing that deal with the Oxford scientists and AstraZeneca to distribute it at cost.' He added that 'we are going flat out and we are producing vaccines as fast as we can, and distributing them as fast as we can'.' Advertisement 'I'm committed to holding them accountable,' Biden said, on the subject of such people being harbored in the U.S. The U.S. doesn't have a functioning extradition treaty with the U.S. although there is an 1893 treaty that has not been abrogated. The series of questions about Putin were an indication of how the upcoming storyline is eclipsing the pledges of goodwill and cooperation among the leading economic nations. 'America is back at the table,' Biden declared. Meanwhile Boris Johnson today hailed a 'big step to vaccinating the world' as he confirmed the G7 has agreed to donate a billion Covid vaccine doses to poorer countries. Wrapping up the summit in Cornwall, the PM said leaders at the summit in Cornwall have pledged a combination of jabs and money to pay for them by next year. The commitment includes 100million doses from the UK and 500million from the US, with Mr Johnson insisting they are going 'flat out' to protect populations. However, campaigners have warned that the numbers are far from enough to prevent the virus from running riot among some of the globe's most vulnerable populations - and potentially sparking new problems in richer countries. Meanwhile, Sir David Attenborough today pleaded with G7 leaders to show the 'will' to save humanity from climate change. The celebrated television naturalist said the scientific response to the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated what was possible when there was a 'clear and urgent' goal. But in a video speech to the summit in Cornwall he warned that the fight against climate change was now as much a 'political and communications' challenge as a scientific one. Speaking at the press conference in Cornwall, Mr Johnson denied that the number of vaccines being donated amounted to a moral failure. 'This is another billion made up of a massive contribution by the United States and other friends,' he said. 'Already of the 1.5 billion vaccines that have been distributed around the world, I think that people in this country should be very proud that half a billion of them are as a result of the actions taken by the UK Government in doing that deal with the Oxford scientists and AstraZeneca to distribute it at cost.' He added that 'we are going flat out and we are producing vaccines as fast as we can, and distributing them as fast as we can'. The target to vaccinate the world by the end of next year will be done 'very largely thanks to the efforts of the countries who have come here today', according to Mr Johnson. Wrapping up the summit in Cornwall, Boris Johnson said leaders at the summit in Cornwall have pledged a combination of jabs and money to pay for them by next year. Sir David Attenborough today pleaded with G7 leaders to show the 'will' to save humanity from climate change Boris Johnson tries to calm tensions over Brexit sausage war as he claims there is a 'fantastic degree of harmony' with EU Boris Johnson today desperately tried to calm rising tensions between the UK and the EU after Dominic Raab blasted Emmanuel Macron for making 'offensive' comments about Northern Ireland. The so-called 'sausage war' between the two sides escalated this morning after Mr Raab took aim at the French President for suggesting Northern Ireland is not a full part of the UK. But Mr Johnson used a press conference at the end of the G7 summit in Cornwall to attempt to dampen the row over post-Brexit trade checks as he claimed there is a 'fantastic degree of harmony' between the UK and the EU. The PM insisted he will do 'whatever it takes to protect the territorial integrity of the UK' but he tried to play down the significance of the dispute as he argued the subject was nothing more than a side issue at the summit. Mr Macron also appeared to signal a truce during his own press conference as he said 'we all need to stay very calm' and 'let's not lose time in disagreements which often are created in corridors or antechambers'. He angered Mr Johnson yesterday by making the initial Northern Ireland claim and Mr Raab hit back, accusing the EU of taking a 'very lopsided, purist approach' to the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol which has disrupted trade and inflamed community tensions. The Foreign Secretary claimed that one in five of all EU checks are currently carried out in Northern Ireland as he urged Brussels to show 'respect' for the integrity of the UK. He called for tensions to be cooled but risked worsening the row as he accused the EU of 'effectively trying to change the status of Northern Ireland contrary to the wishes or the consent of the people'. The current dispute centres on the EU's insistence on barring chilled meats from crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain. That has pushed Mr Johnson to the brink of suspending the Protocol a key plank of the UK's post-Brexit trading relations with the bloc to stop the ban kicking in when the 'grace' period ends in a fortnight. During their encounter yesterday morning at the G7 summit in Cornwall, Mr Johnson asked Mr Macron: 'How would you like it if the French courts stopped you moving Toulouse sausages to Paris?' Mr Macron replied that he did not think it was a good comparison because Paris and Toulouse were both part of the same country to which an irritated Mr Johnson said: 'Northern Ireland and Britain are part of the same country as well.' Advertisement Sir David told the leaders gathered in Carbis Bay: 'The scientific collaboration on Covid treatment and vaccines showed just how much we can achieve together when the goal is clear and urgent. 'We know in detail what is happening to our planet. And we know all of the things we need to do during this decade. 'Tackling climate change is now as much a political and communications challenge as it is a scientific or technological one. 'We have the skills to address it in time. All we need is the global will to do so.' Mr Johnson said he was urging G7 leaders to drive a 'global green industrial revolution' to help developing nations reap the benefits of clean economic growth. The leaders were setting out plans to reverse biodiversity loss and to fund infrastructure development around the world. Mr Johnson also launched a 500million 'blue planet fund' to protect the world's oceans and marine life. Mixed in with the environmental intentions of the G7 is an attempt to reassert the values of the world's leading democracies. The 'build back better for the world' plan will bring together G7 countries to develop an offer for high-quality financing for vital infrastructure, from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia. The move is part of an attempt to counter Beijing's 'belt and road' initiative which has spread Chinese influence around the globe. The new approach is intended to give developing countries access to more, better and faster finance, while accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and sustainable technology. G7 nations are expected to commit to almost halving their emissions by 2030 relative to 2010, a commitment already exceeded by the UK which has promised a 58 per cent cut. The countries will set out the action they will take to slash carbon emissions, including measures like ending all unabated coal use as soon as possible, halting almost all direct government support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas and phasing out petrol and diesel cars. The G7 will also endorse a nature compact, aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 including supporting the global target to conserve or protect at least 30 per cent of land and oceans by the end of the decade. The UK's blue planet fund will offer 500million to help countries including Ghana, Indonesia and Pacific island states tackle unsustainable fishing, protect and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs, and reduce marine pollution. The fund will run for at least five years. Under the vaccine gifting plan, the UK will start donating vaccines within weeks, providing five million doses to countries in need by the end of September. Around 25million more jabs will be distributed by the end of the year and the remainder will follow in 2022. The cost cannot be precisely calculated as it will depend what vaccines are gifted - but it could top 1billion. Mr Johnson is urging other leaders at the G7 summit in Cornwall to follow his example. Joe Biden has already promised to donate half a billion Pfizer vaccines for 92 low and lower-middle income countries and the African Union. Their latest meeting comes the day after the Queen received her official birthday gift from the nation's armed forces - a ceremony of pomp and pageantry in her honour - which was held at the castle. The traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony, which is normally staged in London, was ruled out for the second successive year because of the threat of coronavirus But vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi confirmed this morning that the British public are still being prioritised. Eighty per cent of the 100million doses will go to the Covax initiative, which is distributing vaccines to poorer nations. The remainder will be shared bilaterally with countries in need. The donation will count as extra spending on top of the 10billion committed to the new foreign aid target of 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product. Harry and Meghan 'have no regrets' about interviews 'but are doing their utmost to keep the peace', source claims - after Queen ditches 'never complain, never explain' policy to combat 'mistruths' By James Robinson for MailOnline and Kate Mansey for Mail on Sunday Harry and Meghan want to 'keep the peace' with the Royal Family, but have 'no regrets' about doing their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, it has been reported. Insiders say the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are 'trying their utmost to maintain a good relationship' with the Queen in order to 'keep the peace' within the family, according to Us Magazine. It comes as today it was revealed by The Mail on Sunday that the Queen will no longer remain silent when Harry and Meghan allow 'mistruths' about the Royal Family to circulate in the public domain. But, extending a rare olive branch in the Transatlantic briefing war between the two sides, sources in the US suggest the couple are trying to want move past the fallout from their interview with Oprah. A source told Us Magazine: 'It's no secret that the last year Harry and Meghan have been at war with the royals. Harry and Meghan (pictured with the Queen and William and Kate in 2018) want to 'keep the peace' with the Royal Family, but have 'no regrets' about doing their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, it has been reported Insiders say the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (picutred right) are 'trying their utmost to maintain a good relationship' with the Queen (pictured yesterday during Trooping of the Colour at Windsor Castle yesterday) in order to 'keep the peace' within the family, according to Us Magazine 'All is not forgiven, but after all the backlash regarding their interviews which by the way, the pair have no regrets about they're trying their utmost to maintain a good relationship with the queen in order to keep the peace.' The source also said that the Sussexes want 'to avoid being demoted as a royal at all cost and that the 'worst-case scenario, losing their titles.' It comes as the Mail on Sunday today revealed, in a dramatic departure from her longstanding 'never complain, never explain' policy, that Her Majesty has instructed courtiers to correct any statements which misrepresent her private conversations or those of other senior Royals. The extraordinary move demonstrates the Queen's exasperation at the relentless briefings that allies of the Duke and Duchess have been giving to the media and follows the dispute over Harry and Meghan's choice of name for their new daughter. The Duchess of Sussex has given birth to a daughter named Lilibet 'Lili' Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, after the family nickname for the Queen and the duke's mother Princess Diana An insider said the latest bruising episode had sent the Queen 'over the edge'. The feud began when US-based journalists favoured by supporters of Harry and Meghan reported that the couple had 'asked permission' to name their daughter Lilibet, a deeply personal childhood nickname of the Queen that was used by very close relatives, including her late husband Prince Philip. But a Royal insider described the conversation between Harry and his grandmother as 'a telling, not an asking' confirming a BBC report last week which said the Sussexes had not asked the Queen if she had any objection to their choice of name. Harry and Meghan reacted furiously, instructing their lawyers to contest the BBC story, which they described as 'false and defamatory'. Sources say the Queen's more robust response to the tsunami of media briefings from allies of the Sussexes will go beyond the Lilibet story. 'This is about whether or not what is being reported is an accurate version of what actually happened,' said the insider. The 95-year-old Monarch put aside the controversy yesterday as she smiled and even tapped her feet to the music during Trooping the Colour, her annual birthday parade. After hosting a reception at the G7 summit on Friday where she entertained world leaders by cutting a cake with a sword and joked as a team photograph was taken, 'Are you supposed to look as if you're enjoying yourself?' she will today welcome US President Joe Biden and his First Lady, Jill, to Windsor Castle. The Sussexes chose Lilibet - the name used by Prince Philip for the Queen - for the name of their daughter who was born just days before the Duke of Edinburgh would have turned 100 The new baby will be entitled to be a princess and Archie a prince - both with HRH styles - after the death of the Queen and when Charles becomes king. This is because they will have moved up the line of succession Harry and Meghan, who are now based in California, announced the arrival of their daughter last Sunday, prompting warm messages of congratulations from the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The Mail on Sunday understands that Harry also sent a text message to Kate, cementing her role as a bridge between him and his brother that appeared to be forged at Prince Philip's funeral in April. But the mood began to sour with an article in the New York Post which said it had been 'told' by unnamed sources that 'Harry called the Queen for permission to name his daughter Lilibet'. The story was soon picked up by other media outlets, infuriating the Palace to the extent that a high-ranking, but unnamed, Palace source did not dispute claims by a BBC reporter that no such permission had been sought. The impact was immediate and incendiary. The BBC story, effectively 'killed' the New York Post's account and led, within hours, to the letter from Harry and Meghan's lawyers. A spokesman for the couple said: 'The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement. In fact, his grandmother was the first family member he called. During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.' Friends of Harry and Meghan based in LA have been briefing the US media However, there was further irritation at the Palace when friends of Harry and Meghan suggested to US journalists that the Queen had been introduced to Lilibet over a video call However, there was further irritation at the Palace when friends of Harry and Meghan suggested to US journalists that the Queen had been introduced to Lilibet over a video call. The insider last night denied that, stating, 'No video call has taken place', adding: 'Friends of the Sussexes appear to have given misleading briefings to journalists about what the Queen had said and that took the whole thing over the edge. The Palace couldn't deny the story that this was a mistruth.' Ironically, Harry has spoken out against the 'barrage of mistruths' on social media. While the Palace has largely sought to mollify Harry and Meghan even amid the grenades thrown during their interview with Oprah Winfrey in March and Harry's subsequent TV series on mental health the Queen and other senior Royals have shown there is a limit to their patience. After Harry and Meghan claimed there was racism in the Royal Household, William snapped: 'We're very much not a racist family.' And Buckingham Palace which is investigating the claims pointedly said 'recollections may vary'. MailOnline has today contacted representatives of the Sussexes for comment. YouTube suspended Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's account after he promoted controversial COVID-19 treatments hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and criticized the current and previous administrations for 'ignoring... robust research' on generic drugs as cheater alternatives. He said the Trump and Biden administrations not only ignored but worked 'against robust research (on) the use of cheap, generic drugs to be repurposed for early treatment of Covid' during a June 3 virtual appearance before the Milwaukee Press Club. Snippets of the Wisconsin senator's comments were posted on his YouTube page, which were flagged and removed by the company because they were 'COVID-19 medical misinformation.' YouTube suspended Johnson for a week on Friday. After learning of his suspension, Johnson tweeted, 'YouTube's arrogant Covid censorship continues. How many lives will be lost as a result? How many lives could have been saved with a free exchange of medical ideas? This suppression of speech should concern every American.' Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, pictured here in a screengrab from the June 3 virtual Milwaukee Press Club event, was suspended by YouTube for a week after promoting Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as cheaper coronavirus treatments Johnson tweeted this after learning of his YouTube suspension on Friday A YouTube spokesperson later issued a statement to media outlets saying Johnson's comments weren't 'in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don't allow content that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus.' YouTube's COVID-19 medical misinformation policy 'doesn't allow content about COVID-19 that poses a serious risk of egregious harm' or content that contradicts local health authorities' or the World Health Organization's (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.' Johnson hit back against YouTube's 'censorship,' telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 'YouTube's ongoing COVID censorship proves they have accumulated too much unaccountable power.' 'Big Tech and mainstream media believe they are smarter than medical doctors who have devoted their lives to science and use their skills to save lives. They have decided there is only one medical viewpoint allowed and it is the viewpoint dictated by government agencies.' Sen. Johnson, pictured here at a June 10 press conference about the origins of COVID-19,said his YouTube suspension was an example of 'Big tech censorship' Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, and ivermectin, a anti-parasite drug, have been touted by some to treat COVID-19 symptoms, but medical experts and global health bodies have warned available data does not support their use, Forbes reported. The Slovakian government approved its use in COVID-19 patients, and the Indian state of Goa said it would give the drug to all its adult residents as prophylaxis to protect against Covid-19, according to Forbes. It's also popular in South Africa, where it can be bought on the black market despite health officials' warning against it, Forbes reported. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), allowed 'controlled compassionate use' in an attempt to curb black-market use of it, according to Forbes. A three-year-old boy and his father drowned at a Florida nature preserve on Friday after the two were swept out by the current at Apollo Beach Nature Preserve, with a third man who attempted to rescue them now missing. The 'Apollo Beach Hero,' identified as 27-year-old Kristoff Murray on Saturday, is still missing after attempting to rescue the drowning boy and his dad, with search efforts pulled back as of Sunday, according to authorities in Hillsborough County. Authorities learned of the dire situation after a 911 call from Tjonique Gray, Murray's distraught wife after Murray attempted to swim out and rescue them around 7 pm, WFLA reports. The bodies of both the toddler and the boy's father, neither of whom were immediately identified, were recovered a few hours later around 9pm Friday, with the dad being declared dead on scene and the boy at a nearby hospital shortly after, according to the Tampa news outlet. Meanwhile, Murray has still been yet to be seen, dead or alive, as of Sunday. The 'Apollo Beach Hero,' identified on Saturday as 27-year-old Kristoff Murray, is still missing after attempting to rescue a drowning boy and his dad in Florida The Apollo Beach Nature Preserve is located in Florida's Hillsborough County close to the city of Tampa Authorities in Hillsborough County recovered the bodies of the young boy and his father late Friday, while Murray has yet to be rescued, dead or alive, as of Sunday according to authorities Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister spoke highly of the brave young man, who risked his own life to try and rescue a young boy and his father. 'Couldnt be more grateful for his heroic actions. Unfortunately, the current was just that strong that he wasnt able to attempt any rescue efforts either as good and as pure as his intentions were,' Chronister said of Murray. Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Natalia Verdina told the news outlet that although authorities are pulling back on search and rescue efforts for Murray, they will continue to conduct spot checks while on their regular patrol of the area. Authorities are pulling back search and rescue efforts , but are still conducting spot checks of the area, according to Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Natalia Verdina 'The current was just that strong that he wasnt able to attempt any rescue efforts either as good and as pure as his intentions were,' authorities said of Murray's heroic efforts The nature preserve's website states that it 'includes a 2-acre sandy beach for picnicking... sunbathing and fantastic shoreline fishing,' however no swimming is allowed. Chronister warned beachgoers, especially those with young kids, to always abide by the park's rules in an effort to prevent further tragedies. 'When you have areas that are clearly marked no swimming its for a reason. Im asking every parent out there dont put an infant child near any type of moving or open body of water without having a life jacket on,' Chronister added. As for Murray, his wife and mother are still holding strong the belief that he may still be alive. 'I hope hes somewhere out there,' Gray told Bay News 9. 'Hes a pretty good swimmer. Were pretty hopeful. His mom is pretty hopeful. Were just hoping for the best.' Police retirements have risen by 45 percent in the past year, with officers opting out of forces across the country amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations that fueled anti-cop rhetoric. The alarming statistic was revealed by the Police Executive Research Forum on Sunday, with the organization also revealing that resignations rose by 18 percent during the same twelve month period. 'It is an evolving crisis,' Chuck Wexler, the organization's executive director, told The New York Times, adding that police forces are also struggling to attract new recruits. Anti-police sentiment was sparked by the murder of George Floyd by white cop Derick Chauvin in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. It prompted some politicians to say they were in favor of abolishing or defunding police forces across the United States. Commissioners claimed that rhetoric caused a spike in violent crime and led officers to feel betrayed by their elected officials. New York City, for instance, saw large-scale BLM marches during which some participants threw bottles at police and set their patrol cars on fire. Police retirements rose by 45 percent in the past year, with officers opting out of forces across the country amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations and widespread anti-cop rhetoric. A Minneapolis man holds up a severed pig's head during an anti-police protest last year During BLM protests, many brandished signs with ACAB - an acronym which stands for 'All Cops Are Bastards' In 2020, 2,600 New York Cops handed in their resignations - almost double the 1,509 resignations clocked the year before A squad car is seen set ablaze in Brooklyn on May 30, 2020. Mayor de Blasio proceeded to slash billion from the NYPD budget Mayor Bill de Blasio subsequently slashed $1 billion from the NYPD's operating budget, despite a surge in shootings and murders. In 2020, 2,600 New York Cops handed in their resignations - almost double the 1,509 resignations clocked the year before. It was a similar story in many police departments in large and mid-size cities around the nation. In Portland, Oregon, 69 officers resigned and 75 retired between April 2020 and April 2021. That was in comparison to 27 resignations and 14 retirements the year before. In Seattle, Washington, resignations almost quadrupled to 123 from 34 and retirements more than doubled to 96 from 43. Meanwhile, in Asheville, North Carolina, Police Chief David Zack told The Times that he had lost about one-third of staff to resignation and retirement. 'Certainly with the way that police have been portrayed and vilified in some cases, they have decided that it is not the life for them,' he stated. Protesters vandalize an NYPD van near Union Square in Manhattan on May 30, 2020 A person holds a papier-mache pig head in a group of demonstrators marching on June 6, 2020 in Brooklyn A man in a costume watches as protesters march on June 16, 2020 in New York City That negative portrayal also stopped many aspiring cops from signing up to the force. In Portland, just 30 people signed up to the department, down from 69 the previous year. In Seattle, the number plummeted almost 60 percent to 44 from 119. In Atlanta, Georgia, officers have also been resigning at an 'alarming rate'. Last August, an average of more than one cop was quitting their job every single day. In 2020, more than 200 Atlanta officers resigned or retired. The Atlanta Police Department, like many across the country, is also struggling to attract new recruits. Homicide detectives are pictured after a man's body was discovered in a burned out car in Atlanta on March 8 At present, the force remains more than 400 officers under its authorized level. The result has been a surge in shootings and other instances of violent crime. According to AJC, Atlanta cops have probed 64 homicide cases in 2021, a 58 percent increase from last year. Shootings have surged by 40 percent. 2020 was already a historically bad year for crime in the city, with 157 reported homicide cases the most in more than 20 years. Officials have started a frantic campaign to try to recruit more officers, despite the fact many of them were spouting anti-police rhetoric just a year ago. The department days it plans to hire 250 new recruits in the next fiscal year. Britain's cases of coronavirus have increased by 40.2 per cent in the last week to 7,490 as Boris Johnson today refused to guarantee that 'Freedom Day' will not be delayed for more than four weeks. The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK has also increased in the last seven days from four to eight. It comes after the PM has been told by ministers that lockdown rules will remain until next spring unless he can see off the pressure to delay their easing. And it appears Johnson will be delayed the easing of lockdown until at least July 19. The PM repeatedly dodged as he was challenged on how long the June 21 schedule could be pushed back. He insisted he 'understands people's impatience' over the decisions being taken on plans for unlocking - but stressed he wanted to reveal the change to the timetable as a 'package' tomorrow. The evasion came as Mr Johnson hosted a press conference wrapping up the G7 summit in Cornwall. Government advisers have been rolling the pitch for a delay, warning that the country faces a 'substantial' third wave driven by the Indian - or Delta - variant, and it is not yet clear whether vaccines have broken the link with deaths and serious illness. 'We are seeing some worrying stuff in the data, clearly. We are seeing the Delta (Indian) variant causing an increase in cases, we are seeing an increase in hospitalisations,' Mr Johnson said yesterday. Around 90 per cent of new infections are now the Indian variant and cases are doubling every nine days. Independent SAGE's Anthony Costello, of University College London, said the true daily infection figure was likely more than double the 8,000 recorded in tests. He told The Mirror: 'In a month you'll be up to 100,000 new cases a day. If the Government takes a gamble and lets rip like Tory backbenchers want, the NHS will be overloaded. Let's wait. Let's stay as we are.' The surge in cases caused by the Indian variant has started to be slightly reflected in death figures, which remained low today but rose from four to eight. And Britain's vaccine roll-out continued at pace, with 254,185 first doses dished out. It takes the total number of people to have received a first dose to 41.5million 61 per cent of the population. Another 320,326 second doses were also given yesterday, taking the total number of fully protected adults to 29.8million. But the PM remained cautious in Cornwall, saying: 'The whole point of having an irreversible road map is to do it cautiously and that's what we are going to do. I know people are impatient to hear more but you will be hearing the full picture on Monday.' Tory ministers have warned Mr Johnson that a delay will leave a 'very short window to open up,' with further push-backs leading to a full reopening only next spring - when winter pressures on the NHS have abated. The minister told The Telegraph: 'I am very worried the people who want to keep us shut down now want us to keep us shut down permanently and are aiming for 'zero Covid'. 'Once you start delaying to the spring you're making this type of control of people's lives semi-permanent.' However, the hospitality industry said a four week delay could mean 200,000 jobs going and 3billion in lost sales. UK faces shortage of Pfizer vaccines throughout June Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday admitted that supply of the Pfizer vaccine will be tight over the next few weeks but insisted that it was 'stable'. It comes after Scotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf warned supply of the Pfizer vaccine will be 'particularly tight' over the next few weeks. Mr Zahawi told LBC: 'I am absolutely confident, and I'll speak to Humza on this, that we will be able to deliver the Pfizer vaccines that Scotland needs to be able to meet its targets for end of July, as the United Kingdom target.' Asked if it is going to be 'tight' in the next few weeks, he said: 'It will be, there is no doubt. Every time I've come on your show I've said that the determining factor in terms of vaccine in arms is supply. 'And supply remains finite, but it is stable, and Pfizer have done a great job in being consistent on their delivery schedule.' Advertisement Meanwhile, senior Conservatives insisted Britons must accept that the virus is with us 'forever' and the government cannot 'fumble along' with 'devastating' lockdowns. Ministers believe the backlash from Tory MPs and the public should be limited as long as the timetable does not slip beyond the school holidays. A poll today suggested that just a third of Britons want the total lifting of restrictions to go ahead as originally laid out. Mr Johnson is expected to confirm tomorrow that the final stage of the unlockin roadmap will not go ahead on June 21 as planned. Instead social distancing measures will need to stay in place in pubs, bars and restaurants, probably until July 19. In interviews this morning, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stressed that the government is being guided 'by the data' - pointing out that the roadmap had always stated that June 21 was the earliest possible date for 'Freedom Day'. 'We are in a race to roll-out the second dose of the vaccine against the variants,' he told Sky News. 'We need to assess the data very carefully. We have done a great job with this vaccine rollout. 'But as the PM said we want to proceed irreversibly and that means we need to do it carefully and cautiously.' He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'We don't want to yo-yo back in and out of measures.' Government adviser Prof Andrew Hayward told the same programme: 'It's now very clear that we will have a substantial third wave of infections. 'The really big question is how much that wave of infections is going to translate into hospitalisations.' On Times Radio, Mr Raab was asked whether the unlocking would definitely go ahead in July if it is delayed. He replied: 'I don't think there are absolute guarantees because we're dealing with a new vaccine and we're dealing with variants...' Prof Hayward said vaccination level meant the impact will be 'substantially less bad than it could have been', but added that experts still don't know 'exactly how bad it will be'. Referring to the Indian variant, he said said: 'I think 60 per cent more infectious is extremely worrying, that is the thing that will drive the speed with which the next wave comes along. 'I think if we were to open up more that would really fan the flames and lead to this increasing even faster.' He added: 'If we're driving down a road and coming up to a bend and you're not quite sure what's around that bend, but you think there might be something bad, you don't put your foot on the accelerator, if anything you slow down. Boris Johnson repeatedly dodged as he was challenged on how long the June 21 schedule could be pushed back. Dominic Raab poured more cold water on June 21 'freedom day' hopes today as he warned that the government will not risk 'yo-yoing' in and out of lockdown Senior Conservatives insisted Britons must accept that the virus is with us 'forever' 'It's analogous to that. We've got to be really cautious because there is still a substantial chance that we could have a wave of hospitalisations that could put substantial pressure on the NHS.' Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), told Times Radio he expected the Government to announce an extension. 'I think we'll hear a delay, because all the data now points that way,' he said. 'In a situation where things are getting worse we don't know how much worse they're going to get. We don't know how many people are going to get seriously ill. 'There's still a lot of damage that can be done, therefore it makes good sense to pause.' Prof Reicher said the UK had previously failed to get 'the basics' right and that more financial support was needed from the Government to help people self-isolate properly and afford to get tested. Asked about the public willingness to continue with restrictions and social distancing measures beyond so-called freedom day, he continued: 'The narrative throughout this pandemic is that the public is the problem, the public won't wear it, the Government wants to do things (and) is held back by a weak public. 'In fact, the evidence throughout has shown us that people are prepared to do things, the public are following the science and are prepared to do the things that keep them and their communities safe. 'If you look at the polling now you will find a clear majority of people support the delay, and what's more a large majority of people understand that even after we lift restrictions we'll have to do sensible things in order to stop the spread of infection. 'The truth of this pandemic is not that we have a Government that wants to act, held back by a weak public. 'We have a public that understands what needs to be done, is following the science and yet is held back by a Government that isn't prepared to take action.' But Tory MP Steve Baker tweeted: 'Sooner or later, we are going to have to decide if we are content to fumble along like this as a country, imposing severe restrictions that a majority seem to support but which are having devastating consequences on some businesses and some people's mental health.' With the arrival of summer weather, and Euro 2020 now in full swing, hospitality chiefs warned that a delay could come at a huge cost to the industry. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, told the Sunday Times that a further 200,000 jobs could be lost across the sector. She also warned that a four-week delay will cost pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants 3billion in lost sales. Meanwhile, Sacha Lord, the Night Time Economy Advisor for Greater Manchester, said it was 'imperative' that the Government issue guidance on the financial support available to hospitality businesses if a delay is confirmed. He told MailOnline: 'We know nine in ten venues have already made commitments reliant on the June 21 date, whether that's taking staff off furlough or ordering in stock, and these owners will now be under severe pressure. Hospitality chiefs have today warned the already beleaguered industry faces a 3billion loss in sales if Boris Johnson pushes back the full lifting of lockdown Sacha Lord (pictured left), the Night Time Economy Advisor for Greater Manchester, said it was 'imperative' that the Government issue guidance on the financial support available to hospitality businesses if a delay is confirmed. Kate Nicholls (pictured right), chief executive of industry body Hospitality UK, told the Sunday Times that a further 200,000 jobs could be lost across the sector Greek hotel bosses accuse the UK Government of banning travel so that tourists spend more money at home Greek hoteliers believe the UK Government is deliberately keeping Britons from holidaying abroad so that they will spend more money at home, according to the boss of a leading travel company. Graham Simpson, the founder of Simpson Travel, says those who run tourist businesses in Greece cannot understand why Britain is preventing visits to destinations where Covid figures are extremely low. They are now challenging the UK Government to justify its decision by providing facts and data. Speaking about a prevailing mood of 'shock, despair and worry', Mr Simpson said: 'I had a meeting with 18 hoteliers and the MP of Zakynthos [an Ionian island], who are extremely concerned. 'Usually 70 per cent of hotel guests are from the UK. They don't understand why British tourists are unable to travel to Greece. 'They believe the UK Government is trying to keep their population in the UK to ensure money is kept in the UK.' Describing the vaccination programme in Greece as 'tremendous', Mr Simpson, who lives part of the year in Paxos with his Greek wife Yianna, said he had been fully vaccinated by April. He said Paxos had recorded zero deaths and only five cases in the past five months. There had been no cases on the Ionian island of Meganisi and the situation was similar on Lefkada, Kefalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos. He added: 'On Corfu, the island with the biggest population of around 120,000, there have been ten to 15 cases a day.' Advertisement 'Last week, it was found that the hospitality sector has surmounted 6bn of debt, 2.5bn of which relates to rent arrears which landlords can demand in full from 1 July, unless the Government intervenes to delay the end of the temporary moratorium on commercial rent. He added: 'If the data shows we must delay to reduce infection transmissions, we must have a proper plan in place to give businesses the best possible chance to survive.' Meanwhile, the Sunday Times today reports that more than 5,000 music gigs by artists including Olly Murs and McFly are expected to be cancelled - at a cost of around 500million. The promoter of Wireless, Download, Reading and Leed festivals told the Sunday Times that it would be a 'complete and utter disaster' for the country if Freedom Day is pushed back until July 19. A delay would also have an impact on the theatre industry, which is currently limited to 50 per cent capacity until further restrictions are lifted. Theatre legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, 73, said a delay would be 'devastating' for the industry. The composer has called on the Government to support theatres by increasing capacity to 75 per cent as a compromise. It comes as Mr Johnson yesterday gave the biggest hint yet that lockdown easing could be delayed when he said that the Government may need to give 'the vaccines extra legs' in the race against lockdowns. But, warning against a delay, Julian Jessop, of the Institute for Economic Affairs, told the Sun: 'Even a delay of just a few weeks could be the final straw for many businesses, especially pubs, that have only just survived. They may not come back at all.' Last night scientists warned Britain faces 100,000 Covid cases every day by July. Meanwhile, Mr Johnson has been told by ministers that lockdown rules will remain until next spring unless he can see off pressure to delay Freedom Day. The PM all-but confirmed June 21 would be pushed back to July 19 yesterday, as Covid cases continued to rise by more than a third over last week to 7,738 - the second-highest daily figure since February after they exceeded 8,000 on Friday. 'We are seeing some worrying stuff in the data, clearly. We are seeing the Delta (Indian) variant causing an increase in cases, we are seeing an increase in hospitalisations,' Mr Johnson said. Around 90 per cent of new infections are now the Indian variant and cases are doubling every nine days. Independent SAGE's Anthony Costello, of University College London, said the true daily infection figure was likely more than double the 8,000 recorded in tests. He told The Mirror: 'In a month you'll be up to 100,000 new cases a day. If the Government takes a gamble and lets rip like Tory backbenchers want, the NHS will be overloaded. Let's wait. Let's stay as we are.' The surge in cases caused by the Indian variant has yet to be reflected in death figures, which remained low on Saturday, falling from 13 last week to 12. And Britain's vaccine roll-out continued at pace, with 202,846 first doses dished out. It takes the total number of people to have received a first dose to just under 41.3million 78.4. per cent of the population. Another 285,513 second doses were also given yesterday, taking the total number of fully protected adults to 29.5million. But the PM remained cautious in Cornwall, saying: 'The whole point of having an irreversible road map is to do it cautiously and that's what we are going to do. I know people are impatient to hear more but you will be hearing the full picture on Monday.' Tory ministers have warned Mr Johnson that a delay will leave a 'very short window to open up,' with further push-backs leading to a full reopening only next spring - when winter pressures on the NHS have abated. The minister told The Telegraph: 'I am very worried the people who want to keep us shut down now want us to keep us shut down permanently and are aiming for 'zero Covid'. 'Once you start delaying to the spring you're making this type of control of people's lives semi-permanent.' Ministers believe the backlash from Tory MPs and the public should be limited as long as the timetable does not slip beyond the school holidays. A poll today suggested that just a third of Britons want the total lifting of restrictions to go ahead as originally laid out. Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the government's Nervtag advisory group, said the emergence of an 'even more successful' variant of the disease was 'such a disappointing setback'. It seems to be around 60 per cent more transmissible than the Kent 'Alpha' strain. 'It really has gone up another gear and that means that we really have to double down and not lose all the advantage that has been gained by the massive effort that has been put in so far,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Airlines slash schedules until end of July amid Freedom Day delay Airlines have started shrinking their schedules until late July as the government plans to push Freedom Day back by a month. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet are cancelling flights until after the new July 19 date as demand plummets. Virgin Atlantic pushed back journeys from Heathrow to Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago until October as well as transatlantic flights until mid-July. Budget airline easyJet started dropping trips to Greece and France as Britons face a second summer trapped at home. Meanwhile Stobart Air, which operates regional services for Aer Lingus, this morning ceased trading due to a lack of demand. Advertisement Cases of the Indian variant have been rising sharply, and the British Medical Association is among those calling for a delay to allow more people to receive their second jabs. Under the PM's Covid roadmap, June 21 was supposed to be the day when all social distancing curbs were lifted and the work-from-home advice abandoned. Mike Tildesley, a University of Warwick epidemiologist, said that although cases are going up, because of the success of the vaccine rollout it is not known what effect removing restrictions could have on hospital admissions. He said: 'We don't want to be slipping into another lockdown. To avoid this we have to be cautious and make sure we get enough data from the government as possible informing what we might expect in a future wave as we start to unlock further. 'I understand people really want to open up as soon as possible but of course what we don't want is a big wave of hospital admissions by doing so so it's a really difficult decision the Government are going to have to make over the next few days.' Just 34 per cent of people said they would like life to go back to normal on the day Boris Johnson promised it would, a poll of 1,392 people conducted by YouGov for The Times found. A separate question in the YouGov poll saw 22 per cent of people dub the rule of six - which currently limits indoor gatherings to just six people - their least favourite lockdown rule and said it should be lifted first. A total of 53 per cent of UK voters want some lockdown rules to stay across the UK past June 21 - while 25 per cent want all freedom-limiting legislation to remain. In a bid to placate Tory MPs and ministers including Chancellor Rishi Sunak who are keen to unleash the economy, the PM is expected to promise a review after a fortnight. That could potentially could allow curbs to be ditched earlier if hospital admissions remain low. But UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: 'The Government has a balance to strike but due to the amazing efforts of the NHS in rolling out vaccines, it is time to lift the restrictions that are crushing businesses. 'A full and final ending of restrictions is the only way to ensure that businesses in this sector can trade profitably. If Government decides it has to keep some restrictions in place after June 21, then it must prioritise those that do the least damage to business and commit to further supporting the sector. 'Confidence has been shaken so it is imperative that Government postpones business rates payments until at least October and extend the rent and debt moratoria for hospitality businesses while a long-term solution to Covid arrears is found.' In a significant intervention, the British Medical Association called on Mr Johnson to hold off until more people had received both doses of the vaccine. Its council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the figures showed more time was needed to get the vaccine to more people. 'With only 54.2 per cent of the adult population currently fully vaccinated and many younger people not yet eligible, there is a huge risk that prematurely relaxing all restrictions will undo the excellent work of the vaccine programme and lead to a surge of infections,' he said. A Hollywood actor who has appeared in the TV reboot of Lethal Weapon as well as the series S.W.A.T. and NCIS: Los Angeles had his home raided by the FBI last week after he allegedly took part in the January 6 Capitol riot. Some 20 agents in tactical gear raided the home of Siaka Massaquoi in North Hollywood just before 6am on Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported. The home that was raided also lists another individual, 42-year-old Brian Burks. Burks ex-wife, Luvelle Mendoza, told the Times that her former spouse was briefly detained by authorities. It is unclear if Massaquoi was arrested. DailyMail.com has reached out to Massaquoi for comment. Mendoza said that the two young boys that she had with Burks, ages three and seven, were at home at the time of the raid. Some 20 agents in tactical gear raided the home of Siaka Massaquoi in North Hollywood just before 6am on Friday Massaquoi is seen left with S.W.A.T. star Shemar Moore. According to his IMDB, Massaquoi had bit parts in S.W.A.T. as well as other TV series including Lethal Weapon and NCIS: Los Angeles Social media posts show photos of him attending the 'Stop the Steal' rally in Washington, DC on January 6 He is reportedly being investigated for being inside the US Capitol on January 6, though he denies taking part in any violence. Massaquoi is seen above in DC on January 6 My heart breaks, Mendoza said. They had to see the big guns and I just think, I wasnt there to console them. Mendoza said her ex-husband called her at around 6am on the day of the raid and told her he needed to drop off the children. 'I knew that something bad had to happen for him to just abruptly call me,' she said. 'I support him in doing what he believes in. I don't agree with everything ... I just don't want my kids to be in the crossfire.' The Times is reporting that the two men were being investigated because of their associations on a social media app. On his Instagram account, Massaquoi denied taking part in violence during the MAGA riot at the Capitol. I did nothing wrong on the 6th...did nothing violent, he said. Earlier this year, Massaquoi took part in an anti-vaccine protest near Dodger Stadium. The demonstration forced authorities to temporarily shut down the site Massaquoi is an actor who has played bit parts in hit TV series like Lethal Weapon, NCIS: Los Angeles, and S.W.A.T. He was photographed at an anti-vaccine protest near Dodger Stadium that forced authorities to temporarily shut down the site as a precaution. Massaquoi is an ardent supporter of Donald Trump and Republican politics. His social media account is full of posts urging voters in California to recall the states Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died in the attack on the Capitol and hundreds of people were injured. Two other officers took their own lives afterward. More than 450 people from across the country have been criminally charged. The U.S. Space Force successfully launched into orbit a 'space domain awareness' military satellite that it designed and built in less than a year, under a significantly tighter timeframe than what's usual for space launches. The satellite, dubbed Odyssey, is the first launch of the Space Force's secret, special projects unit. Odyssey hitched a ride inside a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket fixed to the bottom of a modified 'Stargazer' L-1011 carrier jet and launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base early Sunday morning. The hush-hush mission is the Space Force's first trial with condensing the timeline it typically takes to launch vehicles into space. According to a press release from aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman, it 'seeks to introduce speed, agility, and flexibility into the launch enterprise in order to respond to dynamic changes in the space domain.' As its guinea pig, the Space Force used Odyssey, which is a surveillance satellite used to detect foreign objects floating in space. A new, secret special projects unit of the U.S. Space Force successfully launched into orbit a military satellite, dubbed Odyssey, that hitched a ride inside a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket The Pegasus rocket launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base early Sunday morning The mission was the first of Space Safari, the new, special projects unit of the Space Force The TacRL-2 mission was the first of Space Safari, the new, special projects unit of the Space Force, and is part of the Space Force's push to offer more flexible small launch services, called 'responsive launch'. Space Safari 'responds to high-priority, urgent space needs' through a rapid acquisition and execution process, according to a press release from Northrop Grumman. 'Space Safari's initial mission is to plan, acquire and deliver a specialized space capability with the ability to integrate and launch within just weeks of a 'Go!' order,' said Colonel Dennis Bythewood, the director of special programs, in a statement on Thursday announcing the creation of a Space Safari program office. Space Safari is named and designed after Big Safari, the rapid-response unit founded in 1952 during the Air Force's push to bolster its surveillance efforts in the Cold War. General John Raymond, Space Force's chief of space operations, explained the goals of Space Safari on Thursday at a meeting held by the Council on Foreign Relations, as reported in SpaceNews. 'A year ago I challenged our acquisition organization to develop a capability in tactical timelines, integrate it onto a launch vehicle and launch it, and let's see how fast we can do it,' Raymond said. 'In less than a year they took satellite components off the shelf, married them up with a satellite bus that was off the shelf, and put them together in a space domain awareness satellite.' The Vandenberg Space Force posted a video on its Facebook page shedding more light on what went into it The U.S. Air Force first started 'developing a tactically responsive launch capability' in 2019 While the Space Force has kept the mission under wraps and did not broadcast video of the launch, the Vandenberg Space Force posted a video on its Facebook page shedding more light on what went into it. 'Team V successfully launched the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 mission,' reads the video's caption. 'A demonstration of a speed, agility, and flexibility in space launch. Showing that space assets can be placed in orbit faster than standard timelines, this launch showcases the talent, dedication, and flexibility of Team V.' The U.S. Air Force first started 'developing a tactically responsive launch capability' in 2019 with the goal of having 'launch vehicle readiness' in four months before putting the launch vehicle on standby 'with a 21-day call-up to launch capability,' the Air Force detailed in its biennial report that year. That year, Northrop Grumman came on board with a launch contract under an approximate $1 billion nine-year procurement program called the Orbital Services Program-4, which covers launch services for small and medium-size military satellites through 2028, as reported in Spaceflight Now. The Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center awarded Northrop Grumman a $28.1 million contract for the TacRL-2 mission in July 2020. 'This is a whole new program for us and they're operating on a much shorter timeline,' said Lieutenant Daniel Witwer, of the second space launch squadron, in the Vendenberg Facebook video. 'Whereas the timeline would normally be years in development for a payload and months of planning to get a launch date set and lead up to that date and actually have a successful mission. The entire timeline for this program was much shorter.' Pegasus is an air-launched, three-stage rocket and the world's first privately-developed commercial space launch vehicle. After its launch from Vandenberg, it was released from the 'Stargazer' aircraft carrier and ignited at roughly 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean as it carried Odyssey into orbit. The Pegasus rocket has launched 45 times, sending over 90 satellites into low earth orbit from five different launch sites in the United States, Europe and the Marshall Islands. 'This Pegasus launch was a clear demonstration of our team's ability to provide rapid and responsive operational needs,' said Rich Straka, vice president of launch vehicles at Northrop Grumman, in a press release. 'Our team was able to execute the design, integration and testing of the TacRL-2 launch vehicle in less than four months from contract award.' Two men testing new sonar mapping technology in a California lake may have unraveled a 56-year-old mystery. Using new sonar technology, seafloor surveyors appear to have stumbled across the wreck of a plane that went down after a mid-air collision in Folsom Lake on New Years Day, 1965, but was never found. Last week, Tyler Atkinson and Jeff Riley from the underwater survey company Seafloor Systems were were going over the data collected from a new unmanned surveying boat when they noticed something unusual. Something that appeared to be man made. Using new sonar technology, underwater surveyors appear to have found the wreck of a plane that crashed in California's Folsom Lake 56 years ago Jeff Riley a drone pilot for the survey company Seafloor Systems used a remote controlled submersible to take a look and confirm their suspicions 'I saw something that was not normal,' Atkinson told CBS 13 When they returned with a sonar-equipped, remotely operated submersible to get a closer look on Thursday, they were able to confirm their suspicions, 160-feet down. 'The sonar gave us about 100 feet of range; you could see the plane as clear as day,' Seafloor Systems chief executive officer Josh Tamplin, told Fox40. 'We could see the fuselage here, we could see the right wing. We could see the tail.' Camera images of the plane confirmed it matched the description of the the Piper Comanche 250 that had crashed in the lake along with its four occupants. Only the body of pilot was ever found. The discovery may mean the end of decades of unsuccessful efforts to locate the crashed plane. Pictured is a local news report at the time of the crash, when search efforts were getting underway Video footage from the crash site (pictured above) would reveal the outline of a plane matching the description of the one that plunged into Folsom Lake in 1965 The plane was Piper Comanche 250, versions of which are still in private use today such as the one pictured above Along with the new technology, the discovery was made possible due to a drought resulting in lower water levels at the lake, CBS 13 reported, but although it came by accident. People had been searching for the plane as recently as 2014, also taking advantage of dramatically diminished water levels due to drought, but to no avail. The volunteer divers had searched at the behest of the surviving family members of the crash victims. The discovery was made using drones and automated sonar equipment It turns out divers had been looking in the wrong place, believing the plane had crashed near the Folsom Dam. It was discovered several miles away 'You could see in their faces, when we were talking to them this morning, that they really want to bring this to an end,' Jeff Pluth, a volunteer diver, told KCRA in 2014. Frank Wilcox, the brother of the one of the victims, had always held out hope the body would be found. His son, however, reported that Wilcox died two years ago, and was never able to get the closure he was seeking, CBS 13 reported. It turns out they were looking in the wrong place, with the wreck found miles away from the Folsom River Dam, where the plane was believed to have gone down, according to Fox 40. Final confirmation will likely have to wait until local authorities decide whether to retrieve the plane, perhaps waiting until water levels drop even further. Paull Murdaugh, 22, was said to have a drunk alter ego 'Timmy' and stripped off his clothes before crashing a boat in 2019. He was found dead Monday The heir to a legal dynasty, who was shot dead along with his mother, is said to have had a drunk alter ego named 'Timmy' and stripped down to his underwear before allegedly causing a boat crash which claimed the life of a 19-year-old in 2019, according to court documents released last week. Paul Murdaugh, 22, and his mom Margaret, 52, were found shot dead at their hunting lodge in Islandton, South Carolina around 10pm on Monday. A law enforcement source told The Island Packet since that Paul was the intended target. Paul was awaiting trial on criminal charges relating to the 2019 death of Mallory Beach, who was thrown from a boat that Paul was allegedly driving drunk when he crashed it. Beach's family also sued Paul in civil court, where depositions released last week revealed Paul would get drunk and become a different person. The nickname 'Timmy' started three or four years before the boat crash, testified Anthony Cook, who is Paul's cousin and was Mallory's boyfriend at the time. 'It's a different name because he turns into a completely - totally different person. So somebody will say, 'All right. Here comes Timmy. We got to go."' Cook also testified that Paul slapped or pushed his girlfriend and stripped down to his underwear in 40 degree weather on the night of the crash. 'Paul for some reason acted like he was on drugs or something. He started taking his clothes off during one of the arguments, and it is 40 degrees outside,' Cook sad in his testimony. 'I've seen him do it a few times when gets drinks. I don't know why he does that.' Cook's testimony painted a chaotic picture of alcohol-fueled arguments among the group of six because Paul drove the boat in circles while people said they wanted to go home. Buster, Margaret, Paul and Richard Alex Murdaugh (left to right). Margaret, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found shot to death South Carolina on Monday An excerpt from testimony by Anthony Cook, who is Paul's cousin and was Mallory's boyfriend at the time, describing Paul strip down to his boxers Excerpt from Cook's testimony about Paul's drunk alter ego 'Timmy' Excerpt from Cook's testimony about the arguments before the boat accelerated and crashed Cook said Mallory 'said he was stupid' and 'it was time to go home.' 'He turned and pointed at her, and I could tell he was going to say something, and I told him not to make that mistake, and he stared at me for a second went back to steering the boat,' Cook said in his testimony. 'And I believe that's when the boat took off.' He said the throttle was hit, but wasn't how or by who. 'We went from a 2mph idle to the bow of the boat sticking up in the air,' he said. Fast forward to Monday, Paul was found with shotgun wounds to his head and upper body, and his mom was found dead with gunshot wounds from an assault rifle, the law enforcement source told The Island Packet. Their bodies were found several yards apart from one another, shell casings were discovered at the scene and two firearms were recovered. Their deaths have been ruled a double murder. Three days after Monday's murders, Paul's grandfather Richard Murdaugh III died at the age of 81, although his death is believed to have been the result of natural causes. Paul, Margaret, Richard Alex and Buster. The bodies were reportedly found by Richard Alex. Their deaths have been ruled a double murder Paul was awaiting trial in the 2019 boating death of Mallory Beach, 19 (pictured above) The Murdaugh family home, where the two bodies were found, is expansive; sitting on nearly two acres of land Paul was awaiting criminal trial on three felony charges of facing one count of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury over the death of Mallory in 2019. Paul pleaded not guilty and was due to stand trial before his murder. The charges will now be dropped against Paul but the civil lawsuit will continue. Gossip over the shocking killings of two members of a family spawning multiple generations of local prosecutors has reached fever pitch, with cops yet to officially reveal a motive, suspect, or any further information about the case. The Murdaugh family has ruled the county's legal system for decades, prosecuting nearly every criminal case in the southern part of the state. Several family members have served as county elected prosecutors going back almost 87 years. The local community felt Paul was receiving special treatment in the boating death case due to his family's power. Questions are now mounting about the murders, as authorities have fallen silent and are refusing to release almost any information about the investigation. A South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) spokesman also stonewalled DailyMail.com when contacted Saturday night, saying only: 'No additional information is available at this time while we are conducting an active investigation.' South Carolina state law requires police to provide some records on cases in the days following an incident. And yet the only report released to date is a one-line statement from Colleton County Sheriff's Office Tuesday. It reads: 'On June 7, 2021 at approximately 2226 hours I responded to 4147 Moselle Rd in Colleton County in reference to two gunshot victims found by the caller.' A spokesperson for Colleton County Sheriff's Office told DailyMail.com Saturday they could not release any information about the case and that SLED is leading the investigation. There are growing concerns the family's powerful role in the county's legal system could jeopardize the investigation and the search for the killer or killers. The sheriff's office handed the case to SLED due to the Murdaugh family ties to the 14th Circuit solicitor's office, according to The Post and Courier. Richard Alex Murdaugh - Margaret's husband and Paul's dad - works as a part time prosecutor for the 14th Circuit solicitor's office. Three generations of the family - Richard Alex's father, grandfather and great-grandfather - ran the office consecutively from 1920 through 2005. There was a brief gap in 1995 when Buster Murdaugh was accused of helping moonshiners evade authorities. It is now headed up by non-family member Duffie Stone. Questions are mounting about the murders, as authorities have fallen silent and are refusing to release almost any information about the investigation. Colleton County Sheriff's Office released this one-line statement Tuesday It was Richard Alex who reportedly found the bodies of his wife and son around 10pm Monday night. Sources said he told cops he had been out shooting and returned to the grim scene. However, the 14th Circuit solicitor's office is still involved with the investigation and has not handed off the case, reported The Post and Courier. DailyMail.com has reached out to the solicitor's office asking if it plans to remove itself from the case due to potential conflict of interest. Former University of South Carolina law dean Robert Wilcox told the Post and Courier the solicitor's office's involvement does not pose ethical issues yet. Conflicts of interest could however arise depending on where the investigation leads and who is identified as a suspect, he said. 'That mere fact that the Murdaugh name is closely associated with the solicitor's office doesn't cause me any concerns at this point,' Wilcox said. 'We have no idea who the solicitor will ultimately be engaged in prosecuting.' The bodies were found near a dog kennel on the family's property on Monday at 10pm Paul Murdaugh, Richard and Margaret Murdaugh, and Buster Murdaugh (left to right). Sources said Paul was the likely target and his mother was collateral damage Richard Alex and Margaret. The Murdaugh family has ruled the county's legal system for decades The civil lawsuit filed last year by Beach's family also named Parker's convenience store, saying a store clerk sold alcohol to two of the underage teens that night after one of them flashed a fake ID. Both Mallory and Paul were underage at the time. The first two judges it was assigned to each recused themselves from the suit and it was eventually handed to a judge from another county in the state. The Beach family released a statement after the murders saying they hoped the killer would be brought to justice. On Thursday, Richard Murdaugh III - Paul's grandfather and Margaret's father-in-law, died aged 81 from an unspecified illness 'The Beach Family extends its deepest and warmest sympathies to the Murdaugh family during this terrible time. 'Having suffered the devastating loss of their own daughter, the family prays that the Murdaughs can find some level of peace from this tragic loss. 'They would like the family and the community to know that their thoughts and continued prayers are with the Murdaughs. 'It is their most sincere hope that someone will come forward and cooperate with authorities so that the perpetrator of these senseless crimes can be brought to justice.' Funerals were held Friday for Paul and Margaret. Hundreds including public officials gathered for the service as they were laid to rest in Hampton Cemetery. Richard Alex and Margaret also had another son named Buster. As well as dominating the 14th Circuit solicitor's office, Randolph Murdaugh also founded law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick in 1910. The Murdaugh family's power has helped them accrue vast amounts of wealth in the county, including owning more than 1,700 acres of land including the hunting lodge where the double murders took place. They have been struck by other tragedy in the past with Randolph killed when a freight train hit his car. A group of astronomers are pushing back on humanity's preoccupation with communicating with aliens beyond our galaxy, warning that alien contact could result in 'the end of all life on earth,' physicist and science writer Mark Buchanan wrote in a recent Washington Post op-ed. Buchanan begins the piece by mentioning the April 2020 videos released by the Defense Department, one of which shows a US Navy aircraft encountering 'unidentified aerial phenomena,' including objects flying and moving at speeds and directions that are impossible for human-made flight. Just a year prior, leaked Pentagon footage showed an unidentified flying object hovering over San Diego, suggesting that maybe a 'close encounter of the third kind' isn't so far off from happening. But we shouldn't assume that these possible aliens are coming in peace, according to a group of astronomers cited in Buchanan's piece. In a video released by the Defense Department last year, a US Navy aircraft encounters a UFO, with objects flying and moving at speeds and directions impossible for human-made flight In 2019, leaked Pentagon footage showed a UFO hovering over San Diego, suggesting that maybe a 'close encounter of the third kind' isn't so far off from happening after all 'Chances are, we should all be grateful that we don't yet have any evidence of contact with alien civilizations,' Buchanan writes. 'Attempting to communicate with extraterrestrials, if they do exist, could be extremely dangerous for us.' Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence astronomer Joe Gertz echoed Buchanan's sentiments, stating that all of our attempts at communicating with extraterrestrials could ultimately cause 'the reckless endangerment of all mankind, and be absolutely proscribed with criminal consequences, presumably as exercised at the national level, or administered through the International Court of Justice in The Hague.' Buchanan compared a possible alien encounter to Christopher Columbus coming to North America, where an older civilization was vulnerable to the more technologically-advanced Europeans. Pictured: Douglas Vakoch runs a nonprofit research organization that is devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations Mark Buchanan (pictured) believes that we would undoubtedly be the more primitive civilization in the face of inhabitants from galaxies and planets millions of years older than us Given the relatively young age of our galaxy, Buchanan thinks that we would undoubtedly be the more primitive civilization in the face of inhabitants from galaxies and planets millions of years older than us. However, astronomers and scientists from a differing school of thought believe extraterrestrial contact could only benefit humanity through the use of alien technology, which in turn could improve the planet's sustainability. Douglas Vakoch, an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, is one of those astronomers who not only believes in contacting aliens, he's actively doing so. As president of METI International, Vakoch runs a nonprofit research organization that is devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations. By ignoring our duties as members of a potentially galactic neighborhood, we risk 'missing guidance that could enhance our own civilizations sustainability,' he writes. Vakoch has also edited over a dozen books in SETI, which provides copies of the organization's proposals on their website to involve the public in participating in this conversation on whether or not humanity should be reaching out to the stars. Jill Biden changed into a baby blue suit to match husband Joe's tie for their royal sit down on Sunday while The Queen was pretty in pink to host the first couple for tea. The first lady changed out of the navy Carolina Herrera peplum top and skirt she wore to church Sunday morning into a blue shift dress and matching blazer for the Windsor Castle visit. Her suit reflected the blue in the president's tie, giving the couple a coordinating vibe for the Inspection of the Guard of Honor outside Windsor Castle, particularly under the bright sunlight on the beautiful British Day. It was so bright the president, at one point, donned his signature aviator sunglasses. The Queen, meanwhile, wore a bright pink dress with a floral pattern and a matching pink hat for the occasion. Jill Biden changed into a soft blue suit for the Bidens' meeting with The Queen; her suit coordinated with the blue in the president's tie, giving them a matching vibe After the formal greeting outside, the 95-year-old-monarch and the first couple headed indoors for a private meeting. The first lady's office declined to name the designer of her outfit, saying they would not be commenting on Dr. Biden's clothes. Designer Adam Lippes posted on Instagram that it was his design. 'Endlessly honored to be dressing Dr. Jill Biden in todays momentous meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. Our single breasted jacket and matching sheath, both in double face, sky blue Italian wool. Hand sewn in NYC,' the designer wrote. Biden's no fashion policy is a marked difference from the Trump administration. By not commenting on her clothes, the first lady's office is sending the message that Dr. Biden's actions will speak, not her outfits. In contrast, Melania Trump's clothes were closely analyzed for any possible messages. Melania Trump rarely gave media interviews leaving a lack of spoken words. Jill Biden, on the other hand, often speaks to reporters and held an impromptu, short press conference at the G7. She's also let her clothes speak for her, such as the blazer emblazed with the word 'Love' on its back, which she wore for the formal leader greeting on Friday. 'I think that we're bringing love from America,' she said of it. 'This is a global conference, and we are trying to bring unity across the globe. And I think it's needed right now, that people feel a sense of unity from all the countries and feel a sense of hope after this year of the pandemic.' Commentators noted it was a marked contrast from Melania Trump's infamous 'I really don't care, do u?' jacket that she wore for a trip to the Southern border. Jill Biden wore blue while The Queen donned pink and President Biden slipped on his signature aviator shades DON'T TOUCH JOE! President Biden, who is known for being touchy-feeling, came close to touching the Queen, a violation of royal protocol The Queen hosted the Bidens for a private tea Jill Biden wore a navy Carolina Herrera peplum top and skirt to mass with the president earlier on Sunday President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden share a kiss as they leave church after attending mass in St Ives on the last day of the G7 summit At the meeting with the Queen on Sunday, President Biden, who is known for being touchy-feeling, appeared to reach out as if to offer The Queen his arm to escort her off the dais. But he seemed to draw back at the last minute. It is a breach of protocol to touch The Queen although the president kept a hand close to her back as they walked off the stage. The Bidens visited the Queen's Berkshire royal residence this evening, after attending the G7 summit in Cornwall. The couple met the Queen on Friday when she attended a reception for G7 leaders at the Eden Project. The carefully-choreographed arrangements to welcome Biden echo the welcome given to Donald Trump in 2018, when the controversial then-US president travelled to Windsor to meet the monarch. Trump and the Queen had afternoon tea together in the castle's Oak Room, with the meeting lasting longer than expected. It was due to last around half-an-hour, but overran by almost 20 minutes. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were received a state visit in 2009 where Michelle Obama famously hugged The Queen, a breach in protocol. The Queen's dresser, Angela Kelly, later said the monarch wasn't bothered by it. 'Much has been made about the meeting between Michelle and Her Majesty when an instant and mutual warmth was shared between these two remarkable women, and protocol was abandoned as they stood closely with their arms around each other's backs,' Kelly wrote in her 2019 book on dressing the Queen. 'In reality it was a natural instinct for the Queen to show affection and respect for another great woman and really there is no protocol that must be adhered to.' In 2008, when then US president George W Bush met with the monarch at Windsor, he enjoyed a traditional English afternoon spread of tea, small sandwiches and cakes in the White Drawing Room. Advertisement Naftali Bennett has become Israel's new Prime Minister after the country's parliament voted in his coalition government, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12 years in power. Israel's parliament narrowly voted 60-59 in favour of the new government on Sunday and shortly afterwards, Bennett was sworn in as prime minister. Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned bitter rival, will now preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. Netanyahu sat silently during the vote. After it was approved, he stood up to leave the chamber, before turning around and shaking Bennett's hand. A dejected Netanyahu, wearing a black medical mask, then sat down in the opposition leader's chair. Naftali Bennett has become Israel's new Prime Minister after the country's parliament voted in his coalition government, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12 years in power Benjamin Netanyahu sat silently during the vote. After it was approved, he stood up to leave the chamber, before turning around and shaking Bennett's hand People cheer and wave flags as the new coalition government wins the parliamentary vote on Sunday in Jerusalem Israelis celebrate the swearing in of the new government in Tel Aviv with a foam party as a cannon shoots foam into the crowd on Sunday Israel's parliament narrowly voted 60-59 in favour of the new government on Sunday and shortly afterwards, Bennett was sworn in as prime minister. Pictured: People are covered in foam as they celebrated the vote The Israelis celebrated with a foam party as a cannon launched the white liquid into the crowd in Tel Aviv Sunday's vote ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four elections. Pictured: People celebrate the result and light a red flare in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Sunday Sunday's vote ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four elections. Minutes later, Bennett was sworn into office, followed by members of the new Cabinet. Bennett will be prime minister until August 2023 before handing the power over to Yair Lapid, the leader of centrist Yesh Atid party, for a further two years as part of a power-sharing deal. In Jerusalem, supporters of the new coalition cheered as the results of the parliamentary vote came in and waved their flags in the air. Meanwhile thousands of delighted revelers poured into Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Sunday night after hearing of the results as they danced, hugged each other and cheered. 'I am here celebrating the end of an era in Israel,' said Erez Biezuner in Rabin Square. 'We want them to succeed and to unite us again,' he added, as flag-waving supporters of the new government sang and danced around him. 'I have mixed feelings about this government,' said 19-year-old Tal Surkis about the change coalition, but he added that 'it's something Israel needs'. The supporters brought their own foam cannon to the square in Tel Aviv and celebrated with a foam party. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, remains the head of the largest party in parliament and is expected to vigorously oppose the new government. If just one faction bolts, it could lose its majority and would be at risk of collapse, giving him an opening to return to power. Bennett (right) will be prime minister until September 2023 before handing the power over to Yair Lapid (left), the leader of centrist Yesh Atid party, for a further two years as part of a power-sharing deal Yair Lapid is set to become the Prime Minister in 2023 in a power-sharing deal. Pictured: Lapid arrives for the parliamentary meeting on Sunday before the vote. People were covered with foam as they celebrated the parliamentary vote which saw Bennett become the new prime minister Israelis celebrate in Tel Aviv with foam as the new government is sworn in on Sunday night Thousands of people gather for spontaneous celebrations in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv after the confidence vote on Sunday Hundreds of people gathered for a foam party in Tel Aviv in celebration of the vote, with many dancing and cheering The supporters gathered in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv and had a foam party, with the white foam contrasting with the night sky 'We are aware that this step has a lot of risks and hardships that we cannot deny, but the opportunity for us is also big: to change the equation and the balance of power in the Knesset and in the upcoming government,' said Mansour Abbas, an Arab member of the new Israeli government. But in a sign of what is to come, Bennett was heckled and repeatedly interrupted by Netanyahu's supporters who shouted 'shame' and 'liar' as he addressed parliament on Sunday. Several of the Netanyahu loyalists were escorted out of the chamber. And in a scathing speech, Netanyahu vowed he would be 'back soon' and fight against the 'dangerous' coalition. 'I will fight daily against this terrible, dangerous left-wing government in order to topple it,' Netanyahu said at the end of his lengthy 30-minute speech in the Knesset, Israel's Parliament. 'With God's help, it will happen a lot earlier than you think it will.' He added: 'If it's our destiny to be in the opposition, we'll do so with our heads high until we take down this bad government and return to lead the country our way.' In a warning to Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah that he won't be away for long, Netanyahu declared: 'We'll be back soon.' As the new prime minister, Bennett will have to maintain an unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left and centre. The eight parties, including a small Arab faction that is making history by sitting in the ruling coalition, are united in their opposition to Netanyahu and new elections but agree on little else. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12 years in power has now come to an end after the vote Bennett reaches out to touch Netanyahu's arm following the vote which ended Netanyahu's 12 years in power People celebrate in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Sunday night after Israel's parliament voted in the new coalition government People cheer as they celebrate the confidence vote which has meant a new coalition has formed a government. A woman held a sign which seemingly told Netanyahu to 'sashay away' A man and woman dressed in fancy dress hug each other as they celebrate the results of the confidence vote on Sunday in Jerusalem Hundreds of people, including small children, gathered in front of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on Sunday as they awaited the results from the parliamentary vote in Jerusalem On Sunday evening, Bennett opened his first cabinet meeting as prime minister with a traditional blessing for new beginnings. He said: 'We are at the start of new days,' adding this his government will work to 'mend the rift in the nation' after two years of political deadlock. 'Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us,' he said. 'We must all, for this amazing process to succeed, we must all know to maintain restraint on ideological matters.' Alternate prime minister Yair Lapid, who will serve as foreign minister for the first two years of the government's term, said in brief remarks that 'friendship and trust' built their government, and that's what will keep it going. US President Joe Biden was the first world leader to congratulate Bennett on his win and said the United States remained committed to Israel's security. 'I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations,' Biden said. 'Israel has no better friend than the United States.' 'United States remains unwavering in its support for Israel's security,' Biden, who is currently in Cornwall, UK, for the G7 Summit, continued. 'My administration is fully committed to working with the new Israeli government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region.' Bennett tweeted: 'Thank you Mr. President! I look forward to working with you to strengthen the ties between our two nations.' Bennett's office said he later spoke by phone with Biden, thanking him for his warm wishes and longstanding commitment to Israel's security. The leaders agreed to consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran, the White House said, adding that Biden said his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on advancing peace, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. On Sunday evening, Bennett (right) held his first cabinet meeting as prime minister On Sunday evening, Bennett opened his first cabinet meeting as prime minister with a traditional blessing for new beginnings. He said: 'We are at the start of new days,' adding this his government will work to 'mend the rift in the nation' after two years of political deadlock One man was having a particularly good time during the foam party celebrations in Tel Aviv and decided to lie in the foam German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday congratulated Bennett. 'Germany and Israel are connected by a unique friendship that we want to strengthen further. With this in mind, I look forward to working closely with you,' Merkel said in a message addressed to Bennett and shared by her spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer on Twitter. Britain's Prime Minister also tweeted his congratulations to both Bennett and Lapid on their victory and said it is an 'exciting time' for the UK and Israel to work together. Mr Johnson said: 'On behalf of the UK, I offer my congratulations to @naftalibennett and @yairlapid on forming a new government in Israel. As we emerge from COVID-19, this is an exciting time for the UK and Israel to continue working together to advance peace and prosperity for all.' Palestinian militant group Hamas said they will confront the new Israeli government that is expected to take office. Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamic militant group, said Sunday any Israeli government is 'a settler occupier entity that must be resisted by all forms of resistance, foremost of which is the armed resistance.' Israel's deep divisions were on vivid display as Bennett addressed parliament ahead of the vote as he was heckled by supporters of Netanyahu. Bennett said the country, after four inconclusive elections in under two years, had been thrown 'into a maelstrom of hatred and in-fighting'. 'The time has come for different leaders, from all parts of the population, to stop, to stop this madness,' he said to angry shouts of 'liar' and 'criminal' from right-wing opponents. Ahead of the vote, a parliamentary debate became heated as Netanyahu vowed to 'topple' the new coalition, which is led by Bennett Israel has a change of government but Benjamin Netanyahu will be back, experts say Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, was succeeded on Sunday by a coalition that includes for the first time a party from Israel's Arab minority. The 71-year-old right-winger was ousted by an unlikely coalition of right-wing, centrist and other parties who clinched a deal to form a government that would break a period of unprecedented political deadlock that saw four elections in two years. WHO ARE THE NEW GUARD? Naftali Bennett, 49, heads the ultra-nationalist party Yamina - 'Rightwards'. The religious, pro-settler, party won only seven of the Knesset's 120 seats in the March 23 election but he emerged first as kingmaker, then kingslayer and now king as the new prime minister. Naftali Bennett (above), 49, heads the ultra-nationalist party Yamina - 'Rightwards' Yair Lapid (pictured), 57, and his centre-left party Yesh Atid - 'There is a Future' - came second, with 17 seats A high-tech millionaire who dreams of annexing most of the occupied West Bank, Bennett spent some of his childhood in North America. He may face cries of betrayal for forming a government with centre-left partners instead of his natural allies on the right. Yair Lapid, 57, and his centre-left party Yesh Atid - 'There is a Future' - came second, with 17 seats. The former finance minister and TV host campaigned to 'bring sanity' back to Israel, a dig at Netanyahu. But the coalition with Bennett will likely be unstable, uniting unlikely allies from across the political spectrum. Lapid will become prime minister in 2023 as part of a power-sharing deal. Gideon Saar, 54, a former member of Netanyahu's Likud who quit to set up the New Hope party. He rejected Netanyahu's offer of a rotating premiership to keep him in power. WHAT WENT WRONG FOR NETANYAHU? Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) fought the most recent election by asserting that he turned Israel into the 'vaccination nation' His supporters love the man they call 'King Bibi' - admiring his hawkish stance on issues such as Iran and the Palestinians, and his high profile on the international stage. But critics accuse him of being a polarising figure. They also highlight corruption allegations that led to the tag 'Crime Minister' - Netanyahu is on trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He denies wrongdoing. A canny political operator, many expected him to glue together a coalition. But his deal-making touch deserted him, with many rivals wanting to emerge from his shadow. DIDN'T HE GET CREDIT FOR ISRAEL'S VACCINE RECORD? Netanyahu fought the most recent election by asserting that he turned Israel into the 'vaccination nation', leading the world in the recovery from COVID-19. Even as the ballots were being counted, Israel passed the mark at which 50% of the population received two vaccine shots. But such is the polarisation in Israeli politics that even this could not break the stalemate. Netanyahu was also accused of mismanaging earlier pandemic lockdowns that hit Israel's economy hard. WILL HE BE BACK? Yes. A quarter of the electorate voted for his Likud Party, which remains the largest party with 30 of 120 Knesset seats. While he is no longer prime minister, Netanyahu is now the leader of the opposition. This is familiar territory - in the mid-1990s he made life very uncomfortable for then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Reporting by Associated Press Advertisement Bennett, an observant Jew, noted the Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting. 'This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility,' he said. 'To continue on in this way - more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook - is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss.' The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. 'We will forge forward on that which we agree - and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side,' Bennett said. He also promised a 'new page' in relations with Israel's Arab sector. Israel's Arab citizens make up about 20 per cent of the population but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections. Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. Bennett, a former defence minister, also expressed opposition to U.S. efforts to revive Iran's nuclear deal with world powers. 'Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,' Bennett said, vowing to maintain Netanyahu's confrontational policy. 'Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action.' Bennett nevertheless thanked President Joe Biden and the U.S. for its decades of support for Israel. Netanyahu, speaking after him, vowed to return to power. He predicted the incoming government would be weak on Iran and give in to U.S. demands to make concessions to the Palestinians. He also accused Bennett of carrying out the 'greatest fraud in Israel's history' after he formed a coalition with Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, despite saying he had ruled out a government with Lapid before the election. Netanyahu said: 'Ive heard what Bennett said [about standing firm against Iran], and Im concerned, because Bennett does the opposite of what he promises,' Netanyahu said. 'He will fight Iran the same way he wont sit with [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid, Labor and Raam.' 'The prime minister of Israel needs to be able to say no to the president of the United States on issues that threaten our existence,' Netanyahu said during the 30-minute speech, which went past the 15 minutes allocated to him. 'Who will do that now?... This government does not want and is not capable of opposing the United States.' Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. 'Even though it has a very narrow majority, it will be very difficult to topple and replace because the opposition is not cohesive,' he said. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver, and for that they need 'time and achievements.' Still, Netanyahu 'will continue to cast a shadow,' Plesner said. He expects the incoming opposition leader to exploit events and propose legislation that right-wing coalition members would like to support but can't - all in order to embarrass and undermine them. The new government is meanwhile promising a return to normalcy after a tumultuous two years that saw four elections, an 11-day Gaza war last month and a coronavirus outbreak that devastated the economy before it was largely brought under control by a successful vaccination campaign. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years, if the government lasts that long. 'A morning of change,' promised a Sunday tweet by Lapid, who would serve as foreign minister under the coalition deal before taking over the premiership in 2023. Lapid called off a planned speech to parliament, instead saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. In a brief speech, he asked for 'forgiveness from my mother.' 'I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why it's time to replace you,' he said. Netanyahu, who is battling corruption charges in an ongoing trial he dismisses as a conspiracy, has been the dominant Israeli politician of his generation, having also served a previous three-year term in the 1990s. Thousands of protesters rallied outside his official residence late Saturday, waving 'Bye Bye Bibi' signs. The anti-Netanyahu bloc spans the political spectrum, including three right-wing, two centrist and two left-wing parties, along with an Arab Islamic conservative party. The improbable alliance emerged weeks after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, and following inter-communal violence in Israeli cities with significant Arab populations. Netanyahu, who long ago earned a reputation as Israel's ultimate political survivor, has meanwhile tried to peel off defectors that would deprive the nascent coalition of its wafer-thin legislative majority. Supporters of the new coalition watch the voting session at the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday Children were among those who were covered in foam as they all celebrated the formation of the new coalition government on Sunday in Tel Aviv The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, (centre with Bennett on Sunday in parliament) a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years, if the government lasts that long The new prime minister Bennett and Lapid, who is now the Foreign Minister, were in good spirits following the vote on Sunday Listed: The agreements outlined by Israel's 'unity government' Among the agreements outlined by parties in what Lapid described as a 'unity government' are: Limiting the prime minister's term of office to two terms, or eight years. An infrastructure push to include new hospitals, a new university and a new airport. Passing a two-year budget to help stabilize the country's finances - the prolonged political stalemate has left Israel still using a pro-rated version of a base 2019 budget that was ratified in mid-2018. Maintaining the 'status-quo' on issues of religion and state, with Bennett's Yamina party to have a veto. Possible reforms include breaking up an ultra-Orthodox monopoly on overseeing which foods are kosher, and decentralizing authority over Jewish conversions. An 'overall plan for transportation' in the Israeli- occupied West Bank. A general goal to 'ensure Israel's interests' in areas of the West Bank under full Israeli control. Allocating more than 53 billion shekels ($16 billion) to improve infrastructure and welfare in Arab towns, and curbing violent crime there. Decriminalizing marijuana and moving to regulate the market. Advertisement It's unclear if Netanyahu will move out of the official residence. He has lashed out at the new government in apocalyptic terms and accused Bennett of defrauding voters by running as a right-wing stalwart and then partnering with the left. Netanyahu's supporters have held angry protests outside the homes of rival lawmakers, who say they have received death threats naming their family members. Israel's Shin Bet internal security service issued a rare public warning about the incitement earlier this month, saying it could lead to violence. Netanyahu has condemned the incitement while noting that he has also been a target. His place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years - more than any other, including the country's founder, David Ben-Gurion. As Netanyahu has lost the premiership, he will not be able to push through parliament changes to basic laws that could give him immunity on charges he faces in his corruption trial. Netanyahu began his long rule by defying the Obama administration, refusing to freeze settlement construction as it tried unsuccessfully to revive the peace process. Relations with Israel's closest ally grew even rockier when Netanyahu vigorously campaigned against President Barack Obama's emerging nuclear deal with Iran, even denouncing it in an address to the U.S. Congress. But he suffered few if any consequences from those clashes and was richly rewarded by the Trump administration, which recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, helped broker normalization agreements with four Arab states and withdrew the U.S. from the Iran deal. Netanyahu has portrayed himself as a world-class statesman, boasting of his close ties with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also cultivated ties with Arab and African countries that long shunned Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians. But he has gotten a far chillier reception from the Biden administration and is widely seen as having undermined the long tradition of bipartisan support for Israel in the United States. His reputation as a political magician has also faded at home, where he has become a deeply polarizing figure. Critics say he has long pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy that aggravated rifts in Israeli society between Jews and Arabs and between his close ultra-Orthodox allies and secular Jews. In November 2019, he was indicted for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu, who long ago earned a reputation as Israel's ultimate political survivor, has meanwhile tried to peel off defectors that would deprive the nascent coalition of its wafer-thin legislative majority Netanyahu has become a divisive figure in Israeli politics, with the last four elections all seen as a referendum on his rule Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling a coalition that is both farther to the right and more stable than the government that is set to be sworn in. Sunday's vote comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which has grown more bitter in the Netanyahu years, in part due to the expansion of settlements considered illegal under international law in the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, right-wing anger has grown in Israel over last week's postponement of a controversial Jewish nationalist march through flashpoint areas of east Jerusalem. The 'March of the Flags' is now slated for Tuesday, and the agitation surrounding it could represent a key initial test for a new coalition government. Gaza's rulers Hamas said that the political developments in Jerusalem wouldn't change its relationship with Israel. 'The form the Israeli government takes doesn't change the nature of our relationship,' said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. 'Its still a colonising and occupying power that we must resist.' The end of an era: From Trump to corruption probes, how Netanyahu has dominated Israels politics like no other leader By Lauren Lewis for MailOnline Israel's longest serving prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted from power on Sunday after dominating the country's politics for more than 25 years. Netanyahu was replaced by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid who took the reins after forming a coalition government with six other parties, including Mansour Abbas's Islamic conservative Raam party. Netanyahu became the country's longest-serving prime minister in 2019, surpassing Israel's founding father David Ben Gurion, after holding the office office continuously for 12 years since 2009. During his reign, the Israeli prime minister oversaw the unveiling of the Deal of the Century; signed four normalisation deals with Arab states; and presided over three conflicts with the Gaza Strip. He also railed against the Iranian nuclear deal, and became the first sitting Israeli president to be indicted. Benjamin Netanyahu served as the 9th Prime Minister of Israel between 1996 and 1999, he returned to the role in 2009 (pictured attending a Likud Party meeting at the Knesset in March 2009) Four conflicts in Gaza Strip In November 2012, Netanyahu oversaw his first operation in Gaza - Operation Pillar of Defence. The conflict started when after rocket fire from Gaza prompted Israel to strike back, killing Hamas' military chief in an air attack and carrying out hundreds of assaults on militants' underground rocket launchers and weapons stores. An Egyptian-brokered truce was eventually agreed on November 21, ending the war. A second conflict came in 2014 - Operation Protective Edge - after Hamas allegedly kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers, prompting Israel to launch a military operation with the stated aim of ending rocket fire and destroying tunnels used for smuggling. The war left 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 74 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers. A ceasefire was agreed on August 26 and both sides claimed victory. Smoke from explosions are seen over Gaza City following Israeli strikes on November 19, 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defence Following the conflict, Netanyahu vowed a 'very strong action if fire is resumed', warning Hamas not to restart the war. He also said he was no longer willing to renew peace talks with Abbas, saying the Palestinian leader would have to first distance himself from Hamas militants. 'He has to choose,' Netanyahu told Israeli Channel Two in an interview at the time. 'It's either yes to Hamas or no to Hamas.' Mass protests then erupted in Gaza in March 2018. Demonstrators demanded the right to return to homes in Israel that Palestinians fled or were expelled from after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. The protests sparked a surge in violence on the border where Palestinians gathered every Friday. From March 2018 to December 2019, at least 352 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. Eight Israelis also died in related incidents. Protests intensified in May 2018 after the new US embassy opened in Jerusalem following Donald Trump's announcement that it would move from Tel Aviv. Rockets seen in the night sky fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14, 2021 On May 10, 2021, the fourth conflict of Netanyahu's premiership broke out following days of unrest in east Jerusalem. Hamas issued Israel an ultimatum to withdraw soldiers from the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on May 10. When the ultimatum expired without response, Hamas launched several rockets towards Israel, sparking an air offensive by the IDF. At least 256 Palestinians, including 66 children, and 13 Israelis were killed during the 11-day conflict. Netanyahu later claimed victory in the conflict and said Israel's bombing campaign had killed 'more than 200 terrorists' in Gaza. He promised a 'very powerful' reaction if Hamas breached the truce which ended 11 days of bloodshed. He said: 'If Hamas breaks the calm and attacks Israel, our response will be very powerful'. Political turmoil with four elections in two years The right-wing Likud party chief became prime minister for a second time in March 2009, after a first stint between 1996 and 1999. He formed a coalition firmly anchored in the right, with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister. A snap poll in January 2013 returned him to the premiership, this time in a coalition with hardliners keen to build settlements on Palestinian land seized during the 1967 Six-Day War. He returned again to government after winning a confidence vote in parliament in May 2015. Two years later, Netanyahu oversaw the construction of the first new government-sanctioned settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1991, in defiance of international opinion. In a general election in April 2019, Netanyahu's party Likud won 35 of the 120 parliamentary seats in a general election, the same number as centrist challenger Benny Gantz. Netanyahu was tasked with forming a government but was unable to secure a majority and instead decided to call another election on September, which returned the same results. Neither managed to form a coalition, propelling the country into a third poll - the third election in less than a year. Likud won 35 of the 120 parliamentary seats in the April 2019 general election (pictured, Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara celebrate after the vote) An election in March 2020 returned a stalemate, forcing Gantz and Netanyahu to work together. On April 20, the pair unveiled a three-year unity government. The deal allowed Netanyahu to stay in office for 18 months while Gantz, a former army chief, headed the defence ministry. Under the agreement, Gantz would then take over as premier for another 18 months before a new round of elections. But, the agreement only held for a few months. Likud came first in new elections on March 23, 2021, but Netanyahu was not able to form a government within the month-long deadline. On May 5, centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid was tasked with forming a government, gathering support from nationalist hardliner Naftali Bennett - an arrangement Netanyahu warned would be 'a danger for the security of Israel'. Indicted on charges of corruption, bribery, fraud, and breach of trust In November 21, 2019, Netanyahu was indicted by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on charges of corruption, bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases. The three key cases brought against 'Bibi' Case 1000: Fraud and breach of trust Opened in 2016, and involves valuable presents and gifts - such as cigars and bottoms of champagne - allegedly received by Netanyahu and his wife from several wealthy acquaintances in exchange for favours. Case 2000: Fraud and breach of trust Relates to recorded conversations between Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, chairman and editor of Yedioth Ahronoth, one of the largest newspapers in circulation in Israel. The conversations are said to have discussed legislation that could harm a major competitor of the newspaper - Israel Hayom, despite it being seen as pro-Netanyahu. In exchange, Netanyahu is said to have received positive coverage. Case 4000: Bribery, fraud and breach of trust Alleges Netanyahu promoted regulatory decisions favourable to the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq telecom giant, Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for positive coverage on his Walla news site. Advertisement 'It is an attempted coup based on fabrications and a tainted and biased investigative process,' Netanyahu said during a televised speech after the indictment was announced. 'I will continue to lead the country, according to the letter of the law, with responsibility, devotion and concern for all of our futures,' he said, standing at a podium against the backdrop of four Israeli flags in his official residence. Netanyahu added that the indictment was based on 'false accusations' and a systematically 'tainted investigation.' It is the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has been charged with a crime. The first case involves him allegedly receiving gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy friends, including Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In the second case, he is accused of trying to orchestrate positive coverage in a major Israeli paper in exchange for curbing distribution of a free pro-Netanyahu tabloid. The third, dubbed Case 4000, which will be the focus of Monday's first witness testimony, alleges that he backed legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of Israeli telecom giant Bezeq in return for positive coverage on its news site Walla. He was formally charged over the alleged offences in January 2020 after he withdrew his appeal for immunity - which the Knesset was widely expected to reject. Netanyahu has maintained his innocence and denied any wrongdoing in the three corruption cases, saying he is a victim of a political witch-hunt. Netanyahu appeared in court for the first evidentiary hearing of his trial on charges of corruption, fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, on April 21. Israeli law does not require prime ministers to resign while under indictment, and Netanyahu has refused to do so. His trial, in which he pleaded not-guilty, started last year and expected to take up to two years. A protester wearing a mask, depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attends a gathering outside the district court in Jerusalem on April 5 A close relationship with Trump Netanyahu enjoyed a positive relationship with US President Donald Trump after years of strained relations with Barack Obama. Together Netanyahu and Trump worked towards the Deal of the Century - an agreement intended to move towards ending the Arab-Israeli conflict by providing a framework for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The deal, unveiled in January 2020, recognised Israeli sovereignty over major settlement blocs in the West Bank while offering to more than double the territory currently under Palestinian control. Netanyahu and Trump presented the deal as a 'win-win', but it was widely rubbished by Palestinians, who were not involved in negotiations - and termed the deal the 'slap of the century'. US President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to the press on the West Wing Colonnade prior to the unveiling of the Deal of the Century in January 2020 Four Arab countries - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco - normalised relations with Israel in late 2020 in a deal known as the Abraham Accords. The agreements were signed by Trump, Netanyahu, and the Emirati and Bahraini foreign ministers at the White House on September 15. Each of the four leaders signed four copies of the Abraham Accords - one in English, one in Hebrew and two in Arabic. At the time, Netanyahu said Israel was negotiating normalisation deals with five other Arab states, but he did not offer hints as to which ones those may be. He later signed normalisation agreements with Sudan and Morocco in October and December respectively. The deals were a dramatic shift of power dynamics in the Middle East, where Israel had been consigned to relative pariah status. Trump then gifted Netanyahu US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, moving the US embassy there, as well as recognising Israel's annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights. The four leaders hold up the signed copies of the Abraham Accords - they signed one in English, one in Hebrew and two in Arabic - at the White House on September 15, 2020 Netanyah's 'red lines' on Iran - shown with a cartoon drawing of a bomb and a red felt tip In September 2012, Netanyahu warned the UN 'red lines' were needed to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons. In a memorable speech, Netanyahu used a visual aid - a cartoon drawing of a bomb - to demonstrate the necessity of taking action against the Islamic Republic. He told delegates the failure to establish 'red lines' to stop Tehran from building a nuclear bomb 'by next spring, at most by next summer' would be catastrophic. 'At this late hour', he said. 'There is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs and that's by placing a clear red line on Iran's nuclear weapons programme. Red lines don't lead to war; red lines prevent war.' Towards the end of his speech, Netanyahu held up a board showing a cartoon-like diagram of bomb that separated Irans nuclear efforts into three stages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brandishes a cartoon of a bomb during a speech against a nuclear deal between the US and Iran in September 2012 He said that Iran has completed the first stage of developing enough low-enriched uranium and that it was almost at the end of the second stage, the further enrichment of the uranium to weapons grade. Once that stage was completed next spring or summer, a third stage, preparing an actual weapon, could then be accomplished within 'a few months, possibly a few weeks'. Building a detonator for the highly enriched uranium would be relatively simple and easily concealed - and by implication not possible to stop militarily. Using a felt tip pen, he drew a red line across the diagram and said that Iran must be stopped before it completed the second stage. 'I believe that faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down,' he said. Netanyahu later argued the nuclear deal with Iran was a 'very bad' deal that would make the world a 'much more dangerous place'. In April 2015, hours before the US and Iran signed the Nuclear Deal, Netanyahu made a furious televised statement claiming the agreement was a threat to the Jewish state. He said: 'A deal based on this framework would threaten the survival of Israel... such a deal would not block Iran's path to the bomb. It would pave it.' Despite Netanyahu's protestations, the deal was signed in Vienna on July 14, 2015. It came into force in January 2016. A teenager who was stabbed to death on his way to school last Friday has been pictured for the first time. Jalan Woods-Bell has had his picture released earlier today by the Met Police. At around 8.30am on Friday morning, police received reports of a fight on Blyth Road, near Global Academy. Undated handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Jalan Woods-Bell, 15, who was fatally stabbed on Blyth Road in Hayes A teacher who lives nearby, 21-year-old Tia Rek-Williams described the incident as 'traumatising' Jalan was found with stab injuries and died at the scene in Hayes. As a result, a 15-year-old was yesterday charged with Jalan's murder. Police also confirmed that a post-mortem examination will take place on Sunday 13. The charged teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, yesterday (Saturday, June 12) appeared at Willesden Magistrates' Court. An update on his next court appearance is expected in due course. A teacher who lives nearby, 21-year-old Tia Rek-Williams described the incident as 'traumatising'. She said: 'I didn't see the initial stabbing but I did see past the point where the boy was on the ground. 'They were saying 'come on, you've just got 30 seconds, hold on, keep fighting' and as they were saying that I saw his hand drop and his eyes close. It was so traumatising.' She added that the emergency services had arrived around 30 seconds later and the boy had been treated with a defibrillator, and that around six people had tried to help the boy while neighbours came out of their houses and gathered in the road. Ms Rek-Williams said: 'It happened in broad daylight, a 15-year-old boy, there are so many cameras. It just shows you nothing can stop these people doing these things. 'This happened literally in the middle of the street, not down a back alley, in front of people's houses. It's just awful.' Family of the victim could be seen at the crime scene visibly upset as forensic investigators gathered evidence Police commander for Hillingdon, Chief Superintendent Peter Gardner, said: 'I am deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of a child's life to knife crime in Hillingdon. 'This incident, that claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy, took place during this morning's school run. The police scene on Blyth Road in Hayes, west London, following the brutal stabbing of the 15-year-old 'A family has been devastated and the effects of this terrible incident will reverberate throughout our communities. 'As a parent of a teenage boy myself, I cannot imagine the pain the family is going through and I offer our full condolences and support.' He added that police patrols in the area will be stepped up. Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington John McDonnell offered his condolences in a tweet. He wrote: 'If anyone can assist the police with any information on this tragic incident, I urge them to come forward.' Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information is asked to call police on 101, quoting reference Cad 1681/11Jun. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she is inclined to say yes when asked if Justice Stephen Breyer should retire so that President Joe Biden can appoint a younger liberal judge to the Supreme Court. 'You know, it's something I think about, but I would probably lean towards yes,' Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Sunday when asked if she thought the 82-year-old Breyer should step down at the conclusion of this Supreme Court term. 'I would give more thought to it, but I'm inclined to say yes.' The 'Squad' member said that Breyer's retirement should be discussed if the divided Senate declines to take up sweeping reform measures that passed in the Democratic-controlled House. 'I believe we should protect our Supreme Court and that (Breyer's potential retirement) should absolutely be a consideration,' Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Sunday. During Barack Obamas presidency, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg resisted calls from liberals to retire so that the Democratic president could appoint a younger judge in her place. AOC on if she thinks Justice Breyer should retire: "I would probably lean toward yes." pic.twitter.com/yG1fqvU2eY Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2021 House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she is inclined to say yes when asked if Justice Stephen Breyer should retire so that President Joe Biden can appoint a younger liberal judge to the Supreme Court Obamas successor, Donald Trump, a Republican, was able to appoint three new justices to the high court, including one to fill Ginsburgs seat. Ginsburg, who had health challenges in the latter stages of her life, died of cancer in September of last year - less than two months before the presidential election. Trumps appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ginsburgs seat gave conservatives a 6-3 majority on the high court. 'We have had very difficult experiences with making, I believe, the opposite mistake,' Ocasio-Cortez said on Sunday, a reference to Ginsburg's decision not to retire. If Breyer stays on the bench and Biden is replaced by a Republican president in 2025, then the Supreme Court could tilt even further to the right. Breyer is currently the oldest serving justice. The second-oldest jurist on the high court is Justice Clarence Thomas (72), a conservative who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. The third-oldest judge is Justice Samuel Alito, who was appointed by President George W. Bush. Alito is 71 years old. During Barack Obamas presidency, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (pictured in 2009) resisted calls from liberals to retire so that the Democratic president could appoint a younger judge in her place Ocasio-Cortez is the second Democrat in Congress to publicly call for Breyer, who was appointed to the bench by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994, to retire. In April, another progressive lawmaker from New York, House Rep. Mondaire Jones, told Cheddar News he thought Breyer should retire during Bidens first term in office. Theres no question that Justice Breyer, for whom I have great respect, should retire at the end of this term, Jones, the first-term congressman who represents parts of Westchester County and all of Rockland County. My goodness: have we not learned our lesson? Currently, the 100-seat Senate, which is the congressional body that confirms judicial appointments, is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, 50-50. The vice president, who functions as the president of the Senate, casts the tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats the advantage. Breyer has not commented on the calls from liberals to step down during Biden's term. But he has spoken out against attempts to politicize the high court, including through expanding the number of justices in order to dilute the conservative majority. In April, Breyer said liberal advocates of big changes at the Supreme Court, including expanding the number of justices, should think 'long and hard' about what theyre proposing. Politically driven change could diminish the trust Americans place in the court, Breyer told a group of Harvard Law School students, faculty and alumni. His talk, Breyer said, 'seeks to make those whose initial instincts may favor important structural (or other similar institutional) changes, such as forms of "court-packing," think long and hard before embodying those changes in law.' Obamas successor, Donald Trump, a Republican, was able to appoint three new justices to the high court, including one to fill Ginsburgs seat - Amy Coney Barrett (pictured in October 2020) Trumps appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ginsburgs seat gave conservatives a 6-3 majority on the high court. Breyer is currently the oldest serving justice. From left: Justices Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Breyer, Amy Coney Barrett, and Sonia Sotomayor While he has said nothing publicly about his plans, the speech could be read as a kind of farewell address, filled with calls for the public to view the justices as more than 'junior league politicians.' He noted, for example, that despite the courts conservative majority, the court in the past year refrained from getting involved in the 2020 election, delivered a victory to Louisiana abortion clinics and rejected former President Donald Trumps effort to end legal protections for immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Breyer acknowledged that conservative views prevailed in other decisions. 'These considerations convince me that it is wrong to think of the Court as another political institution,' he said. Breyers speech was part of Harvards Scalia Lecture Series, named for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Breyer and Scalia were high-court colleagues for more than two decades. Joe Biden touched down in Brussels on Sunday evening as he continues his first foreign trip as president and keeps his focus on rebuilding ties with European allies. He was welcomed by a Belgium military honor guard and three trumpeters. He wore a face mask due to coronavirus restrictions in Belgium. The growing influence of Russia and China will top the agenda of Monday's NATO meeting, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday evening. He said the meetings were not going to be 'inflammatory.' 'It's going to be clear, straightforward and direct. And also, we're not going to try to over-crank the extent to which tomorrow's about China by any stretch. Tomorrow's about collective security and defense,' Sullivan said. During his two days in Brussels, Biden will meet with NATO and EU leaders - many of them the same ones he saw at the G7. On Monday, he'll hold a private meeting with the president of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan. Biden will also meet Tuesday with European Union leaders as well as visit Belgian King Phillipe. Joe Biden touched down in Brussels on Sunday evening as he continues his first foreign trip as president Biden plans to continue his 'America is Back' message and strength the transatlantic ties frayed under Donald Trump's presidency. Trump refused to reaffirm NATO's Article 5 - which says when one member of the alliance is attacked, it is treated as if all members were attacked. And he complained about the amount of dues America paid to the alliance. President Biden said he will 'make the case that we are back' when he speaks to allies and will defend the alliance. 'We do not view NATO as sort of protection racket. We believe that NATO is vital to maintaining American security for the remainder of the century,' the president said at a press conference in England on Sunday after he finished the G7 summit. He reaffirmed the American commitment to Article 5. 'Remember what happened on 9/11. We were attacked. NATO immediately supported us,' he said. 'We believe NATO and Section 5 is a sacred obligation. Bottom line is I think we made some progress in re establishing American credibility among our closest friends.' During the meeting of the 30 NATO nations, the White House said they will launch an 'ambitious' set of initiatives to ensure the alliance keeps providing security through 2030 and beyond. It said the member countries would agree to revise NATOs 'Strategic Concept' that will guide its 'approach to the evolving strategic environment, which includes Russia's aggressive policies and actions; challenges posed by the People's Republic of China to our collective security, prosperity, and values; and transnational threats such as terrorism, cyber threats, and climate change.' President Joe Biden is greeted as he steps off Air Force One in Brussels Air Force One lands in Brussels for Biden's meeting with NATO and EU leaders President Joe Biden will spend his time in Brussels strengthening transatlantic relations frayed under President Donald Trump Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the US would come out of the G7, NATO and EU meetings in a position of strength. 'What we're demonstrating in each of these meetings and summits is that democracies can come together and work effectively to actually deliver results for our people, and by the way, for people around the world, and also when we're working together militarily, economically, diplomatically, politically, we're a very powerful force,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday.' After Brussels, Biden will travel to Geneva to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16. A naked mother accused of throwing her newborn daughter and toddler son from a second-floor Brooklyn apartment has been charged with multiple violent felonies, including two counts of attempted murder. Dejhanay Jarrell, 24, threw her children, who were naked too, from the window before diving out of it herself around 11:20am Saturday in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, according to police. She allegedly continued to pound the infant's head into the ground because she was 'tired of being by herself', the New York Post reported. Heroic neighbor Carl Chin, 41, jumped in to save the children. He told DailyMail.com he was lying down in bed having a conversation with his fiance when the couple heard the baby crying. 'Within seconds we heard a thump, like the body just hits the ground. So she jumps up to the window and sees the two kids on the floor,' he said. He said the woman appeared to snap back to realty when he was separating them and thanked him while asking him to take care of her daughter. The NYPD said the little girl was taken to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition while the woman and her son were taken to Brookdale Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Scroll down for video Dejhanay Jarrell, 24,pictured here with her son as a baby, is accused of throwing her newborn baby and now two-year-old son out of her New York City window Jarrell's two-year-old son is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the NYPD, but his baby sister is in critical condition The naked woman had allegedly thrown her children out of the second floor of her apartment, pictured Jarrell was charged on Saturday with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault, two counts of reckless endangerment and acting in a manner dangerous to a child younger than 17, according to police. Police and ambulances responded after Chin called 911. His fiance ran to the back of the home, screaming at Jarrell: 'Don't hurt the child. Don't hurt the child!' 'I run to the back and I see the mom has the child in one hand and she drops her. The infant. She drops the infant a couple of times,' Chin said. He said he leapt over the fence tried to grab Jarrell, who sat down with the newborn in a 'headlock.' 'I kind of forcefully took the baby from her, using my forearm, and got her to loosen her grip with the baby. We exchanged a few words and within the seconds the FDNY and ambulance came and took care of it,' he said. He added: 'I wasn't even thinking, I just reacted because I couldn't even believe what I was seeing.' Chin told reporters outside the home that the toddler appeared to be in good condition after the attack and 'wasn't crying' or 'moaning in pain.' The infant, however, seemed to be clinging to consciousness. 'She was trying to open her eyes and it was closing. Half her face was bruised. I hope she didn't hit her head on the concrete, but her head was shaped kind of like after you hit it hard and swelling starts to form,' Chin said. Chin said the woman then appeared to snap back to realty and thanked him while asking him to take care of her daughter. 'I have no idea what was going on with the mom. I had never met her or seen her prior to this but she clearly is not in the right state of mind. She must have been having some kind of mental breakdown because they were all naked,' he said. Jarrell, who was naked at the time of the incident, was charged with multiple violent felonies, including two counts of attempted murder The NYPD, who had officers outside the apartment, said the little girl was taken to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition while the woman and her son were taken to Brookdale Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries Shandie Harrison, Chin's sister-in-law, told the New York Daily News she saw the mother hold the newborn by the leg and pound her head twice into the ground. 'We saw the newborn, we started screaming. It was three of them naked on the ground, the mom, the newborn baby and another little child,' she said. She said the newborn was bleeding from her ear and the toddler had bruises on his forehead and his knee. Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson has claimed that an 'unequal administration of justice' is being applied to the suspects of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol versus those involved in Black Lives Matter protests across the country last spring and summer. Johnson, who's also a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, shared his thoughts with Mark Levin on his Fox News talk show 'Life, Liberty & Levin' on Friday. 'This is highly alarming,' Johnson said, speaking to Mark Levin. 'Every American should be concerned when we see the unequal administration of justice.' Johnson asserted that President Biden and the media ignore the damage caused at Black Lives Matter protests and want to 'sweep that under the rug' and just focus on the insurrection. He added that he condemns the insurrection and believes those who breached the capitol violently should be 'prosecuted to the full extent of the law.' Republican Senator Ron Johnson (right) spoke with Mark Levin on his Fox News talk show 'Life, Liberty & Levin,' about an alleged 'unequal administration of justice' being applied to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot suspects 'But I don't want the media and I don't want Democrats and politicians painting with a broad brush that just because, you know, a hundred or a couple of hundred people assaulted law enforcement, that somehow 75 million Americans that voted for Donald Trump are somehow suspected domestic terrorists,' he said. In February, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed in a statement that he would 'supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.' Last week, Johnson and fellow Republican senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rick Scott and Tommy Tuberville signed a letter they sent to Garland demanding that the justice department re-evaluate its treatment of the insurrectionists. Thousands of rioters broke through barricades of the Capitol building on Jan. 6 and forced Congress to evacuate Some of their concerns were that the riot suspects were sitting in jail and being held in solitary confinement, while they said Black Lives Matter protesters and antifa were able to walk free after protests last year. 'During the spring and summer of 2020, individuals used peaceful protests across the country to engage in rioting and other crimes that resulted in loss of life, injuries to law enforcement officers, and significant property damage,' the letter reads. 'Despite these numerous examples of violence occurring during these protests, it appears that individuals charged with committing crimes at these events may benefit from infrequent prosecutions and minimal, if any, penalties.' 'DOJ's apparent unwillingness to punish these individuals who allegedly committed crimes during the spring and summer 2020 protests stands in stark contrast to the harsher treatment of the individuals charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.' The letter continues to decry the justice department's database of defendants charged with crimes committed at the Capitol on Jan. 6. 'No such database exists for alleged perpetrators of crimes associated with the spring and summer 2020 protests,' the letter reads. Protesters in Louisville, Kentucky, took to the streets to denounce police brutality on September 23, 2020 They also added to the letter nine questions about the justice department's handling of capitol riots and asked the same nine questions about its response to the spring and summer 2020 protests. Such questions asked how many individuals committed crimes, how many were arrested for committing crimes, how many were arrested using pre-dawn raids and SWAT teams and how many were offered deferred resolution agreements, among others. To date, roughly 465 people have been arrested in connection to breaching security at the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the Electoral College from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. In 2020, law enforcement agencies made more than 14,000 arrests related to Black Lives Matter protests. Johnson has long drawn controversy over his comments about the Capitol riots, claiming in March that he did not feel at all threatened by the mob of Trump supporters, but would have been if they were Black Lives Matter or antifa. Johnson once said that he did not feel at all threatened by the mob of Trump supporters, but would have been if they were Black Lives Matter or antifa During the interview he stated that he did not believe what was happening to be an armed insurrection. 'Now, had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election, and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.' His comments were met with fury by CNN host Don Lemon who accused the senator of 'spewing blatant racism.' 'Did you hear him? He wasn't afraid of those people. Maybe 'cause they're white? Not maybe. That's the reason. Because if they were black, he would be afraid of them. He said they support law enforcement. Even though they beat up officers, one officer died, one suffered a heart attack, and they were beating them with blue lives matter flags,' Lemon countered. Law enforcement officials said in court filings last month that guns, bombs and other weapons were found on people and in the vehicles of those who stormed the Capitol. The insurrectionists also used flag poles, stolen police shields, crutches, fire extinguishers, sticks and other everyday objects to attack police officers and force entry into the Capitol. A school board member called on graduating high school students to remember 'jihad' at their commencement as she warned they were entering a world of, 'racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, [and] white supremacy.' Abrar Omeish, the sole Muslim member on the Fairfax County School Board, in Virginia, addressed the graduating students of Justice High School on June 7. In English, she told them that: 'The world sees the accolade, the diploma, the fruit of all your years yet be reminded of the detail of your struggle.' But when she repeated the speech in Arabic, she told students to remember their 'jihad' - a word meaning both 'struggle' and, specifically, holy war waged on behalf of Islam. Her Libya-born father Esam Omeish, a surgeon, was forced to resign from the Virginia Commission on Immigration in 2007 when video emerged from the year before, showing him condemning Israel and advocating 'the jihad way.' His daughter, who was previously called to resign for an anti-Israel tweet, said the school was her father's alma mater, and told the graduating class that they were entering a world ruled by white supremacy and capitalism. 'We struggle with human greed, racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, white supremacy growing wealth gaps, disease, climate crisis extreme poverty amidst luxury and waste right next door, and the list goes on,' she told the group. Abrar Omeish, the sole Muslim member of a school board in Virginia told graduating students at Justice High School to remember the 'jihad' of their upbringing at their commencement on June 7 'The world may try to quiet you by deciding for you what's cool, what's weird, what is or isn't objective. It may try to convince you that what you hold dear is too different to be accepted. But who gets to decide? 'You are walking into a world that will be uncomfortable when you seek to cause good trouble. And that may seek to intimidate you or make you think the truth is controversial,' she said. 'Every part of your being may scream in rage at the ways others have wronged you,' but 'let compassion for your fellow human beings, not anger or rage and believe me this is hard to do fuel you.' Omeish, who was 24 when she won her place on the board in November 2019, making her one of Virginia's youngest elected officials, has touted various progressive initiatives at the school. She has promoted a Black History Month assembly that ensured, she said, 'that we confront our history and answer honestly about the ills of our past.' Others included the school's first-time recognition of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, and the school's Equity Club, which she said had become a standard in the Fairfax School District. She also sparked controversy recently for her tweet attacking Israel. On May 13, she posted: 'Hurts my heart to celebrate while Israel kills Palestinians & desecrates the Holy Land right now. 'Apartheid & colonization were wrong yesterday and will be today, here and there.' Omeish recently faced controversy and calls for her to resign for a tweet critical of Israel The tweet sparked such strong backlash that the Fairfax County Republican Committee called on Omeish to resign. Instead, she refused and hit out at her 'haters' calling them a 'different breed' of cheerleader. 'No matter how many haters emerge, I'm sure you've encountered them yourselves, and believe me they're a sign you're unsettling the status quo towards justice,' she said. 'Just consider them your cheerleaders of another breed. When they try to bury you, remind them you are a seed.' The Daily Mail reached out to Omeish for comment. In 2017 the Fairfax school board voted to change the school name from J.E.B. Stuart High School to Justice High School, to lose the name honoring a famous Confederate general. The name was changed after a group of students approached Sandy Evans, the school board's Mason District representative, in 2015 after learning about the role that Jeb Stuart - as he was known - played as one of General Robert E. Lee's most trusted generals. The students' calls to rename their school gained traction when film and TV producer Bruce Cohen and Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore, who had both attended Stuart, started an online petition suggesting Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's name as a substitute. Created on July 31, 2015, the petition on Change.org attracted nearly 40,000 supporters. But the debate about the renaming continued for two years. Those who supported a new name argued the school should no longer be named after a Confederate general who fought to preserve slavery. Opponents decried the effort as a costly attempt to rewrite history. The board voted seven to two, with two abstentions, to change the name in July 2015, during a raucous meeting that included an appearance by Civil War reenactors dressed in Rebel and Union army costumes. The high school is one of the most diverse in Fairfax, with more than 78 per cent of the school's 2,130 students being either Hispanic, black, Asian or multiracial, while whites comprise 22 per cent, according to The Washington Post. Omeish was elected to the board two years after the name change, following a campaign in which she stated that she was the first Libyan-American elected to any office nationwide. While campaigning, in March 2019, she was stopped by police for turning right on a red light at a Fairfax intersection. She alleges she was a victim of police brutality and discrimination after being pepper-sprayed and dragged from her car after a traffic stop and later forced to remove her headscarf. The police said she refused to provide her identity documents. When she was arrested, they said they followed procedure by taking one booking photo without her headscarf, and one with, while screening her from sight. 'It makes no logical sense to me that, within three minutes, an officer would have to pull mace and that it would escalate and devolve into everything it was that night, over a minor traffic violation,' she told The Washington Post at the time. Police body camera footage from March 2019 shows Omeish being arrested She was maced and dragged out of the car in the incident, which she described as excessive Omeish grew up in Virginia - her father left Libya when he was 15, settling in Fall's Church. Her mother is a scientist, with a PhD in molecular genetics. She attended Robinson Secondary school in Fairfax, Virginia, and went to Yale for her undergraduate degree. She then studied for a master's degree in public policy at Georgetown University, on a full scholarship. She worked at a human rights law firm in Tysons and as a substitute teacher before being elected to the board, and 10 years ago launched a nonprofit, GIVE, to help disadvantaged children with education. In 2019 she spoke at International Institute for Islamic Thought - a Virginia-based group, co-founded by Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, which in 2002 was raided in connection with investigation into financing of terrorism. Her photo remains on their website. In 2020, she was Virginia co-chair of Bernie for President. From March to June 2020, she was on the Democratic National Convention rules committee. Omeish's father was an outspoken, at times controversial, activist. Esam Omeish, father of Abrar Omeish, is pictured speaking at a memorial service in November 2018 for his friend, Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi forces inside the consulate in Istanbul In 2005 he was president of the Muslim American Society, a group identified by federal prosecutors as the 'overt arm' of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Some anti-terror groups have for years been critical of the Muslim American Society, alleging that it is essentially a front group for Islamic radicals and citing links to the Muslim Brotherhood, a popular movement in the Muslim world that advocates the formation of Islamic governments in the Middle East. He said the Muslim American Society was formed as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood but now is completely separate. He praised the Brotherhood for taking what he said has been a more moderate outlook in recent years. Asked if the society agrees with the U.S. government's designation of Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups, Omeish said, 'We are Americans. We stand by the position of our government.' He added that 'the Palestinian cause is a just cause.' He also served on the board of Dar al Hijrah mosque, a Falls Church, Virginia-based mosque which critics say has a long history of ties to terrorism finance. Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American terror financier killed by a drone strike in 2011, was hired in 2001 to be the imam at the mosque. Two of the September 11 hijackers briefly prayed there. The mosque condemned Al-Awlaki, saying they had no idea of what he would later become. Al-Awlaki left the U.S. in 2002, moving first to London and then to Yemen. Smiling at the camera, Melissa Laurie looks every inch the carefree backpacker as her boat speeds through a picturesque waterway in Mexico. Yet less than two hours later, her trip to the beautiful Manialtepec lagoon ended in horror as Melissa narrowly escaped death when her twin sister Georgia saved her from the jaws of a crocodile. 'We were having such a good time, but I'll never be able to look at this photograph again without thinking of what happened next,' says Elliot Scott, a friend of the twins. In an exclusive interview, the 28-year-old Briton and 19-year-old Etan Zeldenrust from Amsterdam revealed new details of what happened on that grisly day. Smiling at the camera, Melissa Laurie looks every inch the carefree backpacker as her boat speeds through a picturesque waterway in Mexico Mr Scott, from Manchester, met Georgia, 28, in a Mexican nightclub earlier this year, and Melissa days later when he mistook her for her twin. The trio began travelling around the country, hiking in the canyons and working on farms to finance their trip. Eventually, they made their way to the fishing resort of Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast. Last Sunday afternoon, Mr Scott, Mr Zeldenrust and the twins, from Berkshire, were among a group of 23 tourists who paid 300 pesos (10) each for a trip to see the bioluminescence the phosphorescent plankton the lagoon is famous for. Mr Scott said: 'The scenery was amazing. We saw flocks of herons in the mangrove swamps and other exotic birds. There was high energy on the boat. We were young, we were travellers, we were having fun.' The first stop was Puerto Suelo beach at 5.30pm, a picture-perfect stretch of sand where the only sounds are waves hitting the shore and birds chirping in the palm trees. Some of the group settled down on towels on the beach and others walked in the direction of a palapa an open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof made of palm leaves that operated as a fish restaurant. Last Sunday afternoon, Mr Scott, Mr Zeldenrust and the twins, from Berkshire, were among a group of 23 tourists who paid 300 pesos (10) each for a trip to see the bioluminescence the phosphorescent plankton the lagoon is famous for They had been told not to swim in the sea because the surf was rough but it was OK to swim in the river. Mr Scott said: 'Someone asked, 'are there any crocodiles?' and the guide said, no, it was safe.' Some time after 6pm, while those on the beach were toasting marshmallows over a fire, the tour guide came rushing over. Mr Scott said: 'He said, 'Pack up all your stuff right now we're leaving'. I knew the twins weren't back from their walk and I wasn't going to leave without them but then someone else said words to the effect, 'there's been a crocodile attack' or 'someone's got bitten', so I grabbed all the bags and ran for the boat.' Moises Salinas, a 16-year-old who had been helping on the boat, gunned the engine and sped to where the twins had been swimming . He helped Georgia lift her badly injured sister on board. 'That sight will stay for ever in my mind,' Mr Scott said. 'Georgia was cradling Mel and there was a lot of blood.' Georgia said later she saw her sister being thrown about in the water by the crocodile. 'I saw a croc's head which was about two feet long. It swam off, but kept coming back. 'That's when it grabbed her by the leg and got her in a death roll. She went round and round and it was trying to drag her away. 'I was pounding it, and that's when it grabbed me and bit my arm. I bashed it with the other hand and it let me go. It felt hard, like hitting a table.' Mr Scott said: 'We all clambered in the boat and it took off. Someone was trained in first aid and she told us not to use our towels to put pressure on Mel's wounds because they might be dirty. Mel was coughing up blood. She looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I'm drowning'. You could hear the fluid in her lungs every time she took a breath. It was horrible. 'Georgia dealt with it so well. She and Mel were seated face to face and she never took her eyes off her. Mel would look like she was dozing off and then she'd suddenly wake up again and you could hear the rattle in her chest. 'Someone suggested Georgia should sing to her to keep her calm and she did songs they both loved by The Temptations and Smokey Robinson. Everyone was in shock on the boat no one spoke.' An ambulance was waiting on shore and the twins were transferred to the Angel del Mar hospital. In the early hours of the morning, Mr Scott and Mr Zeldenrust were asked if they were willing to donate blood. Mr Zeldenrust was a match. 'It felt entirely natural to do anything I could to help,' the teenager said. Melissa was placed in an induced coma, but was awake and talking on Thursday, her family said. Speculation is growing as to the identity of the mystery bidder who paid $28million at auction for a seat onboard the first crewed spaceflight by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin. The winner's identity will be disclosed before the Blue Origin rocket - named New Shepard - blasts into space on July 20, but internet sleuths are already floating potential names. Given the staggering sum paid for the 11-minute flight, it seems likely the person is a billionaire and could be close friends with Bezos, who will be on board the New Shepard along with his brother, Mark. It's also likely the winner has a passion for astronomy. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is one billionaire with an interest in space travel. Schmidt, 66, has a reported fortune of $21.4 billion. He was the CEO of Google from 2001 until 2011, before serving as executive chairman of the company from 2011 until 2018. Interestingly, Schmidt spent two years as a member of NASA's National Space Council User Advisory Group, and is now the Chairman of the US National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence. Speculation is growing as the identity of the mystery bidder who paid $28million at auction for a seat onboard the first crewed spaceflight by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin. Bezos is seen in a Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs in 2017 The July 20 launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard booster from West Texas is a landmark moment as U.S. firms strive toward a new era of private commercial space travel. Pictured is one of the successful test flights Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has extreme wealth and a longtime interest in space travel. Meanwhile, Scooter Braun is close friends with Bexos However, it's unclear whether he is friends with Bezos, and it may be more likely that the winner is close pals with the Amazon founder. It's not impossible that Bezos' pal, Scooter Braun, 39, bid on the coveted seat. The pair partied up a storm on board a boat in Italy back in the summer of 2019, and Braun - a powerhouse producer with a reported net worth of $400 million - has long gushed about Bezos. Back in 2017, he wrote on Twitter: 'Always has been and always will be... Jeff Bezos is such an inspiration. Never ever doubt your goals. Awesome.' But some of Bezos' older and wealthier pals could possibly have edged out Braun in the bidding wars. Barry Diller, 79, has a fortune estimated at $3.1 billion and is said to be incredibly close friends with Bezos and his partner, Lauren Sanchez. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also has ample cash to splash on the seat given his net worth of $1.9 billion. However, neither Diller or Dimon have publicly professed to an interest in space travel, so it would be surprising if either of them were revealed as the winner. Bezos' besties! Barry Diller (left) and Jamie Dimon (right) are both close friends with the Amazon CEO The winner, whose identity will be disclosed in the coming weeks, beat 20 other participants in an auction launched in late May. Pictured is the moment the $28million figure was reached The winner beat 20 other participants in an auction launched in late May. Bezos, the world's wealthiest man and a lifelong space enthusiast, has been racing against fellow billionaires Richard Branson and Elon Musk to be the first of the three to travel beyond Earth's atmosphere. The billionaire space race is fueled by optimism that space travel will become mainstream as nascent technology is proven and costs fall, fueling what UBS estimates could be a $3 billion annual tourism market by 2030. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as Musk's SpaceX, have also discussed using their rockets to link far-flung global cities. Blue Origin named the New Shepard program after astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly into space exactly 60 years ago. Washington state-based Blue Origin is largely self funded by Bezos, who has been selling over $1 billion worth of stock in Amazon per year to fund the company. In sending tourists to space, Bezos has beaten Richard Branson and Elon Musk and their firms, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX to the punch. Branson congratulated Bezos on the news, describing how their two firms are 'opening up access to space.' He tweeted: ' Many congratulations to @jeffbezos & his brother Mark on announcing spaceflight plans. Jeff started building Blue Origin in 2000, we started building Virgin Galactic in 2004 & now both are opening up access to Space - how extraordinary! Watch this space' Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos inspects New Shepard's West Texas launch facility before the rocket's maiden voyage, in West Texas on June 7 Bezos recently announced that he and his brother Mark will be on the New Shepard spacecraft when it flies next month Blue Origin, founded in 2000, touts itself as means to provide cheaper access to space through the use of reusable rockets, specifically the New Shepard that has flown 15 times. The rocket's sole mission is to take tourists to space, who would travel inside a sleek, white capsule atop the vehicle. The capsule is designed with the iconic Blue Origin feather across the exterior and inside are six reclining seats that mirror those inside a helicopter. Blue Origin's plans are to send tourists 62 miles above Earth's surface and spend at least 10 minutes in orbit. The company also recently conducted its first astronaut rehearsal in preparation for sending the first manned New Shepard into space. The mock crew traveled the designated path of future spacefaring tourists, which included traveling to the launch pad and climbing up the tower to the passenger capsule. While celebrities and the uber-rich appear to be a core market for space tourist jaunts, at least initially, industry sources expect Blue Origin to include some philanthropic component to its ticket strategy. The idea of sending paying customers to the edge of space was once only a plot in science fiction films, but many companies other than Blue Origin are turning the epic journey into a reality. 'On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend,' said earlier this month (pictured is an image of the inside of the space craft) Branson congratulated Bezos after the first flight was announced, describing how their two firms are 'opening up access to space' A college science professor and an aerospace data analyst are among a four-member crew for a launch into orbit planned later this year by Elon Musk's SpaceX, part of a charity drive billed as the first all-civilian spaceflight in history. Virgin Galactic also aims to fly private customers in early 2022, after a first flight with Branson on board later this year. Its zero-gravity experience is anchored by its SpaceShipTwo plane, and the company has ambitious plans to offer point-to-point travel between far-flung cities at near-space altitudes. Virgin says it will charge more than $250,000 for new reservations but has not announced final pricing. Sales will reopen following Branson's flight. Furious Tory backbenchers last night voiced fears that we will never get out of this Orwellian nightmare as Boris Johnson prepared to announce a delay to the end of lockdown. The rebel MPs complained that every time the country nears freedom you hear the scraping of shovels and the goalposts are lifted up and moved. In an address this evening, the PM is expected to confirm a delay of a month on the initial plan for Freedom Day, originally set for June 21. The extraordinary backlash came as business leaders warned hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk with the economy facing a two per cent hit. Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Tory MPs, last night expressed concern that lockdown could be extended until at least the end of September if ministers attempt to wait until the whole population has been double-jabbed. He said: We have a rapid rollout of effective vaccines and are heading into summer. If, even at this point, the Government wont release restrictions, this points to restrictions in the autumn and winter, when respiratory diseases increase and the NHS is always under more pressure. Furious Tory backbenchers last night voiced fears that we will never get out of this Orwellian nightmare as Boris Johnson prepared to announce a delay to the end of lockdown This would be devastating for business confidence, peoples livelihoods and wellbeing. Tory backbencher Marcus Fysh warned that the PM and senior ministers have completely lost their way, as he insisted there is no need to panic about the rise in infections. The MP for Yeovil said: If we are still in a no mans land wondering about coronavirus through the summer months then you can see how there would be calls to lock down into the autumn, and then lock down in winter and spring. We need to make a stand now and say it is not acceptable. Mr Fysh said the Government has lost credibility by repeatedly extending restrictions, adding: It would not surprise me at all if people just ignore them. I think it would be completely understandable if they did. Richard Drax, the Tory MP for South Dorset, accused ministers of going back on their initial promise that once all the vulnerable were vaccinated, we would be free. Mark Harper (left) expressed concern that lockdown could be extended until at least the end of September while Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh (right) warned that the PM and senior ministers 'have completely lost their way' Richard Drax (left) accused ministers of going back on their initial promise that once all the vulnerable were vaccinated, we would be free and Craig Mackinlay (right) voiced concern that the country is 'going to end up in a perpetual circle of lockdowns' He said: Every time I hope for freedom, you hear the scraping of shovels and the goalposts are lifted up and moved two feet to the right. This is no longer acceptable. Common sense and pragmatism is needed now, not more Project Fear, which frankly I have had enough of. We cannot go on destroying peoples lives and livelihoods. If it is a two-week delay now, in two weeks time it will be another two weeks, and another two weeks, and another two weeks and we will never get out of this Orwellian nightmare. Tory Craig Mackinlay voiced concern that the country is going to end up in a perpetual circle of lockdowns, adding: It is time to say enough. The MP for South Thanet in Kent said: If we delay each time there is a variant, we are never going to unlock because you can be sure next month there will a Californian Type-2 variant, or the month after a Thailand via South Africa variant. These things are never going to stop. The regulations underpinning the roadmap are due to expire on June 30, meaning the Government will need a Commons vote to extend them past that date (stock image) Boris Johnson is expected to lift the limit of 30 people for weddings and permit more outdoor seated spaces at sporting events The regulations underpinning the roadmap are due to expire on June 30, meaning the Government will need a Commons vote to extend them past that date. But despite the anger on the Tory backbenches, CRG deputy chairman Steve Baker last night conceded that the rebels are powerless to block them as Mr Johnson will win by a huge margin thank to Labours support. The Institute for Economic Affairs yesterday estimated the cost of postponing the end of lockdown could amount to 1billion a week. UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: Hospitality is desperate to get back to what it does best and can play a key role in the economic recovery of the UK but only once it is given permission to trade freely. Douglas McWilliams, deputy chairman for the Centre for Economics and Business Research, warned the danger of uncertainty would hit firms. He said: Businesses have spent hundreds of millions of pounds preparing to reopen and now a lot of that expenditure could be wasted. We cannot allow our country to become a draconian dystopia Commentary by Dr Renee Hoenderkamp The expected delay to the end of lockdown restrictions doesnt just mean another month of compulsory masks and social distancing, the suspension of international travel and prolonged agony for the arts and hospitality sectors. There is, I believe, now a very real danger that these infringements on ordinary, everyday life will continue not only the rest of the year but until next spring at least. When mid-July is here, the cheerleaders for lockdown will be pointing to the expected autumn surge in Covid cases. They will warn us that a few summer weeks of looser freedoms will lead to renewed viral outbreaks and will eventually trigger another full national shutdown. And because half the summer will already have be gone by then and we will all have given up on any hope of weddings, parties and festivals, the nation will collectively bow its head and succumb. Already, we are so cowed and docile that no one is asking the obvious questions such as what is the point of these restrictions currently? Are they serving any positive purpose at all? As a GP, I do not accept that there is any valid medical reason for carrying on with any level of lockdown that overrides the multiple compelling reasons for getting back to normal. When rules were first imposed on social distancing and limiting indoor gatherings to just six people, the vaccine did not exist. Whitehalls aim was to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed by Covid. Today, when half the population has already had both vaccine doses, there should be no danger that our hospitals will be unable to cope with the virus, even given the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant (stock image) Today, when half the population has already had both vaccine doses, there should be no danger that our hospitals will be unable to cope with the virus, even given the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant. But the NHS is being overwhelmed by the effects of lockdown itself. There are now a record-breaking 5.1million people on waiting lists the worst situation in the 73-year history of the health service. Every day I see patients in desperate need of hip and knee operations. When they ask me how long they might have to wait, I have to look them in the eye and say: It could be years. And the medical repercussions of waiting two to three years for a joint replacement are serious and sometimes life-changing. Many such patients are in agony. They become depressed. These patients might self-medicate with alcohol or painkillers. And unable to exercise, they will put on weight. All this puts strain on other parts of their body. It can lead to heart, liver and kidney disease along with other serious illnesses. And yet their primary problem is something that is easy to alleviate through routine surgery. And what about those with life-threatening diseases, including heart disease and cancer, who have had screening or treatment delayed? Or those who have yet to be diagnosed because of soaring waiting lists? And it is not only older people who are suffering. As full lockdown eased in April, A&E departments in hospitals across the country saw a 30 per cent increase in admissions for serious mental health problems, including self-harming and suicide attempts. In my surgery Ive seen an increase in mental health problems across all age groups. Early data shows this is caused not by Covid itself but by the measures imposed by governments that were supposed to protect our health, not harm it. In Germany, the findings of a study of 1,500 schoolchildren has suggested a high incidence of depression. Some of them had suffered Covid-19, some hadnt it made no difference. What had impacted the children even more was the shock and upheaval of the past 15 months. I dont think the Governments advisers have grasped this. Ironically, while ordering us all to shield from Covid, they have been shielded from the effects of their own policies. They have not seen their own livelihoods wiped out nor lost their careers. They have been able to keep working and therefore they have avoided the effects of isolation and despair. The virus will continue to mutate and infect, but the vaccines should mitigate the seriousness of disease Buoyed by the obedience of a patient public, they have now forgotten that their immediate priority was to safe-guard the NHS. But now, in their determination to wipe out Covid, they are damaging the very institution they set out to protect not to mention the millions of people who rely on the health service. The grim fact is that Covid cannot be completely extinguished. Zero Covid is a fantasy. The virus will continue to mutate and infect, but the vaccines should mitigate the seriousness of disease. For a small percentage of cases, usually those with underlying health conditions such as renal failure and immune disorders, Covid will continue to cause serious infections even when patients have received both doses. The Government needs to identify those at risk and help them to shield themselves, if that is what the vulnerable individuals want. While the rest of us are at a different sort of risk, from lockdown itself. We cannot allow this appalling and undemocratic travesty to continue and stand by as our country slides into a sort of draconian dystopia. We must demand our NHS returns to full power. We must demand an end to the economic catastrophe and its devastating consequences. We must demand our freedoms back. Renee Hoenderkamp is an NHS GP Experts queue up to warn of third wave risk By Kate Pickles, Health Correspondent for the Daily Mail Scientists came out in force yesterday to warn that full unlocking would fan the flames of rising Covid infections, heaping pressure on the Prime Minister to delay the easing of lockdown. Government advisers are uncertain how severe a third wave would be but warned that cases are close to spiralling out of control. The doubling time of infections of around a week means the country is only three or four times away from the overwhelming case numbers seen over winter, many warned. And even with almost eight in ten adults now having had at least one dose of the jab, experts said it was becoming clear that both doses will be needed to offer the best protection from the Indian/Delta variant. Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), described the 60 per cent increased transmissibility of the variant as extremely worrying as it could see infections reach January levels by the end of July. I think its clear we will have a substantial third wave of infections, the really big question is how much that wave of infections is going to translate into hospitalisations, he told BBC1s The Andrew Marr Show. He said ministers should not put their foot on the accelerator but slow down. This will give more time to get people double vaccinated, he said, with figures showing 55.6 per cent of adults have had their second dose. Public Health England data showed the number of confirmed cases of the strain has increased in a week from 12,431 to 42,323, with it now accounting for 90 per cent of all Covid cases. It came as the UK recorded another 7,490 daily Covid cases and eight more deaths, slightly down on the previous days 7,738 and 12 deaths. Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), which advises the Government, said he expected the Prime Minister to announce an extension of restrictions. He said officials should be wary of going backwards as cases continued to increase. He said: We dont know how many people are going to get seriously ill. Theres still a lot of damage that can be done, therefore it makes good sense to pause. Hospital leaders have expressed worries rises in cases will have a knock-on effect to the 5.1 million people on waiting lists. Dr Raghib Ali, senior clinical research associate at the University of Cambridges MRC epidemiology unit, said waiting times had already seen a rise in patients attending A&E because of the backlog of patients that didnt come in during the previous waves. He told Sky News: I expect the Prime Minister to say that unfortunately a delay is needed to make sure that we dont get to the situation again where the NHS is unable to provide care to all its patients. Independent SAGEs Anthony Costello, of University College London, told The Mirror that cases could reach 100,000 a day in a month and warned the NHS will be overloaded if the Government takes a gamble. Demands from businesses to extend the furlough scheme were rejected by Rishi Sunak last night despite the expected delay to ending lockdown. The hugely expensive wage support fund is due to start being wound down at the end of this month. As part of the Budget earlier this year, the Chancellor announced he would stop covering 80 per cent of the salaries of those not at work. From July 1, the Governments share will fall to 70 per cent with employers contributing 10 per cent, as part of a staged withdrawal of the scheme due to finish completely at the end of September. Business groups including the British Chamber of Commerce yesterday urged the Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) to delay the wind down if lockdown is extended Business groups including the British Chamber of Commerce yesterday urged the Chancellor to delay the wind down if lockdown is extended, while hospitality chiefs claimed as many as 200,000 jobs were at risk. But sources close to Mr Sunak insisted the timetable for gradually withdrawing furlough would remain the same. They said that by extending support to the end of September the Treasury had already gone long in case there was any delay to reopening. Mr Sunak is also resisting calls to extend the business rates holiday that is also due to start being withdrawn at the end of the month. Retail, hospitality and leisure premises have been helped with a 100 per cent relief since last March when the lockdowns first began. The Government is due to reduce the relief to 66 per cent from July 1 and it will remain in place until the end of March next year. People gather in Soho, London, where streets were closed to traffic as bars and restaurants opened for outside eating and drinking, as lockdown measures eased April 2021 Trade body UKHospitality has called for Mr Sunak to keep the full relief in place for a further three months until the start of October. Chief executive Kate Nicholls said yesterday: We recognise that the Chancellor has provided long-term support for the sector which extends into the recovery period, but there is no doubt that any extension to the restrictions will be challenging for sectors yet to open and those still trading at a loss to navigate. She added: Among other measures, the Government must postpone business rates payments until at least October and extend the rent moratorium while a long-term solution is found. Most recent figures showed there were 3.4million jobs on furlough at the end of April Businesses need a swift, publicly-stated commitment that such support will be in place in the event of any delays, giving them much-needed reassurance after more than 15 months of closure and severely disrupted trading. Hospitality is desperate to get back to what it does best and can play a key role in the economic recovery of the UK but only if it is given the proper support. Most recent figures showed there were 3.4million jobs on furlough at the end of April, which was 900,000 lower than the month before. Since the start of the scheme last March, a total of 11.5million jobs have been supported by furlough at some point at a cost of 64billion. The sites have been blamed for the death of former Aintree racecourse chairman Rose Paterson, pictured above with Tory MP husband Owen Grieving families and politicians last night called for the shutdown of sick online suicide forums where members encourage others to kill themselves. Websites, found through a simple internet search, connect vulnerable people with thousands of forum members who provide instructions on how to end their lives even offering to obtain poison and suicide kits. The sites have been blamed for the deaths of former Aintree racecourse chairman Rose Paterson and an ex-Army cadet who left a suicide note begging for the forums to be taken down. Last night a leading psychiatrist urged the Government to implement tougher measures over suicide in its upcoming Online Harms Bill. Labours former justice spokesman Richard Burgon called for urgent action and families of victims demanded that the people behind the forums should be probed by police. Former Army cadet Joe Nihill, 23, of Leeds, was among three men, unknown to each other, who died between February and April last year after taking a toxic substance used in food processing. It was bought online from a company in the South of England A Daily Mail investigation reveals: Three British men killed themselves within weeks of each other last year using a toxic substance bought from the same UK seller after being advised by members of a forum; A Ukrainian chemicals dealer whose details are shared on the forum ships substances to the UK packaged as paint pigments to thwart customs checks; Forum users approach vulnerable members offering to die together in a suicide pact or even murder them and make it look like an accident; Members use slang for suicide such as catch the bus. Families campaigning to shut the sites down have received threatening messages and sick phone calls from people pretending to be their deceased loved ones; A former member who left one site described it as a death cult. Former Army cadet Joe Nihill, 23, of Leeds, was among three men, unknown to each other, who died between February and April last year after taking a toxic substance used in food processing. It was bought online from a company in the South of England. All three had been advised by members of a forum to buy from the seller, with detailed instructions about how to take their lives. Mr Nihill begged police in his suicide note to shut the website. On February 8 last year, shop fitter Jason Thompson, 49, of Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, took the same substance and was found with a printout of a step-by-step suicide guide from the forum. Two days earlier, Lee Elliott, 30, from Workington, Cumbria, died after taking the same chemical bought on eBay from the firm. MPs wife among those urged to die by strangers Rose Paterson The former chairman of Aintree racecourse was found dead in woods near her Shropshire home after secretly accessing suicide forums. Her husband, Tory former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson, believes the forums had drawn her in. He said: Many of these suicides are on impulse. The narrative these sites use is so beguiling and its written in such calm language. Yet these sites never talk about the damage to those you leave behind. Joe Nihill The final line in Joe Nihills suicide note asked police: Please do your best in closing that website for everyone else [and] look after my mum and family. The chip shop worker, 23, from Leeds, had begun seven discussion threads on a forum site and exchanged 57 messages with 17 users. His mother Catherine, 49, said: Within days of becoming a member... Joe was told exactly what to do, how to act and within a week of joining he was gone. He was driven to his death by strangers. Callie Lewis The 24-year-old animal rights activist, pictured, from Dover, in Kent, took her life using a suicide kit she learned about in an online forum. The last people she spoke with were forum members. One wrote to her: Good luck. We all wish you a swift travel. Another said: May you find peace, my friend. Jason Thompson The grandfather-of-two, 49, died 12 days after buying a substance on eBay after being given advice by suicide forum members. His sister Karen Black, 53, of Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, said: You cant buy more than a couple of packets of paracetamol, but you can find step-by-step guides to kill yourself and how to buy this poison on these websites its sick. Advertisement The substance is reportable rather than regulated. This means the buyer is not required to have a Home Office licence to purchase it, but the seller must report the transaction to police if it is suspicious. The firm, which the Mail has decided not to name, said it stopped selling the substance immediately after it became aware of what it had been used for. Callie Lewis, a 24-year-old animal rights activist, pictured, from Dover, in Kent, took her life using a suicide kit she learned about in an online forum There is no suggestion it acted unlawfully. Bosses at eBay said they had banned sales of the substance. Other sellers include Ukrainian chemicals dealer Leonid Zakutenko, 49, who boasted to an undercover reporter that he ships to Britain every day, labelling the packages paint pigments. Other deaths linked to the chemical include Robert Coates, 17, of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in 2019, and Samuel Dickenson, 33, who died in Bolton in the same year. It took less than a minute for a Mail reporter to find messages on a forum website providing detailed instructions about where to obtain it and how much to order. Other messages encouraged users to catch the bus. One of the largest forums even has its own profile on Twitter. It claims to have almost 17,000 members who have exchanged 1.1million messages. A mother of two, from Brighton, said she used the forum for months to discuss her suicidal thoughts until she realised it was nothing more than a death cult. Crime that could lead to 14 years in jail It is illegal to encourage someone to take their life under the Suicide Act 1961, with a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. Experts yesterday said technology is available which can identify and dismantle websites that break the law. Marykate Collins, of Vulcan Consulting, which advises over regulation, said: If the political will is there then this can be addressed. She insisted: Algorithms exist which can identify and block harmful content at the point of upload and are used for extremist material online all the time. The tech companies that host the sites can be alerted and penalised for failing to act. But the will has to be there to do so. Advertisement She said: Part of its allure is that there is nowhere else to go where you can talk freely about these things without being censored. But its a dark, evil cult full of sick people whose motivation is driving vulnerable people towards suicide. Jeremy Keeling, 31, from Norwich, was banned from a forum after he tried to discourage members from taking their lives. He was told he was barred for being a pro-lifer. The Nihill familys MP, Mr Burgon, has requested a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss expanding the Online Harms Bill. He said: The Government needs to address the issue of suicide forums immediately. They need to ensure that search engines like Google are across this and dont make it easy for vulnerable people to find these forums. Dr Bernadka Dubicka, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: When people are feeling suicidal it is all too easy for them to be influenced by what is going on online. We need to ensure there are much more stringent safety measures in this area. Age verification is very important. We know there are people who actively encourage others to kill themselves and self-harm. The reporting mechanisms arent effective enough and there is still no date for the Online Harms Bill. A Government spokesman said new laws would address content which encourages suicide online by making tech firms take action to prevent this sort of vile material spreading on their platforms. For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or go to www.samaritans.org A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by employees of a Houston hospital system over its requirement that all of its staff be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Houston Methodist Hospital system suspended 178 employees without pay last week over their refusal to get vaccinated. Of them, 117 sued seeking to overturn the requirement and over their suspension and threatened termination. In a scathing ruling Saturday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston deemed lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges contention that the vaccines are 'experimental and dangerous' to be false and otherwise irrelevant. People gather to protest Houston Methodist Hospital system's rule of firing any employee who is not immunized at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital in Baytown, Texas Jennifer Bridges, left, leads people marching past protest Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital to protest against the hospital system's rule of firing any employee who is not immunized He also found that her likening the vaccination requirement to the Nazis' forced medical experimentation on concentration camp captives during the Holocaust to be 'reprehensible.' Hughes also ruled that making vaccinations a condition of employment was not coercion, as Bridges contended. Marc Bloom (pictured), CEO of the hospital system, released a statement saying he stands by the decision to make employees get vaccinated 'Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus,' Hughes wrote in a five-page decision. 'It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer. 'Bridges can freely choose to accept or refuse a COVID-19 vaccine; however, if she refuses, she will simply need to work somewhere else. If a worker refuses an assignment, changed office, earlier start time, or other directive, he may be properly fired. Every employment includes limits on the worker's behavior in exchange for remuneration. That is all part of the bargain,' Hughes concluded. The judge said Texas law only protected employees from being fired for refusing to commit an illegal act and that the requirement is consistent with public policy. Jared Woodfill, a Houston lawyer representing Bridges and the other clients, promised an appeal. 'All of my clients continue to be committed to fighting this unjust policy,' Woodfill said in a statement. Jennifer Bridges (pictured), who was among the suspended, was leading 117 employees in a lawsuit against the hospital which has now been thrown out Houston Methodist hospital suspended 170 employees who failed to get vaccinated by the June 7 deadline have been suspended for two weeks without pay. Many will likely now be fired 'What is shocking is that many of my clients were on the front line treating COVID-positive patients at Texas Methodist Hospital during the height of the pandemic. As a result, many of them contracted COVID-19. As a thank you for their service and sacrifice, Methodist Hospital awards them a pink slip and sentences them to bankruptcy.' 'No one should be forced to put something into their body if they're not comfortable with it,' Jennifer Bridges, a nurse who has worked at the hospital for more than six years, told The Texan. 'People trying to force you to put something into your body that you're not comfortable with, in order to keep your job, is just insane. I'm not an anti-vax person. If you want to get it, by all means, get it. I don't take that away from anybody Just let everybody have a choice and the right to make their own decision.' District Judge Lynn Hughes upheld Houston Methodist Hospital's policy mandating the employees be vaccinated Employees had a June 7 deadline to complete their immunization. The federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in December 2020 that employers could legally set vaccine requirements for their workforce, with certain exceptions. The hospital system became the first in the U.S. to set a coronavirus vaccine requirement in April. 'As health care workers we must do everything possible to keep our patients safe and at the center of everything we do,' said the hospital system's CEO, Marc Bloom in an email to employees. 'By choosing to be vaccinated, you are leaders - showing our colleagues in health care what must be done to protect our patients, ourselves, our families and our communities.' The hospital system first told its administrative staff and new hires to get vaccinated by mid-April before extending the deadline to early June. Two employees chose to leave the hospital system instead of getting vaccinated at the time. The system also offered employees $500 if they got vaccinated early on in the rollout of the shots. In a Tuesday memo, Bloom called the lawsuit frivolous and said it was pleased with the judge's decision. 24,947 employees had complied with the vaccination requirement and that 27 of the 178 others had received the first of a two-dose vaccine and wouldn't be fired if they got their second. The rest are subject to termination. People bring signs to protest Houston Methodist Hospital system's rule of firing any employee who is not immunized Protesters wave at cars that honk at them to support the protest against Houston Methodist Hospital system's rule of firing any employee who is not immunized Houston Methodist staff who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine so far and their supporters participated in a gathering and march People gather to say a prayer while gathering to protest against Houston Methodist Hospital People march past Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital to protest against the hospital system's rule of firing any employee who is not immunized He also wrote that 285 other employees received medical or religious exemptions, and 332 were deferred because they were pregnant or for some other reason. Three vaccines received emergency authorization in the United States, though they have not received full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vaccines will be allowed as long as the country remains in a state or emergency related to COVID-19, which will be until March 2022 under the current schedule. Vaccine suppliers must submit six months worth of clinical data to the FDA for full approval, and the application to receive full approval often takes six months to review. Currently, only Pfizer has applied for full approval. Andrew Lloyd Webber led a furious backlash against a delay to the Covid roadmap last night, warning that the Government risked bankrupting the entire arts industry. The theatre impresario urged ministers to give theatres and other venues a lifeline by permitting larger audiences. It comes after he said he would be prepared to risk jail to fill his West End theatres whatever the current Covid restrictions and threatened legal action against the Government. Boris Johnsons roadmap set June 21 as the earliest date by which all social distancing restrictions were due to lift, a date arts venues and others were looking forward to, when they could throw open their doors to bigger audiences and crowds. But the Prime Minister is due to tell the nation today that a delay of at least a month is now required. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cinderella star Carrie Hope Fletcher, and Cinderella writer Emerald Fennell (left to right) Articulating the fury of the theatre industry yesterday, Lord Lloyd-Webber told the Daily Mail: They are risking bankrupting an industry by simply not allowing more people into theatres and arenas which could be 100 per cent Covid safe. With double jabs and lateral flow tests for everyone there is no risk. Without this the Government risks showing they care little about the theatre and its now-fragile economy. The hospitality sector has been hit worse than many other sectors during the pandemic with greater limits placed on its reopening. Restaurants, pubs and bars are able to provide table service only, and must practise social distancing and the rule of six indoors. Nightclubs are yet to open. While theatre shows and sporting events can go ahead at the moment, audience numbers are capped at 50 per cent of capacity. Lord Lloyd-Webber has pleaded with ministers to increase the permitted attendance to 75 per cent as a compromise, saying: A 50 per cent house is not a viable solution for any length of time. Previews of Cinderella, his twice-delayed 6million new West End musical starring Carrie Hope Fletcher (pictured), are scheduled to start on June 25 He begged ministers to allow bigger crowds into his shows in exchange for audience members wearing facemasks and producing a negative Covid-19 test in advance. By allowing 75 per cent in an extra 25 per cent although not perfect it offers a lifeline, he said. In Britain we need to see that they truly believe in the arts as valuable and that includes economically valuable. Last week, Lord Lloyd-Webber said he would be prepared to risk a jail sentence by opening his West End theatres at capacity this month whatever the government guidance on Covid-19. Previews of Cinderella, his twice-delayed 6million new West End musical starring Carrie Hope Fletcher, are scheduled to start on June 25. Last night, he said: I will be opening my show on June 25. Why will Boris not allow safe measures which are virtually 100 per cent safe? Double jabs and lateral flow tests eliminate risks. To not use these measures which are the key to survive and thrive for our nation, it risks a final curtain for too many people. In America, the one-man show Springsteen is opening to 100 per cent audience capacity. Do we want to be donkeys or lions? We need leadership. This is a fight for survival. In America Broadway is opening. The US government has said it will allow shows to claim 45 per cent of their previous years revenue up to $10million. They have proved their support. Last week, Lord Lloyd-Webber said he would be prepared to risk a jail sentence by opening his West End theatres at capacity this month. Pictured: Gillian Lynne Theatre, London The Government commissioned a report overseen by Nick Hytner into theatre safety. It recommended opening. It shows theatre was safe with mitigated circumstance surrounding tests and jabs. That report now seems to be buried. Boris is happy to be on the international stage but risks closing his local stages in Londons West End and all over Britain. This is not some end-of-pier show. This is hundreds of thousands of jobs and the crucial creative economy is one which must be allowed to prosper and not strangled by fear and bureaucracy. This is the last-chance saloon. This is the time for the Government to step up. Thousands of events are set to be cancelled over restrictions and it is likely to be the second year in a row with no big music festivals. More than 5,000 music gigs by artists including Olly Murs, Beverley Knight and McFly are not expected to get the go ahead. Pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants are likely to take a 3billion hit in lost sales, contributing to a 4billion blow to the economy if the delay happens, according to industry estimates. Scott Morrison says his government will continue to traverse the 'Australian path' of aggressive Covid-19 suppression, emphasising there'll be no international travel until medical experts say so. The prime minister is attending the G7 summit in Cornwall in the UK as an observer and told reporters on Sunday that Australia wouldn't change its virus approach. He said his government hadn't set a target on the number of Australians who need to be vaccinated before international travel resumes. He said this would only occur 'when the medical advice suggests we should'. The prime minister pictured arriving in the UK where he is attending the G7 summit as an observer Scott Morrison (pictured) has announced that Australia's suppression strategy which has kept the nation's borders closed will remain in place. Pictured: The prime minister at the G7 summit Mr Morrison said he would 'rather be living in the arrangements we have in Australia than anywhere else in the world' and that the UK, despite a high vaccination rate, was still recording high numbers of new cases. Australia's suppression strategy has kept the nation's borders closed and seen states go into lockdown over a handful of cases. 'At this stage of the pandemic, it is not clear where it goes next... (given) the potential for new strains and other things to occur,' Mr Morrison said. Mr Morrison said Australians can 'go to sporting games, or they can go to work, they can live in an economy that is bigger today than it was before'. Mr Morrison revealed he has not set a target for the number of vaccinations that need to be administered before international travel would resume. Pictured: passengers arrive at Sydney airport's international terminal The Federal government last year predicted borders would be open this year after Australia's vaccine program had been rolled out. Pictured: Swimmer Cate Campbell receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination at the Queensland Academy of Sport in Brisbane in May Australians have been banned from leaving the country since March 2020 without special exemptions, and only citizens and permanent residents have been allowed to enter under some of the strictest Covid-19 border rules in the world. Last year, the Federal Government predicted international borders would be open in October 2021 after the adult population had been offered a vaccine. However, in May, Scott Morrison announced the date would be pushed back to mid-2022, even as other highly-vaccinated countries such as the US and UK start to open their borders. He said the date was revised amid the slow vaccine rollout and uncertainty over the Covid-19 vaccine's ability to protect against mutating strains of the virus. Mr Morrison's travel update comes after Melbourne emerged from a two-week lockdown on Friday, but restrictions on home gatherings, travel and mask use remain in place. People dine out in Melbourne's Lygon Street cafe and restaurant strip on Friday as the city's restrictions eased following a two-week lockdown There have been around 5,834,746 vaccines administered nationwide as of Friday Victoria recorded two new cases on Monday out of almost 17,000 tests, and four more in hotel quarantine. There was one new local case on Sunday, a close contact of a case linked to the Arcare Maidstone outbreak who has been quarantining throughout their infectious period. They are not an aged care resident. Poll Should Australia wait until 2022 to open international borders? Yes No Should Australia wait until 2022 to open international borders? Yes 290 votes No 609 votes Now share your opinion Authorities continue to investigate the single new case reported on Saturday, a man in his 30s from City of Melbourne with a young family. About 2,000 people are currently quarantining across Victoria. Meanwhile, there is growing optimism Queensland will be spared an outbreak after a couple arrived from Melbourne while they were infected. There were no new locally-acquired cases reported in Queensland on Saturday or Sunday, with local police yet to interview the couple. There were 5,834,746 vaccines administered to Friday nationwide. Boris Johnson was locked in a war of words with Emmanuel Macron last night as he pledged to do 'whatever it takes' to stop the EU driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. At a G7 summit overshadowed by the so-called 'sausage war', the Prime Minister said he had repeatedly warned EU leaders that the UK was 'indivisible' after the French president suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the country. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday described Mr Macron's comments as 'offensive' and said it was time for the president and other EU leaders to show 'a bit of respect' to the territorial integrity of the UK. The French President angered Mr Johnson during a tense standoff yesterday after he suggested Northern Ireland was not a full part of the UK amid an ongoing dispute over post-Brexit trade checks Mr Macron hit back last night accusing the PM of launching 'polemics'. At his own press conference at the summit, he urged Mr Johnson to 'stay very calm'. And he claimed it was the Brexit deal signed by Mr Johnson that led to the current impasse. The row centres on new EU rules that would ban the sale of British sausages and other chilled meats in Northern Ireland from the end of this month. Under the terms of the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland remains part of the EU's single market to prevent the need of a border with Ireland. But ministers say a 'purist' approach by the EU to checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland has made the situation intolerable. The PM is poised to unilaterally extend a 'grace period' for chilled meats which is due to expire at the end of this month, despite warnings from the EU that it could spark a trade war. At a G7 summit overshadowed by the so-called 'sausage war', the Prime Minister said he had repeatedly warned EU leaders that the UK was 'indivisible' after the French president suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the country Johnson's China warning to Nato NATO must combat the growing challenge posed by China, Boris Johnson will warn today. Speaking at a Nato summit in Brussels, the Prime Minister will warn that the Cold War alliance must address the rising threat posed by China, as well as maintaining its traditional focus on Russia. Ministers have been alarmed by the increasing muscularity of China's diplomacy, including a clampdown on human rights in Hong Kong. Downing Street said Mr Johnson will use today's summit to 'outline the need for Nato to look beyond the Euro-Atlantic to address challenges further afield, including in the Indo-Pacific'. A source said: 'The West's neighbourhood is much bigger than it used to be. If you look at trade, what happens in the Indo-Pacific in terms of disruption has direct effects here. Nato has to evolve to address that.' Mr Johnson said: 'Nato is not just important to the UK's security, it is our security. Nato owes it to the billion people we keep safe every day to continually adapt and evolve to meet new challenges.' US President Joe Biden is expected to restate US support for Nato following years in which Donald Trump threatened to pull out. Advertisement A government source told the Mail that the EU's stance meant there were already likely to be shortages of chilled meat products in Northern Ireland next month, because many supermarkets order their goods four weeks in advance. Mr Johnson has also warned he is ready to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol section of the Brexit deal, which would enable the UK to unilaterally suspend all border checks. Mr Macron is said to have questioned Northern Ireland's status during face-to-face talks with the PM at the weekend. Mr Johnson had asked him: 'How would you like it if the French courts stopped you moving Toulouse sausages to Paris?' Mr Macron responded that it was not a good comparison because Paris and Toulouse were part of the same country, prompting the PM to snap back: 'Northern Ireland and Britain are part of the same country as well.' Mr Johnson yesterday said some EU leaders needed to 'get it in to their heads' that Britain would never accept measures that would drive a wedge between parts of the country. He added: 'What I am saying is that we will do whatever it takes to protect the territorial integrity of the UK.' Meanwhile Mr Raab told Sky News: 'We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it was some kind of different country to the UK. It is not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation.' Mr Macron yesterday said EU leaders had spent 'thousands of hours' discussing British sovereignty during the Brexit negotiations and needed no lessons in it. Asked about the row, he told reporters: 'Let's not waste time on polemics.... France has never questioned British sovereignty or British territorial integrity.' But he said Brexit was 'the child of this British sovereignty' and claimed that the current row stems directly from the deal negotiated by the PM. Mr Macron said the EU should not be blamed for 'certain inconsistencies which were clear from the beginning'. Fans have been left unimpressed by Gareth Southgate's expected starting XI for England's Euro 2020 opener with Croatia. The Three Lions boss looks set to play Kieran Trippier at left back over Ben Chilwell and Luke Shaw while Jack Grealish also misses out in favour of Raheem Sterling. Southgate was expected to pick one of Shaw or Chilwell at left back with both having had impressive seasons for Manchester United and Chelsea resepectively. Fans have been left unimpressed by Gareth Southgate's expected starting XI for England's Euro 2020 opener with Croatia The manager is expected to play Kieran Trippier at left back over Ben Chilwell and Luke Shaw There was even suggestions Shaw could start as a left centre back in a back five with Chilwell at left-wing back. But it looks like both are set to start on the bench. Trippier, who usually operates as right back, has only ever played one game at left back in his club career but did fill in as a left-wing back in the warm-up game with Austria. Fans were left puzzled by the expected starting XI, with many believing Shaw or Chilwell should be given the nod at Wembley. One fan simply tweeted: 'Trippier at LB over Shaw or Chilwell is ridiculous'. Shaw (left) and Chilwell (right) both had impressive seasons for Manchester United and Chelsea respectively ENGLAND'S XI AND HOW SPORTSMAIL LED THE WAY... England's starting XI is set to feature the likes of Raheem Sterling and Tyrone Mings, as first revealed by Sportsmail's Sami Mokbel on Friday. To read how we led the way, CLICK HERE, and see below for the full expected XI vs Croatia today... GK: Jordan Pickford RB: Kyle Walker CB: John Stones CB: Tyrone Mings LB: Kieran Trippier CDM: Declan Rice CDM: Kalvin Phillips CAM: Mason Mount LW: Raheem Sterling RW: Phil Foden ST: Harry Kane Advertisement Another wrote: 'Two world class left-backs in the squad and he picks a right-back to play there? Indefensible.' There was also criticism for Southgate for his decision to leave out Grealish over Sterling, despite the Aston Villa captain's impressive displays in the warm-up fixtures. One supporter wrote on Twitter: 'Southgate starting Sterling over Grealish and Trippier LB is criminal'. Another fan said: 'If this is the side I cannot understand why after picking two LB's in the squad in Chilwell and Shaw Southgate is going with a RB Trippier at LB. Also leaving out our most creative player in Grealish. Very bizarre.' It was previously reported by Sportsmail that there was a feeling within the camp that Grealish would begin on the bench. Sterling has been one of Southgate's untouchables in recent years but there had been some doubt over his starting place this summer after struggling for form with champions Manchester City this past season. Southgate, though, is leaning towards keeping faith in Sterling and is expected to start barring any late changes. Marcus Rashford is another favourite of Southgate but like Sterling he has also struggled for form in the latter stages of the 2020-2021 season and is also carrying injuries. Fans also took to Instagram to share their thoughts at the apparent starting XI. 'There's no way he's winning this game with this mediocre lineup' one fan commented. Fans were also unimpressed by omission of Jack Grealish from the expected starting XI England are set to be without Harry Maguire at centre back with the Manchester United captain still working his way back to fitness after sustaining ankle ligament damage last month. Tyrone Mings is likely to get the nod ahead of Conor Coady and Ben White with John Stones lining up alongside him. The Three Lions will have plenty of attacking options from the bench with Rashford and Jadon Sancho also missing out on a starting place. England take on Croatia at Wembley at 2pm on Sunday before games against Scotland on June 18 and the Czech Republic on June 22. I hear congratulations to J .K. Rowling are in order her eldest daughter is set to tie the knot. Jessica, 29, is the author's child by her first husband, former TV journalist Jorge Arantes, and Rowling has previously described how, as a baby, Jessica would sit in her pram for hours on end while she wrote the first Harry Potter books in Edinburgh coffee shops. In typically secretive style, J. K. is keeping details of the wedding low-key. She has two other children David, 18, and Mackenzie, 16 with doctor Neil Murray. I hear congratulations to J .K. Rowling are in order her eldest daughter is set to tie the knot, writes CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS A 28million villa? It's all White for some... Business seems to be booming for high street queen Chrissie Rucker. The White Company boss and her husband Nick Wheeler are splashing out on a 28 million estate on the exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique and they will have plenty of space to host their celebrity friends as the property sleeps 12 and has a private beach. While The White Company weathered the pandemic storm thanks to huge demand for its cosy homewares, The White Company boss Chrissie Rucker (above) and her husband Nick Wheeler are splashing out on a 28 million estate on the exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique Nick's shirt firm Charles Tyrwhitt fared less well closing four stores and losing 250 staff from its 1,000-strong team. The couple also own a 33.5 million home in Notting Hill and a country estate in Buckinghamshire. I'm afraid Pippa Middleton has a young rival when it comes to stating the obvious. The Duchess of Cambridge's younger sister Pippa memorably recommended putting water in the freezer to make ice. Now Lady Amelia Windsor, 25, granddaughter of the Duchess of Kent, has come up with an ingenious way of salvaging old clothes repairing them! Lady Amelia Windsor, 25, granddaughter of the Duchess of Kent, has come up with an ingenious way of salvaging old clothes repairing them! 'Patches of material can be used to fill holes in jumpers and trousers to extend their lifespan and simultaneously inject personality,' the Royal writes on the sustainable website platform, Talia Collective. Does Amelia, who is 42nd in line to the throne, not know that Prince Charles has been mending old suits for decades? Sarah Jessica Parker shared a duo of snaps featuring her twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha, to commemorate the end of their time in sixth grade to Instagram on Friday. The 56-year-old actress' daughters, who are rarely featured in their mother's photos, were pictured walking down one of New York City's streets as they prepared to finish an arduous year of school. The photos come amid the performer's involvement in the upcoming Sex And The City reboot, which will premiere in the near future. Happy mom: Sarah Jessica Parker shared a sweet set of snaps featuring her daughters Marion and Tabitha to her Instagram account on Friday Parker also wrote a lengthy message in the post's caption to express her feelings about her daughters' achievements and to mark the end of their school year. The Emmy-winning actress began her statement by writing, 'So long to 6th grade. Hello to our rising 7th graders.' The Ed Wood actress went on to express her gratitude for the fortitude of her children's instructors as they navigated their students through remote learning. She wrote, 'Thank you dear teachers. For your kindness, good humor, your shared love of your work and all the whole family learned about Venice, Baghdad, Spain and even our own global city New York!' Marking the occasion: The actress commemorated the end of her daughters' school year by writing: 'So long to 6th grade. Hello to our rising 7th graders' Taking it easy: Parker also encouraged her daughters to enjoy their summer by telling them to'take the battery out of your alarm clock!'; she is seen in 2019 Parker concluded her message by telling her daughters, both aged 11, to enjoy their time off, noting: 'Sisters, take the battery out of your alarm clock! Happy summer!' The actress shares her twins, as well as her eldest son James, aged 18, with her husband of several years, Matthew Broderick. Prior to becoming involved with the Ferris Bueller's Day Off star, the performer was in a long-term relationship with Robert Downey, Jr and was involved with John F. Kennedy Jr for a brief period. She initially met her husband when they were introduced by one of her brothers at a theater company that they had both performed with. Proud parents: The performer shares her daughters and eldest child, James, with her husband of several years, Matthew Broderick; the family is seen together in 2017 After several years of dating, the two tied the knot in 1997 and have remained together ever since then. Parker's celebratory post comes amid her involvement with the upcoming Sex And The City reboot. Development on the continuation of the hit comedy-drama series was first confirmed in December of last year by several media outlets. Making moves: Parker is currently working on the upcoming reboot of the hit comedy-drama series Sex And The City The show, which originally ended in 2004, was followed up by two movies, with a planned third film eventually being canceled. Although Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon have been confirmed to be returning to the series, their former co-star Kim Cattrall will not be reprising her role in the upcoming reboot. Earlier this year, it was announced that Grey's Anatomy's Sara Ramirez had been added to the cast. Moving on: The series originally ended in 2004 and was followed up by two films, with a third feature being cancelled The Sex And The City reboot, which is currently titled And Just Like That..., is currently being planned as a miniseries and will be made available for streaming on the HBO Max service in the future. On Friday, Parker shared a sweet snap featuring her standing next to Davis and Nixon after having read through their episodes. She expressed happiness about being 'together again' with her castmates and pointed out that the process felt 'like an ice cream sundae.' Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky skipped making an appearance on the red carpet of the Gold Dinner for at Sydney Airport on Thursday. And according to a new report, the Hollywood power couple also failed to make any bids at the event's charity auction, despite their combined net worth of $180million. The charity was put on to raise money for the Sydney Children's Hospital foundation. Hmm: Chris Hemsworth, 37, and his wife Elsa Pataky, 44, (both pictured) raised eyebrows after they 'failed to make any bids' during a charity auction at the star-studded Gold Dinner on Thursday in Sydney, a source claims 'It got really awkward because everyone kept looking at them to put up their hands and they didn't,' an insider who attended the Gold Dinner alleged to Emerald City on Sunday. Instead, Jeremy Bond, grandson of business tycoon Alan, was the highest bidder of the night, dropping a five-figure sum at the auction, the source said. However, Chris donated two tickets for the Sydney premiere of his new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. Awkward: 'It got really awkward because everyone kept looking at them to put up their hands and they didn't,' an insider who attended the Gold Dinner alleged to Emerald City on Sunday. Pictured: Liam Hemsworth, Gabriella Brooks, Luciana Barroso, Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky at the Gold Dinner The tickets went under the hammer for $65,000 and helped raise a record setting $5million for the Sydney Children's Hospital foundation. After the event, Chris shared a post to Instagram about what a great night it was and how much money was raised to help children in need. 'Incredible night at #golddinner event raising funds, support, awareness for one of the most challenging issues we face, mental health in children,' he wrote. 'Smashing records and raising over 5 million dollars,' he added, before thanking all of the attendees. Event committee member Emma Cooper told the publication that the Hemsworths did a fantastic job of raising money for the good cause. 'They stayed until the end of the pledges and did an amazing job of making the night a huge success,' she said. 'There was no obligation for them to stay for the after-party,' she added. That's nice! Chris reportedly donated two tickets for the Sydney premiere of his new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, to be released in 2022. Pictured: Chris in the role of Thor In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday, Gold Chair Monica Saunders-Weinberg slammed the reports and said:' Our mission this year was to not only raise as much money as possible but to shine a light on this year's beneficiary Mental Health which is a crisis that affects far too many children and adolescents. 'I was personally blown away by the genuine enthusiasm and willingness to give back from pledges, to donations to silent auction bidding. We wanted to push past anything previously achieved and we did just that on every level. 'The record-breaking funds of $5M (and still counting) raised at this year's Gold Dinner are a testament to the generosity and spirit of all our wonderful guests and any press statements to the contrary are completely incorrect.' She went on to say that reports circulating the Hemsworths, Elsa, John Symond, Luciana Barroso (Matt Damon's wife) and Nick Molnar stating that they did not participate or donate are completely false. In fact, the entire Hemsworth table stayed until after the official proceedings and were 'incredibly generous with their time, their dollars and in fact were some of our largest donors on the evening'. Monica continued: 'The Hemsworth's were invited because they represent so much of what is good in our country and community, and they should be applauded for their positivity and generosity, as acknowledged by the Queens in this year's honour list for Chris.' 'Over and above, Chris and Elsa donated a prize which earned the hospital $65,000 and were integral in helping us reach our goal and most importantly shine light on the mental health crisis affecting our youth.' Chris and Elsa were joined at the event by Chris' younger brother Liam and his girlfriend Gabriella Brooks, and their friend Luciana Barroso - the wife of actor Matt Damon. Unlike the glittering array of stars that made an appearance at the exclusive soiree, Chris and his group opted to skip the red carpet and slip into the fundraiser unannounced. Daily Mail Australia has also reached out to Chris Hemsworth for comment. Kristen Bell shared a duo of images featuring 'threatening notes' that her youngest daughter, Delta, has started leaving around the house to her Instagram account on Saturday morning. The 40-year-old Veronica Mars star also wrote a short message in the post's caption to let her nearly 15 million followers know about the content of the notes and to humorously comment on her child's growth. The actress shares Delta, as well as her eldest daughter, Lincoln, with her husband of several years, Dax Shepard. How fast they grow: Kristen Bell shared a duo of images featuring 'threatening notes' that her youngest daughter Delta had left around their house; she is seen in 2020 Bell began her message by telling her followers about how her youngest child, aged six, has taken to leaving notes for her family members to see in an effort to assert her authority in their home. She wrote, 'I often find threatening notes like these around the house...(This note was taped to her door during her 30 mins hunger strike:).' The Bad Moms actress then wrote about the content of the notes, in which her youngest daughter made bold statements about her conduct and possessions. Specifically, Delta's messages read, 'Don't disturb, Delta is starving to death, only Mom can come in,' and 'Deltas cookie Don't eat it or else...' Being direct: The first of the youngster's notes bluntly read 'Don't disturb, Delta is starving to death, only Mom can come in' Getting over it: Bell humorously expressed that she 'should be grateful my kid can speak her mind' Bell concluded by humorously expressing her awe at her child's maturation and gratitude at the fact that she was not a picky eater. She wrote, 'Guess I should be grateful my kid can speak her mind! (And appreciates leftovers.)' The actress welcomed her daughters in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and shares them with her husband of nearly ten years, Dax Shepard. Prior to becoming romantically involved with her When In Rome castmate, Bell was engaged to her former fiance, Kevin Mann, from whom she separated in 2007. Happy couple: The Bad Moms actress shares her two daughters with her husband of nearly a decade, Dax Shepard She went on to begin dating her 46-year-old now-husband that same year, and they eventually announced their engagement in January of 2010. The couple notably delayed their wedding for several years in anticipation of the legalization of same-sex marriage in California, and once legislation regarding the subject was passed, they tied the knot in 2013 and started a family that same year. Bell discussed how she and Shepard collaborate as parents during an interview with People, where she noted that he was indispensable as a father and also as her support system. Moving fast: The couple was first romantically connected in 2007 and started a family shortly after they tied the knot in 2013 'He's made me feel like I'm not doing it by myself, which has made me fall much deeper in love with him. Because I think I'd pull my hair out if I thought it was all up to me.' She also noted that her husband readily takes over when she is overwhelmed by personal or professional problems and that she thinks more of him as a result. 'He has been tapping me out when I get frustrated. It's been very heartwarming for me to see that he's still very plugged in,' she said. The family of a woman killed during the Christchurch terror attack in 2019 are urging Rose Byrne not to star in a new film about the massacre. The Australian actress, 41, has been cast as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in upcoming film They Are Us. According to The New Zealand Herald, the family of victim Linda Armstrong has contacted Rose and asked her to refuse the role. 'It's too soon': Christchurch mosque massacre victims have urged Australian actress Rose Byrne (pictured) to refuse a role in a new film about the attack The film follows Arden in the wake of the tragic Christchurch mosque shootings. At the time, Ms Ardern was commended for her response to the two consecutive mass shootings. 'We know that a movie being made about what happened on that dreadful day is inevitable, however for now it is too soon,' Linda's nephew Kyron Gosse wrote. 'It was only 27 months ago that I had to google my aunt's name to see if she was alive or dead. It was only 27 months ago that I stood in her grave, lowering her lifeless body into the ground. Please, give us time.' 'This is not the story': The Australian actress has been cast as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) in upcoming film They Are Us Kyron continued: 'The time will come for this story to be told. When the right time does arrive, it is important that the right story is told, a story that focuses on the true heroes of the day.' 'Now is not the time, and this is not the story. Please, turn down the role and give us time to heal.' A petition has also been launched by families of the victims calling for production to be cancelled, and has received over 47,000 signatures so far. Letter: The family of victim Linda Armstrong has reportedly contacted Rose and asked her to refuse the role 'The film centres white voices and therefore will continue to white-wash the horrific violence perpetrated against Muslim communities,' the petition said. The Christchurch terrorist attack was carried out by gunman Brenton Tarrant who killed 51 people. Tarrant entered the Al Noor Mosque as Friday prayers were beginning and opened fire before driving to Linwood Mosque on the other side of the city where he continued shooting. Tarrant, a white supremacist originally from Australia, was arrested a short time later. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on August 27 this year. She's known for being one of the most well-styled judges on MasterChef. And Melissa Leong has now sparked a sell-out frenzy as fans rush to buy her stylish outfits. According to News.com.au, sales of a white broderie OnceWas dress worn by the 39-year-old last season tripled after the episode aired Is Melissa Leong Australia's most influential fashion trendsetter? MasterChef judge's outfits have sparked sell-out frenzy as fans rush to buy everything she's worn on the show Director Belinda Glynn said: 'With the ups and downs of retail over the past year, we are very grateful for the support of style icons like Melissa helping promote Australian brands to wider audiences.' Australian label TORANNCE also sold out of a pink frock worn by Melissa on the show. 'When Melissa wore the Floating On A Cloud Maxi Dress in Azalea Pink, it sold out immediately and we were inundated with requests for this dress,' designer Julia Hemingway said. Influence: According to News.com.au, sales on a white broderie OnceWas dress (pictured) worn by the 39-year-old last season tripled after the episode aired Melissa previously discussed her fashion sense in an interview with Who magazine in November, describing her wardrobe as 'wearable art'. 'I do love fashion as a mode of self expression, and I appreciate it for being wearable art,' she said. While the fashion-forward foodie is known for her eye-catching outfits, she said that 'well-made classics' are always in vogue. Want to dress like Melissa? Australian label TORANNCE also sold out of a pink frock worn by Melissa on the show 'What never goes out of style for me, are well made classics. I like to try and spend more on less, in that regard,' she explained. Melissa also revealed her wardrobe essentials to the publication. 'A great trench, jeans that make you feel like a million bucks, a chic winter coat, a dress that always makes you feel comfortable but amazing, cool shoes and of course killer accessories that can elevate any outfit,' she said. She's the 'stepdaughter' of Julie Bishop and her long-term partner David Panton. But it appears as though Laura Panton's star is on the rise. The 30-year-old Melbourne-based beauty has been spotted in a Chemist Warehouse commercial promoting CeraVe moisturising cream. Star on the rise: Melbourne-based socialite Laura Panton is making a name for herself in the pharmaceutical world. Pictured left with her father David and his partner Julie Bishop Laura, who is the director of medical supplies business, Pantonic Health, has a flare for the fashion world. She grew up in Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula and attended one of the city's best private schools, Melbourne Girls Grammar, reports Emerald City. From there, she studied at Melbourne University and Harvard Business School. New gig: The 30-year-old Melbourne-based beauty has been spotted in a Chemist Warehouse commercial promoting CeraVe moisturising cream Laura, who is the director of medical supplies business, Pantonic Health, has a flare for the fashion world Laura and her sister Sally are no strangers to the spotlight, having attended high-profile events including the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival over the years. Meanwhile, Julie has been enjoying her time in the celebrity spotlight since stepping away from politics two years ago. On Thursday, she spared no expense when she dressed up for the star-studded Gold Dinner on Thursday night. Glamorous: Laura grew up in Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula and attended one of the city's best private schools, Melbourne Girls Grammar, reports Emerald City Socialite: Laura and her sister Sally are no strangers to the spotlight, having attended high-profile events including the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival over the years The 64-year-old fashionista stepped out in almost $2million worth of accessories for the glitzy charity event at Sydney Airport. She looked stunning in a figure-hugging black sequin dress with a sweeping train, but it was her jewellery that really had everyone talking. Julie wore a variety of pricey pieces by luxury French jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels. Expensive taste: Former Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop spared no expense when she dressed up for the Gold Dinner on Thursday night. Pictured with David With her shoulder-length blonde hair swept up in a chic chignon, Julie showed off the label's Magic Alhambra earrings, which retail for $41,000. She paired them with the matching Magic Alhambra long necklace, which carries a $224,000 price tag. But the most expensive item was the A Cheval bracelet, with the diamond and platinum cuff costing a whopping $1.54million. In total, her jewellery for the night was valued at an incredible $1,805,000 - which is more than the median house price in Sydney. Julie was accompanied by her longtime partner, property developer David Panton, who looked handsome in a classic black tuxedo. His former fiancee Jennifer Lopez recently rekindled her romance with Ben Affleck, shortly after calling off their engagement in April. And Alex Rodriguez appears to be leaning on his own former flame, ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis, as the pair worked out together on Saturday. The pair were seen doing the high-intensity group fitness regimen, 54D, which Rodriguez is a huge fan of. The workout is based on three pillars, training, nutrition, and recovery, and the former couple certainly appeared to be building up a sweat together. Amicable co-parents: Alex Rodriguez revealed on his Insta Stories that he and his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis have become workout buddies The 45-year-old former New York Yankee re-posted a friend's Insta Stories' video that showed Cynthia icing Alex's leg at the gym following their fitness session. 'CYNTHIA IS A WORLD CLASS MOMMY TO OUR GIRLS ... WRAPPING ICE - THOUGH ?!?!?! LOL,' Rodriguez joked in his caption. The pair, who divorced in 2008, have maintained a friendly, supportive bond over the years in order to successfully co-parent their two daughters Natasha, 16, and Ella, 13. Cynthia could be spotted in the video trying to bind the ice to his leg and once he was done he tried to smack it into place with his hand. Along with the video Alex also uploaded a selfie that showed him and Cynthia beaming as they posed up with their realtor pal Angel Nicolas. Helping hand: The 45-year-old former New York Yankee re-posted a friend's Insta Stories' video that showed Cynthia icing Alex' leg at the gym Making it work: 'CYNTHIA IS A WORLD CLASS MOMMY TO OUR GIRLS ... WRAPPING ICE - THOUGH ?!?!?! LOL,' the athlete joked in his caption Doing their best: Cynthia could be spotted in the video trying to bind the ice to his leg and once he was done he tried to smack it into place with his hand The post comes less than three months after his split from Jennifer Lopez who has since rekindled her early-2000s romance with former fiance Ben Affleck. Just this week Ben was spotted driving his motorcycle to her house after she returned to Los Angeles following a stint in Miami. He recently quality time with Jennifer's mother Guadalupe in Las Vegas where they indulged their shared love of gambling at the slot machines. Looking fab: Along with the video Alex also uploaded a selfie that showed him and Cynthia beaming as they posed up with their realtor pal Angel Nicolas According to a People insider Jennifer's mother 'was there to film a fun cameo' in a mystery project Ben is directing in Vegas. 'Guadalupe loves Ben and is happy that he is back in Jennifer's life,' an insider in Ben's camp spilled to E! News earlier this week. 'They enjoy gambling together and have done it in the past. Ben had the opportunity to work in Vegas this week and she came out.' Jennifer got together with Alex in 2017 and in 2019 he proposed, becoming her fifth fiance after her three ex-husbands and Ben. As seen in 2012: Alex was married to Cynthia from 2002 until 2008 and they welcomed two daughters into the world together - Natasha, 16, and Ella, 13 This March it was widely reported that they had broken up, which they denied - only to eventually publicly announce their split on April 15. Recently a People source gabbed that ARod was 'not thrilled' about JLo being seen out with Ben and spilled: 'It definitely hurt his ego.' Jennifer also has a friendly co-parenting relationship with Marc Anthony who is the father of her 13-year-old twins Max and Emme. Ben also is famously amicable co-parents with his ex-wife Jennifer with whom he shares his three children Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, nine. The way they were: The post comes less than three months after his split from Jennifer Lopez; the former couple are pictured at the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar party It's posed as the exterior to Home and Away's diner and Alf Stewart's Bait House for more than a decade. And now The Boathouse Palm Beach in Sydney is set to be demolished. According to the Manly Daily, plans are afoot to knock down the deteriorating cafe and build a like-for-like build. End of an era! Home and Away diner and Alf's Bait House set to be DEMOLISHED in $4M plan If plans submitted to the Northern Beaches Council this week are approved, it will take six months to complete the $4million project. Speaking to the publication, Palm Beach Boathouse tenant Andrew Goldsmith said: 'Home and Away may have to do some pre recording. 'Or write something dramatic into the script to explain away the lack of a bait shop... perhaps there could be some sort of explosion.' Makeover: According to the Manly Daily, plans are afoot to knock down the deteriorating cafe and build a like-for-like build. If plans submitted to the Northern Beaches Council this week are approved, it will take six months to complete the $4million project Decisions: It's likely Channel Seven will need to pre-record external scenes in bulk. Cast pictured at the diner It comes just days after Ray Meagher, who has been playing Alf Stewart on the soap for over three decades, discussed the possibility of potentially retiring. Speaking to Nova 96.9's Fitzy and Wippa, Rays said after undergoing two life-saving surgeries over the past two years he has considered calling it quits many times. 'Well Fitzy, my mind is wondering a bit at the moment, occasionally it wanders into retirement but then quickly turns around and thinks well what are you going to do there!' he said. Legend: Ray Meagher, 76, discussed the possibility of potentially retiring during an interview with Fitzy and Wippa Ray underwent a triple bypass surgery in 2019, and had another vital heart procedure just six months later. In the same interview, Ray admitted that his triple bypass surgery came as quite the surprise at the time. 'Well they opened me up but I thought I'd have a double bypass, the doctor came in a couple of nights later, splattered in blood, he'd had a crack in a few other people,' he said. They met on the first ever winter series of Love Island at the beginning of last year. And Rebecca Gormley and Biggs Chris looked more loved-up than ever as they headed to a barbecue in London on Saturday. The Casa Amor couple held hands and looked into one another's eyes before Biggs, 28, cracked a joke with Rebecca, 23, looking at him with adoration. Cute: Rebecca Gormley and Biggs Chris looked more loved-up than ever as they headed to a barbecue in London on Saturday Rebecca put on a leggy display in a pair of high-waisted denim shorts, which emphasised her toned pins. She boosted her height with persex heels and added a pop of colour with a burnt orange top. Her brunette tresses were styled in soft waves while a rich palette of make-up enhanced her pretty features. Biggs wore a grey tee and patterned joggers with box fresh trainers for his outing. PDA: The Casa Amor couple held hands and looked into one another's eyes before Biggs, 28, cracked a joke with Rebecca, 23, looking at him with adoration Toned: Rebecca put on a leggy display in a pair of high-waisted denim shorts, which emphasised her toned pins Their PDA display comes after Rebecca and Biggs sparked speculation they are expecting a baby together with a cryptic TikTok caption. Taking part in TikTok's couple's challenge, Biggs shared a video of the pair posing side by side as they prepare to move in together. The clip was captioned: 'Biggs and Rebecca didn't find love in the villa... One year later Biggs and Rebecca are now together and are soon to move in together,' along with a 'baby' emoji. The former Love Island star added: 'You can't predict the future...' Busty: Her brunette tresses were styled in soft waves while a rich palette of make-up enhanced her pretty features Couple: Biggs wore a grey tee and patterned joggers with box fresh trainers for his outing Several fans quickly commented on the post and speculating that Rebecca could be pregnant. One wrote: 'Are they pregnant?' while another asked: 'Baby on the way???' Rebecca is leaving her native Newcastle to stay near Glasgow in the 'dream home' Biggs is building. He previously told The Sun: 'We're still going between each other's houses, but we've started looking at places. Rumours: The outing comes after Rebecca and Biggs sparked speculation they are expecting a baby together with a cryptic TikTok caption with a baby emoji 'Rebecca will be moving in soon - I'm really excited. She's so close to her mum, but said she would move up to Scotland with me. 'I'm building a home and I'm hoping it'll be ready later this year. I got a property 18 months ago, it's been a long process getting planning permission.' Biggs added he would be knocking down the house already on the land and building 'something decent', with the couple moving in together later this year. She's the model daughter of Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone who is now trying her hand at acting. And Sistine Stallone looked every inch the star as she stepped out in a glamorous dress for dinner in West Hollywood on Saturday. The 47 Meters Down star, 22, flaunted her toned legs and model frame in a taupe bodycon dress with a leg split as she headed out. Wow: Sistine Stallone looked every inch the star as she stepped out in a glamorous dress for dinner in West Hollywood on Saturday The dress teased a hint of her cleavage and was paired with black strappy stiletto sandals. Her caramel flecked brunette tresses were styled in soft waves and she sported a rich palette of make-up. The star carried a face mask and a black leather handbag as she strutted. Sistine's father Sylvester recently celebrated 24 years of wedded bliss with his third wife. Sly was previously married to Sacha Czack and Brigitte Nielsen. Chic: The 47 Meters Down star, 22, flaunted her toned legs and model frame in a taupe bodycon dress with a leg split as she headed out Beauty: The dress teased a hint of her cleavage and was paired with black strappy stiletto sandals Tight-knit: Sistine is the daughter of Sylvester Stallone, 74, and Jennifer Flavin, 52 'It's happy Wedding Anniversary Time again! Time is flying but I have a blessed life Thanks to my wife and Family,' he captioned the shot. Jennifer and Sly also have daughters, Sophia, 24 and Scarlett, 19. All three women work as models and they were chosen to share the role of Golden Globe Ambassador at the 74th Golden Globe Awards. The action star has been married three times. He had two sons with his first wife. eldest son Sage sadly passed away from heart disease at the age of 36. The former couple's younger son, Seargeoh, 42, was diagnosed with autism at an early age. Byron Bay's traditional owners have rejected a donation offer from Netflix amid controversy over their planned influencer reality series, Byron Baes. The donation was offered following an outcry that the streaming giant had not consulted with local Indigenous groups before planning the series. In a statement issued on Thursday, The Arakwal Corporation, representing the Bundjalung people of Byron Bay, revealed they unanimously agreed to 'not accept a donation from Eureka Productions or Netflix'. Uproar: Byron Bay's traditional owners have rejected a donation offer from Netflix amid controversy over their planned influencer reality series, Byron Baes 'We were not consulted prior to the filming of Season 1 of Byron Baes or consulted before the production was announced,' the statement read. 'We are not in agreement with the nature of the series concept as it does not respect our community, cultural practices and values.' According to Sydney Morning Herald, Netflix confirmed that they did indeed offer a donation but that per a source, 'the sum was not large'. No way: In a statement issued on Thursday, The Arakwal Corporation, representing the Bundjalung people of Byron Bay, revealed they unanimously agreed to 'not accept a donation from Eureka Productions or Netflix' Last month, according to independent newspaper Echo, the Byron Council 'passed an urgency motion' that would require producers to get permission before any further filming. Speaking to the paper, independent Councillor Cate Coorey said: 'We need to stand up for our community.' 'They havent sought clearances, they havent considered the relevant stakeholders, and so far weve seen no consultation, and yet filming has gone ahead,' she added. Producers may now be forced to seek permission before any further filming can take place, which includes filming on both private property or public spaces. Fury: 'We were not consulted prior to the filming of Season 1 of Byron Baes or consulted before the production was announced,' the statement read Fighting back: Last month, according to independent newspaper Echo, the Byron Council 'passed an urgency motion' that would require producers to get permission before any further filming Not mincing words, Deputy Mayor Sarah Ndiaye said: 'This corporation, Netflix, has basically come in and s**t on us.' While the Council have kicked up a fuss, the Byron Baes production could fall into the Ultra Low Impact category as outlined in the Local Government Filming Protocol. Ultra Low Impact means there are ten or less people in the cast and crew. If Byron Baes meets this requirement, then they would not require filming permits from the Council. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Byron Baes' production company Eureka Productions for comment. Not mincing words, Deputy Mayor Sarah Ndiaye said: 'This corporation, Netflix, has basically come in and sh*t on us.' (Pictured: Influencers Ruby Tuesday Matthews and Saskia Wotton) A potential Byron Baes cast member recently slammed the Netflix show just days after a rumoured cast list was leaked, saying he 'felt embarrassed' to be associated with the program. Billy Otto confirmed on Instagram that he had nothing to do with the 'docu-soap series' which outraged locals before filming even began. The musician shared a photo of himself at the beach holding an anti-Byron Baes poster, and explained in the caption why he'd decided to pull out. Billy, whose name appeared in The Daily Telegraph's leaked cast list, said he did not believe the show would be a 'true representation of the soul of Byron'. In addition to saying the Netflix production 'doesn't align' with his personal values, he also claimed it did not receive blessing from the local Indigenous Elders. 'Yep, I feel embarrassed to have been associated with this show,' he said. 'Yep, I feel embarrassed': Billy Otto confirmed on Instagram that he had nothing to do with the 'docu-soap series' which outraged locals before filming even began. Billy explained he'd initially agreed to join the show after a casting producer had expressed an interest in his music and advocacy for men's mental health. Billy claims it wasn't until later that he learned what the show was really about. 'I began to understand later the true nature of the program, and it became clear to me that I didn't align with the ethos of the show... I don't believe that the world needs a show like this right now,' he said. He said he wanted to help preserve the ecology of the Bryon region and didn't support the 'hyper-gentrification' of the area. Uncovered: Billy's powerful message to Netflix comes after the Byron Baes cast members were revealed by The Daily Telegraph earlier this week. Pictured: Elias Chigros Billy suggested that Netflix ditch their show about 'influencers' and instead make a more thoughtful series 'working alongside Bundjalung Elders and capturing the dreamers, creatives and custodians that help make this place special'. Billy's powerful message to Netflix comes after the Byron Baes cast members were revealed by The Daily Telegraph earlier this week. Joining the cast are former reality stars Nathan Favro, from The Bachelorette, and Elias Chigros, from Love Island Australia. Coming soon: The controversial new series will feature a variety of local influencers, including Elle Watson Co-creative director of local boutique BISQUE Hannah Brauer will also appear, alongside Byron Bay 'It couple' Dave Frim and Saskia Wotton. Others in the cast include investment company employee Elle Watson, influencer Jade Kevin Foster and spiritualistic therapist Simba Ali. Rounding out the cast is Kyle Sandilands' former assistant-turned-manager Alex Reid, fashion designer Jess Bell and her model sister Lauren. Claim to fame: Joining the cast are former reality stars Nathan Favro (pictured), from The Bachelorette, and Elias Chigros, from Love Island Australia The unveiling of the cast comes 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 - and is asking 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. Making a name for herself: Co-creative director of local boutique BISQUE Hannah Brauer (pictured) will also appear, alongside Byron Bay couple Dave Frim and Saskia Wotton Mr Gordon said the prospective reality series is 'a complete misrepresentation of who we are as a community'. 'Today, what we've seen, is the real Byron, the community coming together for issues that we believe in,' he said. Nick O'Donnell, Netflix's director of public policy, recently travelled to the NSW town 'for crisis talks with stakeholders' as the backlash continues to grow. Michelle Keegan celebrated her 34th birthday on Saturday as she enjoyed a night out in Manchester with a group of friends. The actress, whose actual birthday is June 3, looked sensational in a cream crop top that highlighted her toned abs as she arrived at Peter Street Kitchen. Her husband Mark Wright also enjoyed a night out at the Tower Suites rooftop bar in London when he arrived with a group of pals earlier on the same day. Birthday girl: Michelle Keegan celebrated her 34th birthday on Saturday as she enjoyed a night out in Manchester with a group of friends Michelle put on a leggy display in a cream skirt with a leg split while she added height to her frame with a pair of heels. The Brassic star looked in good spirits as she arrived at the venue with two friends to continue the birthday celebrations. Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, Michelle added to her outfit with a gold necklace and a clutch bag. Meanwhile, Mark, who was joined by fellow TOWIE star James Lock, appeared in good spirits as he was seen outside the rooftop bar with some friends. Out on the town: Her husband Mark Wright also enjoyed a night out at the Tower Suites rooftop bar in London when he arrived with a group of pals earlier on the same day Radiant: The actress, whose actual birthday is June 3, looked sensational in a cream crop top that highlighted her toned abs as she arrived at Peter Street Kitchen The reality star cut a casual figure for the outing, sporting a navy T-shirt with a matching pair of shorts. Mark also sported a pair of tan trainers and completed his outfit for the day with a pair of sunglasses. James sported a light blue shirt along with dark grey trousers and a pair of white trainers. Fun: The Brassic star looked in good spirits as she arrived at the venue with two friends to continue the birthday celebrations Refused: Mark appeared in good spirits as he was seen outside the rooftop bar with some friends Laid back: The reality star cut a casual figure for the outing, sporting a navy T-shirt with a matching pair of shorts Pals: Mark and his friends were seen laughing and joking outside the venue 'Having a good one': Mark also made his way to the Golden Bee bar during his night out Cheers: The TV star shared a snap of the beverages he and his pals enjoyed The Essex man, who has been single since his split from Yazmin Oukhellou, was seen leaving the venue in the company of a mystery blonde, with the pair sharing a taxi. It comes after Mark's family trip to Portugal was cut short after the country was added to the Amber list after Covid travel restrictions were updated. Mark's sister Jess Wright took to Instagram on Monday to share several updates from the family trip which included dinner at Maria's in Almancil, Algarve. Mark and Michelle were able to jet back to the UK in time before it joined the 'amber' travel list at 4am on Tuesday. Back home: It comes after Mark's family trip to Portugal was cut short after the country was added to the Amber list after Covid travel restrictions were updated Travel: Mark and Michelle were able to jet back to the UK in time before it joined the 'amber' travel list at 4am on Tuesday Stunning: Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, Michelle added to her outfit with a gold necklace and a clutch bag Taking to her Instagram Story, Jess, 35, shared several updates from the trip which included sizzling selfies with Michelle, dancing and laughter. In the posts, the trio were also joined by Wright family members - parents Mark Snr and Carol, sister Natalya and brother Josh. Jess' fiance William Lee-Kemp, Josh's wife Hollie and Natalya's boyfriend Tommy also joined the fun trip. The family were seen enjoying a lavish meal at Maria's in the Algarve where they enjoyed tasty beverages and started singing to Oasis' Don't Look Back In Anger. Trip: Mark's sister Jess Wright took to Instagram on Monday to share several updates from the family trip which included dinner at Maria's in Almancil, Algarve Outing: Joining Mark at the bar was his friend and fellow TOWIE star James Lock Outfit: James sported a light blue shirt along with dark grey trousers and a pair of white trainers Company: The pair shared a taxi together as they said their goodbyes Almancil is in the affluent golden triangle region outside of Faro, the capital of the Algarve. It is famous for its luxury resorts and Michelin star restaurants, and lies between the town of Vilamoura, Almancil and the gated communities of Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo. It is not known whether the rest of the family have since jetted back to the UK or if they are still in Portugal after it moved onto the UK's 'amber' travel list at 4am on Tuesday. Mark's brother Josh, who also went on the holiday, posted updates from Chigwell, Essex, on Tuesday night. Lavish: The family were seen enjoying a lavish meal at Maria's in the Algarve where they enjoyed tasty beverages and started singing to Oasis' Don't Look Back In Anger However, Jess continued to share updates from Portugal that evening - although she did not specify if she was still in the country or posting throwback snaps. Amber rules mean travellers arriving home from Portugal will now have to self-isolate for 10 days and pay for two PCR tests to take on day 2 and day 8. Breaking quarantine could lead to a 10,000 fine with those who do not take tests on day 2 and day 8 of their self-isolation facing 2,000 penalties. Those who provide incorrect information on their passenger locator forms could be fined 10,000 or be jailed for 10 years - or both. They first shot to stardom on reality series Too Hot To Handle in 2020. And Nicole O'Brien and Chloe Veitch proved they've remained the best of friends since appearing on the Netflix show, stepping out together in London on Saturday in coordinated looks. Expertly colour-clashing as they left Madison bar hand-in-hand, Nicole, 25, slipped into a thigh-skimming, off-the-shoulder blue mini dress while Chloe, 22, opted for a similar dress in bright red. Glam: Nicole O'Brien, 25, and Chloe Veitch, 22, proved they've remained friends since appearing on Too Hot To Handle, stepping out in London on Saturday in coordinated looks Blonde beauty Nicole - whose dress was dusted with glitter - wore her hair swept up into a bun and added height to her frame in a pair of wraparound heels. The budding musician was also rocking a fresh set of red acrylic nails and an immaculate white pedicure. She accessorised with bold hoop earrings and a stylish gold necklace, keeping her belongings safe in a chain detail handbag worn on her right shoulder. Chloe put on a busty display, with her show-stopping red dress featuring striking cut out detailing. Colour clashing: Expertly colour-clashing as they left Madison bar, Nicole slipped into a thigh-skimming blue mini dress while Chloe opted for a similar dress in bright red. With her thigh tattoo on full display, the brunette bombshell wore her glossy hair loose and could barely stop smiling as she made her way through the capital holding her co-star's hand. Tucked under Chloe's left arm was a luxury designer handbag, and the reality star opted for black, open-toe heels. Nicole and Chloe appeared on the Netflix dating show Too Hot To Handle, where a string of attractive contestants learned they'd win $100,000 if they had no sexual contact for four weeks. Each infraction took money off the total prize fund. Hair up: Blonde beauty Nicole - whose dress was dusted with glitter - wore her hair swept up into a bun and added height to her frame in a pair of wraparound heels In May, Nicole announced that she had signed a new record deal with I Saw It First and Sengge Zangbo Records on Instagram. Posting a gorgeous snap of herself singing a contract in the clothing brand's offices, Nicole told fans: 'Today was a pinch me moment.' She went on: 'I've just signed a deal with @isawitfirst X @senggezangborecords. No pressure that their previous artist was @emelisande featuring @stonebwoyb. 'To say I'm excited is an understatement!! This wouldn't be possible without any of you lovely people supporting me, can't thank you enough I have so much love for you all.' All in the details: Chloe put on a busty display, with her show-stopping red dress featuring striking cut out detailing She concluded: 'Big things are coming.' While Nicole did not find love on Too Hot To Handle, she went on to date her co-star Bryce Hirschberg after the show wrapped, making their relationship public last April. They called it quits later in the year due to the travel restrictions posed by COVID-19, as Bryce lives in Marina Del Rey, California, and Nicole calls the UK home. A representative for Bryce, 30, told People at the time: 'I can confirm that Bryce and Nicole decided mutually to split early last week after months of trying to make a long-distance relationship work.' Bryce also made a statement: 'After the many failed attempts to reunite due to quarantine and border restrictions, we decided that moving on and remaining friends would be our best option for the time being. 'Nicole is so lovely and if under less unusual circumstances I'm sure that we could've had an amazing relationship! I wish her the best because she deserves it.' In March, the Irish beauty released her first single, which shot to number one in the iTunes charts in Ireland. Wow: In May, Nicole announced that she had signed a new record deal with I Saw It First and Sengge Zangbo Records on Instagram Loved-up: Nicole dated her Too Hot To Handle co-star Bryce Hirschberg after the show wrapped last year, but they separated during the pandemic due to travel restrictions Speaking about her love for music, Nicole told OK! In March: 'I have written music for years and years. It's so funny because I have written down when I was about 16 or 17, in a diary back home I wrote down my 10-year plan, which was to do a show, get a platform and start releasing music. 'So, my mum sent me a photo of it the other day, saying how mad is this.' Meanwhile, since appearing on the show, Essex-born Chloe admitted she had since developed a different approach to dating. She told The Sun last year: 'It was sexual rehabilitation for everyone. I was a serial dater and would always have a few guys on the go. 'I was addicted to Tinder, swiping all day. It was a confidence boost for me. But I never chose the best guys. I've been hurt before and have an emotional barrier up.' Gabi Grecko has looked back at her marriage to Geoffrey Edelsten, after his death at age 78 on Friday. The rapper, 32, shared a series of personal photos of their life together to her Instagram on Sunday. The series of photos show the pair sharing intimate moments, including Geoffrey's attempt to make his model wife a home-cooked meal. Memories: Gabi Grecko (right) has looked back at her marriage to Geoffrey Edelsten (left), after his death at age 78 on Friday. The rapper, 32, shared a series of personal photos of their life together to her Instagram on Sunday In the images, the flamboyant doctor holds a very burned frozen pizza, taking a bite of his creation. Gabi wrote in the caption alongside the photos: 'Thank you for being there and for the home made pizza'. Other images showed Geoffrey by Gabi's side when she was admitted to hospital in 2015. Home life: The series of photos show the pair sharing intimate moments, including Geoffrey's attempt to make his model wife a home-cooked meal Sweet: In the images, the flamboyant doctor holds a very burned frozen pizza, taking a bite of his creation She was suffering from a fractured rib and collapsed lung after falling down the stairs at the time. On Friday, the New York-based former reality star posted a series of heartbreaking messages to her social media just hours after his death. She posted two paparazzi photos of herself alongside Edelsten, with one captioned 'This is how I feel today'. Close: Other images showed Geoffrey by Gabi's side when she was admitted to hospital in 2015 Injury: She was suffering from a fractured rib and collapsed lung after falling down the stairs at the time The doctor was 72 when he married the American beauty, who was 26 at the time, in an intimate ceremony in June 2015. The pair were only together for a few months before splitting. Gabi and Geoffrey reunited in January 2018 and were planning on renewing their vows before calling it quits again at the end of the year. Gabi wrote in the caption alongside the photos: 'Thank you for being there and for the home made pizza' Edelsten, who died in Melbourne aged 78 on Friday, was a brilliant but disgraced medical entrepreneur and one of Australia's great self-publicists. His last two years were believed to have been relatively quiet, increasingly spent as a recluse in the Balencea Apartments on St Kilda Road. As his health faded, Edelsten had few visitors and is believed to have been found in his apartment by his cleaner. His death is not being treated as suspicious. Simon Cowell is reportedly intending to sell his 15million mansion in London. The music mogul, 61, purchased the seven-bedroom home in October 2018 and is thought to have had planning permission accepted to add an outdoor pool and bar to the property, however is now said to have had a 'change of heart'. A past owner of the abode, hedge-fund billionaire Christopher Levett, previously claimed the spirit of Roman Emperor Hadrian's gay lover Antinous haunts the house. Moving on? Simon Cowell is reportedly set to sell his 15m mansion in London, which is said to be haunted the ghost of a gay Roman (Simon is pictured on America's Got Talent in June) A source told The Sun: 'Simon loved the property when he bought it, and had a list of changes and improvements. But he seems to have had a change of heart. 'So while it is not yet on the market, it's likely to be listed for sale again very soon.' MailOnline has contacted Simon's representatives for further comment. Simon had seemed to be adapting the home for his family to enjoy after it was reported he'd been given the go-ahead from the council to transform the pad, with work thought to have started in February. Spooky: A past owner of the abode, hedge-fund billionaire Christopher Levett, previously claimed the spirit of Roman Emperor Hadrian's gay lover Antinous haunts the house (pictured) Last year, sources claimed the X Factor boss' requests had included a 15-metre outdoor pool, an extended sunroom and state-of-the-art security. The star had also reportedly further ramped up security at his 15m home earlier this year- five years after his Holland Park abode was broken into in a 1million raid. According to The Sun, Simon had moved to secure a 'blind spot' back entrance, with planning permission granted in January to carry out the security measures. It was understood at the time that Simon and his family (partner Lauren Silverman and son Eric, seven) were not living at the property. The security claims came six years after Darren February broke into Cowell's five-bed pad in Holland Park, through a patio door and stole jewellery and two passports. Who you gonna call? Mr Levett claimed he'd bought the spirit of Roman god Antinous [right] into the mansion after purchasing a statue of him in 2014 (Simon is pictured on BGT) Just ten days after he burgled the X Factor supremo's home in December 2015, he hit 52-year-old father and motorcyclist Kenneth Baldwin with a car and killed him, after driving up the wrong side of the road at 58mph. February had already been convicted of 37 burglaries, repeatedly targeting the wealthy areas of Kensington and Bayswater which provided 'rich pickings', prosecutor Denis Barry said. When he broke into Cowell's house on December 4 he was on licence for other burglaries and public order offences. He has committed 58 offences spanning two decades, and was first convicted aged just 12. Simon told the court how diamond rings worth 500,000 were stolen in the London raid. He also owns properties in Beverly Hills, Miami and Barbados. And although spacious, the 15m London house does come with an interesting story after a previous owner claimed it was haunted by the ghost of Antinous - the gay lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian, the ruler of the Roman Empire from 117 to 138. Options: Simon, who owns properties in London, Beverly Hills, Miami and Barbados, moved into his south west London house in 2019 (pictured in LA in April) Past owner Mr Levett claims, as reports The Sun, that he brought Antinous' spirit into the home when he purchased a statue of him in 2014, inadvertently unleashing the Bithynian Greek's spirit onto the property. 'It was delivered in a crate,' the hedge-fund billionaire said. 'When I was locking up, I heard the sound of heavy objects being knocked over from the drawing room where Antinous was still lying in his box. The same happened the next two nights. But there was nobody there.' Speaking in 2019 after Simon purchased the pad, a source claimed that Simon believes this is more than just an urban legend. The story of Antinous is a tragic one; he was a favourite of Hadrian and was known to be particularly 'beautiful'. The pair were fond of hunting together, so history reports. 'Change of heart': Simon had seemed to be adapting the pad for his family after it was reported he'd been given planning permission (pictured with partner Lauren Silverman in June) It was widely presumed that the pair had a sexual relationship - and many were jealous of Antinous. He died in October 130 under mysterious circumstances, when on a voyage along the Nile. He never returned, and the cause of his death remains a mystery to this day, with many speculating he was murdered by other members of the Empire, jealous of his bond with Hadrian. Others have speculated that he fell and drowned in the Nile, while some believe he took his own life. Ghost-Bust-Er! Antinous and Hadrian were fond of hunting together, so history reports. It was widely presumed that the pair had a sexual relationship - and many were jealous of Antinous Following his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and created a cult devoted to him. Ever since his death he has been known as both a hero and as 'the gay god'. Christians and Pagans attempted to quash the cult later in history, due to the homosexual undertones of it, but it is still considered to be alive and well. Whether the Roman favourite has indeed latched on to the X Factor judge is to be determined - but Simon is no stranger to the paranormal. Five years ago, he claimed he has always had contact with the other side. '[The dead] just want to make contact and say hello,' he told The Sun in 2016. I had [a ghost] in my house when I was living in Kingston Hill. My mum and dad were staying with me and I heard this banging on the door. 'I went to their room and said: You were banging on my door? and they said: It wasnt us. 'There was a dog in the house freaking out too. The following day I heard this crashing noise and all the stuff had fallen in the kitchen. There was no logical explanation. There was no wind but there was definitely a presence. But I wasnt afraid.' This encounter resulted in an exorcism, Simon later revealed. The residents of Walford won't know what hit them as none other than Janine Butcher is returning to Albert Square. Charlie Brooks was spotted on the set of EastEnders at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire as she prepares to return to the soap after a seven year break. The actress, 40, was taken to set in a blacked out people carrier as show bosses aimed to keep her return top secret. Return: Charlie Brooks was spotted on the set of EastEnders at Elstree Studios as she prepares to return to the soap after a seven-year break Charlie parked her own car at a secret location in West London where she was later dropped off after a few hours of filming. A show insider told the Daily Star the actress will be involved in one of the soap's biggest storylines of the year. Charlie cut a casual figure for her day back on set as she was seen in a black T-shirt and a pair of sunglasses. It was previously reported that Charlie would resurrect her role as the murderous Janine on EastEnders, seven years after she departed Albert Square. Comeback: The residents of Walford won't know what hit them as none other than Janine Butcher is returning to Albert Square (pictured on EastEnders in 2013) Secret: The actress, 40, was taken to set in a blacked out people carrier as show bosses aimed to keep her return top secret It was claimed that Charlie would make an explosive return to Albert Square, leaving fans swarming social media to state she would 'save the soap'. The murderous character is said to be part of a 'huge' storyline planned by BBC bosses, according to The Sun. Charlie explained why she is excited to reclaim the role of Janine on the podcast. She added: 'She's good fun, I love Janine. I always wonder what she's been up to. I think it's really important to sympathise with your characters and for me, she became so layered. Show: Charlie parked her own car at a secret location in West London where she was later dropped off after a few hours of filming Low profile: Charlie cut a casual figure for her day back on set as she was seen in a black T-shirt and a pair of sunglasses 'I honestly believe she's completely misunderstood in so many ways, although she does get more and more difficult to defend. But that is where all the juicy stuff is.' Plot details of her return are not yet known, but Janine has been involved in her fair share of drama during her time on the soap, which first began in 1999. Most notably, Janine married Barry Evans played by Shaun Williamson for his money before pushing him off a cliff. She went on to marry a rich elderly Jewish businessman called David, who died of a heart attack at the ceremony, before tying the knot with Ryan Malloy (Neil McDermott), whom she also tried to kill. Role: It was previously reported that Charlie would resurrect her role as the murderous Janine on EastEnders, seven years after she departed Albert Square Shocking: Most notably, Janine married Barry Evans played by Shaun Williamson for his money before pushing him off a cliff Although she was unsuccessful in her murder plot against Ryan, she framed arch-rival Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) for the attempted crime. Janine married a fourth time to Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd) and had her daughter Scarlett with him, before she eventually set out to kill him too. The evil killer was successful in ending Michael's life, but was found not guilty in court - leading to her being shunned by locals which made her eventually leave Walford. She was last seen at St Pancras as she boarded a train to go to Paris - where she joined daughter Scarlett and sister Diane. Christine McGuinness has shared a breathtaking photo of herself posing up a storm in a flowing red dress on Instagram. The model, 32, looked sensational in the photo, taken by The Style Shooters, with her gown's impressive train blowing in the wind while sprawling moorland loomed in the background. Christine also shared a powerful message alongside the snap, captioning her social media post: 'She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the Universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.' Stunning: Christine McGuinness, 32, has shared a breathtaking photo of herself posing up a storm in a flowing red dress on Instagram The blonde beauty wore her hair loose for the shoot, with her glossy tresses blowing in the wind. Her plunging gown showcased Christine's enviable figure and also featured a dramatic thigh-split. Pointing her toe in the sand, Christine raised her right arm up to the back of the head and held onto her dress' floaty train in her left hand. It comes after Christine assured fans her mother is 'doing incredibly well' having completed her breast cancer treatment. Christine captioned the photo: 'She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the Universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings' Taking to Instagram and posting a snap of her cuddling her beloved parent on Thursday, she penned the following note for her followers: 'Ma. ''Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and loved more than you know''.' 'So many of you ask about my mum, she is doing amazingly well, I'm so proud of her. 'Chemotherapy and radiotherapy is all done now it's time for her to enjoy life!' The lingerie model looked radiant in a summer dress, as did her mother, as they stood outside in the bright June weather, both wearing shades. Her mother had opted to wear a wig following chemo, but is sporting natural locks two months after completing her treatment. In March, she took to Instagram to post a photo of her mum ringing the bell to signal the end of her treatment. She also took to her stories to post a tearful message to her followers about it. 'Hey everyone - I'm going to try and get through this without crying. I'm very, very happy, these are happy tears. It's been a very emotional day today. My mum has just rang the bell. 'This means she has completed her chemotherapy. She's been having chemotherapy for six months. Ringing the bell means that she's finished. 'She's honestly the most amazing, strongest, incredible woman I've ever met. She's done it all with a smile on her face, even ringing the bell she's laughing. 'I'm trying to pull myself together. I'm so proud of her. She's done chemo on her own! This is a huge, massive milestone to get up and ring that bell. She's laughed through it and she's absolutely amazing. 'Sending lots of love to anyone who's fighting cancer right now and any family members it might be affecting. Taking to Instagram and posting a snap of her cuddling her beloved parent, she penned the following note for her followers: 'Ma. Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and loved more than you know"' 'I miss her so much - the kids miss her. We haven't seen her for eight months. She's had her first vaccine, she gets the second in May, so hopefully we'll be able to see her for summer. She's just amazing!' In February she explained to her followers that she was 'beyond heartbroken' that her mother has to isolate away from her friends and family. Christine wrote: 'I get messages everyday asking how my mum is doing thank you all for checking in! 'Fighting cancer away from family and friends is beyond heartbreaking (due to covid she has to isolate) 'but still laughing every time we speak on the phone just shows what an incredibly strong Ma I've got. Good news: Christine celebrated the end of her mother's chemotherapy treatment in March Milestone moment: The lingerie model took to Instagram to post a photo of her mum ringing the bell to signal the end of her treatment 'Im so proud of you mum, I miss you everyday and can't wait to see you again as soon as it is safe.' Christine's mum replied: 'Aww lovely I miss you all so much looking forward to those priceless hugs and giggles'. In January, Christine broke down in tears as she revealed her three children- twins Penelope and Leo, seven, and Felicity, four,- keep asking when 'nanny will come and stay'. Taking to her Instagram Story to issue an emotional update, the mother-of-three admitted: 'Hey everyone, so I feel like I am all over the place today I feel like I should be so happy to move house. 'It's beyond heartbreaking': Christine has spoken about her mum's battle with breast cancer in the past 'This is literally our dream home we've been building for years. We...' Christine then broke down in tears. She added: 'I'd give it all to have my mum here. I feel I have got no one to talk to, I'm all over the place in the house, everyone is packing boxes. My head is just not there, my mum should be there with me. 'She's still in the hospital, I haven't seen her for months. I probably won't see her until next summer. The kids keep saying, 'I wonder if nanny will come and stay.' Christine also spoke about her mother's cancer battle as she said: 'She's got a long, tough road ahead. 6 months on chemo then radiotherapy. Isolated, away from family and friends. 'But we laugh every time we speak on the phone. My mum is an incredible strong woman.' Battle: Christine previously revealed her mum was undergoing six months of chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy One of the stars of the upcoming season of Farmer Wants a Wife has made an unusual admission about how he selects his dates. Sam Messina, 25, said any woman he sets his sights on will have to meet the approval of his mother, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Sunday. 'Her opinion means a lot to me because mum knows who I am,' said the sheep and crop farmer. Mummy's boy: Sam Messina, 25, said any woman he sets his sights on will have to meet the approval of his mother, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Sunday The hunk, who hails from Canowindra, NSW, added that his mother 'knows I want a relationship that will take me right to the end, a best friend, a lover'. Messina also lamented his misfortune when it comes to dating apps, claiming his remote location meant a dearth of suitable Tinder matches. He called the process 'slow and painful'. Picky: 'Her opinion means a lot to me because mum knows who I am,' said the sheep and crop farmer Ticking the boxes: The hunk, who hails from Canowindra, NSW, added that his mother 'knows I want a relationship that will take me right to the end, a best friend, a lover' Meanwhile, love has already blossomed on the set of Farmer Wants A Wife, a new report claims. The new season of the romantic reality show will see sheep farmer Andrew Guthrie, 30, fall 'head over heels' for one of his three finalists. While the name of the lucky lady has not been revealed, The Daily Telegraph reported last month that Andrew's final three are Ashleigh Adams, Jess Nathan and Rachel Smith. Romance: Love has already blossomed on the set of Farmer Wants A Wife, a new report claims. The new season of the romantic reality show will see sheep farmer Andrew Guthrie (pictured) fall 'head over heels' for one of his three finalists One of the three will win the heart of the bloke from Delegate, NSW, after being whittled down from eight original contenders. Farmer Wants A Wife has now completed filming and is returning for a new season on Channel Seven this year. Five new hard-working Aussie farmers are set to begin their quest for love in the hope that their first kiss leads to 'I do'. In love: While the name of the lucky lady has not been revealed, The Daily Telegraph reported last month that Andrew's final three are Ashleigh Adams, Jess Nathan and Rachel Smith. Pictured: Ashleigh Adams Who is it? One of the three will win the heart of the bloke from Delegate, NSW, after being whittled down from eight original contenders. Pictured: Rachel Smith Wife wanted: Farmer Wants A Wife has now completed filming and is returning for a new season on Channel Seven this year. Pictured: Jess Nathan The other farmers are: Matt Trewin (26, Orbost, Victoria), Sam Messina (24, Canowindra, NSW), Will Dwyer (39, Longwood, Victoria) and Rob Campbell (40, Snowy Mountains, NSW). From thousands of single women who saw their profiles online, the five farmers will choose eight ladies to meet, before inviting five of them back to their farm. Seven promises this season's road to love will be even more romantic than ever before, with dreamy overnight dates, luxury country getaways and spectacular group get-togethers setting the stage for life-changing love stories to blossom. The other farmers are: Matt Trewin (26, Orbost, Victoria), Sam Messina (24, Canowindra, NSW), Will Dwyer (39, Longwood, Victoria) and Rob Campbell (40, Snowy Mountains, NSW) With 99 marriages and 225 'farmer babies' worldwide, Farmer Wants A Wife is the world's most successful dating franchise when it comes to making lasting couples. The Australian series alone has resulted in nine marriages and 20 children. The new season, which doesn't yet have a premiere date, will again be hosted by Natalie Gruzlewski. Rebel Wilson has left the celebrity world gobsmacked by her incredible 30 kilogram weight loss, after her sensational slim-down last year. And the 41-year-old appeared to be celebrating a job well done as she sipped on a fruit cocktail while basking in the summer sun. Rebel, who is currently in Atlanta, shared a photo of herself sitting in a park with pal Sam Kennedy, with the pair clearly enjoying themselves. Fit: Rebel Wilson, 41, (pictured) flaunted her fit figure while sipping on a fruit cocktail on Instagram on Sunday, after revealing the extraordinary secret to her 30kg weight loss The Australian star looked sensational flaunting her curves in a white mesh top along with a pair of black tights. She wore a hot pink Balenciaga cap along with a pair of designer sunglasses and finished her look with a bum bag worn round her waist. It comes after Rebel spoke to Shape this month about her 'year of health' and said it was regular walking, not gruelling workouts, that helped her shift the kilos. If you've got it, flaunt it! The Australian star looked sensational flaunting her curves in a white mesh top along with a pair of black tights Rebel revealed that 'moderate walking' was actually a key component to her weight loss and helped her shed 'unnecessary body fat'. 'I never properly considered wellness from all angles,' she said of her transformation. 'But I was turning 40 and thinking about freezing my eggs, and the experts told me that the healthier I am, the better the process can go.' Style queen: She wore a hot pink Balenciaga cap along with a pair of designer sunglasses Playful: Rebel showcased her playful personality in the outfit Delicious! The Pitch Perfect actress was seen holding up the drink to her mouth Rebel admitted she sometimes gets emotional when she thinks about why she didn't place more importance on her health earlier. 'It just wasn't a priority, and I didn't know how to do it right,' she said. During her health journey, Rebel attended a 'wellness retreat' in Austria where she learned about the benefits of 'moderate walking', which soon became a new routine. Weight loss secrets: The comedian spoke to Shape this month about her 'year of health' and said it was regular walking, not gruelling workouts, that helped her shift the kilos As she focused on her 'year of health', Rebel eventually reached her target weight of 74kg by late 2020. She has also incorporated healthier eating habits, with an emphasis on nutritious, high-protein foods. 'The goal was never to be skinny,' she said. 'It was never to fit into a certain dress size. I put in a weight because I needed some tangible thing.' Rebel continued: 'What I'm proud of myself is doing that and having a lot more balance now in my life.' Reports that Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky 'failed to bid' at a charity auction at Thursday's Gold Dinner have been slammed as 'false'. In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday, Gold Chair Monica Saunders-Weinberg said, 'Our mission this year was to not only raise as much money as possible but to shine a light on this year's beneficiary Mental Health which is a crisis that effects far too many children and adolescents. 'I was personally blown away by the genuine enthusiasm and willingness to give back from pledges, to donations to silent auction bidding. We wanted to push past anything previously achieved and we did just that on every level. Claims: Reports that Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky 'failed to bid' at a charity auction at Thursday's Gold Dinner have been slammed as 'false'. Both pictured 'The record-breaking funds of $5 million (and still counting) raised at this year's Gold Dinner are a testament to the generosity and spirit of all our wonderful guests and any press statements to the contrary are completely false.' 'The entire Hemsworth table stayed until after the official proceedings and were incredibly generous with their time, their dollars and in fact were some of our largest donors on the evening.' 'The Hemsworths were invited because they represent so much of what is good in our country and community, and they should be applauded for their positivity and generosity, as acknowledged by the Queens in this years honour list for Chris.' 'Over and above, Chris and Elsa donated a prize which earned the hospital $65,000 and were integral in helping us reach our goal and most importantly shine light on the mental health crisis affecting our youth.' Response: In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday, Gold Chair Monica Saunders-Weinberg said the claims are 'completely false'. Pictured: Liam Hemsworth, Gabriella Brooks, Luciana Barroso, Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky at the Gold Dinner The comments came after The Sydney Morning Herald claimed that the Hollywood power couple failed to make any bids at the event's charity auction, despite their combined net worth of $180million. The charity was put on to raise money for the Sydney Children's Hospital foundation. 'It got really awkward because everyone kept looking at them to put up their hands and they didn't,' an insider who attended the event told the publication. Jeremy Bond, grandson of business tycoon Alan, was the highest bidder of the night, dropping a five-figure sum at the auction, the source said. That's nice! Chris reportedly donated two tickets for the Sydney premiere of his new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, to be released in 2022. Pictured: Chris in the role of Thor Chris donated two tickets for the Sydney premiere of his new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. The tickets went under the hammer for $65,000 and helped raise a record setting $5million for the Sydney Children's Hospital foundation. Event committee member Emma Cooper told the publication that the Hemsworths did a fantastic job of raising money for the good cause. Company: Chris and Elsa were joined at the event by Chris' younger brother Liam (left) and his girlfriend Gabriella Brooks (right), and their friend Luciana Barroso - the wife of actor Matt Damon 'They stayed until the end of the pledges and did an amazing job of making the night a huge success,' she said. 'There was no obligation for them to stay for the after-party,' she added. Chris and Elsa were joined at the event by Chris' younger brother Liam and his girlfriend Gabriella Brooks, and their friend Luciana Barroso - the wife of actor Matt Damon. Unlike the glittering array of stars that made an appearance at the exclusive soiree, Chris and his group opted to skip the red carpet and slip into the fundraiser unannounced. A new workout is taking the celebrity world by craze, with devotees including Pip Edwards and boxer Mike Tyson. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, Australian and international celebrities have become fans of the KAAIAA workout. The workout, created by former Bondi Pilates teacher Leah Simmons, aims to incorporate the four pillars of self. Fit: Streetwear queen Pip Edwards has championed the new workout craze taking the celebrity world by storm called the KAAIAA workout, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph Pip, who is regularly spotted at eastern suburbs Pilates studios, called the method a 'game changer' for her. 'I've been doing the KAAIAA method from inception and am a massive fan and advocate for the transformation that is real and life changing,' Pip said. '(It's a) workout for the mind and heart Working out the mind, body and soul all in one, is a game changer,' she added. The one-hour workout is described as a mix of 'Pilates, body weight exercises and meditation' and addresses the four pillars of health, which include mental, spiritual, physical and emotional wellbeing. Love it! 'I've been doing the KAAIAA method from inception and am a massive fan and advocate for the transformation that is real and life changing,' Pip said Creator: The one-hour workout is described as a mix of 'Pilates, body weight exercises and meditation' and was created by Leah Simmons [pictured] The report says American boxer Mike Tyson is even a fan of the workout as well as Jessica Gomes, Montana Cox and filmmaker, Joel Edgerton. Founder Leah is teaming-up with supermodel Elle Macpherson's wellness brand, WelleCo, for the month of June. The KAAIAA studio's website says the workout will take students in an expansive journey into themselves to push beyond their limits. Fan: According to the report, Even boxer Mike Tyson is a fan of the workout method '[Students will] move beyond mental obstacles, break down emotional barriers and push through physical limits to experience a release,' the site states, in part. 'Through music, movement, strength and stillness, KAAIAA encourages people to go beyond the intensity of the surface,' it added. 'Past the noise of the mind and find the transformational release within.' She has been making the most of lockdown easing. And Imogen Thomas looked incredible as she went for dinner with friends in Notting Hill, London on Saturday. The reality star, 38, showcased her toned physique on the outing as she donned a skintight mini dress with a multi-coloured print. Looking good: Imogen Thomas looked incredible as she went for dinner with friends in Notting Hill, London on Saturday Imogen added height to her frame with a pair of tan heels while she complimented her outfit with a matching handbag. The Big Brother star styled her brunette locks into an updo while she also sported a pair of sunglasses. Striking a pose on her way to meet her pals, Imogen completed her look for the day with a pair of gold earrings and a matching necklace. Imogen, who now describes herself as an 'investor and content creator', is a mother to daughters Ariana and Siera who she shares with partner Adam Horsley. Style: The reality star, 38, showcased her toned physique on the outing as she donned a skintight mini dress with a multi-coloured print Fashion: Imogen added height to her frame with a pair of tan heels while she complimented her outfit with a matching handbag Wow: Striking a pose on her way to meet her pals, Imogen completed her look for the day with a pair of gold earrings and a matching necklace The outing came after Imogen paid tribute to her late friend Nikki Grahame, saying she 'made her laugh even til the end' and that 'not a day goes by that she doesn't think about her' in a new post. Nikki was found dead on April 10 in her London home, a day after she was discharged from Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester after a three week stay to treat her for anorexia. Imogen - who met the reality icon on Big Brother in 2006 - reflected on their best memories together in a poignant post last month. Family: Imogen, who now describes herself as an 'investor and content creator', is a mother to daughters Ariana and Siera who she shares with partner Adam Horsley Taking to her Instagram Story Imogen replied to a question from a fan during a Q&A which read: 'Favourite memory of Nikki during BB 2006? You and her got along great from the start'. Imogen replied saying: 'Omg I have so many. But during the house time she was the star. We got along amazing we both had each other's backs. Loves all her one liners she always made me laugh even til the end. 'God I miss her so much. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her. Miss our daily chats. But I take comfort in knowing she's at peace now prob with an espresso martini in hand. RIP my beautiful girl.' For help and support with eating disorders contact SEED on (01482) 718130 or visit www.seedeatingdisorders.org.uk. She's now a doting mum to three children after welcoming her baby son Charlie three months ago. And Helen Flanagan sizzled as she donned a backless dress while enjoying a night out at The Ivy Restaurant in Manchester on Saturday. The former Coronation Street actress, 30, looked incredible in the sequinned gown which boasted tassels and a chic halter-neck front. Wow! Helen Flanagan looked incredible as she rocked a backless dress while enjoying a night out at The Ivy Restaurant in Manchester on Saturday Helen exuded confidence as she showcased her toned physique in the fun dress and worked all her angles for the camera. The beauty added a little extra height to her frame by donning strappy and sparking heels. Not forgetting her accessories, Helen toted a pale pink Dior bag but opted to let her dress do all the talking and go without any jewellery. Glowing: The former Coronation Street actress, 30, looked incredible in the sequinned gown which boasted tassels and a chic halter-neck front Earlier this month, it was claimed that Helen was left 'hurt' after mummy-shamers criticised her for sharing a stunning bikini picture eight weeks after giving birth. The former Coronation Street actress, who welcomed her son Charlie earlier this year, recently shared a smiling snap with her two daughters while on a staycation. However trolls hit out at the actress for 'making other mums feel bad' about their postpartum figures, and Helen was reportedly horrified. An insider told new! magazine: 'Criticism is hard for Helen as she's openly admitted to being insecure and is very self-aware. Work it: Helen ensured to work all her angles while posing up a storm in her glitzy dress Looking good: She accessorised with a pair of strappy heels and a pink Dior bag All smiles: Helen seemed to be in great spirits as she beamed smiles and laughed during the night out 'The photo was a happy moment with her girls and she did feel content in her body. 'She got a lot of really lovely comments but the negative comments from mummy-shamers still crept in and they do hurt.' The source added that Helen wasn't 'bragging' about her postpartum figure and just wanted to embrace the body that had birthed three children. Helen had been enjoying a UK staycation with her fiance Scott Sinclair and their three children, Matilda, five, Delilah, two, and their three-month-old son Charlie in Falmouth, Cornwall, in May. Earlier this week, Helen fuelled speculation that she has tied the knot with her fiance Scott after she referred to him as 'hubby' several times on social media. The actress cosied up to beau Scott, 32, during a shopping trip last Monday and shared a series of snaps on her Stories which referred to him as her 'hubby'. 'Hurt': The mum-of-three was recently left 'hurt' after mummy-shamers criticised her for sharing a stunning bikini picture eight weeks after giving birth (pictured in May) The loved-up pair, who have three children together, got engaged in May 2018 but were forced to postpone their wedding due to the pandemic. MailOnline contacted Helen's representative for comment at the time. Speaking in February last year, the actress said she and Scott planned to reschedule their nuptials to 2021 as her sister Jessica hoped to tie the knot in 2020. Speaking to The Express, the I'm A Celeb star elaborated at the time: 'We were going to get married this year but my little sister is getting married next summer, so maybe next year. 'I think its just because weve been together for so long, were just a bit lazy about. But, it would be nice to have the same name.' AJ Pritchard and his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen made the most of London's balmy weather on Sunday, stepping out in summery ensembles for a spot of shopping in the capital. Former Strictly Come Dancing star AJ, 26, cut a dapper figure in white shorts teamed with a patterned shirt, while Abbie, 24, looked radiant in a thigh-skimming frilly dress. Holding her boyfriend's hand, Abbie teamed her cream frock with a pair of heeled white boots, while AJ opted for comfort in beige trainers. Loved-up: AJ Pritchard, 26, and his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen, 24, made the most of London's balmy weather on Sunday, stepping out in summery ensembles for a spot of shopping AJ wore his signature curls slicked back and kept the sunshine at bay behind a pair of stylish sunglasses. He was toting a black shopping bag in his left hand. Abbie, meanwhile, carried a white fedora and wore her glossy blonde hair loose. She kept her belongings safe in a chic brown handbag worn across her torso. Dapper: Former Strictly Come Dancing star AJ cut a dapper figure in white shorts teamed with a patterned blouse, while Abbie looked radiant in a thigh-skimming frilly dress Stylish: Holding her boyfriend's hand, Abbie teamed her cream frock with a pair of heeled white boots, while AJ opted for comfort in beige trainers It comes after Abbie suffered horrific burns in a freak fire accident while she was filming a YouTube video with the dancer in January. Abbie needed three skin grafts after a YouTube video she was filming with her boyfriend went horribly wrong and saw a wine bottle explode and set fire to her hair and clothing on January 19. She detailed the fears she felt for her life during the accident while her beau AJ spoke about how 'seconds felt like a lifetime' when he attempted to quell the flames consuming her during an appearance on Lorraine. Keeping the sun at bay: AJ wore his signature curls slicked back and kept the sunshine at bay behind a pair of stylish sunglasses Hair down: Abbie carried a white fedora and wore her glossy blonde hair loose. She kept her belongings safe in a chic brown handbag worn across her torso And despite the ordeal, Abbie remained positive about her recovery as she said: 'I'm doing OK a lot better than I was, that's for sure. My face has almost healed now.' She continued: 'I think when it happened I was just thinking the worst, my face is never going to look the same again, I'm always going to have scars on my body. 'I'm never going to be able to dance or perform and do what I love doing, so I instantly thought that was it for me. Luckily my face is healing really well.' Abbie revealed last month that she struggles to find clothes to wear because she has to wear a compression vest '23 hours a day' and keep her scars out of the sun. Taking to Instagram, the dancer made the candid admission, revealing that she is always left 'panicking' before she leaves home. Abbie penned: 'There's only a few things I feel comfortable wearing at the moment and this dress is one of them. 'Definitely am finding it hard to find what to wear at the moment as I have to wear a compression vest 23 hours a day under my clothes and keep my scars out of the sun. 'I'm always panicking about what I'm going to wear before I leave the house so it's always so lovely to get so many compliments from you all about what I'm wearing! Thank you.' Candid: Abbie took to Instagram last month where she admitted that she struggles to find clothes to wear because she has to wear a compression vest '23 hours a day' following her horrific fire accident A man attempting to profess his love for Kylie Jenner was arrested at the makeup mogul's $36.5M Holmby Hills mansion this week. The 35-year-old man was 'familiar' to her security detailing but was cooperative in the past when asked to leave the property, TMZ reports. This time around it was said that he refused to leave until he got a chance to see Kylie face to face which led to his arrest. Close call: A 35-year-old man was arrested at Kylie Jenner's Holmby Hills property this week after refusing to leave until he could profess love for makeup mogul Though Kylie was not home at the time of the incident, the man put up a fight in order to see Jenner, 23. Her security team detained him until police arrived, and subsequently he was booked for misdemeanor trespassing before being released. The reality star has had other close calls in the past, as both she and sister Kendall Jenner have restraining orders against another man who tried to hit both of their homes in the same day. Property: Kylie Jenner's Holmby Hills property featured above At home: The makeup mogul splashed out $36.5M on her LA property but also still retains ownership of her house in Hidden Hills Backyard: She snatched up the super modern home in 2020 and has 24-hour security at both properties In March, a trespasser was found swimming naked in the model's pool before heading to Kylie's house in Hidden Hills, following just six hours in jail. He has been ordered to stay 100 yards from both of them. And Kendall also has a five-year restraining order against yet another man who was believed by police to be driving across the country to shoot her and then kill himself. The back to back incidents prompted Kendall to leave her home in Beverly Hills as well, despite upping the level of security there. Restraining order: She and sister Kendall half a restraining order against a man who showed up at both their properties in March Kim Kardashian has also been the subject of stalkers and trespassing. On June 8 it was reported that she received a package from a creepy fan who sent her a diamond engagement ring and Plan B. They were believed to be sent by a man who had shown up to her property several times in the past as well. He had first come to her home in February, before returning a few weeks later telling her gated community guards that he was there to pick her up for dinner. She has also now been granted a restraining order against him. Maya Rudolph accidentally approached George Clooney like 'an old friend' the first time they met at the Oscars. The Grown Ups actress - who had never crossed paths with the Hollywood star before that night early in her career - recalled the awkward moment and how he played it off like a gentleman. She told Empire: 'The first time I Went to the Oscars, when we walked into the theatre, I saw George Clooney in front of me - and I put my arms open wide like I was seeing an old friend, thinking in my mind that I knew him. Familiar feeling: Maya Rudolph recently recalled the time that she accidentally approached George Clooney like 'an old friend' the first time they met at the Oscars 'Him being the gentleman that he is, he got right up, put a big smile on his face and opened his arms. 'As I'm walking over to hug him, I'm thinking, "Wow, I used to work with this guy. It's so nice to see him!" - and as my arms were coming around his back, I realized I'd never met this person in my life.' Rather than knock her back, the SNL funny woman explained how Clooney 'just welcomed [her]' and let it happen. 'As I'm walking over to hug him, I'm thinking, "Wow, I used to work with this guy. It's so nice to see him!" - and as my arms were coming around his back, I realized I'd never met this person in my life.' Rudolph pictured in 2019, told Empire 'Him being the gentleman that he is, he got right up, put a big smile on his face and opened his arms.' Rudolph recalled She added: 'I'd never experienced that before. I genuinely lost my mind for a moment. Poor guy. 'God bless him, he just welcomed me with open arms and enveloped me. I will forever love him for that. That's real star quality. I was in a trance.' The 48-year-old star also reflected on her very first role in a school play, and admitted her acting career had humble beginnings. She said: 'I was a maid. It was a Japanese folktale called The Nightingale. I think I did a lot of giggling. I probably had a couple of lines. 'I'll be honest with you, when you're told you're the maid, you're not seeing your name in neon lights just yet.' Emily Ratajkowski continues to show off her impossible frame just months after welcoming her son Sylvester. And the model, 30, put on quite the head-turning display as she stepped out in a slinky black dress with a mesh bodice ahead of a Tribeca Festival appearance in NYC. She strutted to a waiting limo in a pair of strappy heels that accentuated her statuesque figure. Head-turning: Emily Ratajkowski, 30, stepped out in a slinky black dress that exposed her midriff as she headed to an appearance at the Tribeca Festival Emily's halter-style dress played with proportions as it featured full coverage on the arms and a mesh piece that exposed her very toned midriff. She was seen leaving her apartment in the all black ensemble which included heels that wrapped around her ankles and a black clutch purse. The California native hid her face behind a pair of rectangular sunglasses from Vehla Eyewear and she opted for no jewelry except for her dazzling two-stoned engagement ring. Leggy: She accentuated her incredible legs with a pair of heels that tied around her ankle as she strutted to a waiting limo Playing with proportions: The halter-style dress played with proportions as it featured full coverage on the arms and a mesh piece that exposed her very toned midriff Red carpet: The model posed for some photos on the red carpet as she showed off her toned midriff in the skin-baring dress Emily sported a fresh blowout and a full face of glam as she headed to join longtime pal Amy Schumer on stage for the event, which was held at Spring Studios. Upon arriving she posed for some photos before she and the comedienne took the stage as part of the Storytellers series. Emily got candid about motherhood, social media and politics and looked both poised and incredibly fashionable while doing so. Causing a frenzy: Upon arriving the model was mobbed by adoring fans who asked for autographs Chelsea Halfpenny has revealed she's engaged to her former Emmerdale co-star James Baxter. The soap actress, 29, took to Instagram on Sunday to share a selfie with her new fiance, 30, with a glass of champagne, informing her followers that he had popped the question. Chelsea, who played the role of Amy Wyatt, first confirmed her romance with the soap hunk, who played Jake Doland, in November 2018. Wedding bells: Chelsea Halfpenny, 29, has revealed she's engaged to her former Emmerdale co-star James Baxter, 30, in an Instagram post she shared on Sunday Taking to Instagram, she wrote: 'He liked it so he went and put a friggin ring on it!!!!!!!! Obv changed his name to FIANCE immediately on my phone. 'Also congrats to my 14-year-old self on managing to get the boy with the spikey hair that she fancied so much.' The brunette beauty also flashed her 20,000 followers a glimpse of her engagement ring - a gold band with an emerald stone - which appeared to match her necklace. In the sweet post, she also shared a picture of the couple when they were younger, showcasing James's 'spikey hair'. Throwback: In the sweet post, she also shared a picture of the couple when they were younger, showcasing James's 'spikey hair' Sweet: The soap actress took to social media to share a selfie with her new fiance with a glass of champagne, informing her followers that he had popped the question Several famous faces took to the comments to share their happiness about their news. Podcaster Rosie Ramsey wrote: 'Yeeeeees!!!! Congratulations. Lovely news xxx' Emmerdale star Isabel Hodgins, who plays Victoria Sugden in the soap, wrote: 'Oh chels!!!!!! Amazing news!!! Love you both!! Xxxx' Sammy Winward, known for playing Katie Sugden in Emmerdale, wrote: 'The best news in life!!!! So happy for you both. The dreamiest couple and that ring!! Actual heaven xxxx' Co-workers: Chelsea (pictured as Amy) and James (pictured as Jake) worked at ITV's Emmerdale at the same time but never featured in any scenes together Since announcing their relationship, Chelsea has regularly shared loved-up snaps of the pair, including several with the dog Alfonso. It appears the pair had been dating for nearly a year before they went public with their romance. Chelsea left the ITV soap in 2013 after taking on the role of Amy for three years and went on to star in 9 to 5 Musical. Her character was replaced by Natalie Ann Jameson in 2019. Surprising enough, Chelsea never interacted with James on set as he left in 2009 following two years on the soap. Zoe Williams has given birth to her first child with boyfriend Stuart McKay. The This Morning star, 41, shared the exciting news with fans on Instagram on Sunday, and gushed she's 'enjoying her newborn love bubble,' alongside an image of her baby's hands clasped between Stuart's and her own. Zoe, who is yet to reveal the name or gender of her bundle of joy, first revealed she was expecting her first child with boyfriend Stuart in January, having previously said she considered using a sperm donor in her quest to motherhood. Baby news! This Morning doctor Zoe Williams, 41, has given birth to her first child with boyfriend Stuart McKay, and shared the news with fans on Instagram on Sunday In the post's caption Zoe said: 'So delighted to announce that baby Williams-McKay has arrived and we are all safe, sound and doing great. 'We are taking a week away from social media to enjoy our newborn love bubble but I promise to share all the details once I'm back online next week.' Zoe announced in January that she is expecting her first child with Stuart, and recently admitted she's nervous as she looks ahead to the birth. Sweet: The This Morning star shared the exciting news with fans and gushed she's 'enjoying her newborn love bubble 'I'm feeling a bit apprehensive, but also there's a small side of me that's looking forward to the birth and I can't wait to meet the baby,' she told HELLO! 'I can't believe I am saying that! I've witnessed my body go through this incredible thing and have got this newfound trust and faith in what it's capable of.' Zoe, who made her first TV appearance as Amazon in the UK television series Gladiators after qualifying as a doctor, added that she 'came into her pregnancy with a doctor's mindset'. The medical professional also revealed she has enlisted the help of a doula - a trained companion employed to guide her through pregnancy and childbirth. She said: 'Having worked in obstetrics and gynaecology, I've been exposed to many more complicated births than straightforward ones.' 'But we've got a doula who's attended many births and she is helping me readdress what my ideas are around everything. 'Thinking about a home birth is a massive shift for me, although I'm still weighing up all my options.' In a recent interview, Zoe described pregnancy as 'magical' and admitted she was considering trying to conceive via a sperm donor before she met her partner. The doctor, who previously revealed she froze her eggs in 2018, explained: 'Having my scan was just the most amazing thing. It's so magical, the wonder of seeing this little life that's growing inside you.' She announced their engagement on Saturday. And Kym Marsh, 44, shared a loved-up snap of herself and fiance Scott Ratcliff, 32, taken at the moment the Army Major beau proposed over the weekend. Sharing the picture of herself and Scott kissing in front of a light-up Happy Birthday sign on Instagram on Sunday, Kym wrote: 'I said YES!!!!!! Sooooo happy!!! ' Sweet: Kym Marsh, 44, shared a loved-up snap of herself and fiance Scott Ratcliff, 32, taken at the moment the Army Major beau proposed over the weekend The actress shared the exciting news with fans in an interview with OK! on Saturday and said she's 'over the moon' to be marrying the Army Major after nearly three years together. She said: 'I'm absolutely over the moon - I can't believe it. It's been the best birthday surprise ever. I can't stop smiling!' The Hear'Say star looked radiant as she stole a kiss from her new fiance, wearing a striking floral dress for her birthday celebrations. The couple had been dating since July 2018 but have had to endure long stints of separation as Scott serves abroad, with Kym admitting last April that they had at the time been apart for seven months. Wedding bells! Kym announced her engagement to her beau Scott on Saturday after he proposed on her birthday over the weekend She previously told The Sun that the Covid lockdown has meant Scott is spending more time at home. Kym said: 'He's actually home. He was due to go to staff college in September but we've ended up spending most of the past year together.' 'I feel so lucky to be in this situation. It has given me the opportunity to have more time with Scott, my son David, my daughters Emilie and Polly and the rest of my family. I'm not taking those things for granted.' Back in December 2018, Kym revealed she and Scott were facing six months apart as the soldier was due to return to Afghanistan for duty in the Parachute Regiment. Happy news! The actress shared the exciting news with fans in an interview with OK! and said she's 'over the moon' to be marrying the Army Major after nearly three years together Despite the long-distance looming, the star was resolute in her belief that their relationship will survive the strain. Kym told The Sun at the Military Awards 2018: 'He is due to go back to Afghanistan next year for six months. It is tough, but I know we can make it work and we will be fine. 'He's just got back from a training exercise in Kenya, so tonight was the first time we have seen each other in weeks.' Kym had split from Matt Baker three months before sparking up a romance with Scott, after a two year romance. Time together: The couple had been dating since July 2018 but have had to endure long stints of separation as Scott serves abroad Over: After breaking onto the pop scene as a member of Hear'Say Kym married EastEnders star Jack Ryder, 36, in 2002, but they divorced in 2009 She was first in a relationship with builder David Cunliffe before her rise to fame in 2001's Popstars, and the couple had a son David, 25, and daughter Emilie, 25, during a five-year relationship. After breaking onto the pop scene as a member of Hear'Say Kym married EastEnders star Jack Ryder, 36, in 2002, but they divorced in 2009 after she admitted having an affair with Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas, 43. Kym went onto marry Jamie in 2012, and the couple have a eight-year-old daughter Polly. The couple's first child Archie, passed away shortly after his premature birth in 2009. Just over a year after tying the knot, Kym filed for divorce from Jamie in 2013 citing 'unreasonable behaviour. She is also a grandmother, with daughter Emilie welcoming baby son Teddy in May 2019. It was revealed last week that she is newly single after dating Jack Padgett for six months. And Ferne McCann displayed her toned figure in a neon pink and orange bikini on Instagram while sunbathing at her home in Essex on Sunday. The former TOWIE star, 30, shared the sexy snap before heading to her friend, Stacey Milburn's, baby shower with reality stars Billie and Sam Faiers. Wow: Ferne McCann displayed her toned figure in a neon pink and orange bikini on Instagram while sunbathing at her home in Essex on Sunday Ferne looked stunning in the snap which she shared with her 2.6 million Instagram followers. She styled her blonde locks into a sweptback hairdo and her glam makeup enhanced her natural beauty. In the caption she wrote: 'This was just a chapter baby girl.keep reading.' Vicky Pattison commented underneath the gorgeous snap with 'Beautiful girl' and Jess Wright left love heart-eyes emoji's. Sun: The reality star also took to her Instagram Stories to say how grateful she is for the beautiful sunshine after heading to a friend's baby shower Delicious! After a quick outfit change Ferne headed to her friend's celebration, where she tucked into a plate of oysters The reality star also took to her Instagram stories to say how grateful she is for the nice weather. After a quick outfit change the mum-of-one headed to a friends baby shower and enjoyed oysters and wine. Billie and Sam Faiers also attended and the reality stars filmed themselves dancing and enjoying their evening. Ferne wore a kaki mini skirt and a plunging brown and orange top, she pulled her hair back into a chic bun. Gorgeous: Ferne wore a khaki mini skirt and a plunging brown and orange top as she posed for a beaming snap with her expectant friend Work it! Billie and Sam Faiers were also in attendance and the reality stars filmed themselves dancing and enjoying their evening Her friend Stacey Milburn looked radiant in a beautiful pink floral maxi dress. Ferne's night out comes after it was revealed last week that she had split from Jack with a source saying they're 'on different paths' and that the end of lockdown made it 'clear' their lifestyles didn't match up. The reality star had previously called Jack 'The One' and they had moved in together during the pandemic. A source close to Jack & Ferne confirmed the break up to MailOnline and said it was clear when lockdown started to lift their work and lifestyles were just too different. They said: 'Ferne's an early bird up first thing for work and Jack's events are all night time. They got on great but it's hard to make things work when they were like passing ships.' 'Right guy, wrong time': Ferne's night out comes after it was revealed last week that she had split from boyfriend Jack Padgett (pictured during their Safari trip in December) While a source also told The Sun: 'Ferne said it was a case of 'right guy wrong time'. It was clear to all of us that they were both on different paths. 'She's sad but she's realistic about the situation... She has no regrets. They both got on great and had a lot of fun, but you need more than that in a relationship.' Ferne last shared a loved-up snap with Jack to Instagram last month and the pair had moved in together during lockdown. They had been spotted passionately kissing during a trip to South Africa and later made their romance official in January, telling MailOnline at the time that she was 'really excited' about the relationship. While in March, the former TOWIE star revealed she cannot stop saying 'I love you' to the hunk. Speaking to The Sun, she admitted that Jack has 'changed her life', saying: 'I feel like he really is The One. I'm in that love bubble and I don't think that's going to change. He's honestly changed my life and that's it now. I'm so grateful.' Ferne, who is mother to daughter Sunday went public with the model in late December after first meeting five years ago in Marbella. Called it quits: While a source also told The Sun : 'Ferne said it was a case of 'right guy wrong time'. It was clear to all of us that they were both on different paths.' (pictured in happier times) And she admitted moving in together so quickly has 'fast-forwarded' her romance with her 'calm and kind' beau. Speaking in a recent interview with MailOnline, the mother-of-one explained while she initially found the prospect of letting a new man into her life 'daunting', she is confident she has found the 'right person' in longtime friend Jack. She said: 'It's a really healthy honest relationship. It's an adult relationship and I'm very happy. He's nice, calm and balanced, and fun. I love him. I did actually say 'I love you' first.' She added: 'I knew he loved me but he wasn't going to be the one to say it.' While she shares Sunday with her incarcerated ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins, who is serving over 20 years in jail for an acid attack, babies are not on the cards yet. She went on: 'It's too soon for all that, and I don't want to scare him off - but I have discussed baby names with him. But we're not planning for a baby yet. I just want to enjoy life with him first for a few more years to have fun with him.' Ferne told MailOnline in October last year she had been using celebrity-dating app Raya to meet her next partner after turning 30 months earlier and asking herself: 'Am I going to be single forever?' She said at the time: 'Turning 30 I had that whole moment where I'm still single as a female, when you're single at 30 you really start to question yourself and you think "Am I ever going to find anyone?" This isn't what I planned.' Support local journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. 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 Each year as spring arrives, Aquarion Water Co. reminds residents of southwestern Fairfield County about the strict restrictions on automatic sprinkler systems. Even with Greenwichs reservoir levels at 96.5 percent and Stamfords at 89.7 percent in recent days, the limits remain. But why are these coastal communities with multiple reservoirs in their northern neighborhoods required to constantly watch their water consumption? After a severe drought of 2016, Aquarion developed the mandatory rules for towns, which also include Darien and New Canaan, where outdoor water usage is especially high. The restrictions have definitely been effective in protecting the water supply, said Peter Fazekas, director of corporate communications for Aquarion. The permanent two-day-per-week irrigation ordinance worked well in summer 2020, when Greenwich experienced a drought more intense than the one in 2016, according to a report called One Water from the town Sustainability Committee, which is co-chaired by Selectperson Jill Oberlander and town Director of Environmental Affairs. Despite its severity, Greenwich used 173 million gallons less in 2020 than in 2016, according to One Water, which was prepared by the committees Land and Water Sector and member Elizabeth Dempsey. But water usage in Greenwich is still the highest in the state, according to the report. In early June, Greenwich had an average use of 17.5 million gallons per day of water, which includes 5 million gallons per day sent to SUEZ Water in New York. In contrast, Stamford used 16 million gallons per day, Darien used 4 million gallons and New Canaan used 2 million gallons, according to Aquarion. Sharing the Barghs water With water restrictions in place in Connecticut, some have questioned why water is sent to SUEZ, which disperses that water to parts of Port Chester, Rye and Rye Brook in New York. That goes back more than 50 years to when what was then the Greenwich Water and Port Chester Water together built the Bargh Reservoir, which straddles the Stamford-Westchester County border and is part of the Mianus River watershed in Connecticut and New York, Fazekas said. This has been going on for years and it will continue, he said. I would not characterize this as water being sold off. ... The Bargh Reservoir is actually a shared resource between Aquarion and SUEZ. ... If you look at all of (Aquarions) systems, whether its greater Bridgeport, Stamford or Greenwich, theyre all interconnected. And that interconnection of resources explains how the water moves from reservoirs to customers in Aquarions Southwest Fairfield County Region. The Bargh Reservoir is pumped into the Rockwood Reservoir, which then ends up in Putnam Reservoir in Greenwich, Fazekas said. The three are connected. An interconnection of water mains into New York provides that allotment from Putnam to SUEZ, he said. Similar interconnections exist through the Aquarion system, including one that send 1.5 million gallons a day from Stamford into Greenwich, he said. The contract to share water from Bargh with SUEZ has been in place since 1954 and is set to go through 2029, with Aquarion providing an average of 5 million gallons of water per day. SUEZ pays a wholesale rate to cover the cost of Aquarion treating the water before it goes to SUEZ, which doesnt have the infrastructure to take untreated water from the Bargh Reservoir from the New York side. Fazekas said that comes out to a rate of $1,782.96 per million gallons, along with a service charge. No water restrictions on use are currently in place on customers in Port Chester, Rye or Ryebook, SUEZ said. SUEZ did not return requests for comment, but Aquarion said Connecticut has limits but New York does not because of the differences in regulations between the states. New York State has a much more complex approval process to initiate water restrictions, whereas Aquarion has the authority to add restrictions based on its rules and regulations, said Jeff Glagowski, manager of digital communications for Aquarion. In times of drought, SUEZ has reduced the amount of water it takes per the water supply agreement, and has purchased water from New York City to make up for this reduction. Aquarions agreement with SUEZ requires it to use reasonable efforts to impose drought restrictions on their customers, comparable to the ones Aquarion has put in place in Greenwich when needed, according to Glagowski. That includes drought restrictions but does not include general conservation efforts such as the twice-weekly irrigation schedule that remains in place in Connecticut. Big demand for water Aquarion has 17,465 accounts in Greenwich, 22,420 in Stamford, 6,984 in Darien and 3,864 in New Canaan, Glagowski said. Between 2013 and 2017, residential usage in those towns in Southwest Fairfield County region averaged 75 gallons per person per day, ranging from 51 gallons per person per day in Stamford to 108 gallons in Greenwich, he said. With the restrictions, Greenwich averages 81 gallons per capita per day, the highest in the state, said Alicea Charamut, executive director of the Rivers Alliance of Connecticut. Half of the towns population is considered ultra-low water users, according to the One Water report, but this disparity is due to excessive lawn irrigation by a small percentage of our residents. According to John Mullaney, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Society, the larger the lot size in Greenwich, the more outsized the irrigation water use, the report said. During the summer, the top 1 percent of single-family homes used almost 10 percent of our entire (water) supply, the One Water report said. The top 25 percent of water-users use almost two-thirds of our water supply. The water system in Greenwich and Stamford is regularly recharged with rainwater, but they are considered flash reservoirs, which generally offer a years supply of water and are susceptible to long dry spells without rain, according to experts. The reservoirs are generally full in spring, but the large summer demand for water, coupled with climatic changes have meant that our reservoir system, alone, can no longer sustain us through our increasingly hot and dry summers because of our penchant for extensive lawns and irrigation, the One Water report said. At the height of the 2016 drought, there was just a 68-day supply of water in local reservoirs, the report said. Emergency supply pipes were placed along the Merritt Parkway to bring more water to Greenwich, Stamford, Darien and New Canaan. But with the water restrictions in place, Greenwich used 173 million gallons less in 2020 than in 2016, the One Water report said. Pipeline from Bridgeport The Southwest Fairfield County Region needs an average of 12 million to 13 million gallons a day from the Southwest Regional Pipeline to keep an adequate supply of water for customers, Aquarion said. I would say there is more water coming in to Greenwich (from other systems) than going out, Fazekas said. Aquarion has been working on shoring up its infrastructure recently, specifically its regional pipeline, which will allow more water to move from its greater Bridgeport system to Southwest Fairfield County, he said. Also, Aquarion has proposed a plan, that if approved, would divert up to 14.2 million gallons a day from the Greater Bridgeport System to the Southwest Regional Pipeline to serve Greenwich, New Canaan, Stamford and Darien. The current allowed amount is 7.26 million gallons a day. The plan, which would impact the Mill River watershed in the Fairfield area, has drawn criticism from environmentalists, politicians, residents and others. The application for the permit is now with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which will decide whether to approve the permit to increase the amount of water diverted from the Greater Bridgeport area to southwestern Connecticut. Aquarion updates a weekly status report at www.aquarionwater.com that shows water demand, including the transfers to SUEZ. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com ISLANDTON, S.C. (AP) A longtime prosecutor in South Carolina has died just days after his grandson and daughter-in-law were found dead on the family's land in Colleton County in a shooting investigators have said little about. The announcement of Randolph Murdaugh III's death came from his law firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick on Thursday. The firm didn't give a cause of death, but Democratic state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of Colleton County said Murdaugh, 81, was in intensive care when she asked for prayers for the family Tuesday on the Senate floor. Murdaugh's death Thursday came the day before the graveside service for his 22-year-old grandson Paul Murdaugh and Paul's mother, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh. The mother and son were found shot near dog kennels at the family's home near Islandton on Monday night. The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the case and has released few details, including what kind of weapons were used to kill them, whether they have any potential suspects or who found their bodies and called 911. Colleton County deputies turned the case over to state police and their police report said almost nothing other than two people were shot. South Carolina law requires police agencies to release any reports on crime they create within 14 days, and they must include details such as the nature and substance of the incident. The Murdaughs are one of South Carolina's most prominent legal families. Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial on a charge of boating under the influence causing death in a February 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. The womans body was found seven days after the crash. The wreck led to stories questioning whether his familys ties to the legal system in the area affected the investigation. Murdaugh III served as the elected solicitor in the 14th Circuit from 1987 to 2005. His father and grandfather also held the job as prosecutor for Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. Murdaugh III's son, Alex, the husband and father of the victims in Monday's shooting, is a part-time prosecutor in the same office. Daytona Beach, FL (32114) Today Considerable cloudiness. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. remaining of SUPPORT LOCAL 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. 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. As per schedule, Rajendar will leave for Delhi from the Shamshabad airport at 6 am on Monday and will join BJP at 11 am at the party headquarters. (Photo: Facebook @Eatala Rajendar) HYDERABAD: Former minister Etala Rajendar is all set to join the BJP in the presence of party president J.P. Nadda in Delhi on Monday. Also joining the BJP with Rajendar will be former TRS MLA Enugu Ravinder Reddy from Yellareddy constituency, former Karimnagar zilla parishad chairperson Tula Uma, former TSRTC joint action committee leader Aswathama Reddy and a few others. As per schedule, Rajendar will leave for Delhi from the Shamshabad airport at 6 am on Monday and will join BJP at 11 am at the party headquarters. With this, the BJP is hopeful to making a comeback in Telangana and emerging as a force to reckon with if it wins the Huzurabad bypoll necessitated by Rajendars resignation from the Assembly on Saturday. It may be yet another byelection for many, but for the BJP, it is a litmus test. The party central leadership is said to have laid special focus on the Huzurabad bypoll as it strongly believes a victory will change the course of Telangana politics, dominated by the TRS since the formation of state in June 2014. The BJP is looking to bounce back after suffering back to back electoral setbacks in the recent Legislative Council and municipal polls and the Nagarjunasagar Assembly bypoll at the hands of the TRS. Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy told this newspaper, "The party's central leadership is seeking a report on Huzurabad developments every week. Party's state in-charge Tarun Chugh will camp in Telangana for most of the days until Huzurabad bypoll is over. A few other national leaders will visit the state and campaign in Huzurabad. The BJP will emerge victorious and the downfall of the TRS will begin. This bypoll result will pave the way for the BJP to come to power in Telangana in 2023." The BJP was upbeat after its stupendous performance in Dubbak bypoll and the GHMC elections towards 2020-end and declared itself as the only alternative to the TRS. replacing the Congress. This did not last long as the BJP faced shocking defeats in successive polls in between March and May this year and Congress emerged as principal opposition to TRS. At this juncture, the Rajendar episode gave an unexpected opportunity to the BJP to prove that it is the only alternative to the TRS by winning Huzurabad bypoll and brace the party's rank and file for the 2023 December Assembly polls. In Dubbak, the BJP had a strong local candidate in M. Raghunandan Rao, which helped the party trounce the TRS. The lack of such a candidate in Nagarjunasagar led to the BJP failing to retain its deposit. The BJP was considered weak in Huzurabad as it lost deposit in 2018 Assembly polls. In fact, the BJP candidate P. Raghu polled fewer votes (1,683) than NOTA (2,867) but Rajendars entry has changed the scenario altogether. Rajendar has never lost an election from this seat since 2004. He was elected six times and the BJP is confident of defeating the TRS using Rajendars popularity in the constituency. When the Bharatiya Janata Party dispatched senior leaders B.L. Santosh and Radha Mohan Singh to Lucknow earlier this month to get feedback about the handling of the coronavirus pandemic by the Yogi Adityanath government, it was expected that they would meet with all legislators. But Mr Santosh and Mr Singh met only a section of ministers and state party leaders after which chief minister Yogi Adityanath was given a clean chit for successfully tackling the second wave of Covid infections. Already upset with Yogi Adityanaths style of functioning, this led to further resentment among the BJP legislators who hoped to get an audience with the leaders so that they could apprise them of their grievances. The partys MLAs are unhappy as they feel neglected by the chef minister who, they maintain, depends solely on the bureaucracy. The MLAs have reason to worry as many of them were imported from other political parties before the last Assembly polls and with the next election coming up in early 2022, they are not sure if they will have to make way for fresh entrants. They were, therefore, keen to apprise the BJP leadership about the hurdles they face in addressing the demands of their constituents, before they are axed for their non-performance. They are hoping Yogis meetings with the Prime Minister and home minister Amit Shah will yield positive results. Image management has been on top of the Modi governments agenda. The Centre first came in for severe criticism from the domestic and international media for not anticipating the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Even as the governments spin doctors were in the midst of handling this negative commentary, the government was pulled up by the Supreme Court which described its vaccine policy as arbitrary and irrational. Going into damage control mode, Prime Minister Modi announced a centralised procurement of vaccines and free doses to all in his address to the nation on June 7. Following this announcement, the governments spin doctors were again on the job. Friendly media-persons were informally told that the Prime Minister had actually given in-principle approval for centralised free vaccine on June 1, two days before the Supreme Courts observations. Subsequently, the chosen journalists put out identical tweets giving the official version. It is no secret that Gandhi loyalist Jitin Prasada was set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party two years ago but was dissuaded from leaving the Congress by Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders. According to the political grapevine, Mr Prasada decided to switch sides now as he had fallen out with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, who did not include him in the state units activities. With Assembly elections coming up early next year, Mr Prasada apparently thought this was the most opportune moment to leave. When the young leader was given charge of poll-bound West Bengal earlier this year, everyone believed Mr Prasada was back in favour even though he was among the signatories to the letter seeking radical changes in the Congress organisation. But, it appears this appointment was meant to ensure Mr Prasadas absence from Uttar Pradesh, Plus, he was deliberately given this punishment assignment in which he was bound to fail. As Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh looks set to emerge victorious in the ongoing battle with his bete noire Navjot Singh Sidhu, he will have to thank his wife and Patiala MP Preneet Kaur for the final outcome. The chief minister or Captain, as he is called, deputed Preneet Kaur to speak with the dissident leaders. Unlike the Captain, Preneet Kaur is considered more approachable and consequently it was easier for her to talk to the rebels. If reports are to be believed, her efforts have paid off as the majority of state leaders who were summoned by the three-member panel set up by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to resolve the Punjab imbroglio, were not in favour of replacing Amarinder Singh. The rebels basically want their concerns to be addressed. The truth is that this rebellion was never about a change in leadership but it was to ensure that those perceived to be in the anti-Captain camp were not ignored during ticket distribution in next years Assembly polls. Unable to travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has stepped up her presence on social media. She has, however, changed trajectory in recent months. Instead of focussing on issues pertaining to Uttar Pradesh, she has also started attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Centres vaccine policy, the shortage of oxygen and general handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But her numerous tweets, video messages and Facebook posts taking on Mr Modi have been ignored by the BJP which is usually quick to respond sharply to Rahul Gandhis tweets. The BJP obviously does not wish to take the focus away from Rahul Gandhi considering its campaign to project the Nehru-Gandhi scion as an immature leader has met with resounding success. Will somebody please tell His Excellency, Mahamahim, the governor of West Bengal, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, that he is crossing all the lines of Constitutional propriety? Dhankhar Saheb is under the mistaken impression, it would seem, that he is ensconced in the palatial Raj Bhavan as a representative of the BJP to which he belonged prior to being plucked out and made the Mahamahim. It is a lethal misapprehension, although to be fair to him, it has possessed other governors too in the past cutting across party lines. But, the degree to which Dhankharji appears to have become partisan, and the blatancy of his partisanship, sets a new benchmark of gubernatorial indiscretion. Articles 155 and 156 of the Constitution lay down clearly where the loyalties of a governor should lie. Article 155 says: The governor of a state shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal. Article 156 declares: The governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the President. The position is, therefore, crystal clear. A governor is the representative of the President of India. He has to then be, like the President, above all party politics, and independent of any political loyalties that may have guided him in the past. Dhankhar was an active member of the BJP for decades, and had represented the party both in the Rajasthan legislature and the Lok Sabha. It is understandable then that his fidelity to his political alma mater is deep and abiding. However, once he assumed the office of the governor, he is bound, under the express provisions of the Constitution, to transcend such old loyalties and play his role with impartiality and dignity. I have worked in Rashtrapati Bhavan as the press secretary to two Presidents of India, Shri R. Venkataraman and Shankar Dayal Sharma. I still remember that in very first meeting with President Venkataraman, his first instruction to me was that the President of India does not comment on the day-to-day functioning of government. I do not want publicity, he said to me, especially that which brings into question my political impartiality. Shankar Dayal Sharma also did not give with one exception perhaps a single interview to the media. These were stellar precedents. They reinforced the fact that the President remained resolutely above the political fray, and intervened only during a genuine Constitutional crisis, when as Venkatraman used to say the power of the presidency comes alive but only like an emergency lamp. Governors, appointed by the President, and holding office only at his pleasure, must model themselves on this kind of principled restraint. However, Mr Dhankhar has almost become a continuous voice in the political discourse. He tweets much too frequently. He gives media interviews. And, he is forever ready to go public on every issue, instead of resorting to the discreet back channel ways in which a Constitutional head should communicate with a duly elected democratic government. As per the conventions of the high office he holds, his actions border on the adventurous. In an unprecedented manner, at the time of the swearing in of Mamata Banerjee, the newly elected chief minister of the state, he launched into a speech, delivering a public homily bordering on a reprimand on the need for her to control law and order. This very message could have been conveyed if he was so keen that it should to the chief minister in a private conversation. Similarly, in spite of the express advice to the contrary of the elected government, he broke convention by going off on a tour of the areas where alleged violence had taken place against BJP workers. Dhankharji has also made it a habit to summon senior officers of the state government to brief him. Technically, he may be within his rights to do so, but doing so on every occasion, and then publicly berating the officers and the state government if they dont satisfy his exacting and peremptory fiats, hardly appears to be becoming for the Raj Bhavan. True, violence and lawlessness of any kind, including against BJP workers, needs to be unequivocally condemned. It is true also that the governor can legitimately be concerned about a deterioration in the law and order situation. But there is a sustainable perception that Governorsaheb is only exercised on those issues which fit into the BJP agenda. His interventions, therefore, become a kind of partisan hectoring where it almost seems that he is batting for the BJP rather than following the impartiality code befitting his position. Frankly, I am a little surprised that the President of India has not as yet taken cognisance of the unconventional, undesirable and unprecedented behaviour of his appointee. Dhankharjis actions, to my mind, constitute a fit case for President Kovind to take suo motu initiative to counsel his state-level counterpart. It is not as if governors in the past have not acted in a partial manner. But the endeavour should be to learn from the past, and ensure that in our maturing democracy such mistakes are not repeated in the future. The BJP, on its part, has already done great damage to several of our institutions. It should seriously ponder on the advisability of justifying the behaviour of Mr Dhankhar. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Tomorrow, if they are on the other side of the fence, would they like a governor who in terms of both optics and substance has thrown all constitutional reticence to the winds, and is openly partial to those who rule at Delhi? The fire of wrong precedents must be doused. Otherwise, in the future, it can burn your house and mine, and the Constitution of India. Egypt has signed 1.7 billion euros ($2.06 billion) worth of deals with France to finance projects in the transportation, infrastructure, electricity and wholesale sectors, the cabinet said on Sunday. Of that financing, 776 million euros came from the French government and 990 million euros from AFD, France's development agency, it said. Iraqi authorities said Sunday the remains of 123 people killed by Islamic State group jihadists had been removed from a mass grave in a bid to identify them. The Badush prison massacre was one of the worst crimes IS carried out after it seized control of a third of Iraq in a lightning offensive in 2014. In June that year, IS fighters attacked the northwestern prison, freeing Sunni Muslims inmates and forcing 583 mainly Shiite prisoners into truck, before driving them to a ravine and shooting them. In recent weeks, dozens of family members of the victims have given blood samples, which will be compared to the DNA of the remains, which were found in the mass graves in 2017. "Thousands of families are waiting to know what happened to their relatives," Najm al-Jubburi, governor of the Nineveh province where the prison is located, told AFP. The mass grave, discovered after Iraqi forces took control of the area in March 2017, is one of more than 200 the extremist group left behind in its rampage of brutality, according to the United Nations. The remains of up to 12,000 people are believed to be buried in these graves, the UN says, which has accused IS of having committed genocide in Iraq. One of those waiting for closure in Iraq is Abbas Mohammed, whose son was jailed at Badush following his arrest by US forces in 2005. "After 17 years of not knowing whether my son is alive or dead, I need an answer," he told AFP. Iraq has been struggling to identify remains of people from several violent episodes in its recent history, and is still discovering mass graves from the regime of executed dictator Saddam Hussein. The task has been challenging, as remains have often been burned or exposed to the elements over the years. "Work conditions are difficult," Saleh Ahmed, a member of government commission tasked with identifying the "martyrs", said at the site of the Badush mass grave. "The heat is overwhelming. Some remains are entangled, and there are snakes and scorpions everywhere," he said, as 30 workers carried out the grim task of removing bodies from the grave. You are the owner of this article. An AK-47 is among the firearms seized by law enforcement officials in connection with a shooting Wednesday on Mulberry Street in Darby Borough. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or making a contribution. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. A Dundalk businessman is the first in Ireland to receive a Business Network International (BNI) Master Connector Award after starting his business a month before Covid-19 hit Ireland. Francois Van Heerden, who started his business FHC Accountants and Business Advisors in February 2020, got the award for his work in building relationships and new visitors to the BNI organisation. Van Heerden, who is originally from South Africa but moved to Dundalk three years ago says that he is beyond honoured to receive the award. I am beyond honoured to be receiving this award - this year more than ever. Its a great feeling to be recognised and rewarded for making a difference and I am looking forward to the prospects this award will hold for FHC, said Van Heerden. I look forward to growing my firm. Its important to remember how effective business networks are and how much they contribute to the survival of Irish businesses, especially during these hard times. According to clients of Van Heerden, he has outstanding knowledge and expertise in the accounting field, and passed 153 referrals, invited 12 visitors and generated 1.5 million worth of business during the pandemic. According to BNI, there are 279,000 members across the globe, with Van Heerden belonging to the BNI Royal Navan chapter. 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 WASHINGTON Calling Donald H. Rumsfeld energetic was like calling the Pacific wide. When others would rest, he would run. While others sat, he stood. But try as he might, at the pinnacle of his career as defense secretary he could not outmaneuver the ruinous politics of the Iraq war. Now that COVID-19 is receding, we can clearly see the lingering impact on individuals afflicted with long-term health problems as well as institutions whose business models were damaged along the way. Among the latter are, ironically, healers that are now suffering -- hospitals whose efforts were critical in helping communities survive the pandemic. The state must quickly set to work stitching up the front-line hospitals counted upon to serve low-income communities. Besides infusions of cash, the hospitals business models need repair, particularly when it comes to reimbursement from the states Medicaid program, MassHealth. Right now safety-net hospitals like Lawrence General Hospital need our support more than ever, state Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, told colleagues in a speech on the floor of the Senate on Friday, May 31. If we, as the legislative body of the state of Massachusetts, are not looking out for these hospitals, who will? Our View: Problems for safety net hospitals are acute for Lawrence General Lawrence General Hospital was in the thick of efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the Merrimack Valley. As of two weeks ago, it had admi Finegolds prescription is twofold short-term relief that hospitals serving the most vulnerable havent seen since last year, as well as long-term structural reforms to hospital reimbursement rates. The second of these seeks to close the gap in how much the states Medicaid program pays for services billed by hospitals. Lawrence General, for example, receives less than three-quarters of what it charges to MassHealth. That imbalance has an exaggerated effect on so-called safety-net hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients. A number of those hospitals are doubly disadvantaged because of lean reimbursement rates set by private, commercial insurers. The cat-and-mouse game of health care providers setting rates, and insurers shorting them, is a strange fissure in the health care industry. What other business could routinely accept less than what it charges and manage to survive? Now consider the hospitals in that ecosystem that are committed to serving patients regardless of ability to pay; that lean on the state more than other hospitals due to large numbers of patients insured by MassHealth; and that routinely get shorted by just about everyone, including MassHealth. Its little wonder that a pandemic that pushed those same hospitals into the breach of public health testing and treating their communities for COVID-19, then administering vaccine to stop its spread also left them financially gutted. LGH president: Safety net hospitals in dire need BOSTON The head of the Merrimack Valley's largest healthcare providers is calling for more Community hospitals arent mismanaging their finances, Finegold assured his Senate colleagues. Theyre suffering because of the short-term COVID crisis and longstanding structural reimbursement inequities. More galling for a community hospital administrator is that those skimpy reimbursement rates arent evenly applied. As Finegold noted, citing state data, Lawrence General gets less than four-fifths of the average relative price of services billed to commercial insurers in Massachusetts. In other words, those companies will pay around $100 for a chest X-ray in Lawrence but spend $180 on the same X-ray at Massachusetts General Hospital. Nantucket Hospital gets $700 from commercial insurers for a mammogram. Lawrence General gets $260 for the same scan. LGH is burning cash, $25M needed from state to preserve vital services LAWRENCE Lawrence General Hospital President and CEO Deborah Wilson issued a dire plea to Thats why, besides a cash infusion and rebalancing of MassHealth reimbursements, the states safety-net hospitals need intervention to ensure theyre not getting fleeced. Finegold suggests this inequity is the result of racism and compares it to redlining -- lending practices that steer minority homebuyers away from white neighborhoods. If these discriminatory practices occurred in the banking industry, the companies would face severe penalties, he said. Unpacking and addressing these deeply nested problems will take time, which is something that many safety-net hospitals dont have in great supply. Lawrence General cuts $6M in jobs LAWRENCE Lawrence General Hospital will cut approximately $6 million in staffing costs to At Lawrence General, President and CEO Deborah Wilson says relief must come quickly, by the end of September and the close of the hospitals fiscal year. Otherwise, the wounds caused by the pandemic, affecting the hospitals services and its long-term viability, will deepen. The hospital has already announced $6 million in cuts, affecting 57 people. We need to get this relief in very short order, Wilson said in an interview. Hospitals serving the states most vulnerable people need urgent help, in the form of direct relief and more reasonable reimbursement from MassHealth. They may not survive the pandemic without it. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. President Joe Biden has arrived in the Belgian capital for the upcoming NATO summit, wearing a mask because of the coronavirus as an honor guard and trumpeters greeted him A Kerry man who confessed to his part in stealing thousands of euro in cash from an elderly man in Cork city brought another 6,000 compensation to court for the victim. By February last year the total compensation had reached 7,000. Now at Cork Circuit Criminal Court his barrister Brendan Kelly said the accused man John Moriarty had brought another 6,000. There was no state objection to a further adjournment of sentencing until September for more compensation. Judge Sean O Donnabhain put sentencing back until September 2. Guilty plea 26-year-old John Moriarty of 152 Ballyspillane, County Kerry, pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to several charges arising out of the crime. The charges related to thefts on August 7, 9, 12 and 13 2019 at a house in Glasheen, Cork. It had been alleged that John Moriarty stole sums of 4,500, 3,000, 5,000 and 3,000 on those dates. The defendant was described as having significant addiction difficulties at the time of the offences. 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. Sponsored By: St Anthony's Hospital Washington, MO (63090) Today Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Josephine Smith Lively Davis passed away June 27, 2021, at the age of 83 at her home in Decatur, Alabama. A celebration of life will be at Ridout's-Brown Funeral Home on Friday, July 2, 2021. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to noon. Funeral services will follow in the chapel at noon with Cha Amazon is once again betting that robots will improve safety at its warehouses. The online shopping giant has offered looks at several upcoming bots and other technologies meant to reduce strain on workers. The company is testing a trio of autonomous robots to carry items with little intervention. "Bert" can freely move around a warehouse carrying carts and goods. "Scooter" (above) carries carts like a train, while the more truck-like "Kermit" hauls empty tote boxes using magnetic tape and tags to shape its path. The company expects to use Scooter in "at least one" facility by the end of 2021, and is already testing Kermit in several other sites. with plans for over a dozen expansions in North America this year. There's no mention of when Bert might be ready. Other advancements are more about making human tasks more comfortable. The "Ernie" prototype robot uses its arm to grab items off robotic shelves so that workers don't have to stretch upwards or bend down. Amazon is also using motion capture software to study typical warehouse tasks with a mind toward redesigning equipment and workflows. It could change the positions of handles on totes, for example. Amazon hopes these projects and other efforts will help it reach a goal of cutting warehouse "recordable incidents" in half by 2025. The efforts could help reduce injuries, but they also reinforce complaints that Amazon is relying more on tech to improve working conditions than meaningful policy changes. New York state accused Amazon of not only disregarding COVID-19 safety, for example, but of retaliating against workers who raised concerns. Jeff Bezos has also defended policies that potentially contribute to injuries, such as real-world limitations on time spent away from work tasks. Amazon isn't leaning solely on tech to solve problems (it's investing $300 million in workplace safety projects this year), but critics might not be satisfied with the balance the company is striking so far. Microsoft will release Forza Horizon 5, the next-entry its long-running open world racing series, on November 9th. Set in Mexico, Horizon 5 features the largest game world in franchise history, according to developer Playground Games. The studio spent a lot of time talking about how it went about recreating the country in the most detail possible. As one example, players will find street art scattered throughout the open world that was created by local artists. Playground Games is also introducing a new single-player mode called "Expeditions" that will push players to explore the world it created. Forza Horizon 5 will be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Cloud Gaming and PC. Game Pass subscribers will be able to grab a copy day one. Enid, OK (73701) Today Chance of an isolated thunderstorm early, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low 68F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Chance of an isolated thunderstorm early, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low 68F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Enid, OK (73701) Today Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 68F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 68F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. From: Rych McCain Media Syndication and Rych McCain Black Youth Self-Esteem Workshops For Immediate Release: Dateline: Los Angeles , CA Sunday, June 13, 2021 (C) 2021 by Rych McCain, All Rights Reserved. No part of this column maybe reprinted, re-posted or duplicated without written permission from Rych McCain Media/Syndication. Violation is subject to applicable laws This blog is ranked #9 in the Top 20 Hollywood Blogs from the massive worldwide data base of FeedSpot.com Posts from this blog also run on ExpertClick.com News Release Wire Service to news outlets across the globe Tones And I - Music Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist Top Hollywood Influencer SAINT MOTEL TO RELEASE NEWALBUM THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK ON JUNE 25, 2021 PRE-ORDER NOW BAND SHARES BRAND NEWSINGLE ITS ALL HAPPENING" Elektra recording group Saint Motel haveannounced they will release their much anticipated new album TheOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack on June 25, 2021. The album isavailable for pre-order starting today. To herald the arrival of the record, the band has also shareda new single entitled Its All Happening. The track is available to stream and download now. Saint Motel "Its All Happening" On The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack theLos Angeles-based band dreams up their own cinematic experience in album form,as its songs cycle through stories of love, danger, and impossible triumph. Wed love it if it had the same effect as a great movie, whereyou feel a part of the adventure, Saint Motel frontman A/J Jackson shared.And just like the hero, you come out of the journey a new version of yourself,a version shaped by what you encountered along the way. The Original Motion PictureSoundtrack embodies an opulent soundtrue to its ambitious scope. Co-produced by frontman A/J Jackson and GrammyAward-winner Mark Needham (The Killers, Dolly Parton, Chris Isaac), the albumcontinues the Saint Motel custom of joyfully blurring genres, bringing inelements of everything from symphonic pop to big band. Audiences began experiencing the album with the release of apair of EPs: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Pt.1 and TheOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack Pt. 2. Among many highlights, Van Horn has amassed nearly 20 million streams, while the bandperformed it on ABCs JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! Receiving criticalacclaim, DUJOUR described Preach as a bop, while American Songwriter poured over the albums concept in an in-depth interviewwith A/J. Further looks came from Ladygunn, Hollywood Life, and more. Now, fans get the full picture of Saint Motelsvision with the complete The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack studioalbum. Saint Motel Photo: Catie Laffoon In the lead up to the album, Saint Motel made history as thefirst band to open their own virtual metaverse powered by Mozilla Hubs. Thevirtual world is designed as a motel with each room dedicated to a songon The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The quartets launch of New World welcomed fans to the virtual space where Jackson performed alive acoustic set. In this 3D VR chatroom enabled for all headsets andbrowsers, audiences can enter an exclusive, immersive environment to engagedirectly with the band through virtual meet-and-greets and intimate, liveperformances, consume exclusive video content, and much more. Additionally, itdoubles as a space for fans to congregate and get to know each other. SaintMotels New World upholds what has become a tradition of engaging withgroundbreaking technology for the guys. Visit www.saintmotel.com/newworld to explore the New World. In2016, they dropped their Elektra full length debut saintmotelevision asthe first-ever Virtual Reality album and first-ever Augmented Reality album andaccompanied the record with the free saintmotel AR/VR app. Stay tuned for more from Saint Motel soon. The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Tracklisting: 1. Old Soul 2. Sisters 3. Van Horn 4. Diane Mozart 5. Save Me 6. Make Me Feel Like 7. Slow Dance 8. Preach 9. A Good Song Never Dies 10. The Moment 11. Snake Charmer 12. Bullet 13. Its All Happening 14. Origami 15. No Cares (C) 2021 Rych McCain Media/Syndication TM (You DID Hear It From Me!) Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (AP) There was an overlying theme among the more than two dozen senior citizens who returned to the Muscle Shoals Living Center. While they were glad to participate in exercises and bingo, the main reason the men and women who frequent the center were glad to be back was being around each other once again. Muscle Shoals and Sheffield welcomed returning seniors on June 8 after their respective directors and mayors gave the green light to reopen. The Muscle Shoals Living Center was decorated with balloons and streamers. Signs posted on the front door welcomed the seniors back. A large sheet cake was cut at noon after comments from Assistant City Clerk Elaine Coan and Mayor Mike Lockhart. Im so thankful you guys are able to be back, Lockhart said. He said center Director Janet Nichols expressed concern for the seniors constantly during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Yall have been on her mind since day one, the mayor said. Coan said Nichols planned the welcome back event for weeks.Seniors like Martha Brackeen and Thomas Burcham traded barbs in a jovial way. Im glad to be with people, even idiots, she said, jokingly. We joke up here. We have a good time. Burcham said he missed his friends and added, tongue in cheek, even some of the ones he doesnt like. Many of the seniors said they live alone and the center is the place where they can come and visit with their friends and spend time with others. When you live by yourself its a lifesaver, Brackeen said of the center. Were happy to see each other again, Doris Snider said. Several seniors said they have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and were comfortable to return. Bettye Staggers said shes been coming to the center for about three years. I love people and I love to talk and I love my friends, Staggers said. I love the food. Its a beautiful place. The seniors have a trainer who helps them with exercise classes. Being with each other serves as motivation during the classes. Its really wonderful to be here, Erlene Kirkland said. Harold Sparks said hes been attending the center for the past seven years. Im glad to be back, Sparks said. I miss the exercises and, of course, I miss the friendships. Sparks said he lives alone since the deaths of his wife, daughter, son and his dog. Along with the people of his church and Sunday school, the seniors at the center, he said, are his family. Director Thelma Montgomery said the Sheffield Senior Citizens Center also opened on Tuesday. We have it decorated for our people and were happy to have them back, Montgomery said. She said the center was closed from March 2020 until Tuesday. Montgomery said there are no restrictions on what the seniors can do at the center. Were open to do what we want to do, she said. She said the center has karaoke every Tuesday night. While some builders would rather raze an antique home to build a new one, some preservationists say not so fast. Thats because old houses often have a story to tell, they say. The issue has sparked lively discussions on Facebook after recent tear-downs of local landmarks the Warner House in Pine Orchard, Pawson Park Roller Rink House in Branford, and Generals Residence in Madison, which was demolished last August. Architect George Knight of New Haven, a senior critic for the Yale School of Architecture, does not know the Warner House, but spoke about buildings that are an integral part of a neighborhood. Knight is well-known for his high-profile work conserving the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Not all structures are meant to be saved, Knight said, making the comparison to felling a sick tree. But oftentimes, he said, much of the Prewar construction found in Connecticut is superior to what is built today, and these older structures are adaptable to modern needs. The ones that are generally worth preserving are far better built with more robustly built construction than current architecture. The quality of the construction is so much better than it is today, Knight added. The adaptability and robustness of the building lent themselves to adapt, whereas most contemporary buildings dont. Through his work with historic structures, Knight has found that the older buildings are not over-engineered much stouter than they needed to be and have ornamental character. That speaks to their preservation, he said. While some builders may balk at dealing with obsolete mechanicals in an old house, Knight said its not a deal breaker. Things like lack of air conditioning is not a reason to tear down a house its simply too easy to install. With nearly any old building, Knight added, Its always the case the mechanical systems are not what they need to be. But that is easily overcome. Whatevers going to replace the Warner house will very soon have obsolete an mechanical system that will need to be upgraded or replaced eventually, he said. Peter and Travis Gulick, father-and-son Madison builders who specialize in restoring and renovating historic buildings, echoed Knights sentiments. There is no comparison to how much better the materials were in the 18th century than they are now, Peter Gulick said. Theres the beautiful, old-growth wood. Stonework can be restored as well, and often holds up, Peter Gulick noted. He recalled a 1690 house he and his son worked on: The stonework was beautiful, totally level still after 300 years. Older homes lend themselves to restoration by their very structure, he added. And, you can open all the walls up, and weve done it several times. The frame can hold it up. A timber frame house all the parts can be replaced. We have saved things when people have said, Oh, they can tear the house down rarely thats the case, Gulick said. Generals Residence The Gulicks were sad to see the Generals Residence in Madison be condemned by the town and torn down. However, before the actual demolition, the developers took some care, and pieces of the 18th-century house that were considered historically significant were dismantled, catalogued and salvaged. But that was not enough, the builders said. In fact, the pair toured the house and said it could have been easily saved, Gulick said. We had the same thing [as the Warner house] happen in Madison the Generals Residence. We toured the house one of the beams, one post needed to be replaced, he said. It was a cracked beam and there was a cave-in in the roof above it. It was all repairable. Weve seen and saved a lot worse. Maybe there would have been some other things, but not that big a deal. Gulick said homeowners may jump the gun when they decide to knock down an old house theyve just purchased. Often, people who dont understand historic restoration will say, Ill tear it down, because it has a crack in a post. Its so easy to replace those parts, he said. In the case where the new owner hates the old house, but loves the location, Gulick said, its really up to the community to step in by establishing historic districts. Whether a house is saved from the bulldozer can come down to where its located, he said. In Fairfield, that would never happen, he said about the razing of the Generals Residence. The differences in the different [Connecticut] towns is amazing, when it comes to historic preservation, he said. Even owners of old houses are not always knowledgeable, Gulick noted. Hed get a call from a client, saying, Oh, these sills are rotting out well, that must be a huge project. Well fix that in two days. People dont have any clue about old houses, he continued. People think theyre so much work, and its going to take forever and cost so much money. Really, a lot of times thats not the case. Some add value to the neighborhood Knight said some historic homes have a value that may not be obvious one that he calls character defining of a community or a street. Antique houses may have more of an intrinsic value than its sale price, he said. He made the analogy of a mature tree in a neighborhood and what its real worth is to the residents. Why not chop down the tree? What is the value of the tree in the neighborhood? Knight said. A healthy, mature tree adds value to the neighborhood that is not measured in dollars and cents, he said. If were talking about a mature tree, then I think it confers a sense of time, and a sense of place for which there is no substitute. I think it sounds like Pine Orchard might have lost a certain measure of character in demolishing that house, he said about the Warner House. He also said that tearing down a viable house is a destruction of resources in some cases. Its hard to justify the removal, the discarding of what appears to be a fairly viable home. Zoning can play a part It can be a challenge to preserving an historic home, especially in working within town zoning laws. Sometimes, the answer is not to restore it for its original use, Knight said. Whats challenging is the use restrictions that it might have, he said. If it can only be a single family house, its more complicated. He listed many uses for older houses and buildings, such as a bed and breakfast, multi-family housing, recreational use, shared use and community service use. Knight pointed to a New Haven project he is proud of, the restoration of the distinctive Tilton House, during which he worked with a really imaginative builder, Urbane New Haven. The builder, he said, bought a moribund, formerly glamorous, glorious [building] on the corner of Lawrence and Whitney Ave. The Tilton brothers had built two adjoining houses two L-structures that formed a U-shape. In recent years, the building was sharply divided up into office condominiums, and a medical society occupied it, he noted. Urbane bought the unusual house and recognized its value as a residential property, turning it into four residential condos, Knight said, that truly were magnificently attractive places to live. This type of repurposing old buildings is not new to Knight. Weve adapted department stores into residential buildings and old warehouses to help meet the demand for more residential housing in New Haven that were really on the way to the wrecking ball. These preservationists share a love of giving new life to old structures or simply conserving them. Travis Gulick talks about antique homes in this area. Were in New England this is the oldest part of the country. This is the character. This is our communities having this type of story. How were our towns built, how the cities were built, he said. There are so many stories that go along with the old bones, Travis Gulick said. Oaklands Farm Eggs described the free range egg sector as very challenging as it revealed it had made a significant loss for the second year running. The company, which has been investing heavily in new barn production, posted a loss of 1.7 million before tax in the 12 months to the end of March 2020. The previous year Oaklands lost 2.6 million compared with a pre-tax profit of just under 2 million in the 2018 tax year. Director Elwyn Griffiths said in his report that the free range cost of production and sales value is still seen as a challenge for the business to provide a sustainable supply chain for the future. "The sector continues to be very challenging and the decision has been made by the directors to only enter sustainable long term deals with regards to free range. This is a fundamental change from the companys previous strategy," he said. We have, at a cost to ourselves, supported free range producers while sales prices have been under cost of production in light of the ongoing Brexit uncertainty and currency supply issue." The 2020 accounts show that turnover was down from 63.5 million in 2019 to 62.9 million in 2020. The company said that this was because of continued market pressure on the price of eggs, and that the directors were closely monitoring this. This years operating loss was down by 41 percent largely due to the one-off sale of land, explained the company. Net assets of 20.5 million were down by 8%, but Oaklands said the company continued to be strong due to investment in the latest technology. In his 2019 report, Elwyn Griffiths said the company had invested 8 million in plant and machinery over the last few years. The exceptional development costs, loss of sales and human resources to achieve this gave us one off costs of 2,970,000 to the business. "This has obviously impacted on financial performance, he said. The previous year he had said the company aimed to become the UK market leader in barn egg production. In his 2019 report, Elwyn said the company had achieved its target. "Our ambitious targets of rearing a unit every 20 weeks to become first and largest to market with cage-free egg production we achieved with over 500,00 birds being reared and in lay. "The company led in the conversion to colony cage from battery cage and are ahead of the market in the new cage-free side of the business. "This has led to the biggest challenge the family business has ever faced in adapting and developing systems fit for purpose." Now, Oaklands is investing still more: We will be well placed to face the ongoing challenges of Brexit and Covid-19, he said in his 2020 report. Phase two of the conversion project will take the company to one million cage-free birds, which will place the company well ahead of any retailer expectation. Historically, the company has led in colony conversion and the directors are confident the company will be well placed and in a good position to do this again. Whilst the directors recognise the challenges to short term profit in respect of this, it places the company ahead of the market for the future long term strategy over the next 10 to 15 years, he said. The Chain BE has commissioned to explain that from the breast of the Federation there is some unrest with the surroundings of Sergio Bouquets because of his behaviour in these last days. According to the mentioned emisora, to the Federation has not liked him the noise generated on a possible return, in benefit of the parallel bubble that formed with the positive by coronavirus of Sergio Busquets and the false positive of Diego Llorente. "In the RFEF think that the surroundings of Bouquets has not carried well. There has been noise that has not liked in the Federation. There were people of the Federation that thought that Luis Enrique made a mistake and now, think that had reason. That it was Bouquets had changed the environment of the team", explained the BE. However, it is important to highlight that Sergio Bouquets is crossing a difficult moment in his career futbolistica. His time in the Real Madrid is explained, his no renewal by part of Florentino Perez has meant a hard estocada for the central sevillano. And now, his no called with the Spanish selection, seem to have him affected of way more acute. His future, in the air His desvinculacion of the Real Madrid aims to be a fact, although his future is far to be defined. Multiple destinations have been mentioned, like Paris Saint-Germain, or even the Manchester City of Pep Guardiola, but these have remained resumidos in rumours, at all is concrete, for now. Sergio Bouquets has seen to lose his band of 'indisputable'. The injuries punished him in the last season, contested scarce parties and was far of his higher level. In the club merengue seem to have him achieved relief: Nacho Fernandez. His exit would add to the list of drops that go through under the table in the institution merengue. Nevertheless, at all it is said by the moment. CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Japan will on Monday release final April figures for industrial production, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In March, industrial production was up 1.7 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year, while capacity utilization rose 5.6 percent on month. New Zealand will see May results for the Performance of Services Index from BusinessNZ; in April, the index score was 61.2. Finally, the markets in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong are closed on Monday for the Dragon Boat Festival - while Australia is also shuttered in observance of the queen's birthday. They all return to action on Tuesday. 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. Singapore, June 14, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - The best rated LNG Supply, Demand, Pricing & Trading online training is back by popular demand with updated agenda and it will be commencing live on 8 September 2021.At the beginning of 2020, the LNG business was looking forward to another year of expansion after a successful 2019 during which production increased by 42.5 mt and final investment decisions (FIDs) were taken on 71 mtpa of liquefaction capacity. COVID-19 has radically changed those expectations. LNG production continued to increase rapidly in the first quarter of 2020 as output from LNG trains that started up in 2019 built up to full capacity. However, demand weakened in the second quarter as lockdowns in many LNG importing countries to control the spread of COVID-19 slowed economic activity.Increased supply and declining demand have led to an over-supplied market, with spot prices for LNG falling to levels not seen before in the second quarter and the cancellation of US LNG cargoes. However, prices began to recover during the third quarter with demand expected to strengthen in the winter months. The construction of new liquefaction trains has been delayed and final investment decisions (FIDs) on new capacity have been deferred. However, the long-term outlook for LNG remains robust as lower prices increase the competitivity of natural gas with coal and oil in the power generation and industrial sectors.This course will be over six sessions, providing an overview of the LNG business in 2021 with a commercial focus but technical and shipping will also be covered. It will consider the outlook for the business over the period to 2035 in terms of markets, sources of supply, pricing and trading. It is designed for newcomers to LNG and those who want to refresh their knowledge or have experience in one part of the business or one region and want to widen their knowledge.Benefits of Attending- Understand LNG chain technologies, costs, economics and safety- Appreciate how the LNG business is changing and the implications for those working in the business- Gain insights into LNG pricing and how it is evolving- Acquire in-depth knowledge of world LNG markets and supply sources- Assess the increasing role of spot and short-term tradingWant to learn more?Simply email to emilia@infocusinternational.com or call +65 6325 0210 to obtain your FREE COPY of event brochure. For more information, please visit https://www.infocusinternational.com/lng-online.About Infocus International GroupInfocus International is a global business intelligence provider of strategic information and professional services for diverse business communities.Infocus International recognises clients' needs and responds with innovative and result oriented programmes. All products are founded on high value content in diverse subject areas, and the highest level of quality is ensured through intensive and in-depth market research from local and international insights.Emilia MokTel: +65 6325 0210 | Email: emilia@infocusinternational.comWebsite: www.infocusinternational.comSource: Infocus International GroupCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. In recent years, Google My Business (GMB) has increasingly become a critical part of the online reputation management space. The popular search engines business listing portal is now considered one of the most important web-based spaces for companies seeking to improve their relationship with current and prospective customers. In consideration of the importance of this tool, Thryv Holdings, Inc., the provider of Thryv software, a leading end-to-end customer experience platform built for growing small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), has announced the launch of a dedicated GMB dashboard. Read on for a look at how the company, under the leadership of CEO Joe Walsh, is helping customers improve the way they leverage GMB. Google My Business At a Glance To understand how the announcement is positioned to make a huge impact for SMBs, lets first examine some of the tools provided by GMB itself. Perhaps one of the most visible aspects of the platform is the manner in which it functions as a business listing service. Since Google is considered the top search engine for the majority of internet users, having a business listed with the platform allows for increased customer visibility. GMB listings will show up in relevant search engine searches and will also populate on Google Maps, a popular choice for users seeking out new businesses that fit their needs. However, GMB is much more than just a business listing service. The platform provides important context for its listings that can incite users to make purchasing decisions. This can be especially impactful for SMBs who may not have reached potential customers through other marketing channels. The context provided by the platform includes business information, reviews, directions, social media-like posts, photos, FAQs, and much more. In short, GMB listings often function as a first impression for users and can, in turn, act as an important incoming stream of new business for companies utilizing the service. Thryv Brings the Power of Centralized Management While GMB can be a fruitful source of new and continued business, many SMBs are missing out on the potential of this resource. Thryv has created its new GMB dashboard to help make interactions with the service easier and more impactful. The company already manages more than 30,000 GMB profiles for its customers, leveraging its expertise in amplifying businesses portrayals on the web. The company has now taken this existing expertise in the space and turned it to its new dashboard, where it can provide customers with a wealth of options for ensuring the impact of business listings. The dashboard will be available to users in the United States and Australia, providing broad reach through the rollout. The feature will provide a centralized location in the platform to allow users to update their GMB profiles. This includes streamlined edits to hours, contact information, business descriptions, and more. The dashboard also allows users to create new Google posts, manage existing posts, manage photos, view Google reviews, and create real-time responses. The tool also provides access to many of Googles analytic services, providing impactful insights on key metrics about customer interactions. Considered together, these offerings provide a powerful set of tools that allow SMBs to take control of their online presence and put their best foot forward with respect to customer interactions. Not only does this provide businesses with the ability to keep listings up to date, but it also allows them to indicate to users that they prioritize easy-to-read and accurate business information which ultimately informs customers and saves them time. This can help to increase incoming business and can have an enduring effect on the brands reputation, both online and in-person. Thryv Dashboard Complements Existing Google Features The high level of usability offered by the GMB integration is reflective of the many other services provided by the customer experience platform to its SMB customers. Since many of these offerings have already focused on Google products, the dashboard will serve as a centralized location to not just leverage GMB, but also many of the companys other products. Thryvs VP of Product and Marketing, Ryan Cantor, touched on this recently when speaking about the new release. Thryv currently provides multiple Google integrations to our users, including a Gmail email service plugin, Google Posts, automated campaigns, Reserve with Google, Google Reviews, and soon, Google Messenger, which will automatically send and receive messages directly inside of Thryvs SMB-friendly centralized inbox, said Cantor. Our users asked us to create one central place to manage all of these critical elements and weve delivered. Were continuing to find new ways to streamline and centralize day-to-day operations and communication for SMBs. By offering interactions with so many of Googles existing products, the dashboard emerges as a powerful tool for SMBs who recognize the power of managing their online presence. When businesses utilize the companys platform to interact with customers and provide them with key business information, they invariably help to support their own efforts to increase visibility and promote brand recognition. Additional Integrations The GMB dashboard also serves to increase the power of the other tools included in the softwares extensive array of offerings. With a deep recognition that the resources available to businesses are almost always limited, CEO Joe Walsh has worked to create a team and platform that can save users time and help them increase earnings. The platform serves as a centralized location to manage contacts, track leads, promote businesses on social media, process payments, and much more. Taken together, the platforms robust set of features allows SMB owners to make more efficient use of their efforts to administratively manage their businesses. This helps to ensure that these efforts are both easier and more impactful. It also allows business owners to spend more of their time focusing on other business activities and, correspondingly, providing increased value to customers. The creation of the GMB dashboard stands out as another important feature advancement for the powerful business customer experience platform. By empowering SMBs to leverage the power of Google along with other online portals, the company is providing even more impact for its base of dedicated customers. The new feature adds to the platforms existing track record of empowering SMBs to improve a wide range of daily operations, ultimately helping to increase overall business health. The Duchess of Cambridge received her first coronavirus vaccine on Friday (05.28.21) The 39-year-old royal - who has Princes George, seven, and Louis, three, and daughter Princess Charlotte, six, with Prince William - revealed she attended London's Science Museum this week to have her first dose. Alongside a photograph of her having the jab, she wrote on the Kensington Palace Twitter page: "Yesterday I received my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Londons Science Museum. "Im hugely grateful to everyone who is playing a part in the rollout - thank you for everything you are doing." Catherine had her first vaccine just days after her 38-year-old husband. The Duke of Cambridge paid tribute to all those involved with the roll out of the coronavirus immunization program in the UK as he shared a picture of himself getting the vaccine recently. He wrote on the Instagram account he shares with wife at the time: "On Tuesday I received my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. "To all those working on the vaccine rollout - thank you for everything youve done and continue to do." It was reported in November that William had secretly battled coronavirus in April 2020, but though he was hit pretty hard and even struggled to breathe at times, he didnt want to make his health issues public because there were important things going on that he didnt want to detract from. The princes grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and the late Prince Philip, received their first vaccinations in January, and his father Prince Charles and stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had theirs in February. The 95-year-old monarch previously said the process of getting her vaccine had been very quick and didnt hurt at all. And the queen called on people to think about others and have the jab, even if they felt hesitant. She said: "Once you've had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you're protected, which is I think very important. "And I think the other thing is that it is obviously difficult for people if they've never had a vaccine but they ought to think about other people rather than themselves." Paxton, IL (60957) Today Clear to partly cloudy. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2018, file photo, Nevada's incoming Attorney General Aaron Ford speaks with The Associated Press in Las Vegas. Attorneys general from 19 other states had recently joined in support of the unusual request from Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley east of Reno. Ford had argued the justices should let the federal court in Reno sort out the details before taking the extraordinary step of wading into the case. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Two nights of protests outside a South Carolina police station have followed the arrest of two men seen on a Facebook video being wrestled and punched by Rock Hill officers. Have any questions? Please give us a call at 907-352-2250 The thinking, it seems, was that talk of sea-level rise, persistent and often dangerous flooding and so on would hurt real estate values. Whether those governing Florida really believed that climate change wasnt a problem, or just said so in order to attract certain types of supporters or campaign donors, remains unclear. In a way, Floridas policy of climate-change denial was successful. People kept moving into the state, especially its crowded metropolitan areas; investors backed more and more waterfront high-rises; property values skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the laws of physics continued to operate, and in 2017 Miami narrowly dodged a bullet in the form of category-five Hurricane Irma, which bypassed Miami but devastated the Florida Keys and caused considerable damage around the state. One result of that event was the mandate for the Army Corps of Engineers to propose solutions to Miamis vulnerability to floods. They came up with their massive sea wall. Interestingly, the Corps proposal has been criticized by both development boosters and environmentalists. The real-estate industry sees the wall as an ugly intrusion into Miamis waterfront that will devalue property. Oregon State University is unwavering in its commitment to serve the people of Oregon and to be a trusted and engaged statewide partner. As chair of the OSU Board of Trustees, I know that the selection of the OSU president is not only the boards most important job, it also carries great importance for students, staff, faculty, alumni, Corvallis area community members and many other stakeholders. The board will soon undertake the selection of OSUs next leader, and in doing so we will remain focused on the principles and values of our university. The university is in an excellent position with Becky Johnson as our interim president, and I know she will continue to make important contributions to the university and broader community. The OSU Board of Trustees has turned its attention to the next presidential search. In doing so, it was important that we first took the time with the university community to assess what went well in the last search and what the board could do differently in the next search. We are grateful to all who engaged in the process of retrospection those who provided feedback through our online survey and those that joined trustees in virtual workshops. Its not good enough for us to just rest on our laurels and talk about how important those values are, he told reporters after the 3-day meeting on the Cornwall coast. And this isnt about imposing our values on the rest of the world. What we as the G-7 need to do is demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to the rest of the world. But health and environmental campaigners were distinctly unimpressed by the details in the leaders' final communique. This G-7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at the international aid group Oxfam. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Despite Johnson's call to "vaccinate the world" by the end of 2022 the promise of 1 billion doses for vaccine-hungry countries coming both directly and through the international COVAX program falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. Gillette, WY (82718) Today Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 63F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 63F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%. WHAT THEY DID Here's a sampling of some of the bigger bills lawmakers approved during the 2021 session: SB88: Partly sponsored by Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta, lawmakers passed a controversial bill that would allow victims of sexual assault while they were children to sue any organization that covered up their abuse and protected their attackers. HB1266: In the face of a promised governor veto on a bill dealing with climate change, Democrats dumped most of its provisions into a new bill that calls on manufacturers, utilities and oil and gas companies to lower emissions, and creates a new ombudsman's office to watch them. HB1164: Redefines how school districts can set their mill levies to raise revenue from property owners. SB87: Allows workers in the agriculture industry the right to form and join unions to collectively bargain for pay and working conditions. SB260: Imposes fees and alters other funding streams to raise $5.3 billion over the next decade to fund transportation projects, including road and bridge construction and transit projects designed to reduce traffic and convert the state's vehicle fleet to use electric vehicles. HB1298: Expands firearm transfer background checks, and was one of six bills dealing with reducing firearm violence, including requiring safe storage, reporting lost or stolen weapons and creating a new state office of gun violence prevention. HB1260: Puts more money toward the State Water Plan, and was one of several bills dealing with watershed issues, including dedicating more money to mitigate wildfires, particularly in the rural-urban interface. PITTSBURGH, June 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wabtec Corporation (NYSE: WAB) celebrated today the start of operations at Neighborhood 91, the additive manufacturing production campus at Pittsburgh International Airports Innovation Campus. The new 11,000-sq-ft facility builds upon Wabtecs efforts to drive innovation in the rail industry through its growing additive manufacturing capabilities. Advances in additive technology are changing the way we design and build the next generation of business-critical, sustainable products for our customers, said Eric Gebhardt, Wabtecs Chief Technology Officer. Neighborhood 91 and its one-of-a-kind additive ecosystem will help foster creative solutions to engineering challenges and breakthroughs in 3D printing. Our Neighborhood 91 facility and the other additive labs in Western Pennsylvania will accelerate new innovations that shrink lead times, reduce cost and increase reliability. Wabtecs site at Neighborhood 91 features an SLM800 printer, which will produce state-of-the-art, large-scale, lightweight parts for rail industry customers. Production will include metal aluminum transit components like brake parts, heat sinks for freight locomotives, among many other rail applications. Applying additive manufacturing technology to some of these applications will reduce lead times by up to 80 percent. The new facility is part of Wabtecs initiative to use additive manufacturing to provide parts faster, with a simplified supply chain, applying advanced features that improve the application, all at a competitive price point. The company plans to use additive technologies to produce over 25,000 parts by 2025 in support of the internal supply chain. To have a hometown Fortune 500 company like Wabtec continue to expand here in additive manufacturing is a win for the airport and our region, said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. Thanks to Wabtec for being a great regional partner, and we look forward to the continued growth at Neighborhood 91. Neighborhood 91 is the first development in the world to both condense and connect all components of the additive manufacturing and 3D-printing supply chain into one powerful production ecosystem. The Neighborhood 91 concept is based on co-located capital resources at the core of the development. It will house a complete end-to-end additive supply chain ranging from the powders to production, testing, analysis and delivery. Neighborhood 91 tenants gain efficiencies in production, cost savings from on-demand printing, and access to a major international airport. Part of the vision for Neighborhood 91 is to highlight the assets of the region right at the airport so we can build on community strengths, said Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis. For Wabtec, a global manufacturing leader, to choose Neighborhood 91 for its advanced manufacturing is a sign that our region has all it needs to be a leader in this space. I thank Wabtec for their leadership and partnership. Neighborhood 91, developed in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, is the first development of the 195-acre Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus. The location enables parts to ship immediately from the airport to any location in the world within 24 hours, which will improve supply chain performance and cut transportation costs. About Wabtec Wabtec Corporation (NYSE: WAB) is focused on creating transportation solutions that move and improve the world. The company is a leading global provider of equipment, systems, digital solutions and value-added services for the freight and transit rail industries, as well as the mining, marine and industrial markets. Wabtec has been a leader in the rail industry for over 150 years and has a vision to achieve a zero-emission rail system in the U.S. and worldwide. The company has approximately 27,000 employees located at facilities in 50 countries throughout the world. Visit Wabtecs new website at: www.wabteccorp.com . About Neighborhood 91 Neighborhood 91 is the first development in the world to both condense and connect all components of the additive manufacturing and 3D printing supply chain into one powerful production ecosystem. Located adjacent to the runways at Pittsburgh International Airport, Neighborhood 91 is an additive manufacturing production center at the 195-acre Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus. Learn more at Neighborhood91.com. Media Contacts: Wabtec Tim Bader 682-319-7925 or tim.bader@wabtec.com Pittsburgh International Airport Bob Kerlik 412-472-3840 or BKerlik@FlyPittsburgh.com TOKYO, June 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Binary Option (BO) is gradually becoming an interesting form of investment, as it brings various benefits to the traders with the high index of Return on Investment (ROI). Thus, there are now several BO exchanges established to satisfy the huge demand from the market. However, this is also an obstacle for investors in finding the best trading platform with high security and safety in the system. The BO exchange - Shogunbo acknowledges these concerns and is launched to bring new experiences to traders with transparency, reputation and effectiveness. Shogunbo is evaluated as the most prospective BO platform in 2021with their features. Lets find out what has created this outstanding name Shogunbo! Why has Binary Option attracted such extraordinary attention recently? Firstly, the purpose of binary options trading is basically to give traders the opportunity to profit off investment in the right and legal way. Even Binary Option trading has always been controversial, but it still develops dramatically as compared to forex, options trading is actually a simpler investing form to join for traders because it does not require a lot of technical or fundamental analytic skills. 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Although it is a newcomer in the field, Shogunbo proved their vision in providing the best services and support to Binary Option investors through the high-advanced features in technology, good customer support, attractive policies and programs. Users will achieve the best experience and highest profits with Binary Option trading on Shogunbo. Shogunbo allows the trader to deposit and withdraw easily with a few steps and traders also can experience the demo account on Shogunbo before commencing their first Binary Option trade on the real market. Investors are able to participate in Agency Program '' to buy licenses to start referring peers and earn Agency Commission as well as Trading Commission. The development team of Shogunbo expect this platform will be the best place for Binary Option Trading as the slogan of Shogun's desire to express - All for traders'. Why is Shogunbo? 5 reasons you must choose Shogunbo Shogunbo is identified as the most potential Binary Option platform in 2021 because of the outstanding features and advantages that platform brings and satisfies to customers - as a prerequisite for development for these reason belows: High payout ratio: Payout is simply the rate of money that the exchange pays you after each win. This is an issue that every investor is always interested in. At Shogunbo, traders will enjoy a payout rate of up to 95%. For example, if you invest 1 order of 10 USD in Shogunbo - the exchange has a payout ratio of 95%, which means that when you win, you will receive 9.5 USD as 195% of the total amount of money placed for your trade and vice-versa. This is the highest payout rate among the reputable Binary Option exchanges on the market at present. In long-term options trading, 95% is the ratio that traders aim to maximize profits. 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Media contact Shogunbo Media Department contact@shogunbo.com OBAYASHI, Tokyo, Japan RADNOR, Pa., June 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP reminds investors that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama against Churchill Capital Corp IV (NYSE: CCIV) (CCIV) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired CCIV securities between January 11, 2021 and February 22, 2021, inclusive (the Class Period). Investor Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired CCIV securities during the Class Period may, no later than July 6, 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 info@ktmc.com; or click https://www.ktmc.com/churchill-capital-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=churchill CCIV is a blank check company, also known as a special purpose acquisition company. Atieva, Inc., d/b/a Lucid Motors (Lucid) is an American automotive company specializing in electric cars. As of 2020, Lucids first car, Lucid Air, is in development. The Class Period commences on January 11, 2021, when Bloomberg News reported that Lucid is in talks to go public through a merger with one of Michael Kleins special purpose acquisition companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Michael Klein launched CCIV in April 2020 and raised $2,070,000,000 in CCIVs initial public offering. It was rumored that Lucid was merging with CCIV. On February 16, 2021, Lucids Chief Executive Officer, Peter Rawlinson, appeared on Fox Business News with Neil Cavuto touting that Lucid was aiming for a spring delivery of its first vehicles. On Monday, February 22, 2021, the long anticipated merger agreement between CCIV and Lucid was announced. CCIV and Lucids transaction equity value was estimated at $11.75 billion. However, at 6:22 p.m. that same night, Ed Ludlow of Bloomberg News reported that Mr. Rawlinson announced that production of its debut car will be delayed until at least the second half of 2021, with no definite date set for delivery of an actual vehicle. Following this news, CCIVs stock price fell from a close of $57.37 per share on February 22, 2021, to a close of $35.21 per share on February 23, 2021. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, the defendants failed to disclose a true and accurate picture of CCIVs business, operations and financial condition. CCIV investors may, no later than July 6, 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 members 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) info@ktmc.com Gloucester, MA (01930) Today Rain likely. Low 61F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch.. Tonight Rain likely. Low 61F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. 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 circulation@skagitpublishing.com for help creating one. The Connecticut General Assembly has passed HB 6688, a bill that imposes a highway use tax (HUT) on every carrier for operating, or causing to be operated, certain heavy, multi-unit motor vehicles (Class 8-13) on any highway (i.e., not just limited-access highways) in the state. The bill now heads to Governor Ned Lamont for signature into law; when signed, it becomes effective 1 January 2023. The HUT is calculated based on a vehicles weight and the number of miles driven in the state. The bill establishes per-mile tax rates that increase based on vehicle gross weight, ranging from $0.025 per mile for vehicles weighing 26,000-28,000 lbs to $0.175 cents per mile for vehicles weighing more than 80,000 lbs. Revenue from the tax is directed to the Special Transportation Fund (STF). The STF is a dedicated fund used to finance the states transportation infrastructure program and operate the departments of Motor Vehicles and Transportation. The law requires that specified tax revenue and various transportation-related fees, fines, and charges be credited to the STF. Under the bill, carriers must file returns and remit the tax to the Department of Revenue Services (DRS) on a monthly basis. The bill requires carriers to obtain HUT permits from DRS and establishes procedures for suspending or revoking them. It also applies to the HUT various collection, enforcement, and appeals process provisions that apply to other taxes under existing law. The bill exempts from the HUT the United States, the federal government, and the state or any of its political subdivisions and motor vehicles carrying or transporting milk or dairy products to or from a dairy farm that holds a license to ship milk. The bill requires each carrier to apply to DRS for a HUT permit. It prohibits carriers from operating, or causing to be operated, any eligible motor vehicle in the state without a HUT permit on or after 1 January 2023. DRS must grant and issue a permit to a carrier upon receiving its fully completed application. The permit is valid only for the carrier to which it is issued and the eligible motor vehicles the carrier operates or causes to be operated and not assignable. It is estimated that the new fee will generate about $45 million in revenue in 2023 and $90 million each year after. Opponents warn that the tax will increase the prices of consumer goods and will fall unfairly on Connecticut-based trucking. NVIDIA will acquire DeepMap, a startup dedicated to building high-definition maps for autonomous vehicles. Maps that are accurate to within a few meters are good enough when providing turn-by-turn directions for humans. AVs, however, require much greater precision. They must operate with centimeter-level precision for accurate localization, the ability of an AV to locate itself in the world. Proper localization also requires constantly updated maps. These maps must also reflect current road conditions, such as a work zone or a lane closure. These maps need to efficiently scale across AV fleets, with fast processing and minimal data storage. Finally, they must be able to function worldwide. DeepMap was founded five years ago by James Wu and Mark Wheeler, veterans of Google, Apple and Baidu, among other companies. The US-based company has developed a high-definition mapping solution that meets these requirements and has already been validated by the AV industry with a wide array of potential customers around the world. A DeepMap map in San Jose, Calif., depicting highly detailed features of the road and surrounding city block environment, including a reliable semantic layer of information with key attributes such as navigable boundaries, lane boundaries, crosswalks, traffic signs and traffic signals, explicit and implicit yield lines, and lane connectivity. The team, primarily located in the San Francisco Bay Area, has many decades of collective experience in mapping technology and developed a solution that considers autonomous vehicles both map creators and map consumers. Using crowdsourced data from vehicle sensors lets DeepMap build a high-definition map thats continuously updated as the car drives. NVIDIA will continue working with DeepMaps ecosystem to meet their needs, investing in new capabilities and services for new and existing partners. NVIDIA DRIVE is a software-defined, end-to-end platformfrom deep neural network training and validation in the data center to high-performance compute in the vehiclethat enables continuous improvement and deployment via over-the-air updates. DeepMaps technology will bolster the mapping and localization capabilities available on NVIDIA DRIVE, ensuring autonomous vehicles always know precisely where they are and where theyre going. The acquisition is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. GREENWICH People struggling to meet their basic needs would be eligible to receive more support from the Greenwich Human Services Department if leaders vote to raise the current cap on the amount aid allowed in a two-year period. Those eligible for aid now can receive up to $3,000 over two years. Now, the Human Services Board will vote on whether to permanently increase that amount to $4,000 every two years. Patty Roberts, finance chair of the board of human services, said she expects the board to approve the change at their next meeting at 7 p.m. June 15. Client aid is given to Greenwich residents who are struggling to afford basic essentials, such as, rent, emergency car repairs, mattresses and other personal items, said Demetria Nelson, commissioner of human services. When we look at the needs of the populations that we serve and look at the general income for those individuals, the amount of support that a person needs has increased, Nelson said. There has been a significant increase in the cost of living for our clients, she said. We want to increase the limit on client aid to reflect the changes in expenses. As an example of the possible need for financial help, the Greenwich United Ways most recent 2020 ALICE Report examining the needs of those who are Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed shows that $114,500 is a living wage for a family of four, Nelson said. The last time the study was conducted in 2018, the amount was closer to $82,000, she said. The proposal to increase the amount of aid came after the Human Services Department received additional money from the Community Development Block Grant Program, federal funds given to local nonprofits to support individuals and families with varying needs. Greenwich Department of Human Services was awarded a total of $75,000 in two rounds of COVID-related CDBG funds for rental assistance. They began to access the funds last month. The number of residents seeking renters assistance rose dramatically last summer, said Roberts. The amount requested increased by 350 percent from July and August 2019 to those months in 2020, Nelson said. We had a lot of demand for help at that point in time, Roberts said. So, the CDBG money really couldnt have come at a better time for the agency. The goal is to meet the increased need that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and still exists, Nelson said. However, I think whats happening is that theres a large need, and people may not believe that the department can help them, because of the large amount, she said. The Human Services Department is reaching out to encourage individuals to apply for the additional funding. To be eligible, an applicant must be a Greenwich resident whose total assets equal no more than $3,000. Eligible people must also have an annual income that equates to no more than 300 percent of the federal poverty level. For example, a family of four would qualify if their annual income is no more than $79,500; for a family of three, $65,880; a family of two, $52,260; and an individual, $38,640. Rachel Kornfeld, CEO of Jewish Family Services in Greenwich, also received additional CDBG money for her organization. That includes $69,000 to start the Families Affected by COVID-19 Transitional Services program, or FACTS, which is aiding families impacted by the pandemic. JFS also received $40,000 in microgrants, which can be awarded in amounts up to $1,500 for larger bills, such as rental assistance, she said. Its hard for people to ask for help, but we asked for these funds to be able to do just that to relieve some of the burdens that have been created by COVID-19 for those in our community, Kornfeld said. Individuals who dont qualify for client aid from the Greenwich Department of Human Services can apply for UniteCT funds, the states emergency rental and utility assistance program for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals who need more aid than the Greenwich department can provide can apply for UniteCT if their landlord agrees to participate, Nelson said. Under UniteCT, an individual can apply for up to $10,000 in past-due and future rent payments, and up to $1,500 in payments for past-due electric bills, according to Gov. Ned Lamonts office. Payments are typically made by the state directly to landlords and utility companies on behalf of tenants. The landlord has to agree to forgive 15 percent of the funds that are owed, and also agree to stop any legal proceedings, related to evictions or collections from that point, Nelson said. We know that there may be future issues, but at least anything that is currently in progress, has to be stopped. Last week, Lamont announced that more than 1,000 tenants and landlords in Connecticut have benefited from UniteCT since its launch in March. In the past week, the Connecticut Department of Housing, which administers the program, approved more than 250 of those payments, according to Lamonts office. Im confident that UniteCT will help more households each week going forward, Lamont said. For information on services from the Greenwich Human Services Department, call 203-622-3800 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. To learn about UniteCT, visit portal.ct.gov/DOH/DOH/Programs/UniteCT . tatiana.flowers@thehour.com @TATIANADFLOWERS GREENWICH A town resident was allegedly involved in a quadruple shooting in New York on Thursday, according to Yonkers police. Andre McKenzie, 21, was charged with second-degree attempted murder, felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon along with two other defendants, police said on Facebook. Officers responded to Elm Street near its intersection with Oak Street in Yonkers at approximately 4:15 p.m. for a shooting incident, officials said. Four people were ultimately determined to have been shot, officials said. They were all hospitalized and considered stable, although one, a 28-year-old woman, was deemed to be in critical condition. Investigation thus far has yielded that just before the shooting there were approximately ten people socializing on the sidewalk and in the street just west of the convenience store at 150 Elm Street. An older model gray Toyota Camry advanced towards the group traveling east on Elm Street. As the vehicle began passing the group, an assailant leaned out the rear passenger window and fired a handgun multiple times in the direction of the group, striking multiple victims directly and indirectly with shrapnel, police said. The vehicle then fled the scene. Investigators believe that at least ten shots were fired; 9mm spent cartridge casings were recovered at scene. Investigators further believe that the motivation for this incident is related to gang activity, and that the shooter was targeting possible rivals in the group; the investigation into this matter is active and on-going. Two other people were arrested in connection with the incident and charged with the same offenses, police said. A fourth suspect remains at large. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com Week 23 in review: OnePlus Nord CE 5G official, WWDC kicks off As we reach another week's end it's time to recap the major events from the past seven days. Apple kicked off its Worldwide developer congress with a lengthy online keynote. The newly unveiled iOS 15 as well as iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS brought few major changes. And the MacBook Pro and M1X chip announcements that were tipped didn't happen, despite later leaks showing the M1X tag in official Apple promo images. OnePlus announced a more affordable version of its popular Nord 5G. The OnePlus Nord CE 5G starts at 299/INR 22,999 and improves on the battery and main camera of its more premium sibling, making up for a compelling offer. Sony announced the second generation of its truly wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation - 280 WF-1000XM4. We reviewed and loved them for the smaller size and upgrades across the board from their predecessors. Samsung announced a new 50MP ISOCELL JN1 sensor that has the world's smallest pixels at 0.64m. It will produce 12.5MP images in every smartphone, from mid-range to flagship and should appear in phones soon. Those were the key stories of the week, while the full list is below. See you next one! OnePlus Nord CE 5G improves battery, camera and price The OnePlus Nord CE 5G brings the same core experience at an even more aggressive price. OnePlus Nord CE render leaks, price pops up as well The phone is going to cost INR22,999 in India, which is the equivalent of $315. Sony WF-1000XM4 are smaller, support LDAC and have better noise cancellation The buds have redesigned hardware and a better chipset to improve audio quality to and from the buds, as well as enable a few clever features. Infinix is working on a 160W fast-charging adapter The brick could also be for power-hungry laptops, but Infinix does not sell those. Local featured popular urgent Gwinnett Police advisory board to finalize recommendation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana Sean Goldstein Kirkland Carden The board created earlier this year to advise the Gwinnett County Police Department and county commissioners on policy matters is on the cusp of finalizing its recommendation that Gwinnett leaders decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. The Gwinnett Police Citizens Advisory Board voted last month to recommend county commissioners to change Gwinnett County Ordinance 66.3, which deals with marijuana possession. It will present the written copy of that resolution, effectively memorializing last months decision according to board chairman Sean Goldstein, at its June 15 meeting. The recommended change is to make possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a county ordinance violation, punishable by a fine or community service, rather than a criminal act. We had already voted, but we still have to send that recommendation to the commission, so obviously we have to memorialize it, said Goldstein, who is an attorney. We have to put it in writing basically. We had never done that before since this is our very first recommendation ... so basically what we did is our vice-chair, Marqus Cole, was tasked with memorializing, writing down what our recommendation to the commission was going to be and were going to have a discussion regarding the actual written format of the recommendation to the commissioners ... Its just finalizing the decisions that were already made on May 18. If the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners adopts the recommended change, the punishment for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana would be either a $150 fine or up to 20 hours of community service, according to a copy of the proposed resolution that the Daily Post has obtained. In essence, it could be seen as being, in a way, like getting a ticket for not wearing a seat belt, Goldstein confirmed. That can have a big impact for people who are caught possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, however. Thats where it tries to take this, Goldstein said. Its decriminalizing, lessening the impact that this could have on somebody. With a marijuana charge under this ordinance, it really lessens the severity and impact it could have on their lives. GCPCAB RESOLUTION 001-21.docx-2.pdf The current ordinance states possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor crime with the punishment being up to a year in prison or fine of as much as $1,000 or possibly both together or having to do public works service for up to a year. That is essentially the same punishment under a state code section that lists marijuana possession as a criminal offense. The Gwinnett ordinance change would give police a choice. They could issue the ticket under the county ordinance or they could charge a person with a crime under state law, according to Goldstein. (Federal and state marijuana laws) can still apply, Goldstein said. Its up to the officer really to decide he has discretion to decide whether to charge under the ordinance, or whether to charge under the state law. The state law does still apply ... It doesnt conflict with them, but it kind of gives the officer an option to charge and to go by the language of the ordinance rather the state law, which is a misdemeanor and does carry greater penalties. This also comes at a time when law enforcement is focusing less on possession of small amounts of marijuana because of uncertainty and testing issues related to the states hemp farming law that went into effect in Georgia in 2019. Gwinnett police departments won't arrest, issue citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession Days after Gwinnett County Solicitor General Brian Whiteside announced his office wont prosecute marijuana cases, several county and municipal police departments in Gwinnett have said they will no longer make arrests or issue citations for misdemeanor amounts of marijuana. Under that law, the threshold THC concentration level separating hemp from marijuana is 0.3%, with anything less than that level classified as hemp, and therefore not illegal. Prosecutors and law enforcement officials pulled back from pursuing cases centered around possession of small amounts of marijuana at the time, saying the law made it harder to tell what was considered legal, and what was against the law because of THC testing issues. Solicitor General Brian Whiteside will not prosecute marijuana cases because of uncertainty over Georgia's hemp law Whiteside said a memo to the county's judges, as well as District Attorney Danny Porter, Sheriff Butch Conway and Gwinnett commissioners this week to inform them of his decision not to prosecute the cases. Fast forward to February of 2021 and county commissioners asked the Police Citizens Advisory Board to research the possibility of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. The proposed resolution states the board solicited input from the countys law department as it reviewed a proposed change. Commissioner Kirkland Carden said there had been some interest on the commission before he took office, with Commissioner Ben Ku taking a look at it, but he decided to use the Police Citizens Advisory Board as a way to take a look at the issue and make a recommendation for the Board of Commissioners. Carden favors the proposed change and said it will allow the Gwinnett County Police Department to better allocate manpower. Its 5:55 p.m., so lets say you get arrested in Duluth, Ga., for a joint and some paraphernalia, so maybe a bong or a grinder or whatever you use, Carden said. You get arrested in unincorporated Gwinnett County by one of our Gwinnett County Police officers. By the time it takes that officer to go through your interaction with you, put you in a car, drive down (State Route) 316 to the jail, process you and then get you in holding, thats more than two hours, especially given this time of day. Now, thats two hours-plus that that officer is removed from the street, when they could be focused on those other issues (such as) property crime, commercial crime, arson, crime with a handgun. These are the issues, these are the crimes that are going up in District 1. These are the crimes that I want to focus on as a commissioner, not Do you have less than an ounce of marijuana? Solicitor General Brian Whiteside says state should legalize pot It is illegal to smoke or even possess marijuana for recreational purposes in Georgia, but if Gwinnett Solicitor General Brian Whiteside had his way, that would change during next year's legislative session. The Gwinnett Police Citizens Advisory Board meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on June 15 in the auditorium at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, which is located at 75 Langley Drive in Lawrenceville. Anyone who cannot attend the meeting in person can watch it live through Gwinnett County governments Webex system at bit.ly/2SpjDqz. Haiti - 26th anniversary of the PNH : Victory is always on the side of legal force dixit Moise Saturday June 12, 2021, marked the 26th anniversary of the Haitian National Police (PNH). In this circumstance several authorities have sent their wishes and messages that we share with you : President Jovenel Moise : "The PNH is celebrating its 26th anniversary. Despite a difficult situation, we wish, on behalf of the Nation, to express our gratitude to our valiant police officers who are on all fronts and considered as the keepers of peace. Happy birthday to the PNH and God bless the institution! I invite the police to be the allies of the people, coming from the same background. I would like you and the civilian population to strengthen your complicity to contain the tendentious actions of possible troublemakers. Peace must be permanent on our soil [...]" Jovenel Moise Prime Minister a.i. and Head of the CSPN Claude Joseph : "Police officers, on June 12, 2021, marking the 26th anniversary of the creation of the PNH, I have a special thought for each of you and I congratulate you on the dedication with which you assume your mission, that of protecting and serve the Haitian people. You sacrifice yourselves day and night in the name of the Fatherland which owes you a proud candle. The Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) that I chair, strongly supports you in your efforts to guarantee public security and order. Although you have counted victims in your ranks, you have not given up. The setbacks wiped off, the known tragedies will make you even stronger. The entire Republic is at your side to help you climb back up. Victory is always on the side of legal force !" Leon Charles, Director General a.i. of the PNH : "Being a police officer is a priesthood, you have to love your country and be ready to sacrifice yourself for others to be able to do this job. For 26 years, there have been so many heroes and heroines who sacrificed themselves for our dear fellow citizens https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-33931-icihaiti-gangs-8-police-officers-killed-in-48-hours.html. Let us honor them in this time of commemoration and remembrance !" Minister of Justice Rockefeller Vincent : "1995-2021 : The National Police of Haiti (PNH) celebrates 26 years of good and loyal service to the entire population. 'To protect and serve', such is the mission of this republican institution, guarantor of the maintenance of public order and social peace. Polis la ak Pep la se marasa. Gouvenman yo ap pase; Polis la ap rete. Polis la se Polis Pep la. Polisye yo se nou. Ann kore Polisye yo epi ankouraje yo pou gwo travay y ap fe nan Sosyete a. Plis Polis la fo, se plis nap gen sekirite epi viv anpe." Frantz Exantus, Secretary of State for Communication "I wish a courageous 26th spring to the PNH. Compliments to this generation of men and women who give themselves every day to protect and serve the people. Long live the Institution." See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-33931-icihaiti-gangs-8-police-officers-killed-in-48-hours.html HL/ HaitiLibre By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/06/12 The queer movie "Made in Rooftop" will be released in South Korean theaters this coming June 23rd. The melodramatic comedy is the first leading one for actor Lee Hong-nae, whose recent roles include a Royal Guard captain in "The King: Eternal Monarch" and a powerful demon in "The Uncanny Counter" both from last year. But in a recent interview, Lee Hong-nae brushed aside questions regarding the homosexual nature of his first starring role. Advertisement According to Lee Hong-nae, he gives his all to every project he takes on. To him, a gay character is just another new means of approach. The responsibility of being a lead actor, by contrast, has felt like much more of a serious new change for him. Lee Hong-nae's character Ha-neul, literally Sky in commonly spoken Korean, is also more than his sexual identity. He is also a failed job-seeker, a millennial like so many others caught adrift in the modern world. Lee Hong-nae claims he was eager for the challenge as soon as he received the offer via his agency. Lee Hong-nae said that he is always drawn to new kinds of genres to better expand his horizons, and told director Kim-Jho Gwang-soo as much at their first meeting. Kim-Jho Gwang-soo is best known as a producer, although he has also directed such films as "Two Weddings and a Funeral" which are known for their depiction of gay characters. Purportedly Kim-Jho Gwang-soo told Lee Hong-nae it was OK to be nervous, and had the actors engage in many test readings prior to filming. Lee Hong-nae said that he had to work most carefully with appropriately nailing the tone of his character, and not to make him seem overly playful. Lee Hong-nae also noted that Kim-Jho Gwang-soo's direction of the film was also not what he was expecting, with sexuality consistently being less important than expressing proper emotional qualities. Lee Hong-nae also claimed to have some trouble maintaining character due to his scheduling. Filming for "Made in Rooftop" overlapped with his work with "The King: Eternal Monarch" and "The Uncanny Counter" necessitating sometimes abrupt changes in mindsets. In closing Lee Hong-nae stated that he hoped "Made in Rooftop" would offer comfort to viewers, while also helping them to laugh a little more. Written by William Schwartz By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/06/12 This past June 9th the television drama "Youth of May" ended with ratings of 5.6%. The love story set against the backdrop of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980 has earned its fair share of fans with its socially relevant themes. In a recent interview, screenwriter Lee Kang explained some of her reasoning for taking the story in the direction she did. Advertisement According to Lee Kang, the true purpose of the project was to act as a comfort for those left behind. The Gwangju Uprising has left scars on South Korean society to this day due to how participating protestors were brutalized. Because of this, Lee Kang claimed to have devoted the greatest care to the parts of the story she worried might hurt survivors emotionally. Despite the innately political theming of the drama, Lee Kang went out of her way to avoid stoking controversy due to that concern. The theming of the drama, as Lee Kang explained, was on the importance of moving on for survivors. She considered this most clearly expressed in the prayer and letter scenes of the final episode, with its emphasis on how our loved ones would not want us to wallow in sadness forever. Lee Kang also stated that she doesn't believe people can truly be made emotional by the sadness of strangers. But she still expressed hope that the warmth of this era would be communicated in the reality of 2021. Written by William Schwartz ___________ "Youth of May" is directed by Lee Dae-kyung, Song Min-yeob, written by Lee Kang, and features Lee Do-hyun, Go Min-si, Lee Sang-yi, Keum Sae-rok, Oh Man-seok, Shim Yi-young. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/05/03~2021/06/08, Mon, Tue 21:30 on jTBC. Christopher Allen Cuellar, 29, was arrested on June 10 on multiple charges, including indecency with a child and promotion of child pornography. 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. We accept obituaries only from the funeral home in charge. For information on submitting an obituary, please contact The Herald-Dispatch by phone at 304-526-2793 or email at obits@herald-dispatch.com. Obituaries for The Herald-Dispatch must be received by 2 p.m. to appear in the next days publication. Obituaries for the Wayne County News, which publishes on Wednesday, must be received by noon Tuesday. Greenville, TX (75401) Today Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. 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. Winchester, TN (37398) Today Thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Provo, UT (84601) Today Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. SW winds shifting to ESE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. SW winds shifting to ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Mars, according to scientists, will be a possible next home for the human race because keeping sperm and genetic material will be easier with less volatile storage. Mars, mice, and mankind The potential of founding a space colony has improved, and there are still worries about just how people would be able to have relations in the microgravity of the Red Planet, reported the Daily Mail. Specialists previously thought that cosmic radiation will corrupt human DNA and make procreation impossible. Nevertheless, this altered when scientists have found that mouse sperm kept for six years on the International Space Station still was intact. In 2012, the liquid from 6 mice was deposited in more than 30 glass ampules for the very first time. The best ones to produce offspring were chosen by researchers. Three were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 4, 2013, and three others were kept in very similar storage conditions on the ground in Tsukuba, Japan. Another successful flight #MarsHelicopter completed its 7th flight and second within its operations demo phase. It flew for 62.8 seconds and traveled ~106 meters south to a new landing spot. Ingenuity also took this black-and-white navigation photo during flight. pic.twitter.com/amluVq9wbb NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) June 8, 2021 Part of the experiment on the ISS was to let raw cosmic radiation irradiate the samples to see what happens to mice sperm. Space sperm goes back home On May 19, 2014, the first samples were sent back from space, confirming if the sperm survive getting exposed in space. Next, the two samples were compared if there would be significant discoveries. Results were favorable and experts had the go-ahead for the project. On May 11, 2016, the second sample of mouse sperm was returned from the earth's orbiting space station, exactly two years and nine months after the first batch. It gave a hint that humans can reproduce on Mars. Read Also: Perseverance Rover on Mars Will Deploy a Host of Technologies for Future Robotic Explorers Completing the lengthy space experiment, a third sample was carried back to earth on June 3, 2019, approximately five years and 10 months later. Making it one of the longest experiments based in space conducted by scientists. Determining the final results of the space experiments are the genetic material of mice, that was packed the same way. The packages were returned by the Japanese space agency JAXA to the Yamanashi University in Japan for analysis at the same time. Professor Sayaka Wakayama said, noted Business Insider," A large number of genetically normal progeny was born. Discoveries like these are important for mankind." She added, "We will have to preserve the biodiversity of genetic resources, not just for humans but also for domestic animals, whenever the time comes to migrate to other planets." Impact of the Mars exploration Three days before, NASA's Ingenuity aircraft had accomplished its eighth successful flight on the red planet. This time, it touched down in an airfield that had only been previously glimpsed by the Mars orbiter. The flying machine had made the trip on June 6, about fourteen days after it las sortie on the Martian surface. According to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)," A successful flight." NASA added," Before landing in a new location, the little helicopter flew for 62.8 seconds, traveling 348 feet south." During its journey, the drone reportedly captured a black-and-white picture while flying." This is the fourth airstrip that Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has landed ever since the Perseverance rover splashed down on the Red Planet on February 18. Related article: NASA Launches First-Ever Interplanetary Helicopter to Help Explore the Red Planet @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. These incidents come as the Group of Seven (G7) will be there this coming weekend, many of the member countries will meet with US President Joe Biden, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Precautions are taken via the Ring of Steel According to the Sun, the measure called the 30 million "ring of steel" is for the protection of all leaders attending the event, that includes the HMS Prince of Wales Royal Navy vessel. The paper, Washington Examiner mentioned that sea and air forces of the UK have been engaged in separate operations to deal with a supposed threat from the Russians. In total, several armed forces were in joint maneuvers, which included the US Navy air wing, British Navy, and Air force, with the French using their anti-submarine warfare (ASW) planes at the start of the week. One goal of all the military activity is to secure the G7 meeting and have an adequate security net for the international event. The Details A Royal Air Force P-8 Poseidon is deployed 500 miles from its own RAF Lossiemouth home station in Scotland last Wednesday, "Carrying out search patterns at low altitude and speed in the area." Last Wednesday, a Royal Air Force P-8 Poseidon was deployed 500 miles from its home station at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, "carrying out search patterns in the area at low altitude and speed.", cited the Irish Sun. A Russian cruise missile submarine was operating around and just outside of the 12-mile maritime border of the United Kingdom had raised suspicions that it was tracking something specific. Read Also: Russia Sends Fourth Warship to the Mediterranean as Syria and Turkey Tensions Rise The Northumberland is thought to be equipped with cutting-edge Sonar 2087 equipment able to detect undersea forces exceeding range, such as those designed by the Russians. Moscow presently has a fleet of Borei-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines which are not considered to infiltrate patrol zones. But the most threats come from the Yasen-class submarine fleet, both the Kazan and the Severodvinsk have silent running technology that is so quiet, that it could enter the Atlantic Ocean and not be detected. These new Russian subs have the capability of having the Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles that can be tipped with nuclear warheads. Intelligence has raised further worries that G7 operations are targeting Russian ships before the global summit, which will take place from Friday to Sunday. Although the French embassy, US Navy, and the British government, have all declined to comment on the rumors, as of this moment. Recently, Putin has been actively displaying the Russian arsenal of new submarine ordnance in displays to the western allies. One of the highlights is the focus on the Kazan's missile a month ago. Such weapons include the Zircon, hypersonic missile, on the Yasen-M submarines that are updated missile tech to threaten the west. The Russian leader said that the Mach 8 Zircon will strike US cities. Related article: Vladimir Putin Launches New Sub Capable of Firing Nuclear Missiles as a Warning to Joe Biden @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-Yong reiterated their nations' and Japan's commitment to "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Joint Statement of Top Diplomats About Ballistic Missile Issues In a published article last March in a local news media Arirang News, South Korea, and the United States emphasized in a joint statement issued after the "two plus two" summit of senior diplomats and defense leaders from Seoul and Washington that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile challenges remain a high concern. The meeting, which included the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as well as South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui Yong and Defense Minister Suh Wook, occurred as President Joe Biden's administration undertakes a review of North Korean policy. According to a published article in Kyodo News, The officials agreed to continue fully coordinating and maintaining high-level meetings on the current policy review, reaffirming a shared commitment to confronting and resolving North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile challenges. Read Also: South Korean President Moon Urges US President-Elect Biden to Pursue Relationship with North Korea Blinken said at a joint news conference after the discussions that Biden intends to finish the work "in the weeks ahead" while maintaining "tight coordination and consultation" with South Korea and Japan, among others. Meanwhile, according to his spokesperson Kang Min Seok, South Korean President Moon Jae In pledged to continue efforts to repair ties with Japan at a meeting with senior US officials later in the day at the presidential office. Reaffirming the Commitment During the G7 Summit According to the State Department, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-Yong reiterated their nations' and Japan's commitment to "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." In a published article in Reuters, the statement, published after the two met on the margins of a Group of Seven meeting, refers to efforts that have made little or no progress in convincing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons without identifying North Korea. Blinken and Chung also emphasized the significance of multilateral collaboration in addressing other regional concerns, "particularly the restoration of the people of Burma to the road to democracy," according to the statement, alluding to a military coup in Myanmar earlier this year. Importance of Trilateral Defense Cooperation The United States has emphasized the significance of trilateral defense cooperation in the face of newly emerging security concerns on several occasions. The South Korean military ministry stated that we will continue to participate in high-level discussions between Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo. While condemning China of "aggressive and authoritarian conduct" that threatens Indo-Pacific stability, the U.S. Secretary of State indicated that collaboration with Beijing on North Korea concerns would continue. The U.S, Secretary of State said "Beijing has an interest, a clear self-interest in helping to pursue the denuclearization of the DPRK because it is a source of instability, it's a source of danger and obviously a threat to us and our partners," according to a published article in Arirang News. Related Article: US, Japan, South Korea, Urge North Korea To Limit Nuclear and Missiles Program @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Multimedia Video Journalist Buffalo native trying to get her news on! Im a Multimedia Journalist here at Your Hometown Stations and I love what I do. Have a cool story idea? Im in! Just email me at ashelton@wlio.com or message my Facebook page. Few students in Khloe Thibodeauxs history class know Juneteenth as anything more than a celebration, a Fourth of July for Black folks. They know it has something to do with freedom and slavery, a time in the nations history that some would like to forget like a flickering memory. As Juneteenth celebrations get underway across the nation, its time for deeper lessons about the significance of June 19, said Thibodeaux, a Houston high school teacher and board member of the Re-Education Project, a nonprofit to empower African American children. She hopes her students learn that theres much more to the story. Theres a lot about Juneteenth that people dont understand, she said. They think its about a festival, and are not really understanding that on June 19, 1865, yes, there was this word that slaves were free. But it took a lot longer for it to get across Texas. I want to give my students the facts of history and encourage them to draw their own conclusions. Juneteenth, once known as Jubilee Day, is the oldest celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Theres a push to make it a national holiday, along with an effort to bring recognition to the proposed Emancipation Trail, a 51-mile route from Galveston to Houston, along which former enslaved families migrated to build their lives in the bustling city. MAP: The 51-mile proposed Emancipation Trail from Houston to Galveston Texas was the first state to officially recognize Juneteenth in 1979; just three states North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii do not recognize it today. Before Juneteenth became part of the national conversation in this time of racial reckoning, only a handful of states outside of Texas gave it any serious attention. Last summer, many companies and cities used Juneteenth as a way to pledge a commitment to fight racism, following the murder of George Floyd and the international outrage it sparked. Protests over police brutality in the deaths of other Black Americans, including Breonna Taylor, also have fueled interest in the holiday. Companies such as Nike, Twitter and Target made it a paid holiday last year. Video: The Juneteenth Story Houston and Galveston natives talk about the importance of Juneteenth and making it a national holiday. Now Playing: Video: Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle Juneteenth celebrates the evolution of our country to a more perfect union, said historian Sam Collins, co-chair of the Juneteenth Legacy Project. We were not perfect in 1528, 1619, 1776, 1865 or even today in 2021. But hopefully by studying this history and expanding the narrative to tell a more complete story of what happened, we will get a truer sense of our American history. On June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, according to historians, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston flanked by hundreds of Black soldiers who are rarely if ever mentioned in history books to announce that Texas 250,000 enslaved people were free. The news meandered across the Lone Star State which means, for many, slavery did not end on Juneteenth. National Archices and Records Administration It was just the beginning of freedom for Black Texans. Juneteenths significance has been amplified by the effort of U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, and U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican, who co-authored a bill in 2019 for a federal study of a proposed Emancipation Trail. It would be the second trail to honor African American history. The first is the 54-mile trek between Selma and Montgomery in Alabama, the site of the civil rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed the Emancipation National Historic Trail Act authorizing such a study. NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here. As we look at the landscape of what is recognized in America, there are very few holidays that commemorate or help people understand the history of African Americans, Jackson Lee said. So when you have Juneteenth and the Emancipation Trail, its a beautiful partnership. We have a special history in Texas. The Emancipation Trail, which would be affiliated with the National Park Service, would begin in Galveston with stops at the Osterman Building, the location of the new 5,000-square-foot Absolute Equality mural by Houston artist Reginald C. Adams, and Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Some historians believe Grangers General Order No. 3 announcing the end of slavery was read at both these locations, but there is no evidence of that. The church, founded in 1848 as the first AME Church in Texas, is still a central part of the Black community in Galveston. (The official handwritten record of the order is preserved at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.) On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas founding father Stephen F. Austin insisted Texas could not survive without slavery The proposed trail would continue along Texas 3 with proposed stops at the 1867 Settlement Historic District in Texas City, which was founded by Black cowboys who were former enslaved men at the Butler Ranch. It would continue north on Interstate 45 to Houston and include cemeteries for those who had been enslaved Harrisburg-Jackson in east Houston and Olivewood northwest of downtown. Other landmarks would include downtown Houstons Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, built in 1866, and Fourth Wards Freedmens Town, which includes the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum; the Rev. Ned Pullum and Emma Eddy Pullum House; and the Gregory School, the first school for Black children in Houston. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The trail would end at Emancipation Park in Third Ward the oldest park in Houston. Here, the Rev. Jack Yates led an effort to encourage freed men to pool their money and buy 10 acres of land as home for Juneteenth celebrations. In 2017, Emancipation Avenue, which leads into the park, was renamed. It had been called Dowling Street after Confederate soldier Richard Dick Dowling. Juneteenth and the Emancipation Trail call attention to places that have been silent for a long time, said Lucy Bremond, executive director of the Emancipation Park Conservancy. There are people who are asking about Juneteenth, and its not just African Americans. People all over the world people are calling to find out information. They are wanting to know the real meaning of Juneteenth and how they can share it with the next generation. Hopefully, they become more compassionate around the issue of slavery and independence of Black Americans. This year, the pandemic has forced some Juneteenth celebration organizers to scale back. No major parades are planned in Houston. The Emancipation Park Conservancy will celebrate virtually with its #WeAreJuneteenth campaign highlighting small businesses, volunteerism and health in a series of discussions on its Facebook page. But next year, the park will celebrate 150 years with a bang. The Yates Museum in Freedmens Town is commemorating Juneteenth with a music performance Wednesday at Mount Horeb Missionary Baptist Church, with limited seating and a virtual panel discussion exploring the Black church. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The museum, which includes six historic homes once owned by freedmen and their descendants, recently received $25,000 from H-E-B to help with preservation and restoration. It has raised $150,000 of its $350,000 goal to celebrate the museums 25th anniversary in December. Freedmens Town, like many African American landmarks, is racing to protect and preserve its history. Since 1985, more than 500 historic homes and six churches have been demolished. Should Juneteenth become a national holiday, it could bring more awareness to the importance of preserving those historic sites. Juneteenth is valuable as an educational tool toward cultural understanding and appreciation of this particular ethnic population, who were enslaved and marginalized, said Catherine Roberts, co-founder and board member of the Yates Museum. By celebrating Juneteenth, it informs all of America that this is an opportunity to build some racial bridge. Understanding the difficulties and the accomplishments of a population that was enslaved and then freed is so valuable to healing in this country. Its needed by America to recognize how much African Americans contributed to the building of America. For educators like Thibodeaux, the Juneteenth story is an important part of not only Texas history, but Americas story. In 2020, the Texas State Board of Education approved an African American studies course, including Juneteenth, for students to take in public high schools. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer But new legislation called the 1836 Project, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law this week, has critics worried that it will restrict lessons about the states history of slavery. It establishes a committee to promote "patriotic education." Also House Bill 3979, which Abbott has yet to sign, limits the discussion of critical race theory, which is based on the idea that racism is a social construct, stemming not only from individual bias or prejudice, but also from systemic practices in the legal system and policies. Thibodeaux believes the legislation may be detrimental to students and teachers, some of whom might not understand the scope of the issue, she said. Critical race theory is not something that most high school teachers in the state of Texas are teaching, she said. In order to get a high school student to understand it, you would need a full course on just critical race theory. So its almost impossible to think that a high school teacher is wholeheartedly teaching a lesson on this. But Black history including slavery should be an integral part of the curriculum, Thibodeaux said. I hope that every African American student leaves my class with an understanding of their history and the impact that their ancestors have made, she said. I hope students who are not of African descent become more knowledgeable about what happened on Juneteenth because it gives us tolerance and understanding of those who are different from us. We need that. joy.sewing@chron.com Our Lift Every Voice project connects young Black journalists with Black elders in our community to celebrate and learn from their life experiences deepening connections with the past for a better future. The Houston Chronicle has joined Hearst newspapers, magazines and TV stations across the nation to publish dozens of profiles as part of the project. Meet three Houston-area leaders, a cowboy, a historian and an educator. Historian Tommie Boudreaux on Galveston and race Tommie Boudreaux is the Galveston Historical Foundations chair of African American Heritage. Born on the island, she began her work with the foundation after retiring from teaching in 1997. She is the author of African Americans of Galveston and the newly released Lost Restaurants of Galvestons African American Community. Q: What was it like growing up in segregated Galveston? A: Galveston was somewhat unique in that it was a city where a number of immigrants were just trying to make ends meet. African Americans may have just a little bit more freedom than other cities around the time. For example, when I would go to my fathers hometown he was born in Brenham, Texas if they had to go shopping for something, he didnt want us to get out of the car because he didnt want anybody to say anything to us if we touched something. A Black national anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing," written by brothers James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson, began as a poem in 1900 for schoolchildren. Before long, the song spread across the nation at NAACP events, within Black churches and in community meetings, gaining prominence each time it was sung. Known as the "Black National Anthem," "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a triumphant story that chronicles and acknowledges the past while marching forward toward freedom. See More Collapse In Galveston, it was much different. I mean, they (the employees) would still follow us around, but we didnt have the same treatment. So I found out early that Galveston was a little different, even though we were segregated. There were white and Black fountains and white and Black restaurants and so on. But it was just a little bit different. Even in the 60s, when everybody was having sit-ins, it wasnt quite the same. That time was short lived because there were private African Americans that knew the people serving within the city council. So it went a bit smoother than in other cities. Even in Houston. Q: Did you ever have your own experiences with racism? A: I would say no because my parents sheltered us. The furthest we would go by ourselves was down to the corner store. Anyplace else, they would take us. And if things didnt look right, then we were going back home. I didnt really experience racism until I had begun my work as a teacher. I was the only Black in the department, and one day, we were doing reports and my co-worker came up to me and said, I know why you dont get interview reports back; its because youre Black. The supervisors afraid of you. Q: How have race relations changed in comparison to when you were growing up? A: Theres been some improvement, starting in the 60s, but today, at times, were going backwards. Technology is helping publicize a lot of things that people werent aware of and is giving a voice to share concerns about things that are happening. People are getting an opportunity to see more and hear more. There have been laws passed in some states that will, for example, make it difficult for minorities and elderly people to vote. Now, granted, theres been a lot of progress, and as far as Im concerned, we have moved ahead a great deal. However, things could be a lot better. I think back to my father with a lot of things because my father was a self-made mechanic. When he went out, I would follow him. Id go to a lot of the shops and other places that dealt with how to work on cars. He got a job in one of the dealerships, and when some of the mechanics would have trouble, they would ask him to do the work. But he wasnt paid for it, regardless of his skill level. A lot of that is still happening. In this past year, a lot of people have seen the light. And I hope indeed that Im around to see more, more progress. Q: What are your thoughts on white supremacy throughout America? A: When you give someone the permission to do things and it doesnt necessarily have to be like go do this, it can be just in the way we word things, how we downplay things that gives permission to those (white supremacists) that have been among us for years. When you give them permission to feel comfortable in what they do, then theyre going to venture out. White supremacy has kind of been in the closet, but theyve been given permission to come out. There are those who could actually put their foot down and really say something, and I have no idea why they dont. So I feel that somebody needs to try and close the door on that. Q: Do you have any advice for Black youth? A: I always mentioned my father, so I would say the message he gave to us is to protect your name. With all the media and all the things that young people like, such as Facebook and Instagram, just be careful. Young people need to protect their names. And be careful what you do. And if you have a concern, go to the right person. Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer Larry Callies on the truth about the American cowboy Larry Callies is the founder of the Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg. Born in El Campo and raised in Beaumont, he believes the legacy and true history of the cowboy, particularly its direct pertinence to African Americans, is important to preserve and showcase. Q: What was your life as a Black cowboy like? A: I worked for one of the biggest ranches in the state of Texas. It was called the Sloan Ranch. My dad worked for the ranch, and after I turned 10, I worked for the ranch. I started riding horses, working cows, and Sloan (Williams) had some of the best bulls in the state. We used to go to all the rodeos every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My dad worked for him for about 25 years. I worked for him for about 15 years. We used to go to every rodeo in the state of Texas, so I got to know all the cowboys. Q: How did your father learn to be a cowboy? A: From my uncle. And he learned from his dad, and he learned from his dad. I have a picture from the 1850s of my great-great-uncle working cattle. I never thought Id see a picture from the 1850s. See, I come from slave owners. James Kerr, he was having kids with slaves. He had 12. He was a minister of the gospel, and he documented it in his Bible. My great-great-grandmother was in his Bible. She was one of the slave girls that he had. Q: What was your experience with segregation and racism back then? A: When I turned 5 or 6 years old, we went to this place called Dairy Queen. But we called it the Pigtail because they had a big ice cream thing on top, and it had a swirl atop. We were little young kids from the country, and it looked like a pigtail. We went to the Pigtail, and this was the first time I had ever experienced racism. We were sitting in the back of my dads truck, and a brand-new 57 Chevrolet pulled up. It was some white people. And I looked at that car, and I saw somebody wave. It was this blond-headed white girl. She waved at me. She was about the same age I was. And I waved back. By the time I waved, her daddy looked back at her. And he hit her. I dont if he slapped her or he hit her on the leg, but she cried out. And her dad started pulling off. My dad looked over, and they said the n-word a couple of times before they took off. My dad, he got out the car and he said, Boy, dont you ever do that again! You could get me in trouble. And that was the first time I experienced racism. That was the first time I knew there was something different between Black and white. Q: What does Juneteenth mean to you personally? A: Every time somebody says Juneteenth, I think about being 3 years old at my first rodeo. I went to a place called Egypt, Texas. Theyve been having that rodeo since the 40s. In 1955, I rode with my dad and my mom, and we went to the rodeo. I remember my dad unloaded his horse. It was an all-Black rodeo, but we had a couple white people riding within our rodeo. I remember my dad going to get me a red soda water, a watermelon and a barbecue sandwich. It was really good. That was the thing everybody did back on Juneteenth 1955 in Wharton, El Campo, Eagle Lake. Everybody connected right there at that rodeo. It was a big celebration. I tried to have a Juneteenth celebration while I worked at the post office. I almost got laughed out of the post office. They didnt want us to celebrate Juneteenth. They just wanted to let the day go through. They dont want to be reminded of slavery and what happened back in the day. I remind people that Im celebrating for what happened then. We were free. Q: How does the history of racism within America relate to the history of the cowboy as we know it? A: It happened right here in Fort Bend County and Wharton County. They had slaves that worked the cows, and they said, Hey, boy, go get that cow. Thats a cowboy right there. They had a boy that worked in the house, thats a houseboy. A boy that worked in the yard, thats a yardboy. The person they called boy could be 67 years old, theyd still call him a boy. And thats where the word cowboy came from. But people didnt know that until I opened my museum. Q: Is the misunderstanding about cowboys what ultimately inspired you to create this museum? A: I didnt want what the cowboys did to go in vain. I had so many relatives that were cowboys, my uncles, my cousins. And I found out that on my mothers side there were cowboys, on my fathers side there were cowboys. I mean, I was just flooded with information. If you called a white man in the 1800s a cowboy, hed be insulted. One famous Black cowboys name was Bass Reeves. He was the real Lone Ranger. They tried to put him on the radio and talk about it, but they found out he was Black. So they said, No, we didnt say the Lone Ranger was Black. We said he was a white man with a black mask. So in the 50s, they had to put a white man on TV as the Lone Ranger cause they knew they (the public) werent gonna accept him as a Black man. Thats why you dont see Black cowboys on TV. Q: Do you have any advice for Black youth? A: Just follow your passion. I didnt do this to make money. I did this because I didnt want to see the hard work my dad did go to dust. People wouldnt even know that there were Black cowboys. Theyll always think that there were white cowboys, but there were Black cowboys, too. Thats what I want people to get to know. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Ruth Simmons on the value of education in a post-segregated America Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, earned a doctorate in romance languages and literatures at Harvard University. Before Prairie View, she served as president of both Smith College and Brown University in New England. Q: What has your experience at Prairie View been like so far? A: The first is that its my first job ever in the state of Texas. Being a native Texan, Im very excited. Second, being president of a state university, which is very different from my experience in the past, being president of private colleges and universities. Its wonderful to me because of the students, of course. I see them very much like I was at their age, striving, trying to get an education and very hopeful about what they can do with their lives in the future. To be able to contribute to that is hard to explain how meaningful that actually is at my age because I understand so much more now about the privilege I have to be able to do the work that Im doing. Q: How do you personally celebrate Juneteenth? A: In my family, and of course this goes back in Texas for generations, we tended to celebrate in the old-fashioned way. That is, we gathered in the country to have a common experience, and that usually meant food and barbecue, most likely. We started that when I was small, and my family had been doing that, as I said, for generations, and we continue that today. So we will have barbecue, and we will have all of the forbidden, ethnic things associated with us. For a time, we were so embarrassed by the kind of tropes that were used against African Americans. The watermelon and the ways in which we celebrated were ridiculed. So the idea of Juneteenth is not only to acknowledge the history and sober nature of this holiday, and the sacrifices that our forebears made, but also to say that we claim those tropes that were organized against us. Well do those things and embrace our history with pride. Q: What advice to do you have for Black youth? A: You will do as we did. And that is, you will learn and you will continue learning about the issue of race for the rest of your lives. And that it is immensely complex, both the history and the current context. What I learned over time is that each era has its own narrative for race, and we have to be open to the fact that we are evolving as a society. With that evolution comes change about the nature of race. For example, we have many young people today that are of mixed race who have to find a way to organize their thinking around the fact that they are mixed race. So I say to young people: Be aware that youre part of a process of uncovering many, many stories that could not be told before. You are also within the process of uncovering untruths that have been promulgated since the 1600s. . Also, as I typically (say) in all of my commencement speeches: Youre obligated to be engaged in the struggle. You cannot be passive. Finding ways that you can be involved and make a difference and change the future for those who come after you is an absolute necessity for young people. Q: Whats the best way for Black Americans to get their voices heard? A: Overturning the kinds of assumptions that weve lived with for such a long time. The most important thing during subjugation was for Africans and Blacks to be ignorant. Ignorant of the severity of the inhumanity they were experiencing. Ignorance of the ways in which they could combat their servitude. Ignorance of their ties to Africa. That was absolutely essential to impose that on African Americans, that ignorance. So the first thing is that we have to combat ignorance. And the first obligation for African Americans is to love learning, to find ways to be informed. We love the term speaking truth to power, but the truth really must be true. Speaking truth to power isnt just speaking out at what we dont like. Its speaking to what is real and authentic and humane and honorable. The African American community has a very long and rich history of helping others. Imagine being torn from your families during slavery. Imagine not having any security at all. African Americans learned to count on each other. They raised other peoples children, they protected other people. Thats been our tradition. If we can learn more about the history and values represented by our forebears, well be in pretty good shape. Q: What was your experience growing up in segregation? A: I had nothing to compare it to. Everyone I knew lived under the same burden. Everybody I knew was poor. Everybody I knew was exploited, so living within that context, I did not feel on a daily basis overwhelmed by it because I simply didnt know. I remember as a child going into town and experiencing the racism. We couldnt go into places, and most notably we had to defer to whites. That meant if we were facing whites, and they were meeting us on the street, we had to step aside to allow them to pass. We could never speak overtly or forcefully to a white person, and we could not look at them in certain ways. It seems ridiculous now, but there was a code of behavior for Blacks in those days. Almost anyone could severely punish you if you were out of line at all. Lets say I met someone on the sidewalk, and I didnt step off and continued the way I was going, somebody could discipline me right there. The power of so many different people to lynch and enact violence against Blacks was almost ubiquitous. I always say the best thing my parents gave us is the ability to live to adulthood, which so many young people didnt get to do. The cost of that was suppressing who we were, suppressing what we thought and suppressing our instinct to counter the bias that we faced. When I went to school in Houston, the teachers were really something else. They made us see that it was possible that this structure would end at some point. They made us understand that we needed to be ready for a different reality. And the way to be ready for that reality is for us to become educated. Q: Was there any lesson that you took away from that period that you apply today? A: I guess what I took away from that time is the value of every human being. And one thing I never, ever want to do is think that someone is less than I am because of where they live, or because of the color of their skin, or where they come from, or because of how they worship. I think that frightens me more than anything else, that proclivity that human beings have to abase others based on their particular preferences and their particular ambitions. In order for us to survive, we have to understand a fundamental humanity we all share. We ought to be able to see the fundamental humanity of human beings, humanity that allows you to relate to other people. I personally dont think that its going to be possible for us to get out of this world alive if we dont learn that lesson. Waddy, a senior at Texas Southern University, is a summer intern at the Houston Chronicle. He can be reached at treyvon.waddy@chron.com. Conley is a photographer at the Chronicle. She can be reached at elizabeth.conley@chron.com. BERLIN (AP) Dozens of workers gathered outside of one of Berlin's most-celebrated startups, the grocery delivery company Gorillas, to protest the firing hours earlier of a colleague. We want Santiago back! the young riders chanted last week, threatening to blockade one of the company's inner-city warehouses with their bikes unless he was reinstated. The wildcat strike on a balmy June evening was unusual even by Germany's strong tradition of labor rights, highlighting growing tensions in the capital's freewheeling startup scene. We came here to show our solidarity, to support our friend, said Zeynep, a Gorillas rider who declined to give her last name for fear of facing repercussions from the company. "We want this decision to be reversed as soon as possible. The riders said their colleague had been fired without warning after turning up late for his shift. In a statement, the company said he his contract was terminated for serious misconduct but declined to provide details, citing confidentiality. Founded just last year, Gorillas has benefited from surging demand for quick grocery deliveries during the pandemic. In March, the company raised about $290 million from investors, becoming Germanys fastest 'unicorn a startup with a total valuation of $1 billion or more. Gorillas now operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York, where it faces U.S. incumbents such as Gopuff. But strikes like those in Berlin show trouble is brewing in its home market. The rowdy but peaceful protest late Wednesday drew support from employees of rival delivery services, some of whom downed their colorful courier bags to join the picket. Eventually Gorillas agreed to close the depot for the night, drawing cheers from the protesters. The next day, riders blockaded another warehouse, making clear their gripes go beyond the firing of a single colleague. In the last six months, that Ive been here Ive noticed so many ways that the company is doing things in an unjustified way, said rider Huseyin Camalan. Were here to stand against that. Its part of a larger thing. Camalan said many riders suffer from back pain and other health problems due to the heavy bags they have to carry. Faulty bikes, a limited say in their shifts and lack of administrative support are also a problem, he said. When riders send emails asking for help, they rarely get a reply, Camalan said, adding "They ignore us. Last week four rivals Delivery Hero, Bolt, Glovo and Wolt announced a joint effort to develop a code of conduct in what appeared to be an effort to head off a regulatory crackdown by the European Union. We want to establish better governance of working conditions, labor practices and social rights for all workers, regardless of their employment status, Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Spain-based delivery company Glovo said. According to experts, many delivery firms in Germany operate on the edge of legality in their rush to expand before they run out of cash. Gorillas says it doesn't consider itself part of the gig economy, having chosen to employ its riders and warehouse staff. But hourly wages are low at 11.50 euros (less than $14) after tips and the probationary period is six months the longest allowed by law. Riders at the protest complained that the company doesn't issue them with phones they need for work, that salaries are often short and weight limits on bags aren't respected. The working conditions are at the minimum end of whats normal in Germany, said Sebastian Riesner, who heads the Berlin chapter of the hospitality workers union NGG. Some of the contracts are pretty outlandish. "There seems to be a strategy of relying on people who don't know the rules in this country." Angry Gorillas riders recently banded together and, with the help of NGG, began the process of electing a works council. Under German law, members of the council get a say on working conditions and firings. Falling in line with Germany's established labor practices could make it harder for businesses like Gorillas to turn a profit. I dont think these companies are earning any money at the moment, said Werner Reinartz, a retail expert at the University of Cologne. German business monthly Manager Magazin cited internal documents suggesting that Gorillas loses 1.50 euros ($1.82) on every order. At the same time, foreign rivals such as Getir from Turkey and Britain-based Weezy are eyeing a launch in Europe's biggest economy, where they will compete for the same limited pool of riders already dwindling as other parts of the economy wake up from the pandemic lockdown. The strikes show that the current model is difficult to carry forward, said Reinartz. You need people who want to do this job." The company's chief executive, Kagan Sumer, said in a message to staff that he was deeply troubled by the events of the past days, but insisting that the firing of the rider had been a difficult but necessary decision. Sumer didn't address the protesters' broader complaints, but instead announced plans to cycle to every city where the company operates, to meet staff and ride through the cities with them. The Left party's candidate in September's mayoral election, Klaus Lederer, expressed his support for the striking Gorillas workers. If these companies want to have a future in Berlin, then they need to immediately respect the minimum standards of treating their employees fairly, he said. Riders such as Camalan insist they can force a change from below. We live in Germany." he said. We don't live in some random country that doesn't have any labor laws. ___ Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wirereporter A federal judge tossed a lawsuit against Houston Methodist over its policy to terminate workers who refuse to get the COVID vaccine, calling it reprehensible that plaintiffs compared the requirement to those made under Nazi Germany. In the lawsuit on behalf of 117 Houston Methodist employees, lawyers likened the vaccine requirement to the Nuremberg Code, a set of medical ethics standards created at the end of World War II following medical experiments by the Nazis on German citizens. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes heavily criticized the comparison in a decision Saturday. Equating the injection requirement to medical experimentation in concentration camps is reprehensible, Hughes said. Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on victims that caused pain, mutilation, permanent disability, and in many cases, death. Houston Methodist is one of the first hospitals in the nation to require employees to be vaccinated. The hospital system allows employees to opt out of the vaccine requirement if they provide a medical or religious exemption. LISTEN: Why have Houston's COVID vaccine rates slowed so much? The health systems human resources policy required employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by June 7, or risk suspension and eventual termination. About 25,000 Houston Methodist employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. More than 170 employees were suspended for two weeks without pay and face termination on June 21. Jennifer Bridges, a Houston Methodist Baytown nurse who originally circulated a petition in April asking the hospitals executives to reconsider the policy, said the plaintiffs plan to appeal. This will go all the way, Bridges said. This is only the beginning. Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials issued guidance on Thursday outlining new COVID-19 precautions and procedures to prevent the spread of the virus in health care workplaces. Under the new rule, health care employers must provide paid time off for workers to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and recover from the side effects. Federal regulators in May issued guidance allowing employers to require proof of vaccination as a condition of employment. Hughes wrote in the dismissal order that the vaccination mandate was not coercion. Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus, the judge wrote. It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer. He also denied a request for a temporary restraining order to block the hospital from suspending the 178 employees who have not received a shot. Many of the employees who joined the lawsuit said they are not opposed to vaccinations. They just want the chance to research the vaccines side effects and development, and for the clinical trials to progress further, before agreeing to take it. Were just leery because its such a brand-new vaccine, Bridges said. Theres not enough research yet and its not fully FDA approved. Theres no research out there on long-term effects. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturers of the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S., have all produced clinical safety data showing the vaccines are safe to administer. Clinical trials will continue for at least another year as researchers study how long it provides antibodies that can fight off a COVID-19 infection. YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: The ultimate guide on vaccines and viruses from the COVID Help Desk The COVID-19 vaccine policy falls in line with the hospitals required annual flu vaccine unless employees have a medical or religious objection qualifying them for exemption. Houston Methodist CEO Marc Boom wrote in a letter addressed to staff in April that the best shot at ending the pandemic was immunizing as many people as possible. In a recent memo to the staff, Boom noted that among the 170 employees who are so far non-compliant, 27 employees about .01 percent of the workforce had received one shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and still have time to go for their second to retain their jobs. Our employees and physicians made their decisions for our patients, who are always at the center of everything we do, Boom said in a Saturday statement. They have fulfilled their sacred obligation as health care workers, and we couldnt ask for a more dedicated, caring and talented team. gwendolyn.wu@chron.com twitter.com /gwendolynawu Gov. Greg Abbott is a man with a plan. Responding to an influx of undocumented men, women and children trying to reach the United States through Texas, our opportunistic governor announced last week that he will build stop us if youve heard this one a great border wall! Waves of the desperate will simply smash into its base like flotsam washed up at the foot of Galvestons wall against the mighty sea. What a vision. What a lack thereof. And theres more. Any border intruder who manages to squeeze past Abbotts Wall will be met with massive force. The Texas National Guard, local law enforcement, the Texas Rangers and the Department of Public Safety, presumably working in conjunction with the U.S. Border Patrol, will round them up like maverick cattle; theyll be corralled in Texas jails before being shipped back from whence they came. For border scofflaws tempted to try again, the sound of a locked jail door will be a grim Pavlovian reminder that you dont mess with Texas. We dont want just to arrest somebody to have them released, Abbott said last week, lapsing into his tough-Texan voice. We want to arrest somebody and have them prosecuted, to be put in jail, to stay in jail to create an environment where people will choose they dont want to come across the border into the state of Texas anymore, because its not what they were expecting, its not the red carpet that the federal administration rolled out for them. They are going to jail in the state of Texas. The fact that Abbott has even less chance of halting the flow of asylum seekers than did his bloviating, wall-building idol during four years of White House ineptitude, matters not. Nor does the dubious legal justification for using state resources and taxpayer dollars to enforce federal immigration law. For Abbott, actually dealing with a national dilemma is of secondary importance. The more immediate concern is a potential challenge from the rightist fringes next year by former state Sen. Don Huffines, a Dallas Republican who, if elected governor, has promised to finish President Donald Trumps border-wall construction in Texas. We will completely shut down the border until the crisis is solved and eliminate all taxpayer-funded subsidies to illegal aliens, Huffines said, lapsing into his own tough-Texan tweet mode. I am not afraid to take on the federal government. Nor is he afraid to steal a perfectly good campaign gimmick that has proven effective for at least one long-shot candidate in recent memory. Any day now, Abbott will announce that the Texas Wall will be beautiful and that Mexico will pay for it. Abbott, who boasts a massive war chest and Trumps own endorsement, apparently still fears hell become flotsam himself if he doesnt respond to Huffines.. Abbotts border wall pronouncement he promised details in a few days is cynical, short-sighted, and irresistibly simple for people to understand. In other words, its the exact opposite of Vice President Kamala Harris approach in visiting Guatemala and Mexico as part of the Biden administrations effort to craft pragmatic and humane border-security policy that addresses the root causes of migration and not just the current symptoms. Do not come, she admonished would-be asylum-seekers. The admonition for which Harris received her own admonition from the leftist fringes who claimed she was insensitive was stark, sensible and desperately needed at a time when smugglers are exploiting confusion about the new presidents policies and spreading misinformation that America is encouraging migration. The truth is that, after decades of inchoate border policy and four years of Trumpian chaos and cruelty, this nation is poorly equipped at the moment to handle huge waves of asylum-seekers or others seeking entry. Its a problem that cant be resolved immediately, with or without a wall. Theres no denying that we have border problems. Arrests at the border have increased since President Joe Biden took office. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported roughly 180,000 encounters with persons crossing the Southwest border illegally in May, the highest monthly total yet. Numbers are decreasing for migrant teenagers, for children crossing without parents and for family groups, while numbers for single adult migrants are increasing, with more than 121,000 apprehended last month. Most get expelled to Mexico, and many try again, numerous times. Nearly 40 percent of those apprehended in May had already been stopped by border officials at least once before in the past 12 months. With our immigration system so backed up, many crossing the border no longer fear legal consequences or jail time if they are caught. A growing number are arriving from nations outside Central America and Mexico. Harris visit was an acknowledgment that helping improve conditions in Central America is a key component of any serious immigration reform and border security effort. As Rice University political scientist and Latin American studies chair Mark Jones pointed out in a 2018 Chronicle op-ed, the U.S. has to acknowledge a modicum of responsibility for the deplorable conditions forcing citizens to flee from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. After all, Americas sordid interventions over the past 75 years, including our propping up of dictators and toppling of democratically elected leaders, contributed mightily to the modern-day mess. Simply as a matter of self-interest (not to mention any humanitarian impulse we might feel), we should help fix the plague of gang violence, government corruption and ineptitude, and lack of economic opportunity in those countries. Even if one believes we owe these countries nothing, the only realistic way to significantly reduce the flow of unauthorized Central American migrants is to improve conditions in their homelands, Jones wrote. No sensible American wants open borders. No sensible American wants thousands of desperate men, women and children showing up at our door after long, dangerous treks across Mexico atop railroad boxcars. No one we know wants vicious cartels smuggling illegal drugs into this country or merciless traffickers transporting human beings. We presume that what most Americans want is a safe, secure border combined with immigration policies that are reasonable and fair. Working with Mexico and Central American nations is an integral part of a multi-pronged approach toward that end. Abbott announced last week hell be working with Arizona. He said he had signed an interstate compact with that states Gov. Doug Ducey, a fellow Republican, to resolve the border crisis, and he called on other states to do the same. The results will be negligible. The governor ought to be signing some sort of compact with the United States Congress and the White House, agreeing to participate in a bipartisan effort directed toward resolving our long-term immigration and border security issues. He ought to lay down the border wall trowel and take on a truly tough construction task: comprehensive immigration reform. Its tough, we realize, for a Republican still clinging for dear career to Trumps wayward coattails to consider bipartisan cooperation, but in the spirit of his fellow Texans Sam Houston, Audie Murphy and Barbara Jordan come to mind the governor needs to remember that truly tough Texans facing a truly tough challenge dont just talk big. They dont pander. They dont pass off partisan shtick for smart policy. They grab the challenge by the horns. In short, they dont follow; they lead. Protect each other Regarding Its either vaccination or job termination, (A1, June 8): It was hard visiting my mom through a glass door. It was hard visiting my mom dressed in full PPE, plastic gown, gloves and N95 mask. But it was all that was available to protect her from COVID. Now we are both fully vaccinated. Now my visits to her are actually more limited than when I dressed in full PPE. Why? Because our state government has decided that the rights of those who choose not to be vaccinated are more important than our rights as vaccinated mother and daughter. I cannot visit her in her room or sit with her at meals. I can only visit in a room set aside to be sterilized between guests. Because the state says unvaccinated people should be allowed to roam freely into vulnerable populations as workers. Managers are not even allowed to know if employees and visiting people are vaccinated. Managers of caregiving facilities make decisions limiting access to families in an attempt to reduce risk for those unvaccinated visitors and workers. We go through the charade of an invasive questionnaire about temps and symptoms when we could just show that we are vaccinated. There is nothing new about requiring immunizations to protect vulnerable populations. If more medical facilities would take the responsible stance of Methodist Hospital, those of us who made choices to protect each other would not have to continue paying a price for those who refuse. Vicky Gooch, Pearland You can go your own way Regarding Bill would create a Texas CDC here, (A1, June 10): I read the article about Texas establishing a Texas CDC. Much like the Texas electrical grid, this seems to be another attempt by the GOP-controlled Legislature to get Texas to go its own way. I can already see conflicts with the federal CDC on how to combat future pandemics. The federal CDC would say go one way and the Texas CDC would say no, go another way. Much like the Texas grid last February, the Texas CDC would fall flat on its face. Gonzalo Martinez, La Porte History classes are determined more by what politicians want you to forget than what historians think you should learn. Debates over official histories are raging across the United States. Few Oklahomans had heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre five years ago, and some would still prefer to forget it. Southern conservatives insist the Civil War was an act of Northern aggression, not a traitorous fight to sustain slavery. Teachers in Texas middle schools have bragged for generations about how a bunch of expatriate Americans rebelled against a Mexican dictator in 1836 and established an independent republic. The story is the foundation of Texas exceptionalism, a vital ingredient of the American variety. Conservative lawmakers, though, are worried an embarrassing truth may replace the states origin story: Mercenaries led a revolt to extend slavery to Texas and consummated their victory with the betrayal of Texans of Mexican ancestry. Last month, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature established The Texas 1836 Project to promote a patriotic education that teaches Texas values. Texans wonder whether the 1836 Project and other culture-by-fiat laws are the last gasps of a century-old false narrative or a durable reinforcement of white supremacist fairy tales. The latest statutory interventions demonstrate how lies become institutionalized truths. All Americans should closely watch what happens next. NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here. The birth of the Heroic Anglo Narrative dates to the American Historical Associations annual meeting in 1893. University of Wisconsin professor Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the Anglo conquest of the American West generated a spirit of freedom, democracy and egalitarianism that eventually created a uniquely American culture. George Pierce Garrison, the first chair of Texas first history department, was a rigorous Turnerian who founded the Texas State Historical Association. But lawmakers have never trusted intellectuals, and they worried about what Garrison and his faculty were teaching just a mile up Congress Avenue from the Capitol. A first-term state representative, Alexander Hensley, learned that Garrison had hired a young historian named David Franklin Houston no relation to Sam from that hotbed of Northern liberalism, Harvard University. Houston had turned his masters thesis into a book, A Critical Study of Nullification in South Carolina. Hensley was alerted by the words critical and study. Houston challenged the idea, widely accepted in the South, that the Constitution allowed states to reject or nullify the federal governments actions. That June, Hensley rose from his desk on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives to ask precisely what those eggheads were teaching the states impressionable youth. It is currently reported that there has been employed and included in the faculty of said University those who are out of touch and not in sympathy with the traditions of the South, but hold our traditions and our institutions in contempt, and circulate and teach political heresies, Hensleys resolution said. After a great deal of harrumphing, Hensley launched an investigation. Afterward, the Legislature resolved that university regents could only hire faculty who are known to be in sympathy with Southern political institutions and to fire any faculty not so in sympathy. The regents promised to hire Texans first, Southerners second and faculty from anywhere else only when absolutely necessary. Such bullying persists. The University of North Carolina recently denied tenure to the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones. The board of trustees downgraded the terms of her appointment after complaints from conservatives who hate the projects honest look at slavery. The Texas Legislatures 1836 Project also echoes 1897: There are concerns that civics education in this state does not sufficiently address the storied and unique history of Texas, reaching back before the founding of the Republic, the bills authors wrote. Southern politicians have always considered history instruction a way to inculcate a worldview. From the neo-Confederate Lost Cause to misinformation about the Alamo to the suppression of slaverys role in the Texas Revolt, these myths were designed to promote a patriotic education and Texas values. Patriotism and values, though, evolve. Non-Hispanic white Texans only make up 41 percent of Texas population today. The parents of Texas mostly non-Anglo schoolchildren are unwilling to buy into the Heroic Anglo Narrative. Growing up here, theres always been this thing, this resentment, this pain that thats not the (true) story, Maria Berriozabal, the first Latina to serve on the San Antonio City Council, told us. How would you start saying thats not the story? Teaching children that American immigrants revolted because the Mexican government was abolishing slavery is not what conservatives consider a patriotic education. Explaining how Anglos ethnically cleansed Texans of Mexican descent from parts of the state is not the kind of Texas values they intend to promote. Yet, those episodes are critical to understanding the history of Americans of all ancestries, not just Anglos. Leaving them out produces todays perverse patriotism and twisted values. Burrough is the author of six books, including Barbarians at the Gate. Tomlinson, a columnist for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, is the author of Tomlinson Hill, the story of his familys slave-owning history in Texas. Stanford, a writer and former communications director for Austin Mayor Steve Adler, publishes a weekly newsletter called The Experiment. They are the authors of the new book, Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth. As the school year ends, the relief is palpable. Lets acknowledge what we went through during the pandemic. Many of us are feeling burnt out, but this is not the time to stop paying attention. Now is the moment to think big about the future of education. As the Houston Independent School District welcomes a new superintendent, what can we do to support him and the roughly 200,000 students in the district? And how should districts spend millions in COVID relief funds? Ive got a few ideas, gleaned from what weve learned over the past decade at the Houston Education Research Consortium, at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, at Rice University. Ive arrived at the conclusion that the most important thing we can do to help students in HISD, and the rest of our region, is to ensure that educational resources are distributed equitably meaning that those who need more, get more. Unfortunately, many of our systems are set up to do the opposite. In HISD, as well as the nation, Black and Hispanic students are five times more likely than white students to attend a high-poverty school, in which 75 percent or more students are in poverty. Although there are wonderful examples of high-poverty schools whose students beat the odds, research shows that these are rare and challenging to sustain. Even though its true the district alots roughly the same amount of money per student, and often more for low-income students, concentrating poverty in schools still leads to fewer resources. Most high-poverty schools struggle to recruit and retain effective teachers and administrators. They generate lower test scores, utilize more disciplinary action and offer fewer advanced courses. Most importantly, the racial concentration of poverty in schools is the strongest predictor of racial achievement gaps, according to the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford, based on 10 years of data from over 4,000 school districts and about 430 million test scores. As a result of concentrated poverty, in HISD, Black and Hispanic students test performance is equivalent to 3.0 and 3.6 academic years below white students, as if they were absent for a quarter of their K-12 schooling. Pause here, reread the previous sentence, and let that sink in for a moment. This problem is compounded by the fact that Blacks and Hispanics make up two-thirds of Texas public student population and 84 percent of HISDs. Students bearing the brunt of our inequitable systems are no minority they are the largest and fastest-growing group. Bleak as it may seem, the challenge can be overcome, just not by tinkering at the edges, and not with magical thinking about quick fixes. It will take understanding our history and using the tools that concentrated poverty in the first place to rebuild differently after the pandemic. Where do we start? Closing academic performance gaps requires a systemic approach one that moves beyond individual actions, such as how hard students work, how well teachers teach or how much parents care about their childrens education. These factors definitely matter, but they dont explain academic performance gaps between groups. A systemic approach begins by acknowledging our regions history. Most of the educational inequities described here did not develop by chance but by careful planning by our predecessors. Historian Karen Benjamin documented that, during a massive school expansion program in 1924, the newly created HISD school board worked closely with the citys planning commission to develop a racialized zoning system in order to protect real estate interests. This powerful coalition determined where 50 new school buildings would be located. The redlining map of Houston made by the Home Owners Loan Corporation reveals how deliberate and pervasive this type of planning was. Although schools were already segregated by race, Black schools and white schools previously were located in the same neighborhoods, with one Black school in each of Houstons six wards. However, during this expansion, new school sites were selected to create segregated neighborhoods, and schools that did not fit the master plan of racialized zoning were closed, neglected or moved. Wheatley High School opened in Fifth Ward during this era in 1927. A new school officially designated Mexican School (later renamed De Zavala) was built in Magnolia Park and cost $135 per student, compared with the least expensive white school, which cost $250 per student. In 1929, a Texas appellate court declared this unconstitutional and the City Council rejected the commissions zoning plan, but school construction was almost complete and the damage was done, setting in motion a powerful system that persists almost 100 years later. What does a systemic solution entail? Undoing that legacy requires a systemic approach coordinated at the local, state and federal levels. At the local level, districts can begin with efforts to reduce the concentration of poverty in schools and improve the distribution of resources. Improved implementation of magnet programs and controlled-choice programs can help with economic integration, and school zone boundaries can be adjusted within a district to reduce segregation. Zooming out, coordination among different school districts is more complicated and may take longer to achieve, but our research can help inform these efforts. For example, we have studied regional student mobility patterns and discovered that when students move to a different school, 70 percent of mobility occurs within one of six geographic areas that intersect school district boundaries. We can also identify which students are likely to move, as previously mobile students are three times more likely to move than others. Inter-district agreements, such as data sharing and curricular alignment, or letting a child stay at a school even after they have moved to a different zone, can help reduce the disruptive effects of mobility. Student mobility patterns can even be used to inform efforts to integrate students over time across the region. Using the pandemic aid to set up some of these systems within and across districts will help now and keep going after the aid is spent. At the federal level, efforts are already underway to promote school integration, including the Strength in Diversity Act, the Economic Fair Housing Act and changes in Title I funding. At the state level, more can be done to increase funding for our most disadvantaged students (and more equitably distribute that funding), to improve how the state measures gaps, and perhaps even to introduce accountability for integration. Texas also needs to apply lessons learned from its Robinhood program of redistributing resources. How much will it cost? These academic achievement gaps are even more costly in the long run. Nationally, the gaps, which average two to three years of schooling, greatly hinder economic growth and suppress earnings and tax revenue. A 2009 report by McKinsey & Company estimated that gaps in U.S. educational achievement had affected GDP more severely than all recessions since the 1970s. More recent estimates from the Center for American Progress suggest that closing gaps would increase GDP by $551 billion and increase local, state and federal tax revenues by $198 billion annually. These returns are worth the investment to close gaps. We have known about this crisis for years, and it may seem intractable. Hasnt each new superintendent announced a bold plan to boost underperforming schools? Werent pay bonuses for effective teachers supposed to make all the difference? Some findings from our 10 years of research are encouraging, others discouraging, but all of it is informative and consistently points to the need for more equitable systems. Its not that prior efforts were completely wrong. They just lacked plans to rethink the distribution of school resources, within school districts and beyond. Through the Equity Project, HISD has begun to examine the distribution of resources such as academic and extracurricular programming, student supports, technology and facilities. As we plan for the next 10 years, I believe we are at an opportune moment, because of what we have learned and even because of the pandemic. While the pandemic made our challenges worse, especially for students who were already struggling, it has done two things that give me hope: It has raised awareness of inequities and their consequences, and it is bringing an estimated $800 million in stimulus funds to HISD and an estimated $18 billion to Texas. The Biden administration has also included $20 billion in its proposed budget to even out disparities. Lets get it done If we want to undo the racialized system we inherited from our predecessors, we must recreate a coalition of cross-sector leaders and community stakeholders from all racial groups and neighborhoods to dismantle the system of racialized zoning that continues to harm our students, our economy and our democracy. The work of the coalition should be grounded in local data and research, and incorporate the voices of those with differing perspectives. We know systemic approaches are effective and powerful because the one we inherited achieved its goals and has lasted nearly 100 years. Houston is ready to dismantle concentrated poverty in our schools and close the academic performance gaps that have plagued us far too long. Any efforts on the part of HISD and all our regions districts will require extensive support from the entire community. I cant think of a better way to welcome the new HISD superintendent. Lopez Turley is a professor of sociology, founder and director of the Houston Education Research Consortium and the associate director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, at Rice University. The consortium has 11 Houston-area school district partners. An earlier version of this piece was published by Understanding Houston. Houston, MO (65483) Today Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. High Point, NC (27260) Today Thunderstorms early giving way to steady, occasionally heavy rain after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.. Tonight Thunderstorms early giving way to steady, occasionally heavy rain after midnight. Low 69F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Cheshire Town Meeting to Decide Administrator Job, 2022 Budget CHESHIRE, Mass. The annual town meeting will decide 18 articles Monday including the fiscal year 2022 budget that will decide the fate of the full-time town administrator position. Article 2 represents the town's proposed $6,667,366 budget that is only a 0.4 percent increase over this year. This budget does include a $45,000 increase in the town administrator salary line item that bumps the potential pay up from $40,000 to $85,000. This would bring the position to full time instead of part time. The Selectmen offered Ashfield Town Administrator Jennifer Morse the job, however, she said she would not be interested in the position if it was part time. The Selectmen have said they felt a full-time administrator is needed to not only properly manage the day-to-day operations of the town, but to chase grant opportunities the town has missed out on over the years with only a part-time administrator. The budget and the town meeting warrant can be found here. Article 3 will see if town meeting will borrow and appropriate any additional sum or sums of money to make repairs and improvements to town roads and bridges that will be reimbursed by the state under any applicable state aid Article 4 asks town meeting to appropriate $260,000 in free cash to offset the tax rate. Article 5 will see if town meeting will allow the use of $71,000 from free cash to make needed information technology upgrades. The town's antiquated IT infrastructure is open to cyberattacks and does not properly backup town files and information Article 6 will see if town meeting will use $7,200 in free cash for the purpose of securing specialized contracted services to the Board of Assessors. The Assessors must undergo a reevaluation of utilities. Article 7 will see if town meeting will use $15,000 in free cash to purchase a used pickup truck for the Fire Department. This vehicle will be used as a brush truck. Article 8 will ask to reallocate the $60,000 town meeting approved in 2020 for design work for the renovation/construction of a community center/Town Hall and construction of a public safety complex at the former elementary school. Instead, the funds will be used to make repairs to the fire station floor. Article 9 will ask town meeting to accept the provisions of MGL Chapter 53, Section 9A for the purpose of establishing clear rules for the dates of taking out and returning town election nomination papers. This is to provide clarity and avoid future confusion to the elected officials' nomination process. Article 10 deals with the senior tax exemption program and asks town meeting to accept the provisions of Chapter 184 section 51 of the Acts of 2002 to adjust Clause 41C eligibility requirements. It reduces the applicable age from 70 to 65 and increases gross receipts for a single resident from $13,000 to $16,500. It increases married couples from $15,000 to $22,500. This is to broaden the pool of applicants. Article 11 will allow the selectmen to negotiate and enter into a payment in tax agreement for a term of 20 years with operator Harbor Road Solar 1 LLC that has developed a 1.980 MW solar photovoltaic energy facility located on half of a 20-acre parcel on the easterly side of Harbor Road. The approximate annual revenue would be $25,000. Approval of this article requires a majority vote. Article 12 will see if the town will borrow $235,000 to purchase a new Freightliner M-2 Series 4x4 wing plow and single-axle dump truck for use within the Highway Department and to dispose of a 2006 International 4x4 wing-plow dump Truck This article requires a two-thirds vote for borrowing approval and a future Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion vote. Article 13 will see if town meeting will allow the transfer of $150,000 from available certified Water Operations Surplus for the purpose of conducting Route 8 water main replacement. There is currently $177,956 in the account. Article 14 will see if the town will allow the borrowing of $500,000 for the same project mentioned in Article 13. This will require a future Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion vote. If approved, all associated debt service shall be offset in full by Cheshire water users. Article 15 will change the position of tax collector from elected to appointed. Article 16 will make the town clerk position an appointed position instead of an elected position. Both articles 15 and 16 will have to be followed up with a ballot vote. If approved, the change will go into effect in May 2024. Article 17 will allow the Selectmen to file a petition for legislation to provide for recall elections of town officials. A lengthy outline of the process can be found on the town meeting warrant, and it is modeled after several other versions approved in other municipalities. The full reading includes different requirements and timetables to be met. But in short, the act would require that the person must have more than six months remaining in their term. Any qualified voter can file an affidavit with the town clerk containing the name of the officer sought to be recalled and a statement of the grounds of recall. A petition must be signed by 3 percent of or 100 registered voters, whichever is less. It must be returned and filed with the town clerk within 20 days after the filing of the affidavit. If the officer does not resign within five days, the Selectmen can order an election. The officer attempted to be removed may run to succeed themselves. Their name shall be placed on the ballot without nomination. The incumbent shall continue to perform their duties until the recall election. If then re-elected, they shall continue in office for the remainder of their unexpired term. If they fail to be elected, the successor will run out the remainder of the term. If not re-elected in the recall election, they shall be deemed removed upon the qualification of their successor, who shall hold office during the unexpired term. If the successor does not take the seat it will remain vacant. The removed officer shall be appointed to any Town office within three years after such removal by recall or resignation. Article 18 will close the meeting. Town meeting is Monday, June 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Hoosac Valley High School. 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. 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. Chris Hemsworth celebrated Chris Evans 40th birthday by trolling him on Instagram. The Captain America actor turns 40 today (13 June), with fans from around the world sending him well wishes on social media. Joining them was Evans Avengers co-star Hemsworth, who marked the day by sharing a picture of himself with Chris Pratt, rather than Evans, to Instagram. Happy 40th birthday Chris Evans, youll always be number 1 in my book, Hemsworth captioned the photo. Hemsworth, Evans and Pratt make up three of the four actors dubbed the Hollywood Chrises the fourth being actor Chris Pine. A running trend on social media is for people to rank the four performers, which Hemsworths post appears to be referencing. Last year, Marvel stars including Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr spoke out in defence of Pratt after he was dubbed the worst Hollywood Chris by many fans. Greenpeace has launched legal action against the UK government over ministers failure to disclose information over the first deep sea mining exploration licences to be made public. Lawyers acting on behalf of the environmental campaign group first wrote to ministers in March, warning the exploration licenses are error-ridden and possibly unlawful and requesting urgent clarification. Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, government departments must provide requested information as soon as possible and no later than 20 working days after receipt or, in certain circumstances, up to 40 days. However, Greenpeace has not been notified of any extension, and the deadline for response passed on 19 May. Louisa Casson, of Greenpeaces Protect the Oceans campaign, said: First these licenses were withheld from public scrutiny for a decade, and now they have finally been revealed, our government refuses to answer even the most basic requests for information on them. Its vital that this dangerous new industry, which threatens to cause irreversible harm to our oceans, is forensically scrutinised, but this isnt possible if our government refuses to be transparent. This begs the question: what do they have to hide? Last month, detailed analyses by Blue Marine Foundation and Greenpeace UK suggested that the deep sea mining exploration licenses granted by the UK government to weapons giant Lockheed Martins subsidiary, UK Seabed Resources LTD (UKSRL), may be unlawful. Lawyers for Greenpeace UK warned the UK government that: The licenses were granted for 15 years from the date of signature of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) contract, when UK law only permits the granting of licenses for a maximum initial period of 10 years, which suggests they could be unlawful. The licenses are based on legislation from 1981, which is no longer fit for purpose as relevant UK legislation was revised in 2014 and does not take into account the UKs accession to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), or the creation of the UN regulator, the ISA. The licenses state that the UK shall sponsor UKSRL in its exploitation of the seabed if it meets the conditions of its exploration licenses, contradicting the UK governments stated position in March 2020 that it has not agreed to sponsor or support any exploitation licenses for deep sea mining projects until there is sufficient evidence. Exploration areas detailed in the licenses are more than twice the size of the area that UKSRL is permitted by the ISA to operate in. There is also an absence of any clear provisions for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), despite the UK being obliged to ensure its contractor conducts EIAs. Greenpeace UK lawyers requested further information on the effective date of the licenses, the period for which they were granted, the legal power under which they were granted, and copies of any environmental impact assessments undertaken before they were granted. They also requested copies of any reports on incidents arising from licensed activities which have caused or are causing harm to the environment, or threaten such harm. None of this information has been disclosed, and no reason for the delay has been given. Greenpeace has requested that the Information Commissioner order the government to comply with the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and disclose the requested information in full as soon as possible. A UK government spokesperson said The UK is playing a crucial role in ensuring that strong environmental standards are upheld in the growing deep sea mining industry. We have agreed not to sponsor or support the issuing of any exploitation licences for deep sea mining projects until there is sufficient scientific evidence about the potential impact on deep sea ecosystems, and strong and enforceable environmental standards have been developed and put in place by the International Seabed Authority. Deep sea mining has so far been limited to exploration, although exploitation is expected in the very near future. Due to depleting levels on land, of metals such as copper, lithium and nickel, it is hoped to retrieve these from the ocean instead, at depths of over 200 metres. Demand for these metals has grown exponentially in recent times due to use in smartphones and so called green technologies. After a long period of drought, we are now halfway through a series of four parliamentary by-elections in quick succession. There had been no by-election since Brecon and Radnorshire in August 2019, won by Jane Dodds for the Liberal Democrats (who then lost in the general election four months later), until the Hartlepool contest last month. Labours defeat in Hartlepool was significant, crystallising the view that, although Keir Starmer had started well as leader of the opposition, he is struggling to make his mark against a vaccine-boosted prime minister. A second by-election a week later, by contrast, was barely noticed, as Anum Qaisar-Javed retained Airdrie and Shotts for the Scottish National Party after Neil Gray gave up the House of Commons for a seat in the Scottish parliament. As Harishchandra Dhaware, a small-town journalist from Indias heartland, was being wheeled into the intensive care unit in March this year, his wails filled the corridor Dont take me to ICU. If I am to die, I want to die at home. How will you afford this? Dont spend so much on me. I can see the day in front of my eyes. He kept hitting himself in the face and wailing as they put him on a stretcher and took him away, his wife, Jayashri, says as she recounts to The Independent one of the last memories she has of her husband. Dhaware, 48, died inside the ICU of a private hospital in Solapur, Maharashtra, on 6 April after a 15-day battle with Covid, combined with mucormycosis, or black fungus, that damaged his eyes and kidneys and caused memory loss. Another attack by a released prisoner is in the pipeline because of a lack of control over extremists in British jails, the government has been warned. Convicted terrorist Usman Khan murdered two people at Fishmongers Hall in November 2019, 11 months after he was freed from prison. Weeks later, two inmates who were part of the same extremist cell at HMP Whitemoor tried to murder a prison officer in an Isis-inspired terror attack. In February 2020, terror offender Sudesh Amman was shot dead after launching a knife attack in Streatham days after he was freed from jail. Another released prisoner, Khairi Saadallah, murdered three people in a terror attack at a Reading park last June. Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who carried out a government-commissioned review of Islamist extremism in prisons, said: There are good people doing their best to make sure that another outrage won't happen, but being good isnt the same as doing well. Another Khan is in the pipeline. A prison officer who works in the high-security estate told The Independent he feared there would be more attacks by freed prisoners. The new ones that come in with an extremist view leave with a stronger one, he added. Youre releasing people onto the streets and you dread to think whats going to happen. The government says it has made significant changes to the way terrorist prisoners are handled, including ending automatic release and improving the sharing of intelligence. But the officer said there was no control over extremist inmates, adding: No matter what ministers say, everything is not great in UK prisons, its appalling. Jonathan Hall QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, is currently undertaking a review of terrorist offending inside jails. There are concerns that crimes committed by inmates are not being prosecuted, resulting in lost opportunities to mitigate risk when they are freed. Fishmongers Hall terror attack victims unlawfully killed, inquest jury rules Announcing the probe in January, Mr Hall said he mounted the review because of his own concerns, and had not been commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, adding: Everything is clearly not fine. Mr Achesons 2016 review sparked the creation of three separation centres that were meant to remove influential terrorists from the general prison population, but only two are currently in use. The Fishmongers Hall attack inquests heard that despite years of intelligence showing Khan was radicalising fellow inmates and involved in violence and disruption, he was not moved to one of the units. I find it inconceivable that a man with Khans well-understood danger to national security was not even considered for separation let alone isolated, Mr Acheson said. He added that evidence revealed at the inquests prompted fresh concerns that the risk posed by jailed extremists was not being dealt with effectively. Hearings were told that Khan was originally jailed in 2012 for trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Kashmir, and remained in contact with his co-defendants while inside prison. An MI5 officer who gave evidence to the inquests said there was a suggestion that Khan had become more extreme since entering prison, and that a fresh investigation was opened into him after he was jailed because of fears he could coordinate terrorist activity from the inside. Intelligence indicated that Khan declared his wish to carry out an attack upon being released to fellow inmates in 2018. Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed to death by Usman Khan at Fishmongers Hall in London (AFP/Getty) A senior counter-terrorism police officer told the inquests into his victims deaths that similar intelligence about attack planning exists in a number of cases. Its not uncommon, that strand of reporting is reminiscent in many investigations and part of that comes down to socialisation within prison establishments, said Detective Chief Inspector Ryan Chambers. While in the UKs highest-security prisons, Khan associated with notorious terrorists including hate preacher Abu Hamza, and became an influential leader in extremist gangs who radicalised vulnerable inmates. He wrote a poem in his cell about decapitating non-Muslims and collected newspaper clippings related to Isis and jihadists. One of Khans most recent associates, Brusthom Ziamani, had access to a smuggled SD card containing Isis propaganda at HMP Whitemoor. He and a radicalised violent offender attempted to murder a prison officer while wearing fake suicide vests on 9 January 2020 six weeks after Khans attack at Fishmongers Hall. The Ministry of Justice said that although Khan was not put in a separation centre, he was put under measures aimed at moderating his extremist activities. A spokesperson added: We are locking up terrorists for longer and have tough measures in place to prevent them from spreading their poisonous ideology in prison. More than 37,000 prison staff have been trained to identify, report and stop such behaviour and a whole range of tools help us to manage extremist offenders. These include separation centres, which were introduced shortly before Khan left prison, but also monitoring communications and financial transactions and ensuring the strictest possible conditions on release. Boris Johnson is expected to assure the public the county is on the last stretch of lockdown as he announces that Covid restrictions will remain beyond the planned end date of 21 June. The prime miniser was on Sunday night thought to be finalising plans to announce a delay to Englands full exit from lockdown, ahead of press conference on Monday. Earlier, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said the public would accept a delay to the 21 June ending of all Covid rules to avoid a damaging yo-yo of restrictions despite thousands of weddings and other public events facing cancellation. Pressure has been growing on ministers to postpone the final move out of lockdown as infections rise sharply, with one expert warning on Sunday of a substantial third wave. Boris Johnson is now expected to announce a four-week delay to lifting of all remaining restrictions at a Downing Street press conference on Monday, when he was reported to be set to tell the public one last heave was necessary to get the country over the line/ Ministers have reportedly been advised that a four-week delay to easing all Covid restrictions could prevent thousands of hospitalisations.. Modelling due to released on Monday suggest that admissions are still expected to rise because not all vulnerable people have had their vaccine, according to the Guardian. Mr Raab told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show that ministers and officials were monitoring the data in real time to determine when it would be safe to open up. All but confirming the delay, the foreign secretary said the critical aim is to move out of lockdown irreversibly. I think the vast majority of people in the country, but also in parliament, understand that. We dont want to yo-yo back in and out of measures, Mr Raab added. Polling by Opinium suggested broad public support for the governments approach, with 54 per cent in favour of a delay and 37 per cent against. Hospitality leaders have already reacted with fury to the prospect of a delay, with thousands of events set to be cancelled and the risk of a second successive summer without big music festivals. The industry estimates pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants will lose 3bn in sales with up to 200,000 jobs shed and that the economy overall will suffer a 4bn hit if restrictions are retained for another month. Theatres and sporting events are likely to have their attendances still capped at 50 per cent capacity, with social distancing and table service only in pubs and the rule of six in peoples homes. There is also strong Tory opposition to delaying the roadmap, with Sir Graham Brady, the influential chairman of the backbench Tory 1922 Committee, saying that there was no excuse for this further catastrophic delay. But when Mr Raab was asked if the prime minister could hold the Conservative Party together, he replied: Yes. Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the Nervtag group which advises ministers, said he believed the UK would see a substantial third wave of Covid infections because of the spread of the Delta variant, which is 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha strain first identified in Kent. The really big question is how much that wave of infections is going to translate into hospitalisations, he said. The fact that weve got 55 per cent of the adult population double-vaccinated means that this would be substantially less bad than it could have been, but we dont exactly know how bad it could be, he said. I think if we were to open up more that would really fan the flames and lead to this increasing even faster. Epidemiologist Sian Griffiths said the delay appeared increasingly necessary. The public health advice would be to take it slowly and in a sustained way so we can keep up the progress weve been making, she said. I think waiting a little bit longer to sustain the progress is necessary, but it may not be an all-or-nothing Freedom Day, Griffiths said. The site manager of the Historic Latta Plantation in North Carolina is refusing to apologize after an event planned for Juneteenth sparked an online backlash. The description of the event, entitled Kingdom Coming, which was planned for 19 June the day commemorating the end of slavery in the US, outraged many. Large parts of the description were about the experiences of white people, saying: White refugees have been displaced and have a story to tell as well. The description added that attendees at the Historic Latta Plantation north of Charlotte would also hear from defeated Confederate soldiers. The since-deleted description said: You will hear stories from the massa himself who is now living in the woods. Federal troops (Yankees) have him on the run and his former bondsmen have occupied his home and are now living high on the hog. Hear how they feel about being freedmen. A backlash started to form against the event, which was subsequently cancelled. Commenters expressed their outrage on the plantations Facebook page. This should not even need to be said, but the idea of hearing from massa himself, and sympathizing with an overseer who is no longer allowed to enslave people is disgusting, one person wrote. My job will be to continue to educate, site manager Ian Campbell, a Black man, said in a statement on the plantations website. Historic Latta Plantations narrative will be to give a voice to our ancestors enslaved and as freedmen who were denied a voice. We will speak for them in a compassionate, accurate, and sensitive manner. Many of you may not like this but, their lives were intertwined, the stories of massa, the Confederate soldiers, the overseer, the displaced white families, Mr Campbell added. The plantation is located just northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina. The citys mayor, Vi Lyles, tweeted: On June 19, 1865, known as Juneteenth, 250,000 enslaved Black people were declared free by executive decree. That day should be celebrated and honoured in the most humble way possible, with laser focus on the perspective of the inhumane treatment of an enslaved people. We should not support any business or organization that does not respect equality, history, and the truth of the African-American peoples journey to freedom. Despite intent, words matter. And the Historic Latta Plantation should know better. Mr Campbell said the main reason for the cancellation of the event was because of security concerns for volunteers and staff, blaming the media for starting a social media frenzy. It was not until after the social media frenzy that Latta received numerous emails and phone calls about the event, he said, adding that he created the event himself along with others. To the masses on social media and politicians, no apology will be given for bringing a unique program to educate the public about former slaves becoming FREE!, Mr Campbell wrote on the site. The Confederacy will never be glorified, white supremacy will never be glorified, plantation owners, white refugees or overseers will never be glorified, he added. What will be commemorated is the story of our people who overcame being snatched from their loved ones in Mother Africa and taken to a new and strange land, Mr Campbell said. To work from can see to cant see from birth to death. The fact that they survived and we are here and continue to thrive and prosper will be glorified. Mecklenburg County is in charge of the nature preserve where the Latta Plantation is located. The county said in a statement on Friday that they have zero tolerance for programs that do not embrace equity and diversity. The town of Huntersville said in a statement that funding for the new fiscal year will remain on hold pending further investigations into the facts surrounding this program. A Michigan man who won $2m in a lottery in June 2010 has been found dead, floating in a river. The Midland Police Department identified the 69-year-old man as Auburn resident Leroy Fick. He was spotted floating in the Tittabawassee River around 10.30am on 5 June. While the cause of death has not been disclosed, law enforcement has said that Mr Ficks death doesnt appear to be suspicious. Mr Fick won the Michigan lottery Make Me Rich! more than a decade ago. Out of his $2m winnings, he took home $998,570 after taxes. He was later featured on Lottery Changed My Life, a programme on TLC. Mr Fick used his lottery winnings to demolish his house and build a new one in its place, he also bought a brand new Chevrolet Camaro, and large amounts of fireworks. He later acknowledged that he was still receiving government assistance through his Bridge Card, which gave him access to temporary food assistance for eligible low-income families and individuals... from the US Department of Agriculture, according to the state of Michigan. Fellow Michigander Amanda Clayton won $1 million on Make Me Rich! the following year, but she also continued to use her Bridge Card. The actions of Mr Fick and Ms Clayton led state legislators to introduce a new law that required the Michigan Lottery to provide information about winners of $1,000 or more to the Department of Human Services. The department must then perform an asset test to see if the person in question is eligible for government assistance. The Associated Press reported that Ms Clayton died in 2012 after what appeared to be an overdose. Mr Fick was living on a fixed income of $1,100 a month less than two years after winning the lottery, having used up most of the money. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail for a drug offence in January 2012. In October of that year, he was sentenced to 13 to 60 months in prison after convictions of larceny of a firearm and felon in possession of a firearm, MLive reported. The whole thing just blew up in my face, Mr Fick told a judge about how he lost his money. I thought people would love me if I helped them out some. I had the wrong idea, I guess. They all turned on me and that was it. Bridge Michigan reported that Mr Ficks mishandling of government assistance led to 15,000 families in Michigan with assets of more than $5,000 losing access to food stamps. US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said that China has to cooperate with an additional US and World Health Organisation-led investigation into how the Covid-19 outbreak began. He made the comments while being interviewed by John Dickerson on CBS Face The Nation on Sunday while emphasising the importance of Beijing joining in an investigation into what led to the virus that has disrupted the world for more than a year. Mr Blinken said, One of the things thats coming out of the G7 is an insistence that the WHO be able to move forward with China cooperating on this so-called Phase-two report to build on the initial report, which had real problems with it, not the least of which was Chinas failure to cooperate. He called on China to join the international effort to figure out what caused the coronavirus. The theory that it escaped from a lab in Wuhan has gained mainstream traction in recent weeks, with the Biden administration ordering an intelligence community investigation. China has to cooperate with that transparency, access for international experts, information sharing that has to happen. And again, I think youre seeing countries coming together to insist on that, he said. The main purpose is to make sure that knowing what happened, why it happened, how it happened, we can put in place whats necessary to prevent it from happening again or at least to mitigate the next outbreak, Mr Blinken added. From 9 until 13 June, the president has been convening with other world leaders, such as UK prime minister Boris Johnson, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel in St. Ives in Cornwall, UK. All seven countries vowed to eradicate forced labour from supply chains, combat cybercrime and tackle the pandemic. They also urged China to honour the high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong and human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially related to Xinjiang, which is a concern of the international community for the way the Chinese government treats the Uyghur population. A report published earlier this week by the human rights organisation Amnesty International show detailed evidence of crimes against humanity, massive human rights violations, and a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale. Lara Trump has said that Americans living close to the southern border better arm up and get guns and be ready, and maybe they will have to take matters into their own hands while speaking to Fox News. The daughter-in-law of former president Donald Trump was discussing border security in her Saturday appearance on the conservative news channel. She also blasted vice president Kamala Harris for her efforts to try to address the root causes during her recent diplomatic tour of Central America. She thinks she can just laugh off the crisis at the border and its embarrassing, Ms Trump said. Ms Trump suggested that it must be insulting for Border Patrol and ICE agents to hear about migrants crossing the border. Its like they are being made a mockery of. Its disgusting and disgraceful to see, she said. I don't know what you tell the people that live at the southern border, Ms Trump added. I guess they better arm up and get guns and get ready, and maybe they will have to take matters into their own hands. People should never make this dangerous journey here. Its bad for Americans. Its bad for the migrants. Its bad all around. Ms Trump was criticised on social media for her comments. Photojournalist Zach Roberts tweeted: Just casually saying on a national broadcast that people should take up arms and start shooting immigrants. This is where were at. Texas Democratic Congressional candidate Russell Foster wrote: This is dangerous. The former presidents daughter-in-law is calling for people to shoot immigrants. It's worse after multiple mass shootings over the last few days in Texas and elsewhere. This could lead to an uptick in hate crimes across the country. US Customs and Border Protection data publicized this week shows that May was the busiest month along the border with Mexico since Joe Biden entered the White House in January. The Washington Post reported that authorities intercepted 180,034 migrants during the month of May. The share of migrants coming from outside Central American nations and Mexico has been growing, with the data also showing that the current spike in migrants is part of a 20-year high in illegal border crossings. Former White House councel Don McGahn was reportedly among those targeted by the Justice Department with a subpoena for his private information as it investigated leaks surrounding the investigation into former President Donald Trump and Russia. The New York Times reported Sunday that Mr McGahn was informed one month ago that his records from an Apple account were subpoenaed in early 2018, though Mr McGahn was reportedly not told what specific information was shared with DOJ officials. Little is reportedly known about the subpoena, other than it was issued by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, the Times reported. Mr McGahn did not immediately return a request for comment, but an attorney for the former White House councel declined to comment to the Times. The Independent has also reached out to Apple and the Department of Justice for comment. News of his involvement in the leak investigation comes after it was reported Thursday by the Times that Rep Adam Schiff, the Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as another Democrats and their respective staffs and families had been targeted by subpoenas for their phone records as the DOJ sought to uncover who was providing information to the media about investigations into the former presidents dealings in Russia. The virtually-unprecedented investigation of the presidents political rivals and their families, which did not appear to turn up any criminal activities, sent shockwaves through Washington over the weekend and led to furious House Democrats demanding answers and questioning whether Republicans would endure similar treatment unchallenged. My Republican friends need to ask themselves if under a Democratic president they would be comfortable with them being exposed and their children being exposed because some assistant U.S. attorney tells the grand jury that were going after the potential of a leak, warned Rep. Jim Himes, another Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, in an interview on CNN Saturday. Another former top official at the Justice Department under the Trump administration is distancing himself from reports that the agency seized phone records from at least two Democratic members of Congress. Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general who oversaw investigations into former President Donald Trumps dealings with Russia, has told associates that he knew nothing of a subpoena to Apple demanding phone records of House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep Adam Schiff, as well as another member of the House and their respective staff and families, CNN reported Saturday. News of the subpoena was first reported by The New York Times on Thursday. According to the Times, the records of nearly a dozen people were seized in the effort, which was characterized as an effort by the Trump administration to tamp down on leaks to the news media regarding the investigation and the former presidents ties to Russia in general. Mr Rosensteins reported statements denying knowledge of the subpoena comes after other top Justice Department officials under the same administration including former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr made similar denials. The Daily Beast reported that sources close to Mr Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia investigation, said that he was neither aware of the subpoena nor briefed on the seizure of phone records in any regard. Mr Barr denied knowledge in a statement directly to Politico. Mr Barr was "not aware of any congressmans records being sought in a leak case," he said, adding: "I never discussed the leak cases with Trump. He didnt really ask me any of the specifics." The Latest on the Group of Seven nations meeting being held in England: FALMOUTH, England Group of Seven leaders are talking about climate change on the final day of their summit in England, with naturalist David Attenborough warning they must take urgent action to avoid human-based environmental catastrophe. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too late. The leaders also plan to announce new green-financing plans to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions. Attenborough, who is due to address the leaders on Sunday by video, said global warning and loss of biodiversity are beyond doubt, as is the fact that our societies and nations are unequal. He said the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet? If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history, Attenborough said in comments released by summit organizers. ___ FALMOUTH, England The head of the World Health Organization has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says we need more, and we need them faster. The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday at the summit in southwest England. To do that, we need 11 billion doses, Tedros said, adding that it was essential for countries to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson the summit's host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year. Tedros reiterated his target of vaccinating 30% of the population of every country by the end of 2021. He said that reaching the goal requires 100 million doses in June and July, and 250 million more by September. ___ FALMOUTH, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie, have welcomed leaders from South Korea, Australia and South Africa, as well as the secretary-general of the United Nations, to the Group of Seven summit taking place on the coast of southwestern England. The leaders elbow-bumped and posed for photos Saturday on a pristine beach in Cornwall. The G-7 nations are the U.K., the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. The British government said the guest nations were invited to take part in the summit as part of Johnsons Global Britain agenda and that the expanded group can help the G-7 intensify cooperation between the worlds democratic and technologically advanced nations. India was also invited, but its delegation is not attending in person because of the severe coronavirus outbreak in the country. The leaders, whose 3-day summit is scheduled to end on Sunday, are expected to commit to a new plan, called the Carbis Bay Declaration, to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days. ___ NEWLYN, England U.S. first lady Jill Biden met Saturday with members of an organization that teaches surfing to military veterans, first responders and their families. Biden told members of Bude Surf Veterans that she had a white longboard of her own with a big butterfly on it. She met with them at a picnic table outside a contemporary art gallery overlooking Mounts Bay as President Joe Biden attended the Group of Seven summit in southwest England. Jill Biden observed that that the water is so calming and spoke about attending the Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women founded by Britain's Prince Harry. She added that she has yet to visit New Zealand and Australia. ___ CARBIS BAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron says its good that U.S. President Joe Biden is able to lead through cooperation, adding that the United States is definitely back as Europe's partner. Biden and Macron met Saturday as part of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, where they and other leaders of the world's wealthy democracies are discussing the coronavirus pandemic, the environment, national security, relations with China and economic issues. Former U.S. President Donald Trump took an adversarial approach with NATO allies, but Macron said Biden has shown that leadership is partnership. The desire for cooperation cuts both ways. Biden described the European Union as incredibly strong and vibrant, which he said not only helps with tackling economic challenges but also provides a backbone for NATO. ___ BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Joe Biden have met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in England. A spokesman for the German chancellor tweeted two pictures of the leaders sitting at a table in Carbis Bay on Saturday. At noontime on the second day of the G7 summit the chancellor talked to U.S. President Biden in between the work meetings," read the caption accompanying the photos. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert didnt give any details about what the two discussed. Merkel, who is leaving office later this year, plans to visit Biden in Washington next month. The president invited her to the White House earlier this week. ___ FALMOUTH, England Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside Saturday morning in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the G-7 summit. Some protesters paddled out to sea, while others sunbathed on the beach wearing masks of leaders' faces. A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass paddle out protest organized by the group Surfers Against Sewage, which is campaigning for more action to protect oceans. U.S. President Joe Biden and fellow leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting near the town of St. Ives for talks focusing on the pandemic and climate change. Earlier, activists from Oxfam assembled on Falmouth beach to protest climate change and put on masks depicting the leaders attending the G-7 summit. Max Lawson, Oxfams head of policy, said activists want the G-7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the United States - to commit to bigger reductions in carbon emissions and to financing to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. ___ CARBIS BAY, England The White House says President Joe Biden will hold a solo news conference after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two delegations will have a working session and smaller session as part of their meeting on Wednesday in the Swiss city of Geneva. But the White House says it is still finalizing the format of the meeting. The White House says a news conference with only Biden is the appropriate format to communicate the topics discussed, areas of agreement and sources of significant concern. ___ FALMOUTH, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has held meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of a G-7 summit, as post-Brexit turbulence strains relations between Britain and the EU. Johnson also met the blocs leaders, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, on Saturday at the Carbis Bay resort where G-7 leaders are gathering. The two sides are locked in an escalating diplomatic feud over Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that has a land border with the bloc. The EU is angry at British delay in implementing new checks on some goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., while Britain says the checks are imposing a big burden on businesses and destabilizing Northern Irelands hard-won peace. The spat has drawn in U.S. President Joe Biden, concerned about the potential threat to Northern Irelands peace accord. The EU is threatening legal action if the U.K. does not fully bring in the checks, which include a ban on chilled meats such as sausages from England, Scotland and Wales going to Northern Ireland from next month. Britain accuses the bloc of taking a purist approach to the rules and urged it to be more flexible in order to avoid what has been dubbed a sausage war. ___ FALMOUTH, England U.S First Lady Jill Biden and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, have written a joint article on the importance of early childhood education after their visit to a primary school on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in England. The two women met for the first time Friday at a school in Cornwall, southwestern England, where they visited 4 and 5-year-olds and spoke with experts on early childhood development. In their article, published on the CNN website Saturday, they said the disruption of the pandemic has helped people focus on the things that matter most, and they have a joint belief that the future must include a fundamental shift in how our countries approach the earliest years of life. If we care about how children perform at school, how they succeed in their careers when they are older, and about their lifelong mental and physical health, then we have to care about how we are nurturing their brains, their experiences and relationships in the early years before school, they wrote. They said business leaders, among others, should give more support to the parents and caregivers in their workforces. If we want strong economies and strong societies, we need to make sure that those raising and caring for children get the support they need, they added. Biden is a longtime English teacher who focuses on education, a passion she shares with Kate, a mother of three young children. Israel parliament has voted in favour of a new coalition government, ending prime minister Benjamin Netanyahus historic 12-year rule. The Knesset erupted in cheers after agreeing that Naftali Bennett, a former right-wing ally of Mr Netanyahus now turned bitter rival, will become the new prime minister, presiding over a diverse and fragile coalition. Mr Netanyahu remains head of the Likud party and will hold the post of opposition leader, though also faces a looming corruption trial. Sundays vote, passed with a razor-thin majority of 60 to 59, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four elections. Mr Netanyahu sat silently during the vote. After it was approved, he stood up to leave the chamber, before turning around and shaking Mr Bennetts hand. Mr Bennett and his coalition were congratulated by the US president, Joe Biden, who said in a statement released by the White House on Sunday night that he wanted to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between the two nations. He added: Israel has no better friend than the United States and that Washington remains unwavering in its support for Israels security. A motley crew of eight parties with deep ideological differences make up the new ruling coalition from right-wing supporters of Jewish settlements in the West Bank to left-wing parties who support a Palestinian State, including for the first time an Arab Islamist party, Raam. Under the terms agreed by the new government, Mr Bennett, leader of the Yamina party, will serve the first two years as prime minister, followed by Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of party Yesh Atid, for two years if the fragile coalition lasts that long. In a speech before the vote, Mr Bennet concentrated mostly on domestic issues but told the Israeli parliament that he opposed efforts to revive Irans nuclear deal with world powers. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, Bennett said, vowing to maintain Netanyahus confrontational policy. Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action. Israeli Prime minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defence Minister Benny Gantz (REUTERS) He also had with a message for Hamas, following the recent 11-day war with the Gaza militant group. I hope the ceasefire in the south is maintained. But if Hamas again chooses the path of violence against Israeli civilians, it will encounter a wall of iron, he said. Mr Lapid called off a planned speech to parliament, instead saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behaviour of his opponents, after supporters of the outgoing prime minister interrupted proceedings, and some were escorted from the chamber. In a brief speech, he asked for forgiveness from my mother. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead, she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Mr Netanyahu had also taken to the floor to speak before the vote. He said he was leaving with his head held high. I have worked night and day for our country we have turned Israel into a global power, he said. At the end of his lengthy speech, Mr Netanyahu said he would fight daily against this terrible, dangerous left-wing government in order to topple it. He added: With Gods help, it will happen a lot earlier than you think it will. Since 1963, The Independent has helped create a great community! Since our founding in September of 1963, The Independent has been dedicated to giving Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Sunol readers the news they need to be in-the-know about what's going on in the Tri-Valley region. 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. We know Mars as the big red planet that we plan on living on in the near future (obviously if we don't take care of our own planet and global warming eventually destroy it into pieces), however, the initial impression of the planet doesnt really look very homely. NASA / Elderfox Documentaries The barren red desserts scattered with a rather unforgivingly thin atmosphere. Definitely, no place is like Earth. But what if Mars was all blue and green like Earth instead of red and dead? ALSO READ: 22 Pics Of Mars Surface Like You've Never Seen It Before Aditya Raj Bhattarai A Nepali civil-engineering student Aditya Raj Bhattarai, who is currently studying to get his bachelor's degree from Tribhuvan University. He has created a 3D render of Mars, where instead of a red barren land, the planet is covered with 71 percent of water, just like Earth. ALSO READ: 17 Stunning Mars Images From NASA Perseverance Rover Landing The end result is a look into a world that looks a lot like our planet, just slightly larger. The 3D rendering shows two prominent land masses forming, each of which would seem to form continents. While the left side shows a dramatic, mountainous terrain that includes Olympus Mons, the right side seems to offer more flatlands that include planes like Terra Sabaea. Aditya, in a conversation with Inverse revealed how he is one of the greatest admirers of Elon Musk, stating, "I am [a] big fan of Elon [Musk] and SpaceX and their plan to put the man on Mars, and I hope I could help in his cause. This is a part of my side project where I calculate the volume of water required to make life on Mars sustainable and the sources required for those water volumes from comets that will come nearby Mars in [the] next 100 years." Bhattarais map shows that Mars' sea level lies as low as 1,211 meters (0.75 miles) below the geoid level (a level that averages out the ocean surface without taking factors like tides and currents into consideration). Aditya Raj Bhattarai/ NASA The sea level created by Bhattarai is also around 20,076 meters (12.5 miles) below Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system and measures more than double the height of Mount Everest. ALSO READ: NASA Shares First Aerial Photos Of Mars Captured By Ingenuity Helicopter While we might never really get to see this Mars in reality (or if Terraforming ever occurs), this 3D render surely gives us a look into a different perspective of the planet we would one day call home. Until then, we must do whatever it takes to keep our current planet healthy, so that we may never need to leave it. What do you feel about the blue and green Mars? Tell us in the comments below. Strangers on the internet have come together to save the life of a three-year-old boy in Hyderabad by getting him an injection worth Rs 16 crore to treat a rare genetic disorder. The young boy, Ayaansh Gupta received the world's most expensive drug Zolgensma, a single-dose intravenous injection, on Wednesday, at the Rainbow Hospital in Hyderabad after 62,450 strangers from social media contributed 14.84 crores with the help of crowd-funding. His parents, Rupal and Yogesh, had been in the line for more than two years to get the treatment for him after he was diagnosed with a progressive neuromuscular disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. TOI The couple was able to raise most of the money through the crowd-funding platform ImpactGuru in around four months. His father, Yogesh, thanked the donors and doctors for making the treatment possible. "Thank you so much... thanks to around 65,000 donors who came forward to donate and saved Ayaansh. We are very happy that we finally got this medicine for which we were waiting since a long time. This can change the life of Ayaansh... so we are very, very happy," he said. WE DID IT!!! Never thought that this arduous journey we set on to #saveayaanshgupta would culminate this beautifully. Happy to announce tht we have reachd 16 Cr. needed to get #Zolgensma for #Ayaansh. A big thank you to every person who supported us. This is your victory. pic.twitter.com/n0mVl1BvGv AyaanshFightsSMA (@FightsSma) May 23, 2021 He added that he and his wife had a hard time after their son was diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder just a few months after being born. His hands and legs were weak and he was unable to stand or sit without help. A person diagnosed with the rare disorder is unable to control the movement of muscles due to loss of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain stem. It is treated with the help of very expensive gene therapy. Initially, he was put him on the waiting list of pharma companies that sponsor the treatment of children with the rare disorder. However, it did not work out for them which led to crowd-funding. According to Dr Ramesh Konanki, who administered the gene therapy, this would arrest the disease and Ayaansh could hope to achieve new growth milestones from now on. "There are 800-900 people living with this (disorder). Three to four times that number of children with the disease die by the age of two. For Ayaansh, we managed to get crowdfunding in about four months' time, and we are very happy," he said. @NakuulMehta @JANK_EE - you joined this Campaign when we were literally stuck and struggling because funds were slow. We weren't sure if we would reach past a decent figure by Ayaansh's birthday. But your support helped turn tables. Can't express how thankful we are. pic.twitter.com/YU38ZSsPvy AyaanshFightsSMA (@FightsSma) May 23, 2021 Kindness saves another life! Real-time social media posts from local businesses and organizations across Northern Virginia, powered by Friends2Follow. To add your business to the stream, email cfields@insidenova.com or click on the green button below. Woodbridge, VA (22192) Today Thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low 67F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low 67F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Two Northern Virginia students have advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Scripps National Spelling bee, while Prince William County's competitor fell just one letter short. Akshita Balaji of Merrifield and Ashrita Gandhari of Leesburg were among 74 spellers who survived Saturday's preliminary round, which was conducted virtually and lasted nearly 12 hours. The day began with 209 spellers who reached the national finals by winning their local or regional spelling bee. In order to advance, competitors had to correctly spell two words and provide the correct definition of a third word. Keona Thomas of Manassas Christian School, winner of the Prince William Regional Spelling Bee in March, correctly spelled one word, LLullaillaco (a dormant stratovolcano at the border of Argentina and Chile), and provided the correct definition for ventriloquy in the second round. However, she was tripped up on her third-round word, eolith (a roughly chipped flint found in Tertiary strata), which she spelled "ealith" Due to technical difficulties, Thomas had to wait nearly six hours past her scheduled time to spell and was one of the final spellers to complete the preliminary round. Because the contest is being conducted virtually, spellers are required to use laptops and headsets provided by the Scripps National Bee, must keep their hands in view of the camera while competing, and had to have a proctor in the room with them. The quarterfinals will be held Tuesday from noon to 6 p.m. and, like the preliminary round, will be livestreamed on ESPN3. The semifinals will be June 27, and from there the finalists will travel to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., for the finals, which will be in person on July 8. Balaji, 14, is an eighth-grader at Carson Middle School who won the Fairfax County bee, sponsored by the Fairfax County Council PTA. She tied for 51st in the 2019 national bee, the last time the event was held. Balaji spelled senecio correctly in the first round, correctly defined extant in the second round, and correctly spelled antonomasia in the third round. Ghandari, also 14, is an eight-grader at Stone Hill Middle School who won the Loudoun County bee, sponsored by Loudoun County Public Schools. She is competing in the national bee for the fourth time, having previously finished tied for 35th in 2017, tied for 42nd in 2018 and tied for 51st in 2019. Ghandari spelled tussock correctly in the first round, correctly defined dissonance in the second round, and correctly spelled aeroshell in the third round. A U.S. federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 workers at a Texas hospital over its requirement that they be vaccinated against COVID-19. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes upheld Houston Methodist Hospitals policy mandating employees be vaccinated, in a ruling issued on Saturday. Jennifer Bridges, a nurse and the lead plaintiff in the case, had argued that if she was fired for refusing a vaccine, it should be considered wrongful termination. She also said the vaccines are experimental and dangerous. The judge did not find merit in either argument. Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus, Hughes wrote in a five-page decision. It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer. Bridges can freely choose to accept or refuse a Covid-19 vaccine; however, if she refuses, she will simply need to work somewhere else. The judge said Texas law only protected employees from being fired for refusing to commit an illegal act and that the requirement is consistent with public policy. Three vaccines received emergency authorization in the United States, though they have not received full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also said last month that U.S. companies can mandate that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 with certain exceptions. A lawyer for the workers who sued plans to appeal. This legal battle has only just begun, the lawyer, Jared Woodfill, said in an email. Employment should not be conditioned upon whether you will agree to serve as a human guinea pig. In a statement, Houston Methodist called the lawsuit frivolous and said it was pleased with the judges decision. It noted that 24,947 hospital employees have met the vaccine requirements. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Topics COVID-19 Lawsuits Texas Legislation If you are worn out by virtual meetings, take comfort knowing you are not alone. Even the chief executive of Zoom admits to suffering from Zoom fatigue, the unofficial diagnosis assigned to the tiredness and burnout associated with the constant use of videoconferencing platforms. While I would question the veracity of many neologisms describing our more recent battles with digital technology, Zoom fatigue is very real indeed. Researchers in Microsoft recently analysed the brain activity of people attending back-to-back virtual meetings. The average activity of beta wavesthose associated with stressincreased significantly over time. Zoom fatigue So Zoom fatigue is not all just in your head. And the problem is not going away anytime soon. The end of the pandemic may be in sight, but for many, virtual meetings will continue to be a way of life. To develop solutions, my colleagues and I are currently conducting our own research study into the causes and consequences of videoconferencing fatigue. While our preliminary findings validate the often cited triggers such as poor internet connection, background distractions, and the awkward small talk, we also uncovered a less recognised stressor: The exaggeration of non-verbal signals. Let me explain. Imagine you are in your fifth virtual meeting of the day. Your boss is discussing a new health and safety initiative about to be rolled out across the organisation. You are not really that interested and more concerned about whats for dinner. But you have to feign interest. After all, your boss and all your work colleagues are staring directly at you through the laptop screen. You are gently nodding your head in agreement. It's your tried-and-trusted office routine. But now you are unsure whether your small boxed face on the screen is demonstrating your commitment to the cause. So what do you do? You nod your head like a woodpecker, hold a constant fake smile, and wave your hands around in a manner that any Italian would be proud of. W Whether you are engaged with the discussion or not, displaying such exaggerated body language through a screen is draining. So why do we do it? In face-to-face meetings, our feelings and attitudes are largely conveyed by non-verbal signals such as facial expressions, the tone and pitch of voice, posture, and gestures. Eoin Whelan says a possible reason we over-animate on video calls is the mirror image of ourselves present on most platforms. We tend to display and process such cues with very little effort. In a video chat, however, we need to work a lot harder to process non-verbal cues, but also to display them. Exaggerating non-verbal signals is not only draining, it also leads to pain. One IT consultant who participated in our study managed to knock a hot coffee over themselves while gesticulating their passion during a video sales pitch. Another explained how they now experience significant jaw pain from holding a constant smile pose at client meetings. While previously I disparaged the emergence of digital neologisms, Id now like to coin one of my own Zoom jaw. Another possible reason why we over animate on video calls is the mirror image of ourselves present on most platforms. Researchers in Stanford University found that an increase in self-focused attention triggered by the self-view in video conferencing, contributed to feelings of exhaustion. When in the presence of a one-inch mirror of ourselves we may subconsciously believe we are inanimate, and over-compensate as a result. While company policies such as no-meeting days and scheduled breaks between video calls will certainly help alleviate fatigue, one simple change we can make for ourselves is to enable the hide self-view feature available on most video call platforms. But dont turn off the video. Your work colleagues may enjoy watching you spill coffee over yourself. The UKs competition regulator has launched a fresh investigation into Facebook over concerns that the tech giant might be abusing a dominant position in digital advertising. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will look into how the social network gathers and uses certain data and whether it may provide an unfair advantage over rivals in the online classified ads and online dating space. As well as Facebooks advertising services, Facebook Login, a feature that allows people to sign into other websites and apps, will also form part of the probe. The regulator said it will assess whether data from both offerings enable the firm to benefit Facebook Marketplace, a part of the platform where users can place classified ads, and Facebook Dating. The announcement comes as the European Commission (EC) launched its own investigation into the companys use of data. We intend to thoroughly investigate Facebooks use of data to assess whether its business practices are giving it an unfair advantage in the online dating and classified ad sectors, said Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA. Any such advantage can make it harder for competing firms to succeed, including new and smaller businesses, and may reduce customer choice. We will be working closely with the European Commission as we each investigate these issues, as well as continuing our coordination with other agencies to tackle these global issues. Facebook responded saying that it will cooperate fully with the investigations to demonstrate that they are without merit. We are always developing new and better services to meet evolving demand from people who use Facebook, a spokesperson said. Marketplace and Dating offer people more choices and both products operate in a highly competitive environment with many large incumbents. Democracy took another hit during the week. This time, it was plain old deception that dealt a blow to the system by which we choose to be governed. At another time in history, this might be not such a big deal, but right now liberal democracy is not in a good place and any erosion of trust takes on far great significance than might otherwise have been the case. On Wednesday, the Irish Independent broke the story about the fake polling company set up by Sinn Fein. Before the day was out, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both admitted they had got up to something similar in the past also. Then the Greens threw their name into the pot, admitting they had faked it in some isolated incidents. Notably, all of the parties claim they ceased this carry on before 2016, which was when data protection under GDPR came under the radar. The inference here is that deceiving the public on their doorstep was completely kosher until the EU adopted the new data protection regulations. Sinn Fein user manual The only physical evidence of the practice of fake polling is the Sinn Fein user manual. Party members were instructed to present themselves as independent pollsters on the doorstep and to process the deception on the following basis: You are carrying out an opinion survey on behalf of Irish Market Research Agency. "You are casually employed for one day. IMRA is based in Dublin. You will not be recording any information that can be personalised back to a named individual. IMRA, of course, doesnt exist. One wag during the week suggested that the acronym may have been a little in-house joke in which the M was included for camouflage purposes. These are pretty specific instructions, a detailed level of deception. While no manual has emerged for the other parties, Fine Gael and the Green party have admitted they also used a fake company as cover for some polling. The official reaction across the board has been official regret, which is really no regret at all. In reality, some, if not many, in politics, and particularly the larger entities, tell themselves the deception was serving a higher goal the advancement of their vision for society and is therefore justified. This is the ethic that is also behind the retention of as much data as possible about voters in order to figure out which elements require massaging, a system that undermines the secrecy of the ballot box, a key tenet of democracy. Once this stuff can be justified within the bubble of politics, it is dismissed with the wink of an eye. That attitude also prevailed 20 years ago when the civil war parties were exposed for being engaged in fraud in pursuit of democratic ideals. 'Pick me up' political funding For years, if not decades, up until the establishment of two major tribunals in the late 90s, they both engaged in a system of political funding that was known as pick me up. This involved approaching donors or companies for major sums of money and then arranging for the donation to be recorded as a business expense for which the donor could claim tax relief. The system thus hid the provenance of the donation and defrauded the Revenue. So if and when the donor ever managed to exercise influence over Government policy, the public were unaware of the donation or the deception, which rendered both donor and receiver as thick as thieves. Just as the fake polling was apparently stopped when impending GDPR threatened to expose it, so too the pick me up ended when tribunal lights were shone on party funding. The revelations at the time had little or no impact on the respective standings of the parties. It was as if the public expected nothing less, but below the surface, hard evidence of deception contributed to the low thrum of cynicism about politics and politicians. Following the economic collapse in 2008 and the widespread disillusionment with the kind of politics that precipitated the disaster, all the deception down through the decades fed into the prevailing mood. Today, the public is no longer deceived on the doorstep or backrooms, where suitcases of cash change hands. Today, public is deceived online Political advertising online has already dealt blows to liberal democracy through the Brexit vote and the tenure of Donald Trump. File picture: AP/Jacquelyn Martin, File Instead, it is online, particularly on platforms such as Facebook. Political advertising online has already dealt blows to liberal democracy through the Brexit vote and the tenure of Donald Trump. In both instances, large groups were conditioned to believe propaganda, had their prejudices confirmed and inflamed, and adapted the worldview relentlessly fed to them through the platforms algorithm. The crucial aspect to this system of canvassing is that it involves a personal relationship between the advertiser and the voter. There is no outside influence, nobody to question the content of the ads, nobody to intrude on the worldview being propagated. The algorithm which identifies subsets in society, their wants, needs and fears, their interests and socio-economic standing, is a virtual doorstep made in heaven for the canvasser. The political message is repeated relentlessly until such time as it is elevated in the mind of the voter from a political slogan to the status of unimpeachable truth. This is the tactic that has radicalised thousands all over the world to extremist right-wing views, often over a period as short as six weeks. Change the message from hate to bog-standard political issues and the process is the same, facts can be massaged into factoids, exaggerations go unchecked and downright lies insulated from any kind of scrutiny. Facebook recognised the extreme dangers of this kind of thing last year when it banned political advertising in the USA in November as passions were inflamed around the presidential election and its aftermath. In March of this year, the platform lifted the ban in order to resume pulling in a lucrative form of income. At the time, a statement was issued, explaining. We put a temporary ban in place after the November 2020 election to avoid confusion or abuse following Election Day. Weve heard a lot of feedback about this and learned more about political and electoral ads during this election cycle. So Facebook now may not tolerate advertising inciting violence but that doesnt mean that it will fact-check anything or refuse money if advertising is patently full of falsehoods. In such a milieu, there is a huge responsibility on political parties to be honest and measured in their advertising. And, no doubt, in the interests of their allegiance to lofty ideals, they all voluntarily and assiduously ensure that everything they flog is based on reasonable assumptions and facts. Surely, insulated from scrutiny, they wouldnt deliberately deceive voters at a time when liberal democracy is under such pressure. Surely not. Viewers are all delighted to witness such a heartwarming fairytale in this adaptation of Jeff Lamire's DC/Vertigo comic "Sweet Tooth" on Netflix. Now we need to talk about what the series was all about, how it resonated with viewers, and where the narrative could go and, if "Sweet Tooth" Season 2 is coming. 'Sweet Tooth' Season 1 Spoilers: A Compelling Narrative A "Great Crumble" led to the proliferation of hybrid babies, who are both part human and part animal due to a mysterious virus. Humans would resist them, even hunt them down. Gus (Christian Convery) is a half deer half human hybrid who has been brought, raised and protected by his father Pubba (Will Forte) in a secluded cabin in Yellowstone National Park against the human's hatred for hybrids. These hybrid hunters then killed Pubba when Gus was 9-years old, CBR noted. Gus soon discovered a picture buried by Pubba underneath a tree that he assumed bore the image of his mother showing the word Colorado on it. As he left the woods and set a fire to search for his mother, the blaze alerted hunters to where he was and tried to murder Gus for sport. Traveler and Last Man Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) emerged, saved Gus, and killed the hunters. After saving Gus, Jepperd tried to leave Gus, who instead followed his savior asking him to help him find his missing mother in Colorado. Jepperd resisted but remained protective of Gus, who did not let Jeppard abandon him. Together, they went on an extraordinary adventure across the ruins of America in their quest for the truth--about Jepperd's past and Gus' origins, encountering many allies and enemies along the way.. Read Also: Is Your iPhone Battery Draining Too Fast? Uninstall This App to Save Your Apple Device! Where Did Gus Come From? The biggest question is where did Gus come from? In his adventures, Gus learned how his life had been a big lie. Thinking his father was Pubba all his life and that his mother was Birdie, Gus was so frustrated and devastated to find out that Pubba's name was Richard Fox, a janitor at Fort Smiith Labs in Colorado, Cnet revealed. Birdie turned out to be a geneticist who used Gus for her experiments, with Gus carrying the abbreviation Genetic Unit Series 1. Birdie and Richard had gone out on a date when the military stormed into her labs to seize her work. She the left Gus under Richard's care. His exact origins are still unknown. What Happened in Jepperd's Past When his adventures with Gus started, Jeppard already had problems with his past. When his wife bore a child, he was shocked and upset to find out his son was a hybrid, Cnet added. He made a run for it but soon returned to make up for his mistake. When he came back, his family was nowhere to be found. That guilt of leaving his family made him help Gus. 'Sweet Tooth' Season 2 on its Way? With the positive reviews and viewership the series is getting, a second season is certainly on the horizon. It could get into interesting plot twists and story arcs that would involve Gus and Jepperd saving the hybrids from hatred and further experimentation, as well as the search and hopefully the discovery of Birdie so that Gus would finally know the truth about his origins, as noted by Cnet. The series is produced by Robert Downey, Jr. and wife Susan, as per Buzzfeed. It is available on Netflix. Where to Watch 'Sweet Tooth' Season 1? To watch the current season of "Sweeth Tooth", go to the Netflix app on your device or smart TV or visit the Netflix website. If you don't have a Netflix account yet but unsure of what subscription to get, we provided a detailed guide on how you can register and what options you have to maximize the streaming service. Related Article: The Real Reason Why Netflix Wants To Cancel More Shows On Friday, officials with the Walker County Hospital District board announced that they have finalized a $7.8 million purchase of Huntsville Memorial Hospital. Do you feel like this is a good use of tax dollars, and is this the right direction for the struggling health care facility? You voted: Like the Ithaca Times? Please help support local journalism by whitelisting this site in your ad blocker. Thank you! I'm going to watch some fireworks. I'm going to gather with family/friends. I'm going to take a short trip or start a long vacation. I plan to go to a theater and see a movie. I plan to binge watch movies/shows. I haven't planned anything yet. Vote View Results Staff Writer Jonathan Roberts is a reporter and photographer for the Johnson City Press covering Jonesborough, healthcare and higher education. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and has been with the Press since 2019. Joplin, MO (64801) Today Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. San Diego (CNS) Officials from the Centers for Health Protection and sheriffs deputies were searching for four men on Saturday who fled their vehicles on Interstate 54 after shooting at another vehicle, the authorities said. According to the accident record of the Health Protection Center, the shooting occurred at 2:22 pm on Saturday at SR54 westbound on Reo Drive. A man driving a black Chevrolet Colorado told California Highway Patrol officers that someone driving a white Lincoln Continental shot at his vehicle and then crashed under the Reo Drive overpass near Lincoln Acre. An eyewitness said that four passengers from the Lincoln Continental Hotel fled the scene. The officer found a gun in the crashed vehicle and stated that a shot appeared to have been fired. The Centers for Health Protection said the Colorado driver later found a bullet hole in the back of his vehicle. The deputies of the San Diego County Sheriffs Department and officials from the Center for Health Protection are searching for four suspects in nearby residences. According to Cal Trans San Diego, all lanes of the westbound SR54 were closed due to the investigation of the shooting. No further information is immediately available. Copyright 2021, City News Service, Inc. The 12 years of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus 12-year rule will end on Sunday, when Parliament will vote on the new government, and will usher in a promise to heal the countrys longest-serving leader The government of a severely divided country after leaving office. Netanyahu, 71, is the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation. He failed to form a government after Israels election on March 23, the fourth election in two years. The new cabinet will be a patchwork of centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid and ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett, and is expected to be sworn in after a vote of confidence in the parliament. Bennett is a hawkish high-tech millionaire who will serve as prime minister for two years before the popular TV host Lapid takes over. They will lead a government of different political parties, including a government that represents 21% of the Arab minority for the first time. Their plan is mainly to focus on domestic reforms while avoiding comprehensive actions on hot international issues, such as policies against the Palestinians. On June 12, 2021, Israeli protesters chanted slogans during a demonstration in front of the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem [Emmanuel Dunand/ AFP] Since there is little prospect of progress in resolving the decades-long conflict with Israel, many Palestinians are indifferent to the change of government and said that Bennett may pursue the same right-wing agenda as Netanyahu. The crucial Knesset meeting on Sunday will open at 4:00 pm local time (1300 GMT), with Bennett, Rapide and Netanyahu all speaking before the vote. Goodbye Bibi? Opponents of Netanyahu began to celebrate the end of his era outside his official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday night, the site of weekly protests against right-wing leaders for the past year. A black banner hung on the wall with the words Writing: Goodbye, Bibi, goodbye, the demonstrators sang, beat drums, and danced. This is an important night for us, and tomorrow will be a bigger day. I almost cry. We are fighting peacefully for this (Netanyahus departure), and this day has come, the protester Ophir Robinski said. We are celebrating a year of civil war, said Maya Alili, a protester from the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva. Everyone tells us that this will not work. But tomorrow a new government will finally be established in Israel, which proves that the civil war is effective. Netanyahu first served as prime minister in the 1990s and has won four consecutive terms since 2009. Facing Israel on the international stage, he is a polarizing figure at home and abroad. Netanyahu is often referred to as Bibi, his hardcore supporters like him, and his critics hate him. His ongoing corruption trial, and his denial of allegations, will only deepen the gap. For a long time, his opponents have condemned Netanyahus divisive remarks, vile political tactics, and national interests subordinate to his own political existence. Some call him the Minister of Crime and accuse him of mishandling the coronavirus crisis and its economic impact. But for Netanyahus large and loyal voter base, the departure of some people calling him King Bibi may be unacceptable. His supporters are angry at what they see because the country has turned its back on leaders committed to its security and opposes international pressure to take any steps that might lead to a Palestinian state, even if he promotes a diplomatic agreement with the United Arab Emirates , Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. However, these measures, and his role in obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine for the countrys world-renowned vaccination campaign, are not enough to give Netanyahus Likud enough votes to get him sixth. Tenure. Bennett, in particular, caused anger within the right-wing camp because of his teaming with Rapide to violate campaign promises. Netanyahu called the future coalition the biggest electoral fraud in Israels history, and his Likud group said the accusations refer to the coalition that Bennett has joined not reflecting the wishes of the voters. Bennett said that if there is no government formed, another election that may be held will be a disaster for Israel, thus justifying this move. Both he and Rapide stated that they hope to bridge political differences and unite Israelis under a government that works hard for all citizens. Their cabinet faces considerable diplomatic, security, and financial challenges: Iran, the fragile ceasefire with Palestinian groups in Gaza, the war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court, and the economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. Most importantly, their intricate coalition of parties has only a small majority in the parliament, that is, 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, and will still have to compete with Netanyahu-Netanyahu will definitely Become a combative opposition leader. No one ruled out the possibility of Netanyahus comeback. Chicago (Associated Press)-Authorities said on Saturday that two people were killed and at least 30 were injured in night mass shootings in three states. Many people can socialize freely. The attacks occurred on Friday night or early Saturday in Austin, the capital of Texas, and Savannah, Georgia, respectively. In Austin, the authorities said they had arrested one of the two male suspects and were looking for the other after a shooting in a crowded pedestrian street full of bars and restaurants earlier on Saturday. Fourteen people were injured in the gunfire, of which two were seriously injured. The citys temporary police chief stated that it is believed that this is a dispute between the two parties. By late Saturday, no one had been arrested in the other two shootings. In Chicago, two men opened fire on a group of people standing on the sidewalk of the Chatham community in the southern district of the city, killing one woman and injuring nine others. The gunman also escaped and was not confirmed before noon on Saturday. The police said that in the southern Georgia city of Savannah, the police said that one man was killed and seven others were injured in a mass shooting on Friday night. Two of the injured were children, one was 18 months old and the other was 13 years old. Savannahs police chief Roy Minter, Jr. said the shooting may be related to the ongoing dispute between the two groups, citing a shooting in the same apartment building earlier this week Reports. The situation we have seen across the country and the level of gun violence we have seen across the country is very disturbing, he told reporters on Saturday. Its disturbing, and its meaningless. When the attack occurred, most parts of the country (including Chicago) eased restrictions on the COVID-19 pandemic, and many remaining safeguards were cancelled on Friday. Many people hope that the surge in shootings and homicides in the United States last year is an abnormal phenomenon, which may be due to increased gun ownership and epidemic-related pressure caused by policing disputes. But these rates are still higher than pre-pandemic levels, including cities that refused to cut police spending after George Floyds death and cities that cut spending moderately. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Administration Research Forum, said: People hope this may be just a statistic that is beginning to decline. That didnt happen. This is what really worries the chiefs, we It may enter a new era, and we will see a reversal of the decline in these crimes over the past 20 years. Tracking the ups and downs of crime is always complicated, but violent crime usually increases during the summer months. Weekend evenings and early mornings are also common windows for shooting. Many types of crime did decline in 2020 and have remained at a low level this year, indicating that the pandemic and the activism and riots in response to Freuds death did not lead to an overall surge in crime. According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University, out of the 19 mass shootings in 2020, only 3 mass shootings occurred in public placesthe lowest total in this category in a decade. The database tracks all mass killings, including shootings, defined as the deaths of four or more people excluding the perpetrators. James Allen Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, said that according to this definition, there have been 17 mass killings this year, 16 of which were shootings. The Gun Violence Archive, which monitors media and police reports to track gun violence, defines a mass shooting as an incident involving four or more people being shot and killed, regardless of whether they died or not. Overall, according to its database, more than 8,700 people in the United States have died from gun violence this year. GVA also found that mass shootings soared to about 600 in 2020, higher than any of the first six years it tracked. According to this years statistics, there have been at least 267 mass shootings in the United States so far, including the latest three incidents from Friday to Saturday nights. This is worrying, Fox said. We have a group of people starting to walk around in public. We have a lot of differences. We have more guns and warmer weather. This is a potentially deadly mixture. According to the database tracker, this story has been corrected in paragraph 13 that the three mass shootings in public places in 2020 are the lowest annual totals in ten years. European construction executives warned that dangerous price increases and shortages of many construction materials could undermine the EUs 800 billion euro flagship economic stimulus plan. The EU construction industry accounts for nearly 10% of the EUs economic output, and huge infrastructure projects account for a large part of the Brussels Recovery Fund, which will allocate grants and loans to the EU. Rebuilding the economies of member countries After the Covid-19 pandemic. But as the economic rebound in Europe and other regions (including the United States and China) has triggered a construction boom, the prices of construction materials ranging from steel and wood to concrete and copper have begun to rise sharply in recent weeks. Many manufacturers cannot supply materials before the end of the year, this is a real problem According to data from the Federation of European Construction Industry (FIEC), the price of asphalt has risen by 15% in just three months, the price of cement has risen by 10% in one month, and the price of wood has risen by more than 20%. Public infrastructure projects usually penalize builders for construction delays, and contractors often have to bear the cost of unexpected price increases. FIEC Director-General Domenico Campogrande (Domenico Campogrande) warned that price increases and additional delays could dilute the impact of EU funds. The danger is that we have this huge EU recovery plan, but if 30% to 40% of these funds are absorbed in additional financial instruments to pay higher prices, it will be a real nonsense, because it will not enter The real economy, he said. in The most recent letter The FIEC told the European Commission that it has warned against price increases and material shortages, including that the price of steel used to make reinforced concrete in Italy more than doubled in the four months to March. This phenomenon is endangering the contribution of the construction industry to economic recovery and threatening the potential impact of the European recovery plan, it said. In Italy-the biggest beneficiary of Brussels stimulus funds-the government plans to use more than 100 billion euros of EU funds to build new infrastructure in the next five years. But the construction industry warned officials that it will be difficult to meet the challenge without major reforms. Flavio Monosilio, research director of the Italian construction company association ANCE, said: We are facing a shortage of many basic building materials, which is very dangerous, because Italy has been hit harder than the rest of Europe. This crisis is at the core of the EUs new recovery plan. Construction industry executives blamed several factors for the bottleneck, including a sharp rebound in demand that exceeded Material supply In many countries, as well as supply chain disruptions and ongoing trade tensions associated with the pandemic. Some materials are also affected by other issues, such as bark beetles infesting wood production and delays in the redistribution of unused steel. Thomas Birtel, chief executive of the Austrian construction group Strabag, stated that prices had increased substantially in the past two weeks and the company had to report the delays of individual construction sites because the materials were no longer available at all. Strabag built the Copenhagen Metro in Denmark and the Limerick Tunnel in Ireland, and operated its own concrete and asphalt plants, but Birtel said: Construction is a small-scale business, and it is impossible to control the supply chain materials for all buildings. In Germany, 44% of construction companies surveyed by the Ifo Institute in May reported problems with timely procurement of materials, up from less than 6% in March. Since 1991, we have never seen such a bottleneck, said Felix Leiss of Ifo. This obviously caused a slowdown in construction activity in April, at least temporarily. Production in the German construction industry fell 4.3% month-on-month in April, although companies in the industry reported that the backlog of orders in March reached a record 62 billion euros. Many manufacturers cannot supply these materials before the end of the year. This is a real problem, said Stephan Rabe of the German Construction Industry Association. A lot of money is used for public and private sector construction projects in the United States and China, which is absorbing a lot of materials. Timber is produced in Germany and exported to the United States, so the supply here exceeds demand. Some German politicians have called on Berlin to seek temporary EU export restrictions on timber and other materials. As the U.S. government prepares to launch 1.7 tons Program infrastructure The global economy is expected to rebound speed up, It is expected that the pressure will remain high in the coming months. It will take time to get back to normal-at least by the end of this year, Campogrande said. Some countries, such as France and Germany, have responded by relaxing regulations on some public sector construction contracts, waiving delay fees, and compensating contractors for unforeseen price increases. Respected Monosilio said that Rome has not yet provided any relief to the industry, which has been hit by a decade of decline in public infrastructure investment, lack of bank funds, and long delays in project approvals and payments. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi once said that the destiny of a country depends on the success of a country. 248 billion euro package The investment and reforms of the European Union are mainly funded by the European Unions recovery and recovery plan. It includes investments in high-speed train lines, renewable energy facilities, smart grids and energy-efficient buildings. European Union countries have a poor record in allocating funds; in the six years to 2020, they spent an average of just over half of the funds allocated by Brussels. Monosilio said that if reforms are not carried out to solve the problems of the Italian construction industry, similar problems may confuse the EUs recovery spending efforts. The Draghi government absolutely wants to improve this situation, he said. [But] It is the sword of Damocles hanging over the entire European project. Heartbreaking photos show that the mourner at the Belize police funeral was allegedly shot and killed by Jasmine Harding, Lord Ashcrofts daughter-in-law. A few days after Hartins death, Superintendent Henry Jemmott was put to rest, and the mourner sobbed. bail After being arrested for his death. 11 Henry Germot rests in peace on Saturday Image source: Paulinos funeral home 11 Family members wear masks that read RIP King Image source: Paulinos funeral home 11 The funeral was held a few days after Jasmine Hartin was released on bail Credit: Jasmine Hating Jemmotts family wears masks that read RIP King, which is the nickname of the 24-year-old police veteran because he is the only child of many daughters. On Saturday, a 42-year-old police officer held a ceremony in his hometown of Dangriga, after which his coffin was transported to the street. Germot left five children and a 14-year-old partner. On May 28, the body of the officer was found floating beside the pier. Shoot with his own service weapon, Where Hating The claim is accidental. 11 Colleagues attending Henry Germots funeral Image source: Paulinos funeral home 11 Germots coffin was transported to his hometown Image source: Paulinos funeral home 11 Mourner sobbing during emotional service Image source: Paulinos funeral home 11 Germot is a 24-year veteran Image source: Paulinos funeral home When the sheriff was shot, the couple apparently had a drink together on the island of San Pedro late at night. Harding, 32, is married to Andrew, the son of British billionaire Lord Ashcroft. He was charged with manslaughter due to death. After paying a deposit of 30,000 Belize U.S. dollars (about 15,000 U.S. dollars), she was released on bail on Wednesday. The Canadian socialite was released after the court heard that she was suffering from extreme anxiety and pain The judge ruled that Harting would not pose a risk of escape, as the prosecutor said, and allowed her to go home to visit her 4-year-old twins. 11 Germots family say they dont believe that justice is done Credit: San Pedro Sun 11 Harting married Andrew, son of British billionaire Lord Ashcroft Image Credit: Alaia Belize / YouTube 11 Harting was released on bail on Wednesday Credit: Rex 11 Ashcroft has not publicly commented on the case Credit: Getty Images-Getty Hartings lawyer, Godfrey Smith, told reporters outside the Belize court: Finally, the judge believes that once the appropriate conditions are in place, there is no unacceptable risk of escape. Harting claimed that when the two were wandering on the dock, she was returning the gun to Germot when the gun accidentally escaped. Some people in Belize slammed the decision to grant bail to the suspect, believing that Harting received special treatment because of his wealth. The polices sister, 48-year-old Cherry Jemmott, lashed out at the decision to release Hartin, calling it wrong and unjust. Live blog Painful loss Porn star found dead in a RV was only 27 years old Brooklyn Horror Naked mother throws newborn and 2-year-old out of the window before jumping off the building French connection Macron blasted Trump and praised Biden as a member of the club This is a scam Internet celebrities come under fire for launching OnlyFans website full of Instagram reposts Pathological abuse Killer mother forced her daughter to stand in the laundry room for three days Texas Horror Police arrested 14 people and wounded in mass shooting in downtown Austin He gave the police 24 years. This is the value they gave him to his life? she asked. Before she was released, Harting spent more than a week in the notorious Belize Central Prison. According to her bail conditions, she must not leave Belize and must report to the police station every day. Lima, Peru- The official results have not yet been announced, but Pedro Castillo It seems that he will almost certainly become the next president of Peru. However, the radical left-wing outsider will face an uphill struggle to unite the divided Andean nation. The most pressing question will be whether he eases his politics or adheres to Marxist policies in his Liberal Peru Party manifesto. These proposals include allowing Perus huge mining sector to keep 70% of its profits in the country, nationalize the media, and spend 20% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education and healthcare-which is an increase from the country The tax revenue is still more. All 18.8 million votes cast in the presidential runoff on June 6 are now counted. Castillos approval rating is 50.15%, giving him A thin lead Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of President Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced to prison in the 1990s, only received more than 50,000 votes. Although international observers provided a clean health bill for the election, she still complained about fraud. This week she hired some top lawyers in Lima to try to cancel 200,000 votes, mainly from poor rural areas in the Andes and Amazon regions. , Castillo won by an overwhelming advantage in these areas. In some cases, the support rate exceeds 80%. But Fujimoris efforts are unprecedented in the history of Perus elections and delayed the official announcement of the winner, but it seems to have failed. The Peruvian National Electoral Tribunal (JNA, based on its Spanish acronym) ruled on Friday that most of her challenges were raised after the legal deadline. There are now less than 40,000 votes left, not enough to overturn the result. Deep polarization Despite this, the 46-year-old Fujimori faced trial and possible long-term imprisonment on suspicion of money laundering. Many commentators have noticed how her legal team, which is composed mainly of white lawyers, is effectively trying to deprive indigenous and mixed voters of their rights. This is part of our political and legal culture, all this paperwork, Arturo Mardonado, a political scientist at the Catholic University of Peru, told Al Jazeera. This is a candidate who cant afford to lose and is using these skills to win in court what she cannot do on the court. Fujimori refused to admit The 51-year-old Castillo, a provincial school teacher and union leader, may face increased challenges in establishing the legitimacy of his appointment. Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori is suspected of fraud, but international observers say there is no problem with voting [Liz Tasa/Reuters] These two extremely unpopular candidates only received 13% and 19% approval rates respectively. Crowded in the first round, And most Peruvians regard the runoff as a vote of candidates Seen as two evils, whichever is the lesser. Because he has no experience in public office and often contradicts himself during the campaign, Castillo will face a split and right-leaning upcoming Congress, which is unlikely to sign his economic plan, especially any nationalization plan. He will also face the risk of impeachment, regardless of reason.The outgoing Congress established this precedent in November last year when Remove The then president, Martin Vizcarra, stepped down on the grounds of corruption allegations that were not only unsubstantiated but had not yet been seriously investigated. Maldonado said: Castillo may just betray Congress and try to govern through a referendum. Anti-corruption efforts Another key issue is how Castillo handles Perus anti-corruption struggle. Two cases will serve as early touchstones. The first was Keiko Fujimori, in which the prosecutor demanded a 31-year prison sentence for the money laundering charges she denied, and the second was Vladimir Cerron, a former regional governor and a Cuban-educated surgeon who founded Free Peru. After being banned from running for president due to corruption convictions, Theron chose the little-known Castillo to replace his presidential candidacy. On Thursday, the court controversially overturned his conviction and four-year probation. The judge is now under investigation, and many Peruvians believe Theron, who will become the back-seat driver of the Castillo government, is facing six fraud investigations. Theron often makes controversial comments, suggesting that he, not Castillo, led the campaign. However, the presidential candidate tried to downplay this, insisting in one instance that his mentor would not even be hired as a gatekeeper in his government. Samuel Rotta, head of the Peru branch of Transparency International, said: Castillo needs to do more to clearly distance himself from Theron. His presidency may depend on it. But his anti-corruption strategy may also depend on it. Hope Enlightenment At the same time, emotions in Peru have been tense as the country is waiting for the final result.Expected to face legal challenges next week, delaying the start of the transition because Coronavirus pandemic Continue to sweep the country. Supporters of Fujimori were picketed in the offices of the electoral agency ONPE and the homes of the heads of JNE and ONPE.Interim President Francisco Sagasti calls on both sides to avoid Declare victory Before the official results were announced, some lawmakers even suggested condemning his prejudice against Fujimori. Anna Luisa Burga, 46, a historian from Castillos hometown of Cajamarca, now living in Lima, summarized the emotions of many Peruvians who reluctantly voted for Castillo, and now they It is hoped that this apparently untested newly elected president can become his candidate. Huge new responsibility. I didnt vote for him in the first round, and I didnt plan to vote for him in the second round. But then there was this wave of racism, class discrimination, and discrimination. I think this is very important. A president like Castillo, she told Al Jazeera. I still doubt, I think it will be very difficult for him. But I only hope that he can be enlightened and that there are good people around him. The second quarter is the same as the first quarter, the voice is much louder and wakes up a lot. The House of Representatives passed the first version of the MORE bill at the end of 2020. The bill died quickly in the Republican-controlled Senate. The blog tracks the evolution of the original version of the bill: house Reintroduced The second version of the bill was issued on May 28, 2021. This version is the same as the first version, but with some incremental upgrades. Most notably, the drafters of the bill Removed language This prohibits federal approval of applicants for marijuana felony convictions.This language It proved to be controversial when passing more bills in 2020. The refusal to provide federal permits to those directly affected by the ban seems to run counter to the stated intent of the bill. Provide reinvestment for certain people adversely affected by the drug war. The removal of this language indicates that Congresss goal this time is a more progressive vision of legalization. It is worth noting that the More Acts of 2021 has received strong support from Amazon.the company Provide formal support Not only for the new MORE Act, but also for the legalization of marijuana. Amazon representatives even promised to change its drug testing policy for some employees to allow the use of marijuana. Amazons support for the MORE Act speaks for itself and shows that the company may see the profit potential of federal legalization. More importantly, the size and ubiquity of companies may force other companies, Congress, and the president to expand support for federal legalization. Therefore, you may want to know whether this new bill is promising.United NationsFortunately, even with the support of the Democratic Party in both houses, the President of the Democratic Party and Amazon, the short answer is still no, not true. The bill requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate. This is the vote of every Democrat and ten Republicans. The progressive language of the new bill is an important step towards addressing the dangers of the drug war. But progressivism may not attract the reluctant centrist Democrats and the ten Republicans needed to pass the bill in the Senate. For the time being, conservative legalization bills are more likely to be passed, such as the Common Sense Cannabis Reform Bill for veterans, small businesses, and medical professionals (an unfortunate name that is far less important than MORE). Unless there is some political miracle (such as the end Obstruction), more bills will most likely not appear on President Bidens desk. We will contact you in time. The leaders of the G7 countries ended the three-day summit with a series of different initiatives, including a promise to vaccinate poorer countries against the coronavirus, a promise to allow large companies to pay a fair share of taxes, and a plan to tackle climate change. And the combination of money. In a joint communique issued in the southwestern British city of Cornwall at the end of the meeting on Sunday, the leaders of the G7 countries-Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States-tried to show that the pandemic caused After the upheaval and the unpredictability of former US President Donald Trump, international cooperation is back. The following is a summary of the main G7 initiatives: Billion doses of vaccine G7 has made ambitious commitments, such as sharing vaccine doses with less affluent countries that urgently need vaccines. At a press conference held at the end of the summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that the organization will promise to provide at least 1 billion doses of vaccines, half of which will come from the United States and 100 million from the United Kingdom. Many of the promised doses will flow through COVAX, a global vaccine procurement system supported by the World Health Organization and the vaccine alliance Gavi. The pledge does not represent a brand new resource, and the amount of vaccine donated is much lower than the number of vaccines needed to vaccinate poorer countries. In addition, the plan did not address distribution gaps that could make it difficult to provide doses. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other public health officials praised the vaccine promise, but said it was not enough. He said that to truly end the pandemic, 11 billion doses of vaccine will be needed by the middle of 2022 to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population. We need more, we need to be faster, Tedros said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Kelly Johnson posing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her husband Joachim Sauer at the G7 summit in Cabis Bay, Cornwall [Patrick Semansky/Reuters] Transparent investigation The G7 also urged China to cooperate with the United Nations health agencies to conduct a transparent second phase of investigation into the origin of the global coronavirus pandemic. The organization said in its final statement: We call for a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO study on the origin of COVID-19, including those recommended in the expert report, to be conducted in China. Step up actions to combat climate change Climate change is the focus of the last day of negotiations between leaders and G7 countries, and they formally support the strengthening of collective actions to deal with environmental crises. We are committedto halve our collective emissions in the 20 years before 2030, increase and improve climate finance by 2025, and protect or protect at least 30% of land and sea by 2030, United Wrote in the communique. The seven leaders also agreed to increase donations to fulfill the overdue and unpaid annual spending commitments of $100 billion to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming, but activists said they did not fulfill their firm cash commitments. In addition to plans to help developing countries speed up infrastructure financing and switch to renewable and sustainable technologies, the worlds seven largest advanced economies have renewed their commitment to achieving climate financing goals. However, the Climate Group stated that such commitments lack details. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that individual countries are expected to determine the scale of the increase in due course. Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at Oxfam, said, Most people in the G7 have missed the opportunity to make new commitments to climate finance. This is unacceptable. Prior to the landmark climate negotiations in Glasgow, developing countries are seeking progress in this area. Vague promises of providing new financing for green development projects should not detract from this goal, he said. US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were welcomed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the G7 Summit in Cabis Bay, UK [File: Patrick Semansky/Reuters] Global minimum tax for multinational companies Earlier this month, finance ministers agreed to impose at least 15% of the worlds lowest tax on large multinational companies to prevent companies from using tax havens to avoid taxes, thereby plundering some countries urgently needed taxes. Therefore, this decision has received widespread attention. income. The proposal will now be submitted to the G20 national meeting to be held in Italy next month. Russia and cyber attacks Wealthy countries demand that Russia take action against those who carry out cyber attacks and use ransomware, and call for investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Russia. We call on Russia to urgently investigate and credibly explain the use of chemical weapons on its land, stop systematic repression of independent civil society and the media, and identify, destroy and hold accountable those who implement ransomware within its territory. , Abuse of virtual currency, money laundering and other cyber crimes, said a communique issued after the summit of British leaders. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson took a photo with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK [File: Patrick Semansky/Reuters] Stop the war in Ethiopia immediately The G7 also called for an immediate end to hostilities in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The communique stated: We are deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict in Ethiopias Tigray region and reports of major humanitarian tragedies that are taking place. We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and unimpeded access to all areas of humanitarian channels and immediate withdrawal. Out of the Eritrean army. Fighting broke out in November between government forces and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), the former ruling party in the area. The army from neighboring Eritrea also joined the conflict to support the Ethiopian government. Challenge China The leaders of wealthy democracies said they would jointly challenge Chinas non-market economic practices and called on Beijing to respect human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. US President Joe Biden once wanted to persuade other democratic leaders to propose a more unified front for economic competition with Beijing, and strongly condemned Chinas non-market policies and human rights violations. The G7 Communique said: Regarding the competition between China and the global economy, we will continue to consult on collective methods to challenge non-market policies and practices that undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. The leaders also stated that they will promote their values ??by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang and the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong, where Beijing is accused of serious violations of the human rights of the Uyghur minority. After the court found that the two were guilty of arson, the defendants lawyers condemned the lack of justice. Four Afghan asylum seekers sentenced to 10 years in prison for their reasons In the fire The Moria immigration camp in Greece was destroyed last year. The Chios court ruled that the defendant was guilty of arson on Saturday, while their lawyers condemned the lack of justice and told AFP that they appealed immediately after the sentence was pronounced. The young Afghans were handcuffed and taken to the courtroom and are expected to return to Avlona prison outside Athens, where they were held before the trial. In March, two other Afghan youths were sentenced to five years in prison for the case. Camp Moria-on the island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea- Hold more Before being destroyed by two fires in September 2020, there were more than 10,000 people.No one died Fire. Camp Moria destroyed after the fire on Lesbos [File: Reuters/Vassilis Triandafyllou] Greek authorities believe that the fire was deliberately ignited by the camp occupants Isolation measures Enforcement was enforced after COVID-19 cases were found among people living in the location. About 20 people, mainly members of foreign solidarity groups, gathered outside the court to call for the defendants release. The defense lawyer said that the Afghans were not given a fair trial. The prosecution is largely based on the testimony of another Afghan asylum seeker who identified the six as the perpetrators. But according to the defense attorney, the witness did not appear in court on Friday, nor did he appear for trial in March because he could not be found. The defendants claimed that they were the target of Pashtun eyewitnesses because the six people were all Hazaras from the persecuted minority in Afghanistan. The other witnesses of the prosecution are the police, the firefighters who arrived at the scene in September 2020, the staff of the European Asylum Service and the NGOs working in the camp. The Moria camp was built in 2013 and can accommodate up to 3,000 people, but it was overwhelmed in 2015 as large numbers of people began to arrive from Turkey in small boats. Approximately 13,000 asylum seekers, including families with children, pregnant women and the disabled, had to sleep in the open One week After the camp was destroyed by fire. Since then, the authorities have established a temporary camp on Lesbos, which can accommodate approximately 6,000 people. The European Union has allocated $336 million to build a new permanent camp on Lesbos and similar facilities on Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros. There are currently about 10,000 asylum-seekers living on these five Aegean islands, and most of them want to settle elsewhere in the European Union. After a fire broke out in Camp Moria, a migrant carrying her belongings [File: Reuters] Jerusalem (AP)-The Knesset approved a new coalition government on Sunday. After a record 12 years in power and a political crisis that triggered four elections in two years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered Up the opposition. Naftali Bennett, the leader of a small ultra-nationalist political party, was sworn in as prime minister after passing the parliament by a thin vote of 60 to 59. But if he wants to keep this job, he will have to maintain a clumsy coalition of political right, left and center parties. Eight parties, including a small Arab faction that made history by sitting in the ruling coalition, united in opposition to Netanyahu and the new elections, but reached little agreement in other areas. They may pursue a moderate agenda It aims to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the United States without launching any major initiatives. Netanyahu sat silently during the voting. After getting approval, he got up and left the meeting, then turned around and shook hands with Bennett. The frustrated Netanyahu wore a black medical mask and sat down briefly on the chair of the opposition leader before going out. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, is still the leader of the largest party in parliament and is expected to vigorously oppose the new government. If only one faction collapses, it may lose its majority and face the risk of collapse, thereby providing him with the opportunity to regain power. Bennetts speech to Parliament before the vote vividly demonstrated the countrys deep differences. He was repeatedly interrupted and questioned loudly by Netanyahus supporters, some of whom were escorted out of the conference hall. Bennetts speech mainly focused on domestic issues, but he expressed opposition to the United States efforts to revive Irans nuclear agreement with world powers. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, Bennett said, vowing to maintain Netanyahus confrontational policy. Israel will not become a party to the agreement and will continue to maintain full freedom of movement. Nevertheless, Bennett thanked President Joe Biden and the United States for supporting Israel over the decades. Netanyahu spoke behind him, vowing to return to power. He predicted that the incoming government will have a weak attitude towards Iran and will succumb to the United States demands to make concessions to the Palestinians. He said: If we are destined to become the opposition, we will come forward until we overthrow this dangerous government and re-lead the country. Yohanan Plesner, director of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government may be more stable than it seems. Even if its majority seats are very limited, it is difficult to overthrow and replace it because the opposition has no cohesion, he said. Everyone in the alliance wants to prove that they can do it, and for this they need time and achievement. Nonetheless, Netanyahu will continue to be overshadowed, Presner said. He hopes that the incoming opposition leader will take advantage of the incident and propose legislation that members of the right-wing coalition want to support but cannot supportall to embarrass them and undermine them. At the same time, the new government promised that after four elections, the 11-day war in Gaza, and the outbreak of a coronavirus that destroyed the economy, it will return to normal after two turbulent years before passing a successful vaccination campaign. The degree is under control. The driving force behind the alliance is the political centrist Yair Lapid, who will become prime minister within two years if the government lasts that long. He canceled his original speech to the parliament, but said he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the noisy behavior of his opponent. In a short speech, he asked my mothers forgiveness. I hope she is proud of the democratic process in Israel. On the contrary, she and every Israeli citizen are ashamed of you and clearly remember why it is time to replace you, he said. The new government is expected to win a small majority in the 120-member parliament, after which it will be sworn in. The government plans to hold its first formal meeting later tonight. It is not clear when Netanyahu will move out of his residence. He lashed out at the new government with apocalyptic words He also accused Bennett of deceiving voters by campaigning as a right-wing stalwart and then cooperating with the left. Netanyahus supporters staged angry protests outside the homes of rival lawmakers, saying they received death threats by naming their families. Earlier this month, Israels Sinbet internal security service issued a rare public warning about this incitement, saying it could lead to violence. Netanyahu condemned the incitement and pointed out that he was also a target. His position in Israels history is solid, and he has served as prime minister for a total of 15 yearsmore than anyone else, including the countrys founder David Ben-Gurion. Netanyahu began his long-term rule. He defied the Obama administration and refused to freeze settlement construction because it tried to revive the peace process but failed. When Netanyahu vigorously opposed the impending nuclear agreement between President Barack Obama and Iran, relations with Israels closest ally became more unstable, even condemning it in a speech to the US Congress. But he suffered almost no consequences from these conflicts, and he received generous returns from the Trump administration, which recognized the disputed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, helped to facilitate normalization agreements with four Arab countries, and allowed the United States to Withdraw from the Iran agreement. Netanyahu portrayed himself as a world-class politician, boasting of his close relationship with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also established ties with Arab and African countries that have long avoided Israels policies towards the Palestinians. However, he was coldly treated by the Biden administration and was widely regarded as undermining the long tradition of bipartisan support for Israel in the United States. In China, his reputation as a political magician gradually faded, becoming a polarized figure. Critics say that his long-standing strategy of divide and rule has exacerbated the rift between Jews and Arabs in Israeli society and between his ultra-Orthodox allies and secular Jews. In November 2019, he was prosecuted for fraud, breach of trust and bribery.He rejected the call to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judicial and law enforcement agencies, and even Accused his political opponents of planning an attempted coupLast year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country, calling on him to resign. Netanyahu is still popular among the hardline nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he may soon face leadership challenges from within his party. A less polarized Likud leader is likely to form a coalition that is more right-handed and more stable than the government that is about to be sworn in. The 12 years of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus 12-year rule will end on Sunday, when Parliament will vote on the new government, and will usher in a promise to heal the countrys longest-serving leader The government of a severely divided country after leaving office. Netanyahu, 71, is the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation. He failed to form a government after Israels election on March 23, the fourth election in two years. The new cabinet will be a patchwork of centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid and ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett, and is expected to be sworn in after a vote of confidence in the parliament. Bennett is a hawkish high-tech millionaire who will serve as prime minister for two years before the popular TV host Lapid takes over. They will lead a government of different political parties, including a government that represents 21% of the Arab minority for the first time. Their plan is mainly to focus on domestic reforms while avoiding comprehensive actions on hot international issues, such as policies against the Palestinians. Since there is little prospect of progress in resolving the decades-long conflict with Israel, many Palestinians are indifferent to the change of government and said that Bennett may pursue the same right-wing agenda as Netanyahu. Goodbye Bibi? On the international stage, with beautiful English and a loud baritone voice, the photogenic Netanyahu has become the spokesperson of Israel. In his first term as prime minister in the 1990s and winning four consecutive terms since 2009, he has always been a polarizing figure at home and abroad. Netanyahu is often referred to as Bibi, his hardcore supporters like him, and his critics hate him. His ongoing corruption trial, and his denial of allegations, will only deepen the gap. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood with US President Donald Trump after signing the Abraham Agreement, which will normalize Israels relations with some of its Middle Eastern neighbors in 2020. (Tom Brunner/Reuters) For a long time, his opponents have condemned Netanyahus divisive remarks, vile political tactics, and national interests subordinate to his own political existence. Some call him the Minister of Crime and accuse him of mishandling the coronavirus crisis and its economic impact. The celebrations of his opponents celebrating the end of the Netanyahu era began on Saturday night outside his official residence in Jerusalem, the site of weekly protests against right-wing leaders in the past year. A black banner hung on the wall. It said: Goodbye, Bibi, goodbye and the demonstrators sang, beat drums and danced. The departure of King Bibi makes it difficult for some people to accept But for Netanyahus large and loyal base of voters, the departure that some people call King Bibi may be unacceptable. His supporters are angry at what they see because the country has turned its back on leaders committed to its security and opposes international pressure to take any steps that might lead to a Palestinian state, even if he promotes a diplomatic agreement with the United Arab Emirates , Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. However, these measures, and his role in obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine for the countrys world-renowned vaccination campaign, are not enough to give Netanyahus Likud enough votes to get him sixth. Tenure. Bennett, in particular, caused anger within the right-wing camp because of his teaming with Rapide to violate campaign promises. He justified this move by saying that another election (if no government is formed, it is likely to be held) is a disaster for Israel. Both he and Rapide stated that they hope to bridge political differences and unite Israelis under a government that works hard for all citizens. Their cabinet faces considerable diplomatic, security, and financial challenges: Iran; the fragile ceasefire with Palestinian militants in Gaza; the war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court; and the economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. Most importantly, their intricate coalition of parties has only a small majority in the parliament, that is, 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, and will still have to compete with Netanyahu-Netanyahu will definitely Become a combative opposition leader. No one ruled out the possibility of Netanyahus comeback. The UK accused Emmanuel Macron and other senior EU officials of talking about Northern Ireland as if it were a different country because of the tensions surrounding Brexit. G7 summit In Cornwall. Boris Johnson and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab opened up their new front War of words with the EU, Claiming to be unwilling to respect the territorial integrity of Britain. Although US President Joe Biden pleaded that the two sides should settle the dispute, the G7 summit led to increased tensions between the UK and the EU due to the post-Brexit trade system. Raab told the BBCs Andrew Marr on Sunday: We have continuously seen senior EU officials talking about Northern Ireland as if it is different from the United Kingdom in some way. This is not only offensive, but also has a real-world impact on the NI community. This has caused great concern and great panic. He asked EU leaders to consider how they would feel if Johnson talked about Catalonia, Flanders or Corsica as if they were not fully integrated parts of Spain, Belgium or France, respectively. We need a little respect here, and frankly, we also need to understand the situation in all communities in Northern Ireland, Raab added. Respected The focus of the dispute is the different interpretations of the Northern Ireland Protocol between London and the European Union, which is part of the Johnson Brexit agreement concerning trade in the region. In order to ensure that Irelands borders are open, the United Kingdom has agreed to conduct some inspections on behalf of the European Union on some goods from the United Kingdom at the ports of Northern Ireland. The aim is to prevent goods from entering the EU single market without inspection through Irelands open borders. The UK claims that the EU wants to implement severe inspections; the EU insists it is working hard to be pragmatic. The most imminent flashpoint in the dispute occurred before June 30, when the EUs ban on the import of chilled meat was supposed to take effect in Northern Ireland, preventing the sale of British sausages and ground beef in the region. At a tense meeting on Saturday, Johnson asked Macron how he would feel if Toulouse sausages were banned from being sold in Paris. Macron replied that this is a bad comparison. British officials claimed that Macron pointed out that Toulouse and Paris are part of the same country. But a source at the Elysee Palace said: The President said that Toulouse and Paris are in the same geographic area. Northern Ireland is on the same island. The source said that Macron was emphasizing the geographical issue and added: He reminded Boris Johnson that leaving the European Union is the British decision and he must respect his words. Respected But Downing Street believes that Macrons remarks clearly show that the French president does not recognize NI as an inseparable part of the United Kingdom. Raabs allies declined to disclose any other high-ranking EU figures who have made similar remarks. Britains Brexit Secretary David Frost, wearing union jack socks, attended a meeting with EU leaders in Cabis Bay, and will now resume with his opponent Marros Sevkovic ( Maros Sefcovic) negotiated to seek a compromise. The European Union threatened that if Britain unilaterally extended the grace period for British frozen meat exports to Northern Ireland beyond June 30, it would impose trade sanctions on the United Kingdom. Critics accuse President Daniel Ortega of suppressing opponents before elections to be held later this year. More prominent opposition leaders have been arrested in Nicaragua because there are growing concerns about what observers say will suppress opponents of President Daniel Ortega before elections to be held later this year. After the police arrested three other party officials over the weekend, the police arrested Suyan Barahona, the leader of the left-wing opposition Unamos party, Ortega critic on Sunday. Barahona is one of nearly a dozen opposition leaders and presidential candidates this month. Detained or disqualified Participate in the presidential election to be held in November. This is no longer just a potential candidate, but a political leader, said Hugo Torres, a former general and Sandinista dissident. This is not a transition to dictatorship, it is dictatorship in every respect. The crackdown began on June 2, when The police raided this house Christiana Chamorro, a journalist and potential presidential candidate, was charged with money laundering shortly after she announced her intention to participate in the election. At least 11 political leaders Arrested, And reporters have also been questioned by the authorities in recent weeks. Ortegas supporters believe that the authorities are simply enforcing the law. According to the legislation passed in December last year, the Ortega government has the right to unilaterally declare citizens as terrorists or coup detatists, classify them as traitors of the motherland and prohibit them from running as candidates. The law punishes those who lead or fund a coupencourage foreign intervention, demand military interventionpropose or plan an economic blockade, applaud and support those who impose sanctions on Nicaragua or its citizens But observers accused Ortega of trying to remove any challengers, and Ortega has not yet confirmed his intention to seek re-election for the fourth consecutive term. On Sunday, the Nicaraguan police stated that Barahona was arrested for trying to undermine the countrys independence and sovereignty, and for inciting foreign interference in internal affairs, requesting military intervention and organizing foreign financing. Unamos slammed the recent raids and arrests. The party said in a statement: These actions against the leadership of Unamos are part of the escalation of the Ortega regimes repression of the democratic opposition. The crackdown began on June 2, when the police raided the home of journalist and potential presidential candidate Cristiana Chamorro. [File: Carlos Herrera/Reuters] Last week, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that Guterres called on the Nicaraguan authorities to fully respect its international human rights obligations and release political leaders. These developments will severely weaken the publics confidence in the democratic process before the November election, Stephane Dujarric told reporters. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price also said that Ortega is becoming an international pariah and that Nicaragua is far away from democracy. The United States announced on Wednesday that it will impose sanctions on four Nicaraguan officials who support Ortega, including the presidents daughter, accusing them of undermining democracy and abusing human rights. President Ortegas actions are hurting Nicaraguans and plunge the country into a deeper tyranny, Andrea Gach, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the Ministry of Finance, said in a statement. Israels rival politicians formed a new government to remove the countrys longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. After four parliamentary elections in two years, opposition leader and former TV news anchor Yair Lapid and former settler leader and far-right religious nationalist Naftali Bennett (Naftali Bennett) formed an alliance, which called for the annexation of most of the occupied West Bank. On Sunday, the Knesset voted 60 to 59 to pass a new coalition government, ending Netanyahus 12-year rule as prime minister. Early years Netanyahu, who is currently undergoing a corruption trial, is Israels far-right prime minister so far and the first Israeli-born politician to become a leader. Netanyahu is the son of a revisionist Zionist from Poland, and some of his roots can be traced back to Spain. Netanyahu was born in Jaffa in 1949, grew up in Jerusalem, and attended high school in the United States. His mother Tzila Segal is a Jew born in Israel, and his father Benzion Netanyahu is a secular Jew from Poland. After he settled in Palestine, his father changed his name from Benzion Mileikowsky to Benzion Netanyahu. Netanyahus father was one of the original revisionist Zionists. He believed that Israel should exist on both sides of the Jordan River and refused to compromise with neighboring Arab countries. In 1967, Benjamin Netanyahu joined the Israeli army and soon became an elite commando, and served as a captain in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Come to power In 1982, Netanyahu was appointed as the deputy head of the Israeli embassy in Washington. In 1984, he was appointed as Israels ambassador to the United Nations. In 1988, Netanyahu was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Netanyahu was promoted to chairman of the right-wing Likud group in 1993. After losing the 1992 general election, Netanyahu orchestrated the party to regain political power. He held various positions in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs until winning the 1996 election. His first term as prime minister lasted until 1999. Later, he also won public opinion polls in 2009, 2013 and 2015. Netanyahu lost the leadership of the Likud group, but regained leadership after Sharon left the Likud group in 2005 to form the Kadima Party. For critics such as Yuval Diskin, the former head of Israels domestic intelligence organization, Netanyahu holds an exaggerated sense of power. Diskin once said: In my opinion, Netanyahu plays a role in a mixture of ideologies, a deep feeling that he is aroyal prince from the elite of Jerusalem, but also There is a sense of insecurity and a deep fear of taking responsibility. For supporters, he is a powerful spokesperson for Israel, willing to tell the uncomfortable truth to the public, and able to fight the enemy. Three Nos Netanyahu has a three nos mantra: there is no Palestinian state, no Golan Heights to return to Syria, and no discussion about the future status of Jerusalem. Despite opposing most peace agreements with the Palestinians, Netanyahu signed the Wye River Agreement with Yasser Arafat, then chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, in 1998. He resigned as foreign minister in August 2005 to protest Sharons plan to withdraw from Gaza, a part of the Palestinian territories. Jerusalem status Netanyahu insisted on continuing to expand illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Netanyahu said: We will continue to build in Jerusalem and Israel in all places on the map of strategic interests. Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in 2016 and was welcomed by Netanyahu. After eight years of turbulent relations between the United States and Israel and Barack Obama in the White House, the Trump-Netanyahu meeting held in Washington, D.C., in early 2017 was intended to mark the reset of relations between the two sides. Later that year, Trump broke the decades-old policy of the United States, announcing that the United States officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would begin the process of relocating its embassy to the city. Netanyahu welcomed the decision and said it was a historic day for Israel. The delay in Joe Bidens first call to Netanyahu after taking office has aroused speculation that the President of the United States expressed dissatisfaction with Netanyahus close relationship with Trump. However, the 11-day Israeli attack on Gaza brought the two leaders together because Biden showed strong support for Netanyahu and his policies during Israels recent bombing of the besieged enclave. , The event killed more than 250 Palestinians, including at least 66 children. Anti-Iranian speech During his first term as prime minister, Netanyahu told the US Congress that time is running out to deal with Iran. The deadline for achieving this goal is very close, he said. Netanyahu has stated that Iran poses an existential threat to Israel and has repeatedly threatened to take unilateral military actions against Iran. As long as I am the prime minister, Iran will not have an atomic bomb, he said in 2013. If there is no other way, Israel is ready to take action [with force]. Corruption scandal Netanyahu was sued in 2019 for gifts involving millionaire friends and alleged media mogul seeking regulatory incentives in exchange for favorable reports. In the countrys recent elections, the allegations against him have been a core issue. As the trial continued, Netanyahu denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty. Coronavirus pandemic Netanyahu turned Israels world-leading vaccine launch into a display of his campaign in the fourth national poll in two years, claiming to defeat COVID-19 by making Israel a vaccination country. The speed of vaccination for about half of the population has won Netanyahu international praise, but he also called on Israel to take more measures to ensure that Palestinians in its occupied territories are vaccinated. The political opposition stated that he had mishandled the pandemic from the beginning, pointed out the need for three nationwide lockdowns, and accused him of turning a blind eye to violators in the ultra-orthodox community that provided the power base for his main coalition partners. The family of Shelby Patton, the Royal Mounted Police of Saskatchewan, said they were shocked by the death of a young man who loved work and the community. Patton works in the Indian Head Detachment, yes Killed on saturday morning In Wolseley, Sask, officials said he was knocked down by a stolen truck in Manitoba. Police said two suspects, a man and a woman, fled the scene and were later arrested. His grandmother Linda Patton (Linda Patton) said in an interview with CBC in Choiceland, Saskatchewan on Sunday, that her entire family was deeply affected by the death of the 26-year-old. She said he was one of the best. Its also difficult, because he is a very thoughtful person. Linda Patton explained that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has not seen her grandson for several months, but she said that she has been learning from his parents about the latest situation of his work and career. She said that the family was completely broken because of the loss, because Patton is a person who always puts others first. Hes that kind of person, and I told him so well, she said of Barton from Yorkton, Sask. Linda Patton said her grandson loved her job with enthusiasm and recalled his smile when he became an RCMP after graduation. She explained that her grandson would do anything for his community and the people around him, hoping to help him become a suitable candidate for the RCMP. He wont hurt anyone, hes that kind of person, and he will do anything for you, she said. For me, he is the best. The best person you can deal with. He just likes it, he likes where he works. -Linda Button, grandmother of the RCMP.Shelby Button Linda Patton said that although she has been thinking about what might happen to her grandson while on duty, she said that her family never thought it would happen. She said the RCMP is flying Pattons parents from Stettler in Alta Province to Regina because they are dealing with the loss. On Saturday, Saskatchewan Royal Mounted Police Commander and Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore paid tribute to Button. (Richard Agkutai/Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) The RCMP informed the media of the incident on Saturday night, saying it was an extremely tragic moment for the RCMP and Pattons family. Rhonda Blackmore, Commander and Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP of Saskatchewan, said: Const. Pattons family is also part of the RCMP family. They lost Husband, son and brother. Information from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police indicates that Patton had served in the Indian Head Detachment of the Royal Mounted Police for more than six years before his death. Blackmore said: This tragedy has shaken the core of our entire RCMP family, from coast to coast. Although we wear police uniforms, we are ordinary people and go to work every day, just like everyone else. . Today, Const. Patton will not go home because of his work to protect the public. 2 suspects were detained, RCMP promised to provide more updates About two hours after Patton was killed, two people were arrested, a man and a woman, and were detained by the police. The RCMP said that more updates will be provided in the coming days. Officials of the National Police Force also took time to thank a civilian who tried to provide medical assistance to the police officer before the emergency responders arrived. Pattons grandmother said the family also expressed gratitude to those who tried to save his life. I cant thank them enough, she said. At present, with the assistance of multiple RCMP units across the province, the Northern Canadian Mounted Police Major Crime Squad is handling the case. After Pattons death, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police continued to investigate in Wolseley, Sask. (Brian Enas/CBC) The mayor of Wolseley, where the incident occurred, said that the entire community was affected by the loss. Gerald Hill said the town was in a state of complete shock and disbelief because of the large number of police officers in the town after his death. This kind of thing doesnt happen here, Hill said. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is now flying at half-mast and said they will release more information about how the public expresses condolences to Pattons family, friends and colleagues. San Diego-According to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the number of passengers passing through U.S. airports this Friday hit a record high. The increase in numbers seems to be a positive shift in the tourism industry. Some passengers passing through the San Diego International Airport on Saturday said it once again looked like a lunatic asylum. It seemed to return to normal, and then some more. It seemed that people were suppressed, said passenger Sarah Bell. They saved some money. They are ready to rock. TSA said that more than 2 million passengers passed through airport security checkpoints on Friday, the first time since March 2020. Passenger Amanda Katona said: There are many people who want to see their family, and many people want to leave home and take a break. Airport officials said more than 30,000 passengers passed through the TSA checkpoint in San Diego on Friday. This is 282% higher than the same period last year, but still 34% lower than 2019. The plane is full, said passenger Jackson Muecke. The last few flights I took were full. Fully. Some passengers said that after being vaccinated, they feel more comfortable on the plane. Muecke said: We are returning to normal, which is very exciting. I think more and more people are getting vaccinated and enjoying hugging their friends and relatives because they are vaccinated. I just hope everyone gets vaccinated. Mook said he was already planning his next vacation. My wife and I are going to Australia in November, so we are flying from Los Angeles to Australia and staying on the cruise ship for 11 days, so we cant wait, he said. The airport would like to remind passengers that the federal government requires them to continue to wear masks before September. Under the intermittent leadership of former US President Donald Trump, NATO is trying to find a way to return to normal after four years of dramatic events. This will prove to be a challenging task. After Trump distorted its strategic vision and values ??and expressed doubts about its common destiny, NATO seemed to have lost its magic, albeit in rhetoric. But the emergence of transatlanticist Joe Biden is energizing the agreement, as the US president is trying to assure European allies that his government is serious about restoring trust and restoring harmony. This is not the first time the alliance has recovered after an internal crisis. In fact, in the past few decades, people have had a weird view of certain NATO crises or other crises: deep crises, deepening crises, fundamental crises, universal crises , unprecedented crisis, or even real crisis. But NATO has been recovering. Even before the end of the Cold War, whether it was the Suez Canal Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the existence of authoritarian regimes in its ranks, NATO was divided and discordant. Nevertheless, the fear of the Soviet Union during the Cold War helped its members to unite, regardless of their differences. The greater the threat perception, the deeper the solidarity. When the Eastern Bloc collapsed in 1989, the alliance established in Western Europe by the Germans and Americans to keep the Soviets out of the box lost its reason for existence. Disagreements within NATO persisted, turning to eastward expansion and various military deployments in the greater Middle East. In 2001, 24 hours after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, NATO used Article 5 as the cornerstone of its collective defense for the first time in its history. But conducting asymmetric warfare outside of its long-defined combat zone, especially in Afghanistan, proved to be a thankless effort and a source of tension. Over the past 30 years, NATO has remained united and has regained its vitality through multiple cosmetic and structural operations. Its membership has even increased from 16 to 30, almost doubled. The alliance has repeatedly overcome internal discord through adaptation and compromise. It will do so again in Brussels on June 14th, hoping to improve its appearance and performance in an increasingly competitive world. Compared with Trump, Bidens popularity in Europe will certainly help. NATO will again rely on the fact that it unites its members more than divides them. In my opinion, this is first of all to protect their common economic and financial interests. NATO has a population of nearly 1 billion, accounting for half of the worlds gross domestic product (GDP). It is definitely the military power of the privileged club of Western capitalist democracies. Today, the alliance faces two major strategic challenges, a rising China and a resurgent Russia, which constitute cyber, spatial, and geopolitical threats, including the global South that is expanding to some extent in Beijing and Moscow. All other issues raised by the public, such as climate change, human security, and development, are all in front of us. This is not because they are unimportant they are certainly important but because they are more like G7 than NATO materials. But since Trumps psychological breakdown, some Europeans are said to be worried that their safety is overly dependent on the United States, as it has been in the past seven years. Junior members of NATO are particularly traumatized by the presidents erratic behavior, while more senior continental members such as France and Germany are cautious and shrewd in their reactions. They are using the collapse of the United States to call for greater European security autonomy and a more equal partnership with the United States. Compared with the Biden administration, they have also taken a more detailed and less dramatic view of the challenges posed by Russia and China. They prefer to avoid Cold War rhetoric and emphasize contact rather than confrontation with Russia and Beijing. They make sense. As former President Barack Obama said, Russia today is nothing more than a regional power whose belligerent behavior is a manifestation of weakness rather than strength. Instead of alienating Russia through strategic confrontation, it is better to contain Russia through political and economic engagement. Although the rising China has brought new geopolitical problems, it is not the Soviet Union. Despite its huge economic power and strategic ambitions, it has no other choice for the world. Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, Beijing has integrated its economy into the world economic system dominated by the West, and has gained huge windfalls from its trade with the West. Europeans see China as an economic competitor, or, in the worst case, a competitor, and they are satisfied with a multipolar world. But Washington views China from a different perspective. It believes that China aspires to become Asian hegemony and insists on containing its rise before becoming the worlds leading power. The United States hopes to maintain its status as an undisputed superpower in the world. This means that the Biden administration will have to attract and bully its divided but prosperous European partners to support it. In fact, as Europeans are moving away from China, especially in the areas of technology and investment, as well as the United Kingdoms demonstration of the deployment of aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, some pressure has begun to emerge. In fact, sooner or later NATO will try to carry out a new strategic assessment based on the ideas of its 2010 strategic assessment, but the assessment puts more emphasis on political cohesion and coordination. Europeans will demand greater equality and lobby Washington to reduce unilateral actions, just like when Trumps leadership or the Biden administration decides to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, there will be little real negotiation until the last minute. For its part, Washington will continue to insist, as it has done in the past few decades, that Europe must pay for a greater voice in NATO and show greater commitment to their collective security. . It may also involve Asian powers Japan and South Korea under the guise of defending democracy in East Asia. easy to say, hard to do? Maybe. But the bigger challenge lies in how to define NATOs new role and mission, because Washington insists on using NATO to maintain US world hegemony and do what it must do. This will definitely lead to a new cold war with China. Biden hopes to use the NATO meeting to unite the alliance behind the United States before the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16, because he knows China is paying close attention. In the future, pushing the alliance to further expand to Ukraine and Georgia, or to expand its power projection, will surely anger Moscow and Beijing, push them closer, and have a serious impact on world security. Biden should be careful of his wish; it may come true. The alliance needs to have a clear vision to deal with new security challenges and promise to support its members. Since joining NATO in 1952, Turkey has been a staunch ally of NATO. We are always at the forefront of meeting the challenges facing common security. We have participated in vital tasks around the world and hosted NATO strategic assets on our land, which proves our continued firm commitment to the alliance. Turkey has played a strong leadership role in NATO missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and other regions. We believe that NATO is indispensable for the security of our country and the peace of our region. Because we ensure that we contribute to the highest level of NATO activities, we have also made significant investments in national defense as a strategic priority. Our defense expenditure is close to NATOs goal of 2% of GDP, which exceeds the expenditure of most alliance members. In recent years, these investments have improved our defense capabilities and contributed to the overall strength of the NATO alliance. With the changes in regional security dynamics in the past decade, it is time for NATO to update its strategic concept. In view of the continuous expansion of NATO in recent years, NATOs new strategic prospects must be broad enough. However, it must also be clear and purposeful. Given the increasing use of hybrid warfare capabilities, the challenges facing our alliance are more complex than ever. At the same time, preparing NATO for this new era is entirely within our capabilities. A new concept must establish a mechanism to resolve the differences between NATO allies on many issues. It must also recognize that in the rapidly changing regional and global dynamics in recent years, it is necessary to align national priorities with coalition priorities, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic. We have different national policies on issues such as international terrorism, immigration, human smuggling, and cyber threats. Obviously, we will not agree on every issue. However, reaching consensus within the alliance to make a unified response must be NATOs priority. Our alliance should not only focus on identifying common enemies, but must also come together around a common goal that serves the national interests of all of us. Reaching an understanding on all forms of terrorism, including far-right terrorism and Islamophobic attacks, and agreeing on a strategy to combat terrorism must be one of the first tasks. We must also develop a more comprehensive security concept that includes human security to prevent humanitarian disasters and respond to asymmetric attacks on our country. Turkey is ready to pay its due share to ensure the collective security of our alliance. Burden sharing cannot only involve military budgets and contributions to NATO. It must also include responding to the refugee crisis in our region. As a country hosting more than 4 million refugees, we expect our allies to take a more constructive approach and are willing to pay the due price for this historic challenge. In recent years, we have received undue criticism in terms of national security requirements and strategic priorities. We welcome any constructive exchanges on issues related to our collective security. We believe that dialogue is always the key to resolving differences among member states. As an example of this approach, we propose to organize an international conference to resolve disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it cannot be expected that Turkey will harm its national security and sovereignty in order to adapt to the unreasonable demands of some member states and the wrong view of the regional turbulence that Turkey has been facing for a decade. Faced with the threat of terrorism and regional instability, Turkey has the ability and determination to ensure national security. However, we regret to point out that the support of our NATO allies in these areas is not exemplary. We mention this not to emphasize the already well-known frictions, but to emphasize that if we are to prepare for emerging threats, we need to strengthen NATO unity. This pandemic tells us that without strong international cooperation, we cannot meet the challenges of the world. NATO is a good example of this cooperative mechanism, and its past achievements cannot be overstated. However, just as we pledged to defend each other through a historic treaty decades ago, we must be prepared to resist common threats together in the future. For a safer future, our alliance must use the national capabilities of each country while proposing a comprehensive framework for addressing regional and global changes. NATO can only become more effective in the coming years by recognizing member states national priorities and assuring them of strong support when they are really needed. Turkey has been and will continue to prepare to do its part. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. When U.S. President Joe Biden Prepare for his first audience with Elizabeth II As a young senator, his motheran Irish-American named Finnegan at birth There is a suggestion. According to Bidens memoir published a few years ago, she said to him in 1982: Dont bow to her. on Sunday, Biden saw the queen again. He did not bow. Later, he described her as a very amiable woman, reminding him of his mother who advised him 40 years ago. We had a great conversation, he said. Biden and his wife took a dark Range Rover to the inner quadrangle of Windsor Castle and appeared wearing a pair of iconic aviator sunglasses. He stood and had a brief conversation with the 95-year-old monarch. Biden took off his glasses after listening to the Stars and Stripes and observed a group of grenadier guards in red suits and bearskin caps. Biden and the queen then walked into the castle for a private meeting. They can be heard in a relaxed conversation. Biden now The 12th incumbent president meets with the Queen During her reign, joined the legacy of American leaders salute to global icons and living history. He with First Lady Jill Biden Met her at her home in Windsor Castle outside London. This is her first one-on-one contact with world leaders since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. This is her first public appearance since her husband, Prince Philip, died earlier this year at the age of 99. The meeting was held after Bidens first G7 summit held on the southwest coast of England, which ended on Sunday afternoon. Bidens first international visit was aimed at reviving the alliance between the United States and the worlds richest democracies. After meeting with the Queen, he will go to Brussels, where he will meet with more American allies at NATO headquarters and the European Union for two days, and then go to Geneva to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden said at a press conference after the G7 meeting and before the meeting with the Queen: We have just concluded an extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting at G7. Everyone here understands and understands what we face. The severity of the challenge and the responsibility of our proud democracies to stand up and contribute to the rest of the world. The first time he met with the monarch this week was on Friday night, when she and world leaders attended a reception held in a biosphere in Cornwall. After posing for a photo, she patted the staged friendship. Should you seem to be enjoying yourself? she said. She was later photographed having a friendly conversation with Biden and his wife outside the futuristic dome, with her son Prince Charles and his wife Camilla holding drinks in the background. The occasion on Sunday was more personal, with only Biden and his wife meeting the queen at her home. The President said that the Queen would like to know the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping that Biden will meet on Wednesday. Biden said in a speech at Heathrow Airport before leaving the UK that he hoped he could talk to the Queen for a longer period of time. She is very generous, Biden said. He said he didnt think she would be insulted if he said she reminds me of my mothers looks and generosity. When asked if she was invited to the White House, Biden said he had invited her. For Biden, this moment placed him on a long list of seniors who also came to visit one of the most famous women in the world. As a history student who has read biographies of previous presidents, this moment provides a vivid connection to his current position. The Queen also helped Biden to work harder to inject a sense of wartime urgency into this weeks G7 and NATO summits., Including through the renewal of the Atlantic Charter It was signed by American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Second World War. The queen served as an army mechanic in the war. The president of the United States often finds himself fascinated by the queen after seeing the queen. When President Obama visited London in 2016, he said: The queen has always been a source of inspiration for me, just like many people around the world. At that time, Prince Philip drove a Range Rover from Marine One to Windsor. castle. She really is one of my favorite people. Former President Donald Trump also has special feelings for Queen Elizabeth II. He watched his mother-born in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland-watch her coronation on television. Unlike Trump or Obama, Biden is not a pro-British faction. He is a proud Irish-American who has (sometimes jokingly) mentioned the long-term British rule over his ancestral islands. This week, he confronted Prime Minister Boris Johnson on issues related to Northern Ireland, worrying that Britains withdrawal from the European Union would endanger the hard-won peace there. After arriving in England on Wednesday, the first thing he did was to quote the most famous Irish poet of the 20th century, William Butler Yeats, who wrote a poem about the Easter 1916 rebellion against British rule uprising. He also cited the United States Declaration of Independence. Leaving aside his loyalty to Ireland, Biden is unlikely to express his dissatisfaction when sitting down with the British monarch on Sunday afternoon. Joe and I are looking forward to meeting the queen. This is an exciting part of the visit for us, Jill Biden told reporters this week. We have been looking forward to it for several weeks, and now its finally here. This is a good start. The Netanyahu family has extensive experience in moving their belongings out of the official prime ministers residence on Belfort Street in Jerusalem. In 2016, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of shocked settlers that they had been expelled from their homes at Amona, an illegal outpost in the West Bank, I understand what it means to lose their homes. After the 1999 general election, there was no warning. Under the circumstances, my family and I were simply driven out of the house on Balfour Street. In this way, with all our belongings, we were thrown into the street. We had to go to the Sheraton Plaza Hotel and it felt terrible. The Likud Group won 19 parliamentary seats in the 1999 elections, 7 fewer than the Labor Party led by Ehud Barak. The Barak government, like the government sworn in on June 13, is a diversified coalition of political parties, with Meretz on the left, Hammerkaz in the middle, and ultra-Orthodox parties on the right. The partnership lasted for less than two years. What can this short-lived government teach us about the future of the new Israeli government led by Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid Party leader Yail Rapide? What are the prospects for their pluralistic coalition of conservative Jewish right-wing parties, whose leaders are committed to the cause of settlements, and the legislators of the Meretz Party that make settlement commodities? Can fierce feminist activist and Labour Party chairman Melaf Mikkeli get along with Ayelet Shakerd, the conservative interior minister who promised to expel asylum seekers and their families? The cards in the hands of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are much worse than those that Barak got in 1999. First, there has never been an Israeli prime minister, nor has there been any leader of a democratic country, and its party only won 6% of the vote (transformed into 7 seats out of 120 parliamentarians, one of whom opposes the new government). Bennett is the default option and the best of the three very imperfect alternatives. The other two are Benjamin Netanyahus continued rule after 12 years in power, or it is generally expected that the fifth round of elections will be Perpetuate the political deadlock. Therefore, the composition and guidelines of the new government are not ideal for its left-wing or right-wing components. Bennett and Yisrael Beitenu Party leader Avigdor Lieberman and New Hope Party Chairman Gideon Saar sat with their former Likud colleagues than with representatives of the Labour Party, Merez and Palestine Raam (United Arab Emirates) Feel more at home. List) parties. What the new government has in common is the disgust of Netanyahus personality and the prosecution of corruption allegations. The center-right partners of the new government are aligned with his ideology and foreign and national defense policies. It is speculated that if Netanyahu relinquishes his leadership over Likud, or if his party colleagues muster the courage to oust him, many people in the new government will negotiate with Likud for partnership. relationship. However, Netanyahu declared war on his successor even before he started packing up and moving to the opposition bench. Netanyahu in 2021 is different from the young prime minister who was defeated 22 years ago who took a vacation from politics. This time, he was supported by the army of enthusiastic supporters and an army of violent robots. In the last days of the government, as the land under their feet burned, the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox parties and their rabbis joined the choir that incited the opposition to Bennett. The language they use and the threat of hell are reminiscent of the atmosphere a few months before the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995. One of the first challenges for the new government will be to extinguish these flames, restore trust in the countrys legal system, police, and media, and work hard to instill respect for diversity. The designers of the weird Bennett-Lapid alliance knew very well that the opposition would find cracks in its building and place explosives to blow it up. These explosives include legislation on highly sensitive issues, such as the relationship between religion and the state, the annexation of Palestinian territories, LGBTQ rights, and the recognition of progressive streams of Judaism that challenge the monopoly of ultra-orthodox institutions. In order to eliminate these time bombs, the alliance agreement maintains the status quo on each issue. However, Netanyahu has a new type of TNT available to him, in the form of the ultra-nationalist Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir and his small circle of Arab haters. Ben Gavill was elected to the Knesset with the support of Netanyahu this year and used his parliamentary immunity to undermine the status quo in the most unstable place-the Muslim holy site in Jerusalem. Netanyahu can rely on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respond to Benguevilles provocations. If members of the Knesset visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount compound, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and launch a rocket from Gaza to Jerusalem, what will Bennett do? Will the two Arab members of the new government, Islamist Ram Chairman Mansour Abbas and Meretzs Minister of Regional Cooperation Issavi Frege vote for revenge against Gaza and the killing of Palestinian civilians? If the Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack, would Lieberman and Thrall vote for restraint? Will Bennett, who firmly supports the settlement, respect the court ruling and demolish 40 houses in Evyatar, an illegal outpost in the West Bank? How will he operate between the pressure from the US government and the Palestinians diplomatic negotiations on a two-state solution, the center-left partners who support the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his own statement of strong opposition, not to mention dissatisfaction with the Palestinians His right-wing party partner? Negotiations with Iran on a new nuclear agreement are another obstacle facing the new government, which will force it to make extremely difficult decisions. If he insists on Netanyahus aggressive policy of opposing the agreement, Bennett will clashed with the Biden administration, which will be in power during his two-year term. On the other hand, if the government agrees to the policies of the Biden administration, Netanyahu is likely to launch a public campaign accusing the new government of abandoning the Jews for the second massacre. During his long reign, Netanyahu was considered a tightrope magician without a safety net. Bennett observed his performance up close when he was chief of staff as the leader of the opposition from 2006 to 2008. In order to start repairing some of the damage Netanyahu has caused to Israeli society in power long enough, Bennett must surpass his former master. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. LAFAYETTE, LA (KADN)- On June 19, many people in Acadiana will come together to honor Juneteenth which is set to become an official state holiday. House bill 554 which declares Juneteenth as a state-wide holiday has been approved by both the house and senate. Photo courtesy of MGN Photo courtesy of MGN The bill is heading to Governor John Bel Edwards desk, where he is expected to sign it into law. Fred Prejean, a local activist, said that this bill is long overdue. The 4th for the July did not free black people. It was not black people who were freed. But on Juneteenth. It was indeed black people, Prejean said. June 19, 1865, is recognized as "Juneteenth" the day that the last slaves were freed just over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. These people were enslaved for almost 400 years and you can imagine the joy and the emotional experience that must have been for them, Prejean said. Prejean is also the president of Move the Mindset, a local social justice organization. According to Prejean, some slaves in the south had no knowledge that they were supposed to be free. The people in Texas, black people in Texas did not learn of that Declaration of Independence, nor did they know the civil war had ended, Prejean said. The activist doesnt believe Juneteenth should be a day of celebration. We commemorate Juneteenth. Other people say they celebrate it. To commemorate is to remember and to respect," Prejean said. Prejean said that he is happy that there is just one more step before Juneteenth is an official holiday in Louisiana. I understand the bill has passed both the house and the senate, and it's on its way to the governor's office, and I can't wait to read that he has signed it, he said. Gov. Edwards approved the bill on June 10, 2021. Move the Mindset will be holding its annual Juneteenth commemoration next Saturday, June 19. It will take place at the corner of Jefferson Street and Lee Avenue at the Confederate Gen. Mouton statue. Could the mask mandate make a come-back? A number of cities across the nation recommend masks, even for people who are fully vaccinated. But so far no one is requiring them. Local doctors say re-booting the mandate would be difficult. A MoDOT supervisor named Lloyd Crawford was struck and killed by a vehicle in the city's Northland on Monday morning. He was 61 years old and had been with MoDOT since 2003. MEDFORD, Ore. -- Each June the Rogue Valley Family YMCA puts on water safety day together with partner agencies such as the Fire District #3, the Navy, and Mercy Flights Explorers. A free drive-through event is planned for June 13 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the YMCA parking lot. Holly Hawley, YMCA Aquatics Director, says swimming is not only fun and helps children increase their physical activity but also motivates them to strive for self-improvement and cultivates a positive mental attitude. Locals have the chance to see fire trucks and boats, and the potential of receiving a goodie bag full of water safety activities. Free life jackets will be given to the first 100 people who visit. The YMCA is reminding the community to keep safe when in or around the water and recommends the buddy system when in the water, swimming with a life guard on duty, and applying sun protection. For more information on how to get lifeguard training, swim lessons, or financial assistance contact Holly Hawley, at 541-772-6295 x119 or hhawley@rvymca.org. The last person who asked me that is still missing. If you need me, I'll be underwater. It's a dry heat. You call this hot? Bring it on. Vote View Results The Board of Directors of the Kenosha Community Foundation has named six Kenosha County high school seniors as 2021 recipients of Herman and Virginia Gundlach scholarships. The recipients are: Laneah Curtis from Tremper High School, who plans to attend Ripon College. Miles Foster from Tremper High School, who plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ryan Jackson from Westosha Central High School, who plans to attend Gateway Technical College. Jamie Pena from Tremper High School, who plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Claudia Santos from Indian Trail Academy, who plans to attend Gateway Technical College. Olivia Webers from Westosha Central High School. These six students, all planning to attend a college or university in Wisconsin, will each receive a $3,500 Gundlach Scholarship. This year, 26 students from Kenosha Countys eight public high schools applied for the scholarship. Over the last five years, 39 Kenosha County students have received Gundlach Scholarships. Since this scholarship funds inception in 1996, the Kenosha Community Foundation has awarded over $350,000 from the Herman and Virginia Gundlach Scholarship Fund to Kenosha County students. PORTLAND, Oregon Ask most kids what they wish for and you might get answers like a new puppy or ice cream. Eight-year-old Tyler has bigger concerns. My wish for people out there who have guns is to stop killing people, said Tyler. Tyler and his family live at the Ellington Apartments on Northeast 66th and Broadway. Tylers mother, Aimee McElroy, says in less than two years there have been nine shootings near her home, including one last week. A few months ago, her 13-year-old daughter witnessed the aftermath of a homicide outside her home. McElroy said it left her daughter so shaken, she had to start therapy. She saw the dude drop and fall, said McElroy. She said his shirt just turned completely red, he was lifeless, not moving. It really set her off. That type of gun violence is not confined to McElroys neighborhood. So far this year, there have been 485 shootings citywide, according to the Portland Police Bureau. It's acceptable now, said McElroy. Almost like there was a shooting today, what's new? And that's not the way it's supposed to be. As of Friday, Portland police said the number of homicides in Portland for 2021 was 42. At this time last year, that number was nine. People lose their lives everyday but this is ridiculous, said McElroy. This is stupid. Like, nothing's being done about it. Nothing. Portland city leaders recently allocated just over $4 million to community-based groups, hoping they can help prevent gun violence. They also secured $1.4 million for unarmed park rangers. Just under half a million will go toward paying for crime analysts. City leaders see it as part of a long-term solution to curb gun violence, rather than investing money into the police bureau. McElroy's focus is on the short-term her family's reality. It was super scary, said 8-year-old Tyler, recalling a recent shooting outside his home. I'm not used to hearing gunshots. We just need to wake up and see what's really going on, said McElroy. "There's lives being lost and they're not doing anything about it. SALEM, Ore.-- Kip Kinkel, who killed his parents before going on a shooting rampage at his Oregon high school in 1998, killing two classmates and injuring 25 more, has given his first news interview. He told HuffPost he feels ''tremendous, tremendous shame and guilt.'' Kinkel, now 38, is serving a de facto life sentence. He said he felt guilty not just for what he did as a 15-year-old suffering from then-undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, but the effect his crime has had on other juvenile offenders sentenced to life terms. His case has been held up by some of his victims and by others to oppose juvenile justice reform in the state. EUGENE, Ore. --- After months of uncertainty under the pandemic, the University of Oregon hosted their commencement ceremony for 2021 graduates. It began with a graduation parade, in which students walked from Matthew Knight down 13th avenue to the memorial quad. RELATED: UO STUDENTS AND PARENTS SAY NO SPECTATOR COMMENCEMENT IS "UNFAIR" During that time, parents were able to take pictures and cheer for their students. Once they arrived at the quad, it transferred into a graduate-only stage procession. "I'm really excited that U of O was able to offer us in-person activity," graduate Jacqueline Peralta said. Although parents weren't able to enter the actual stage ceremony, many said they were satisfied with how the day went. "I'm super proud of my son and I'm glad that they did some things like the parade, and let them get that feeling of graduating," Chrissy Yarborough said. Many of the graduates were excited to be able to celebrate on campus. "Not the graduation that we hoped for but we made the best of it and we're very very thankful to be here," said one graduate. Other graduating students also weighed in. "Oregon probably gave us the best years of our lives. I'll never forget the memories I made here and that what matters most," another student said. UO said they are committed to hosting traditional commencement events next spring for the classes of 2020 and 2021. EUGENE, Ore. -- Universities and colleges across Western Oregon celebrated the class of 2021 in various commencement ceremonies over the weekend. Due to the pandemic, several of those ceremonies were virtual including ones at Lane Community College, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. Speakers at the events acknowledged the unique challenges students faced this year. "So many of you faced loneliness as you transitioned into a new world of virtual learning, many of you were displaced during wildfires, and so many of you volunteered to help build shelters, feed the homeless, and feed your neighbors," LCC's President Dr. Margaret Hamilton said during the virtual ceremony. At the University of Oregon's virtual ceremony, President Michael Schill addressed the graduates virtually. "I am sure this is not how any of you wanted to celebrate your graduation. You stepped foot on our campus four or five years ago. It certainly isn't what I expected but I want you to view this as something truly special and important," Schill said. RELATED: UO HOSTS IN-PERSON GRAD PARADE AND STAGE PROCESSION ON SATURDAY OSU students received a special congratulations from several speakers including Blackish actor, Anthony Anderson. "Everyone is proud of all of your accomplishments," Anderson said. "You did it! Congratulations and go Beavs!" Weather Alert ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM PDT SUNDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions combined with limited night time cooling. * WHERE...Portions of North and North Central Idaho. Portions of Central, East Central, North Central, Northeast, and Southeast Washington. * WHEN...Until 7 PM PDT Sunday. * IMPACTS...Heat related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat. 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. Going to a place with air conditioning even for a couple hours can help mitigate heat stress. Consider going to a shopping mall, local library, or community center for relief. Do not leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles. Car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes. Take extra precautions when outside. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing. Try to limit strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Take action when you see symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. && DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) When Minnesota Republican Tyler Kistner announced his candidacy for the U.S. House in April, he asked voters to ponder two questions: What America will we leave for our children?" and "Will they be taught to hate their police? Across the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District aired a digital ad this spring to demand that their Democratic congressman stand up to attacks on law enforcement. And in Iowa, a Republican governor who had promised additional checks on police conduct after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer plans to sign a law making it harder for police to be sued on the job. As rising murder rates gain attention in American cities, Republicans have ramped up a campaign to cast Democrats as anti-police and lax on public safety. It's a message they believe helped them stave off greater Democratic gains in last year's elections and one with renewed potency as cities consider cuts to department budgets as part of an effort to revamp policing. It's not at all clear that the GOP strategy, which stretches back to President Richard Nixon and was used by President Donald Trump, is a winning one. But it may be prominent as Republicans search for ways to gain ground in suburban areas critical to winning control of the U.S. House next year. A recent special election in New Mexico wasn't a good sign for the strategy. GOP candidate Mark Moore used Albuquerque's rising crime and city officials' decision to create an alternative public safety department to hit Democrat Melanie Stansbury. But Stansbury won easily, with a larger share of the district's votes than President Joe Biden garnered last year. Stansbury's district is overwhelmingly Democratic, making it an imperfect test case. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's House campaign arm, believes the issue will have a larger impact in swing districts, where the party plans to tie moderate Democratic incumbents to their more liberal colleagues who have supported the defund the police movement. The GOP focus is on places such as Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, where 13-term Democratic incumbent Ron Kind is being cast as insufficiently supportive of law enforcement, though he does not support defunding police departments. It also includes Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, who beat Kistner in 2020 and represents the Minneapolis and St. Paul suburbs where rioting broke out last year after Floyd's death. Since then, several cities have struggled with the police funding debate, while experiencing rising gun violence. The NRCC chair, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, said he believes the message will resonate with voters because crime is rising in America, yet Democrats still support the dangerous idea of defunding the police. It's true that violent crime has risen. The FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System recorded 25% more homicides in 2020 than in 2019, and 12% more violent assaults. But the increase in homicides is nationwide, including in some cities that increased police spending and in some cities led by Republicans. Other crimes such as burglaries, drug offenses and other categories, however, have decreased. Not all Democrats are uniformly supportive of defund the police efforts. The Democratic-controlled House passed a sweeping police overhaul bill in March that did not include a provision to allow diverting money away from police departments. Kind was one of only two Democrats to oppose the bill. He said it did not include sufficient protections for police. Craig voted for the measure. The bill has stalled in the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans oppose it. Like Emmer, U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tried to preemptively blame Democrats in this case, Biden for what McCarthy claimed is widespread rising crime caused by cuts to police budgets. We are concerned about whether the Biden Administration is prepared to address the surge of violent crime in American cities, McCarthy wrote in a letter Friday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. It's a noticeable shift in tone from a year ago, when many Republicans across GOP-led states briefly joined with Democrats to ban specific physical restraints and require tighter scrutiny on police in the tumultuous aftermath of Floyd's death. In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said last June while signing a bill banning chokeholds: This is not the end of our work. It is just a beginning. A year later, Reynolds' proposed racial profiling ban quietly died in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Lawmakers passed a crime bill giving police greater protection from lawsuits and cracking down on protesters. Reynolds plans to sign the measure Thursday. Republicans in other states have made it harder for cities to cut police budgets. The Republican-led legislature in Missouri made it easier this year for cities to be sued for approving deep cuts in police budgets. Similar laws were adopted in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The change from a year ago reflects the general unpopularity of cutting police spending, especially in pivotal suburban areas, North Carolina-based Republican pollster Paul Shumaker said. Scenes of violence and property damage left a lasting image and were highlighted in Republican campaign ads. A majority of Americans support progressive criminal justice proposals such as programs to help people released from prison transition into society and changes in sentencing laws to allow probation or shorter prison sentences for some first-time convictions, according to a May poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll also found that about 6 in 10 Americans oppose reducing funding for law enforcement agencies. The Democrats' policing bill passed the U.S. House without a single GOP vote. It would ban chokeholds and end qualified immunity from lawsuits against police officers, while creating national policing standards in an effort to bolster accountability. The bill does not back defunding police departments, and Democrats didn't even debate the idea, in part because swing-district representatives such as U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who opposes defunding police, raised concerns about the political backlash. Shumaker found the issue brought some independents who were unhappy with Trump's pandemic response and had fallen away from supporting Republicans back into the GOP's ranks last fall in parts of suburban North Carolina, including outside Charlotte and Raleigh. The defund the police movement gave Republicans a foundation to go back and repair some of the erosion with those suburban voters that was created by the coronavirus, Shumaker said. It's not clear how crime will figure in the mix of issues in next fall's elections. The nation is now just emerging from a year of political battles over COVID-19, recovering from the economic fallout and getting a handle on Biden's agenda to rebuild the economy. MASON CITY, Iowa A Cerro Gordo County man accused of selling heroin is pleading not guilty. Robert John Murphy 41 of Mason City, is charged with possession with intent to deliver heroin and two counts of conspiracy to deliver heroin. Law enforcement says Murphy sold the drug to an informant on separate occasions in September, October, and November of 2019. All supposed sales took place in Mason City and court documents state a total of 2.4 grams of heroin were involved. Murphys trial is scheduled to begin on September 28. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Authorities say two people drowned and a child who was found unresponsive in a pool was hospitalized in three separate incidents in Minnesota on Saturday. Washington officials say 46-year-old Chandra Mohan Laghuvaram, of Plymouth, was swimming in the St. Croix River when he went under for reasons that arent clear. Medics unsuccessfully tried to revive him. Stearns County officials say an an 18-year-old male drowned after jumping into about 35 feet of water at the Quarry Park and Nature Preserve in Waite Park. And Anoka County authorities say a child was airlifted to a Minneapolis hospital on Saturday evening after being found unresponsive in a pond in Ham Lake. The Star Tribune reports that the condition of the child was unknown. Weather Alert ...The Flood Warning continues for the Missouri River... at St. Charles at Washington at Hermann at Chamois at Jefferson City. River forecasts are based on observed precipitation and forecast precipitation for the next 24 hours. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Rainfall heavier than forecast could cause river levels to rise even higher than predicted. The National Weather Service will monitor this developing situation and issue follow up statements as conditions change. This product, along with additional weather and stream information, is available at https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=lsx. && ...The Flood Warning remains in effect... The Flood Warning continues for the Missouri River at Jefferson City. * Until early Sunday afternoon. * At 7:45 PM CDT Wednesday the stage was 24.9 feet. * Flood stage is 23.0 feet. * Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours ending at 7:45 PM CDT Wednesday was 25.5 feet. * Forecast...The river is expected to fall below flood stage Saturday morning and continue falling to 14.1 feet Monday evening. * Impact...At 25.0 feet, The levee protecting McBaine is breached near this height. && Fld Observed Forecasts (1 pm CDT) Location Stg Stg Day/Time Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Missouri River Jefferson Cty 23.0 24.9 Wed 7 pm 26.1 23.0 19.1 15.6 MSG && A North Korean work brigade on Mount Paektu / Courtesy of Swiss Alpine Museum By Kwon Mee-yoo Swiss Alpine Museum Director Beat Hachler North Korea is one of the most reclusive countries in the world. Totalitarian dictatorship, human rights abuses, food crises and aggressive military posturing are some of the things that come to mind when people hear "North Korea." However, a group of researchers at the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern, a museum dedicated to the nature and culture of the Swiss Alps as well as other mountains around the world, thought differently. As mountains and hills take up a large portion of the territories of both Switzerland and North Korea, they decided to focus on how mountains shape the identity, culture and economy of North Korea. The museum is currently presenting an exhibition titled "Let's Talk about Mountains: A Filmic Approach to North Korea," shedding light on North Korea from a fresh perspective. Beat Hachler, director of the museum who also organized the exhibition, picked the project as the most laborious and difficult one the museum has ever done, though he said it was worth it. "Personally, I didn't really have an idea what North Korea's topography looks like. In 2014, I saw at the Architecture Biennale in Venice, in the South Korean pavilion, posters with North Korean utopian architecture, embedded in mountainous regions. This was a key experience for me and the moment I started thinking about a mountain approach towards North Korea," Hachler said in an email interview with The Korea Times. Over the past 10 years, the Swiss Alpine Museum has had other projects with Afghanistan, Iran and Taiwan, using mountains as an intercultural door opener. "Mountains are often considered as conveying an apolitical approach. Compared to very political questions like human rights, political freedom, free access in and out of a country and so on, mountains are first of all representatives of nature and culture. But of course, when you speak about mountains and identity, mountains and history, mountains and tourism or mountains and religiosity/ideology you realize quite fast that mountains are a fully integrated part of the political and social system," Hachler said. A bus stop in Pyongyang is decorated with an image of the crater lake of Mount Paektu. / Courtesy of Swiss Alpine Museum Hachler and film director Gian Suhner wrote a concept proposal on how they would approach the North Korean mountains and presented it to the North Korean Embassy in Bern in 2017. "Some weeks later we got a phone call from the Cultural Committee in Pyongyang, that they had accepted our ideas and would support us to realize the exhibition. So, they accepted our tour program. We liked seeing not only several institutions in Pyongyang, but also the mountains Paektu and Geumgang, and the countryside, with its agricultural aspects, in the mountain regions," he said. "The most important decision they did was: they allowed us to do interviews with spontaneously chosen people on site, which we did. In the end we had about 40 hours of film material and over 45 interviews, most of them from the North Korean side, but some from Mount Halla on Jeju Island (in South Korea), where we ended our journey." The exhibit consists of two forms of film: one with panoramic views of places and one with interviews of people, presented on smaller screens. The journey is shown via nine different themes, from a Sunday stroll in Moranbong City Park in Pyongyang and visits to the Mansudae Art Factory and a middle school, to Masikryong Ski Resort and a collective farm in Chonsam, as well as the highlights of the mountains of Paektu, Geumgang and Halla. A hiking group on Mount Geumgang / Courtesy of Swiss Alpine Museum Hachler noted how ideology influences the perceptions of Mount Paektu, but also that the fundamentals of mountains and hiking remain the same in North Korea. "The ideology behind Mount Paektu being seen as a crucial part of North Korean history, and especially of the Kim dynasty, is very special. But the more individual and emotional aspects involved in experiencing the landscape, waterfalls and fresh air are not really different. North Koreans like nature and feel happy in a beautiful landscape as people do everywhere, maybe in North Korea even more. I guess that opportunities to go and hike in the mountains are rare moments. If people get the opportunity to do this, they appreciate it very much." There are also differences between the two major mountains of North Korea Paektu and Geumgang Hachler discovered. "Not only are the climate and vegetation different, but the ideological frames are also different. Paektu is framed today as the Holy Mountain of Revolution and looks like a place of pilgrimage. The people's statements concerning this place are very near to the official and ideological shaping of the mountain," he explained. "On the other hand, on Mount Geumgang, people are much more in a hiking holiday mood. They hike in colorful clothes, practice picnics, sing songs so we saw quite relaxed moments and could also ask North Koreans questions about the mountains in South Korea, and if they would like to go there. It was easy to speak with the people and they were sometimes also interested in Switzerland and our motivation to do this project. "Personally I spent time after the film shooting in the North for a two-week holiday in South Korea. I did some hiking tours in Seoraksan (Mount Seorak) National Park and was really perplexed to see an almost identical landscape, very similar to Mount Geumgang." Interviewee Kim Jong-won at Masikryong Ski Resort / Courtesy of Swiss Alpine Museum Samsung Electronics' chip plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics By Kim Bo-eun Three major players continue to maintain an oligopoly over the global memory chip market, but Micron Technology's latest claims are challenging Samsung Electronics and SK hynix which have reigned supreme so far. Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of the U.S. chip manufacturer, said recently his company would be volume shipping new products based on its leading 176-layer NAND and 1-alpha DRAM technology this month, at the Computex 2021 event held in Taipei on June 2. Earlier, Micron said it would make volume shipments of 1-alpha node DRAM products using the industry's most advanced DRAM process technology. Micron is the first to mass-produce 1-alpha node DRAM products. Micron's 1-alpha node DRAM is equivalent to Samsung's DRAM with a circuit line width of 14 nanometers. Samsung is currently mass-producing 15-nanometer DRAM, and a senior executive told investors in a first-quarter earnings conference call in April that the company would begin volume shipments of 14-nanometer DRAM chips in the second half of this year. The prospect of losing the lead in new developments seems to be unnerving officials at Samsung, the top player in the memory and NAND markets. Samsung Vice President Han Jin-man's reference in the conference call to the specific size of its DRAM memory was seen as intentional, given than Samsung had refrained up until then from making official comments on details of its products since 2016, when competition over smaller DRAM memory chips came down to the 10-nanometer level. The executive appeared to be stressing Samsung's competitiveness at a time when Micron is making strides. Such remarks came as the Idaho-based company also edged past Samsung's operating profit margin for its chip business. In the first quarter of this year, Samsung's operating profit margin reached 17.7 percent, while Micron's stood at 20 percent. Part of Micron's growing competitiveness is believed to stem from the scouting of engineers from Samsung and SK hynix as well as Japanese players including Kioxia, according to sources. Samsung accounted for 41.7 percent of the $66.3 billion global DRAM market in 2020, followed by SK hynix with 29.4 percent and Micron 23.5 percent, according to market tracker Omdia. Samsung's market share is down 5 percentage points from 2016, when it accounted for 46.6 percent. Micron's share of the market rose by 3 percentage points over the same period. SK hynix's plant in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of SK hynix The Rev. Dave Hogsett is a retired United Methodist pastor. He can be e-mailed at davidh15503@embarqmail.com. Dr. Terry Gaff is a physician in northeast Indiana. Contact him at drgaff@kpcmedia.com or on Facebook. To read past columns and to post comments go to kpcnews.com/columnists/terry_gaff. Brian Howey is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana at howeypolitics.com. Find him on Facebook and Twitter @hwypol. The new Sojourner Truth statue stands in the northwest corner of the Steuben County Courthouse courtyard. It was created by artist Jim Haire and, thanks to the Downtown Angola Coalition, was funded by grants from Indiana Humanities, the Office of Community Rural Affairs, First Federal Savings Bank of Angola and several in-kind contributions. UPDATE: JUNE 14 AT 7:46 A.M. The Missing Endangered Person Advisory for Jodi Parsons has been cancelled Monday. According to the Montana Department of Justice, Jodi has been found Sunday night and she is safe. BOZEMAN, Mont. - The Gallatin County Sheriffs Office requested a Missing Endangered Person Advisory for a 14-year-old girl who reportedly left home after midnight Saturday with no cellphone and an extra bag of clothes. According to the MEPA, Jodi Parsons, 14, is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 100 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes. Jodi was last seen wearing black shorts, a white t-shirt with Disco Sucks written on it or Red Chili Peppers crop top with a blue tank top with butterflies. Her mother reportedly found a note saying she was hitch-hiking to Oregon. Jodie may possibly be with a man, Christopher Kunkle, and a woman, Shawni Goble in a green Ford Expedition heading to Tenino, Washington. If you have any information on Jodi Parsons you are asked to please contact Gallatin County Sheriff Office at 406 582 2100 or 9-1-1. Update, June 13 at 1:32 pm: The Robinson Fire is now reported to be 25 percent contained. InciWeb reports the fire is 790 acres as of Sunday morning and was caused by lightning. Firefighters plan to take advantage of light winds to attack the Robinson Fire from the air Sunday. Helicopters will drop buckets of water to begin controlling the fire inside Robinson Canyon, the most difficult terrain in the fire area The fire is reported to be burning in extremely steep and rocky terrain, about 20 miles south of Buffalo. Aircraft have not been able to work inside the canyon when winds were strong and gusty. When the terrain is too dangerous for ground firefighters to operate, its often too risky for aircraft as well, explained Air Operations Branch Director Jason Hofman. Were looking forward to putting our three helicopters to good use today. The Wyoming National Guard has also provided a medical evacuation helicopter and crew to stand by in case of a serious firefighter injury. As the airborne firefighting effort ramps up, ground firefighters continue to improve fire lines and scout for more control opportunities in the very rough and rocky terrain. To date, no structures have been damaged by the fire. Fire managers expect moderate fire behavior Sunday. Groups of standing green trees continue to occasionally burn, however, the report says the fire is also steadily consuming dead trees and logs, which is a slow, beneficial process. People in the area should expect to see smoke for an extended period. Previous coverage: BUFFALO, Wyo. The Robinson Fire burned off the mountain and into Robinson Canyon and surrounding foothills during the Thursday night high winds that impacted the area. In response to the spread of the fire and the increasing personnel involved, the fire incident has been upgraded from a Type 3 response to a Type 2. A flight conducted this morning estimates that the fire has grown to around 600 acres, increasing from the approximately 150 acres on Thursday. Our initial response crews have been giving a monumental effort in their fight of this fire as it is in almost vertical terrain that is extremely taxing to work with, said Zeb McWilliams, BLM Fire Response and Federal Incident Commander for the fire. Bringing in the Type 2 team shows just how technical a response this is and how we continue to need the best support for our ground crews available. The Type 2 incident management team will be arriving today and Saturday, augmenting the approximate 200 personnel currently working on the fire from Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana with operations being coordinated out of an established incident command post in Buffalo. We want to thank the community for their support and acceptance of our crews operating out of Buffalo, said McWilliams. While we know that the community would like to provide even further support through the donation of goods, at this time due to continued COVID precautions, donated goods cannot be accepted for our responders. Thank you for understanding as we strive to keep the health of our responders a top priority. Crews continue to monitor the fires proximity to and man-made structures, however, there are no immediate dangers to existing buildings or homes. There are no evacuations currently in place. HELSINKI (AP) The queen of Denmark, Germany's president and other dignitaries from the two countries marked the centennial of Denmark's reunification Sunday, a celebration that was delayed by almost a year due to COVID-19. Denmark's reunification day is observed to commemorate the events of June 15, 1920, which is when Danish King Christian X ratified a law that brought the South Jutland region back into Denmark. The area had been under German rule for 56 years. Germans know the area in the Jutland peninsula that Prussia controlled during the 19th century as the North Schleswig region. It was part of Germany until after the end of World War I. The centennial celebration delayed by the pandemic originally was scheduled for July 2020. On Sunday, Queen Margrethe II and other members of the Danish royal family rode in a horse-drawn carriage south of the town of Kolding, traveling in the same place where the queens grandfather had in 1920. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen later attended a church service with their spouses. Jammu, June 12 (PTI) The increased transmissibility and deaths in May were found linked to B.1.617.2, generally known as double mutant, Principal of Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu Shashi Sudhan Sharma said on Saturday. As many as 68.5 percent of the tested positive patients were reported to have B.1.617.2, which has been classified as being of concern by the World Health Organisation, Sharma said, quoting the recent epidemiological studies. She said the sudden increase in the number of Covid-related deaths in the Union Territory, especially in the Jammu region, raised an alarm about the circulating variant of concern (B.1.617.2) in Jammu, which was proved right by the study. Sharma said the epidemiological studies have suggested the role of the new SARS-CoV-2 variants for ragging second COVID-19 wave in Jammu and Kashmir. She said the Covid positive samples are routinely sent to Indian SARS CoV-2 Consortium of Genomics (INSACOG) for genomic sequencing and analysis of circulating COVID-19 viruses and several variants have been reported in Jammu. "There is available information to suggest that the increased transmissibility and increased deaths in the month of May were linked to the variant of concern, the GMC principal said. According to the recent data of Covid positive samples sent from the Department of Microbiology, GMC Jammu to the National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi for genetic sequencing, she said the mortality rate among patients admitted in the GMC, Jammu was 62.5 percent in those infected with the 'variant of concern,' with a very high number of young patients, indicating the higher public health implications of the variant. Sharma said among those patients admitted 58.4 percent were reported to have B.1.617.2 (double mutant), 22.47 per cent were reported to have B.1 mutation, 6.74 per cent were having B.1.1 mutant, 3.37 per cent had B.1.617.1 variant while 1.1 per cent had B .1.1.7 the UK variant. She said 2.247 per cent of admitted patients were reported to have no mutant at all. Among the infection tally of 3,06,638 and 4,174 fatalities, Jammu and Kashmir recorded a total of over 1.12 lakh COVID-19 cases and 1,609 deaths -- 1,006 in Jammu division and 603 in Kashmir valley in May. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) World Blood Donor Day is observed across the globe on June 14 each year. The main objective of celebrating World Blood Donor Day is to raise awareness of safe blood products and blood for transfusion. It is also celebrated to highlight the major contribution unpaid and voluntary blood donors make to the national health systems. World Blood Donor Day also provides an opportunity to all the national, government, and private health authorities to put adequate resources and infrastructures in place for voluntary and unpaid blood donors. For better public health and care, safe blood and blood products are very important. Every day, several blood donors save millions of lives and improve the quality of life of many patients. Blood donation is considered to be one of the noblest causes. The need for blood is high across the world; however, the access to blood is less. Particularly, in developing countries, blood shortages are acute. Thus, all countries need unpaid, voluntary donors who give blood regularly to ensure that everyone who needs safe blood has access to it. This year, the World Blood Donor Day slogan will be Give blood and keep the world beating. The slogan highlights the critical contribution blood donors make to save lives and improve the health of millions of people. It also urges people from all over the world to contribute to better health and donate blood regularly. According to WHO, this year, Italy will host World Blood Donor Day through its National Blood Centre. On June 14, 2021, the global event will be held in Rome. Now, let us know about the host countries for the last 5 editions of World Blood Donor Day. World Blood Donor Day (2020) The World Blood Donor Day 2020 was celebrated online due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rwanda (2019) The host country for World Blood Donor day 2019 was Rwanda. The global event was held in Kigali, Rwanda on 14 June 2019. Greece (2018) Greece was the host country for World Blood Donor Day 2018, through the Hellenic National Blood Centre. The global event was held in Athens on June 14, 2018. Vietnam (2017) Vietnam was the host country for World Blood Donor Day 2017 through its National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT). The Global event was held in Hanoi on June 14, 2017. Netherlands (2016) Netherlands was the host country for World Blood Donor Day 2016 through Sanquin, the national blood supply organization. The global event was held in Amsterdam on June 14, 2016. Despite limited mobility and other challenges, blood donors in several countries have continued to donate blood and plasma for transfusion throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it is extremely important for us to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation on this World Blood Donor Day 2021. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 13, 2021 04:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). #Iran has started importing electricity from its northern neighbour #Azerbaijan to tackle the country's power shortage, an official confirmed. Photo: IANS (Representational image) pic.twitter.com/gsRAIa3hRu IANS Tweets (@ians_india) June 13, 2021 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) A lobster fisherman from the U.S. had a near-death experience and lived to tell the tale when he was swallowed by a humpback whale and was spat out by the leviathan. The lobster fisherman who experienced a scene from the film "Pinocchio" was identified as Michael Packard, who also took to Facebook and tell the story of his experience with the whale, according to an AFP report. The incident happened on June 11, when he was diving for lobsters off the coast of Massachusetts. READ NEXT: San Diego Gold Medalist Swimmer Pushes For Another Olympic Shot, Refuses to Surrender Against Chronic Disease Lobster Fisherman Survives Being Swallowed by a Humpback Whale As a licensed lobster fisherman or diver, 56-year-old Packard plucks lobsters off the sandy bottom of the area. Cape Cod Times reported that Packard saw schools of sand lances and stripes swimming by. However, he suddenly knew that he would be part of the food chain at that moment. "All of a sudden I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew, it was completely black," said Packard after he was released from the hospital. Packard added that he could feel that he was moving and as well as the whales moving the muscles of its mouth. Initially, the lobster fisherman thought that he was victimized by a great white shark. However, he could not feel any teeth from the leviathan, and he had not sustained any wounds. That's when it came to him that he was gulped by a whale. "I was completely inside; it was completely dark," said Packard, as he thought about his children while losing hope of getting out of the whale's mouth. Packard stayed inside the mouth of the humpback whale for about 30-40 seconds before the leviathan spat him out. The lobster fisherman noted that the whale threw its head from side to side then he suddenly realized that he was out in the waters. Despite what Packard experienced, director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Jooke Robins said that the incident with the lobster fisherman was a mistake and an accident of the humpback whale. "When they [whales] fish, they rush forward, open their mouth and engulf the fish and the water very quickly," Robbins noted, adding that the whale may not be able to detect that something is in the way. The director also pointed out that humpback whales are not aggressive animals, especially towards humans. What to Do When Swallowed by a Whale Although most whales, like the humpback whale that accidentally swallowed the lobster fisherman, are not aggressive, What If emphasized that the only whale capable of eating humans are the sperm whales. But what will you do when you get swallowed by a whale? The first thing that needs to be done is to curl up like a ball to minimize the surface area of the body and decrease the chance of getting chomped by the whale's teeth if there are any. Trying to feel inside the mouth will also be helpful but challenging since it will be very dark. Then without packing, waiting for the whale to spit up will increase the chance of survival. Even though humpback whales are not hostile against humans, Director Robbins noted that divers like the lobster fishermen and everyone should be aware and stay away from the area when they see a whale. READ MORE: 3 FDA Advisory Panel Members Resign Over Agency's Approval of Alzheimer's Drug From Biogen WATCH: What If You Were Swallowed by a Whale? - from What If The last six months of the War of Independence were the most violent of the entire struggle. Over 1,000 people were killed between the beginning of 1921 and the Truce of July 11, 1921. Civilians bore a heavy cost and their experience is possibly the most overlooked of the period as we eagerly struggle to study the various combatants. In County Kildare, four civilians died violently in the closing weeks of the war. On June 13, 1921, the IRA shot dead Michael Power (40), an ex-soldier, at Kilboggan House, near Nurney. Michael Power had served in the army for over a year as a sapper, being too old for active service. Originally from Kilkenny, he lived with his wife, Elizabeth Lizzie Dillon, a local woman, and four young children at Kilboggan. While investigating cattle stealing in the Curragh area in the summer of 1920, the local IRA arrested Michael Power, who was tried for larceny before a Sinn Fein court. He was sentenced to leave the country for a period of 12 months. Instead of leaving Ireland as ordered, Power obtained married quarters at A Block, Gough Barracks, Curragh Camp and, in September, employment with the Royal Engineers. When questioned by the camp authorities he, according to Michael Smyth, OC 2nd Kildare Battalion, named the people involved in his trial. On June 10, Mr and Mrs Power visited her sister at Kilboggan House, where Michael Power was shot three times at close range with a small calibre pistol. Michael Power had married Lizzie Dillon at Suncroft Chapel on April 17, 1902, when they were both living at Kilboggan and he was working as a labourer. They had four children: Catherine (b 1903), Margaret (1905), Elizabeth (1910) and John (1912). Lizzie was the daughter of a local farmer, James Dillon. The couple moved intermittently, but mostly lived at Kilboggan. However, in September 1920, the Powers were living at Behans Cottage, Brownstown, the Curragh, when one night about 11 oclock, their small house was surrounded by around 15 men, who started to beat open the door. Michael Power immediately went down and opened the door and two masked men, armed with revolvers, entered. They asked him if he was Michael Power, and then took him away, half-dressed. He returned home at 4am the next morning, and explained to his wife that he had been tried by a republican court for larceny and he was to leave the country for a term of 12 months. Lizzie Power mentioned to the subsequent military court of inquiry that one of the masked men was Edward Moran (Eamon O Modhrain), who was OC 6th Carlow Battalion, which operated in the Curragh/Kildare area. In April 1921, Lizzie visited her ailing sister, Catherine Dillon, who was employed as a domestic servant for Henry Scully, of Kilboggan House. Michael Power joined his wife later, and left about 7pm. Two hours afterwards, four men, two of them masked and carrying revolvers, came to the house and asked Lizzie where her husband was. She told them he had gone home. The men then searched the house, upsetting everything, according to Lizzie. On June 10, 1921, Lizzie Power again visited her sister at the house in Kilboggan. Michael went with her and remained for about an hour. He then said that he was going into the yard and would be back in about five minutes. Lizzie was upstairs at the time, but after Michael had left she noticed three men approaching the house. When she observed the centre man put a white handkerchief over his face, Lizzie became alarmed and went down stairs and into the yard to look for her husband. She found him lying face downwards in a stable. He was unconscious, and, although she remained with him until he died about 30 minutes later, Michael Power never spoke. Lizzie left Michaels body and went to the nearest RIC station in Kildare town to report the incident. Dr Laurence Rowan, of Kildare town, attended the scene. He, incidentally, was also a medical officer for the IRA. Dr Rowan gave evidence to the military inquiry that Michael Power had two bullet wounds on the left side of the chest and one at the left collar bone. All wounds had been caused by small calibre bullets, which had been fired from a distance of at least three yards. The court found that Michael Power was wilfully murdered by a person or persons unknown. In giving evidence to the inquiry, Lizzie Power said her husband had been demobilised from the British Army in 1919 and that he was in receipt of 25 shillings a week. She was then living on 10 shillings a week she was getting from her sister. Lizzie Power applied for 6,000 compensation and secured 1,000 with a further 4,000 to be divided between her four children. Mrs. Power and her children emigrated to Scotland the following year. Comdt Michael Smyth, Kildare 2nd Battalion, made this statement about the incident: A man, named Power of Kilboggan, Suncroft was questioned about robberies in the area, but before he could be arrested he sought refuge on Curragh camp, where he gave information concerning the IRA. He was kept under the protection of the British military at Curragh camp. When he left camp to return home on one occasion he was arrested, tried, found guilty and executed. There was considerable enemy activity around Suncroft after the execution, but no arrests were made. Some other spies, including a woman, were under observation, but they, too, took refuge in Curragh camp. A week after the killing of Michael Power another controversial murder took place at Grangehiggin, Kilmeague. Philip Dunne, a 35-year-old labourer, was shot dead in what Eunan OHalpin and Daithi O Corrain have described in the Dead of the Irish Revolution (2020) as a less than heroic operation, which has all the hallmarks of a local dispute, dressed up as a political one. Local feuds simmered during the revolution and its aftermath, and individuals, political and otherwise, dominated and influenced activities, using fear and authority over communities. Philip Dunne lived with his widowed mother, Anne (70) and two sisters, Teresa Margaret (22) and Julia (30) at Grangehiggin, on the Naas side of the cross where the Naas-Rathangan and Kilmeague-Allen roads converge. Mrs Dunne owned a small cottage and a patch of ground and Philip earned his living selling turf and working for local farmers as a general labourer. At about midnight on June 14, 1921, there was a knock on the door, followed by a voice which said. If you do not open the door in five minutes we will blow you all up! Julia Dunne opened the door and two masked men entered, later identified by Teresa as Daniel Rigney and Michael Dunne. She had known Dunne for the past ten years and Rigney for about a year. They dragged Philip outside where neighbours Charlie Dunney, Joe Ward, Martin Heavy and Laurence Flood were waiting. Philip struggled with them and according to Teresa, one of them broke a stick over her brothers head. Philip broke free and ran away and Teresa overheard the men saying they would do him later. The six left but returned about a half hour later. On hearing them approach the Dunne women fled to the fields in terror. They returned to the house about 4.30am and Philip returned, still bloodied, about 8.30am. The following night the family hid in the fields, in fear for their lives. Again, at dawn they returned to their home. At 9pm that night, June 16, up to eight men came to the house and demanded to be let in, once more threatening to blow up the house if they were not admitted. Anne Dunne said: We armed ourselves with forks, spades and slashers... and then opened the door. Daniel Rigney and another man entered and Rigney fired a shot into the kitchen in the direction of Philip Dunne. Mrs Dunne and Philip then attacked the two and Philip hit Rigney with a turf spade. The two men turned and fled, followed by Philip Dunne and his mother and sisters. Philip hit the other man who fell into a ditch. Two men armed with revolvers, one of them identified as Rigney, opened fire at a range of seven yards. Philip Dunne fell mortally wounded, while Anne Dunne was wounded by bullets in the head and hip. All the attackers fled across the fields. Despite their wounds the Dunnes made their way to the home of Rev Fr. Bennett, CC, at Kilmeague, who sent for Dr Paul Blake. The doctor dressed their wounds, but Philip Dunne died at 4.30am. Mrs. Dunne and Teresa went by ass and cart to Kildare RIC Barracks and reported the attack. The police brought Anne Dunne to the Kildare Infirmary, where she remained in a precarious condition until she was discharged on June 27, 1921. She said, My son was not interested in any politics. His father supplied produce to the army all his life. An inquest was held at Kildare RIC Barracks, where it was determined Philip Dunne had a fractured skull and gunshot wounds to the chest and right forearm, which had proved fatal. The Kildare Observer reported that the RIC from Kildare visited the area on June 17, and arrested Daniel Rigney (50), Kilmeague, and Michael Dunne (37), Grangehiggin, Kilmeague. They later arrested Charlie Dunney, married (50), Dunbyrne, Grangehiggin; Joe Ward, married (55), Grangehiggin, Kilmeague; Martin Heavey (27), Blacktrench, Allen; and Laurence Flood (32), Mayfield, Kilmeague. The six men were charged with murder and a whiteboy offence and held in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, awaiting trial. Whiteboy offences were those deemed as agrarian and it was thought that this had all the hallmarks of a land issue. The six men were subsequently released on January 18, 1922, in the general amnesty, after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Comdt Michael Smyth, Kildare 2nd Battalion, made this statement about the Kilmeague incident, which has a completely different version than that of Anne and Teresa Margaret Dunne: At a meeting of the battalion council at the end of 1920 the members were perturbed at the number of arrests taking place in the battalion area especially of battalion and company officers. It was believed that there were informers and spies in the area. Some persons were mentioned as suspects. As a result of a visit by Volunteers to the house of a man suspected of giving information, he was fired on and mortally wounded but first attacked the party with a slane and struck one of the Volunteers on the head. A number of men were arrested in the area after this incident but none of them were members of the IRA. On Sunday, June 19, 1921 the remains of Philip Dunne were interred at Old Cemetery, Allen. The only people present were Fr Bennett, along with his servant; the deceaseds brother, John Dunne, and a cousin; and Dr Blake. It is believed that Philip is buried with his father, John, who died in 1918, but there are no records or a headstone. Anne Dunne secured 350 compensation for the death of her son as well as 100 for personal injuries. She died on December 1, 1930, at Grangehiggin, aged 82 years. Anne was buried at New Cemetery, Allen; her daughter Bridget was buried with her when she died in May 1947, but there is no headstone to mark the plot. On May 29, 1924, President WT Cosgrove told the Dail that compensation claims from Laurence Flood, Martin Heavey, Charlie Dunney and Michael Dunne in respect of impairment of health as a result of imprisonment and injuries and loss sustained during the Black-and-Tan troubles since 18th June 1921 fell outside the relevant legislation. The named gunman, Daniel Rigney, was originally from Broughal, Kilcormac, Co. Offaly, and worked as a branch foreman in the grocery establishment of Mrs. OBrien, Kilmeague (now McCabes Gala). He died aged sixty-three, on 24 November 1934, in Portlaoise Hospital. Four days before the Anglo-Irish Truce came into effect, on 7 July 1921, two more civilians, Bridget and John Doran, died in the most horrifying and tragic of circumstances in Co Kildare during the War of Independence. (see next week). My thanks to John Power (Scotland) and Joe Murphy for help with this article. Kildare County Council Historian in Residence and author James Durney is a member of the Kildare Decade of Commemorations. Committee A US author with Kildare ancestors has written a historical novel about his familys history based on old letters written between relatives. Kevin Akers, who lives in California, is descended from his great, great grandfather Patrick Lawler from Blackford, Athy and his wife Bridget Dunne from nearby Stradbally. Patrick and Bridget left Ireland in the autumn of 1853 while the effects of the Great Family still ravaged the country, and arrived in San Francisco on New Years Day 1854. Kevin's novel, entitled The Dunnes Of Brittas is a fictionalised account of his familys fascinating history using letters handed down from great, grand aunt Lucy Lawler Rogers who was Patrick and Bridgets daughter. Lucy, who wrote the familys memoirs in in 1935, said that her parents originally came through the Isthmus of Panama canal to get to the San Francisco area. She said: They rode in row boats part of the way and on donkeys part of the way. In order to get to the ship waiting on the Pacific side, the natives carried them. After settling into the area and having seven children, the couple seem to have become quite prosperous and lived on a ranch with a ten-room colonial style house. Patrick Lawler died aged 75 in 1887 one of the oldest citizens in the area. Large funeral His funeral procession to Cypress Hill Cemetery was one of the largest every seen in the Vallejo city area, according to local reports. Patricks wife Bridget passed away seven years later in 1894 also at a good age for the time, 83. Kevin describes his book as a sweeping historical saga beginning in an aristocratic yet fragile Ireland. He added: The novel follows the Dunnes to Antebellum New Orleans, South America and finally to San Francisco where they struggle to create their own family dynasties. Sharing in each others triumphs and tragedies, they finally discover that their strength doesnt derive from their separate branches but their common roots. Rich with memorable characters and historical detail, the novel narrated by Aunt Lucy to her niece. The book is available to buy via Amazon. Leitrim, together with the rest of Ireland, is experiencing changes in weather patterns due to climate change. The way we live must change and we have to take action to reduce our carbon emissions. GEAI is responding to the crisis by organising on-line Climate Action Dialogue sessions for the general public in Leitrim on June 16 and 17 at 7- 8.30pm. The first two online sessions will be focused on Leitrim, and the themes of: Homes, Transport and Agriculture. Food and Waste will also be on the agenda as issues that are foremost in peoples minds. The aim will be to decide on actions that we can prioritise and to come up with strategies and a Plan to implement those actions, for example, political lobbying, community action and campaigns. Leitrim County Council is drafting its Climate Action Plan at the moment, GEAI intend to submit the results of the Climate Action Dialogues to the Council and to influence their decisions. You can register for both sessions by clicking HERE. Also read: Leitrim man jailed for six months for a single-blow assault in Bundoran LIMERICK City and County Council has cleared the way for a new community centre in the village of Patrickswell. Local planners have given conditional permission for the new purpose-built structure in Main Street, with the development set to consist of a multi-purpose community hall, meeting rooms and office areas. On top of this, there will be a community cafe and coffee shop, with a new landscaped civic space at the front of the building. The planning permission has been welcomed by local Fine Gael councillors Dan McSweeney and Daniel Butler. Cllr McSweeney, who lives in the village says the need for this centre has been apparent for the last 20 years, with a new five-year strategy drafted in 2019 putting it front-and-centre of the community councils goals. This centre is at arms reach for the community and closer than it has ever been in the past. I have worked extremely hard to do whats best for our community, he said, In February 2019 I proposed to my fellow Councillors in Limerick City West to allocate 100,000 from our GMA fund. Following this allocation, I continued to work Limerick City and County Council and as a result a further 150,000 has been committed from our development levies fund over the next three years. #Patrickswell Delighted to see Limerick Council grant planning permission for the Community Centre in Patrickswell. I have been a strong advocate & supporter of this project over the last numbers of years. Well done to everyone involved in driving the project. pic.twitter.com/K4ZBPkMXCX June 10, 2021 Cllr Butler added: This is good news day for the community. I have from day one been an advocate and supporter of this project knowing the value this facility will bring to the community to build on the great work already happening in the village. We now must unite as a community and get behind it to see it through to delivery." Despite the planning consent, there had been opposition from some quarters, with five committee members from the Patrickswell Community Council lodging an objection. Independent councillor Fergus Kilcoyne, who also lives in Patrickswell village, urged the council to withdraw the plans and start from scratch. Good news for Patrickswell today with Limerick City & County Council granting planning permission for the new Community Centre Development. This is welcome news for the village - well done to everyone involved. pic.twitter.com/SpIlTfwNrX Niall Collins (@NiallCollinsTD) June 10, 2021 I am personally shocked that a layout of a tiny multi-purpose hall of 1,300 square feet was lodged as the original plans granted in 2017 were over 8,000 square foot. I agree with the objectors that this hall is not fit for purpose and does not even come with changing rooms or shower facilities despite it being called a multi-purpose community hall, he wrote in a letter to his constituents. PLANS for a new directly elected mayor for Limerick are currently going through the budgetary oversight committee of the Dail. Government has committed millions of euro to the new role which will bring with it a 130,000 salary after Limerick became the only city in Ireland to adopt the position by popular vote. Two years on from the plebiscite equivalent versions of which were rejected in Cork and Waterford Senator Maria Byrne says the oversight committee will recommend whether the money is being spent in the correct areas. Ms Byrne, who led the Yes campaign alongside John Moran in Limerick, said: Officials are working on the legislation at the moment. That has to go through both houses. I think it will be the autumn before we see that. She acknowledged this means there is unlikely to be an election for the high-profile role this year, despite the Junior Minister with responsibility for delivering the role Peter Burke previously expressing a wish this would be the case. There has been only one person declaring their candidacy in the race to be the first directly elected mayor of Limerick Independent candidate Fionan Coughlan. Later this month, Limerick councillors will meet to elect a new mayor from their own group, as has been the case for centuries. This is widely expected to be Fine Gael councillor Daniel Butler who is in line to take the role as part of a grand council coalition deal between his party and Fianna Fail. Sources have indicated the Raheen man might be interested in a tilt at the overall job, with his position as the incumbent mayor no doubt being beneficial. Ms Byrne acknowledges the plebiscite win in Limerick was remarkable, especially in light of the fact voters in Cork and Waterford rejected the plan for an executive mayor. She said Limerick is leading the way and will be pioneers in local government reform as a result. It will put Limerick on the map. Limerick City is the driver of the Mid-West region. And I think this new role will have an impact on business and education. I think because of this, a lot of people will look at what is happening in Limerick and take notice, said the Senator. In the run up to the May 2019 plebiscite, she organised six public meetings county-wide, and organised for a mix of people from different backgrounds to publicly back a yes vote. LIMERICK Fine Gael TD Kieran ODonnell has met with online payments firm Stripe in the wake of its decision to bring 1,000 jobs to Ireland. The online payments firm, founded by Castletroy brothers Patrick and John Collison, announced the investment for its Dublin office in March. But it led to calls for the brothers to bring some of the jobs back to the city where they were educated. Mr ODonnell held the online meeting with Eileen OMeara, who is Stripes revenue and growth lead in Ireland. He said he discussed the firms growth strategy, the University of Limericks new software engineering degree and masters programme, plus future opportunities it might have for Limerick. At the meeting, amongst the matters we discussed included Stripes roll-out of 1,000 new jobs in Ireland over the next number of years and exploring the opportunities for Limerick City to be part of this expansion, he confirmed. Furthermore, we spoke about Stripes key partnership with the University of Limerick to develop its new degree in Immersive Software Engineering here, evidence of the Collison brothers Patrick and John, great affiliation with Limerick. Mr ODonnell reported the Stripe executive said Stripe bosses are very excited about its new link with UL which will set up the new Immersive Software Engineering degree and masters programme, due to commence for 2022/23. Stripe and I agreed to continue our engagement on opportunities in Limerick and I look forward to further on-going discussions with Eileen and her team, concluded the city TD. SUNDAY was the hottest day of the year but June 13, 2021, will go down as a dark day in the history of the parish of Cappamore. The word legend is thrown around too easily but Paddy Ryan Luke of Cappanuke, Cappamore, was a legend. He passed away peacefully in Milford Care Centre on Sunday morning. Cappamore and east Limerick is in mourning but so too are so many, many people from Donegal to West Cork. Paddy will go down in history as the longest ever secretary of any show in Ireland and probably the world. He was secretary for 60 of the 65 Cappamore Shows. Foot and Mouth disease and Covid robbed him of two more. Cathaoirleach of Cappamore-Kilmallock Municipal District, John Egan said Paddy "put his heart and soul into Cappamore Show and into Cappamore". They first met in Macra almost 50 years ago. "He was a leader for his community and defended rural Ireland to the hilt. He was involved in any developments in Cappamore. He started off in Macra, then got the show going and that led to the development of the hall. "Up to recently he was very much involved in the houses for the elderly in the old creamery which is supposed to start this year. He leaves an outstanding legacy to the people of Cappamore and surrounding districts. He worked unselfishly for the show and he worked very much for his community, said Cllr Egan. The Murroe man said Paddy had his priorities in life right. His first priority was his family, he was an outstanding farmer and an outstanding community man, said Cllr Egan. The beloved father of the late Helen is sadly missed by his loving wife Peggy, sons Ger and Sean, daughters in law Thea and Aoife, son in law Peadar, grandchildren Jamie, Aoibhinn, Megan, James, Grace, Matthew, and Kieran, brother Fr. John Joe (Columban Fathers, Fiji), sisters Sr. Mary Anthony (Columban Sisters), Bridget Holohan (Kilkenny), Ann Woods (Ballywilliam) and Margaret Ryan (Kilkenny), brothers in law, sisters in law, nephews, nieces, including his many friends in the Cappamore Show committee, relatives and friends. There was an inherent decency and kindness to Paddy. He had a big heart. On the evening of the death of this reporters mother on May 10, Paddy rang me. I knew he wasnt well and was in hospital yet Paddy always put others before himself. We had a lovely chat for 10 minutes, one that I wont forget. Thank you Paddy. I always thought that the former Limerick IFA chairman, Eamon English, put it very well when he said: "If you had to pay Paddy Ryan Luke for what he has done for Cappamore you would forever be in debt to him." Mr English was speaking on the occasion of Paddy being honoured with the prestigious Paddy Fitzgerald Memorial Award in 2014. When I interviewed Paddy in the days afterwards he told me: "I regard community as an extension of the family. You are doing it for your own kith and kin." In normal times that "extension of the family" would have made it one of the biggest funerals in living memory in east Limerick. This tribute barely scratches the surface of all that he was and all that he accomplished. Paddy Ryan 'Luke' was some man for one man. May he rest in peace. Departing from his home in Cappanuke on Tuesday at 10.45am to arrive at St Michaels Church, Cappamore for Requiem Mass at 11.30am. Burial afterwards in Ballinure Cemetery travelling via Cappanuke and the monument in Murroe. Click here to read the full article. During the same week that the Biden administration continued its effort to put a halt to the wasteful government spending on former president Trumps useless and mostly nonexistent border wall, Texas Governor Greg Abbott vowed to match Trumps stupidity in his state. Abbotts announcement to build a wall in Texas came during a Thursday border security summit he hosted in Del Rio, saying, Texas will not sit idly by as this crisis grows. The governors pledge matches that of his Republican primary challenger Don Huffines, who promised in May, if elected, We will build our own wall without the federal government, and were not going to ask their permission to do it. It will be a Texas wall. But like Abbott, Huffines gave few details on how hed actually accomplish that feat since the state has little authority to do so, given the fact that much of the land is privately or federally owned. States dont have authority over immigration and our borders, thats a federal authority, said Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Its not constitutional and were planning to challenge it in court once we see the final order. None of that likely matters to Abbott or Huffines, both of whom are well aware of how Trump used xenophobic lies to help capture the White House in 2016 and know that Trump didnt give reasonable details about how his wall would be built or paid for, even going so far as to promise that Mexico was going to fund his pet project (but it never did). Instead, Trump re-routed funds for military construction to go toward his precious border wall. But on Friday, the Biden administration announced that its returning more than $2 billion that Trump had redirected from the Department of Defense to fund the wall. The White House had made it clear earlier this year what it thought of Trumps wall, releasing a proclamation on the matter only weeks after Bidens inauguration. Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution. It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security, the proclamation said. Sign up for Rolling Stone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Five days after a Laredo businessman set up a fundraiser for Laredo Councilman Rudy Gonzalez, over $25,000 had been raised for the officials medical expenses due to a hereditary liver condition which will necessitate a liver transplant. Gonzalez first announced the news via social media at the end of May, with the news quickly making its way around the city, sprouting reactions from citizens and the media. When respected Laredo businessman Beto Gutierrez, best known as the founder of Armadillo Homes, picked up that Sundays edition of the Laredo Morning Times, he learned of the councilmans condition and sprung to action. Gutierrez enlisted Anita Stanley, assistant director of the Laredo Parks and Recreation department, to assist him in creating a fundraiser on GoFundMe to aid the councilman. Though Gutierrez had previously made donations to other online fundraisers, this was his first time deciding to take the plunge and organize a fundraiser himself. When Gutierrez formulated the idea for the page, he enlisted Stanley who quickly set up the page. He then quickly spread the link around to his friends in the Laredo business community. I felt like I was going to get a response; I circulated the link to a group of Laredo businessmen with good hearts, Gutierrez said. But I didnt think we would get it done as quickly as we did. Gonzalez was stunned when he learned of the page, having not even met the businessman that had already raised so much money for his cause. Honestly, this all caught me by surprise, Gonzalez said. I just wanted the Laredo community to know why I had been missing. It was too much to hold in. I spoke to my wife about it, and we decided it was time to let people know. According to Gonzalez, he and his family have already spent nearly $9,000 dollars in medical expenses in getting his diagnosis. However, the most expensive part of the equation is yet to come, with the surgery for the transplant not yet scheduled. In the original announcement, the councilman said the he was at the top of the donor list. However, once the news circulated around the city, some Laredoans have offered to take blood tests to see if they could donate a small part of their own liver to the councilman, which is what he would need to undergo the procedure. We were very blessed with all the prayers, phone calls and text messages that we have received since the announcement, Gonzalez said. Its amazing to know so many people can stand behind you and your family. Once a donor is found, Gonzalez would have to transport himself and his family to San Antonio for a period of 12-14 days for the procedure and subsequent recovery time. And while health insurance should cover a majority of the councilmans medical expenses, related expenses due to the relocation are not expected to be covered. Gutierrez said that was something he was familiar with, knowing a a number of persons that have experienced financial difficulties due to unexpected medical expenses. Ive known of many patients that have undergone similar circumstances, including a pastor at St. Patrick Church and my cousin in Austin, Gutierrez said. Hopefully insurance will cover the transplant, medication and recovery, but insurance doesnt take into account travel, accommodations and everything else that comes with it. And while Gutierrez and Gonzalez still have to meet in person, both have indicated the meeting will happen soon enough. We talked about it over the phone, and I want to meet him one day, Gonzalez said. I want to thank him for everything; for pushing this forward. We met our goal. Gutierrez said he would be there for the councilman, beyond the amount he has personally donated in the fundraiser already. Im a firm believer in the spiritual, Gutierrez said. I tell everyone thats thinking of donating to give what they can. Youll get it back ten or a hundred fold from the Lord. After almost a week of the elections being held in Mexico and in Nuevo Laredo featuring multiple recounts and allegations of fraud and double votes being counted, the citys main electoral board El Institution Nacional Electoral finally made the announcement of a new mayor and a new party in charge of the city. The new mayor of Nuevo Laredo will be Carmen Lilia Canturosas from the Morena political party, or National Regeneration Movement Party as it is translated into English. She won officially by 2,152 votes over her closest opponent Yahleel Abdala from the Partido Accion Nacional, or the National Action Party in English, whose party had been in control of the city for more than a decade. Canturosas is not a newcomer to the Nuevo Laredo political scene as she has served as a congressional deputy for the state of Tamaulipas, and her family has strong ties to the government of Nuevo Laredo as her father and brother were also mayors of the city years ago. Although Canturosas will not be inaugurated until October, she celebrated her victory by holding a press conference and also speaking at the Benito Juarez Monument in Nuevo Laredo in front of a crowd of hundreds of people who came out to celebrate her victory. We won three times according to the recounts, and that must be said, and I cannot stop being grateful for the help and support that we got from the community, Canturosas said. I will not fail my citizens, and we fight and bring solutions with courage, strength and much love. According to the mayor-elect, her main objectives for the city are to repair much of the damage on bad infrastructure in the city, to end corruption in the city by making it more transparent and accessible for the normal citizen to get their needs met and see how the city funds are utilized. Though there are some people who argue she might even input an audit in the city and legal challenges to the former mayoral administration, Canturosas said she will only do this if necessary as she first wants to enter into office before deciding what to do concerning former allegations of corruption in the mayors office. Against all odds, but without ever letting go of what we felt in our hearts, we continued to fight, and now we can celebrate a victory that we can all celebrate as with your votes and a community that is thirsty for righteousness and justice we got to this day which in history together we can mark the beginning of a new era, Canturosas said. The moment is finally here where we will recuperate our liberty and freedoms, and it is the time now to let go of excuses and rather bring solutions to the table. The time is here for the people, for Nuevo Laredo, and to lift the head with dignity and ignite the flame and illuminate our land with hope and good vibes. Just as her supporters cheered for Canturosas around Nuevo Laredo, Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz also offered words of congratulations to his newly elected sister city counterpart. My sincere congratulations to the incoming mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on her campaign victory, Saenz said. I have spoken to her over the phone and expressed my good wishes and desire to work very closely with her and all the elected officials of Nuevo Laredo under her leadership so that our binational region Los Dos Laredos continues to grow and prosper for the mutual benefit and livelihoods of our people and our families. This region is unique, intricate and tightly woven by our history, culture, family values, international trade, commerce, bridges and overall economies. Saenz said he has many projects and goals he would like to work on with the new mayor as she takes office. He hopes a more economically vital and safe zone can be achieved so people of both Laredos can traverse peacefully between both nations. It is and has been our destiny to be joined by the Rio Grande, or Rio Bravo, the lifeblood of this symbiotic organism, which has made us into the largest land port of the Western Hemisphere, Saenz said. This, together with the constant growth needs of our people, propels us to work in good faith, hand in hand, on many projects, some of which remain pending such as the lifting of bridge restrictions for complete bridge openings, more Sentri lanes for quicker connectivity, expansion of the World Trade Bridge, future construction of the four and five bridges in south Laredo, protecting the waters of the Rio Grande, developing a tourist safe zone on Guerrero Street in Nuevo Laredo, among others. I stand ready and willing with Gods favor to embrace these and any other challenges with my good neighbor and friend Carmen Lilia Canturosas. Canturosas also pledged to her supporters that she will always be the voice to their demands and always welcomes them to her office. During my administration, the regular citizens will have a voice, Canturosas said. Never will we ever let another government leave this city in ruins as our objectives and goals are big but our desire to achieve them is even bigger. My administration does not have the right to fail what the citizens want, and I will not fail them just like my father and brother did not, and we did not fight to fail the people but rather fought to do what the people want for the city. Residents of Nuevo Laredo, who for days saw the ongoing back and forth between Canturosas and Abdala who each proclaimed victory and faced allegations of fraud by the other party, were not surprised by the result. The election had already been decided for days, but the party that controlled the municipal presidency did not recognize its defeat, and that is why it took time to give an official position, said Oscar Garcia, a political enthusiast and former journalist in Nuevo Laredo. Let's hope that there is already tranquility in the political field. Abdala continues to allege there were inconsistencies in the election that cost her to lose votes, and she states she is possibly looking at other legal challenges such as imposing a judicial court order for a judicial tribunal to make a decision about the election. In a video posted on social media, Abdala said, The ballots counted show that there were anomalies that affected the final result against our campaign. The huge errors we continue to see in the electoral counting process show how these errors were all in favor of the political party Morena in which they showed votes being counted twice and votes being counted that did not even exist. We make sure that every vote is counted right, and we will take this all to the electoral judicial tribunal and get the result we wanted. Manuel Moncada, who is the executive spokesman for the Instituto Nacional Electoral, or the National Electoral Institution in Nuevo Laredo, said that Abdala and any other candidates who believe there were inconsistencies in the race have the right to follow other legal channels. After the election is certified and before the candidate is inaugurated, then there could be impunity imposed and judicial intervention if they see fit in an election and if they find any irregularities in any polling places, Moncada said. However, I expect for all of these individuals to be inaugurated into office on Oct. 1, but for now there will be no recounts expected. For Moncada, the close election between Canturosas and Abdala was an excellent example of how the political process works and why different recounts matter. However, it is not a novel thing to happen as the previous election three years ago was decided by a mere 600 votes and required multiple recounts. He said they have already done their part in getting the recounts done successfully multiple times, and he thanked the thousands of voters and volunteers who headed to the polls on Sunday to help with the election process. He said now that all the elections have been certified, then independent of any judicial hearings they are final. The political party PAN also saw many defeats in other local races in Nuevo Lared. Out of the four deputies elected in the city for the state legislature, only one of them remained while the other three legislators elected were from the political party Morena. This included the defeat of former Nuevo Laredo Municipal President Enrique Rivas Cuellar who did not fare well against his Morena counterpart. Rivas Cuellar, who left his mayoral position to run for a congressional seat earlier this year, lost his bid for the District 1 deputy congressional race by around 31% of the vote to his Morena counterpart Gabriela Regalado Fuentes who had about 47% of the vote. According to Moncada, this was one of the most participatory elections the city has ever seen as more than 50% of the registered voters of Nuevo Laredo went to the polls with 151,011 people going out to vote on Sunday, June 6. Moncada said registration for the next elections in Mexico opens Monday, June 14 for all those interested to vote in the presidential elections of 2024. jorge.vela@lmtonline.com WINDSOR, England (AP) President Joe Biden and his aviator sunglasses met Queen Elizabeth II on a bright Sunday afternoon. The queen hosted the president and first lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle, her royal residence near London. Biden flew to London after wrapping up his participation in a three-day summit of leaders of the world's wealthy democracies in Cornwall, in southwestern England. He arrived at the castle aboard the presidential helicopter and was ferried to the queen in a black Range Rover. The 95-year-old monarch greeted the Bidens in the castles quadrangle, where she waited beneath a covered dais that shielded her from the sun on one of the hottest days of the year so far in the United Kingdom. Assembled soldiers from the Queens Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards gave a royal salute and the Bidens placed their hands over their hearts as the U.S. national anthem was played. The president was then led across the grass for an inspection of the Guard of Honor. He wore a stern expression on his face after he had removed his trademark sunglasses, but when the 78-year-old Biden got to the end of the row, he smiled for the soldier in front of him who held up a sword. The queen and Jill Biden remained on the dais. Biden returned to the dais and he, the first lady and the white-gloved woman who has held the British throne for nearly 70 years watched the military march past before they went inside for tea. As they left the dais, Biden offered the queen an elbow. She declined and stepped down on her own power, using the handrail. The Bidens emerged from the castle just shy of having spent a full hour with the queen and boarded the helicopter for the return trip to London. At Heathrow Airport, Biden talked about the queen with his traveling press corps, saying she was very gracious, that she asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and that he had invited her to visit the White House. I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, Biden said before he boarded Air Force One for his next stop, Brussels. It generally is frowned upon for anyone to reveal the contents of their private talks with the queen. Biden is the 13th American president to meet the monarch. President Lyndon B. Johnson is the only one who did not make her acquaintance while he was in office. She has welcomed four other U.S. presidents to Windsor Castle, where she has been isolating during the coronavirus pandemic. They are Donald Trump in 2018, Barack Obama in 2016, George W. Bush in 2008 and Ronald Reagan in 1982. Biden's first time meeting the queen came in November 1982, when as a U.S. senator he traveled to the United Kingdom for a meeting of the British-American Parliamentary Group, the White House said Sunday. Biden was part of a group that met with the monarch during that visit. The queen has been riding out the pandemic at Windsor Castle, but also has begun getting out now and again after the April death of her husband, Prince Philip, at age 99. On Friday, she joined other royal family members, including Prince Charles and Prince William and their spouses, at a reception in Cornwall for the Group of Seven leaders. ___ Superville reported from Washington. SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) A shooting in Savannah left one person dead and seven others injured, including a toddler, police said Saturday. The shooting happened late Friday at an apartment complex when someone inside a dark-colored or red sedan fired rounds into a crowd of people gathered outside, police said. No suspects have been arrested. Police Chief Roy W. Minter Jr. said at a news conference that investigators recovered 60 shell casings from the scene. Bullets damaged at least three apartments and six vehicles. This may have been the result of a conflict between two groups, he said. Minter said the same apartment complex was damaged by gunfire earlier this week. There were no witnesses. No one would talk to us about what happened. And now, two days later, there's a mass shooting at the same location. We don't think it was a coincidence that the same area was targeted Tuesday and then targeted again on Friday." The person killed was identified as Arthur Milton, 20. The other victims ranged in age from 33 to 18 months old. They are being treated at Memorial Hospital and are in various states of recovery, he said. The death was the city's 14th homicide so far this year, he added. Mayor Van Johnson encouraged people who know something about the shooting to say something to help police track down the perpetrators. We will find those responsible, Johnson told WTOC-TV television in an interview. Minter called the incident disturbing and senseless and repeatedly asked the public for help in finding those responsible. These senseless acts of gun violence must stop, he said. We can stop this, but we have to work together. It's disappointing that folks won't come forward." Minter would not confirm whether investigators believed the shooting was gang-related. ___ This story has been corrected to show seven people were injured, not eight that police reported earlier. MADRID (AP) Thousands of people called Sunday for Spain's government to resign over its plan to issue pardons to a dozen separatist leaders who were convicted for their roles in a 2017 attempt to carve out an independent Catalan state, the boldest secession push in recent Spanish history. The demonstration in Madrid was the largest to date against the left-wing coalition government led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. It was organized by a civil society group in defense of Spain's unity and held at a central square that has become a symbol for far-right political rallies. Where have you seen, my friends, a government that rewards those who declare themselves enemies of its nation? Rosa Diez, a former Socialist politician who heads the Union 78 platform, said at the event. Leaders of the center to far-right opposition to Sanchez joined the protest at Colon Square, which boasts one of the nations largest national flags. Sanchez hasnt signed any pardons yet for the political and civil society leaders who in October 2017 pushed ahead with a banned referendum on independence for the northeastern region of Catalonia and then declared independence based on its results. Opponents of Catalan independence boycotted the vote, which took place amid a violent police crackdown. But the prime minister has defended the potential pardons as a way to bring Catalans and Spaniards closer together after the divisive prosecutions that put nine of the 12 Catalan leaders behind bars. Hundreds of civil servants and activists have also been prosecuted. Spains Supreme Court has opposed the pardons. In a recent non-binding opinion, the court said that the sentences for sedition and other crimes were appropriate, and that the convicted individuals had not shown the slightest evidence or faintest hint of contrition. Sanchez also faces criticism in his own Socialist camp, where the pardons are seen as a risky political gamble. More than 60% of Spaniards oppose the pardons and 29.5% back them, according to a recent poll for El Mundo newspaper. Other surveys conducted in Catalonia show 60% to 70% support for the move. In his most recent comments about the issue, Sanchez signaled a desire to address the concerns. I understand that there are citizens who are reluctant about the possibility of granting pardons to the Catalan prisoners, the prime minister said during a visit to Argentina this week. But I ask for your trust because we have to make a bet for coexistence, he continued. Spanish society has to move from a bad past to a better future, and that also implies magnanimity. Detractors accuse Sanchez of making concessions to the separatists in exchange for support from Catalan lawmakers in the national parliament and, ultimately, to remain in power. The votes of ERC, a left-wing pro-Catalan republican party that has recently become the dominant force in the prosperous region, could be key for passing a national budget next year and determining how Spain will spend a hefty pandemic recovery fund, among other issues. We are not going to permit Sanchezs attack on the judiciary, on the sovereignty, national unity and equality of the Spanish people, in exchange for a handful of votes, Pablo Casado, the leader of the leading opposition party, the conservative Popular Party. At Sundays protest, a banner raised over a sea of yellow and red Spanish flags read, They are not pardons, its blackmail. In what has been read as an attempt to pave the way for Sanchezs pardons, former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, who is the president of ERC and the highest-ranking imprisoned Catalan, recognized in a letter this week that the 2017 breakaway bid was not considered fully legitimate by a part of society, including in Catalonia. His letter has been interpreted by the Spanish government as an attempt to break with hardliners such as Carles Puigdemont, who was the Catalonia region's president at the time of the referendum and subsequently fled Spain with some other Catalan officials. In the letter, published by the Catalan ARA newspaper, Junqueras mapped out a forward strategy betting on a new independence referendum, but this time not unilaterally organized by the pro-secession camp. Instead, he pointed out that Scotlands 2014 independence referendum, which was authorized by the British government, was the best example. Scottish voters elected to remain in the U.K. We know that other means are not desirable because they move us further from our goal, Junqueras said in a veiled reference to the position still defended by Puigdemont, his former boss. From his current position as a current lawmaker in the European Union parliament, Puigdemont keeps asserting that he has a mandate to establish a new state. Despite the apparent thawing of relations between ERC and Sanchezs government, neither side predicts a swift resolution to the secession question. Spains government remains firm in its position not to concede a referendum that would threaten the countrys territorial sovereignty, while Junqueras and many of his cohorts believe it is the ultimate outcome. Tensions over secession grew in earnest a decade ago amid the economic hardship of the Great Recession and discontent over Spains opposition to more autonomy for the Catalan-speaking region of 7.5 million people. The issue has also dominated the political debate at the national level and contributed to the rise of the Spanish nationalist Vox party, which has become the third-largest political force in the lower house of Spains Congress. __ Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Law enforcement agencies across the country experienced a wave of retirements and departures and are struggling to recruit the next generation of police officers in the year since George Floyd was killed by a cop. And amid the national reckoning on policing, communities are questioning who should become a police officer today. Mass protests and calls for reforming or defunding the police, as well as the coronavirus pandemic, took their toll on officer morale. The rate of retirements at some departments rose 45% compared with the previous year, according to new research on nearly 200 law enforcement agencies conducted by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum and provided to The Associated Press. At the same time, hiring slowed by 5%, the group found. MEXICO BORDER WALL: ABBOT VOWS TO BUILD WALL AND ARREST MORE MIGRANTS The wave comes as local lawmakers have pledged to enact reforms such as ending the policies that give officers immunity for their actions while on-duty and say theyre committed to reshaping policing in the 21st century. And recruiters are increasingly looking for a different kind of recruit to join embattled departments. Years ago, a candidates qualifications might be centered around his yes, his brawn. Now, police departments say they are seeking recruits who can use their brain. And they want those future officers to represent their communities. Days of old, you wanted someone who actually had the strength to be more physical, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said. Todays police officers, thats not what were looking for. Were looking for someone who can actually relate to the community but also think like the community thinks. But the climate today, coupled with increases in crime in some cities, is creating what Chuck Wexler, the head of the Police Executive Research Forum, called a combustible mixture. Its creating a crisis on the horizon for police chiefs when they look at the resources they need, especially during a period when were seeing an increase in murders and shootings, Wexler said. Its a wake-up call. The data from Wexler's organization represents a fraction of the more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide and is not representative of all departments. But its one of the few efforts to examine police hiring and retention and compare it with the time before Floyds killing in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Former officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on Floyds neck while Floyd was handcuffed behind his back, was convicted of murder and is awaiting sentencing. Researchers heard from 194 police departments last month about their hires, resignations and retirements between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, and the same categories from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020. By comparison, the changing public attitude on policing is well documented. In the past year, as many as half of American adults believed police violence against the public is a very or extremely serious problem, according to one poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Its hard to recruit the very people who see police as an opposition, said Lynda R. Williams, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, who previously worked on recruitment efforts for the Secret Service. Bryant knows firsthand. In the weeks after Floyds death, a white officer, Garrett Rolfe, shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, a Black man, in the parking lot of a Wendys. RELATED: HOUSTONIANS REACT TO LATEST LAW ENFORCEMENT GHOST CARS In quick succession, Rolfe was fired, the chief resigned and the local district attorney announced charges, including felony murder, against Rolfe a rare step in police shootings. Some cops left the force, which currently has about 1,560 officers about 63% of the force is Black, 29% white and 5% Latino. Then came the Blue Flu when a high number of police officers called out sick in protest. Bryant, then the departments interim chief, acknowledged that it had occurred in Atlanta after Rolfe was charged. Some are angry. Some are fearful. Some are confused on what we do in this space. Some may feel a bit abandoned, Bryant said last summer in an interview at the height of the crisis. But it hasn't shaken the resolve of some, like Kaley Garced, a hairdresser-turned-police officer in Baltimore who graduated from the academy last August. Despite the protests and attitudes toward law enforcement, she stayed with her career choice with a plan to interact with residents. Earning their trust leads to better policing, she said. Citizens who trust officers will not be afraid to call upon you on their worst day and ask for help. Williams said she believes the next generation of law enforcement will bring a new outlook and move the profession forward by making departments more diverse and inclusive. They are the change that they want to see, Williams said. Recruitment is still a challenge. In some cities like Philadelphia, departments are spending more time scouring a candidates social media to hunt for possible biases. In others, pay disparities a longtime problem still exist, making it difficult to attract would-be officers and keep newly trained recruits when a neighboring jurisdiction offers more money and benefits. In Dallas, city leaders spent much of the last decade struggling to draw candidates and stem the outflow of officers frustrated by low pay and the near collapse of their pension fund. Despite those efforts, the force now stands at about 3,100 officers down from more than 3,300 in 2015 a loss at a time when the citys population has grown to more than 1.3 million. The force is about 44% white, 26% Black and 26% Latino. This means officers handle more calls and detectives more cases, all amid increased racial tension. MORE LATEST: TRAFFIC FROM HELL COMING TO HOUSTON THIS WEEKEND In 2016, five officers were killed in Dallas by a sniper who was seeking revenge for police shootings elsewhere that killed or wounded Black men. Two years later, an off-duty officer fatally shot her neighbor in his home. She was fired and later was sentenced to a decade in prison for murder. Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, said the national political climate and local pay and pension issues have been compounding challenges to hiring in Dallas. In 2019, however, a consulting firm Dallas hired to review its department found that it needed not simply more officers but also a realignment of strategy, goals, mission, and tactics. That finding rings true to Changa Higgins, a longtime community organizer. You dont need to focus on hiring more officers, Higgins said. You need to focus on how you got these guys allocated. In Los Angeles, the department is fighting against a decade-long image of scandal and racial strife from the Watts riots in 1965 to the bloodshed in 1992 after a Simi Valley jury's acquittal of officers who brutally beat motorist Rodney King. Capt. Aaron McCraney, head of the Recruitment and Employment Division, and Chief Michel Moore ticked off the issues facing the 48 new recruits more than half of whom were women last year, noting that the pandemic, civil unrest and economic uncertainty were just some of the challenges the new officers would face. Even though these are tough times, these are difficult times, these are interesting times, McCraney said, these times will pass, and well get on to things better. Edgeworthstown needs a dedicated fibre broadband connection for both the 1 million co:worx remote working hub and the 3 million new public library, which will be located directly across the road. Local Fianna Fail TD Joe Flaherty raised the matter in the Dail last week. Highlighting that Edgeworthstown is the second largest town in county Longford and home to a number of leading industries and employers, he pointed out, While the local exchange has fibre broadband to the cabinet, there is, it seems, no provision for fibre to homes or businesses. The provision of a dedicated fibre connection is simply too costly for a start-up, and particularly a community project like co:worx. As part of the recent upgrade to the streetscape in Edgeworthstown, Longford County Council included a 110 mm ducting network linking the two buildings. As all the good civil contractors will tell us, most of the heavy lifting has been done with regard to this project, quipped Deputy Flaherty. He asked that Eir consider expediting the roll-out of its Irelands fibre network, IFN, to Edgeworthstown, which it is currently rolling out in nearby Longford. I am aware that Eir has made provision for a similar project in Abbeyshrule, where the project is a similar co-working space called The Yard Hub. There is real hope and expectation in Edgeworthstown, and within the local community, that the organisation charged with taking this to the next digital level will see the merit in these two projects, that is, the public library and the co:worx hub, and work with the local community to ensure that we have the high-speed broadband on which both these facilities will be dependent. Minister Eamon Ryan said it was his understanding that Longford County Council is currently in active discussions with Eir and with relevant Departments, including mine and the Department of Rural and Community Development, to determine how best to ensure improved digital and broadband access for Edgeworthstown, including for the start-up hub and the library, both of which are due to open towards the end of 2021. He pointed out that Eir is a private, commercial company and the decision to roll out broadband infrastructure is a matter for the management of the company. That said, with regard to connectivity on a nationwide basis, the national broadband plan, NBP, is obviously of critical importance in ensuring high-speed connectivity. Minister Ryan commented, Hubs such as the one planned for Edgeworthstown will help kick-start local economies all over Ireland and facilitate co-working, SMEs, start-ups and local job creation. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, is particularly keen on the concept of hubs. I understand that the Co:worx hub in Edgeworthstown is a former Ulster Bank branch and I am sure that location would be familiar to her. What is happening in that town is exactly the sort of project at the centre of our new rural development strategy. It is exactly in tune with what we want to do in the recovery plan so we should do everything we can to support it. It looks like a good example of what we want. Deputy Flaherty welcomed the Ministers enthusiasm for the project and added, It is very important that Eir is reminded of the need to work and engage with local communities. It is inconceivable that it cannot accommodate a public library worth over 3 million, which is soon to open, and such an innovative remote working hub in the county's second largest town. I am delighted that the Minister is aware of this project and enthused and engaged with it but we need to send a loud and clear message to Eir that it must engage with the project promoters and ensure they get the broadband they need. A big trend for summer 2021 is rattan furniture. This week I wanted to explain the difference between rattan and wicker and share with you some of the beautiful rattan furniture available locally. Wicker is the word used to describe the method and style of weaving, whilst rattan is the actual material used to create the piece of furniture. Wicker furniture can be woven from other natural materials such as bamboo, reed or willow. Dating back to ancient Egyptian times, wicker weaves were used in baskets, chests and chairs, and saw a resurgence in the Art and Crafts movement at the end of the 19th century. Rattan is a strong fibrous plant harvested in Asia and Africa. It resembles thick vines and is both durable and flexible, whilst also a renewable material. Currently, rattan furniture is right on trend and it is no wonder why, with its pretty weave and nostalgic vibe. Rattan furniture is both stylish and affordable and is a super choice for a variety of uses such as headboards, mirrors, lampshades, chairs, baskets etc. A statement rattan chair indoors can add a natural element to your interior scheme. Rattan can suit a variety of home styles such as coastal, boho, or rustic. In addition, it can also make a real statement when placed in a modern space where it is least expected. Heres a look at some of my favourite rattan products available locally Sadie Ash and Rattan Lounge Chair from Meadows & Byrne The Sadie ash and rattan chair from Meadows and Byrne is the essence of style and substance. Created from handwoven rattan with a solid ash frame, it is an investment piece that you can use both indoors and outdoors. Expertly made and beautifully designed its uniquely curves legs create a contemporary profile to enhance your decor. Size: 70 x 70 x 72cm, priced at 379 from Meadows & Byrne. Helen James Considered Rattan basket from Dunnes Stores Made from natural, durable and eco-friendly rattan, these baskets from Helen James are a great way to carry items around your home. Available in two sizes, it could be utilised for laundry, toys, firewood, shoes etc and would make a great addition to any home. Brought to you by Irish designer Helen James, exclusively for Dunnes Stores. Priced small 40 and large 50 from Dunnes Stores. BUSKBO Armchair Rattan from IKEA Made of hand-woven rattan, a living material that makes each armchair unique. Airy but sturdy with an embracing feel makes it perfect to curl up in. A great way to invite nature into your home. By using a renewable material like rattan in this product, IKEA avoid using fossil or finite materials. Priced at 140 from IKEA. Rattan placemats from Meadows & Byrne The natural round jute placemats are perfect for a casual dining setting. Perfect for a rustic or Scandinavian inspired dining setting where you want to add a natural element. Dimensions: 38cm diameter. Priced at just 23.70 for a set of six from Meadows & Byrne. Ball Wicker Hanging Lamp from Woo.Design The ball wicker hanging lamp in size medium from Woo Design would make a great addition to any home. Available in natural or black from Dutch brand HK-Living. Nice above the dining table or nice in the hallway, ideal to combine with the different items from the HK-Living collection. Price at 299 from www.woodesign.ie. Thanks for taking the time to read my interiors column. Remember if there is a topic that you would like covered in a future column then please drop me a line with your suggestions. Louise is a former winner of TV3s Showhouse Showdown. Contact 086 3999926; email info@aspiredesign.ie; www.aspiredesign.ie. (Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeatedly told EU leaders the UK was "indivisible", as Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed they had been "offensive" by suggesting Northern Ireland was not part of the country. The comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the UK during his talks with Johnson in the margins of the G7 summit. At a close-of-summit press conference in Cornwall, Johnson said: "Of course we make the point continuously we are part of one great, indivisible UK." He added: "What I am saying is that we will do whatever it takes to protect the territorial integrity of the UK, but actually what happened at this summit was there was a colossal amount of work on subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with Brexit." Macron used his G7 summit press conference to call for calm a but also insisted the terms of the Brexit deal must be honoured. "I'm doing things very calmly," he said. "I believe that as far as this subject matter is concerned everybody has got to come back to reason. "My wish, my will is that we succeed a we succeed collectively a to put into operation what we decided upon a few months ago." Earlier Raab told Sky News: "We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it was some kind of different country to the UK. It is not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. "Could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, one of the lander in Germany, northern Italy, Corsica in France as different countries? We need a bit of respect here." Raab told Times Radio: "There was more than one senior European figure talking about this at this summit and I've heard it for years now. "And the truth is Northern Ireland cannot be talked about as a separate country to the UK. It's offensive. And that kind of approach speaks volumes. That is one of the reasons we have the problems we do with the Northern Ireland Protocol, because there isn't a proper appreciation and there's been a lopsided approach." When asked about the foreign secretary's comments, Johnson said: "What I am saying is that we will do whatever it takes to protect the territorial integrity of the UK, but actually what happened at this summit was there was a colossal amount of work on subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with Brexit." The row risked overshadowing the G7 summit, but Johnson insisted it had taken up only a small part of the time in Carbis Bay. "The vast, vast majority of the conversations that we have had over the last three or four days have been about other subjects and there has been a fantastic degree of harmony between the leaders of our countries." At the summit the leaders: a Pledged over one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine a either directly or through funding to the Covax initiative. a Committed to cut emissions and seek to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees. a Pledged to meet net zero emissions no later than 2050. a Conserve or protect at least 30% of land and oceans by 2030. Johnson said: "While it's fantastic that every one of the G7 countries has pledged to wipe out our contributions to climate change, we need to make sure we're achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time." He added that the countries taking part in the summit a the G7 of UK, US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy along with guests Australia, South Africa, India and South Korea a were united by "democratic values". The summit a the first attended by Joe Biden as US president a has been an opportunity for democracies to band together as a counterweight to autocratic regimes like China and Russia. "It's not good enough for us to just rest on our laurels and talk about how important those values are," Johnson said. "And this isn't about imposing our values on the rest of the world. What we as the G7 need to do is demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to rest of the world." Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: "This was the most important G7 for a generation. But instead of agreeing concrete plans to tackle the biggest global challenges, Boris Johnson's strained relationship with fellow world leaders has taken centre stage and derailed this crucial summit. "By every measure, the prime minister's summit has come up short. No clear plan to vaccinate the world by the end of 2022. No ambitious commitments to place us on the path to climate safety." By David Hughes, PA Political Editor source: PA Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. On Monday, the president of the Council of Mallorca, Catalina Cladera, and representatives of the tourism sector will travel to Germany in order to present Mallorca as a safe, quality and sustainable destination. The agenda will take the delegation to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Hamburg. There will be contacts with leading tour operators and the media. Confidence and security will be key messages. The president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Maria Frontera, will form part of the delegation. She will be explaining strategies in place for ensuring safe stays. From a health perspective, the director general of pharmacies, Atanasio Garcia Pineda, will be giving details of public health measures and of the health and hospital system in Mallorca. The manager of the Mallorca Convention Bureau, Marga Mendez, will be presenting the island's benefits for the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) market. In addition, there will be presentations of tourist products 365 days a year - from sun and beach to culture, sport and gastronomy. Thank you! As our thanks for being a loyal subscriber, you have been upgraded to our premium service AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE! You'll enjoy AD-FREE access to our site as long as you are a paid subscriber. ENJOY! The number of staples on urban utility poles is evidence that people don't abide by a ban on attaching stuff. In this case, a doomed pole in Philadelphia left a farewell note after it was slated to be replaced by a younger pole. Georginio Wijnaldum was someone that Barcelona were hoping to sign for the 2021/22 season, only for the Dutchman to turn down the chance to work with Ronald Koeman again in favour of a move to Paris Saint-Germain. The ex-Liverpool midfielder was available on a free transfer - something that Barcelona have taken advantage of already this summer - and was seen as an ideal target for the Catalans. "It was difficult," Wijnaldum said of his decision. "I was negotiating with Barcelona for four weeks. "PSG were a little quicker and the project they had appealed to me. "It was a tough decision because Barcelona were very interested in me. "They're two big clubs and you'd love to play for both but, in the end, I chose PSG. It was a relief to be able to make the decision before the tournament." Express request The 30-year-old was someone that Koeman had requested the signing of, but PSG interfered and twisted his arm, taking him to the French capital on a contract that runs until 2024. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. To subscribe, click here. Already a subscriber? Click here. Marietta, GA (30060) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Atlanta, GA (30303) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. "Now Hiring" signs are everywhere, but where are the workers In what is another turn of the saga that has been ongoing since the very first Covid-19 lockdown in the country, Kanta Prasad, the owner of South Delhi's popular eatery Baba Ka Dhaba, has now apologized to the YouTube blogger who helped him in the time of need. PTI 'Baba ka Dhaba', a tiny roadside kiosk, which had been running by Kanta and his wife in Malviya Nagar, had become the talk of the town last year after food blogger Gaurav Wasan used social media to highlight the elderly couple's livelihood struggles. PTI Soon enough, Gaurav had managed to bring in donations and customers to the Baba Ka Dhaba eatery, with everyone believing that it was a happily ever after story. However, things took a turn no one saw coming when the 80-year-old Kanta then went on to file a police case against Gaurav for allegedly swindling the donations, while also publicly stating that he never asked for the blogger's help and that he had approached the couple on his own. Gaurav was left with nothing but to deny the charges after which he defended himself by displaying his own bank statements. The Print During the same time, Kanta Prasad had opened a new restaurant while also managing to pay all his debts and buy smartphones for his family. Unfortunately for him, the restaurant did not kick-off and was forced to shut down in February, forcing him to come back to his roadside stall once again. Baba Ka Dhaba's Kanta Prasad shuts down the new eatery, (opened in December 2020) due to losses. He says, "On an investment of Rs 1 lakh, we only earned Rs 35,000, thats' why shut it. I'm happy to run my old eatery as customer footfall is good here." pic.twitter.com/sA8xdcgp1z ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2021 Now, in what was another viral video recorded by another food blogger, Kanta has apologized for everything that happened. With folded hands, he can be seen saying, "Gaurav Wasan was not a thief. We never called him a thief." "(The) universe knows Gaurav Wasan was not a thief." He also goes on to say that he was wrong in saying that Gaurav approached him on his own. I made a mistake by saying I didnt call him but he approached us himself, Id like to apologize," said Kanta. Soon after the video of his apology went viral, social media users took to Twitter to have their say on the latest development in the saga, with many suggesting that it is indeed Karma that has struck the Baba. When KARMA hits you very Hard... Karma Returns.. #BabaKaDhaba pic.twitter.com/hv3PACpiCO Sanskaari Ladka (@RockstarAmit) June 12, 2021 Karma is a Bitch Take Baba ka Dhaba for instance | --| (@_mohitbhatti_) June 8, 2021 Baba blamed a youtuber boy for theft..who changed baba's life Baba became lakhpati...runned restaurant & got loss then again on https://t.co/EKBaA2ZJZH seeking help frm youtuber.... Gopal Srivastava (@GopalSSrivastav) June 13, 2021 Greed was the destroyer in baba-ka-dhaba. He made a person who would have helped many more was demoralized by him. Respect Others (@dhar_kum) June 13, 2021 The beat example of Karma and the fame which comes in middle goes in middle k (@NATPIOY6) June 13, 2021 A Spider-Man movie that a lot of people must have seen is still remembered for one dialogue that has lived on to date: "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility." Unfortunately for many of us, India counts as one of the nations where with great power, there is sometimes absolutely no responsibility, accountability, or even basic sensibility. Unsplash A recent shocking example of this was in Mumbai, where a Mumbai lawmaker forced one of his contractors to go through a traumatic experience. In a video that has now gone viral on social media, Dilip Lande, a Shiv Sena MLA, forced one of the corporators to sit on a waterlogged street and then instructed his supporters to dump garbage on top of him. #WATCH | Mumbai: Shiv Sena MLA from Chandivali, Dilip Lande makes a contractor sit on water logged road & asks workers to dump garbage on him after a road was waterlogged due to improper drainage cleaning He says, "I did this as the contractor didn't do his job properly" (12.6) pic.twitter.com/XjhACTC6PI ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2021 The shameless incident that occurred took place after many of Mumbai's areas like Sanjay Nagar and Sunder Baug in Kurla were flooded after heavy rainfall in the region. Mumbai Mirror Upon asking Lande as to why he carried out such an inhumane act, he responded by saying, I had been receiving numerous complaints from the local people. Those responsible for cleaning the garbage did not do their work for which people of my area had to walk through waterlogged streets. Now, I am making the contractor responsible sit in the same water. Soon after the shameless incident reached the smartphones and computer screens of the citizens, people jumped on to Twitter to slam the actions of the MLA. What a shameful act! Dr. Vinayak Dubey (@vinayvaani) June 13, 2021 Isn't this uncivil and barbaric ? Aren't there civilised and legal ways to deal with errant contractors ? What if common people start dealing with corrupt politicians in a similar manner? Konkani Babu (@Konkani_babu) June 13, 2021 shameful and inhuman! there could be many other ways of how a contractor could be punished by putting fine or taking away the contract, physically harassing him and humiliating him is not acceptable Anonymous (@IDKwhaaa_t) June 13, 2021 Yes. This is inhumane common man (@alphabetagama_2) June 13, 2021 This is not governance but gundagardi...if the party in office will not follow laws they hv no rt to enforce it on others...if the contractor was not doing his work y wasnt it supervised earlier..who was to supervise ? Just a way of passing the buck trying to fool general public Pooja Sinha (@PoojaSi09870531) June 13, 2021 Dramebaaz shivsena.. only dadagiri.. they are taking laws in their hands.. no masks .. no social distancing., election coming ahead .. @MumbaiPolice which action will u take for this? Bhavesh (@imBhaveshV) June 13, 2021 Same people Take commission from contractors and humiliate him just for some media footage MADAN NAYAK (@mgnayak5) June 13, 2021 My bet is that guy is a Non Marathi or probably from UP or Bihar. This suits the agenda and hence the public display of such stupidity. unkindmonk (@saukiseedhibaat) June 13, 2021 Click here to log in and see all of our other subscription options for the Mesabi Tribune, including online only & auto-renewal subscriptions. More than 25 Michigan schools recognized for centering child and adolescent health even during crisis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2021 Contact: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112 LANSING, Mich. - In recognition of teachers, administrators, health champions, community members and students taking initiative to build healthier school environments, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is recognizing 28 Michigan schools for fostering healthy eating, physical activity habits and tobacco-free lifestyles, and impacting more than 14,000 students during the 2020-2021 school year. "Recognizing these schools is more important than ever this year given the challenges we faced together," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at MDHHS. "The schools being recognized today navigated challenges to go above and beyond to meet the critical health needs of growing children and youth through opportunities to participate in physical activity, nutritious school meals and snacks, and nutrition and health education in-person and remotely." The Michigan School Wellness Award program is a collaboration with MDHHS, Michigan Department of Education, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, United Dairy Industry of Michigan and the Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan Coalition. "Keeping children's bodies and minds strong through proper nutrition and exercise helps them stay focused in school to achieve academic and personal success," said State Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice. "Wellness lessons learned at school and home can last a child's lifetime." The Michigan School Wellness Award program aims to engage schools statewide in creating healthy environments by establishing School Wellness Teams, completing the Healthy School Action Tools, and implementing sustainable policy and environmental changes. Schools that have achieved all of these elements are recognized with the top-level Gold award. This year's winners laud such achievements as offering health and physical education in both traditional and virtual settings and supporting school staff so they could be at their best for the students. The winners of this year's School Wellness Awards include: Gold Almont Middle School, Almont Auburn Elementary School, Auburn Hills Brookside Elementary School, Big Rapids David Ellis Academy, Detroit Dudley STEM, Battle Creek East Leroy Elementary School, East Leroy Fremont International Academy, Battle Creek Highland Pines School, Caro Jesse L. Anderson Elementary School, Trenton John D. Pierce Middle School, Waterford Lamora Park School, Battle Creek Pennfield North School, Battle Creek Pennfield Purdy School, Battle Creek Post Franklin Elementary School, Battle Creek Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, Detroit Valley View Elementary School, Battle Creek Vassar High School, Vassar Silver Ann J. Kellogg School, Battle Creek Bentley Middle School, Burton Boyne City Middle School, Boyne City Galesburg-Augusta Middle School, Augusta Grass Lake Middle School, Grass Lake Marquette Elementary School, Detroit O.J. DeJonge Junior High School, Ludington St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School, Coldwater Swan Valley Middle School, Saginaw Vista Charter Academy, Wyoming Bronze Henry Ford II High School, Sterling Heights To apply for the program, schools provide information about nutrition, physical education/activity and tobacco-free practices, and submit at least one success story. To view school award winners and learn more about the School Wellness Award Program, please visit swa.mihealthtools.org/. # # # An investigation is underway of a suspicious house fire and the discovery of a body inside it in Sanilac County. At about 4 a.m., June 10, Sanilac County Central Dispatch received a report of a home on fire in the 5000 block of N. Decker Road in Evergreen Township. When the Argyle Township Fire Department was responding, firefighters were advised the home was vacant. However after extinguishing the fire, firefighters located a body inside the home. At that point, the Michigan State Police fire marshal was called in to help with the investigation, according to Sanilac County Sheriff Paul Rich. Investigators were able to identify the deceased male as a 29-year-old from the Detroit area. The decedents identity is being withheld pending location and notification of next of kin. Also, the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death are pending. The Detroit Police Department is also assisting in the investigation because the man is from the Detroit area. At this time, it is believed to be an isolated incident, Rich reported. Anyone who observed any vehicles or suspicious activity in the early morning hours of June 10 are asked to call the Sanilac County Detective Bureau at 810-648-8360. The scene is about eight miles southeast of Cass City. Deputies were assisted at the scene by the Argyle Fire Department and the MSP Fire Marshall Division. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) President Joe Biden and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have known each other for years, but their meeting Monday will be their first as heads of state. And it comes at a particularly tense moment for relations between their two countries. The list of disagreements is unusually long for the two NATO allies: There's U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, as well as Turkeys purchase of a Russian weapons system. And in April, Biden infuriated Ankara by declaring that the Ottoman-era mass killing and deportations of Armenians was genocide. Previous U.S. presidents had avoided using the term out of concern that it would complicate ties with Turkey, which is fiercely proud of its Ottoman history and insists that those killed in the early 20th century were victims of civil war and unrest. However, besides blasting the decision in speeches, Erdogan didn't immediately hit back at Washington. The muted response suggests he wants a good relationship with Biden, said Rachel Ellehuus, an analyst at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Not least because he needs that economic relationship with the U.S. and the appearance of a cooperative relationship in order to retain his base, which is very much built on a functioning Turkish economy that is tethered into the West," Ellehuus said. However, before leaving Sunday for the NATO summit in Brussels where he will meet Biden, Erdogan described the presidents comments on the killings of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as very negative and an approach (that) has seriously upset us. Erdogan, in power for 18 years as prime minister and then president, also one-on-one meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lined up during Mondays summit. He told reporters he plans to underline the importance we attach to the alliance with our allies. One name apparently not on his list: Italian Premier Mario Draghi, who called Erdogan a dictator" earlier this year, touching off a diplomatic row. Draghi chuckled nervously Sunday when asked about seeing Erdogan for the first time since but insisted on Turkey's very important" role in NATO. Erdogan has dialed down his anti-Western rhetoric as his government grapples with an economic downturn made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. His ruling AKP party has recently been hit by a series of corruption allegations, including drug trafficking and arms smuggling, made by a fugitive mafia boss who has been releasing tell-all videos on social media, without evidence. The most important thing for the Turkish leader at this time is to give a veneer of positive relations with the U.S. in terms of Turkeys image, said Merve Tahiroglu, Turkey program coordinator at the Project on Middle East Democracy. He seems to understand that to get any kind of international investment to Turkey, he will need to project an image of positive relations with the U.S. Biden has often touted the personal relationships hes developed with world leaders over nearly 50 years as a factor that makes him uniquely equipped to revitalize the reputation of the United States following the presidency of Donald Trump. In recent days, hes mentioned to aides that hes developed a strong rapport with Erdogan over the years, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Biden still fondly recalls making a house call to Erdogan in 2011 when he was in Turkey to speak at the Global Entrepreneurs Summit, according to the official. Erdogan did not attend because he was recovering from major surgery, but Biden stopped by to check in on him. Their conversation was supposed to be brief but lasted over two hours. Still, the relationship has been complicated at times. In 2014, while vice president, Biden apologized to Erdogan after suggesting in a speech that Turkey helped facilitate the rise of the Islamic State militant group by allowing foreign fighters to cross Turkeys border with Syria. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden drew ire from Turkish officials after an interview with The New York Times in which he called Erdogan an autocrat. Erdogan enjoyed collegial relations with Trump, who didn't give him a hard time about Turkey's human rights record and agreed to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria in 2019, paving the way for a Turkish military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who had fought alongside U.S. forces against IS militants. Biden was strongly critical of that decision, accusing Trump of selling out U.S. allies. Erdogan waited several days before congratulating Biden on his election victory as Trump challenged the results. At the same time, Erdogan sent a message to Trump thanking him for his warm friendship. After taking office, Biden waited three months before giving Erdogan a call, which was widely seen in Turkey as a snub. The first time they spoke after the election was when Biden called to tell Erdogan about the Armenian genocide announcement. In an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT on June 1, Erdogan noted he had cordial relations with previous U.S. presidents, particularly Trump, and that he would ask Biden on the sidelines of the NATO meeting why Turkey-U.S. relations are in such a state of tension. There have been many rumors... we need to leave them behind and talk about what we can do and what we will do, he said of U.S.-Turkey relations before departing from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport for Brussels on Sunday. Biden and Erdogan are expected to take up Turkeys purchase of the S-400 advanced Russian defense systems, a procurement that angered Washington and resulted in Ankara being kicked out of the U.S. F-35 fighter aircraft production program, sanctions on senior Turkish defense industry officials, and bans on military export licenses. Washington says the Russian system is a threat to NATO security and insists that sanctions cannot be lifted until Turkey gets rid of the system, which has cost the country $2.5 billion. Turkey repeatedly has called for dialogue to resolve the issue. Turkish media reports say Turkey is set to propose the deployment of the S-400s at Incirlik air base, which is home to a U.S. Air Force wing, where they would be watched by U.S. military officials. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters the S-400s would be 100% under (Turkish) control and that no Russian military official would be in Turkey. Erdogan said Sunday that talks with Biden would be very broad but he focused on F-35 issue, accusing the U.S. of not fulfilling its promise, not complying with the contract although Turkey has fulfilled its promise and reiterating that Ankara was forced to purchase the S-400 system after Washington declined to provide U.S. Patriot missiles. Erdogan is also expected to raise the issue of U.S. military support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, who Ankara argues are inextricably linked to a decades-long Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden and Erdogan will discuss Syria and Iran as well as what role Turkey can play on Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal. Also on the agenda is how Washington and Ankara "deal with some of our significant differences on values and human rights and other issues, Sullivan said. The unsettled security situation in Libya, as well as overlapping concerns on China and Russia will also be on the agenda. Sullivan added that Biden knows Erdogan very well. The two men have spent a good amount of time together, and they are both, I think, looking forward to the opportunity to really have a business-like opportunity to review the full breadth of their relationship, Sullivan said. __ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington and Andrew Wilks in Istanbul contributed. MANILA, Philippines (AP) Philippine troops killed four Abu Sayyaf militants in a gunbattle Sunday in the countrys south, including a commander blamed for beheadings and a suspected would-be suicide bomber, military officials said. Army troops backed by police were to serve a warrant for the arrest of Injam Yadah at his home after midnight in Alat village in Jolo town in Sulu province, when he and his men opened fire. That sparked a gunbattle that killed the militants, said regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, Jr. Yadah had been accused by the military of involvement in the kidnappings for ransom of Filipinos and foreigners, including eight Indonesian fishermen who were abducted at sea off Malaysia in early 2020 and brought to the southern Philippines. Three of the Indonesians were freed, one was shot and killed while attempting to escape and four were rescued by Filipino troops in March. He had a reputation for being extremely violent, beheading captured innocent civilians and security forces alike, a military commander, Maj. Gen. William Gonzales, said of Yadah. Yadah had also been linked to the 2015 kidnappings of four people, including two Canadian tourists. The Canadians were separately beheaded by their Abu Sayyaf captors, including Mujir Yadah, a brother of Injam, after a deadline for ransom payment lapsed, a military officer said. Another Abu Sayyaf militant killed in Sundays firefight was al-Al Sawadjaan, a bomb-maker and would-be suicide bomber, according to Lt. Col. Wilfredo Borgonia, an army infantry battalion commander. Troops seized a rifle, a pistol, bomb parts and 15 cellphones. They also took into custody Yadahs wife and three children, the military said in a statement, adding the children were rescued. Sawadjaan was a younger brother of Abu Sayyaf commander Mundi Sawadjaan, the main suspect in a number of deadly suicide attacks in recent years in Sulu, a predominantly Muslim province where the militants have been the target of yearslong military offensives. The Sawadjaans belonged to an Abu Sayyaf faction that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. This year, at least 18 Abu Sayyaf militants have been killed, 17 captured while 86 others have surrendered in Sulu, the military said. The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for deadly bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. The brutal group has been considerably weakened by battle setbacks, surrenders and factionalism but remains a national security threat. A look at pandemic-related news around New England on Sunday: NEW HAMPSHIRE As the number of COVID-19 cases have fallen and restrictions have been dropped in New Hampshire, drug overdoses are on the rise in some cities. Suspected overdoses in Manchester and Nashua rose by 26% in May, according to American Medical Response. The 72 suspected overdoses was the most in a single month since June 2019, WMUR-TV reported. Overdoses decreased during the pandemic since more people were inside, said AMR Regional Director Chris Stawasz. It gives us concern that in the summer months, which we typically see as higher overdose months, were going to be back probably at levels we have not seen in several years, he said. More people now have access to the overdose reversal drug Narcan, officials said. There was record use of Narcan in May in Manchester. ___ MASSACHUSETTS The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Massachusetts has dropped to fewer than 150 patients for the first time since Aug. 23, 2020. On Saturday the state reported 136 people were hospitalized, including 47 in intensive care. The last time the state had fewer than 50 COVID-19 patients in intensive care was Oct. 5, 2020, WCVB-TV reported. ___ CONNECTICUT The easing of the pandemic has brought an increase in families seeking mental health aid for children suffering the effects of being isolated from their peers. A Norwich woman whose 9-year-old son was experiencing fits of rage contacted her pediatrician, who reached out to a medical center only to discover that it was overwhelmed with patients awaiting inpatient care. Right then there were 30 patients, ages 7 and up, who were waiting for inpatient care, Dr. Richard Lavoie told The Day. They were staying in hallways, sitting on stretchers and in community rooms, waiting to be placed somewhere. A poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association released last month found 48% of adults surveyed said the pandemic has caused mental health problems for one or more of their children, and about a quarter said they had sought professional mental health help for their children because of the pandemic. Its about being separated from their peers, Carrie Pichie, a clinical psychologist and a regional director of ambulatory services for Hartford HealthCares Behavioral Health Network, told the newspaper. Early in the pandemic, not being in school and not being able to participate in sports and other extracurriculars was devastating for many kids. Some find it difficult to reintegrate when schools are back in session. ___ VERMONT The Vermont Agency of Human Services is getting nearly $28.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support local efforts to address COVID-19 related health disparities. The grant announced Friday is part of a $2.25 billion nationwide investment that seeks to improve health equity in the United States. The grants "are an important step in our unwavering efforts to strengthen our communities readiness for public health emergenciesand to helping everyone in America have equal opportunities for health, said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky. The intention of the grants is to reduce COVID-19-related health disparities, improve and increase testing and contact tracing among underserved populations that are at higher risk, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural communities, and improve efforts to prevent and control COVID-19 infection, the CDC said. ___ MAINE People can continue to get a COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday in Portland without an appointment at a mobile vaccination unit. On Saturday, Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, visited the site set up behind Rising Tide Brewery. We survived the last year and if we can keep everybody healthy, were going to have just an incredible summer so we really jumped on the opportunity to use a portion of our parking lot to give shots, Heather Sanborn, the co-owner of Rising Tide, told WMTW-TV. The clinic offers the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to walk-ups from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Eight people face federal charges in connection with their alleged involvement in a drug trafficking ring throughout Connecticut, prosecutors announced this week. A federal grand jury in Hartford on Monday returned an indictment that charged each person with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. Charged on the indictment were: Tajh Yung Wiley, 25, of Norwalk; Kendston Harry, 40, of Bloomfield; Jevaughn Russ Watson, 27, of Ansonia; Myron Farid Brown, 47, of Chester, Pa.; Sashery Feliz, 26, of Yonkers, N.Y.; Peter Munoz, 33, of Bridgeport; Charles Uncle Charles Richardson, 67, of Bridgeport; and Destiny Wade, 27, of Norwalk. Seven of the eight were taken into custody on Wednesday, prosecutors said. Brown has been in state custody in Pennsylvania. The indictment alleges that a court-authorized wiretap of Wileys phone indicated he led a drug trafficking ring that distributed large quantities of cocaine and marijuana in Connecticut and elsewhere, prosecutors said. During the arrests on Wednesday, investigators served multiple search warrants in connection with the case. Prosecutors said law enforcement officers seized about two kilograms of cocaine, 260 grams of fentanyl, 50 grams of crack cocaine, 30 pounds of marijuana, two kilogram presses, other items used to process and package drugs, 11 guns, three high-capacity magazines, 500 rounds of ammunition, three high-end cars, more than $250,000 in jewelry and about $25,000 in cash. The charge each individual faces carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. AFRIN, Syria (AP) The death toll from an artillery strike on a hospital in northern Syria has risen to at least 15, medical officials said Sunday. The shelling, a day earlier, caused widespread destruction and knocked out the hospitals maternity ward and surgery unit. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack that also wounded 43 and came from areas where both government troops and Kurdish-led fighters are deployed. Al-Shifaa hospital is in the northern town of Afrin, in an area controlled by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters. Much of the ceiling of the facility collapsed, and electricity cables dangled in a main corridor. The delivery room, the children's section, and the first aid hall suffered the most leaving hospital beds covered with rubble. Blood stained the floor of one debris-filled room, while a mangled wheelchair and a soiled stretcher were piled up in an operating theater. The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Adnan, said two shells damaged the maternity ward and the surgery unit, while a rocket hit the clinics. The hospital had been crowded at the time of the shelling, and patients and the wounded were evacuated to other hospitals. This was a condemned terrorist act that targeted civilians," said Adnan, adding that the hospital serves the town of Afrin and its countryside, an area home to about 350,000 people. Over 350 births take place every month at the hospital, all free of charge, he said. Adnan and the Syrian American Medical Association an aid group that assists health centers in opposition areas said two hospital staff members were killed. SAMS also said 11 of its staff were injured, including a midwife seriously. SAMS called for an investigation into the attack, adding that the coordinates for the hospital, also financed by USAID and the United Nations, had been shared as part of a U.N.-led mechanism to unwind the conflict. In a statement, the U.S. State Department condemned the attack, saying it was part of a a recent escalation of violence in the area. It called for a nationwide cease-fire in Syria. This barbaric attack took the lives of children, medical staff, and first responders. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, must never be the target of military action, it said. On Saturday, the governor of Turkeys Hatays province blamed the attack on Syrian Kurdish groups. The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces strongly denied claims that it was behind the shelling. Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took control of Afrin in 2018 in an operation that expelled local Kurdish fighters and displaced thousands of Kurdish residents. Ankara considers the Kurdish fighters who were in control of Afrin to be terrorists. Since then, there have been several attacks on Turkish targets in the area. WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden has vowed to mend Americas trade relations with its European allies, which were stretched to the breaking point by President Donald Trumps mercurial behavior, combative policies and aversion to multinational alliances. Yet when he meets Tuesday with European Union leaders in Brussels, Biden may find that making up is hard to do. The prospect of forging an accord to resolve their differences and perhaps form a united front against an increasingly confrontational China may be stymied by European skepticism. Sounding a sour note about Bidens intentions, Valdis Dombrovskis, a Latvian political leader who serves as the European Union's trade chief, said in speech last week that the time had come for the U.S. to walk the talk. Dombrovskis was referring in part to Trump's 2018 decision to impose import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum a decision that left European leaders furious and triggered retaliatory steps against the United States. Biden has been slow to take up the possibility of dropping the tariffs, which Trump had imposed on the basis of national security. Asked about the tariffs during a news conference Sunday as he wrapped up his time at the Group of Seven summit in the U.K., Biden pleaded for patience with his young administration, saying, "A hundred and twenty days. Give me a break. Need time." And with trade tensions still shading the trans-Atlantic relationship, the EU may also prove reluctant to join a U.S.-led effort to confront China over its provocative trade policies. Then theres a longstanding dispute over how much of a government subsidy each side unfairly provides for its aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing in the United States and Airbus in the EU. This has been going on for 17 years, says Cecilia Malmstrom, a veteran of trans-Atlantic battles as the European trade commissioner from 2014 to 2019. All that said, U.S.-EU relations are still certain to be much friendlier than they were under Trump, who regularly accused the Europeans of shirking their responsibility to pay for their own defense through NATO and of exploiting what he called unfair trade deals to sell far more products to the United States than they buy. In a goodwill gesture in March, the Biden administration and the EU did agree to suspend the tariffs they had imposed on each other in the Airbus-Boeing battle. Several news outlets have reported that U.S. and EU diplomats are working on a draft communique that would call for the Boeing-Airbus dispute to be resolved by July 11 and for the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and the EUs retaliatory sanctions to be lifted by Dec. 1. The Biden administration also announced Friday that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo would be joining the U.S. delegation; her department administers the steel and aluminum tariffs. Kelly Ann Shaw, a former Trump administration trade official who is now a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, suggested that the EU and U.S. are eager to move past their tariff battles so they can move on and tackle some 21st century challenges, not the least of which is China. Last week, though, Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, sounded noncommittal in speaking with reporters on Air Force One. There has been good progress in those negotiations," Sullivan said of the Boeing-Airbus dispute. "But Im making no promises about what might happen. Regarding the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, Sullivan noted that the EU agreed last month to suspend plans to escalate retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products a concession meant to ease tensions and encourage further negotiations. But he added: Thats going to take some time to work out." Asked specifically whether the United States would be rolling back the metals tariffs, Sullivan shook his head. The steel and aluminum dispute is an especially sensitive one. In moving to tax imported metals, Trump dusted off a little-used weapon in U.S. trade policy to justify the tariffs: He declared the foreign metals to be a threat to U.S. national security a decision that startled and outraged Europeans and other longstanding American allies. Almost all the EU members were NATO members, said Malmstrom, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. How could we be a national security threat? It was offensive. Malmstrom said she was surprised that Biden hasnt already dropped the tariffs and hopes he will do so at the summit Tuesday. Maybe hes saving this as a gift, she said. Complicating the political calculus for Biden is that U.S. labor unions and steel and aluminum producers some of them concentrated in states important to Democratic election prospects want to maintain the tariffs on the imported metals to help keep prices up. A key reason is that China, which churns out more than half the world's steel, has contributed to an oversupply that has otherwise kept global prices down. Demonstrating a united U.S.-EU challenge to China's aggressive policies could strengthen the trans-Atlantic negotiating leverage. But Malmstrom said she is skeptical about whether the EU is eager to join the United States to face up to China and force a reckoning over its trade practices. The Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on $360 billion of Chinese goods came against the backdrop of a roiling conflict over the predatory tactics that China is widely accused of deploying to try to supplant America's global technological dominance. Many trade experts say Beijing has coerced American companies to hand over trade secrets as the price of access to its market, forced U.S. businesses to license technology in China on unfavorable terms, used state funds to buy up American technology and committed outright theft. Critics, including Biden, had lambasted Trump for alienating would-be allies like the EU instead of enlisting them to help challenge Beijing. For now, though, Biden hasn't called off Trumps trade war against China. Malmstrom noted that among the EUs 27 member countries, there is no full unanimity on how to deal with China." She suggested that the EU might go along with the United States on specific measures perhaps cracking down on Beijing's subsidies to its own companies, for example but still stop short of joining the United States in any wide-ranging confrontation with China. The EU will not just sign up to a U.S. agenda on the bottom line, she said. The EU is not in trade war mode against anyone. ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Carbis Bay, England, contributed to this report. Astros right-hander Tyler Iveys season may be over due to injury, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle writes. Ivey has been pitching through elbow pain since suffering a grade one UCL strain back in 2019, a fact he only recently disclosed to Astros staff. Tests didnt reveal any new UCL damage, however, according to a nerve specialist, Ivey said apparently I have the nerve endings of a 75-year-old man in my elbow. That probably explains a lot. Rather than elbow surgery, Ivey might potentially have to undergo thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. The latter would also rule him out for the rest of the 2021 season and is perhaps a more ominous possibility than a Tommy John procedure or another elbow surgery, since TOS surgery has a much less-established track record of success. Whether a surgical outcome is necessary or not, Ivey doubts he will pitch again this season. A third-round pick for Houston in the 2017 draft, Ivey is a Texas native, hailing from the Dallas suburb of Rowlett. MLB Pipeline ranks Ivey as the ninth-best prospect in the Astros farm system, with a 60-grade curveball and a 55-grade fastball ranging from 90-95mph. The righty has posted some strong numbers (3.19 ERA, 29.7% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate) over 208 2/3 innings in the minors, though he does have a 7.11 ERA in 6 1/3 innings at Triple-A this season, which represented his first exposure to Triple-A batters. Beyond the injury, Ivey also didnt pitch at either Houstons alternate training site or in the instructional league in 2020 due to a bout of COVID-19. Despite these struggles, the Astros called Ivey up for his MLB debut in a start on May 21, and his lone big league appearance to date resulted in four earned runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings against the Rangers in 7-5 Astros loss. Ivey said his desire to reach the majors was the reason for hiding his injury, saying I knew it was going to be a spot start and Id be optioned down immediately, so I thought Id see how long I could go in this start. I cant sit there and be like Oh, I cant pitch in Arlington, arms kind of hurting, sorry. With Ivey facing a stint on the 60-day injured list, the Astros will get an opening on their 40-man roster to work with in the coming weeks. Ivey was initially placed on the 40-man last November in advance of the Rule 5 draft. JUNE 13: Severino will undergo an MRI this afternoon and go for further examination on Monday, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. JUNE 12, 5:24PM: Early indications are that Severino has suffered a groin injury, according to Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News (via Twitter). JUNE 12, 4:57PM: Luis Severinos recovery from Tommy John surgery hit an apparent setback today, as the right-hander left his minor league rehab outing due to a lower-body injury. Reporter G.T. Julian Guilarte (Twitter link) has footage of the aftermath, as a clearly pained Severino had to be helped off the field. While perhaps the only consolation is that Severino didnt suffer another arm injury, it certainly looks like the right-hander will now have to work his way back from another serious-seeming problem. Since Severino wasnt expected to be an option for the Yankees until at least the start of July and likely closer to the All-Star break, it is possible that his latest injury could threaten his entire season. Such a scenario would make it essentially three lost seasons in a row for Severino. Shoulder and lat injuries limited him to 20 1/3 combined innings in the 2019 regular season and postseason, while the 2020 season was a total writeoff after Severino underwent Tommy John surgery in February of that year. New York was eyeing Severino as a midseason rotation boost, adding depth to a starting five that has been generally solid thanks to Gerrit Cole, Domingo German, and Jordan Montgomery. Corey Kluber had also been pitching well before a rotator cuff injury sent him to the 60-day IL until at least late July, while Jameson Taillon has struggled a nightmarish outing against the Phillies today boosted Taillons ERA to 5.74 over 53 1/3 innings. Michael King has been filling in for Kluber, and if Severino is unavailable, Deivi Garcia and Nick Nelson are now the top depth options if Taillon cant get on track or if another injury surfaces. The Tigers announced this morning theyve selected the contract of Buck Farmer. Beau Burrows was optioned to Triple-A Toledo last night to clear active roster space. Jeimer Candelario was placed on the COVID-19 injured list yesterday while he goes through intake protocols after going on bereavement leave. That temporarily opens a 40-man roster spot for Farmer, but Detroit will need to make another 40-man move once Candelario clears the intake process. Farmer returns to Detroit, where hes logged big league action in every season since 2014. The right-hander was a durable and generally productive middle reliever from 2018-20, a stretch in which he tossed 158 1/3 innings of 3.92 ERA/4.20 FIP ball. His strikeout, walk and groundball rates were all just worse than league average, but his ability to soak up decent innings out of the bullpen made him a fairly valuable part of the Detroit pitching staff. The 2021 season began in nightmarish fashion for the 30-year-old, though. In 10 2/3 frames, Farmer coughed up fifteen runs on as many hits, walking nine batters while striking out ten. Between his huge spike in walks and massive drop in grounders, the Tigers felt they could no longer keep him on the active roster. Detroit designated Farmer, who is out of minor league option years, for assignment and passed him through waivers last month. Hes since tossed 11 1/3 relief innings with Toledo, allowing five runs with a 7:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Since Farmer is out of options, the Tigers will need to carry him on the active roster from this point forward or again designate him for assignment. Weather Alert ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM MDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 105 degrees expected for multiple days. * WHERE...Bitterroot Valley, Missoula, Highway 93 Sula to Lost Trail Pass, Lolo Pass, Highway 200 Bonner to Greenough, Highway 83 Seeley Lake to Condon, and I-90 East Missoula to Bearmouth. * WHEN...From noon Tuesday to 8 PM MDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures 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. && Weather Alert ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM MDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...High temperatures in the mid to upper 90s. Some areas may exceed 100 degrees at times. * WHERE...Portions of central, north central, and west central Montana. * WHEN...Until 9 PM MDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Hot daytime temperatures may cause heat illnesses. 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. Take extra precautions when outside. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing. Try to limit strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Take action when you see symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. 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. && Weather Alert ...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR WEST CENTRAL LAKE COUNTY UNTIL 730 PM MDT... At 652 PM MDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 7 miles southwest of Big Arm, or 11 miles west of Polson. this storm was nearly stationary. Winds in excess of 30 mph will be possible with this storm. Locations impacted include... Big Arm and Elmo. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm, and may lead to localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. && ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM MDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 100 degrees expected for multiple days. * WHERE...Bad Rock Canyon, Essex, Highway 83 Bigfork to Swan Lake, Marias Pass, Polebridge, Flathead Lake, Flathead Valley, Mission Valley, and Polson. * WHEN...From noon Tuesday to 8 PM MDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures 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. && 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. Lansdale, PA (19446) Today Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Showers and thundershowers this evening, then cloudy with rain likely overnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. I think its very lovely. Its been awhile since weve seen people out. Its a wonderful atmosphere. Oberlin College student Estelle Tronson, 20 Pull Quote Team Kareem is kicking off the line-up of Juneteenth celebrations in Lorain County with a free community event. Sidewalks and signage are on the repair list around Lorains Larkmoor Elementary and Longfellow Middle schools. @MJ_JournalRick on Twitter Richard Payerchin covers Lorain City Hall, business news and other interesting stories for The Morning Journal. Reach the author at rpayerchin@MorningJournal.com or follow Richard on Twitter: @MJ_JournalRick. MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrested five opposition leaders during a major weekend round up, in what appears to be widespread detentions of anyone who might challenge his rule. The four arrests Sunday and one Saturday suggest Ortega has moved beyond arresting potential rival candidates in the Nov. 7 elections, and has begun arresting any prominent member of the opposition. The arrests bring to 12 the number of opponents detained since June 2. It's not just potential candidates any more, it's political leaders, former general and Sandinista dissident Hugo Torres told The Associated Press before he himself was arrested Sunday. This is not a transition to dictatorship, it is a dictatorship in every way. On Sunday, police also arrested prominent ex-Sandinista dissident Dora Maria Tellez, another opposition leader, Ana Margarita Vijil, and Suyen Barahona, leader of the political movement Unamos. Tellezs arrest is a major step: she was a leading Sandinista militant who led an assault on the National Palace in 1978, taking hostage the congress of dictator Anastasio Somoza in exchange for the release of Sandinista prisoners. Following Somoza's overthrow, Tellez served as health minister in the first Sandinista government which ruled from 1979 to 1990. Like many former guerrillas, she later split with Ortega. On Saturday, police arrested Tamara Davila, who was active in Unamos, which was formed by former Sandinistas angered by Ortegas autocratic ways, nepotism and perpetual re-elections. Police said they arrested Davila on charges related to a recently enacted law that classifies as treason any support for sanctions against officials in the Ortega regime; the U.S. has slapped sanctions on dozens of officials. Davila is also a central figure in the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity, which was formed following Ortega's repression of mass protests in 2018. Under a law passed in December, Ortega's government has the power to unilaterally declare citizens terrorists or coup-mongers, classify them as traitors to the homeland and ban them from running as candidates. The law punishes those who lead or finance a coup ... encourage foreign interference, ask for military intervention ... propose or plan economic blockades, applaud and champion the imposition of sanctions against Nicaragua or its citizens. Those accused will be traitors to the homeland, and for that reason may not run for public office. Treason is punishable by prison terms of up to 15 years. Ortega has already arrested four potential opposition candidates who might have challenged his bid for a fourth consecutive term, and now many Nicaragua opposition leaders fear it is only a matter of time until police come for them, too. Torres said he has seen drones flying around his home in recent days, of the type used at Tellez's house. This interview may be the last one I give, Torres said. I am here, waiting for them to come for me. Hours later, police barged into Torres' home and arrested him. Nicaraguas National Police arrested the four opposition pre-candidates earlier this month. On June 8, they arrested pre-candidate Felix Maradiaga, a pre-candidate for the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity, and Sebastian Chamorro, a former director of the opposition coalition Civic Alliance. The previous week authorities detained Cristiana Chamorro, a cousin of Juan Sebastian Chamorro, and Arturo Cruz Sequeira, a former ambassador to the United States. Ortega initially led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990 following the Sandinista revolution that ousted Somoza. He returned to the presidency in 2007 after three failed election attempts, and he won reelection in 2011. He then sidestepped term limits to get himself reelected in 2016, and packed courts and government agencies with allies. The Sandinista party controls the courts and the legislature, and has stifled universities and the Roman Catholic church. Torres said Ortega has now instituted a more suffocating dictatorship than Somoza, who faced opposition from the within the church, intellectual circles and universities. I think Ortega has outdone Somoza, said Torres. He has subordinated all the power to himself as Somoza never could. He has a bigger repressive apparatus than Somoza ever had. Julie Chung, the U.S. State Departments acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, said via Twitter that Ortega's campaign of terror continues with more arbitrary arrests this weekend. OAS members must send a clear signal this week: enough repression. The region cannot stand by and wait to see who is next. Muskogee, OK (74401) Today Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, or activate your access, to continue reading. Some Horry County Council members have been hesitant to support impact fees because state law severely limits how they can be used. For example, impact fees can help pay to construct a fire or police station, but they cannot be spent on the salaries of firefighters or officers. Thats because the levies are collected just once, while those salaries must be paid every year. With this in mind, do you think Horry County Council should raise impact fee? Choices are: You voted: VIENNA (AP) Diplomats from outside the European Union cautioned Sunday that negotiations with Iran to salvage a landmark nuclear deal still need more time, as leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations reaffirmed a commitment to stop the Islamic republic from building nuclear weapons. Iranian envoys held another round of negotiations with international delegations in Vienna a day after EU coordinators suggested that differences over the 2015 accord limiting Iran's nuclear activities had narrowed further. But Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state media he thought a deal was unlikely to emerge in the coming week. A diplomat from Russia also said more time was needed to work out details. The Vienna meetings are aimed at rebuilding a nuclear containment agreement between Iran and major world powers that the Trump administration withdrew the United States from in 2018. U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders expressed support for the Vienna process after a three-day summit in southwest England that ended Sunday. The G-7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We are committed to ensuring that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon, the leaders said in a joint statement. A restored and fully-implemented (nuclear deal) could also pave the way to further address regional and security concerns, the statement said. A resolution would see Iran return to commitments made in 2015, aimed at making the development of a nuclear weapon impossible, in exchange for lighter U.S. sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday on CBS Face the Nation that Iran had been galloping forward with its nuclear ambitions and violating the terms of the accord since the United States pulled out of the deal. I think puts some urgency in seeing if we can put the nuclear problem back in the box, Blinken said. Sundays bilateral meetings followed joint negotiations held Saturday involving senior diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia, and Britain. The United States was not directly involved. An Iranian pro-opposition group held a small protest outside the famed Vienna Opera House, near the downtown hotel where the talks are taking place. Organizers said local police in Austria's capital instructed them not to protest outside the hotel. The event ended peacefully. ___ A previous version corrected the spelling of the surname of Irans deputy foreign minister to Araghchi, not Araqchi. ___ Follow latest news on Iran at https://apnews.com/hub/iran The latest on Israels incoming government (all times local): 10:45 p.m. JERUSALEM Naftali Bennett, Israels first Orthodox Jewish prime minister, has opened the first meeting of his government with a traditional blessing for new beginnings, saying that nows the time to get to work to mending rifts in the nation. Bennett addressed the newly sworn in Cabinet Sunday night, saying the country is at the outset of new days. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, he said. We must all, for this amazing process to succeed, we must all know to maintain restraint on ideological matters. Alternate prime minister Yair Lapid, who will serve as foreign minister for the first two years of the governments term, said in brief remarks that friendship and trust built their government, and thats what will keep it going. ___ 10:30 p.m. JERUSALEM Palestinian Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass office has little to say about Israel's new government headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling it an internal Israeli affair. Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Sunday that the Palestinian position remains adherence to international legitimacy and the two-state solution by establishing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The new Israeli government includes a wide spectrum of parties ranging from hard-line nationalists to more dovish supporters of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Members of the new government have said they will avoid dealing with the divisive issue for the time being. ___ 9:50 p.m. JERUSALEM U.S. President Joe Biden has congratulated Israel's incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, saying he looks forward to working to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between the two nations. In a statement released by the White House, Biden said that Israel has no better friend than the United States, and that the United States remains unwavering in its support for Israels security. ___ 8:31 p.m. JERUSALEM Israels parliament has appointed a new speaker, taking a key step toward approving a new coalition government that would end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule. With 67 votes in the 120-member chamber, parliament named Mickey Levy of the centrist Yesh Atid party its new speaker. He is to succeed the current speaker, Yariv Levin, of Netanyahus Likud party. The move set the stage for a confidence vote to approve a new coalition government later Sunday. ___ 7:49 p.m. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Gaza's Hamas rulers say they will confront the new Israeli government that is expected to take office. Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamic militant group, said Sunday any Israeli government is a settler occupier entity that must be resisted by all forms of resistance, foremost of which is the armed resistance. Hamas and Israel fought an 11-day war last month. The bitter enemies have fought a total of four wars since Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the rival Palestinian Authority. Despite their enmity, the sides have been conducting indirect talks aimed at shoring up a cease-fire. Barhoum said the behavior of this government on the ground will determine the way and nature of dealing with it on the ground. ___ 7:16 p.m. JERUSALEM The head of an Islamist party in Israels parliament says his faction will advance the interests of Palestinian citizens of Israel from within the new government. Mansour Abbas said Sunday that his Raam party was making great sacrifices for the sake of his constituents, and will try to advance a dialog that will bring about better, new, principled relations for all citizens of the state: Jews and Arabs. Raam is the first Arab party to join an Israeli government, and Abbas said that the partnership in the new government will also bridge the gaps on the national level and the religious level. Abbas said that combatting crime and violence that has plagued Arab communities in Israel is a top priority for Israels Palestinian minority. Abbas spoke ahead of a parliamentary vote that was expected to approve the new coalition government. Arabs make up about 20% of Israel's citizens and largely identify with Palestinians in the neighboring West Bank and Gaza Strip. ___ 5:25 p.m. JERUSALEM The Israeli politician who was the driving force in forming the countrys new government has called off a planned speech to parliament, saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. In a brief speech, Yair Lapid said he wanted to ask for forgiveness from my mother. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Lapid led the efforts to form the new coalition, which is expected to be approved later Sunday. He is expected to be Israels new foreign minister for two years, and then become prime minister in a rotation agreement for the final two years of the governments term. ___ 5:20 p.m. JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to lead his Likud Party back to power. Netanyahu is slated to become opposition leader later Sunday when parliament is expected to approve a vote of confidence in a new coalition formed by his opponents. In a speech to parliament, Netanyahu made clear he has no plans on giving up leadership of the Likud Party. He vowed to continue the great mission of my life, ensuring the security of Israel. He added: If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way. ___ 4:45 p.m. JERUSALEM Israels designated prime minister, Naftali Bennett, says that renewing the international nuclear deal with Iran will be a mistake. In a speech to parliament, Bennett said that Israel remains ready to act against Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, Bennett said. He added that Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action. The strong comments maintain the confrontational policy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennetts new government is scheduled to be sworn into office late Sunday after a parliamentary vote. ___ 4:05 p.m. JERUSALEM Israels Knesset, or parliament, has convened for a vote that is expected to end the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The parliament is to hold a debate ahead of a vote of confidence for a new coalition government formed by a collection of Netanyahu's opponents. If the coalition is approved, Naftali Bennett, a former ally turned rival of Netanyahu, would become prime minister over a disparate coalition of parties from the political right, left and center. Netanyahu is slated to become the opposition leader. Bennett, whose parents immigrated to Israel from the United States, is expected to stress the need for close relations with the U.S. But Bennett, who shares Netanyahu's hardline ideology, is also expected to echo the outgoing prime minister's opposition to restoring the international nuclear deal with Iran. EXPLAINER: Who are Americans on trial in Ghosns escape View Photo TOKYO (AP) Americans Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor go on trial in Tokyo on Monday on charges they helped Nissans former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, skip bail and flee to Lebanon in December 2019. HOW DID THE TAYLORS END UP IN JAPAN? The Taylors were arrested in Massachusetts in May 2020 and extradited to Japan in March. They have not been released on bail and are not available for comment, which is standard in Japan. They were formally charged in March with helping a criminal escape. Michael Taylor, a former Green Beret, told The Associated Press while still in the U.S. that Peter was not in Japan when Ghosn fled the country. The elder Taylor has helped parents rescue abducted children, gone undercover for the FBI and worked as a contractor for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. WHAT HAPPENED WITH GHOSN? Ghosn led Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. for two decades before his arrest in Tokyo in November 2018. He was charged with falsifying securities reports in underreporting his compensation and with breach of trust. He says he is innocent and the compensation he is accused of not reporting was never decided on or paid. Ghosn says he feared he would not get a fair trial in Japan, where more than 99% of criminal cases result in convictions. Japanese prosecutors say he paid at least $1.3 million to organize his escape. Ghosn is on Interpols wanted list, but Japan has no extradition treaty with Lebanon. ESCAPE IN A BOX Tokyo prosecutors say Michael Taylor and another man, George-Antoine Zayek, hid Ghosn in a large box meant to carry audio equipment, snuck him through airport security in Osaka, central Japan, and loaded him onto a private jet to Turkey. Peter Taylor is accused of meeting with Ghosn to help with the escape. Zayek has not been arrested. A U.S. appeals court rejected the Taylors petition to put their extradition on hold. COURT PROCEEDINGS The Taylors will go through the Japanese equivalent of entering a plea before a panel of three judges. They may also give statements. They have said they didnt break any laws because skipping bail is not technically illegal in Japan. But Ghosn was not supposed to leave the country. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Hiroshi Yamamoto said prosecutors will outline the charges, but he declined to comment specifically on the case. Japanese suspects are tried even if they plead guilty. The Taylors are held at the Tokyo detention center on the citys outskirts. Their lawyer can visit them, and they can receive snacks and books. Ghosn spent more than 100 days at the center before his release on bail. The cells are simple, with Japanese-style futon mattresses. The facility has an exercise area and clinic. WHAT LIES AHEAD? English translations will be provided and media coverage is allowed, but no filming or recording. If convicted, the Taylors face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 300,000 yen ($2,900). They also could get suspended sentences and not serve time. In principle, people accused of crimes in Japan are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the conviction rate is higher than 99%. ANOTHER AMERICAN Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, also an American, is being tried on charges of falsifying securities reports in underreporting Ghosns pay. He says he is innocent and was trying to find legal ways to pay Ghosn, partly to prevent him from leaving Nissan for a rival automaker. Kellys trial began in September and a verdict isnt expected for months. If convicted, Kelly faces up to 15 years in prison. WHAT DOES GHOSN SAY? During the interview in Lebanon in May, Ghosn told The Associated Press he was eager to clear his name. He declined to give details of his escape. Ghosn accuses other Nissan executives of plotting to force him out to prevent him from giving its French partner, Renault, more power in their alliance. Renault sent Ghosn to Japan in 1999 to rescue the automaker when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. HOW IS NISSAN FARING? Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car, the Z sportscar and Infiniti luxury models, has struggled as sales slumped during the pandemic. It expects to remain in the red this fiscal year, the third straight year of losses. Ghosns successors have promised a turnaround. ___ Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer The Latest: Biden arrives in Belgium ahead of NATO summit View Photo The Latest on the Group of Seven nations meeting being held in England: BRUSSELS President Joe Biden has arrived in the capital of Belgium for the upcoming NATO summit, wearing a mask because of the coronavirus as an honor guard and trumpeters greeted him. The U.S. president wrapped up a three-day meeting for the Group of Seven nations on Sunday and after a tea with Queen Elizabeth II flew to Brussels for the NATO meeting scheduled to begin Monday. Biden says that a strong NATO partnership is vital for maintaining U.S. national security for the remainder of the century. Cyber defense and climate change are among the topics being discussed at the summit. Biden will also meet Tuesday with European Union leaders as well as visit Belgian King Phillipe. The president will finish the eight-day trip Wednesday by meeting in Geneva with Russian President Vladimir Putin. ___ WINDSOR, England U.S. President Joe Biden says he has invited Queen Elizabeth II to stay at the White House. Biden and his wife, Jill, had tea with the 95 year-old queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday. The 78 year-old president says he felt a maternal warmth from the monarch, who now has met 13 U.S. presidents. Biden said: I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother. The president says the queen asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Biden has a summit with on Wednesday, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The queen also inquired about living at the White House. Biden says he told her, We could fit the White House in the courtyard of the castle. Asked if he invited Elizabeth to come to the White House, Biden replied, Yes. ___ NEWQUAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron stressed his appreciation for the return of the United States to the world stage and what he said was the boost President Joe Biden has given to the European Union, in particular. His remarks were in part a dig on the distance former President Donald Trump created with trans-Atlantic partners. With Biden, we found once again a real common vision and, above all, a way to work together. That means a conviction that the leadership is stronger through partnership, Macron said at a news conference at the close of the G-7 summit hosted by Britain no longer part of the EU. Macron had his first meeting with Biden at the summit. He had tried hard to win over Trump, making him the guest of honor at a Bastille Day military parade, but the former president turned his back, notably pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. Biden returned the United States to the accord. ___ WINDSOR, England U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are greeting the United Kingdoms Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. The Bidens emerged from a Land Rover on Sunday to meet the awaiting queen, who stood on a dais dressed in a pink hat and floral dress. The U.S. president wore his aviator sunmark glasses as he joined the monarch, only to remove them as he inspected the red-uniformed and bearskin-capped Guard of Honor assembled on the castle grounds. The queen and the U.S. first lady stayed on the dais as Biden walked along the guard. During President Donald Trumps 2018 visit, Trump broke royal protocol by walking ahead of Queen Elizabeth II during the inspection. Once Sundays inspection was completed, the queen and the Bidens went into the castle for tea. ___ CARBIS BAY, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain wants further investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the end of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, Johnson says that while it doesnt look as if this particular disease came from a lab, the world needs to keep an open mind. Though the notion was once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab is now under a new U.S. investigation ordered by President Joe Biden. The G-7 leaders endorsed calls for a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based further investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. Many scientists still believe the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans. ___ NEWQUAY, England Italian Premier Mario Draghi says the dominant theme of the Group of Seven summit was how to respond to China and other autocratic governments. Draghi said Sunday that China has the right to a great economy but that practices like coercive detention and using forced labor were out of step with the vision of the worlds democracies. He said the position taken wasnt particularly tough, but was rather realistic, in view of the necessity to cooperate on climate change, rebuilding the world after the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. He also said his Cabinet would be reviewing the controversial 2019 trade and infrastructure deal Italys previous government signed with Beijing. Over U.S. and other objections, Italy in 2019 became the first G7 country to sign onto Chinas Belt and Road initiative, Beijings global investment project that envisions overland and maritime routes connecting China with Europe. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden is hinting that he could make a change to the steel and aluminum tariffs originally imposed during the Trump administration. Asked Sunday at a news conference how Biden justified the tariffs to European allies now that Trump is out of office, Biden suggested that future action could be taken without specifying what that would be. 120 days, says Biden, who technically became the U.S. president 144 days ago. Give me a break. Need time. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden says helping the world battle the COVID-19 pandemic will be a constant project for a long time. Biden spoke Sunday of a clear consensus among the other leaders attending the Group of Seven summit that commitments they made to donate vaccines wouldnt be the end. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit host, announced on Sunday that G-7 leaders had pledged over 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer nations. Biden is responsible for about half of that donation, or about 500 million doses. He says the U.S. may be able to contribute 1 billion more doses. The U.S. president says its a gigantic, logistical effort to get shots in arms around the world, a the goal he said may not be achieved until 2023. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden is taking a series of subtle jabs at Donald Trump at the end of the Group of Seven summit, suggesting there was a genuine sense of enthusiasm among foreign leaders that the United States was engaged on world issues. The president is highlighting very fundamental differences with Trump over climate change and national security at a news conference Sunday. Biden says that he does not view NATO as a protection racket. Thats a contrast to Trump who said that foreign countries should pay for the presence of the U.S. military abroad. Biden is following the G-7 by attending a NATO summit Monday. Biden says that climate change is the existential threat facing humanity, stressing that Trump did not recognize it as a problem. ___ NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden has closed his first Group of Seven leaders summit, saying it was an extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting. Biden on Sunday praised agreements to help the world combat COVID-19 and to set a global minimum tax for corporations everywhere. He spoke at a news conference in Newquay, England, after the conclusion of a three-day summit in nearby Carbis Bay of leaders of the worlds largest economies. Biden is on the first overseas trip of his nearly 5-month-old presidency. His next stop is London and Sunday afternoon tea with Queen Elizabeth II, joined by first lady Jill Biden. Afterward, Biden flies to Brussels to attend a NATO summit. The trip ends Wednesday in Geneva, where Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet. ___ CARBIS BAY, England The leaders of the worlds richest countries have agreed to endorse a global minimum tax on multinational corporations. The decision had been widely anticipated after finance ministers earlier this month embraced placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes and thus robbing some countries of much-needed revenue. The minimum rate was championed by the United States and dovetails with the aim of U.S. President Joe Biden to focus the three-day G-7 summit in England on ways the democracies can support a more fair global economy by working together. The summit ended Sunday with broad agreements for cooperation on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, challenging Chinas economic and human rights policies and other issues. ___ CARBIS BAY, England Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are calling on China to respect human rights in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong and in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur minority lives. The group also lashed out at Chinas economic policies in a statement published Sunday. The group said it would continue to consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. The G7 summit aimed to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. ___ CARBIS BAY, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the Group of Seven wealthy nations will pledge over 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses for poorer nations. Speaking at the end of a G-7 leaders summit in southwest England on Sunday, Johnson said the doses would come both directly and through the international COVAX program. The commitment falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. ___ FALMOUTH, ENGLAND The International Monetary Fund managing director says theres a moral imperative for the worlds richest countries to back programs to end the COVID-19 pandemic but the donation of excess vaccines is only the first step. Kristalina Georgievas comments in a virtual press conference at the Group of Seven summit Sunday came after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped G-7 leaders would agree to provide at least 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer countries. Humanitarian groups have welcomed the donations, but are calling for money, increased production and logistical support to help developing countries where the virus is still raging. Georgieva said the donations are a good step but more needs to be done to overcome the hurdles needed to deliver shots into arms. This is a moral imperative, but it is a necessity for the economic recovery to stick, because we cant have the world split into two tracks without negative consequences, Georgieva said. While almost half of the combined population of the G-7 nations has received at least one dose of vaccine, the worldwide figure is less than 13%. In Africa, its just 2.2%. The war is not yet won, she said. ___ FALMOUTH, England Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office has defended coronavirus arrangements at Saturday nights G-7 beach barbeque after criticism that the event did not comply with Englands COVID-19 social distancing requirements. World leaders and their partners were seen mingling on the beach as they were treated to a barbeque dinner including steak, grilled fish and lobster after a second day of talks in a seaside resort in Cornwall, southwest England. Johnsons spokesman Max Blain said there were fewer than 30 guests at the barbeque in accordance with the U.K.s restrictions. It was done in an entirely COVID-secure way within the existing rules, he said. You can see it was a relaxed atmosphere and gave the leaders a chance to discuss outside of a formal setting. Many in the U.K. are concerned about a resurgence of coronavirus infections in the country, driven by the Delta variant. Johnson is widely expected to announce a delay in the next stage of Englands roadmap out of lockdown restrictions. ___ FALMOUTH, England Churchgoers in a seaside resort in England say they have been left gobsmacked when U.S. President Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden dropped in for a Sunday service. The Bidens are in Cornwall, southwest England, where the U.S. president is attending a Group of Seven wealthy democracies summit. On Sunday morning, ahead of the summits conclusion, they were seen attending mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in St. Ives. I think gobsmacked is probably a very true word, said Annie Fitzpatrick, 58. Its quite amazing, we went into the church and they took some details from us and I thought this is a bit unusual. About 10 minutes into the service the doors opened up and President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden walked in and just sat in the pew just across from me. The president quietly got on with his prayer like everyone was doing, she said, adding: He looked around and said peace be with you, and I was one of them so Im delighted. Im not sure I will ever get over this moment completely. Gayle Wood, 63, said Biden appeared to make a very generous donation to the church before leaving. ___ FALMOUTH, England Britain is accusing European Union of holding the offensive view that Northern Ireland is not fully part of the United Kingdom, as Brexit continues to cast a shadow over the Group of Seven summit. Britain and the EU are in a spat over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could see British sausages banned from entering Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that borders the 27-nation bloc. The dispute is raising political tensions in Northern Ireland, where some people identify as British and some as Irish. British media are reporting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked French President Emmanuel Macron when they met at the summit in Carbis Bay, England, how he would feel if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. They said Macron replied the comparison did not work because Paris and Tolouse were part of the same country. The French presidency did not deny Macron had made the comments. It said he meant that Toulouse and Paris were on a geographical unity of territory, Northern Ireland is on an island. The president wanted to stress that the situation was quite different and that its not appropriate to hold that kind of comparison. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the idea Northern Ireland was not an integral part of the U.K. was not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. ___ FALMOUTH, England Group of Seven leaders are talking about climate change on the final day of their summit in England, with naturalist David Attenborough warning they must take urgent action to avoid human-based environmental catastrophe. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too late. The leaders also plan to announce new green-financing plans to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions. Attenborough, who is due to address the leaders on Sunday by video, said global warning and loss of biodiversity are beyond doubt, as is the fact that our societies and nations are unequal. He said the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet? If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history, Attenborough said in comments released by summit organizers. ___ FALMOUTH, England The head of the World Health Organization has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says we need more, and we need them faster. The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday at the summit in southwest England. To do that, we need 11 billion doses, Tedros said, adding that it was essential for countries to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summits host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year. Tedros reiterated his target of vaccinating 30% of the population of every country by the end of 2021. He said that reaching the goal requires 100 million doses in June and July, and 250 million more by September. ___ FALMOUTH, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie, have welcomed leaders from South Korea, Australia and South Africa, as well as the secretary-general of the United Nations, to the Group of Seven summit taking place on the coast of southwestern England. The leaders elbow-bumped and posed for photos Saturday on a pristine beach in Cornwall. The G-7 nations are the U.K., the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. The British government said the guest nations were invited to take part in the summit as part of Johnsons Global Britain agenda and that the expanded group can help the G-7 intensify cooperation between the worlds democratic and technologically advanced nations. India was also invited, but its delegation is not attending in person because of the severe coronavirus outbreak in the country. The leaders, whose 3-day summit is scheduled to end on Sunday, are expected to commit to a new plan, called the Carbis Bay Declaration, to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days. ___ CARBIS BAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron says its good that U.S. President Joe Biden is able to lead through cooperation, adding that the United States is definitely back as Europes partner. Biden and Macron met Saturday as part of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, where they and other leaders of the worlds wealthy democracies are discussing the coronavirus pandemic, the environment, national security, relations with China and economic issues. Former U.S. President Donald Trump took an adversarial approach with NATO allies, but Macron said Biden has shown that leadership is partnership. The desire for cooperation cuts both ways. Biden described the European Union as incredibly strong and vibrant, which he said not only helps with tackling economic challenges but also provides a backbone for NATO. ___ BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Joe Biden have met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in England. A spokesman for the German chancellor tweeted two pictures of the leaders sitting at a table in Carbis Bay on Saturday. At noontime on the second day of the G7 summit the chancellor talked to U.S. President Biden in between the work meetings, read the caption accompanying the photos. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert didnt give any details about what the two discussed. Merkel, who is leaving office later this year, plans to visit Biden in Washington next month. The president invited her to the White House earlier this week. ___ FALMOUTH, England Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside Saturday morning in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the G-7 summit. Some protesters paddled out to sea, while others sunbathed on the beach wearing masks of leaders faces. A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass paddle out protest organized by the group Surfers Against Sewage, which is campaigning for more action to protect oceans. U.S. President Joe Biden and fellow leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting near the town of St. Ives for talks focusing on the pandemic and climate change. Earlier, activists from Oxfam assembled on Falmouth beach to protest climate change and put on masks depicting the leaders attending the G-7 summit. Max Lawson, Oxfams head of policy, said activists want the G-7 countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the United States to commit to bigger reductions in carbon emissions and to financing to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. By The Associated Press Erdogan and Biden meet at a tense moment for Turkish-US ties View Photo ANKARA, Turkey (AP) President Joe Biden and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have known each other for years, but their meeting Monday will be their first as heads of state. And it comes at a particularly tense moment for relations between their two countries. The list of disagreements is unusually long for the two NATO allies: Theres U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, as well as Turkeys purchase of a Russian weapons system. And in April, Biden infuriated Ankara by declaring that the Ottoman-era mass killing and deportations of Armenians was genocide. Previous U.S. presidents had avoided using the term out of concern that it would complicate ties with Turkey, which is fiercely proud of its Ottoman history and insists that those killed in the early 20th century were victims of civil war and unrest. However, besides blasting the decision in speeches, Erdogan didnt immediately hit back at Washington. The muted response suggests he wants a good relationship with Biden, said Rachel Ellehuus, an analyst at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Not least because he needs that economic relationship with the U.S. and the appearance of a cooperative relationship in order to retain his base, which is very much built on a functioning Turkish economy that is tethered into the West, Ellehuus said. However, before leaving Sunday for the NATO summit in Brussels where he will meet Biden, Erdogan described the presidents comments on the killings of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as very negative and an approach (that) has seriously upset us. Erdogan, in power for 18 years as prime minister and then president, also one-on-one meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lined up during Mondays summit. He told reporters he plans to underline the importance we attach to the alliance with our allies. One name apparently not on his list: Italian Premier Mario Draghi, who called Erdogan a dictator earlier this year, touching off a diplomatic row. Draghi chuckled nervously Sunday when asked about seeing Erdogan for the first time since but insisted on Turkeys very important role in NATO. Erdogan has dialed down his anti-Western rhetoric as his government grapples with an economic downturn made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. His ruling AKP party has recently been hit by a series of corruption allegations, including drug trafficking and arms smuggling, made by a fugitive mafia boss who has been releasing tell-all videos on social media, without evidence. The most important thing for the Turkish leader at this time is to give a veneer of positive relations with the U.S. in terms of Turkeys image, said Merve Tahiroglu, Turkey program coordinator at the Project on Middle East Democracy. He seems to understand that to get any kind of international investment to Turkey, he will need to project an image of positive relations with the U.S. Biden has often touted the personal relationships hes developed with world leaders over nearly 50 years as a factor that makes him uniquely equipped to revitalize the reputation of the United States following the presidency of Donald Trump. In recent days, hes mentioned to aides that hes developed a strong rapport with Erdogan over the years, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Biden still fondly recalls making a house call to Erdogan in 2011 when he was in Turkey to speak at the Global Entrepreneurs Summit, according to the official. Erdogan did not attend because he was recovering from major surgery, but Biden stopped by to check in on him. Their conversation was supposed to be brief but lasted over two hours. Still, the relationship has been complicated at times. In 2014, while vice president, Biden apologized to Erdogan after suggesting in a speech that Turkey helped facilitate the rise of the Islamic State militant group by allowing foreign fighters to cross Turkeys border with Syria. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden drew ire from Turkish officials after an interview with The New York Times in which he called Erdogan an autocrat. Erdogan enjoyed collegial relations with Trump, who didnt give him a hard time about Turkeys human rights record and agreed to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria in 2019, paving the way for a Turkish military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who had fought alongside U.S. forces against IS militants. Biden was strongly critical of that decision, accusing Trump of selling out U.S. allies. Erdogan waited several days before congratulating Biden on his election victory as Trump challenged the results. At the same time, Erdogan sent a message to Trump thanking him for his warm friendship. After taking office, Biden waited three months before giving Erdogan a call, which was widely seen in Turkey as a snub. The first time they spoke after the election was when Biden called to tell Erdogan about the Armenian genocide announcement. In an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT on June 1, Erdogan noted he had cordial relations with previous U.S. presidents, particularly Trump, and that he would ask Biden on the sidelines of the NATO meeting why Turkey-U.S. relations are in such a state of tension. There have been many rumors we need to leave them behind and talk about what we can do and what we will do, he said of U.S.-Turkey relations before departing from Istanbuls Ataturk Airport for Brussels on Sunday. Biden and Erdogan are expected to take up Turkeys purchase of the S-400 advanced Russian defense systems, a procurement that angered Washington and resulted in Ankara being kicked out of the U.S. F-35 fighter aircraft production program, sanctions on senior Turkish defense industry officials, and bans on military export licenses. Washington says the Russian system is a threat to NATO security and insists that sanctions cannot be lifted until Turkey gets rid of the system, which has cost the country $2.5 billion. Turkey repeatedly has called for dialogue to resolve the issue. Turkish media reports say Turkey is set to propose the deployment of the S-400s at Incirlik air base, which is home to a U.S. Air Force wing, where they would be watched by U.S. military officials. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters the S-400s would be 100% under (Turkish) control and that no Russian military official would be in Turkey. Erdogan said Sunday that talks with Biden would be very broad but he focused on F-35 issue, accusing the U.S. of not fulfilling its promise, not complying with the contract although Turkey has fulfilled its promise and reiterating that Ankara was forced to purchase the S-400 system after Washington declined to provide U.S. Patriot missiles. Erdogan is also expected to raise the issue of U.S. military support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, who Ankara argues are inextricably linked to a decades-long Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden and Erdogan will discuss Syria and Iran as well as what role Turkey can play on Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal. Also on the agenda is how Washington and Ankara deal with some of our significant differences on values and human rights and other issues, Sullivan said. The unsettled security situation in Libya, as well as overlapping concerns on China and Russia will also be on the agenda. Sullivan added that Biden knows Erdogan very well. The two men have spent a good amount of time together, and they are both, I think, looking forward to the opportunity to really have a business-like opportunity to review the full breadth of their relationship, Sullivan said. __ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington and Andrew Wilks in Istanbul contributed. By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press Israel swears in new coalition, ending Netanyahus long rule View Photo JERUSALEM (AP) Israels parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. The vote, capping a stormy parliamentary session, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four deadlocked elections. Those votes focused largely on Netanyahus divisive rule and his fitness to remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. To his supporters, Netanyahu is a global statesman uniquely capable of leading the country through its many security challenges. But to his critics, he has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents. Outside the Knesset, hundreds of protesters watching the vote on a large screen erupted into applause when the new government was approved. Thousands of people, many waving Israeli flags, celebrated in central Tel Avivs Rabin Square. President Joe Biden quickly congratulated the new government. I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations, he said in a statement. He said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region. Bennetts office said he later spoke by phone with Biden, thanking him for his warm wishes and longstanding commitment to Israels security. The leaders agreed to consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran, the White House said, adding that Biden said his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on advancing peace, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. Much of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu was personal. Three of the eight parties in the new government, including Bennetts Yamina, are headed by former Netanyahu allies who share his hard-line ideology but had deep personal disputes with him. Bennett, 49, is a former chief of staff to Netanyahu whose small party is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers. As he addressed the raucous debate, he was repeatedly heckled and shouted down by Netanyahus supporters. Some were removed from the chamber. Bennett, an observant Jew, noted the Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting. This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility, he said. To continue on in this way more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss. The new Cabinet met briefly, and Bennett recited a prayer for new beginnings and said it was time to mend rifts. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, Bennett said. The millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur faces a tough test maintaining an unwieldy coalition from the political right, left and center. The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. We will forge forward on that which we agree and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side, Bennett said. He also promised a new page in relations with Israels Arab sector. Israels Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections. Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. He also vowed, like Netanyahu, to oppose U.S.-led efforts to restore the international nuclear accord with Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, he said. Israel is not party to the agreement and will maintain full freedom to act. But he also thanked Biden for his support of Israel. He promised to take a different approach than Netanyahu, who has alienated much of the Democratic Party through his antagonistic relationship with then-President Barack Obama and close ties with former President Donald Trump. My government will make an effort to deepen and nurture relations with our friends in both parties bipartisan, Bennett said. If there are disputes, we will manage them with fundamental trust and mutual respect. While Bennetts speech was conciliatory, Netanyahus was confrontational. He boasted of his achievements, including diplomatic treaties with four Arab states and a successful coronavirus vaccination drive, before belittling the man who is replacing him. He accused Bennett of abandoning Israels right-wing electorate and joining weak leftists to become prime minister. He said Bennett did not have the backbone to stand up to Iran or pressure from the U.S. to make concessions to the Palestinians. I will lead you in the daily struggle against this evil and dangerous leftist government in order to topple it, he said. God willing, it will happen a lot faster than what you think. In the opposition, Netanyahu remains head of the largest party in parliament. The new coalition is a patchwork of small and midsize parties that could collapse if any of its members decide to bolt. Bennetts party, for instance, holds just six seats in the 120-seat parliament. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver. For that, they need time and achievements, he said. Still, Netanyahu will continue to cast a shadow, Plesner said. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years in a rotation agreement with Bennett, if the government lasts. Lapid called off a planned speech, saying he was ashamed his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Netanyahus place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years more than any other, including the countrys founding father, David Ben-Gurion. But his reputation as a political magician has faded particularly since he was indicted in 2019 for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu had hoped to form. By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press The Latest: Bennett says Israel at outset of new days View Photo The latest on Israels incoming government (all times local): 10:45 p.m. JERUSALEM Naftali Bennett, Israels first Orthodox Jewish prime minister, has opened the first meeting of his government with a traditional blessing for new beginnings, saying that nows the time to get to work to mending rifts in the nation. Bennett addressed the newly sworn in Cabinet Sunday night, saying the country is at the outset of new days. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, he said. We must all, for this amazing process to succeed, we must all know to maintain restraint on ideological matters. Alternate prime minister Yair Lapid, who will serve as foreign minister for the first two years of the governments term, said in brief remarks that friendship and trust built their government, and thats what will keep it going. ___ 10:30 p.m. JERUSALEM Palestinian Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass office has little to say about Israels new government headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling it an internal Israeli affair. Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Sunday that the Palestinian position remains adherence to international legitimacy and the two-state solution by establishing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The new Israeli government includes a wide spectrum of parties ranging from hard-line nationalists to more dovish supporters of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Members of the new government have said they will avoid dealing with the divisive issue for the time being. ___ 9:50 p.m. JERUSALEM U.S. President Joe Biden has congratulated Israels incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, saying he looks forward to working to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between the two nations. In a statement released by the White House, Biden said that Israel has no better friend than the United States, and that the United States remains unwavering in its support for Israels security. ___ 8:31 p.m. JERUSALEM Israels parliament has appointed a new speaker, taking a key step toward approving a new coalition government that would end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus 12-year rule. With 67 votes in the 120-member chamber, parliament named Mickey Levy of the centrist Yesh Atid party its new speaker. He is to succeed the current speaker, Yariv Levin, of Netanyahus Likud party. The move set the stage for a confidence vote to approve a new coalition government later Sunday. ___ 7:49 p.m. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Gazas Hamas rulers say they will confront the new Israeli government that is expected to take office. Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamic militant group, said Sunday any Israeli government is a settler occupier entity that must be resisted by all forms of resistance, foremost of which is the armed resistance. Hamas and Israel fought an 11-day war last month. The bitter enemies have fought a total of four wars since Hamas, which seeks Israels destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the rival Palestinian Authority. Despite their enmity, the sides have been conducting indirect talks aimed at shoring up a cease-fire. Barhoum said the behavior of this government on the ground will determine the way and nature of dealing with it on the ground. ___ 7:16 p.m. JERUSALEM The head of an Islamist party in Israels parliament says his faction will advance the interests of Palestinian citizens of Israel from within the new government. Mansour Abbas said Sunday that his Raam party was making great sacrifices for the sake of his constituents, and will try to advance a dialog that will bring about better, new, principled relations for all citizens of the state: Jews and Arabs. Raam is the first Arab party to join an Israeli government, and Abbas said that the partnership in the new government will also bridge the gaps on the national level and the religious level. Abbas said that combatting crime and violence that has plagued Arab communities in Israel is a top priority for Israels Palestinian minority. Abbas spoke ahead of a parliamentary vote that was expected to approve the new coalition government. Arabs make up about 20% of Israels citizens and largely identify with Palestinians in the neighboring West Bank and Gaza Strip. ___ 5:25 p.m. JERUSALEM The Israeli politician who was the driving force in forming the countrys new government has called off a planned speech to parliament, saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. In a brief speech, Yair Lapid said he wanted to ask for forgiveness from my mother. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Lapid led the efforts to form the new coalition, which is expected to be approved later Sunday. He is expected to be Israels new foreign minister for two years, and then become prime minister in a rotation agreement for the final two years of the governments term. ___ 5:20 p.m. JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to lead his Likud Party back to power. Netanyahu is slated to become opposition leader later Sunday when parliament is expected to approve a vote of confidence in a new coalition formed by his opponents. In a speech to parliament, Netanyahu made clear he has no plans on giving up leadership of the Likud Party. He vowed to continue the great mission of my life, ensuring the security of Israel. He added: If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way. ___ 4:45 p.m. JERUSALEM Israels designated prime minister, Naftali Bennett, says that renewing the international nuclear deal with Iran will be a mistake. In a speech to parliament, Bennett said that Israel remains ready to act against Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, Bennett said. He added that Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action. The strong comments maintain the confrontational policy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennetts new government is scheduled to be sworn into office late Sunday after a parliamentary vote. ___ 4:05 p.m. JERUSALEM Israels Knesset, or parliament, has convened for a vote that is expected to end the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The parliament is to hold a debate ahead of a vote of confidence for a new coalition government formed by a collection of Netanyahus opponents. If the coalition is approved, Naftali Bennett, a former ally turned rival of Netanyahu, would become prime minister over a disparate coalition of parties from the political right, left and center. Netanyahu is slated to become the opposition leader. Bennett, whose parents immigrated to Israel from the United States, is expected to stress the need for close relations with the U.S. But Bennett, who shares Netanyahus hardline ideology, is also expected to echo the outgoing prime ministers opposition to restoring the international nuclear deal with Iran. By The Associated Press EXPLAINER: Who is Naftali Bennett, Israels new leader? View Photo JERUSALEM (AP) Naftali Bennett, who was sworn in Sunday as Israels new prime minister, embodies many of the contradictions that define the 73-year-old nation. Hes a religious Jew who made millions in the mostly secular hi-tech sector; a champion of the settlement movement who lives in a Tel Aviv suburb, and a former ally of Benjamin Netanyahu who has partnered with centrist and left-wing parties to end his 12-year rule. His ultranationalist Yamina party won just seven seats in the 120-member Knesset in March elections the fourth such vote in two years. But by refusing to commit to Netanyahu or his opponents, Bennett positioned himself as kingmaker. Even after one member of his religious nationalist party abandoned him to protest the new coalition deal, he ended up with the crown. Heres a look at Israels new leader: AN ULTRANATIONALIST WITH A MODERATE COALITION Bennett has long positioned himself to the right of Netanyahu. But he will be severely constrained by his unwieldy coalition, which has only a narrow majority in parliament and includes parties from the right, left and center. He is opposed to Palestinian independence and strongly supports Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians and much of the international community see as a major obstacle to peace. Bennett fiercely criticized Netanyahu after the prime minister agreed to slow settlement construction under pressure from President Barack Obama, who tried and failed to revive the peace process early in his first term. He briefly served as head of the West Bank settlers council, Yesha, before entering the Knesset in 2013. Bennett later served as Cabinet minister of diaspora affairs, education and defense in various Netanyahu-led governments. Hes a right-wing leader, a security hard-liner, but at the same time very pragmatic, said Yohanan Plesner, head of the Israel Democracy Institute, who has known Bennett for decades and served with him in the military. He expects Bennett to engage with other factions to find a common denominator as he seeks support and legitimacy as a national leader. ___ RIVALRY WITH NETANYAHU The 49-year-old father of four shares Netanyahus hawkish approach to the Middle East conflict, but the two have had tense relations over the years. Bennett served as Netanyahus chief of staff for two years, but they parted ways after a mysterious falling out that Israeli media linked to Netanyahus wife, Sara, who wields great influence over her husbands inner circle. Bennett campaigned as a right-wing stalwart ahead of the March elections and signed a pledge on national TV saying he would never allow Yair Lapid, a centrist and Netanyahus main rival, to become prime minister. But when it became clear Netanyahu was unable to form a ruling coalition, thats exactly what Bennett did, agreeing to serve as prime minister for two years before handing power to Lapid, the architect of the new coalition. Netanyahus supporters have branded Bennett a traitor, saying he defrauded voters. Bennett has defended his decision as a pragmatic move aimed at unifying the country and avoiding a fifth round of elections. ___ A GENERATIONAL SHIFT Bennett, a modern Orthodox Jew, will be Israels first prime minister who regularly wears a kippa, the skullcap worn by observant Jews. He lives in the upscale Tel Aviv suburb of Raanana, rather than the settlements he champions. Bennett began life with his American-born parents in Haifa, then bounced with his family between North America and Israel, military service, law school and the private sector. Throughout, hes curated a persona thats at once modern, religious and nationalist. After serving in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, Bennett went to law school at Hebrew University. In 1999, he co-founded Cyota, an anti-fraud software company that was sold in 2005 to U.S.-based RSA Security for $145 million. Bennett has said the bitter experience of Israels 2006 war against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah drove him to politics. The monthlong war ended inconclusively, and Israels military and political leadership at the time was widely criticized as bungling the campaign. Bennett represents a third generation of Israeli leaders, after the founders of the state and Netanyahus generation, which came of age during the countrys tense early years marked by repeated wars with Arab states. Hes Israel 3.0, Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israels left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, wrote in a recent profile of Bennett. A Jewish nationalist but not really dogmatic. A bit religious, but certainly not devout. A military man who prefers the comforts of civilian urban life and a high-tech entrepreneur who isnt looking to make any more millions. A supporter of the Greater Land of Israel but not a settler. And he may well not be a lifelong politician either. By JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) Roger Bloss sat parked in his vehicle near a smoking area outside a prominent Strip casino resort. Bloss, the CEO of MJ Holdings, a Las Vegas-based company that grows cannabis in Nevada, observed dozens of people inhaling and exhaling for about an hour. Id say 90% of them were obviously smoking weed, Bloss told the Las Vegas Sun. I feel thats not conducive for certain kinds of tourism and I certainly think it will impact our convention business in Las Vegas Mondays through Thursdays. What Bloss said he witnessed isnt an uncommon sight on the Strip, in parking garages, or downtown on Fremont Street. And if a person in the tourist corridor doesnt see someone smoking marijuana, theyre likely to smell it at some point when outside of a building. There soon could be another option. A new law approved by the state Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak paves the way for marijuana consumption lounges to open in Nevada next year. The states Cannabis Compliance Board, which regulates the industry, will approve licenses for lounges at existing dispensaries and for free-standing independent businesses. At the sprawling Planet 13 dispensary near the Las Vegas Strip plans are already being made for a consumption area. Most customers are Las Vegas tourists. In the first quarter of this year, Planet 13 reported nearly $24 million in earnings at its Las Vegas dispensary, or about 9% of all dispensary revenue reported in Nevada for the period from Jan. 1 through March. Soon, they could have a place to smoke. Its been kind of a dream of ours to allow for consumption within this complex, said David Farris, a spokesman for Planet 13. Now, were gearing up and getting a team together to put together some solidified plans. The idea, Farris said, will be to build something that could potentially cater to hundreds of cannabis users and become an attraction that rivals the Strip itself. Southern Nevada hosted over 42 million tourists in 2019, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Allowing them a place to consume cannabis was one of the driving ideas behind Assembly Bill 341, sponsored by Assemblyman Steve Yeager. Obviously, there have been some problems with people consuming in public, said Yeager, a Democrat and a former chief deputy public defender in Las Vegas. Soon, there will be an answer when tourists ask where theyre allowed to consume. I also think well get some tourists to come here because of that consumption lounge experience. Bloss said MJ Holdings will explore the possibilities surrounding a consumption area in Las Vegas that would encompass the health, wellness and social side of the cannabis market. Since federal law still recognizes marijuana as an illegal drug, its doubtful that major casino companies and other gambling license-holders in the Las Vegas area will have on-property consumption lounges. Citing federal law, the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 2018 required that licensees shall not participate in the marijuana industry. Bloss, however, said he sees possible changes following the new Nevada law. Theres going to be consumption lounges, and people will be leaving the resorts to go to these lounges, he said. Casinos will eventually have consumption lounges. It will happen when competition forces it to happen. He called the smell of marijuana too pungent for casino floors and said people wont be able to smoke a joint at gambling tables. Layke Martin, executive director of the Nevada Dispensary Association, said she hopes to see license applications available late this year or early in 2022. There are about a dozen dispensaries in Clark County that have the space or are acquiring the space for a lounge, Martin said. The hope is that some of these places will end up being destinations in and of themselves. Maybe its a video game venue with cannabis, or a comedy club, but we see some new and interesting concepts coming from this. The law will ban dispensary owners from operating a stand-alone consumption lounge that isnt located inside an existing cannabis store. Alcohol sales will not be permitted in any consumption lounge, though single-use cannabis products will be allowed to be sold. The compliance board is expected to issue 20 independent lounge licenses, half of which will be reserved for social equity applicants, which is defined as any applicant who has been adversely affected by provisions of previous laws which criminalize activity relating to cannabis. We really contemplated how to increase the inclusivity and diversity in the cannabis industry in Nevada, Martin said. Just like with dispensaries, free-standing consumption lounges will need to be at least 1,500 feet (457 meters) from any casino with an unrestricted gaming license, 1,000 feet (305 meters) from a school and at least 300 feet (91 meters) from a community facility. Simon Nankervis, CEO of The Source, which has dispensaries in Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and North Las Vegas, said the company could add lounge space at an additional dispensary that is still in the planning stages, assuming its granted the appropriate green light from the compliance board. The Source tends to cater to local residents, although it also sells to tourists. He said any lounge would likely fit two or three dozen people at capacity smaller than what Planet 13 officials have in the works. We should be able to have a better way of controlling how cannabis is used now, Nankervis said. We know that tourists are using on the Strip and on Fremont Street. I think this (legislation) will change the way we, as an industry, think about the market. Nankervis said industry leaders are anxious to learn specifics of the lounge licensing process. Its the next step, he said, for a maturing cannabis industry in Nevada, which legalized recreational cannabis in 2017. Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, allows for legal consumption lounges, as does California, but the coronavirus pandemic made it difficult for businesses to flourish. If you look at the markets that are more developed, like Colorado and California, theyve had consumption lounges for some time now, and that creates an environment where things are more controlled, Nankervis said. This law in Nevada puts us in a place as an industry where were on par with our neighbors. For Yeager, Sisolaks signature marked the end of a year-long process. What we could see here in Las Vegas could be better than Amsterdam, Yeager said. I cant tell you how many people I talked to from the cannabis industry, the Chamber of Cannabis, gaming, the governors folks, and those looking to get into the industry. In the end, we got more support than I thought wed get. By BRYAN HORWATH Las Vegas Sun Nicaragua arrests 5 more opposition leaders in crackdown View Photo MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrested five opposition leaders during a major weekend round up, in what appears to be widespread detentions of anyone who might challenge his rule. The four arrests Sunday and one Saturday suggest Ortega has moved beyond arresting potential rival candidates in the Nov. 7 elections, and has begun arresting any prominent member of the opposition. The arrests bring to 12 the number of opponents detained since June 2. Its not just potential candidates any more, its political leaders, former general and Sandinista dissident Hugo Torres told The Associated Press before he himself was arrested Sunday. This is not a transition to dictatorship, it is a dictatorship in every way. On Sunday, police also arrested prominent ex-Sandinista dissident Dora Maria Tellez, another opposition leader, Ana Margarita Vijil, and Suyen Barahona, leader of the political movement Unamos. Tellezs arrest is a major step: she was a leading Sandinista militant who led an assault on the National Palace in 1978, taking hostage the congress of dictator Anastasio Somoza in exchange for the release of Sandinista prisoners. Following Somozas overthrow, Tellez served as health minister in the first Sandinista government which ruled from 1979 to 1990. Like many former guerrillas, she later split with Ortega. On Saturday, police arrested Tamara Davila, who was active in Unamos, which was formed by former Sandinistas angered by Ortegas autocratic ways, nepotism and perpetual re-elections. Police said they arrested Davila on charges related to a recently enacted law that classifies as treason any support for sanctions against officials in the Ortega regime; the U.S. has slapped sanctions on dozens of officials. Davila is also a central figure in the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity, which was formed following Ortegas repression of mass protests in 2018. Under a law passed in December, Ortegas government has the power to unilaterally declare citizens terrorists or coup-mongers, classify them as traitors to the homeland and ban them from running as candidates. The law punishes those who lead or finance a coup encourage foreign interference, ask for military intervention propose or plan economic blockades, applaud and champion the imposition of sanctions against Nicaragua or its citizens. Those accused will be traitors to the homeland, and for that reason may not run for public office. Treason is punishable by prison terms of up to 15 years. Ortega has already arrested four potential opposition candidates who might have challenged his bid for a fourth consecutive term, and now many Nicaragua opposition leaders fear it is only a matter of time until police come for them, too. Torres said he has seen drones flying around his home in recent days, of the type used at Tellezs house. This interview may be the last one I give, Torres said. I am here, waiting for them to come for me. Hours later, police barged into Torres home and arrested him. Nicaraguas National Police arrested the four opposition pre-candidates earlier this month. On June 8, they arrested pre-candidate Felix Maradiaga, a pre-candidate for the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity, and Sebastian Chamorro, a former director of the opposition coalition Civic Alliance. The previous week authorities detained Cristiana Chamorro, a cousin of Juan Sebastian Chamorro, and Arturo Cruz Sequeira, a former ambassador to the United States. Ortega initially led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990 following the Sandinista revolution that ousted Somoza. He returned to the presidency in 2007 after three failed election attempts, and he won reelection in 2011. He then sidestepped term limits to get himself reelected in 2016, and packed courts and government agencies with allies. The Sandinista party controls the courts and the legislature, and has stifled universities and the Roman Catholic church. Torres said Ortega has now instituted a more suffocating dictatorship than Somoza, who faced opposition from the within the church, intellectual circles and universities. I think Ortega has outdone Somoza, said Torres. He has subordinated all the power to himself as Somoza never could. He has a bigger repressive apparatus than Somoza ever had. Julie Chung, the U.S. State Departments acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, said via Twitter that Ortegas campaign of terror continues with more arbitrary arrests this weekend. OAS members must send a clear signal this week: enough repression. The region cannot stand by and wait to see who is next. After G-7, Biden says hes reestablishing US credibility View Photo NEWQUAY, England (AP) President Joe Biden on Sunday said the United States had restored its presence on the world stage as he used his first overseas trip since taking office to connect with a new generation of leaders from some of the worlds most powerful countries and more closely unite allies on addressing the coronavirus pandemic and Chinas trade and labor practices. As he wrapped three days of what he called an extraordinarily collaborative and productive meeting at the Group of Seven summit of wealthy democracies, Biden said there was genuine enthusiasm for his engagement. Americas back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values, Biden said at a news conference before leaving Cornwall to visit Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. I think weve made progress in reestablishing American credibility among our closest friends. The president, who is on an eight-day, three country trip, left his mark on the G-7 by announcing a commitment to share 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses with the world and pressing allies to do the same. The leaders on Sunday confirmed their intent to donate more than 1 billion doses to low-income countries in the next year. This is going to be a constant project for a long time, Biden said of the global vaccination campaign, adding that he hoped the world could stamp out the pandemic in 2022 or 2023. Its not just the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, Biden said, but also the correct thing to do in terms of our own health. He also said the U.S. might be able to donate an additional 1 billion vaccine doses to the world in the coming years. Biden also fought for the leaders joint statement to include specific language criticizing Chinas use of forced labor and other human rights abuses as he worked to cast the rivalry with Beijing as the defining competition for the 21st century. The president declined to discuss the private negotiations over the provision, but said he was satisfied with the tough rhetoric, though difference remained among the allies about how forcefully to call out Beijing. Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Japan largely endorsed the Biden administrations position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed hesitancy during the talks, according to a senior official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. Bidens national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, played down the division, but acknowledged countries had different levels of conviction about the depth of the challenge. But when you add it all up, actually the whole became greater than the sum of its parts because there is a broad view that China represents a significant challenge to the worlds democracies, on a number of different dimensions, Sullivan said. The leaders also embraced Bidens call for a 15% global minimum corporate tax rate. The other G-7 allies did their part in creating the impression that Biden was part of the Club and sought to help reinforce Bidens America is back mantra, including by embracing the his campaign slogan to Build Back Better from the pandemic. Most European allies had been disenchanted with President Donald Trumps grumbling of global freeloaders and espousing an America First policy, so Biden had the challenge of convincing a skeptical audience that the last U.S. administration was not a harbinger of a more insular country. Were totally on the same page, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of Biden. Implicitly criticizing his predecessor, who had said other countries should pay for the presence of Americas military presence abroad, Biden said he does not view NATO as a protection racket. Biden also reported that global leaders were gratified that the U.S. president accepted the science of climate change. One of the things some of my colleagues said to me when I was there was, Well, the United States leadership recognizes there is global warming, Biden said. The president was ending his day in Brussels for meetings with NATO and European Union leaders on Monday and Tuesday before his summit with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva. U.S. officials said that one-on-one meeting would test whether the two men could develop a constructive relationship even as Biden was poised to rebuke Putin for a range of rights abuses and election interference. Pressed at the news conference on why Putin has not changed his behavior after waves of U.S. sanctions, Biden replied with a laugh. Hes Vladimir Putin. The summit marked some of Bidens first face-to-face meetings with global leaders since taking office in January amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including Frances Emmanuel Macron, with whom he was meeting for the first time. The 43-year-old Macron, who came into office in May 2017, months after Bidens two terms as the U.S. vice president ended, appeared to have quick chemistry with the 78-year-old American. The two draped their arms around each other and chatted animatedly when they walked together after the leaders photo at the beginning of Fridays summit. In remarks to reporters, Macron did not utter Trumps name but offered an unambiguous shot at the former president. Macron noted his his relief that with Biden, he was now working with an American president willing to cooperate. What you demonstrate is leadership is partnership, Macron said of Biden. During Trumps term, Macron tried to find common ground but often bristled at Trumps nativist rhetoric. Macron, who has worked to portray France as a more prominent power in recent years, also used the rise of Trumpism to make the case for greater global European leadership. He complained in November 2019 that a lack of U.S. leadership was causing the brain death of NATO, insisting in an interview with the Economist that the European Union must step up and start acting as a strategic world power. Biden, in his remarks, seemed to acknowledge Macrons concerns, noting that Western Europe was providing backbone and the support for NATO. During the summit, Biden also met with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa. At the news conference, Biden briefly confused Syria and Libya when he described the importance of providing humanitarian aid to countries torn apart by civil war. It was among a handful of verbal stumbles the president made. Biden then traveled to Windsor Castle for a private audience with the queen becoming the 13th president to have met with the 95-year-old monarch. Biden greeted the queen on a dais in the castle courtyard and reviewed an assembled ceremonial guard before he and first lady Jill Biden joined her for tea. He said in a brief exchange with reporters that the queen asked him about Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin during their meeting. The president described her as very gracious and invited her to visit the White House. I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, Biden said. ___ Madhani reported from Brussels and Miller from Washington. By JONATHAN LEMIRE, AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press Biden says very gracious queen reminded me of my mother View Photo WINDSOR, England (AP) President Joe Biden and his aviator sunglasses met Queen Elizabeth II on a bright Sunday afternoon. The queen hosted the president and first lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle, her royal residence near London. Biden flew to London after wrapping up his participation in a three-day summit of leaders of the worlds wealthy democracies in Cornwall, in southwestern England. He arrived at the castle aboard the presidential helicopter and was ferried to the queen in a black Range Rover. The 95-year-old monarch greeted the Bidens in the castles quadrangle, where she waited beneath a covered dais that shielded her from the sun on one of the hottest days of the year so far in the United Kingdom. Assembled soldiers from the Queens Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards gave a royal salute and the Bidens placed their hands over their hearts as the U.S. national anthem was played. The president was then led across the grass for an inspection of the Guard of Honor. He wore a stern expression on his face after he had removed his trademark sunglasses, but when the 78-year-old Biden got to the end of the row, he smiled for the soldier in front of him who held up a sword. The queen and Jill Biden remained on the dais. Biden returned to the dais and he, the first lady and the white-gloved woman who has held the British throne for nearly 70 years watched the military march past before they went inside for tea. As they left the dais, Biden offered the queen an elbow. She declined and stepped down on her own power, using the handrail. The Bidens emerged from the castle just shy of having spent a full hour with the queen and boarded the helicopter for the return trip to London. At Heathrow Airport, Biden talked about the queen with his traveling press corps, saying she was very gracious, that she asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and that he had invited her to visit the White House. I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, Biden said before he boarded Air Force One for his next stop, Brussels. It generally is frowned upon for anyone to reveal the contents of their private talks with the queen. Biden is the 13th American president to meet the monarch. President Lyndon B. Johnson is the only one who did not make her acquaintance while he was in office. She has welcomed four other U.S. presidents to Windsor Castle, where she has been isolating during the coronavirus pandemic. They are Donald Trump in 2018, Barack Obama in 2016, George W. Bush in 2008 and Ronald Reagan in 1982. Bidens first time meeting the queen came in November 1982, when as a U.S. senator he traveled to the United Kingdom for a meeting of the British-American Parliamentary Group, the White House said Sunday. Biden was part of a group that met with the monarch during that visit. The queen has been riding out the pandemic at Windsor Castle, but also has begun getting out now and again after the April death of her husband, Prince Philip, at age 99. On Friday, she joined other royal family members, including Prince Charles and Prince William and their spouses, at a reception in Cornwall for the Group of Seven leaders. ___ Superville reported from Washington. By KELVIN CHAN, JONATHAN LEMIRE and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press CODY, Wyo. (AP) Fellow wildland firefighters, U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon paid tribute during a weekend memorial for Tim Hart, a 36-year-old smokejumper from Cody, Wyoming, who died following a hard fall while fighting a New Mexico wildfire on May 24. Hart's flag-draped casket was carried by a Forest Service honor guard to the service on Saturday at Cody High School's football field. Pipes and drums played Amazing Grace after tributes from Christiansen, Gordon and Hart's supervisor, Mike Blinn, who described Hart as fit, fast, gritty and funny. Hart was working for the West Yellowstone Smokejumpers, based in the Custer Gallatin National Forest in Montana, at the time of his death. He suffered a hard fall while responding to a fire in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in El Paso, Texas. He had been a wildland firefighter since 2006, working in North Carolina, Arizona, Oregon, Wyoming and Nevada. He joined the smokejumper program in 2016 and worked his rookie season in Idaho, according to the Forest Service. He was based in Montana beginning in 2019. Saturday's memorial was streamed by Custer Gallatin National Forest. Christiansen described Hart as a disciplined, soft-spoken and devoted wildland firefighter who knew what had to be done. We are deeply shaken by the loss of one of our own. The fire community is a family, she said. Addressing Hart's casket, she said: You lived life with love, with adventure and with great service to others. Gordon described Hart's passion for smokejumping and his devotion to his family. Wyoming will stand with you and by you, he said, addressing the family. Hart's mother, Pam Hart, said her son found his life's mission in wildland firefighting and smokejumping. This was the role he loved best, she told the crowd. My son died, but not in vain and not for nothing. In addition to his mother, Hart is survived by his wife, Michelle, and a sister. The Forest Service says about 320 smokejumpers work from seven bases located in California, Idaho, Montana, Washington state and Oregon. The Bureau of Land Management has smokejumpers based in Idaho and Alaska. By Laurent Le Maux, Professor of Economics, University of the Western Brittany,Research Professor, University of Paris Pantheon La Sorbonne. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website Walter Bagehot published his famous book, Lombard Street (1873) almost 150 years ago. The adage lending freely against good collateral at a penalty rate is associated with his name and his book has always been set on a pedestal and is still considered the leading reference on the role of lender of last resort. The academic literature goes as far as to consider that Bagehot preached a kind of Copernican revolution, that Bagehotian wisdom achieved a mature reflection on nineteenth-century central banking theory. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007-09, central bank officials often argued in their lectures that Bagehots dictum was well-founded and continued to provide a useful framework for mitigating the effects of financial crises. These views are revisited in my INET Working Paper . In this respect, the title of Charles Goodharts article, Game Theory for Central Bankers (Journal of Economic Literature, 1994), is inspiring. In the late twentieth century in the United States and Europe, rational expectation theory and game theory determined the analysis and practice of central banking. Similarly, in early nineteenth-century Britain, quantity theory and the currency principle contributed to the growing opinion in the Club of Political Economy in London and finally to the adoption of the 1844 Act presented by Prime Minister Robert Peel. Thus, Bagehots recommendations were enunciated under the particular banking architecture enacted by the British parliament in 1844 the Peel system which was featured by the separation of the Bank of England into two departments, the issue and discount departments, and by the active discount rate policy. Without a clear understanding of the theoretical grounds and the institutional features of the British banking system throughout Victorian times, any interpretation of Bagehots writings remains vague if not misleading which is worrisome if they are supposed to provide a guideline for policymakers. Furthermore, beyond the historical context of Bagehots Lombard Street, the difficulties also lie in understanding its implicit theoretical underpinnings. Bagehot repeatedly stated that he did not delve into monetary and banking theory but rested his arguments on experience and narrating history. Surprisingly he went as far as to contend that the theoretical discussion would have ended with the adoption of the 1844 Act even though the 1848 and 1857 parliamentary inquiries and the controversy between Thomas Tooke and Robert Torrens clearly show that it was not the case. While the currency doctrine governing the 1844 Act gave no scope for the lender of last resort, the Chancellor of the Exchequer authorized the Bank of England to suspend the statutory rule of issue in 1847, 1857, and 1866. After the 1866 crisis, Bagehots intention was finally to reconcile the Peel system with the action of the Bank as lender of last resort. As is well known, the former Bank director Thomson Hankey excoriated an article written by Bagehot in The Economist (1866). Mentioning the question of moral hazard, Hankey (The Principles of Banking, 1867) deemed that Bagehots rule was the most mischievous doctrine ever broached in Britain. But behind all the bluster, the differences between the two were not that great: Bagehot repeated that his aim was to maintain the Peel system even if it involved tweaking it here and there, while Hankey just wished to keep it intact. Unfortunately, the sound and the fury of the Bagehot-Hankey quarrel has long distracted attention from more serious and intense theoretical debates about money and banking in Britain from the 1840 to the 1857 parliamentary inquiries, in which Thomas Tooke played a crucial role. From the 1840 to the 1857 volumes of his History of Prices, Tooke together with John Stuart Mill and John Fullarton built a unified theoretical framework of money and banking. Extending the lender-of-last-resort analysis initiated by Thornton (Paper Credit in Britain, 1802), Tookes contributions to political economy carried classical central banking theory forward and plainly advocated the need for a lender of last resort. While the literature on the classical theory of lender of last resort focuses on Bagehots analysis and includes Hankeys response, the perspective needs to be widened to take in British monetary debates more generally. Just as the difference between Tooke and Bagehot in terms of theory is not commonly acknowledged, correlatively the action of the Bank of England during the 1825 crisis is also disregarded. The literature on financial history often refers to the 1866 crisis as a turning point in the history of central banking in Britain. Such an interpretation supports Bagehots assertion that the Bank acted in the best way during the 1866 panic, while Tooke had emphasized the significance of the Banks intervention during the 1825 panic. Even Bagehot himself acknowledged that the success of the Bank in resolving the 1825 panic was owing to its complete adoption of right principles. Not without contradiction, Bagehot added that the management of the 1825 crisis revealed the worst misconduct of the Bank. In fact, Bagehot did not lose sight of his main purpose, which was to show that the lender-of-last-resorts role was compatible with the Peel system and, in this respect, that the Banks conduct during the 1866 crisis had been exemplary. Lending freely against good collateral at a high rate was not a doctrine that Walter Bagehot could have discovered in 1873 after decades of obscurantism. The directors of the Bank of England witnessed at the 1832 parliamentary inquiry how the Old Lady applied the policy of lending liberally against acceptable collateral during the 1825 crisis. The practice of lending at a high rate appeared under the Peel system from the 1847 crisis onwards. So, what appears as particular to Bagehots Lombard Street is the justification of the rule of a very high rate. Bagehot did not suggest a penalty rate (a term he did not use) so as to counter moral hazard, but a very high rate in order to force banks to exhaust market sources of liquidity before presenting at the Banks discount window. Like Henry Thornton and John Fullarton, Thomas Tooke was aware of the moral hazard problem and recommended banking supervision. Moreover, he suggested that the Bank rate should be set above the market rate in normal times and not at a very high level in crisis times so as to lean against the wind. Actually, Bagehots dictum tended to accentuate the financial cycle (pro-cyclicality), while Tookes rule of Bank rate above/below the market rate in normal/crisis times contributed to smoothing the financial cycle (contra-cyclicality). For Bagehot, the Bank rate should be very high (that is, higher than the market rate) in order to incite banks to find liquidity first in the money market before asking for central bank liquidity, while Tooke advocated the moderate rate rule (that is, lower than the market rate) in order to mitigate the collapse of asset prices within financial markets, and to avoid a coordination problem within the market of funding liquidity. Furthermore, for Bagehot, the Bank should raise its rate at the beginning of the crisis in order to protect its metallic reserve, while Tooke advocated that the Bank should raise its rate only as a last resort inasmuch as the policy of fixed and above-the-market rate in normal times contributed to the building of large metallic reserves beforehand. All in all, the Bank policy under the Peel system and Bagehots rule was not the only option under the classical specie regime. The Bank of England implemented the fixed rate policy under the Old system as witnessed by the Bank director Horsley Palmer at the 1832 and 1848 parliamentary inquiries. At the same time, Thomas Tooke developed the classical central banking theory two decades before the publication of Lombard Street. Then, new generations of Bank directors and writers, including Thomson Hankey and Walter Bagehot, took the Bank policy under the Peel system for granted. Hankey wanted to maintain the letter and the spirit of the 1844 Act intact, while Bagehot wanted to resort to palliatives. There is a consensus in the literature to define financial instability as the increased volatility in equity and real-estate prices and to formulate the principle of leaning against the wind as the central bank policy aimed at reducing the amplitude of the financial cycle, to contain excessive credit growth and to limit the systemic risk of financial distress. Once such a consensus is considered, there are good grounds for thinking that the classical theory of central banking proposed by Thomas Tooke analyzed how to lean against the wind under the gold specie standard. He pointed to the necessity of coordinating monetary policy (that is, convertibility into gold specie) and financial stability policy (that is, the intervention of the lender of last resort) through the instrument of the Bank rate. This was what he called the system of union of central banking a system far different from the separation of the issue and banking departments that featured Lombard Street. (Natural News) A social media influencer hired by the White House has been caught trying to bribe hospital systems into procuring fake positive reviews about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines in order to encourage more uptake. Eben Vorster, a digital relational organizer at Main Street One, reportedly sent a private message to one institution offering a paid Instagram partnership for one post pushing Chinese Virus injections as the solution to the plandemic. I am reaching out to you to share a possible content partnership opportunity! the message announced. For this campaign, we are looking for healthcare professionals who would like to address the topic of vaccine hesitancy with their social media audience. We want to hear from you about what the COVID vaccine means to you and why youre tackling vaccine misinformation in this crucial vaccine rollout period. The message goes on to explain that once the targeted person or organization puts up the desired post, it will get rewarded for your using your voice! Since Wuhan Flu shot uptake is dismally low across the United States, the medical fascists are busying trying to conjure up new ways to trick people into getting jabbed. In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine introduced a vaccine lottery to award five lucky winners $1 million each in exchange for reprogramming their DNA with mRNA chemicals. China Joe and his cabinet are taking the tried-and-true influencer approach manipulating the medical system into pushing the injections in exchange for good ol cash. After all the recent firings of medical professionals for refusing to get vaccinated from the dangerous COVID-19 vaccine, it appears there is now a push to use communist style fake reviews to push the vaccine even further, reported Populist.press. If the vaccine was so great they wouldnt have to pay people to rave about it. This is a serious issue and shows how deceitful big pharma and the Biden admin are being. Wuhan Flu shots are so amazing that Americans must be bullied into taking them Main Street One, by the way, prides itself on helping to promote social justice causes that it claims are changing the world for the better. Included in the recent work section of its website are the following boastful posts: We Amplified Latinx Voices To Fight Climate Change We Helped Black Women Get Out the Vote in Georgia What A COVID-19 Vaccine Means To This New Mother Committed To Getting A COVID-19 Vaccine Main Street Ones three methods of accomplishing these and other goals include the following: Identify opportunities and risks emerging online Recruit creators and social influencers Persuade audiences via highly personalized content As you can see, this fits right into the White House goal of injecting a majority of Americans for Chinese Germs by the Fourth of July, formerly known as Independence Day. Since Americans are not taking the bait as planned, Beijing Biden is now planning to ship off some one billion doses of Chinese Virus injection to third world countries to see if poor people will more easily take them. Wuhan Flu shots sure have been a tough sell, which if we were really in the throes of a true pandemic would probably not require this type of aggressive marketing. Because the whole thing is a sham, however, the medical deep state is attempting every trick in the book to get those needles into peoples arms at warp speed. Anyone who refuses the vaccine does so on the basis of research, wrote one commenter at Populist.press. That kind of hesitancy based on science and plain facts is not going to be ameliorated by some paid shill trying to convince me otherwise. More related news about Chinese Virus injection gimmicks can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: Populist.press NaturalNews.com MSN.com (Natural News) America is not a monarchy and in fact, the United States was born out of rebellion to a monarchs rule. As such, America should not suffer the burden of, or entertain, political dynasties, and yet, we have had them throughout our history. The Rockefellers. The Roosevelts. The Kennedys. The Clintons. The Bushes. And each one of them have come with their own unique set of alluring, inimitable qualities. But they have also come with their skeletons, as is the case with the most recent of the political dynasties, the Bushes. By now, most informed people know that China is increasingly becoming a peer competitor to the U.S. And in fact, China doesnt just want to be our peer; China wants to be the leading global power. President Donald Trump not only understood the threat but he took it seriously: Trump battled Chinas expansion in the South China Sea, battled Chinas trade dominance, and battled against Chinas encroachment in American society. But even as he did that, there were factions working against him (and our country at large) who, you would think, would know better. Like the Bush family. Axios reports: A nonprofit affiliated with the late former President George H.W. Bush agreed to accept $5 million from a policy group at the center of Chinas U.S. influence efforts, Axios has learned. Why it matters: As tensions escalate between the U.S. and China, leaders with the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations have sounded off for closer ties and while criticizing Beijing in some cases, have toed Chinas line on some major geopolitical issues. Axios obtained a written agreement that spells out the details of a $5 million grant from the China-United States Exchange Foundation to the Bush China Foundation, established in 2017 with the former presidents blessing, the outlet continued. Now mind you, President George W. Bush had an early brush with the Chinese regime. Within a few months of taking office in 2001 (and just months before the 9/11 attacks), Bush was faced with the capture of an 11-person EP-3 Orion crew whose plane was forced to land on Hainan Island after it was brushed by a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese plane crashed after the pilot ejected and died at sea, but Beijing held onto our crew for nearly two weeks. And they got as much data from our spy plane as they could harvest. It became clear to him then that China was a rising threat and meant to overtake the United States at some point, militarily and economically. His intelligence agencies confirmed that throughout his eight years in office. They have confirmed it since he left office. So why, now, would an organization bearing his name and linked to his family take money from a Chinese state entity that is nothing more than a propaganda operation on behalf of the ChiCom regime? We are proud of our partnership with CUSEF and deeply appreciative of CUSEFs generous support, Bush China Foundation spokesperson Leslie Reagan confirmed to Axios, before claiming ridiculously that the CUSEF has no influence on Bush center policy (right; the $5 million was just pure generosity). (T)he Bush China Foundation has staked out a very strong independent posture on virtually all of the major issues in the U.S.-China relationship; in the process, we have frequently leveled sharp criticism of Chinese policies and actions when we believe that has been merited, she said. But wait isnt the Chinese entity just a megaphone for Beijings commies? Knowing CUSEF as we do, we do not buy into that narrative, she said. CUSEF has never sought to influence our editorial positions or encroach on our editorial independence. What a load of stinky stuff. It gets worse, though: The Bush political dynasty isnt going away anytime soon. There is a riser in Texas, a nephew to the former president George P. Bush. Sources include: FoxNews.com Axios.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The Bitcoin Law on Wednesday, June 9, garnered 62 of the possible 84 votes from El Salvador lawmakers, making the Central American country the first to adopt the volatile cryptocurrency as legal tender. Shortly after the vote, bitcoin jumped more than 13 percent to trade above $37,000 before settling lower at $36,435.96, according to CoinDesk data. The purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction, and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons require carrying out, the law reads. Earlier Wednesday, El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele sent the law to Congress for a vote. The 39-year-old politicians party holds a supermajority in El Salvadors Congress. It will bring financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development for our country, Bukele said before the vote. Prices can now be shown in bitcoin, tax contributions can be paid with the digital currency, and exchanges in bitcoin will not be subject to capital gains tax. This development also comes with financial risks to ordinary Salvadorans and El Salvador in general. The cryptocurrency gains and loses huge amounts of value in a flash and at times overnight. Bitcoin too volatile to be an effective currency Critics suggest that bitcoin is not suitable to be an effective currency because of its wild price swings. Its still unclear how El Salvador will ultimately roll out bitcoin as legal tender. (Related: The bitcoin bubble explained: Understanding the mathematics of the inevitable bitcoin crash.) The U.S. dollar is the countrys official currency and El Salvadors economy depends heavily on money sent back from abroad. The remittances to the country amounted to nearly $6 billion a year which is almost 20 percent of its gross domestic product in 2019. On Sunday, Bukele tweeted that a huge chunk of that $6 billion is lost to intermediaries who take a cut of the financial transactions in dollars. Bukele believes bitcoin could be the fastest growing way to transfer $6 billion a year in remittances. Bitcoin can be used as a legal tender when the law goes into effect 90 days after its passing. The bitcoin-dollar exchange rate will be set by the market. The law also states that the state will promote the necessary training and mechanisms so that the population can access bitcoin transactions. Approximately 70 percent of El Salvador do not have access to traditional financial services. Cryptocurrency is seen as a way to increase financial inclusion. Bukele submitted the law to Congress after he announced last week that El Salvador struck a partnership with digital wallet company Strike to build the countrys modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. Teslas Elon Musk makes bitcoins value swing wildly in recent months In April, bitcoin hit a record high of $64,829.14 but has since dropped by nearly half, according to CoinDesk data. It is still up over 230 percent over the last 12 months. That rise has been attributed to several factors, including rising interest from institutional investors and large companies such as Tesla and Square buying bitcoin. The price of bitcoin has nosedived after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company was suspending plans to accept the cryptocurrency as payment for electric vehicles. (Related: Top bitcoin exchange freezes, arbitrarily shuts down, proving you will not be able to get out of bitcoin when you want to.) Greg King, CEO and founder of Osprey Funds, a crypto asset management firm, told CBS News that having bitcoin as a legal tender is a big deal. I think its a major milestone for bitcoin and a very positive development, he said. It remains to be seen how much adoption will be taken up by their citizenry. But just qualitatively, what it does for bitcoin is further legitimize its status as a potential reserve asset for sovereign and super sovereign entities. Siobhan Morden, managing director and head of Latin America fixed income strategy at Amherst Pierpont Securities, told CBS News that its really early in the assessment of what the implications are for having bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador and how it will work. It was a very sudden announcement, she said. It was pushed through quite quickly. And so, it really raises concerns on how effectively this is going to be executed, and what the implications are for the country, especially in terms of its relations with its diplomatic relations and multilateral relations. Follow BitcoinCollapse.news to learn more about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Sources include: CNBC.com CBSNews.com (Natural News) Two of the most significant articles promoting the natural origins theory for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks origins originated from scientists who were part of a response team of experts brought in by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM) and coordinated by Dr. Anthony Fauci with the help of Peter Daszak. The articles were produced in response to a request from then-White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Kelvin Droegemeier. They were used extensively by media organizations to push the natural origins theory and deride alternative theories including the now resurgent lab leak theory as conspiracy theories. Articles were part of a coordinated effort to downplay the lab leak theory The two articles look to be part of a coordinated effort stemming from a Feb. 1, 2020 teleconference organized by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Fauci and British Wellcome Trust director Jeremey Farrar. This conference was reportedly put together to respond to public reporting of a potential connection between COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. Following the conference, the lab leak theory was actively downplayed by mainstream media, social media platforms, health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO). One of the articles, The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, published in the journal Nature on March 17, 2020, targeted the scientific community. This article was led by corresponding author Dr. Kristian Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute in California and along with four other researchers. Of the five scientists credited with the article, four had directly participated in the Fauci-Farrar teleconference. More interesting is the other article, which was published earlier on Feb. 19, 2020, and written as an open letter to the public. According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by U.S. Right to Know, EcoHealth President Daszak drafted the letter calling for solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China. It has since come out that EcoHealth has received $3.7 million in funding from the NIAID. Of this, at least $600,000 was funneled to the WIV for virus research. (Related: EcoHealth Alliance president thanked Fauci for downplaying lab leak hypothesis.) In his letter, Daszak noted that the sharing of data on the pandemic was being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin, states the letter signed by 27 scientists. Open letter was meant to cover up NIAID funding of WIV The recently released emails of Fauci, obtained by FOIA request, shed more light on the purpose of the meetings. They reveal that the teleconference was prompted by the publication of an article in Science that referenced a Nov. 9, 2015 article in Nature about gain of function experiments in viruses at the WIV that were funded by the NIAID. Fauci, alongside Daszak, was present at a later meeting with NASEM called by Droegemeier where the former made a 10-minute presentation. Other FOIAed emails show how much work was done to draw attention away from EcoHealths and the funding sent to WIV. In one email, Daszak tells Ralph Baric, a virologist who collaborated on gain of function experiments with WIV director She Zheng-Li, to refrain from signing his open letter. I also think this is a good decision, replied Baric, who was also the corresponding author of the 2015 Nature article. Otherwise it looks self-serving and we lose impact. In addition, Daszak sent an email to those privy to the early drafts of the letter that it would not include EcoHealths logo. Please note that this statement will not have EcoHealth Alliance logo on it and will not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person, the idea is to have this as a community supporting our colleagues, he wrote. In addition, an earlier email showed that Daszak was mulling not signing the statement so that it has some distance from us and therefore doesnt work in a counterproductive way. Well then put it out in a way that doesnt link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice, he added. Daszak eventually changed his mind, becoming one of the signatories to the letter. Follow Truth.news for more on the real origins of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com Nature.com 1 USRTK.org ScienceMag.org Nature.com 2 (Natural News) Public health authorities from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the British Wellcome Trust determined the origin of SARS-CoV-2 before any investigation could occur, before any evidence was brought forth. According to the Fauci email release, these public health officials were panicked about the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered and funded by them. Trying to control the narrative, these authorities scrambled into emergency meetings where they would go on to produce two internationally-recognized, highly influential documents of propaganda to quash the lab leak theory. From the onset of the covid-19 scandal, the natural origin theory was considered unwavering doctrine, and any other inquiry into the viruss origins was considered heresy. Media organizations and social media companies worked in unison to suppress the lab leak theory and censor any discussion of coronavirus gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan lab. Now, after Faucis emails were released, we have a much clearer picture of how and why this occurred. Fauci, Daszak, Andersen, Farrar and Zuckerberg organize propaganda campaign to control the narrative on SARS-CoV-2 The dominance of the natural origin theory can be traced back to an important teleconference that was organized by the director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the director of the British Wellcome Trust, Dr. Jeremy Farrar. The meeting was held on February 1, 2020. Based on Faucis private emails, we now know why the meeting was called to action. Just two days prior, Fauci was privately concerned about an article in Science that referenced an article in Nature about gain-of-function coronavirus experiments. The article pointed out that Faucis organization had funded experiments on chimeric viruses at the Wuhan lab. Two days after the Fauci-Farrar emergency teleconference, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Kelvin Droegemeier, asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM) to help determine the origins of 2019-nCoV. NASEM immediately brought in a group of hand-picked virology experts to quell any conspiracy theories on the origin of the pandemic. The meeting included officials from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, along with the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services. The meeting was used to affirm the natural origin theory and suppress public inquiry into the different possibilities behind the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The one-hour meeting included a presentation by Fauci and included the likes of Dr. Peter Daszak and Kristian Andersen, the men behind the propaganda on covids natural origins. These experts in virology crafted two articles that formed the basis for all future assumptions and propaganda on the matter. After the meeting, public health officials across Europe, the US, and the World Health Organization stopped discussing the lab leak theory. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even offered Dr. Fauci an exclusive platform to provide authoritative information on the origin of covid-19. This propaganda campaign permitted widespread censorship across Facebook covids origins and on others matters of health, liberty and human rights. This deal was also disclosed in the Fauci email release from March and early April of 2020. There was a coordinated propaganda campaign to coverup the lab leak The first piece of propaganda includes an open letter to the public, published in the Lancet on February 19, 2020. The author of the letter is Dr. Peter Daszak, President of the New York nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance. Daszak is a prominent gain-of-function coronavirus researcher who funneled Fauci-approved grants to the Wuhan lab. Daszak previously bragged how easy it is to engineer the spike protein of coronaviruses to make them more infectious and lethal. Instead of investigating his own coronavirus research back to the Wuhan lab, Daszak shut down any debate and called for unilateral solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin, the letter states. Twenty-seven scientists were coerced to sign the letter, or risk becoming socially ostracized in their career. Daszak threatened anyone who disagreed by labeling their inquisitions misinformation. The letter affirmed, transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins. In the emails, Daszak mulled his options, deciding on the best path to deceive the public. Before the letter went live, he considered not signing it so it has some distance from us and therefore doesnt work in a counterproductive way. Daszak wrote in the emails, Well then put it out in a way that doesnt link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice. Daszak also debated whether his colleague Ralph Baric, should sign the document. Baric is the virologist from the University of North Carolina who collaborated with Wuhan Institute of Virology director Shi Zheng-Li on gain-of-function experiments. In a Feb. 6, 2020 email, Daszak wrote that there was no need for you to sign the Statement Ralph!! to which Baric responded: I also think this is a good decision. Otherwise, it looks self-serving and we lose impact. The authors of the letter declared no competing interests and did not disclose their affiliations, but on further review, five signers were directly affiliated with Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance and five more worked for Jeremy Farrars Wellcome Trust. The second carefully-crafted piece of propaganda that deceived the world was published in Nature on March 17, 2020. The article was called, The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2. This article was authored by none other than Kristian Andersen and four other scientists who directly participated in the Fauci/Farrar teleconference on Feb. 1 (a revelation also obtained from a Feb 1, 2020 email from Farrar). The article threatened the scientific community to agree on the natural origin theory. Interestingly, the only author who wasnt at the Fauci-Farrar teleconference ultimately recanted his position. Strangely enough, it was Andersen who emailed Fauci before the February 1 teleconference, pointing to evidence that SARS-CoV-2 could have been engineered. One has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered, Andersen wrote to Fauci before the propaganda campaign was launched. The emails show that there was significant internal correspondence between the NASEM and the virology experts who drafted the propaganda on SARS-CoV-2 origins. The emails suggest there was a coordinated effort to manipulate the public on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 using deceptive planning, authoritative consensus, bullying and censorship. Read more analysis at The EpochTimes. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com TheLancet.com NaturalNews.com Nature.com (Natural News) The oblivious masses who arent tuned in to Brighteon.com are missing out on the best interviews and video content found anywhere on the planet. The platform features the very best cutting-edge video content on vaccines, covid-19, politics, prepping and more. This past week, I posted two bombshell interviews on my own channel (HRreport), featuring conversations with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and JR Nyquist. These interviews are absolutely packed with bombshell after bombshell, such as Bobby Kennedy stating that Anthony Fauci is the single greatest mass murderer in the history of our planet, or JR Nyquist warning that China has accelerated its plans to attack the United States in a matter of months instead of years. If you wish to stay up on current events and acquire critical information about whats coming, listen to these two interviews and also consider the Greg Caton interview from a previous week, also shown below. Monitor the HR Report channel on Brighteon for daily Situation Update podcasts as well as new interviews each week: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport Interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author of the new book, The Real Anthony Fauci Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Bobby) is the author of a groundbreaking new book called, The Real Anthony Fauci. Its available for preorder on Amazon at this link. Although we dont support Amazon, in this case pre-ordering the book is important because it helps push the book onto bestseller lists and earns it more attention that the media will find difficult to ignore. In addition to exposing the science fraud of Fauci, the book also takes a critical look at Bill Gates and his seemingly nefarious global vaccine / population reduction schemes. Watch the full interview here. The most powerful quotes are toward the end, so watch all the way through: Brighteon.com/1b295642-28f8-4af8-878b-0b4d28e469a7 JR Nyquist warns that China is accelerating its timetable to attack the United States via cyber war, biological war and eventually kinetic war This interview left me sleepless. JR Nyquist is a brilliant researcher with an extraordinary grasp of history. In this latest interview, he reveals that we are already in a war with communist China, and that Chinas military stance prefers the use of nuclear weapons as part of a first strike barrage on the USA (most likely targeting military installations). You can read his blog site at JRnyquist.blog Learn about Chinas stealth drones and total infiltration of the Pentagon, FBI and CIA in this mind-blowing (and frightening) interview that will undoubtedly have you accelerating your preparedness and survival plans. Brighteon.com/56efa647-c0a5-44fa-9808-c17199225c4a Greg Caton discusses China, Russia, Ukraine and World War III Another extraordinary individual youll want to check out is Greg Caton. This interview is from a couple of weeks ago, but people keep commenting that they were really impressed by the depth of Gregs knowledge and the content of his warnings for whats coming. Watching this interview explains why Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google have total bans on all videos from Brighteon.com: Because the truth isnt allowed on globalist-controlled platforms. If you want the truth, listen here: Brighteon.com/dce835c6-2871-4414-bd50-4482dec87299 Check Brighteon.com each day for amazing content from tens of thousands of active users who are uploading and posting their own videos. Join Brighteon (its free) and start posting your own videos. Many new features are coming soon (Natural News) A judge has ordered the reinstatement of a Virginia teacher previously fired for controversial statements he made. The 20th District Court of Virginia ruled that Loudoun County teacher Byron Tanner Cross should be restored to his position as a teacher and be permitted to set foot on school property once more. The decision followed Cross suing the countys school board after his unlawful termination for saying that he will not address students by their preferred pronouns. Judge James E. Plowman Jr. ruled in favor of Cross and granted an injunction sought by the teacher. The magistrate wrote in his June 8 decision that he sided with Cross as the latters rights to speech and religious freedom played a key role in the case. According to Plowman, Crosss remarks are counted as protected speech under the First Amendment because he spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern. Furthermore, the school board failed to prove that the teachers remarks caused any significant disruption to school operations. In his June 1 lawsuit, the Leesburg Elementary School physical education teacher argued that the Loudoun County School Board is penalizing him for exercising his First Amendment rights. Cross dubbed his suspension by the school board as an act of retaliation that adversely affected [his] constitutionally protected speech. Conservative nonprofit group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) aided Cross in his lawsuit with ADF attorney Tyson Langhofer representing the teacher in court. He later defended his stance at a June 4 rally: I went to [a] school board meeting and respectfully objected to two proposed policies. When I spoke, I was thinking about my values, my students, my parents and my fellow teachers. The truth is Im not alone. Many of us are concerned that [the] proposed policies would harm students and require us to violate our beliefs by saying things that are not true. ADF President and CEO Michael Farris lauded Plowmans June 8 decision. He remarked that many other teachers have shared their beliefs on various policies without retaliation and Cross deserved that same treatment. Nobody should be punished for expressing concern about a proposed government policy, especially when the government invites comment on [it], Farris said. Cross joins others pushing back against the transgender narrative in schools Crosss suspension stemmed from his disagreement with proposals for transgender students. The plans involved bringing transgender medical treatments into local Virginia schools. They also mandated teachers to use the chosen pronouns of transgender students regardless of their biological sex. During a school board meeting, the teacher said he would not call transgender students by their chosen pronouns. Cross cited his deeply held religious beliefs for his objection: Calling transgender students by their chosen pronouns was inconsistent with their biological sex, he said. He told the school board: Im a teacher, but I serve God first. I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because its against my religion. Its lying [and] abuse to a child, and its sinning against God. He added: I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences. The school board promptly suspended Cross and banned him from visiting school property after his comments. An attorney for the defendants said the Leesburg Elementary School principal had to terminate Cross due to fears of backlash from parents. They added that five parents already asked the principal to remove their children from Crosss classes in the span of 48 hours. The counsel for the school board also alleged that Crosss remarks disrupted and adversely affected the schools environment. Meanwhile, the school board refused to comment on its suspension of the teacher and the lawsuit he subsequently filed. However, it appeared that Cross is indeed not alone in opposing the school boards policies for transgender students. The Daily Mail reported that parents and other teachers stood by Cross in defending the First Amendment. Mother-of-three Rachel Pisani said: When I saw a teacher express an opinion and [get] suspended for expressing his religious beliefs, I could no longer stay silent. When did it become appropriate to silence those that hold Christian [and] biblical views just because you dont? Two educators also voiced out their opposition to Crosss suspension. Teacher Jeremy Wright echoed Pisanis remarks about free speech, having previously called the school board fascists. Here is your assignment with a copy of the First Amendment attached. Im going to leave this here and I hope you learn something, he remarked as he left a copy of the First Amendment on the podium. Monica Gill, another teacher, called the school boards suspension of Cross resembled totalitarianism. She said: First and foremost, I am a Christian. We live in truth, not lies. We look at character, not skin color. Gill warned the board: Know this: We will not yield. We will not let you have our souls or the souls of our children. Visit FirstAmendment.news to read more about the attacks on conservatives and Christians for simply disagreeing with transgenderism. Sources include: TheFederalist.com NBCWashington.com DailyMail.co.uk (Natural News) Eight individuals from the state of Maine have died after being fully vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). The Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (MeCDC) confirmed the eight fatalities which included people vaccinated while receiving end-of-life care. People who contract the Wuhan coronavirus 14 days after their final vaccine dose are counted as breakthrough cases. The Pine Tree State reported a total of 387 breakthrough COVID-19 infections as of June 4. A MeCDC spokesperson explained that the eight peoples deaths met the criteria to be COVID-19-related after fully vaccinated. However, they clarified that the eight died with COVID-19 and not of COVID-19. The eight Mainers joined the 535 vaccine breakthrough deaths out of more than 3,000 cases that required hospitalization recorded by the federal CDC. According to the federal public health agency, these breakthrough COVID-19 cases are expected and occur in only a small percentage of vaccinated people. Arthur Mitchell was among those eight Maine residents who died after contracting COVID-19 post-vaccination. His daughter Margaret Staggs told WGME 13 about her fathers passing. She said that Mitchell got his second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on March 8. [He] counted out his two weeks to be fully vaccinated [and] was very excited about that, Staggs added. Margaret continued that their entire family relaxed after a year of restrictions after everyone was fully vaccinated. However, her father tested positive for COVID-19 four weeks later alongside her and her husband. She remarked that they were one of those [people] that became [COVID-19] positive after their vaccination. We probably all took a deep breath and let our guard down a little bit, Staggs said. Mitchells oxygen levels dwindled, which called for him to be hospitalized. Despite being on a ventilator for four days, his condition did not improve. Hospital staff permitted Staggs to be by her fathers side to bid him farewell on May 6. It was really hard to realize that he was going to lose that battle, she said. Despite working as a nurse herself, Staggs acknowledged that the vaccines benefits are never 100 percent. She ultimately remarked: Just remember that not everybody is going to go back to the normal they knew before, because [the pandemic has] affected too many people. (Related: Alaska woman contracts COVID-19 again despite being vaccinated.) The vaccines themselves are much more dangerous than the disease they aim to prevent Mitchell received the Moderna vaccine before his untimely demise. The Boston-based drug companys COVID-19 vaccine is one of three candidates the Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use in the U.S. It is also one of two vaccines that use a messenger RNA (mRNA) vector the other being the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. However, a number of studies have elaborated on the dangers of these mRNA vaccines. Back in April 2021, Israeli researchers found that people who receive these vaccines have a higher risk of contracting coronavirus variants of concern. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Israeli healthcare provider Clalit Health Services examined COVID-19 test results from both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Israel used the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on the majority of its population, alongside a small percentage of Moderna doses. They found that Israelis fully vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were eight times more likely to catch the South African B1351 strain. Meanwhile, those who received at least one dose had a higher chance of catching the British B117 variant. The researchers noted that the prevalence of the British strain was no different in Israelis who got both doses of the vaccine. Lead researcher Dr. Adi Stern said: We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second [Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine] dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. Based on patterns in the general population, we would have expected just one case of the South African variant but we saw eight. She added that based on her teams findings, the B1351 strain can bypass vaccine-induced immunity to some extent. (Related: Covid-19 injections are spreading new variants of coronavirus.) A March 2021 study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers found that the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine diminishes when faced with the South African strain. They analyzed blood samples taken from vaccinated Israelis and how the samples held up to different coronavirus variants. They found that the vaccine produces high antibody levels against the original coronavirus strain and the B117 variant. However, it only moderately neutralized the B1351 variant. Lead researcher Dr. Ran Taube said: Our findings show the [Pfizer/BioNTech] vaccine is less effective against the South African strain, but the efficacy still exists. He and his colleagues noted that their studys findings call for a close attention of variant spread, and a [possibility] for new vaccine with improved neutralizing potency against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Follow VaccineDeaths.com to find out more news about deaths caused by breakthrough COVID-19 infections. Sources include: WGME.com FoxNews.com LifeSiteNews.com TimesOfIsrael.com (Natural News) So-called experts advising Big Tech are experiencing a crisis of credibility as the once-condemned laboratory leak theory rises in popularity. (Article by Alexander Hall republished from NewsBusters.org) Big Techs initiative that Americans must listen to the experts has sounded more ridiculous and ill-informed by the day. RedState Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar reported in a June 11 blog: The man who worked on coronaviruses with Wuhan Institute of Virologys Bat Woman Dr. Shi Zhengli as long ago as 2013, whose company gave WIV $800,000 in funding to study bat coronaviruses from 2014-2019, and who served as a Facebook COVID fact-checker, is bitterly clinging to the narrative that the pandemic originated at the wet market in Wuhan. The same article recounted how the aforementioned expert cited in fact-checking, EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, also reportedly spoke absurdities during a 60 Minutes interview: Daszak, incredibly, was a member of the [World Health Organization] mission, and believes that the group made a big discovery during their time in China the 1,000-mile pathway the virus took from bat caves in southern China to Wuhan. If that were true, why havent we heard about it before now? 60 Minutes summarized his claim that the pathway led not to the lab in Wuhan but from wildlife farms in southern China directly to the wet market in Wuhan, the Huanan Seafood Market. Fox News torched Daszak for his relation with one of Facebooks fact-checking partners and his refusal to humor the lab narrative: Daszak was also cited by Facebook fact-checking partner Science Feedback in a February 2020 post headlined, Scientific evidence indicates virus that causes COVID-19 infection is of natural origin, not the result of human engineering. The fact-check entry from Science Feedback did in fact cite Daszak by name in condemning the lab leak theory: Peter Daszak, epidemiologist and president of the EcoHealth Alliance who has collaborated with WIV researchers, warned during an interview with the journal Science: These rumors and conspiracy theories have real consequences, including threats of violence that have occurred to our colleagues in China. The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have appeared to be a referendum on trusting experts to set policy or decide who must be censored. The House Judiciary GOP verified account tweeted an open letter from Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-OH) and James Comer (R-KY) condemning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for coordinating with Dr. Anthony Fauci. In a damning indictment, the letter recounted: Facebook amplified sources like the World Health Organizationeven though such sources have proven to be conflicted and unreliable in the past. The World Health Organization misinformed nations around the globe that there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 as late as Jan. 14, 2020. Read more at: NewsBusters.org (Natural News) Nearly every death in America during the pandemic was blamed on Covid-19 in order to perpetuate the threat and the narrative. If you caught influenza and died from it Covid-19. If you caught Covid-19 and died from being suffocated by a ventilator, then you died from Covid, on paper. If you committed suicide by jumping off a tall building, then tested positive for Covid, then you died from Covid, and so the story goes. Now, millions of Americans are being conned and coerced into getting the blood-clotting China Flu jabs by being offered alcohol, donuts, lottery tickets, free seats at sporting events, and wait for it marijuana joints and cannabis edibles. Yet, weed used to be called the gateway drug by the US government and DEA, and it used to be illegal, classified as a highly dangerous, highly addictive schedule I drug, just like heroin, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, crystal meth and barbiturates. Now pot and cannabis are offered for free to smoke and eat while you get vaccinated with the most dangerous, deadly inoculation ever recorded in history the Covid-19 jab. So, the question looms: If you die from the vaccine, will it forever be recorded that you died from the joint and the cannabis edibles instead, since its so dangerous to engage in that schedule I drug? Joints for Jabs and Snaxx for Vaxx a plot to lure stoned Americans into getting a deadly vaccine that will never be blamed for tragedies Most potheads wouldnt jab a needle in their arm if you paid them. Pot is not a gateway drug and it never was. Yet, plenty of potheads like to trade stuff for weed, or barter goods and/or services for it. Thats where the CDC and insidious vaccine-promoting companies in Washington state come into play. With less than .04 chance of dying from Covid-19, and about 0.0 chance of healthy youngsters dying from it, the evil chemical medicine pushers must use cunning tactics to get these young adults to get the deadly jabs, and free weed is the perfect medicine for the con. Get high and die should be the slogan for this sinister plan, since the China Flu vaccines are proving deadly, as millions of people around the world are suffering (or dead) from blood clots in the brain, lungs and vital organs, caused by mRNA-protein-prion-producing inoculations. Its all about shifting the blame away from vaccines for all these deaths and critical injuries caused by blood clots Vaccines contain dangerous contaminants, including tissues from human abortions, viruses from other animals, mercury, and now they carry mRNA gene-instructing toxins that instruct the human body to uncontrollably create protein prions that clog blood flow to vital organs, including the brain and lungs. When your blood pressure skyrockets because of these clots and clogs, the heart gets overworked and becomes inflamed. If a person dies from a heart attack, stroke or neurological malfunctions, it will be rather easy for doctors to blame drugs, even marijuana and cannabis, since theyve been labeled schedule I drugs for decades (even though theyre not dangerous at all). Nobody has ever died from a marijuana or cannabis overdose. Still, the medical industrial complex in the USA controls the media, and the narrative always shifts the death and injury blame away from vaccines. Dont subject yourself to Vax-Clot Disorder just to get a little free weed. Its not worth it. We are in the middle of a massive campaign to shift the blame of this pandemic away from communist China (CCP), and away from the deadly vaccines, so that the insidious Biden Regime and the CCP can inject as many Americans as possible with the death jabs. Visit CovidVaccineReactions.com if you already got a toxic Covid jab and are experiencing side effects, blood clots, adverse events, blindness, deafness or dementia (then have your loved ones help you). Now tune your internet frequency to Pandemic.news for updates on these crimes against humanity being delivered under the guise of inoculation. Plus, learn how to best prepare for the upcoming vaccine-induced wipeout. Sources for this article include: Pandemic.news NaturalNews.com DEA.gov NaturalNews.com ZeroHedge.com (Natural News) Yale Law School is imploding. (Article republished from Revolver.news) What might be the single most prestigious academic institution in the United States is tearing itself apart in a manner befitting a Warsaw Pact country, with students spying on professors and on each other, politically-motivated inquisitions, and absurd demands for preferential treatment based on identity politics. The central figures of the meltdown are two married professors, Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld. On March 26, a group of students at Yale Law School approached the deans office with an unusual accusation: Amy Chua, one of the schools most popular but polarizing professors, had been hosting drunken dinner parties with students, and possibly federal judges, during the pandemic. Her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, also a law professor, is virtually persona non grata on campus, having been suspended from teaching for two years after an investigation into accusations that he had committed sexual misconduct. At the law school, the episode has exposed bitter divisions in a top-ranked institution struggling to adapt at a moment of roiling social change. Students regularly attack their professors, and one another, for their scholarship, professional choices and perceived political views. In a place awash in rumor and anonymous accusations, almost no one would speak on the record. [NY Times] Chua, whose classes are some of the most popular at Yale, has been stripped of the right to lead a small group (a collection of 10-15 first-year students that is a core part of the Yale Law experience). The school appears intent on driving her from the campus entirely. The details are intricate, sordid, and almost impossible to untangle at a distance. But whats very clear is that the attacks on Rubenfeld and Chua are not simply about their behavior. They are deeply intertwined with politics. While its easy to ridicule this as yet another episode in the decline of Americas elite Ivy League academies, the drama at Yale Law also reveals how much worse American meritocracy is about to become. Professors Chua and Rubenfeld are both liberals, but theyre also, one person told Revolver, the closest thing to a conservative presence at Yale Law. Chua became a national celebrity in 2011 with her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. In the book, Chua described her demanding parenting regimen for the couples two daughters. Some of Chuas other books, although written from a liberal perspective, have findings that contemporary nationalists might appreciate. World on Fire, published in 2003, warned that the drive to export free-market democracy around the world was fanning the flames of ethnic hatred. 2018s Political Tribes pointed out that the rise of Donald Trump was fueled by the decay of Americas ruling class into smug, judgmental elitists who despised the core population of the country. Chua was also the rare liberal defender of Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation battle her daughter even clerked for him. Professor Rubenfeld, meanwhile, is one of Americas top legal scholars, and in 2014 he attracted notoriety as the most vocal liberal critic of the affirmative consent movement that swept the nations college campuses. For those who have forgotten, affirmative consent is the insane standard that a person is guilty of sexual assault if they do not receive prior explicit approval for any amorous advance. Imposing affirmative consent nationwide was a major left-wing fad of the mid-2010s, and Rubenfeld capably exposed the silliness of this. Under this definition, a person who voluntarily gets undressed, gets into bed and has sex with someone, without clearly communicating either yes or no, can later say correctly that he or she was raped. This is not a law school hypothetical. The unambiguous consent standard requires this conclusion. Sexual assault may not be perfectly defined even in the law, but that term has always implied involuntary sexual activity. The redefinition of consent changes that. It encourages people to think of themselves as sexual assault victims when there was no assault. [Rubenfeld, NYT] More recently, he has fought tech censorship by representing an anti-vaccination group in its lawsuit against Facebook. In other words, despite being liberals, the couple have piled up more than enough sins against the liberal religion to attract an army of enemies. And now, the two seem on the brink of being driven from Yale altogether. Rubenfeld has been suspended two years for alleged sexual harassment, though the actual allegations against him are remarkably mild (claims of attempted kisses and questions about students personal lives figure prominently). Professor Chua, meanwhile, is being targeted for hosting a handful of students at her home, which: 1. may have violated Yales strict coronavirus protocols (oh no!), 2. may have broken her own agreement in 2019 to not socialize with students outside the classroom, and most importantly, 3. infuriated several brittle students, who suggested that an adult meeting with another adult constituted grooming. The whirlwind of jealousy and mental illness at the center of the Yale debacle is well illustrated by the text message dossier, a 20-page document compiled by a jealous Yale student and submitted to administrators as proof of Chuas sinister wrongdoing. The texts show a Yale student peppering his classmates with questions about private visits to the Chuas home, visits that in any sane society would be completely normal. Its impossible to read the document and not feel disturbed. There is a person who wakes up, eats, sleeps, and studies law at Americas most elite school who took hours to edit and compile this work of malicious gossip to take out a professor, and perhaps some students, that he or she didnt like. Revolver spoke with several current students at Yale Law School and others familiar with the events in the case. In a telling sign of the totalitarian vibe overtaking the nations elite institutions, none of them were willing to comment publicly. In fact, all of them seemed terrified at the prospect of being found out. Whatever the truth of whats happening there, one thing is clear: The actual behavior of the professors is only a tiny part of the story. This is just one episode in a long-running campaign to fully transform Yale Law School from a bastion of old American academia and culture to a post-merit facility for funneling money and prestige to the future commissars of the Globalist American Empire. The whole corona violation thing is a total pretense, one current student told Revolver. He said politics, of both the university and national variety, are almost certainly the real driving force of the drama. Another person close to the situation told Revolver that pressure against both Chua and Rubenfeld had been building for the better part of a decade, as their crimes against Americas new ruling ideology have accumulated. In 2014, more than 75 Yale law students (out of a student population of less than 700) signed a petition attacking Rubenfeld for his affirmative consent criticism. And in 2018, within weeks of Kavanaughs confirmation, both Chua and her husband came under investigation, and theyve been under siege ever since. Rubenfeld was suspended, while Chua had to apologize for inappropriate remarks (made, in private, to other adults) and agree to curb her socializing with students. The events of 2021 are, in some ways, just the culmination of a years-long offensive within the academic bureaucracy. None of the people Revolver spoke with could explicitly debunk allegations of misconduct against Rubenfeld and Chua. However, some of them pointed out relevant facts that the press has been disinclined to report. Chua, for instance, remains a very attractive woman into her 50s, while some of the students who have levied harassment allegations against her husband are, according to one person close to the matter, morbidly obese. True, feminist activists can lecture ad infinitum that harassment is about power and a cad with a pretty wife will still target ugly women. Those with common sense, though, recognize that outer and inner ugliness are substantial barriers to harassment, and substantial spurs to unjust allegations. Furthermore, rage over Rubenfelds scholarly efforts critiquing affirmative consent are the exact sort of provocation that would inspire shrill and hysterical allegations of misconduct. According to Stephen, a current Yale Law student Revolver spoke with (Stephen is a pseudonym), the real drama with Chua is rooted in the basic nature of Yale Law School. Yale is, indisputably, the most prestigious law school in the United States. Its students have the highest LSAT scores and the highest undergraduate GPAs. Admission to Yale Law School is a capstone to nearly 20 years of academic competition and striving. But Yale has also positioned itself as the school where the rat race ends. While grading in most law schools is hyper-competitive, at Yale standard grades have been abolished altogether. There are no class ranks and no Latin honors. For students who simply see Yale as a ticket into a lucrative corporate law job, the system works fine. But for fiercely competitive students (and it is hard to get into Yale without being deeply competitive), theres a problem. The most prestigious job for any young lawyer to get is a Supreme Court clerkship. These clerkships offer a quick path into legal academia or a plum job at a top firm with a six-figure signing bonus. Supreme Court clerks are often on the fast-track to becoming judges themselves; six of the nine justices on the Court right now once clerked for it. Securing a Supreme Court clerkship, in turn, typically requires landing a preliminary clerkship with a federal feeder judge. For instance, when he was a judge on the D.C. Circuit court of appeals, Brett Kavanaugh was a top feeder judge for clerks. In fact, every single other justice on the Court today has employed clerks who previously worked for Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit. So, how does one get these feeder clerkships? At most schools, the process is relatively straightforward: Be at the absolute top of ones law school class. But at Yale, there are no class rankings, and objectively measuring student achievement is difficult. Instead, the process is dominated by a small handful of professors whose recommendations carry enormous weight. According to Stephen, Chua is a target for liberal activists in part because she is the least meritocratic figure in this informal economy for getting clerkships. Most of Yales top professors make their clerkship recommendations a de facto prize for the most impressive students in their classes. Chua, on the other hand, represents an alternative. Chuas sponsorship does not depend on being the most academically brilliant. Instead, Chua is willing to help those with a good narratives or high emotional intelligence play Moneyball with the clerkship process. She rewards those with charisma and drive, or those she simply takes a special liking to. In the past, this made her a favorite of many identity groups on campus, as she was one of the best ways for an affirmative action-admit at the school to ascend even higher, despite otherwise being a relative mediocrity. Chua is good at recognizing that judges are sensitive to victim narratives, Stephen said. [But she wants] the person who can marry the victimhood narrative with discipline Shes not helping the student who wants to burn it all down. But as progressive wokeism has accelerated, he said, Chua has been left behind. Chuas sin is not that she is playing favorites, Stephen said. Its that she is doing it in a way that cuts against the hierarchy they see. To the extent Yales meritocracy is breaking down, he said, the cabal targeting Chua wants prizes to go to the lazier, the dumber, the most activist, the most unhinged. Chua has made herself the enemy by not giving herself over wholly to a political agenda. The heretic is much worse than the pagan, Stephen said. They may be using the language of meritocracy, but they want to go further in the other direction and have people just give them things based on their identity. According to Stephen, the long-term fix to Yales crisis would be for the school to adopt the same meritocratic practices that exist at other universities: Class ranks, real grades, and Latin honors. With a more explicit meritocracy in place, there would be no need for the informal racket of professorial recommendations which has caused so much drama. But Stephen said this solution would never happen, for obvious political reasons. Itll end with more people like Chua, but just picking based on what this ruling class likes, he said. [The activists] want professors to reward people who come in and spend all their time on prison advocacy, building social media profiles, doing emotional labor, whatever. Stephen added that while Yales older professors, no matter how liberal, were firm supporters of merit, new professors were already signaling a greater openness to politically-motivated recommendations. This politicized economy of status is on the way not just because the most activist wing of students are demanding it, but because Yale dean Heather Gerken is happy to supply it. Gerken is a huge liberal ideologue, another student said. She wants to be politically relevant. Shes very careful to have all the right opinions. She sends cloying emails about every remotely relevant social justice current event. The student pointed out that Gerken had sent no emails about Aruna Khilananis recent lecture at Yale, in which she fantasized about shooting white people in the head. Gerken, meanwhile, has sent many emails about police shootings of black men that have nothing to do with Yale or New Haven. This even speculated that she might be trying to transform the school into a more explicitly woke institution in a Hail Mary bid to get a Supreme Court nomination from Joe Biden if he manages to get two such nominations (his first has, naturally, been promised to a black woman). Prior to Dinner Partygate, Yale was already ravaged by another controversy rooted in the tension between its elite status and its use of affirmative action to balance out its classes. In February, the Yale Law Journal was hit with allegations it was (surprise, surprise) racist against black applicants. As the Washington Free Beacon noted at the time, the opposite was in fact true, and black applicants to the journal benefited from substantial affirmative action: The activists made no concrete demands about numeric representation but alleged inequities in Journal admissions. Meeting with affinity groups to present platitudes about valuing diversity in the admissions process is insufficient, the Black Law Students Association said. The Journal must commit to fundamental changes to its governance structure, admissions policy, submission plan, and slating that will ensure this perpetuation of racism does not ever happen again. The numbers tell a different story, however. Not only are blacks and Hispanics elected for membership to the top law schools most prestigious journal at a higher rate than their white counterparts, but the admissions rate for blacks61 percentis higher than that of any other ethnic group. Blacks comprise 16 percent of Journal admits, and Latinos 14 percenteven though they make up just 7 percent and 11 percent percent of the student body, respectively. Increasing the share of these groups on the Journal would make it less representative of Yale Law School than it currently is. [Washington Free Beacon] The panic attack at Yale is decades in the making. Half a century ago, California judge and Yale alum Macklin Fleming warned what would eventually occur if universities diluted meritocratic standards to favor underprivileged groups. No one can be expected to accept an inferior status willingly. The black students, unable to compete on even terms in the study of law, inevitably will seek other means to achieve recognition and self-expression. This is likely to take two forms. First, agitation to change the environment from one in which they are unable to compete to one in which they can. Demands will be made for elimination of competition, reduction in standards of performance, adoption of courses of study which do not require intensive legal analysis, and recognition for academic credit of sociological activities which have only an indirect relationship to legal training. Second, it seems probable that this group will seek personal satisfaction and public recognition by aggressive conduct, which, although ostensibly directed at external injustices and problems, will in fact be primarily motivated by the psychological needs of the members of the group to overcome feelings of inferiority caused by lack of success in their studies. Since the common denominator of the group of students with lower qualifications is one of race this aggressive expression will undoubtedly take the form of racial demands. [National Affairs] Dean Gerken herself represents the decline of Yale. Her predecessors as dean of Yale Law include Guido Calabresi, who co-founded the field of law and economics, and Robert Maynard Hutchins, who became dean at just 28 years old before becoming one of the foremost educational philosophers of the 20th century. Gerken, on the other hand, is notable for, well, writing nine vampire romance novels for her daughter to read. What to make of all this? The campaign to take down Chua shows the nature of the decay of meritocracy in America. One hundred percent pure test-based meritocracy isnt always the best system. Sometimes, its worth having backdoors for unconventionally qualified people to reach opportunities. Amy Chua, in her way, tried to create these opportunities. If her mentee J.D. Vance becomes the America First statesman he has shown the potential to become, it will be a victory for her methods. But in the modern Globalist American Empire, bucking meritocracy is only acceptable when one is going fully woke. For the activist cabal, its not enough that they can make it all the way to the countrys #1 law school by being reasonably bright and then getting preferential treatment. They want the entire system to be politicized. They want the absolute best legal jobs in the country the Supreme Court clerkships, the professorships, the judicial nominations to be handed out purely for identity reasons. To get that reality, they will destroy anybody in their path, even distinguished and genuinely liberal professors. They wont be happy until a flawed merit-based system has been completely overthrown for a system built entirely on privilege the privilege of membership in the right race or the right post-modern sexual minority. In late 2020, Revolver profiled the sad decline of the Rhodes Scholarship. Once the supreme marker of undergraduate achievement in the United States, woke politics have transformed the Rhodes Scholarship into just another zombie organization handing out lifetime achievement awards for left-wing activism. Instead of rewarding people showing a talent for literature, or science, or statesmanship, the Rhodes Trust has been handing out scholarships to non-binary anti-imperialist Inuit poets, illegal immigrants, and the founders of gratuitous diversity, inclusion, equity groups on already-left-wing campuses. These assorted activists and freak shows are then presented to the public as the summit of American academic achievement. But the root of the shift, we explained, wasnt simply in changing elite values, but structural changes to the scholarship process: In the past, 50 separate state committees chose finalists, after which eight regional committees selected four scholarship winners apiece. Now, the process is only single-step, with 16 regional committees picking two winners, with no state finalist phase. The Scholar noted that under the old system even if a committee wanted to choose an under-qualified candidate for the sake of diversity, they tended to only make one such pick among the four winners. Under the new system, with 16 regional committees, there is still a tendency to make at least one diverse pick, but now such winners comprise half of all selections rather than just one fourth. The new selection process encourages left-wing activism over real achievement in another way, the Scholar said. The old system involved up to 500 people, mostly older Rhodes Scholars, interviewing across the two levels, she said. Now the system involves perhaps 100 or 120 people, so its much easier to stack the entire process completely with liberals. And thats definitely what the US Secretary who runs it wants to do. READ THE REST: Rhodes Scholarship Becomes Laughingstock After Embracing the Lefts Woke Culture While the Rhodes Trust has gone rotten faster than Yale Law, the same forces are in play. A hyperprogressive organizational leader is teaming up with highly motivated low-level operatives to change a once-great institution into a vehicle for politics. With Rhodes, the organization has already become a complete joke unworthy of respect. Yale isnt quite there yet. But it is closer to collapse than it first appears. And as Yale goes, so goes every other institution in the country. Read more at: Revolver.news Newburyport, MA (01950) Today Rain. Low 61F. E winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.. Tonight Rain. Low 61F. E winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. By ANI BENGALURU: HSIS Gosha Government Hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka successfully completed 300 deliveries of COVID-19 positive pregnant women, informed hospital's Director Dr Tulasidevi on Sunday. "We got an order from the state government to start an exclusive maternity COVID-19 centre on March 27 this year. Since then, we have admitted 564 cases of coronavirus. We have successfully completed 300 deliveries till today. From these, normal deliveries conducted are 141 while cesarean sections are 159. As many as seven babies tested positive for the virus from these 300 deliveries," said Dr Tulasidevi. She further said, "Total maternal deaths reported by the hospital are 28. Six abortions have also been conducted at the hospital. In order to prevent the transmission of the infection from the mother to the babies, we have provided precautionary measures to the mothers which include face mask, and hand sanitizers and given instructions to the mother to wash her hands, with soap and water and sanitise the hands before feeding the baby. I am very proud about the achievement of the hospital." Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar lauded the efforts of all the doctors, nurses and staff of the hospital. Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "HSIS Gosha Government Hospital in Bengaluru has achieved a remarkable milestone on June 12. It successfully carried out 300th delivery among Covid positive pregnant women! Kudos to all the doctors, nurses and staff of the hospital." Meanwhile, in an effort to curb COVID-19 in Karnataka, the state government weekend curfew has been imposed from 7 pm on June 18 to 5 am on June 21. As per the order, night curfew would be in force on each night on remaining days between 7 pm to 5 am during the aforementioned period. According to the Union Health Ministry, Karnataka has 1,91,817 active cases of Covid-19. By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation has released a Covid-19 handbook with answers for frequently asked questions. The handbook has answers for when someone must get tested for Covid-19, what are the symptoms, where to get tested, and home isolation rules. It also has details on helpline numbers 044-2538 4520, 044,46122300, 108 and 104. People can also reach out to the Corporation in WhatsApp at 9499933644. View and download the full handbook below in Tamil and English: OMJASVIN M D By Express News Service CHENNAI: With Chennai recording fewer than a thousand daily Covid positive cases as of June 12, the fresh cases are on a rapid decline in the city. According to the data shared by the Chennai Corporation, the city recorded a negative case growth of 7.6 percent in a seven-day block from June 7 to 13. All the 15 Corporation zones are recording a case growth in negative as well. This means the number of people getting discharged daily is higher when compared to the fresh cases. The daily cases too are lower than the previous days. Here's the Info Graphic summary and Overall zone-wise status of Covid-19 cases and zone-wise growth rate of new cases in Chennai.#Covid19Chennai #GCC #Chennai #ChennaiCorporation pic.twitter.com/H5xkY9rdAB Greater Chennai Corporation (@chennaicorp) June 13, 2021 The active cases in the city are now at 2 percent with 9,839 active cases while 97 percent of the people have been discharged. Chennai Corporation officials said that the vaccination drive is picking up and camps are being held in hotspots. We have vaccinated 10,332 people in Koyambedu and close to 3,000 people in Kasimedu and Chintadripet. Higher priority is given to the hotspot areas, said a corporation official. Meanwhile, the citys test positivity rate is at 3.27 percent, indicating that the spread has been efficiently contained. SV Krishna Chaitanya By Express News Service CHENNAI: The three samples that were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad for genome sequencing of the coronavirus strain that infected Asiatic lions in Arignar Anna Zoological Park, have allegedly been found leaking and contaminated. Sources told Express that all samples were leaking, and despite best efforts by CCMB scientists, they could not be used. As per the CCMB protocol, such samples are not considered for diagnosis, a source said. A formal communication in this regard was sent by the CCMB to the Vandalur Zoo on Friday. When contacted, Dr Karthikeyan Vasudevan, scientist-in-charge of CCMB, neither confirmed nor denied the development. We have a non-disclosure agreement with the users. So, I cant reveal anything. The report has been sent to Vandalur Zoo. Express couldnt verify whether the zoo authorities secured a reserve sample of deceased lioness Neela, to resend it for genome sequencing. If not, a crucial piece of genetic material would be lost forever, considering Neela was the first big cat to have died of Covid-19 in India with no apparent health complications and symptoms. It may be too late now to collect samples from lions again It is not clear how the samples leaked when there are standard techniques and protocols for collection and transport. Florida Tilton, CMD of Chennai-based Biozone Research Technologies Pvt Ltd, told Express genome sequencing is the most important thing during a pandemic such as this. It will give us a deep understanding of the strain that infected the lions. We will know whether it is similar to the one infecting humans, how different it is from the strains that infected big cats in other zoos across the country, whether it is mutating, its behaviour in terms of how fast it spreads, the kind of symptoms and the intensity of the disease it causes. All this information is crucial for future diagnosis and treatment. It can be known only through genome sequencing, said Florida. Even if Vandalur Zoo chooses to resend the samples, collecting them afresh from the lions that are recovering from Covid, it may be too late. A scientist from Bengaluru-based National Centre for Biological Sciences told Express the virus has a life cycle. In humans, the coronavirus life cycle is 14 days. We do not know what the virus life cycle is in lions. For genome sequencing, the researchers require a sample containing the live virus for them to break open its cells and isolate the genetic material. If the sample is collected after the life cycle, genome sequencing is not possible. On June 3, the zoo reported that nine of its lions had tested positive for Covid-19, of which one young lioness, Neela, succumbed to the disease. All the samples were collected between May 24 and 28. On Saturday, Vandalur Zoo issued a press release on the health of the lions. It said two, including the deceased Neela, had tested positive. A total of seven samples (four tigers and three lions) were sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bareilly on June 4 and the results were communicated to the zoo on June 9. If there is a new lion that has tested positive apart from the previous nine, then we would have a good sample to send for genome sequencing, said sources. Zoo director Debasis Jana did not responded to queries from Express. ALSO SEE: Binita Jaiswal By Express News Service CHENNAI: Rehabilitating and ensuring a healthy and secure life for the children orphaned by Covid-19 will be an uphill battle for the authorities if necessary measures are not taken immediately. Though the State and Central governments have announced monetary relief for such children, is it enough to cushion the impact of the pandemic on their lives? Experts dont think so. According to child-rights activists, these orphans are highly vulnerable to child marriage and trafficking. They also require psychological support as they are traumatised by the loss of their parents. This is why rehabilitating them in a safe environment with family members or in child-care institutions and frequent monitoring of their well-being assumes significance. But schemes should not remain on paper, but be implemented in letter and spirit, experts opine. Tracking Covid orphans Due to the underreporting of Covid deaths, especially in rural areas, there is a high possibility for such children to go unnoticed by the authorities. Child-rights activists say that it is important to devise an effective tracking system to identify children orphaned by Covid so the benefits of government schemes reach them in time. A Devaneyan, a child-rights activist, says orphaned children are not in a position to visit government departments, fill up forms, apply and submit documents to obtain the benefits of the schemes announced for them. This where child-protection officers should prove their mettle. They play a major role in identifying Covid orphans at the grassroot level and provide data to the State and Central governments. In Tamil Nadu, however, the post of District Child Protection Officers (DCPO) in 50 per cent of the districts is handled by contractual workers, which will definitely affect their work efficiency, said Devaneyan. V Ramaraj, member of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), feels there is an urgent need to strengthen child-protection committees at all levels (village, panchayat, municipality, and corporation) and provide them with legal backing to ensure effective implementation of welfare schemes and to check crimes committed against children. Child-protection committees at the village level are formed on the basis of a Government Order (GO) and these committees exist only on paper. In order to fix accountability and guarantee their efficient functioning we need to grant them legal status, said Ramaraj. Counselling needed Dr Lakshmi Vijaykumar, a psychiatrist, said that the authorities should take measures to help Covid orphans to overcome the trauma and insecurity caused by the loss of their parents. If they are not counseled properly and provided guidance, the trauma might develop into mental health issues. Focus on kinship care Andrew Sesuraj, State convenor of the Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch, said the authorities should rehabilitate Covid orphans in kinship care. Institutional care is not conducive for children as it affects their physical growth, emotional health, and cognitive development. Efforts should be made to restore the children to any kind of kinship care, be it with their grandparents or extended families, said Sesuraj. Checking illegal adoption The authorities should also prevent illegal adoption of these orphans. Those who know about such families where children have been orphaned must contact 1098 or the local police and relay the information. Adoption in India is allowed only under CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) rules. Regular monitoring of the rehabilitated children is equally crucial. Child Welfare Committees should continue to assess the well-being of the children on a regular basis to ensure they are not being ill-treated by their relatives or at child-care institutions. Another important aspect is to guarantee that the allocated monetary relief under the welfare schemes reaches the children on a monthly basis. We have noticed children suffering when the financial relief awarded to them under different welfare schemes is delayed, said Sesuraj. How will they claim their due? Child protection officers will have to step in. And for this, there is an urgent need to strengthen child-protection committees at all levels and provide them with legal backing, say experts. Orphaned by Covid and struggling to make sense of a topsy-turvy world, these kids have little hope. Theyre highly vulnerable, and will need more than promises of financial aid. Heres what experts have to say By PTI NEW DELHI: Apollo Hospitals and Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital in Delhi will start administering Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V to people by the end of this week, officials said on Sunday. The Centre has fixed the price of the vaccine at Rs 1,145 per dose. "Apollo Hospitals are going to roll out the vaccine for the general public in Delhi by the end of the week," an official said. An official of Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital also said it will start administering Sputnik V jabs within this week. After Covishield and Covaxin, Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be approved by the government for use in India. The maximum price of Covishield for private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) has been fixed at Rs 780 per dose, while that of Covaxin is Rs 1,410 per dose. Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the marketing partner for the vaccine in the country, has been importing the shots from Russia. Over a period of time, the vaccine is also going to be manufactured in India. ALSO WATCH: By Express News Service KOCHI: The city police have initiated another inquiry to track down two acquaintances of Martin Joseph, who was detained in connection with the rape and torture of a 27-year-old fashion designer from Kannur at a luxury flat here. Printo, 40, and Kannan, 28, are the two, who had helped Martin evade police and go underground in Thrissur According to the police, both are neighbours of Martin and long-time friends. We have already started tracking them. Based on the information that we gathered, both are hiding in Mundur itself. We have also sought the help of Thrissur City police to track them down, said an officer with the Kochi City police. According to the information gathered by the police, Printo knows all the financial transactions and the alleged drug dealings of Martin Joseph. He is not only involved in the share trading business, but other illegal businesses. He transacts all his business through friends. We are hopeful of tracking them down at the earliest, said the officer. Earlier, the police arrested three persons -- Thrissur natives, Dhanesh, 29, Sreerag, 27, and John Joy, 28 -- who allowed Martin to constantly shuttle between Thrissur and Kochi to escape the police net. The two absconding persons and the three arrested have strong ties. We need to probe more to get further information on their connections. Since Martin and one of his friends are accused in a drug case, these people have some connection with the drug business. A normal person cant lead such a luxurious life in Kochi, police added. Meanwhile, the police will approach the district court on Monday to get custody of Martin Joseph. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: UDF convenor MM Hassan has rallied behind Lakshadweep actor-model Aisha Sultana where a sedition case was filed against her by a BJP leader for bio-weapon remark, that she spread false news about the spread of Covid-19 in the island during a television debate. Hassan said that, when Lakshadweep had been witnessing widespread protest against administrator Praful Khoda Patels Covid handling, Aisha Sultanas dissent voice was exceptional. The Kavaratti police had lodged an FIR against Chetiath island native, Aisha Sultana, where a case under Sections 124 A (sedition) and 153 B (hate speech) of the Indian Penal Code had been registered against her. Hassan informed that the case will not stand as legal experts have termed it as a false case. Rendering solidarity and moral support behind Aisha Sultana, Hassan informed that he is keen to extend legal help to the actor-model. By IANS NEW DELHI: Akhil Bhartiya Kshatriya Mahasabha has objected to the name of the movie "Prithviraj" and termed it an insult to the great ruler. Shantanu Chauhan, youth wing head of the organization, said, "The insult of the great brave warrior Emperor Prithviraj Chauhan ji, who protected the nation and Hinduism, is an insult to every citizen of India. The title of Yash Raj produced film 'Prithviraj' directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi is an insult to the great Hindu emperor. It is condemnable and insulting to not address such a great warrior and a brave son of India by his full name." Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha has demanded Change in the title of the film immediately and the script should be approved by senior representatives of the Kshatriya Samaj & screening of the film must also be done before the release while objectionable and distorted facts must be removed. Filmmaker Chandraprakash Dwivedi, best known for his TV series "Chanakya", is making the historical film "Prithviraj" that stars Akshay Kumar in the titular role. Dwivedi says he has based his film's storyline on the epic poem "Prithviraj Raso". "Prithviraj is also based mainly on medieval literature, an epic called 'Prithviraj Raso' by the great poet Chand Bardai. Apart from couple of versions of 'Raso', there are many other literary works on Prithviraj, his life and times. In addition to these, there are commentaries on 'Raso'," Dwivedi said. "Prithviraj" is based on the life of the fearless and mighty King Prithviraj Chauhan. Akshay essays the warrior king who fought valiantly against Muhammad Ghori. Former beauty queen Manushi Chhillar plays Sanyogita. Vaishali Vijaykumar By Express News Service CHENNAI: Lifes most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others, said Martin Luther King. While a similar question lingers in most of our minds, its what we do about it that truly counts. The pandemic, it seems, has presented an opportunity for many community workers to walk the talk. Demonstrating their exceptional generosity of time, energy and solidarity, volunteers across the city have been responding to calls for help. Following all hygiene protocols, these good Samaritans have mobilised the community to turn their attention to the less-privileged and make a civic connection through food, medical supplies and other essentials. After all, it takes a village to build a better planet, doesnt it? Here are a few from the village of crusaders. G Clement, founder and trustee, Anbin Pathai Trust Its been a decade since G Clement and his team started working with underprivileged people and children. The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified their work for a larger social cause. With a team of over 100 volunteers, they have been distributing free meals to the homeless in Santhome, Mylapore and Kodambakkam. They have also been rescuing the homeless, who are injured and arranging for their treatment. To volunteer or donate, call: 9941642120 Paul Pradeep, founder, Trash Troopers Run by Paul Pradeep, Trash Troopers is a waste management company. But, since the lockdown, the team of 15-20 volunteers has been distributing free homecooked food to conservancy workers, migrant labourers and the homeless. From 60 packets a day, they now distribute 1,000 food packets. They have also supplied dry ration kits to 80 transgenders. To help, call: 9841166554 Manikandan, auto driver An auto driver by day and social worker by night, Manikandan has been raising funds to provide food to migrant labourers and pavement dwellers. Volunteering with the Greater Chennai Corporation, he has been involved in the relief work in areas such as Kannagi Nagar, Thoraipakkam, Perumbakkam and Karapakkam. His team offers food to the abandoned and the elderly. They also prepare and provide meals to homeless people in these localities. To volunteer or contribute, call: 7358687525 D Arul Raj, founder, Karunai Ullangal Trust Arul Raj, along with a few community service-oriented friends, has been rescuing homeless people for over five years now. During the pandemic, they have been arranging groceries and ferrying people to hospitals for free. With the spike in the number of deaths during the second wave, they have extended their service by offering dignified burial for those who cannot afford it. To volunteer or contribute, call: 9841776685 or 7010882991 Gayathri, founder, Samarpana Samarpana, a not-for-profit organisation, is raising funds to procure 420 oxygen cylinders with 420 regulators and trolleys, 240 oxygen concentrators, 120 high flow meters, 500 NRBC and oxygen masks. They have been able to help the families of 2,500 folk artistes, provide assistance to 100 underprivileged families and ensure good quality education for 30 children with health complications. To contribute or volunteer, call: 9884458008 Grace Banu, trans activist Along with like-minded members from her community, Grace Banu has been raising funds to support 500 transgenders across rural areas of Tamil Nadu with emergency ration supplies, home rent and medical support. This includes trans folk artistes and HIV-infected trans persons who are left with neither food nor wages in these difficult times. To help, call: 7708789616 AHAARA - Fight Hunger AHAARA - Fight Hunger was started by actors Ramya Krishna and Arjun Gowda. Krishna is now distributing grocery kits for people around Chennai. AHAARA operates in all areas of Chennai with the help of three volunteers. People in need can contact them by phone and expect their grocery kit by the following day. To donate or volunteer (only if you have taken the first shot of vaccination), call: 9036724154 Allen Samuel, founder, Help on Hunger It all began when Allen Samuel witnessed homeless people thronging his lane and knocking on doors for food. Digging into their own pockets to pool funds, Allen and his wife offered home-cooked food. What started as 20 packets a day increased to 10 and more. To cater to the surplus demand, Help on Hunger came into being with six good Samaritans. Catering to the underprivileged and homeless people from OMR to Guduvanchery, Allen and team supply lunch and dinner every day. They have also been distributing grocery kits to leprosy-affected families. To volunteer or contribute, call: 9962077780 Hari Krishnan, social activist From being an independent social activist to government-appointed volunteer coordinator for COVID-19, Hari Krishnans immense contributions have received accolades from the government. Hes currently a part of the Covid War Room. Along with a team of volunteers in the city, hes been helping with bed arrangement, food requests, blood donation and raising funds for the underprivileged. Their team is spread out based on district, zone and area to ease operations and reach more people. To volunteer or contribute, call: 9087293339 Murshitha Sheereen, photographer Collaborating with home chefs and caterers, who are not on Swiggy or Zomato, photographer Murshitha Sheereen has created Bit.ly/chennai-food-help. The glide app allows users to find paid food services in their area. In case of request for free meals or food for people under quarantine, she connects them to home chefs and caterers. Shes looking for volunteers. To help, reach out to her on Instagram @catpuresbymurshitha Giridhar Venkat, entrepreneur With the surge in cases during the second wave, a whole brigade of youngsters has been coordinating for availability of beds, medicines, oxygen cylinders and raising funds on social media platforms. Giridhar Venkat is one among them. With the help of his resources and by pooling in funds from well-wishers and friends, he has been distributing groceries and dry ration in remote parts of Tamil Nadu like Vedaranyam and Tiruvannamalai. To contribute or help, call: 8870686861 Mahima Poddar, founder, The Kindness Foundation Generous gestures made by charitable organisations and NGOs has gained momentum in the COVID-19 relief work. One among them is The Kindness Foundation run by Mahima Poddar. The foundation has been working in tandem with organisations such as Aram Porul and Aranya Foundation to reach a larger crowd and make a bigger impact with their services. They are currently raising funds and supplying medical equipment such as masks, PPE kits and oxygen cylinders to hospitals. They are also helping the underprivileged with groceries. Besides these, theyve been running campaigns to spread awareness on vaccination. To volunteer or contribute, call: 9344502996 (With inputs from Sahana Iyer) Biju E Paul By Express News Service ALAPPUZHA: Sherin Shibin, a 33-year-old mother of two hailing from Cherthala, is all set to walk the ramp along with 20 other contestants in Toronto, Canada in August. This is the first time a Malayali is competing in the prestigious event organised by Canada Galaxy Pageants. Sherin will be competing for the title of Mrs Canada. It was Sherins passion to lend a helping hand to mothers who battle postpartum depression and face systemic barriers on their return to work post pregnancy that got her to enter the fray for the pageant. She was on the lookout for a platform to present her ideas, which Galaxy Pageants provided. I was born and brought up in Saudi Arabia. Along with my parents Abdul Basheer and mother Susanna, I returned to Cherthala aged 15 after having completed my schooling in Saudi. My mother, a retired nurse, is my strength and my father is a businessman-cum-politician, whose involvement in social service activities has helped me get a better grasp of things. My husband Muhammed Shibin is also quite supportive of my decisions, Sherin said. Im deeply pained by the gender inequalities that women face globally and Ive been wanting to address such issues. I utilised social media platforms like Instagram for this purpose, but they have their limitations, she pointed out. It was then that I came across the Canada Galaxy Pageant, which I thought was a good platform to bring attention to these issues. Lack of a clear policy on maternity leave, flexibility at work timings, feeding rooms, childcare centre, etc., are among the many problems faced my carrying mothers, Sherin said. In fact,many mothers are forced to discontinue their career after delivery due to lack of support from the employer and family. These kinds of issues can be addressed by participating in the pageant, because the organisers give greater emphasis to service than the beauty aspect, Sherin told TNIE over phone from Toronto. We taught our children about universal brotherhood. Such kind of positive thinking forced us to give our children all the freedom, said Abdul Basheer and Susanna, who had been in Saudi Arabia for over 25 years. Basheer is the general secretary of Congress Cherthala north block committee. A biotech engineer, Sherin now works in the research section of Toronto University. She represents the North York city. Muhammed Shibin, hailing from Thiruvambadi in Alappuzha, is employed as the IT manager in Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Toronto-based Sherin and Shibin, along with their daughters Alayna and Suhaana, are permanent residents of Canada. Sindu Choodan By Express News Service KOLLAM: Suffering from trauma, Shiva Choudary had forgotten even the name of his mother. However, the moment he saw Madhu, his mother who came all the way from Katni, Madhya Pradesh, to take him back, the 19-year-old instantly recognised her and burst into tears. It was a moving scene for the volunteers who had been taking care of him at a shelter home here. Shiva had left his home eight months ago in search of work to support his family. However, the second wave of Covid upset his plans and he got trapped in Kollam in the lockdown. The police found Shiva, unconscious with bruises all over his body, at a street in Kilikollur and took him to the Corporation-run shelter home at the Government Model Boys HSS. Though the volunteers found Shivas Aadhaar card in his bag, their efforts to get in touch with his relatives ended in vain. Shiva, who was in shock, could not remember much about himself. He uttered just one name Smarty Govindraj occasionally. The civil defence volunteers posted that name, along with whatever details they had gathered from his Aadhaar card, on Facebook. The name Shiva kept repeating was that of a relative of his. He had gone to Govindaraj in Chennai looking for work. He does not remember how he reached Kerala. Shivas relatives contacted me through Govindaraj. Madhu and her brother arrived in Kollam and Mayor Prasanna Ernest handed Shiva over to them. Everyone was moved by the reunion, said S Vipin, a volunteer. Amiya Meethal By Express News Service MALAPPURAM: I cant subject myself to this strange machine, let me go, an 80-year-old woman pleaded with Dr Muhammed Shafi P E, during his medical camp at Sabhapur village in Uttar Pradesh. She was scared by the sight of a sphygmomanometer, which he had taken out to check her blood pressure. Let alone a BP apparatus, many were meeting a qualified doctor for the first time, amid the quacks that rule the roost in such villages. In another medical camp at Kalindi Kunj near Delhi, villagers were frightened to see Shafi in a facemask and gloves. These villages are isolated 24x7. I met many people who havent even of Covid, says Shafi, a young Unani doctor from Kondotty. Having completed his Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery course from the Tipu Sultan Unani Medical College in Kalaburagi, the 23-year-old had set off to villages in north India, setting up solo medical camps. I wanted to meet local healers across the country and know about rare herbs. I planned 120 medical camps in the remotest villages. Since February 9 this year, I completed 40 across Delhi, UP, Haryana, Punjab and Kashmir in two months, before the Covid second wave, Shafi says. More than 3,000 people have consulted him in these camps. I carried a bag of Unani medicine given free of cost by pharma companies and some antibiotics and painkillers, he says. Local NGOs introduced him to the villagers and the people there led him to other villages. Malnutrition and communicable diseases were rampant. I havent seen a single kid without a runny nose. I found typhoid is common in Punjab and flu in Delhi. Back in Kondotty now, he remains optimistic of completing his mission. I hope to do my PG in Turkey. My aim is to track the roots of ancient medicines and the diagnosis methods, he says. ALSO WATCH | Why youngsters are more vulnerable in second Covid-19 wave ? Neha Kirpal By Express News Service A recent biography of scholar, writer, statesman and leader of the freedom movement, Syud Hossain, brings to the fore the significant achievements of a man who was a little-known hero of the Indian independence struggle. An outsider to academia, the books author, Bengaluru-based NS Vinodh, is a civil engineering graduate from IIT Madras, and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. In 2018, during a family holiday in Cairo, he visited Hossains tomb. Intrigued, he read more about him. Born of an elite pedigree, dashingly handsome, erudite, articulate, a mesmerising orator, an outstanding writer, and a secular patriot but with an equally prominent wild side, is how he describes him. In 1888, Hossain was born to a distinguished and aristocratic family in then-Calcutta. At an early age, he was exposed to the beauty of Persian and Urdu poetry. Thereafter, he studied law in England, where he worked as a journalist for seven years. In 1916, he returned to India and worked for several influential newspapers. Recognised as a journalist of substance whose pen effectively articulated the nationalist sentiments, Hossain joined the Congress and became a prominent member of the Home Rule League. The book narrates episodes of his life against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement. The book is filled with interesting anecdotes. According to the author, Sarojini Naidu and Jinnah shared a more intimate relationship than what was publicly revealed. Further, Hossain was secretly married to Motilal Nehrus daughter, Sarup Kumari (known famously as Vijayalakshmi Pandit). However, the marriage was annulled, as Nehru and Gandhi opposed their union. Hossains lifelong bachelorhood was a testament to his unrequited love. Thereafter, he was exiled from India and left for the US in 1921. While in the US, he gave several impassioned public speeches in various cities, criticising the British rule in India. In 1934, he was offered a position of lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Southern California. Soon after independence, he was appointed the countrys first Ambassador to Egypt. The following year, he was also appointed the first Minister of India to Transjordan and the first Indian Minister to Lebanon. In 1949, he suddenly died at the age of 61. An entire section of the book is dedicated to tracing the genesis of Indians in America, profiling some of the prominent names who mass-migrated to the country in the 20th century. Vinodh goes onto to explain how their battle against racial oppression paved the way for the second mass migration in the 1960s. Through several of Hossains private papers, British Intelligence files, newspaper cuttings and rare photographs, the author has pieced together his fascinating life. A nationalist editor across three continents, a member of the sole delegation that met the British PM to plead for the Khilafat cause, the solitary unofficial ambassador for Indias independence movement in America for several years, a champion for the citizenship rights of Indians in the USthe list of accomplishments is long. The book is a fitting tribute. Gautam Chintamani By Express News Service Military history can be a tricky terrain as historians often have to grapple with choicesshould the focus be academic or adapt a more popular narrative while telling an informed tale of bravery and valour. There are very few books that manage to combine these aspects and offer a well-researched, detailed account that is both technical as well as engaging for the non-military reader. In a country such as India, the lack of well-documented military history, both in an official capacity as well as in popular culture, has limited the genre for a long time, but this is fast-changing. Besides a bevy of reasons, the 50th anniversary of the Bangladesh Liberation War has also added to the piqued interest in Indias military history. Air Vice-Marshal Arjun Subramaniams Full Spectrum picks up from his previous book Indias Wars and offers an all-encompassing account of Indias military histories and strategies in the decades after its greatest hour. AVM Subramaniam is a rare breed of historian as he happens to be a great storyteller who also donned the uniform. This singular aspect places him in a unique league as he understands the impact of strategy on any campaign and the role of individuals in various capacities. This is the reason why Full Spectrum manages to give the larger picture of Indias military engagements, be it conventional war or sub-conventional conflicts, such as low-intensity conflict, terrorism, armed rebellion, covert, proxy and hybrid wars. Subramaniams exhaustive and in-depth account covering wars, military involvements in the Naga rebellion, Operation Blue Star, Siachen, overseas engagements in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Kargil war rarely has a moment where the narrative takes the foot off the accelerator. When one thinks of the wars India has fought, the focus usually tends to be on the engagements with China and Pakistan, but with Full Spectrum, one realises this couldnt be further from the truth. The reader gets excellent historical insight and perspective into proxy wars in Jammu and Kashmir, separatist violence in Punjab, the IPKF intervention in Sri Lanka, and the continued stress along the LoC and LAC. In addition to the campaigns that were reported in mainstream media, Subramaniam presents a riveting account of those that are relegated to be in the shadows, or in some cases, forgotten. Reading about Indias UN Peacekeeping missionsfrom Korea, where doctors and personnel of the 60th Para Field Ambulance led by Lt Col Rangaraj treated an estimated 2.2 lakh during the 1950-53 Korean War to IAF Canberra pilots flying dangerous missions against the Katanga rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congoshows the long tradition of the worlds largest troop contributor to UN missions since inception. The book is an excellent read for anyone with the slightest interest in Indias armed forces. As someone who understands the world well, Subramaniam tells the story without undue criticism or singling out anyone both in victory and loss. In addition to being a sweeping account of war and conflict in contemporary India over the past five decades, the book is a singular experience in terms of understanding military leadership and the part it plays in leading the ones committed to protecting Indias sovereignty. Not to be missed. By PTI INDORE: About 5,000 Pakistani refugees from the Hindu Sindhi community living in Madhya Pradesh's Indore will be administered COVID-19 vaccines, an official said on Sunday. The representatives of the Pakistani refugees from the Hindu Sindhi community had recently requested the administration for anti- coronavirus inoculation, District Immunization Officer Dr Praveen Jadia told PTI. "This demand has been accepted following the state government's approval. These Pakistani refugees will now be able to receive anti-coronavirus jabs at the city's vaccination centres by showing their passport as the identity card," he said. Jadia estimated that about 5,000 Pakistani refugees are living in Indore and most of them are settled in the city's Sindhi Colony area. "We are administering anti-COVID 19 doses to all adults on humanitarian grounds. Last month, we had vaccinated a Dutch citizen who had come to Indore for some work," he recalled. Indore district, which is the worst hit by the pandemic in Madhya Pradesh, has so far recorded 1.52 lakh COVID-19 cases including 1,370 fatalities, according to officials. About 13.53 lakh people were administered the first dose of the vaccine in the Indore district while 2.35 lakh people had received both doses. By Express News Service LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have alleged corruption worth crores by Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust members/office bearers in the purchase of a land in Ayodhya during March 2021. In separate press conferences held on Sunday by the AAP MP Sanjay Singh in Lucknow and ex UP minister and SP leader Pawan Pandey in Ayodhya, the two Opposition leaders demanded that the Central government orders a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe into this matter of "money laundering" and "corruption" by the Trust. Detailing about entire episode in Lucknow, the AAP leader released documents in the media about the matter. "A land valued at around Rs 5.80 crore in Ayodhya was sold by Kusum Pathak and Harish Pathak to Sultan Ansari and Ravi Mohan Tiwari for Rs 2 crore at 7.10 pm on March 18, 2021. Just five minutes later, Ansari and Tiwari (who had purchased the land at 7.10 pm for Rs 2 crore) entered into an agreement for selling the same land to the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust for an unimaginably high Rs 18.50 crore. Out of the agreed sale sum of Rs 18.50 crore, Rs 17 crore was paid through RTGS promptly. Forget about India, nowhere in the world has anyone heard about a piece of land becoming so costly (price of land rising by Rs 5.50 lakh per second)," Singh said Singh added that another surprising aspect of both the duly registered land deals was that witness to both deals were common. The two witnesses were none other, but Ayodhya mayor Rishikesh Upadhyaya and a Temple Trust member Anil Mishra. The AAP leader further said while the first deal of Rs 2 crore happened at 7.10 pm on March 18, the second deal happened five minutes later at 7.15 pm. But astonishingly, the stamp paper for the second deal (agreement of sale to the Temple Trust) was purchased at 5.11 pm, while the stamp paper for the first deal was purchased at 5.22 pm. "This means that the Trust had planned the deal well in advance," alleged Singh. The Rajya Sabha member accused the Temple Trust and its general secretary Champat Rai (who is also a senior VHP leader) of duping countless Lord Ram devotees, by misusing in a land deal, their donations for the Ram Temple construction. It was Champat Rai who undertook the sale agreement on behalf of the Temple Trust. "This amounts to money laundering and massive corruption, I demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government order a CBI and ED probe into the March 18, 2021 land deal and put behind bars all those found involved in it," demanded Singh In Ayodhya district, at the same time, ex SP MLA and former UP minister Pawan Pandey also released the same set of documents at a press conference and alleged massive corruption by the Temple Trust in the land sale agreement worth Rs 18.50 crore. "Was there a golden treasure hidden in the concerned land that its sale price jumped from Rs 2 crore to Rs 18.50 crore in just five minutes. The entire episode is a jolt to the faith of countless Ram Bhakts, who have generously contributed for construction of the grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya. I demand that the PM and the central government order a CBI probe in the matter and put in jail all those involved in this matter," the SP leader Pandey demanded. The probe should also find out who all got the share of Rs 17 crore sent through RTGS as part of the agreement of sale on March 18, Pandey demanded. Importantly, both Sultan Ansari and Ravi Mohan Tiwari (who first purchased the land fir Rs 2 crore and later entered into sale agreement of Rs 18.50 crore with the Temple Trust on March 18), are well known property dealers of Ayodhya. Ansari is considered close to SP leader Pawan Pandey, who had held the press conference in Ayodhya, informed sources in Ayodhya told The New Indian Express. Importantly, both the press conferences in Lucknow and Ayodhya, coincided with an important meeting of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Ksehtra Trust in Ayodhya on Sunday. Reacting to corruption allegations against him and the Temple Trust, the trust's general secretary Champat Rai told journalists in Ayodhya,"I'll talk about only what happened in the Trust's meeting pertaining to Ram Temple construction and nothing else. Allegations and accusations are always levelled against us, we've become habitual to them. Since 100 years accusations are being made against us, including accusations of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. If you (journalists) are interested in knowing about what was discussed at the Temple construction related meeting today, I'll detail about it or else I'm going," Rai said. By PTI NEW DELHI: A three-member AICC panel set up to end factionalism in the Punjab Congress on Sunday met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and held deliberations with him. Sources said the panel chaired by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs of the party Harish Rawat and former MP J P Aggarwal held discussions with the former Congress president. The panel has already submitted its report to Congress president Sonia Gandhi with its suggestions of suitably accommodating Navjot Singh Sidhu. Ahead of a possible rejig in the Punjab Congress, the panel may meet up with the Congress president soon, the sources said. Sunday's discussions at the Congress leader's residence lasted over an hour, where issues pertaining to ending factionalism in the state, which goes to polls early next year, were also discussed, the sources said. Sidhu is at loggerheads with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and both have publicly given statements against each other in the media, with Sidhu criticising the chief minister for not bringing the guilty to book in the Kotkapura sacrilege incident. Top Congress leaders are engaged actively to end the factionalism in the Punjab unit and present a united face in the 2022 assembly elections. By PTI NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday asked the Congress leadership to make its stand clear on the purported remarks of Digvijay Singh that his party will have a "relook" at Article 370 revocation if it returns to power, saying "time of silence is over". A row erupted on Saturday over Congress leader Digvijay Singh's comments in an audio chat on social media that his party will have a "relook" at Article 370 revocation and Jammu and Kashmir's lost statehood if it returns to power, with the BJP accusing him of spewing venom against India in "collaboration" with Pakistan. "It is now more than a day when the central leadership of the Congress is maintaining a conspicuous silence on its stand about Article 370. Does the Congress want restoration of Article 370 as Digvijay Singh has indicated? Time of silence is over. Please explain your clear stand," Prasad wrote on Twitter. Singh had said, "The decision of revoking Article 370 and reducing the statehood of J&K is extremely, I would say, sad decision, and the Congress party would certainly have a relook on the issue. ALSO READ: Even Ambedkar would have been slandered as pro-Pakistan by BJP, says ex-J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti Singh was responding to a question about the "way forward" on the issue "once the Modi government is gone" . While abrogating Article 370, good governance was promised both in J&K and Ladakh. The speed with which vaccination against COVID-19 is going on even in the remotest parts of J&K and Ladakh is a sign of pro-people good governance in the region, Prasad said in another tweet. Singh's remarks to a person, who the BJP said was a journalist of Pakistani origin, were seized by its leaders on Saturday to unleash a torrent of criticism against the opposition party and demand statements from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi on the issue. By PTI NEW DELHI: With tensions in the Rajasthan Congress rising and the Pilot camp becoming edgy, the Congress has stepped up internal deliberations with all sections and a rejig of the state cabinet is likely soon. Sources said discussions are underway for filling up the nine vacancies in the state cabinet to adjust all sections. Senior Congress leaders, including general secretary in-charge of Congress in Rajasthan Ajay Maken, are holding discussions with leaders of various camps to resolve their grievances. Maken is learnt to have held discussions with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot. "It is a work in progress. We are talking to all sections and leaders. We hope to take care of the hopes and aspirations of all sections and regions. We are in constant touch with all leaders, including Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot," Maken said. "We hope to resolve the issue soon," he added. ALSO READ | 'State government doesn't tap anyone's phone': Rajasthan minister on Sachin Pilot camp's allegations Pilot has been camping in Delhi for the last two days and he has held discussions with senior party leaders, including Maken. He has openly criticised the three-member panel that was formed 10 months ago to resolve differences of party leaders, after he rebelled against Gehlot. Pilot, however, stayed back with an agreement that his people would be adjusted in the state cabinet. Even though many in Pilot's camp have been adjusted in the Rajasthan PCC, most of his confidants are eyeing a ministerial berth in the cabinet. The Rajasthan Cabinet currently has nine vacancies but it is turning out to be a tight rope walk for the party leadership to adjust all factions as well as sections and regions. There is only one minority face and a lone woman in the Gehlot cabinet and there is a need to maintain this balance by giving more opportunities to other gender and religious minorities. Besides, all regions and castes also need to be taken care of in the cabinet. Also, the party leadership needs to adjust independent legislators and those of the erstwhile BSP, who merged with the Congress, as the state government is stable only after their support. The sources said some old-timers who have won four to five times also need to be adjusted. Meanwhile, the Pilot camp's patience seems to be running out as members say it is time they be adjusted. Te camp is also upset with Gehlot for ignoring them in appointments of chairmen in boards and corporations. By PTI SRINAGAR: The US authorities and Google have been approached by the Jammu and Kashmir Police to share email contents exchanged by Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, a close aide of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, with Pakistan-based secessionist leaders and terrorists, a charge sheet filed by the union territory police has said. The charge sheet said there is a prima facie evidence "sufficient to launch prosecution" against Parra for establishing a nexus with terrorists to seek their backing for his political gains and for reciprocating by way of providing a range of help and support which led to terror strikes. "During investigation, it was found that the accused used to receive instructions and advice from Pakistan-based secessionist and terrorist leaders and communicated action-taken reports and a host of information in furtherance of terrorism and secessionism," the charge sheet filed by the Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) wing of the police said. The charge sheet, submitted before a designated court in Srinagar earlier this month, said Parra used to share information through several email services, of which three have been brought on record. "Accordingly, a request has been forwarded through proper channels to Google US as per their standard forms and norms for providing details/contents of emails exchanged by Parra through his three email IDs," the 19-page charge sheet said. Parra's lawyer, as well as the PDP, has denied all the allegations levelled against Parra and has termed them "politically motivated". PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has also alleged that the police were "torturing" Parra and keeping him in "inhuman conditions". She had tweeted earlier that Parra was being "persecuted and tortured to admit the false allegations. Since an admission didn't happen, he is being kept under inhuman conditions. This investigation has been fraudulent and politically motivated from day one". However, the police, which charged Parra under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, said in its charge sheet that even the US authorities have been approached through the medium of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) via the Ministry of External Affairs for providing necessary assistance in the case. "Google US has been requested to preserve the data of the emails (of Parra) and Google has conveyed compliance," the charge sheet said. The CIK, which is part of the Jammu and Kashmir Police's CID, has also asked Google to provide WhatsApp chats and data stored in the iCloud account connected to his mobile phone and the details are awaited, the charge sheet said. This is the second charge sheet against Parra, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in November last year. In January this year, Parra was granted bail by the NIA court in Jammu but was immediately detained by the CIK and brought to Srinagar, and at present, he is in judicial custody. In March this year, he was charge sheeted by the NIA, and it was alleged that Parra had paid Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for keeping Kashmir in turmoil after the death of Burhan Wani, the poster boy of the Hizbul Mujahideen, in 2016. The CIK had filed a case last year against unknown politicians and others based on 'reliable and confidential sources' who said some political functionaries were misusing their power and helping militants. These politicians have variously supported the terrorists and secessionists, and even facilitated their movement, transporting their hardware and converting areas under their political responsibility as "unavailable" for anti-terrorist operations. "Had such unprincipled and illegal influence not exercised by these unethical political party functionaries, the guilty terrorists and secessionists would have been brought to justice," the FIR of the CIK had said. The CIK, which is mandated to probe cases under the UAPA and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), took sanction for Parra's prosecution from the Jammu and Kashmir Home Department under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). By ANI CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday alleged that if a survey is held today that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will be voted is the most hated man in Punjab. Speaking to ANI, Sukhbir Singh Badal said, "Captain Amarinder Singh will lose his election deposit in the upcoming polls. If you conduct a poll on the most hated man in Punjab, the result will be Captain Amarinder Singh. Not only us, but people and Congress MLAs are also against him." "BSP and Shiromani Akali Dal have the same ideology. When we had an alliance in 1996, we had a clean sweep. It will happen this time too," added the SAD president. Reacting sharply to Badal's comment, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the SAD-BSP alliance is an opportunist alliance. "Tell Sukhbir Singh Badal to contest from Patiala if he thinks so. He should think about how many MLAs does his party has in Punjab today...Mere words will not serve any purpose. He will know the reality if he goes to the field...This is an opportunist alliance," Balbir Singh Sidhu told ANI. On Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's allegation that Captain Amarinder Singh had a secret pact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sidhu said, "Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi Government purchased oximeters at exorbitant prices as compared to Corona Fateh Kits in Punjab. Bulk purchase always based on wholesale prices but the Delhi Government looted public exchequer." Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Saturday formed an alliance to contest the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections together. SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and BSP's Satish Mishra jointly held a press conference on Saturday to announce the alliance. Briefing the mediapersons, Badal said, "It is a new day in Punjab politics. Shiromani Akali Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party to fight the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections and future elections together. Out of 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly, BSP will contest on 20 seats and SAD will contest the remaining 97 seats." BSP MP Satish Mishra also called the alliance a historic move in Punjab politics. "It is a historic day as the alliance has been formed with SAD, which is Punjab's biggest party. In 1996 both BSP and SAD jointly fought Lok Sabha polls and emerged victorious on 11 of 13 seats. This time the alliance will not be broken," said Mishra. "We will work to end corruption and scams under Congress' leadership. The current government is anti-Dalits and anti-farmers while we will work for everyone's welfare and development," added the BSP MP. The alliance between SAD and BSP has been formed at a time when there is a crisis in the Congress party over factionalism. Now, SAD sealing a deal with BSP is certainly a massive political development in Punjab politics. SAD had pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September last year over the farm bills with the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the post of Union Minister of Food Processing Industries. The party has been looking for an alliance partner to contest the upcoming Assembly election. Earlier, on June 5, SAD president Badal had said his party is open for pre-poll alliance with parties other than Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party. Badal, whose party was part of ruling NDA at the Centre before pulling out over the new farm laws last year, categorically ruled out the possibility of aligning with the BJP. "We are open to alliances with other parties minus Congress, BJP and AAP. We cannot align with these parties. We will form alliances and we are open to others. No chance to go with BJP at all," he had told ANI. The Assembly elections in Punjab are scheduled to take place next year. By PTI BALLIA: In controversial remarks, BJP's Ballia MLA Surendra Singh here on Saturday said it was due to the leadership of "coward" Jawaharlal Nehru that India could not be declared a Hindu Rashtra at the time of the Independence. Alleging that it was the Congress' "dirty thinking" that led to the Partition, Singh said had Nehru not been the prime minister, India would have been declared a Hindu nation. "Two nations were formed based on two cultures. But it was because of the leadership of 'buzdil' (coward) Nehru that India was not declared a Hindu Rashtra at the time of the Independence," the BJP MLA said in a statement. He also said if Sardar Patel had become the prime minister in place of Nehru, India would have become a Hindu Rashtra. Referring to Congress leader Digvijay Singh's purported statement regarding Article 370 in Kashmir, he demanded that the sedition charges be slapped against him. Digvijay Singh had allegedly commented in an audio chat on social media that his party will have a "relook" at the Article 370 revocation and Jammu and Kashmir's lost statehood if it returns to power. Congress leaders, including former PM Indira Gandhi, remained silent when Brahmins were being displaced from Kashmir, Surendra Singh said and claimed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi belong to a foreign culture and the party does politics with pro-Muslim sentiment. By PTI BHOPAL: A 24-year-old transgender was arrested for hurting religious sentiments after he allegedly danced in a mosque's campus here in Madhya Pradesh and uploaded the video on social media, police said on Sunday. "Nanu Vishwas Kinnar was arrested on Saturday evening and charged with hurting religious feelings with deliberate and malicious intention under section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code," Talaiya Inspector DP Singh told reporters. He said authorities of the Moti Masjid had lodged a complaint stating that the act of the transgender had hurt their religious feelings. "The Kinnar danced in the campus of the Moti Masjid and uploaded the video on social media which went viral according to the complaint," he said. Kinnar was granted bail hours after his arrest from the police station as the criminal section invoked against him invites less than seven years' imprisonment if convicted by a court of law, police said. The Kinnar has more than one lakh followers on social media platforms, according to a police official. By ANI NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Electronics and IT on Sunday clarified that there is no cyber breach into National Informatics Centre (NIC) email system. As per the official release by the ministry, a media report on the impact of data breaches in organisations such as Air India, Big Basket and Domino's has claimed that these breaches have exposed email accounts and passwords of NIC emails to the hackers. In view of this, the ministry clarified that firstly, there has been no cyber breach into the email system of the Government of India maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The email system is totally safe and secure, it said. "Secondly, cyber security breach on external portals may not impact the users of Government Email Service, unless the Government users have registered on these portals using their Government Email Address and have used the same password as the one used in the Government Email Account," read the release. The Ministry of Electronics & IT said that NIC Email system has put in place several security measures such as two-factor authentication and change of password in 90 days. "Further, any change of password in NIC Email requires mobile OTP and if the mobile OTP is incorrect then change of password will not be possible. Any attempt of phishing using NIC Email can be mitigated by NIC. NIC also undertakes user awareness drives from time to time and keeps updating the users about potential risks and safety protocols," it said. By ANI KANPUR: After allegations of mismanagement and black marketing of Remdesivir injections, Kanpur's Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College on Sunday constituted a team to investigate the matter. According to Dr RB Kamal, Principal, GSVM Medical College, the team has been asked to collect data on the allocation of injections. Speaking to the media, Kamal said, "Allegation of mismanagement and black marketing of Remdesivir injection has come into our notice. To investigate the matter a team has been constituted. They have been asked to collect data on the allocation of injections." Rajesh Asnani By Express News Service JAIPUR: The phone tapping row has once again erupted in Rajasthan. But this time it's not the BJP but a Congress MLA from the Sachin Pilot camp who has alleged that the phones of MLAs are being tapped. Congress MLA from Jaipur districts Chaksu seat, Ved Prakash Solanki, a vocal supporter of Sachin Pilot, made these allegations and claimed that some legislators had told him about their phones being tapped. Solanki, however, declined to name the MLAs who told this to him. He is not aware of who was tapping the phones and on whose orders. I do not know if my phone is being tapped or not. I am also not aware if the state government is involved in phone tapping or not. But some legislators told me about their phones being recorded, Solanki remarked. Known to be a close confidant of Sachin Pilot, Solankis comments have sparked off quite a row. These charges have come at a time when Sachin Pilot is said to be deeply upset and is camping in Delhi. Pilot and his loyalists have been demanding a reshuffle and expansion in the Ashok Gehlot ministry and political appointments in Rajasthan as a means to rehabilitate and accommodate leaders loyal to Pilot in the state. However, in a sign of the deepening rift in the ruling Congress, the MLAs complaint about phones being tapped has drawn a sharp reaction from the Gehlot camp. Transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas has challenged MLA Solanki to name those MLAs who have claimed that their phones have been tapped. Rejecting Solankis charges, Khachariyawas asserted, the Rajasthan government is not tapping the phone of any MLA. The MLA who has made these allegations should name those MLAs who have such complaints and they should meet the Chief Minister for a proper discussion on the issue. If a probe is held, the truth will emerge about these charges. In addition, Congress chief whip in the assembly, Mahesh Joshi remarked that these are baseless charges. A responsible person like an MLA should make a public statement only after verifying things. Issuing statements without any proof is not proper. Though they have remained silent in public, CM Gehlot and state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasara are also said to be angry at MLA Solankis phone tapping charges. The renewed phone tapping controversy, has given the Rajasthan BJP a great chance to target the Gehlot government. State BJP chief Satish Poonia said that the state's chief minister and home minister will be held responsible if phones of MLAs are tapped. If the state government is spying on MLAs, the chief minister should reveal the names of MLAs whose phones are being tapped, said Poonia. He further added that allegations of phone tapping by Congress MLAs are an indicator of an undeclared emergency and asserted, no one can say for how long this weak Congress government will carry on. Signals point to a mid-term election. Meanwhile, with a Congress MLA raking up the issue, the phone tapping row has reportedly been discussed even at the level of the Congress High Command. Sources say the High Command may seek a report on the issue or even summon the MLA for an explanation. Indications are that if MLA Solanki has no basis to back his phone tapping charges, tough action may be taken against him. In any case, the phone tapping row has once again underlined that infighting in the Rajasthan Congress continues to simmer. Sudhir Suryawanshi By Express News Service MUMBAI: Shiv Sena said that Uddhav Thackeray will remain the chief minister of Maharashtra for full five years term and they clarified that there is no agreement of sharing the chief ministerial post with their alliance partners. Chief minister Uddhav Thackerays private 30 minute meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the speculations of coming together with two old allies together. However, NCP chief Sharad Pawar has reminded the Shiv Sena of its late president Balasaheb Thackerays history of sticking with the given word and trusting allies. Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in his Roktok column said that there are speculations that Maha Vikas Aghadi will be divided over the chief minister post. Sanjay Raut said that Uddhav Thackerays meeting with PM Narendra Modi has a political message to both the Opposition and alliance partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi as well. He said that chief minister Uddhav Thackeray sought the time for the meeting and PM Modi immediately gave the appointment. This entire thing shows that Uddhav Thackeray shares a cordial relationship with PM Modi and he is eager to resolve the state's issue by meeting the Centres top most leadership. This meeting was also a shock to BJP. BJP tried to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi but they failed. By using central probe agencies, Amit Shah can threaten and poach one or two MLAs but not the entire party. To form the government, you need the support of the entire political outfit as the one and two MLAs support will not help to form the government, Raut said. Raut said the BJP should start respecting the mandate of the people and majority in government. He said Modi and Amit Shah were not against the Maha Vikas Aghadi formation therefore they did not put any obstructions while forming the government under Uddhav Thackeray's leadership. He also said that all alliance partners of Maha Vikas Aghadi has limitation and it is the need of the hours for them to remain in power in a state like Maharashtra. NCP could not expand beyond Maharashtra, while Shiv Sena despite its Hindutva brand did not get seats in other states while Congress is in power in other states but it cannot be compared with their strength in Maharashtra, Raut said. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday asked its leaders to follow the party's stance on the issue of abrogation of Article 370 as articulated in the August 6, 2019 resolution of the CWC, after its leader Digvijay Singh's remarks sparked a row. "The decision of revoking Article 370 and reducing the statehood of J&K is extremely, I would say, sad decision, and the Congress party would certainly have a relook on the issue," Singh purportedly said, according to excerpts of his clubhouse conversation available on social media. He was responding to a question about the "way forward" on the issue "once the Modi government is gone". The BJP launched a scathing attack on Singh and top party leaders, accusing them of speaking "the language of Pakistan" and spewing venom against India. "The Congress Party has clearly stated its position on Jammu and Kashmir, in its resolution of August 6, 2019 of the Congress Working Committee. This is the only official stance of the party." "I urge and request all senior leaders to refer to the same," Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, when asked about Singh's remarks. ALSO READ | Congress leader Digvijay Singh's comment on 'relook' at Article 370 revocation in J&K draws ire of BJP The CWC resolution of August 6, 2019 had said that it "deplores the unilateral, brazen and totally undemocratic manner in which Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was dismembered by misinterpreting the provisions of the Constitution." "Every principle of Constitutional law, states' rights, Parliamentary procedure and democratic governance was violated," the opposition party alleged "The Indian National Congress pledges to stand with the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and to fight the BJP and its divisive and diabolical agenda with every power in its hands. We urge the people of J&K to maintain peace and calm," it said. The CWC "strongly reaffirmed the consistent and stated position" of the Indian National Congress that J&K, including the areas under the illegal occupation of Pakistan and the part ceded by it to China, are an integral part of the Republic of India. The integration of J&K with India is final and irrevocable, it said, "The CWC firmly asserted that all issues pertaining to J&K are internal matters of India and no outside interference will be tolerated," the resolution had further said. Singh's remarks to a person, who the BJP said was a journalist of Pakistani origin, were seized by saffron party leaders on Saturday to unleash a torrent of criticism against the opposition party and demand statements from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi on the issue. By PTI NEW DELHI: West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Saturday alleged that his voice was "muzzled" during the GST Council meeting on Saturday and his opposition to levy taxes on Covid essentials like vaccines, masks, PPE kits and anti-viral drug Remdesivir, was not heard. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur, however, countered Mitra's charges saying that technical glitches marred West Bengal Finance Minister speech. The 44th GST Council meeting, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state ministers, on Saturday slashed tax rate on Covid drugs such as Remdesivir and Tocilizumab as well as on medical oxygen, and oxygen concentrators but ignored demands for a reduction in taxes on vaccines. In the evening, Mitra tweeted: "GoI-led the anti-people move & imposed GST on vaccine, mask, hand sanitizer, oxygen, PPE, oximeter, Covid test kit, Remdesivir, RT PCR machine.. Since my voice ignored, I have recorded my dissent by letter. Unprecedented. Slow death of the only body of cooperative federalism". Mitra had suggested zero rating or 0. 1 per cent GST on Covid essentials." In the letter to Sitharaman, Mitra said the decision to continue to levy GST on Covid-related items is "anti-people" and "draconian" which will hurt millions of people. "I tried my best to repeatedly raise my objection after your announcing this decision, but unfortunately, I was never given the floor and my voice was muzzled, as the Secretary brought the meeting to a close and the virtual link was cut off. Whither GST Council!" Mitra wrote. Taking to twitter, Thakur said he would like to "set the record straight", and went on to add that in his over two years of attending the GST Council, Sitharaman has never cut off anyone during the Council discussions. "During the GST Council discussions today (June 12), it seemed as if the Finance Minister from West Bengal did not have a stable VC connection. Revenue Secy repeatedly informed him his line was breaking, that he was not properly audible & to turn off his video for better connectivity," Thakur tweeted. He said that during the speech made by the Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister, nobody heard Mitra speak, nor did he ask to have his opinion heard. "Other members can attest to this". "At the end of the discussion, when FM @nsitharaman ji asked the Council whether anyone would like to speak & add their comments, Dr Mitra ji again remained silent and did not speak up," Thakur added. Stating that Sitharaman has patiently given every speaker as much time as they needed, Thakur said "the Finance Minister has never stifled dissent in the GST Council. It is unbecoming of a senior member of the Council to suggest that this has happened. The GST Council embodies the collective spirit of all states towards debate in a healthy manner; it has been & shall continue". Mitra said that instances in Saturday's GST Council meeting have dealt a major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism undermining the very ethos of the GST Council. "In your remarks near the end of today's GST Council meeting, you referred to several of my observations by name and yet I was not given the floor despite repeated requests to respond to your comments. Instead you gave the floor to the Minister from UP, who sought deletion of some of my comments by name and shockingly you agreed." "I could never imagine that this would come to pass in a GST Council meeting where my voice is muzzled, despite the restraint and decorum that I have maintained in the 44 meetings of the GST Council-- truly unprecedented. Obviously, this and other instances in today's GST Council meeting have dealt a major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism undermining the very ethos of the GST Council," Mitra added. The Council cut to nil GST on COVID-19 drug Tocilizumab and black fungus medicine Amphotericin B, from existing 5 per cent. Hand sanitiser, pulse oximeters, BiPAP machine, testing kits, ambulances and temperature check equipment were among the 18 items on which GST rates were lowered. By PTI LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government will declare black fungus a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act. During a meeting on Friday, the Uttar Pradesh CM said, "In compliance with the order of the central government, black fungus should also be declared a notified disease on the lines of COVID. Order in this regard should be issued today and be made effective,'' a government statement said. The orders were not issued till late evening. However, a senior official said the process is on. "The order will be issued after the approval of the file. It has not been issued yet," Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad told PTI. The Union government had on Thursday urged states and Union Territories to make mucormycosis or black fungus a notifiable disease under the Act, stating that the infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality among COVID-19 patients. A notifiable disease is required by law to be reported to the government authorities. The collection of information allows the authorities to monitor the disease and provides early warning of possible outbreaks. In consultation with health experts, the state government is making arrangements for proper medical treatment of all patients, the statement said quoting the CM said. According to the statement, officials at the meeting told the CM that medicines for the treatment of black fungus have been made available in every district. Details of all patients suffering from black fungus are being made available to experts, the statement said. So far, around 300 COVID patients suffering from black fungus have been admitted to hospitals in the state, an official spokesman said. According to information received from Lucknow's King George's Medical University, 73 patients have been admitted there, of which 23 were admitted in the past 24 hours. Pushkar Banakar By Express News Service NEW DELHI: India on Friday said it is in favour of further probe into the origin of COVID-19 and sought the cooperation of China for the same. India's reaction comes days after US President Joe Biden asked intelligence agencies to submit a fresh report on the issue. The move has irked China, which said that the US is playing politics, and dismissed theories that the virus has originated from a lab. "The WHO convened global study on the origin of COVID-19 is an important first step. It stressed the need for next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions. The follow up of the WHO report and further studies deserve the understanding and cooperation of all," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. The US President had asked the intelligence community earlier this week to double their efforts to collect and analyse information that could bring people closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back in 90 days. In January and February, a team from the WHO which spent around four weeks in and around Wuhan, came to the conclusion that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans and that introduction of the virus was an extremely unlikely pathway. Interestingly, the team was not allowed to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the place where theories claim that the virus was cultivated. WHO is currently reviewing the recommendations in this report to prepare a proposal for its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the studies to be done in future. Jayesh Ranjan and Amulya Anil By Burning pyres, hastily put together makeshift cremation grounds and unidentified mortal remains floating in rivers have left citizens in anguish and also stirred debates on the administrative capability of the states. The inhumane disposal of the Covid-19 affected cadavers raises questions on the absence of sensitivity that the state machinery ought to be otherwise manifesting. This has led the judiciary to comment that the Covid-afflicted are not being treated with dignity, even in their death. Post-mortality management in the Covid-19 era is a spectrum that needs to acknowledge the rights of the deceased for a dignified final journey, ensure the emotional and physical well-being of people involved in the funeral process, consider the customary sentiments of the bereaved, adopt bio-medical waste management models and simultaneously operate within the perimeters of the laws in force. Though numerous guidelines and advisories have been issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare much earlier, we still have few examples to talk of due to the absence of long-term implementational tactics. A week after the National Human Rights Commission notified its advisory on Upholding the Rights and the Dignity of the Dead, an incident of a garbage truck carrying the corpse of a young adult in Madhya Pradesh has amplified the need for the state and the local administration to establish a sustainable and credible system of body disposal. The incapability of managing post-death situations effectively and sensitively not only impacts the bereaved negatively but also carries the potential to cause social unrest. The impact upon the bereaved and the citizens is in multiple ways and in varying degrees. Financial challenges, emotional rollercoasters, confusion arising due to not being aware of relevant procedures, not being able to complete the rituals due to lockdown rules and hospital managements unable or unwilling to cooperate are just a few. Funeral processes demand sufficient crematoriums, accessibility and affordability of wood or furnaces, ambulances or hearse vans for conveyance of cadavers, and a reliable point of contact to guide them through the legal obligations. These issues are further complicated with the ambiguity in the need for various documents and the process for their validation. The fears and dilemmas of an individual, lack of identity proof documents and the absence of kith and kin have left many cadavers unclaimed, which is an added shocker for the administration. While these lapses have dominated the public narrative in the initial months of the second wave, we see some evidences of governments putting their act together. The success of any administrative strategy is dependent on the interplay between bureaucratic reliability, political support, intra-society coordination and the cooperative efforts of citizens. Bengalurus centralised and distinct Covid-19 cadaver disposal system, which involves both civilian volunteers and statutory authorities, deserves praise. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike established the BBMP Crematorium Helpline, a single official government window that functions round the clock to assist citizens with the post-mortality procedures in its jurisdiction. The Helpline books slots in crematoriums, offers ambulance services, assists the bereaved with the documentation processes and renders every other relevant service without any cost. It has also adopted a complaint redressal mechanism that makes the system reliably accountable. In Hyderabad too, the State Forest Development Corporation has stepped up to provide free supply of wood to the crematoriums. The Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has launched the Antim Yatra Rathamulu service that offers free conveyance of cadavers across the city. The services can be availed by reaching out to the GHMCs Covid-19 Control Room. The Greater Chennai Corporation too adopted the Bengaluru model and launched a helpline number to assist with issues pertaining to cremations and burials. It is, therefore, time for states and local administrations to prudently examine the mechanisms adopted by other successful jurisdictions and implement the proven features in their own machinery. However, any administrative policy would perform better only if it enjoys public cooperation. In Basapura, a village in Karnataka, an ambulance carrying a corpse of a Covid-19 deceased was stopped, due to the fear of transmission of the infection from the cadaver. In other parts of the country, there are instances of financial extortion by mortuary staff, crematorium workers and hearse van drivers. The local administrations need to work on their grievance redressal mechanisms by not only imposing liabilities but also by understanding the factors that led to such acts. The states job goes beyond putting an end-to-end efficient system in place; they should also reach out to the people through campaigns focused on dignity, humanity and empathy. There have been many heartwarming instances of complete strangers taking over the last rites, sometimes cutting across caste, community and religion divides. Indian case studies get cited during all kinds of discussions and debates related to Covid-19. Here is a chance to be a shining light in an otherwise depressing record. Jayesh Ranjan IAS officer in Telangana jayesh_ranjan@hotmail.com Amulya Anil Law student at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad amulyaanilofficial@gmail.com) Ravi Shankar By People believe that the sky is the home of the gods. Every night when the sun goes into hiding in the great shadow of our planet, the Universe reveals itself as a glorious repository of miracles, and an invitation to explore the mysteries that lie beyond our galaxy. Later this month, US intelligence agencies will deliver a report compiled by none other than the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) to Congress. The documents include detailed information Pentagon has on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). They also present data gathered from alien encounters with US Navy pilots, commercial pilots and warships. The New York Times, which scooped parts of the report, revealed that US Intelligence found no evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial in origin. They could not explain what they were, either. UFO sightings are not confined to American aviators. In February, in Ludhiana, Punjab, people were amazed at the sight of an illuminated object blazing through the night sky. It was oval-shaped with burning lights on both sides. The immediate conclusion was that it was a UFO, going by the pictures and videos shot on smartphones. Skeptical individuals suggested it was a meteor. The World UFO Day falls on June 24 when the first sighting was reported by American flyer and business tycoon Kenneth Arnold. Another group of ufologists celebrate it on July 2. Flying saucer or meteor, Superman or airplane, humans are obsessed with the fundamental questionis there life out there? Do extraterrestrials live among us like the creatures in the movie MIB? Did they visit us in ancient times and impart knowledge to the Incas? Did they influence mythological battles with miraculous weapons? These are questions that impact mythology, science, anthropology, and the military, too. Some X-File theories are eccentric, toofor example, the religious sect Raelians believe that Elohim, an alien species, created life on earth. Its global growth suggests that the world is looking for deliverance from other evolved galaxies because wars, climate change and inclusive economics have made Earth inhospitable to its general population. PRESIDENTS AND ALIENS On May 21, during a joint news conference between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House, a reporter asked Biden about Barack Obamas comments on UFOs. Biden sidestepped the question with a joke, I would ask him again. Obama had confessed on television that there were some things he cant tell people regarding UFOs. When he moved into the Oval Office, aliens were one of the first topics he had raised with officials is there a hidden lab where alien specimens and spaceships are kept and studied? He confirmed that the US government had footage and records of UFO sightings. Jimmy Carter recounted seeing a UFO in Georgias skies in 1969 before he became president. Top guns label UFO videos shot with the cameras mounted on infrared weapons as FLIR, GOFAST and GIMBAL videos. These feature UFOs taunting fighter pilots. A 2019 leaked Navy video on NBC News showed an unidentified spherical object flying low, skimming the ocean for a few minutes and disappearing underwater with a splash. Visuals of the Ludhiana UFO sighting PROOF OF LIFE In August 2020, the US Department of Defense established the UAP Task Force (UAPTF) to investigate and gain insight into the nature and origins of UFOs after declassifying three alien videos taken by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015 respectively. In the opinion of Navy physicist (retd) Dr Bruce Maccabee, President Biden and leaders of other countries may find it necessary to develop a single, uniform policy for co-existing and interacting with NHI. Allowing various countries to develop their own policies could result in some form of disaster. If the UAPTF discovers that some UAP are evidence for NHI, the task force will, I presume, write an unclassified report ready for publication. The US is not the only country that funds research on extraterrestrials. Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and the UK have been declassifying their X-files since 2008. The French Committee for In Depth Studies, which examined spaceship sightings in the late 1990s, noted that five percent of alien encounters were reliable. In 2017, Chiles Committee for Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, established to study inter-galactic flights, released footage of an alien spaceship taken with a helicopters infrared camera. Many countries have accused America of hiding data of alien spaceships. US Forces have reason to worry. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell late last month tweeted a 46-second video clip of radar footage that shows UFOs swarming a Navy ship. In the clip, an unidentified man is heard shouting, Holy s***! Theyre moving fast... Theyre turning around! The US established Project Blue Book in 1952, which amassed a databank of over 5,000 alien sightings, encounters and abductions. The Center for UFO Studies in Illinois reported 60,000 alien activities in 113 nations in the 1980s of which 2,000 were close encounters, 200 were abductions and the rest were just sightings. American astronomer J Allen Hynek calls them CEshort for Close Encounters. CEs have been classified into five categories. 1. When someone eyes a UFO within 150 metres. 2. An aerial or on-the-ground encounter with a UFO that leaves physical evidence behind. 3. You can see the aliens inside the UFO. 4. Abduction. 5. Communication. The Pentagon report, if not redacted, could be an explosive revelation of civilisations beyond the Milky Way which have been sending probes to Planet Earth. Whatever their intentions may be, depending on the movie you are watching or the sci-fi book you are reading, the information could change human life as we know it. The feeling is both exhilarating and frightening, because it is human nature to conquer or destroy perceived enemies. The great Stephen Hawking believed that extraterrestrial contact could devastate humanity. He warned of aliens draining the Earths resources before moving on. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldnt want to meet, he pointed out. THE VIMANA PHENOMENON Indian UFO sightings are aplenty. Incidentally all such visual encounters in the world have common aspects such as shape, lighting and behaviour. In 1964, Billy Meier, well-known UFO researcher, travelled to India where he shot a series of photos of spaceships in Delhi skies. A report mentions that they regularly appear in Kongka La in the disputed area between India and China. It was the site of a fierce battle in 1962. Conspiracy theorists speak of a UFO base in the Himalayas, which only the Indian and Chinese governments know abouta place like the controversial Area 51, the top secret US military base in Nevada desert associated with spaceships and little green men. Since time immemorial, the Himalayas have been the realm of mystery. In 2004, a five-member team of ISRO glaciologists and geologists were camping in Samudra Tapu near Uttarakhands Kanatal to study the Chandra basin glacier. Around 6.45 am, a porter ran to them screaming and pointing at a white object, between three and four feet high, hovering above a mountain ridge. Sir, the snow man is coming, he yelled in fright. Anil Kulkarni, a senior ISRO scientist, and his team members saw a robot-like object floating a few inches above the ground along the mountain slope, towards the camp. Kulkarni and geologist Sunil Dhar took pictures as they ran to meet it. The strange object had a cylindrical head with two balloon-shaped attachments, a body, hands and two legs. sign for tourist attraction Little A Le Inn and flying saucer near Area 51 in Nevada, a US military base rumoured to house extraterrestrials and spaceships Dhar was quoted saying that it seemed to be walking, planting and pacing its steps like a human being. Later tests confirmed that the scientists were not suffering from high-altitude hallucinations. The objects motion shared similarities with other UFO sightings from all over the world such as adept manoeuvres on ground and in air, gravity-defying movements, changing colours and vertical takeoffs that contradict all known aeronautical laws. In 2011, the Prime Ministers Office confirmed the ISRO report in a written reply to Parliament though details about what happened later are yet to be available to the public. Local news reports in Meghalaya surfaced about a mysterious object from the sky that dried all the water and killed plants in a small village near Cherrapunji: there is even a cafe named after it in the locality. Last year, a Madurai resident saw a silent parallelogram-type object with four lights each in front and back, and two lights in both corners flying awayincidentally visuals from Punjab months later showed that the Ludhiana flying object had a similar design. In 2014, archaeologists in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, found 10,000-year-old cave drawings that resemble aliens and spacecraft. In 2013, a spaceship was reportedly observed flying above the Taj Mahal. We dont know who clicked the Taj Mahal photo but it has become famous in the ufology circles, Hitesh Yadav, a UFO investigator, told the media. In October 2015, women working in paddy fields in Mysuru district reportedly saw a flying vehicle from which some humanoid forms emerged. In February 2016, there were media reports about the Army shooting down a UFO in Barmer, Rajasthan. In June 2018, a UFO sighting in the 2 km no-fly zone near Prime Minister Narendra Modis residence in Delhi put security forces on high alert. Two months later, students in a Manipur hostel claimed to have spotted a strange disc hovering in the sky. The Centre dismissed the UFO sighting on behalf of ISRO. THE GOD MYSTERY Mythology is a minefield of beliefs and interpretation. Pop theories suggest the vimanas of ancient India could have been real aerial vehicles. In the Mahabharata, they are described as airborne chariots powered by winged lightning, which could reach both the solar and galactic regions. Valmiki writes about two-storeyed celestial chariots that roar off into the sky like comets. Note Sundara Kanda, Chapter 8, Verse 6; an alien race called the bhutaganas controlled Ravanas flying machine: Vahanti yam kundala-sobhitanana mahasana vyomacara nisacarah| vivrtta-vidhvasta- visla-locana mahajava bhutaganah sahasrasah|| (Those wonderful vimana aircraft roamed the sky at extremely high speed, controlled by thousands of evil creatures with big round eyes, with helmets on their heads.) Some weapons in the epics describe those not of this earth. Humans, who have survived by dominating creatures a hundred times their size, are unique. Only they had the curiosity and courage to explore unknown frontiers, formed religions and sent out spacecraft in search of alien life. In 1954, Harold T Wilkins formulated the Ancient Astronaut Theory that the earth had extraterrestrial visitors who influenced the development of human cultures, technology and faiths. According to Wilkins, evolution was not just natural selection, but was also a result of DNA manipulation of early beings (Hominids). As human understanding of the Universe grows through science, so does speculation about life in outer space. Scientists are stepping on the galactic gas to discover planets outside the Solar System. By 2000, 50 exoplanets were found. (Exoplanet refers to any planet existing beyond the Milky Way. Some are rogue planets that circle the centre of the galaxy without being attached to a star.) By 2013, there were around 850 planets in over 800 planetary systems. More than 20 exoplanets the size of Earth orbit in a habitable zone around their stars. The fact that there are more planets than stars further suggests the probability of alien life. David Weintraub, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, predicts that the number of exoplanets could reach one million by 2045 like the stars, almost uncountable. THE GOD FACTOR Alien life becoming a reality could affect religion seriously. In 2014, NASA controversially awarded $1.1 million to the Center for Theological Inquiry based in New Jersey to study the societal implications of astrobiology. Writes Weintraub in Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: When in 1543 CE Copernicus hurled the Earth into orbit around the Sun, the subsequent intellectual revolution... swept the discarded remnants of the Aristotelian, geocentric Universe into the trash bin of history. The Copernican revolution demystified god and challenged the human ego. As the foundation for later changes in liberal sciences and philosophical studies, the Copernicus effect led to religious decline in modern Europe. But alien theorists find Egypt and Latin America fertile ground for alien visits. The construction of the over 4,500-year-old Pyramids at Giza and the 1,000-year-old Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman is attributed to gods who arrived from the heavens above. Both are marvels of precise engineering and fitting of massive stones that weigh between 1,000 and 360 tonnes each. Even using modern technology, such a feat would pose a formidable challenge. Researchers have discovered a huge spiral geoglyph (large motifs on the ground) in Rajasthan covering almost 1,00,000 sq m, much like the Nazca Lines in Peru that can be seen only from air. Scientists are intrigued how any ancient culture, however advanced, was able to create patterns of such gigantic proportions on the ground even though their people could not fly. UFO fanboys offer explanations that range from the speculative to the outright incredulous. Some of them believe that aliens mined gold, which they used to reflect sun rays to heat up their dying planet. Then and at present, gold is a compulsive human obsession, the metal with the mystic touch. A great golden disc was worshipped at the Inca sun temple Qorikancha, which stargazers believe represents a gold-plated UFO that landed in front of Emperor Atahualpa, who was reputed to be personally friendly with the sky gods. Another bizarre theory is that the Great Pyramid of Giza is a reactor (like a nuclear reactor) used by extraplanetary visitors to manufacture gold. Superstition, fantasy or whatever it may be called, it is anthropologically evident that our ancestors were full of wonder about the Universe. INEXPLICABLE FLYING OBJECTS Britains first astronaut Helen Sharman, who visited the Soviet Mir space station in 1991, has said that aliens exist, theres no two ways about it. Kevin Knuth, Associate Professor of Physics, University at Albany, State University of New York, is convinced that aliens are real. Astronomers spend most of their life examining space. The oft-repeated doubt is, if UFOs exist why cant astronomers see them with their powerful telescopes? Apparently they do. In 1977, astrophysicist and space scientist Peter Sturrock at Stanford University sent 2,611 questionnaires regarding spaceship sightings to members of the American Astronomical Society. Of the 1,356 responses he received, 62 astronomers (4.6 percent) reported or recorded flying objects they could not explain. This percentage tallies with the approximately five percent of UFO sightings without logical explanations. Avi Loeb, Professor of Science at Harvard University, (see box) says that intergalactic visitors came to earth as recently as 2017. In his book, Extraterrestrial, Loeb claims that a cigar-shaped alien object known as Oumuamua entered the Solar System at 196,000 mph on September 6, 2017, making for the star Vega, approximately 25 light years away. It mysteriously changed brightness every eight hours. It was caught by the University of Hawaiis Pan-STARRS1 telescope at the Observatory on Haleakala, Maui, funded by NASAs Near-Earth Object Observations Program. Loeb argues that Oumuamua is a piece of space garbagetechnology discarded by a civilisation on another planet. Gurunath Gandhari, Patna-based retired astrophysicist, says that speculating about the possibility of multiple universes and their inhabitants is a healthy way of exploring what more could be out there. Only if the scientific community moves ahead with the assumption that there is something out there that they need to unearth, can they really get to do it. Scepticism will never let that happen, he adds. IN BAD FAITH The cult series Star Trek begins with the lines, Space the final frontier. Not any more. The Universe, as the Upanishads say, is limitless. In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to explore the outer planets in our Solar System. Voyager 1 crossed the boundary of interstellar space in 2012. Both are still space-borne. They carry recorded messages called Golden Recordsimages and natural sounds, spoken greetings in 55 languages and musical selections from different cultures and eras, which are inscribed on 12-inch gold-plated copper disks. A committee chaired by the great astronomer Carl Sagan selected the contents of the cultural time capsules. If extraterrestrials exist, where are they, ask agnostics. The answers perhaps lie in the Fermi Paradox, formulated by nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950. He asked, Where is everybody? The Fermi Paradox illustrates the contradiction between our wanting proof of alien civilisations and the presumption that denies them. According to him, the galaxy contains about 300 billion stars, some of which are billions of years older than the Sun. A large percentage of them is likely to house millions of habitable planets. He calculated that it would take a civilisation like ours with space technology between five and 50 million years to colonise the Milky Way. There is a specific spot between a planet and its star where conditions for life become possible. Fermi postulated that conquest and decline would have happened many times already in the galaxys history, since the more technologically advanced a civilisation, the more likely it is to destroy itself. Hawkings universe has 100 billion galaxies containing hundreds of millions of stars. He said, To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like. According to him, alien life is extant in planets, the centre of stars or floating in space. Several experts say that UFO sightings are explainable by logic and can justify space phenomena. Even if some of them are not explainable, it could be because of extraterrestrial intelligence. They require further research and understanding. New spatial technology will hopefully introduce us to more such intelligence. Till then, we cannot dismiss anything without research, says Dr Koya Venkateshwara Rao, Secretary, Jana Vignana Vedika Scientific Society, a Hyderabad-based body of rationalists. The reason why scientists cannot fully comprehend the scope of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is that they keep it within their chosen disciplines. The oldest contests in the world are between science and religion. SETI has three guiding principles, all of which diminish the human ego. First is Natures Uniformity Principle, which assumes that what happens on earth happens universally in all planets; the second is the Plenitude Principle that life is bound to form in the absence of inhibiting factors and the third is the Mediocrity Principle, which avers that Earth is not unique in the Universe. The last demeans the religious belief that God made man and placed him above other creatures in the order of things. If we are not special, then what are we? Astronaut Sharman had remarked that there is no greater beauty than looking at the Earth from up high. What highly developed alien civilisations, if they exist, would see in this little planet eternally labouring in its elliptical journey through millennia is anybodys guess. Discovery changes the world. Discovery can also be a terrible thing. Spot your UFO Shape A UFO is almost always described as something with an unconventional forma disk or cigar shape sans wings being the most common Silent motion Though UFOs exceed the speed of sound significantly, they almost travel through a vacuum-like space, resulting in no sound at all Appearance Most sightings describe UFOs as being bright lights in the sky. Even in the rare captured images, all that is seen is a bright ball of light. There are also no vapour trails. Anti-gravity A UFO supposedly has no visible propulsion system. This could be the reason that it can travel at an extraordinary speed and disappear in the blink of an eye. Many have also reported how an extraterrestrial object has the ability to initiate a vertical climb or make sudden turns. Ability to travel across environments Some sightings describe how a UFO easily enters the ocean water without creating a ripple, despite moving at twice the speed of nuclear subs A Galaxy of Stars and Planets The spiralling expanse of our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains at least 100 billion stars, our Sun among them. It is estimated that there is at least one planet for every star, which means theres something on the order of billions of planets in our galaxy alone, many in Earths size range. These planets outside of our Solar System are known as Exoplanets. 1,488 Neptune-Like Similar in size to our own Neptune and Uranus, with hydrogen and helium-dominated atmospheres. Mini-Neptunes, not found in our Solar System, are smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth. 4,401 Confirmed Exoplanets 1,352 Super-Earth Typically terrestrial, or rocky, and more massive than Earth but lighter than Neptune. They might or might not have atmospheres. 165 Terrestrial Earth-sized, or smaller, mostly made of rock and metal. Some could possess oceans or atmospheres and perhaps other signs of habitability. 1,391 Gas Giants The size of Saturn, or Jupiter, or much larger. They include hot Jupiters scorching planets in close orbits around their stars. 5 Unknown Confirmed exoplanets have been validated by multiple observations. Kepler (telescope) candidates have an 80-90 percent probability to be actual discoveries but have yet to be verified. Source: NASA (With inputs from Ayesha Singh, Medha Dutta Yadav & Manju Latha Kalanidhi) Prabhu Chawla By Dear Mamata Di, Every victory is an opportunity. Every loss is a possibility. Your electoral defeat by your own protege Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram hasnt doused your fighting spirit which fuelled TMCs cyclonic triumph over the formidable BJP, which put men, money and machine to depose you from Writers Building. It was the ugliest political battle of your life. The BJPs campaign was led by omniscient orator Narendra Modi supported by a humongous party organisation. You are the second woman chief minister to win three consecutive terms after Sheila Dixit in Delhi. And you are the only regional leader who has thrived in the Modi-dominated political mandala. But after victory comes grace and greatness. The choicest invectives and adjectives were hurled at you. But the voters of Bengal chastised the BJP for the Didi- o-Didi catcalls. Now, they expect you to rule, not rail. Election after election, they have given you more seats and a higher share of the votes in the Assembly, not for indulging in a war of words with the Prime Minister and other BJP leaders. After the viciously vindictive verbal war, you could have demolished your adversaries with silence and by extending constructive cooperation to those who are unable to digest your well-deserved victory. You may not have yet become a credible national alternative with an acceptable ideology. But Mamata Didi is now a pan India brand with a difference. Never before has so much time and money been spent on TV and other platforms to discuss the impact of the Mamata Metaphor on national politics. You are not one of those politicians who were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Like Modi, you have a lower middle-class background. A Brahmin you may be, but your cotton sari and hawai chappal persona places you apart from other netas. But your post-win rhetoric does not reflect the posture of a victor. When you assert that we want PM Modi removed, it betrays misplaced confidence. You cant, even if you wish to, topple mighty Modi who enjoys the highest popular ratings and almost two thirds majority in the Lok Sabha. You have an outside chance of marginally diminishing this advantage, if you rise above personal peeves. It is easy to understand your indignation when the threat to your party is continuous and Central agencies are unleashed against your ministers. But can West Bengal flourish through incessant confrontations with the Centre and Modi personally? You always mention the Constitution. It provides certain privileges to prime ministers which chief ministers arent entitled to. A chief minister is not expected to boycott the Prime Minister or display anger by walking out of meetings. The Prime Minister is a constitutionally protected institution. During the past seven years, you have rarely attended a meeting called by Modi. You are perhaps the only CM who has been consistently dismissive of him as nobody. This may be prompted by the BJPs intolerance towards your defiance and posing a challenge to its icon. You erred by not reading the right signals. Bengals voters gave the BJP 40 per cent of the ballots and 18 MPs in 2019-2020. Like many states, Bengal thinks national during national elections and local during local elections. And Defection Dramas contributed handsomely to BJPs poll fortunes. You must realise that you have fallen into the saffron trap. BJPs aims to create a Bengal narrative as a nationally politically and economically integrated unit with Kolkata as an investment and conference destination like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad as before. After the Left and the Congress lost their relevance in Bengal, the BJP made a grab for the vacated space. Its objective is to provide an ideologically nationalist alternative to a regional party which survives on minority appeasement and assumed cultural identity. In protecting your local turf, you sacrificed the national outlook you had acquired as an active Congress leader. You fought the Communists to protect Bengals culture and oppose their exclusive ideology. Only you could demolish their three decade-rule because of your moxie as a champion of the right cause and the marginalised. Unfortunately, your party has been infiltrated by the same elements which had converted Bengal into a bloody battlefield of political hatred. Please dont forget the axiom that the most dangerous moment comes with victory. After the election, the numerous political murders and displacement of your foes have dulled the sheen of your magnificent triumph. You could have taken a tough stand by punishing the culprits and assuring your protection to people who didnt vote for you. Your complaints against the Centre about harassment may be genuine. The hyperactive Governors antics are irritating you. But your aggressive posturing may initiate more adverse Central actions against your ministers, civil servants and supporters. Show magnanimity and forget the past and current torture for a rewarding future. You may not have revealed your prime ministerial ambitions, yet. But your close confidantes have. Now that you have put in place your succession plans, your acceptability beyond Bengals borders would depend on your ability to adjust and accept. By electing you thrice in a row, the ordinary manush decisively rejected elitist domination in state politics. Almost all other chief ministers belong to a dynasty or a caste cartel. The rest lose connectivity beyond their geographical boundaries. Successful CMs like Naveen Patnaik have chosen the middle path of selective confrontation and mutually gainful consensus. India needs an assertive Opposition led by credible leaders. Barring Sharad Pawar, no other challenger has the stature to bring the fragmented parties together. You would add to his political craft by becoming his ally. Both of you along with others offer a better and credible alternative idea of India and not just an alternative individual to replace Modi. You are bound to lose to Modi in your personality driven endeavour. The Gandhis are blinded by their lust for power inspite of losing their lustre. Your admirers and promoters define you as Maa Durga. In Hindu mythology, Durga acquires much better traction when placed on an equal pedestal with Ram. With the saffron rise in Bengal at the cost of the Congress and the Reds, you have to tread a careful path. You will flounder if you place Bengal above Bharat. After all, numerous Bengali scholars and saints have contributed to making India what it is today. Modi can survive without Mamata. But Mamata may find it difficult to thrive without Modi. The battle is over. Not the war. Talking consensus, instead of taking umbrage, is the best way for both leaders to reach the trillion-dollar horizon together once the pandemic is conquered. Or, else the epidemic of hatred will spill over the borders of Bengal and taint the national nature of your destiny. Bring more of Bharat to Bengal for its transformation into Sonar Bangla. prabhu chawla prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla By Express News Service IS SARS-CoV-2 of natural origin or is it engineered? This is the question haunting not just scientists but people around the world that has fuelled conspiracy theories. Lately, the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, had leaked from the lab of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in Wuhan, the capital of Central Chinas Hubei province, is gaining ground, albeit without credible scientific evidence to show. However, speculation and theories continue. The original one was that China was in the midst of producing bioweapons to target enemy populations, and this gained ground at least in the minds of people considering that the USA and India are number 1 and 2 countries that are most affected by the pandemic. And both the countries are prominent members of the Quad, along with Australia and Japan. China has been vehemently criticising this as a military alliance aimed at containing its maritime influence in the Asian region. EXPRESS ILLUSTRATION A counter-charge has also been fired by China at the USA last year saying that, in 2003, the latter had engineered the original SARS virus to target China. However, one theory that is not so much a conspiracy theory, is that of an unintentional leak after the virus was engineered as part of gain-of-function (GoF) research to further understand drug targets for more virulent viruses, in this case SARS-CoV-2. GoF research involves intentionally altering microbes to increase pathogenesis and transmissibility and identify types of hosts that bacteria/ virus can infect. This aims at improved predictions of emerging infectious diseases and developing vaccines and therapeutics. The SARS-CoV-2 is known to be genetically closest to a virus called RATG13, which is also from the family of coronaviruses and was discovered first in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus affinis), in 2013 in the Yunnan province in South China. Researchers found that the genome of RATG13 is 96 per cent identical to the SARSCoV- 2 virus, which has so ferociously afflicted the humans through a pandemic that has lasted over one-and-a-half years. One of the differences expressed was that RATG13 did not target the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in the human cells, like SARS-CoV-2 does so lethally to enter human cells. This lethal factor in SARS-CoV-2 went on to infect humans to claim 37.64 lakh lives and affect 17.48 crore people across the world. An Oxford study has lately found that bats were not sold in the wet markets of Wuhan, although research on bats was being conducted at the WIV. Was it bioengineering or natural mutation that provided SARS-CoV-2 its lethal virulence? Then there is the question whether it was a leak from the lab that led the virus into the general population; and if it was, whether it was intentionally done. Viruses are known to evolve fast. The variations in the furin cleavage site in the spike protein of the SARSCoV- 2, is the one in question that has made the virus so deadly, and with so many variants. This cleavage in the protein is the virus key to latch on to the human cells and infect them. Last year, in January, a group of Indian researchers from IIT Delhi discovered that SARSCoV- 2s spike protein had as many as four genetic insertions, which they said would be naturally impossible, indicating that the virus had been engineered to be more lethal than its fellow-viruses in the coronavirus family. However, that was not conclusively proved, and remained a speculation as the preprint of the paper was withdrawn. Experts say fighting the virus and whether China has played mischief should be taken as two different issues, with focus on the former as priority in the health realm for the safety of mankind. The latter is in the realm of international politics and should be dealt with through a thorough probe followed with appropriate actions depending on whether the virus leak was intentional or not. In the realm of the former, there are developments taking place. Scientists at the US Department of Energys (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have published the first detailed atomic-level model of the SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein bound to a human protein essential for maintaining the lining of the lungs. The model showing how the two proteins interact has been published in the journal Nature Communications in June first week. It explains how the virus could cause extensive lung damage and escape the lungs to infect other organs in especially vulnerable COVID-19 patients. The findings can accelerate the search for drugs to block the most severe effects of the disease. A study by a group of researchers from Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA, has evaluated the impact of exposure to framed messages about origins of COVID-19. They tested four hypotheses. Two focussed on whether it was of zoonotic origin or human-engineered, and two on impacts of beliefs on the origin and the desire to penalize China or support increased funding for biomedical research. The study concluded highlighting the importance of finding ways to combat the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories related to this global pandemic. The spread of the COVID-19 virus has been an accompanying epidemic of misinformation, eroding trust in science and misleading individuals about the most effective precautions to take to quell the virus and ensure safety, the study says. Nirad Mudur FURIN CLEAVAGE Proponents of the lab-leak theory focus on part of the spike protein of the coronavirus that makes the pathogen more dangerous to humans: the furin cleavage site CONSPIRACY THEORIES PLAN-DEMIC THEORY This theory supports the view that the virus was deliberately engineered and developed in a lab to cause a pandemic. An ex-secret service officer from Israel Dany Shoham was the first to broach the Wuhan Lab-engineered SARS-CoV-2 theory. The American far-right has latched on to the preprint of research by Hong Kong scientist Li-Meng Yan who. The preprint said that the virus was modified in the lab, and was not of natural origin Chinese version of Plan-demic theory is that it was engineered by the US Army at Fort Detrick ENGINEERED FOR RESEARCH? One theory is that SARSCoV- 2 got leaked after it was engineered as part of gainof- function (GoF) research to further understand drug targets for more virulent viruses, in this case SARS-CoV-2 GoF research involves intentionally altering microbes to increase pathogenesis and transmissibility, and identify types of hosts that bacteria/ virus can infect. This is meant to aid vaccine & drug R&D 5G NETWORK CONSPIRACY? Conspiracy theorists in February 2020 used social media groups to spread allegations of a link between the 5G network and Covid-19 spread. They claimed the Wuhan outbreak was caused by electromagnetic fields after the rollout of 5G tech WHAT IS SUPPORTING WUHAN LAB LEAK THEORY? Amrutha Kosuru By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: A cocktail druga combination of neutralising antibodies, Casirivimab and Imdevimabhas been approved for restricted emergency use by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in adults and pediatric patients with SARS-CoV 2 infection and who are at high risk of contracting Covid-19, but dont require oxygen. Andhra Medical College principal Dr P V Sudhakar told TNIE, In clinical trials, the infusion of the drug in Covid-19 patients has reduced hospitalisation cases and the risk of death by 70 per cent. However, the drug has to be given within five to six days of the onset of the symptoms. The Cocktail drug needs to be given soon after the infection (RT PCR positivity) and within 10 days of symptom onset. The earlier it is administered, the better, he said. The medication was approved by the Drug Controller General of India towards May-end. Currently, government hospitals in Visakhapatnam do not have the drug, Dr Sudhakar said. The State government has not acquired the drug so far, he confirmed. He said the reason may be probably because the severity of the virus and the number of patients has decreased. KIMS Icon Hospital consultant pulmonologist Dr KS Phaneendra Kumar explained data suggests that the susceptibility of the antibodies was maintained even against the variants in UK, South Africa, Brazil, New York, and California. The mutants of some of these variants are also found in Indian double mutant variants. The combination of Casirivimab and Imdevimab comprise two noncompeting, virus-neutralising monoclonal antibodies. Casirivimab and Imdevimab bind different, non-overlapping epitopes ( also called antigenic determinant) on the SARS-CoV 2 spike (S) glycoprotein and block entry of the virus into the cells. Viral/antibody complex is then cleared by the immune system, he said. Dr Kumar said as the success rate of the drug is high, it is easier to obtain it. It ensures that oxygen levels dont drop, sugar levels dont fluctuate, he added. He said many private hospitals in the city currently are using the drug in Covid-19 treatment. Dr Kumar explained that the drug shows promising results. The drug costs approximately Rs 60,000. The approved dosage in India is 1,200 mg (600 mg of each drug) administered by intravenous infusion or subcutaneous route. Clinical data suggests that these neutralising antibodies are generally well tolerated, he added. Possible side effects of Casirivimab and Imdevimab include fever, difficulty in breathing, chills, fatigue, discomfort, weakness, nausea, headache, throat irritation and rash. Severe hypersensitivity reactions have been reported rarely, he said. ALSO WATCH: Bosky Khanna By Express News Service Whats in a name, asked the famous playwright Shakespeare. Turns out everything, as is the recent case in point from Karnatakas Sakleshpur where two elephants were captured. This particular rescue and rehabilitation operation caught the attention of a section of conservationists when they heard the foot patrolling team call out, "Mountain and Gunda are caught." Earlier, Abhimanyu, Bheema and Arjun, the old camp tuskers who have been with the state forest department for a long time, had become of the centre of attention of photographers, conservationists and foresters. Now the names of troubleshooting tuskers are raising eyebrows among those who oppose naming the wildlife. However, there is another group that defends the staffers and says that naming the tuskers helps in easy identification for capture or to keep track of. The patrolling team of the forest department in the state name these jumbos not only to track and keep a watch over them but also find it useful when it comes to sending SMS alerts to other staffers and keep movement of the herds. Foresters posted in Hassan division have named the two notorious tuskers who were captured on Thursday. The 20-year-old tusker was called Mountain not due to his size but because of the location where he was sighted, which was near a mountain the region. The other 30-year-old was named Gunda which means round and not Goonda or rogue. The ground patrolling team and watchers name these tuskers based on their looks, the location of their sighting or places where a death has been reported. This practise is done for easy identification, communication and even to capture them, explained a senior official from the forest department The staffers have also named the three radio-collared matriarch herd heads. The tuskers whose names are Old Belt, Beetamma and Bhuvaneshwari were radio collared in January this year. So instead of saying, a herd led by radio collared on (particular date and number) is moving, for quick communication we call Old Belt is moving to the waterbed. Since her herd details are already known, communication is quick and action is swifter, the official said. Three other tuskers in the division which are being traded were also christened. They are identified as Karadi (because of its colour), Bheema (because of the size) and Chota Bheem (owing to its smaller size and named after the famous cartoon character). Bosky Khanna By Express News Service BENGALURU: With the unlock period all set to begin from June 12, Karnataka forest department officials are also hopeful that they will be able to open wildlife safaris in the state. The safaris were kept shut not only because of the lockdown but also due to the recent directions issued to all the states by the Environment Ministry and the National Tiger Conservation Authority. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change on June 7 had directed all states to close down all tourism activities in tiger reserves after a lioness died of Covid-19 in Chennais Vandalur Zoo. The latest incident of zoo animals getting infected with Covid-19 has once again indicated the high likelihood of disease transmission from affected human being to captive wild animals. A similar transmission may also take place in tiger reserves. In view of this, until further instructions, all tourism activities will remain closed, the order said. However, officials state that this is not required. While caution is essential and it will be feasible to close down places with high human interference such as zoos, the same may not be applicable in wildlife safaris. So closing down tourism for this purpose is not feasible. We have submitted our request and are still awaiting confirmation from the ministry, a senior forest department official said, further adding that staffers in Karnataka are better protected as they have been vaccinated and a majority of them are locals who stay away from urban civilisation. Going a step ahead, some activists have suggested that for caution, the ministry should instead make it mandatory to carry a negative RT-PCR test report on arrival at forested properties for stay or safari, so that staffers and wildlife remain safe. Keeping forests close will make these areas more vulnerable to poaching and affect the economy at large, Earlier in April 2020 also, the ministry had issued similar orders to shut down tourism in the wake of rising covid cases. Team TNIE By Express News Service The unlocking in a phased manner from June 14 may be the preferred way to gradually get back to normal living. But it has thrown up major challenges to keeping focus on the larger objective - that of avoiding a deadlier third wave of Covid-19, especially when the vaccination programme is yet to cover over 95 per cent of the eligible population that is largely oblivious to Covid-appropriate behaviour. The State Governments decision to unlock has come when the current wave of the pandemic is still far worse than the first. Although numbers are on the decline, it is only in relative terms. The daily additions to the Covid-19 tally are still high. The highest addition in a single day during the first wave was 10,947 on October 7 last year. In the second wave, the highest single-day addition was 50,112 on May 5. On Saturday, it was 9,785, but still close to the highest count in the first wave. On the Covid-19 death front, the highest number of fatalities in a day during the first wave was 179 on September 18, 2020, while the second waves highest was 626 on May 23. On Saturday, it was 144, just 35 short of the highest in the first wave. The first waves peak in active cases was 1,20,929 on October 10 last year. But the number is as high as 1,91,796 on Saturday. This, while the vaccination drive is still far from covering a good percentage of the population. PACE OF VAX DRIVE Health Department data shows only 30.04 per cent of the estimated 16 lakh health care workers across the state are vaccinated. This is the largest segment vaccinated. Merely 1.12 per cent of the two crore front line workers, just 13.73 per cent among the 1.66 crore-strong 45-plus age-group segment, and only 0.02 per cent of the 3.25 crore in the 18-44 age-group segment, have been vaccinated. With just 29,94,425 of the 7.07 crore vaccine-eligible population vaccinated, a mere 4.23 have been covered so far. Dr Anand Ambali, vice-president of Geriatric Society of India and expert at BLDE Hospital, Vijayapura, says, People aged between 18 to 45 years have to get immunized as early as possible. The vaccine is the only weapon to fight this virus. The government has to step up the vaccination drive to immunize the maximum number of people in the next few weeks. Dr Giridhar Babu, epidemiologist at the Indian Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru, and member of the states Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee, says, Meticulous micro-planning and energetic mobilisation campaigns are necessary to improve the vaccination coverage. Lessons from other supplementary immunisation programmes - such as measles - will be helpful. Besides, it is also important to address issues among population groups who have concerns about vaccines. According to Dr B Unnikrishnan, Additional Dean and Professor of Community, Medicine Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Mangaluru, as the third wave is likely to affect those who have not been infected, including children, it is important now to take stock at the local level and find out if we are prepared. The preparation should begin now. At the district level, micro-planning has to be done. Evaluate the resources available, as we have already seen a lot of deficiencies in resources in the second wave which was the main reason for the virus spread. Herd immunity can be achieved either by infection or by vaccination. So, vaccination is the key, he says. Dr S A Kora, Head of Department of Medicine at B V V Sanghas S Nijalingappa Medical College and Hanagal Shri Kumareshwar Hospital and Research Centre, Bagalkot, says, Although the government is geared up for unlocking, it has to enforce strict rules to prevent mass gatherings until 50 per cent of the total population is immunized. INTER-DISTRICT TRAVEL The government has excluded 11 districts from the unlock phase, where lockdown restrictions will continue until further notice. These districts are Bengaluru Rural, Chikkamagalur, Shivamogga, Davanagere, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Mandya, Belagavi and Kodagu. The positivity rate here is still on the higher side due to which inter-district travel from these places to districts where partial unlocking has been allowed is not allowed. A major challenge seems to be peoples movement between Mysuru (which is one of the 11 districts where lockdown will continue) and Bengaluru as many native Mysureans who are working in Bengaluru and are planning to move to Bengaluru following the partial lifting of lockdown in the latter. Frequent shuttling between these two cities, especially when one of the districts is having a lockdown, might be a great chance for virus exposure. The district administration needs to focus on this. Also, movement of labourers from Chamarajanagar (also among the 11 districts) to Mysuru or Bengaluru can fuel the spread of Covid-19. This needs to be focused, says V Santhosh, member of an NGO working in Covid relief in Mysuru. Dr Kora says, The district administration should restrict inter-district movement until the positivity rates come down below 5 per cent in the state. It is not just about the people, even movement of vehicles, excluding ones linked to health emergencies, should be restricted for the next two weeks. Dr Unnikrishnan of KMC says there cannot be a one-size-fits-all strategy. It should be a district-appropriate strategy as every district has its own problems. Hence district-level focus is crucial to contain its spread. Dr B Rajendra Kumar, senior physician who is treating hundreds of home-isolated patients through phone and WhatsApp calls in Kolar, says as the district borders Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and with several routes to enter the district, The lockdown should have continued for another fortnight with existing stringent conditions. COVID-APPROPRIATE PUBLIC BEHAVIOUR Experts have pointed out that with mutated variants of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses still on the way, it is of utmost importance for people to take responsibility for their own safety. District Surgeon, Kalaburagi district Hospital, Dr Ambaraya Rudrawadi, says people tend to assume that the governments step of relaxing the lockdown norms means being allowed to do whatever they like. If they start mixing with groups by attending fairs and programmes while forgetting to maintain social distance and not wearing masks, Covid cases might increase again. People should learn from the terrible memories of the second wave and follow Covid-19 protocol until the disease vanishes. They should realise that the governments decision to relax lockdown is to enable leading a more normal day-to-day, and not to risk their lives, he noted. Dr Rajgopal Shenoy, a medical professional from Kasturba Medical College & Hospital, Manipal, says "But they (the state government) should have taken consideration of population as another criterion for unlocking. Places which see big crowds should have more stringent containment measures. Public awareness about social distance is still poor and just out of fear of the police, people wear masks, that too not properly. He says at least for another four weeks, people should assume their place is locked and behave accordingly. Local administrations should keep an eye on garbage disposals as, during the rainy season, the fight is not just against Covid-19 but also to keep a check on diseases like malaria and dengue, which could complicate matters, he warns. Geriatrician Dr Ambali says that as children are suspected to be more vulnerable in the third wave, they have to remain indoors and schools should remain closed till the positivity rate falls to below 5 per cent. At present, it is 8.76 per cent and reducing. Health expert Dr Jagadish Nayal says, Awareness among the people is a must. A majority of people even today think curbing the spread of viruses is in the hands of the government. That notion needs to be changed. MAJOR CHALLENGES BEFORE STATE GOVT Inoculation drive 30.04%: Vaccinated among health care workers. 1.12%: Vaccinated among frontline workers. 13.73%: Vaccinated among 45+ age-group segment. 0.02%: Measly vaccinated among 18-44 age-group segment. INTER-DISTRICT MOVEMENT 11 districts to continue lockdown with existing stringent conditions. Fears raised over people crossing district borders. (With inputs from Karthik K K; Marx Tejaswi; Prakash Samaga; Mahesh Goudar; Udaya Kumar B R; Divya Cutinho; Raghu Koppar; Prajna G R; Ramkrishna Badseshi; Thipperudrappa B; Mallikarjun Hiremath;G Subhash Chandra; & V Velayudham) Iffath Fathima By Express News Service BENGALURU: It is important for parents to get vaccinated much before the arrival of the possible third wave of Covid-19 so that the transmission rate of coronavirus from them to their children is reduced, opined experts during a webinar on the topic Covid-19 and Children organised on Saturday. Dr Giridhar Babu, epidemiologist from the Public Health Foundation of India, and member of Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee, who was one of the panelist, said that every parent needs to get vaccinated to keep their children safe. The possible third wave, according to experts, is more likely to attack children. Countries like the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Italy have already hit their fourth wave. However, severity of the infection there is less as the majority of the population is already vaccinated. Similarly, to prevent high cases in Indias third wave--- that is likely to hit us in November- December this year--- we need to carry out mass vaccination programmes, he said. He, however, said there was no reason to worry as the severity of the infection in children will be less compared to adults. Cases requiring ICU admissions and death rate among children are less, he added. He said the Union Government should approve emergency use of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to vaccinate children. With post-Covid complications seen in adults in the first and second waves, children too might face complications in the third wave, said Dr Sanjiv Lewin, professor of pediatrics and chief medical services, St Johns Medical College. After a child recovers from Covid-19, parents should monitor them. Children between the age group of 6 and 14 might see rashes or persistent fever. They need to visit a doctor. Further, parents should not push their kids to perform activities as they might still experience fatigue. They should communicate with their children and teach them breathing exercises to calm their mind as Covid-19 can affect them mentally, he added. Further, he said that pregnant women and lactating mothers should also get vaccinated after consulting their physicians. The webinar was organised by UNICEF India in partnership with Sahodaya and Indian Pediatrics Association. By Express News Service KANNUR: Police on Sunday arrested the stepfather and mother for brutally thrashing their one-year-old girl. According to the police, 39-year-old Puthenveettil Ratheesh and Chengom Vittayarh Ramya (24) have been taken into custody under the Juvenile Justice Act. Ramya has been booked as she failed to protect her daughter from being beaten up by her husband. The child suffered severe injuries in the incident that took place on Saturday at 8 PM, said an officer at Kelakam police station in Kannur. It is said that, Ratheesh got angry with the girl as she urinated inside the house and in a fit of rage beat her up with a piece of firewood. The incident came to light when Ramyas parents took the girl to the government hospital in Perabur. When the hospital authorities found out that the girl was injured on her face and head due to the beatings, they immediately reported to the nearest police station. The girl was later shifted to Government Medical College hospital in Kannur where her condition is stated to be stable. Kerala State Human Rights Commission chairman KV Manoj Kumar has ordered a detailed investigation into the incident. B SREEJAN By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The livelihood of at least 73 lakh people in the state has been hit by the ongoing lockdown.Of the 1.27-crore strong workforce in Kerala, 57.7% work in manufacturing, construction, trade, transport and hotels and restaurant industries that have been directly hit by the lockdown. While most of them are not earning anything, a few companies that are closed provide sustenance allowances to workers as a humanitarian gesture. Owing to the lockdown, the loss of wages suffered by self-employed and casual workers in the state amounted to Rs 350 crore per day, a study by the Kerala State Planning Board on the economic impact of last years lockdown has found. It said one month of lockdown deprived the states workforce Rs 10,500 crore in wages. The state government, which is gearing up to extend till June 23 the lockdown that started on May 8, hasnt introduced any cash transfer scheme for employees facing financial crunch, other than extending the monthly free grocery kit distribution for all families by another month. As per the periodic labour force survey of 2018, out of the 1.27 crore workers in Kerala, 48.1 lakh were self-employed and 43.8 lakh were regular workers. The remaining 35.2 lakh were casual workers. The total workforce comprised 93.7 lakh men and 33.4 lakh women. The loss of wages is spread over all these categories, among which the service sector has taken a big blow. This sector, employing 65.6 lakh workers, is the largest source of employment in Kerala. The planning board study held in May last year also estimated that during the first quarter of 2020-21 fiscal when the national lockdown paralysed normal life, the state would suffer a shortfall of at least Rs 8,000 crore in the gross value addition (GVA). State heading towards severe crisis: Expert Like GDP (Gross Domestic Product), GVA indicates the gross value of economic produce except that GDP includes tax components while the latter records the pure value of the produce. If the state is locked down for a month, the loss of GVA suffered by the manufacturing sector would be Rs 6,600 crore. In the previous lockdown, when hotels and restaurants were fully shut, the monthly loss of GVA suffered by the sector was around Rs 15,000 crore. Economist B A Prakash said the estimated losses will be higher this time and the state is heading towards unprecedented financial crisis. Governments in many other countries took the health of the economy into account while unveiling measures to contain the virus. Unfortunately, our governments are not taking this angle seriously, said Prakash. He said the ideal way before the state government would be to restart the economy with reasonable restrictions. There can be a phased unlocking and even stricter monitoring of social distancing norms. Lets not deny people their livelihood and focus entirely on fighting the virus, he said. M P Prashanth By Express News Service KOZHIKODE: Efforts are on to track down the remaining Malayali Islamic State (IS) male cadre, even as India debates the pros and cons of bringing back the Malayali woman IS members who surrendered and are now lodged in Kabul jail. Though the exact number of Malayalis who joined IS and did hijra (migration) to other countries is not known, it is estimated there could be 60 such people, including women and children. Of them, at least four Malayalis are believed to be still alive in Afghanistan and Syria. Ashfaq Majeed and Sajid, both from Padanna in Kasaragod, were in the group that left Kerala to join IS in Nangahar province of Afghanistan in May and June 2016. The 17-member group, which included women and children, was led by Rashid Abdulla, an employee of Peace International School, Kozhikode. After the death of Rashid and others, the women and children had surrendered before security forces in Afghanistan last year and are currently in a Kabul jail. Indian intelligence agencies have interrogated Fathima alias Nimisha, Mariyam alias Merine, Ayesha alias Sonia Sebastian and Ruffeila in the jail. They have confirmed the death of all males in the group except Ashfaq and Sajid. Both were in contact with acquaintances in Kerala till March 2020. The killing of Malayalis in the attacks on a gurudwara in Kabul and a jail in Jalalabad was communicated to some media houses in Kerala in 2020 via the Telegram app from the account of one Abu Bara. Intelligence agencies suspect Abu could be either Ashfaq or Sajid as other Malayalis had been killed by then. There were unconfirmed reports that Ashfaq had surrendered and is now in some jail in Afghanistan. There is no information on Sajid since April, 2020. In the initial stages, the martyrdoms of the IS cadre in Afghanistan and Syria were promptly conveyed by other cadre to the relatives in Kerala through various social media platforms. However, as the Malayali members got killed one by one, the communication mechanism collapsed, making it difficult to ascertain how many were still alive. Besides the groups that left for Afghanistan, there were those that joined IS in Syria. They mainly comprised natives of Kannur. Among them, one Suhail from Valapattanam is believed to have surrendered and is now in a jail in Syria. Hashir, a native of Paravur who is believed to have joined the terror outfit Jabhat Al-Nusra in Syria in 2015, is suspected to be alive. By Express News Service JEYPORE: The second Covid wave has not deterred ganja smugglers, rather made them come up with new ways to keep their illegal trade thriving. Jeypore police on Saturday busted a new modus operandi of the drug peddlers by seizing around 1,277 kg of ganja from an oxygen cylinder laden truck which was en route to New Delhi from Visakhapatnam. Sources said the oxygen cylinders were imported from Vietnam. After the cylinders reached Visakhapatnam port, a transporter was hired to ferry the oxygen to the Red Cross Society of New Delhi. Accordingly, 150 oxygen cylinders were loaded in a container truck and the vehicle started for the destination on Friday evening. On Saturday, Jeypore Sadar police got information that ganja was being smuggled in a truck in Koraput area. Subsequently, a police team led by Jeypore Sadar IIC A Mahakud intercepted the container truck near Jeypore Ghat. On searching the vehicle, police found around 1,277 kg of ganja packed in bags and kept near the oxygen cylinders. Two drivers of the container, Jashpal and Lakhwinder Singh of Punjab were arrested. Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Jeypore AA Behera informed that during investigation, it was revealed that the smugglers had planned to unload the contraband at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Efforts are underway to identify the smugglers involved in the crime and nab them. However, our main job now is to ensure that the life-saving oxygen cylinders reach New Delhi on time. We have already informed the transporter to make arrangements to transport the oxygen in another container, the SDPO added. In the last few years, Koraput has become the most preferred source for ganja peddlers from across the country. Around 75 ganja smugglers belonging to Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Haryana have been lodged in Jeypore and Koraput jails in the last one and a half years. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: A man, who devised a novel way to beat the lockdown movement restrictions and also hoodwink vehicle finance officials by posing as an Army officer, was arrested by police on Saturday. Identified as Ratikant Satpathy of Daruthenga, he had pasted Army stickers both on the front and rear windscreens of his SUV. Police said Satpathy is an employee of a private company and not the owner of the SUV. The vehicle belongs to a man against whom a cheating case was earlier registered and is absconding. The SUV was also in loan default and on look out of finance company officials. Satpathy was nabbed after Dhananjay Hota of Nayapalli spotted him driving the vehicle bearing the registration number of his four-wheeler. In the last one year, Hota has received three challans of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,500 for various traffic violations which were reportedly committed by Satpathy. The bonafide owner of the four-wheeler has reportedly not cleared the loan of the vehicle. Satpathy was driving the same vehicle with fake registration number and Army stickers to hoodwink the cops during lockdown and to avoid the attention of the finance companys officials, said Nayapalli police. Police have registered a case in this connection and seized a cap with Army printed on it and the vehicle from his possession. Further investigation is on, police added. Jayakumar Madala By Express News Service TIRUCHY: A word-of-mouth information over tender invitation for extraction of hydrocarbons has sparked protests once again at Neduvasal in Pudukkottai district on Sunday. Condemning this decision taken by the central government, farmers staged protests and raised slogans against pipeline planted at Karukakuruchi village, 5 km from Neduvasal. The rumours over alleged tender invitations called by Centre to utilise defunct pipelines to extract hydrocarbons led to the protests. "We are hearing several pieces of information that the central government has invited tenders for bidders by July 10. This is totally against the welfare of the farmers and we condemn it. We want the state government to look into the issue and make sure that the project does not take off," said Arokiyaswamy, a farmer from Karambakudi village. It must be noted that Neduvasal falls under the Protected Special Agricultural Zone (PSAZ) which was passed by the state government in 2020. Under this government order, it prohibits industries from taking up non-agrarian projects in the delta region. When contacted, senior officials in the district administration said they have not received any official communication in this regard. "No official communication has been received till date, documents of similar nature were received through social media platforms," one of the officials said. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Siva V Meyyanathan, Minister for Environment said, "I will speak regarding this issue to the Industries Minister and Chief Minister MK Stalin. We are not sure why such a tender has been floated. The state government will take necessary action and make sure the project does not take off." Neduvasal became the centre of attention in 2017, after farmers and residents in the delta region staged widespread protests against a proposed hydrocarbon project, which was to be executed by Vedanta Limited and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited. Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By Express News Service CHENNAI: In early 2020, during the initial phase of the Covid pandemic in India, a lot was discussed about herd immunity and how it would drastically bring down the number of cases. Over a year later, we are still far from achieving it. What are the complexities of achieving herd immunity against Covid and why a great deal remains to be done? Why is it important? Herd immunity, also known as population immunity, is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection. When enough people (threshold population) have immunity against Covid, it would significantly reduce the rate of spread and contain transmission within smaller pockets of location. Effectively, it will restrict the pandemic. In Tamil Nadu, about 23 lakh people have tested Covid positive and almost 22 lakh have been vaccinated. This means that only about 6.4 per cent of the seven crore people in the State have immunity against Covid. We need at least four crore people in the State to be vaccinated, in order to approach herd immunity, said Dr P Kuganantham, senior epidemiologist. Early studies estimated that if 60 to 70 per cent population was immune to Covid, we would reach herd immunity. This has changed since. The current estimates require 85 to 95 per cent of people to become immune, according to the World Health Organisation. What caused this change? The mutating virus During the initial days of the pandemic, not only did experts think that herd immunity will be reached at 60 per cent, but also thought the transmission rate will drop rapidly after 40 per cent of the population became immune, said Dr H Kolandasamy, former Director of Public Health of Tamil Nadu. What they did not account for was the unusually high transmission rate of the disease, he added. Large segments of the population would have gained immunity if the disease was allowed to spread uncontrolled. However, this would have not only increased the number of deaths in a short period of time, but also increased the mortality rate itself due to overburdening of the system. So, mass vaccination drives and controlling of virus spread using lockdowns were the best options available to us. For a substantial portion of the population to be vaccinated, three factors play a crucial role; strategy for rolling out vaccine drives, efficacy of the vaccine and publics willingness to take it. We had effectively curtailed Polio through a successful vaccination drive. However, Polio virus mutates very slowly compared to the novel coronavirus. With newer Coronavirus variants on the rise, which are suspected to be more transmissible, estimating a threshold population for herd immunity and achieving it has become tough, opined Dr Uma Sekar, Associate Dean and professor of Microbiology at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Hospital. Incomplete vaccine data When the first vaccines against Covid were approved, many experts globally expected populations to achieve herd immunity within a few months. Vaccines available do not offer full immunity towards the new mutations. So we have some cases of breakthrough infections, wherein a vaccinated individual is asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, but continues to spread the disease, said Dr Sekar. Further, even though in small numbers, Tamil Nadu has observed breakthrough infections when a vaccinated person tests positive for the infection. Many who were infected in the first wave contracted the virus again. This means that we are yet to ascertain if immunity from both vaccination and infection is long term. We do not know if short term immunity will lead to herd immunity, said Dr Ashwin Karuppan, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Gleneagles Global Health City. The way forward Dr Karuppan also said that those vaccinated and tested Covid positive, however, had mild to no symptoms. Covid may not disappear and may continue to exist in pockets. But, with more data and enhanced vaccination drives, we may be in a better position to deal with it in the future, he said. Dr Kolandasamy, however, added that despite the poor vaccination rate and rapid mutations, four characteristics of the virus have remained constant. The mode of transmission of the virus, diagnostic technology, the preventive methods and treatment remains the same for all variants. As far as public health is concerned, the strategy to fight the disease has not changed at all. Slow the disease transmission until the threshold population is vaccinated, he concluded. ALSO WATCH | Why youngsters are more vulnerable in second Covid-19 wave ? Express News Service By NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday inaugurated 22 oxygen plants at nine hospitals in the national capital through video conferencing, and stated that Delhi is preparing for the third wave of the deadly pandemic. I pray to God that the third wave of Corona does not emerge, but if it does, Delhi has to prepare on a war footing and fight it together, said Kejriwal during the virtual event. He said that the indications of a third wave are coming from the UK where coronavirus cases are rising again despite 45 per cent of its population being vaccinated. So, we cannot afford to sit idle, he said, adding that the newly inaugurated plants have a total production capacity of 17.3 MT, and will strengthen the preparations to fight Covid. As many as 17 more oxygen plants will be started by July, he said. The Delhi government is also procuring oxygen tankers to aid the fight against a third wave, he said, adding that the previous wave, which in on the wane, was very dangerous. Expressing gratitude towards industries for their help in fighting the second wave, Kejriwal said the people of Delhi came together to combat the pandemic with struggle and discipline, and have succeeded in controlling it. The Delhi Chief Minister also thanked the Centre for extending help and corporates for the supporting the government on various issues. This is a huge development. I want to thank everyone who has supported us in this endeavour, including the Centre for supporting us. Want to thank the industries and corporates for their support during this pandemic, said the chief minister. Doctors, nurses, paramedic staff, sanitation workers, and others played a huge role in the fight against the virus, he said, adding, I know many doctors who did not go home for days. I want to thank them on behalf of the people of Delhi. The chief minister underlined that the number of peak cases in a day in the first wave was about 4,500 which escalated to over 28,000 in the last. One of the major contributors is the multinational company HCL, which is providing 21 ready-to-install oxygen plants, imported from France, and 17 of these have already been installed across seven hospitals in Delhi. The remaining four have also arrived and will be installed over the next few days, informed, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCL Technologies. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that of the total PSA plants opened Saturday, 17 have been given by HCL Technologies and four by Maruti Udyog. HCL will be supplying five more plants soon, he said. The plants have been distributed among hospitals like Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality, Deep Chand Bandhu, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nirankari Field Hospital, Madan Mohan Malviya. Express News Service By UTTAR PRADESH: Four years ago, 20-year-old Nazrani Khans only introduction was that she was the seventh of the eight children of a poverty-stricken family in Khajuri village of east UPs backward Sonebhadra district. Today Nazrani is a sociology postgraduate and a successful woman entrepreneur in her own right. Her monthly earning is around Rs 15,000. The Nazrani Smart Solar Shop not only sells solar lamps but also repairs them. Her success stems from a government scheme of women empowerment Prerna Ojas Program under the State Rural Livelihood Mission (Rural Development Department). Four years back, I never even dreamt of buying a bicycle. The Prerna Ojas Program has helped me buy a scooter and the best smartphone. It has also helped me get my ailing mother fully treated. I am now able to give Rs 2,000 to my father and Rs 5,000 to my mother every month from my shops earnings, says a proud Nazrani. A schoolgirl who spent her early life in poverty has now met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, courtesy her success story under the women empowerment and livelihood scheme. In another part of UP, in Palaniya block of Lakhimpur Kheri district, another success story has surfaced. The life of Poonam, the 23-year-old mother of two daughters, has changed. Poonam is also a sociology postgraduate. She still remembers the humiliation her illiterate daily wager parents faced for sending her to school and college. Villagers made fun of me and my parents for educating me. They laughed saying even if I became a graduate or postgraduate, Id end up cutting grass. All this was beginning to appear true after her marriage five years back. Then came the Prerna Ojas Scheme in my life in 2019, she says. Selected for the scheme, she completed her training in making solar lamps for school children. I didnt tell my husband about it because he used to laugh at my education not fetching me any job. Two years on, my husband is proud of me and has joined me, says Poonam. The Mahima-Yash Smart Solar Lamp Shop sells and repairs solar lamps. Her outlet also sells cosmetics. The shop has borrowed its name from her kids, Mahima and Yash. Both Nazrani and Poonam, are among the 4,000 skilled women and young girls who, through self-help groups, have made and supplied around 28 lakh solar lamps to school children in 75 blocks of Uttar Pradesh. IAS officer Yogesh Kumar, the Mission Director of UP State Rural Livelihoods Mission, says the collective work of these self-help groups has led to the manufacturing of more than 28 lakh solar study lamps. These have been provided to government school students in rural areas. Each solar lamp comes for Rs 100 against their market rate of Rs 500 apiece. The initiative is helping children in a great way in pursuing their education. Plus, it has brought a degree of financial independence in the lives of women who earn anything between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000 per month, says project coordinator Shailendra Dwivedi. These women are also venturing into selling and repairing various solar-run equipment and products, including lanterns, flashlights, lamps, solar fans, solar torch, panels, solar power banks, and LED bulbs at their solar shops. These shops also work as training centres for other women. We started off with making and distributing solar lamps to school children at Rs 100 per lamp. My shop is now getting orders not only from Sonebhadra and adjoining Mirzapur district of UP but also from neighbouring Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, says Nazrani Khan. By Associated Press KABUL: The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for bombing two minivans in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the Afghan capital that killed seven people. Among the dead were two employees of Afghanistan's state-run film company, a colleague said Sunday. In a statement issued late Saturday, Afghanistan's IS affiliate said its operatives blew up two minivans carrying disbeliever Shiites using sticky bombs. Sticky bombs slapped onto cars trapped in Kabuls chaotic traffic are the newest weapons terrorizing Afghans in the increasingly lawless nation. Film director Sahra Karimi in a tweet Sunday said Fatima Mohammadi and Tayiba Musavi, who worked for the Afghan Film Organization, were among the six killed in the first attack. Their families identified their burned bodies in the forensic hospital of Kabul, she said. Karimi said Mohammadi and Musavi were animators working on an animated film for children and they were returning home when they were attacked. The Saturday attacks targeted minivans on the same road about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) apart in a neighborhood in western Kabul. The second bombing took place in front of Muhammad Ali Jinnah hospital, where a majority of COVID-19 patients are admitted, killing one and wounding four. In some west Kabul neighborhoods populated mostly by members of the minority Hazara ethnic group, just going out for errands can be dangerous. The Islamic State group has carried out similar bombings in the area, including four attacks on four minivans earlier this month that killed at least 18 people. Hazaras are mostly Shiite Muslims. Shiites are a minority in mostly Sunni Afghanistan and the IS affiliate has declared war against them. An attack on a Kabul school on May 8 killed nearly 100 people, all of them members of the Hazara ethnic minority and most of them young girls just leaving class. By AFP BEIRUT: Shelling of the rebel-held city of Afrin in northern Syria killed at least 18 people on Saturday, many of them when a hospital was hit, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a doctor, three hospital staff, two women and two children died at Al-Shifaa hospital in the city which is held by Turkish-backed rebels. A rebel commander also died at the hospital, the Observatory said, adding that 23 people were injured. An AFP correspondent shot footage of white-helmeted aid workers in the hospital courtyard strewn with bodies. "The shelling targeted several areas of the town and hit the hospital", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP. "Most of the victims died in shelling on the hospital," the monitoring group said in a statement, warning the casualty toll could rise further with some of the wounded in a critical condition. The artillery fire originated from northern Aleppo province "where militia faithful to Iran and the (Syrian) regime are deployed, near the zones run by Kurdish forces", the Britain-based group said. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement denying any involvement in the shelling. The region, like all areas held by pro-Turkish rebels, regularly witnesses targeted killings, bombings and shootings. Syrian regime shelling on the opposition-held Idlib enclave killed 12 people Thursday, one of the deadliest violations of a 15-month-old ceasefire, the war monitor said. The conflict in Syria has killed nearly 500,000 people since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations. By PTI DHAKA: The Bangladesh government has extended the closure of all schools and colleges till June 30, in view of a surge in coronavirus cases, according to a media report. On March 17 last year, Bangladesh had closed all schools to contain the spread of coronavirus. All examinations were cancelled. In a notification on Saturday, the Ministry of Education said all primary, secondary, higher secondary and college-level institutions, including Ebtedayee and Qawmi madrasas, would remain closed till June 30, The Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported. Last month, Education Minister Dipu Moni said in-class teaching could be reopened on June 13, based on a review of the virus outbreak. "The COVID-19 situation worsened in some districts and many areas have been locked down. Considering the safety of students, teachers, staff and guardians, and upon the advice of COVID-19 technical committee, the shutdown has been extended," the newspaper quoted the notification. Health experts said Bangladesh would experience a fresh wave of COVID-19 later in the month, fuelled by the virus variant B1.617.2, which was first identified in India. So far, COVID-19 has claimed 13,032 lives along with 822,849 confirmed infections in Bangladesh. ALSO WATCH: By Associated Press JERUSALEM: Naftali Bennett was on Sunday sworn in as Israel's new Prime Minister, ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power after an uninterrupted 12 years at the helm of affairs. Bennett, the 49-year-old leader of the right-wing Yamina party, took oath of office after the Knesset (Parliament) elected him as the 13th Prime Minister of Israel by a 60-59 vote in the 120-member house. One lawmaker abstained. His government has 27 ministers, nine of them women. The new government - an unprecedented coalition of ideologically divergent political parties drawn from the Right, the Left and the Centre, along with an Arab party - has a razor-thin majority in a 120-member house. Mickey Levy of Yesh Atid party was elected as the speaker of Parliament with the support of 67 lawmakers. Earlier, Bennett presented his new government's ministers in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in a speech constantly interrupted by supporters of 71-year-old Netanyahu. Amid incessant heckling from rival bloc's lawmakers, Bennett said that he is proud "of the ability to sit with people of different opinions". "At the decisive moment we took responsibility," he said. "The alternative to this government was more elections, more hate, which would have broken up the country." "It is time for responsible leaders from different parts of the nation to stop this madness," he asserted. Agitated Likud, ultra-orthodox and ultra-nationalist lawmakers constantly jeered at Bennett during his speech calling him "a criminal" and a "liar". In his speech, Bennett also said that Israel "will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons. "Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action, he said, opposing the US efforts to revive Iran's nuclear deal. Bennett, a former ally turned rival of Netanyahu, is leading a fragile coalition of eight parties - Yamina, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, New Hope, Labor, Meretz, United Arab List, Kahol Lavan and Yisrael Beiteinu. The alliance contains parties that have vast ideological differences, and perhaps most significantly includes the first independent Arab party to be part of a potential ruling coalition, Ra'am. Bennett has entered into a power-sharing agreement with Centrist leader Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, under which the latter would take over Premiership in September 2023, serving for two years till the end of the term. Lapid, the leader of the second-largest faction in the Knesset with 17 seats was invited by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition after Netanyahu, leading the Likud party with 30 seats, expressed his inability to put together a government backed by a majority of the lawmakers. The unstable coalition that Lapid has managed to put together faces severe challenges and the glue that seems to hold them together is the 'unity of purpose' created by the agenda of ousting Netanyahu. The approval of the new government by the Knesset ended 12 years of uninterrupted rule by Netanyahu, who holds the record of being the longest-serving Prime Minister in the country's history. Having served in the position earlier between 1996 and 1999, Netanyahu last year surpassed the record held by one of the Jewish state's founding leaders, David Ben-Gurion. In his address to parliament, Netanyahu vowed to bring down this "dangerous government". "If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way," Netanyahu said as he made clear he has no plans on giving up leadership of the Likud Party. Iran is "celebrating" the formation of a "weak government" in Israel, Netanyahu said. "From the moment the US returns to the nuclear deal with Iran, the incoming government won't approve significant operations in Iran," he said. "A government that is not able to forcefully oppose the international community on the pressing issues for our fate is not worthy of leading Israel," he said, claiming that Bennett doesn't have the credibility or the global standing to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capability. The formation of the new government ended the political impasse in the country that saw four elections in less than two years leading to inconclusive results. But opinion polls suggest that majority of the Israelis do not look too hopeful regarding the longevity of the coalition of eight parties who do not see eye-to-eye on most of the critical issues facing the country. Many analysts feel that the two factors likely to prolong or determine the tenure of the new fragile coalition are the fear of Netanyahu's return and also a possible political demise of some of the right-wing factions that have gone against the wishes of their voting constituency to join hands. It also includes Bennett's Yamina party which has to score some "major wins" to restore the faith of its supporters in the movement. Interestingly, almost one-third of the people standing in unity to oust Netanyahu would otherwise be his 'natural allies' ideologically, having also worked as his close associates in the past. Many analysts believe that Netanyahu's long-term 'invincibility' led to arrogance because of which he went on pushing his friends away from him each time there were differences of opinion, simultaneously also labelling them as Leftists as if it was a stigma. It is still not all over for Netanyahu, who has dominated Israel's political landscape for years and would remain the head of the right-wing Likud party and become the leader of the opposition. The coalition agreement involving eight factions with the 61 seats required for a majority was signed on June 2, just about half an hour before a deadline was due to expire. Netanyahu is fighting corruption cases on fraud, bribery and breach of trust charges, which he denies. If he were to go into the opposition, he might be denied parliamentary immunity. By Associated Press FALMOUTH: The International Monetary Fund managing director says there's a moral imperative for the world's richest countries to back programmes to end the COVID-19 pandemic but the donation of excess vaccines is only the first step. Kristalina Georgieva's comments in a virtual press conference at the Group of Seven summit Sunday came after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped G-7 leaders would agree to provide at least 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer countries. Humanitarian groups have welcomed the donations, but are calling for money, increased production and logistical support to help developing countries where the virus is still raging. Georgieva said the donations are a good step but more needs to be done to overcome the hurdles needed to deliver shots into arms. "This is a moral imperative, but it is a necessity for the economic recovery to stick, because we can't have the world split into two tracks without negative consequences,'' Georgieva said. While almost half of the combined population of the G-7 nations has received at least one dose of vaccine, the worldwide figure is less than 13%. In Africa, it's just 2.2%. "The war is not yet won,'' she said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit's host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year. Tedros reiterated his target of vaccinating 30% of the population of every country by the end of 2021. He said that reaching the goal requires 100 million doses in June and July, and 250 million more by September. Help support your local hometown newspaper/website. Independent local news reporting matters. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, for as little as $3, so we can continue to provide independent local reporting on our communities. John Kovach / Hearst Connecticut Media NEW CANAAN A 15-year-old female pedestrian was struck by a vehicle on Richmond Hill Road in New Canaan Friday night, according to a press release from the New Canaan Police Department. The New Canaan Police Department, EMS, and Fire Department responded to the area at approximately 10:29 p.m. regarding a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle. The female was observed sitting on the grass on Richmond Hill Road, according to the press release. Free access for current print subscribers As a home delivery subscriber, you get free unlimited digital access to news-daily.com including stories, photos, obituaries, e-edition and more on your computer, tablet or phone. All you need is your print subscription account number and your last name. Don't know your subscription number? Email access@news-daily.com with your delivery address. Activate your account now. Brett Kepley is a lawyer with Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc. Send questions to The Law Q&A, 302 N. First St., Champaign, IL 61820. Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois. His research group on computational redistricting is committed to bringing transparency to the redistricting process using optimization algorithms and artificial intelligence. These are the officers who responded to Painesville Recreation Park early June 12 to help rescue a child floating in a pond. From left, they are Sgt. Matthew Tycast, Patrolman Daniel Thompson and Patrolman Chad Balausky. Perry Village Next step taken to secure NOPEC funds Perry Village hopes to use NOPEC grant funds for two new energy-efficient doors Travelers wait for their luggage at a baggage carousel at Miami International Airport in Miami, May 28. The airline industrys recovery from the pandemic passed a milestone as more than 2 million people streamed through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Friday for the first time since early March 2020. Findings from a study on the feasibility of addressing anxiety, pain and stress with Olfactory Virtual Reality (OVR) - a new form of VR that incorporates the sense of smell into its augmented reality - paint a clearer picture for clinical psychiatrists about how it could be used to safely and effectively help mental health and mood disorders. What's more, it holds promise for improved access and inclusion of patients impacted by physical limitations or constraints, such as patient mobility, comorbidities and safety. Building on previous research proving VR's effectiveness in "distraction for pain and medical procedures, relaxation and calming, and immersion therapy for trauma, PTSD and phobias," the study -; published by the Journal of Medical Research and Health Sciences this spring -; provides evidence that stimulating the olfactory system via scent in practitioner-administered virtual realities can trigger memory, cognition and emotion, and may improve the therapeutic benefits of augmented realities targeting chronic pain, anxiety and mood disorders. "The OVR sessionswere focused on creating a more immersive, realistic, evocative, meaningful and emotional [virtual and altered reality] experience," explains the study led by David Tomasi - a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at UVM Medical Center (UVMMC) and teacher of integrative health at the University of Vermont - "by allowing for the subjects enrolled therein to enter a calming and realistic environment, in order to decrease the amount of anxiety, stress and pain experienced." Tomasi and a team of psychotherapists at UVMMC's Inpatient Psychiatry Department collaborated with OVR Technology, a Burlington, Vermont-based company that specializes in olfactory virtual reality in this context, to design a relaxing, virtual forest and campsite that could be independently, fully experienced in an area of just 100-square-feet. Using software, scentware and hardware supplied by OVR Technology, the team created a simulation complete with a virtual tent, picnic table, fire pit, logs and other objects to touch, and aromas of fresh bacon and toasted marshmallows. "At OVR, designing new scents is a collaborative process between what the desired outcome is of the experience, along with what makes sense given the auditory and visual stimuli," says Vice President of Scentware for OVR Technology Sarah Socia, who collaborated on the study. "We focus on the entire experience -; the mix of audio, visual and olfactory stimuli that give rise to the experience and then the feelings follow suit." Participants -; all inpatient psychiatry patients that voluntary participated in the study -; were immersed in the forest camp environment for 812-minutes, in weekly OVR sessions that coincided with their standard clinical treatment plans. Following the OVR sessions, participants reported significant and immediate improvements to their anxiety, stress and pain levels that lasted up to three hours after a session. Among the most dramatic improvements reported by participants were reduced anxiety levels. Asked throughout the sessions to rate their anxiety levels on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest), nearly half the participants (45.6%) rated their anxiety levels prior to OVR as either a 9 or 10. Roughly the same percent of participants (44.6%) rated their anxiety levels immediately after the session as either a 1 or 2. Between one to three hours later, half the participants (50%) rated their anxiety levels as either a 2 or 3. In all, participants' anxiety dropped a median of 5 levels from start to finish through the process. OVR allowed patients whose circumstances excluded them from physical activity and exposure to nature to virtually experience physical activity in nature with similar sounds, sights and smells to a real-world scenario. Those similar sensations evoked memories and responses that reduced anxiety and improved mood, just as the real experience would." David Tomasi, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at UVM Medical Center (UVMMC) and teacher of integrative health at the University of Vermont While the study was years in the making, it reflects data collected over a four-month span between September and December 2020 -; a critical point in the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing certainly was not ideal, Tomasi says, but the unlikely circumstance opened a window of silver lining that brought new understanding to the potential of OVR within the context of forced social isolation. "The added COVID-19 restrictions, on top of an already very limiting situation for many individuals suffering with mental health disorders, presented a very difficult challenge to the research," he says. "However, we can say that precisely because of this situation, we were able to see how important this approach is to help mental health in general." (Newser) If you had to name the "most assaulted Cabinet member in history," the name Dan Glickman probably wouldn't be at the top of the list. But in an excerpt of his new memoir in Politico Magazine, Glickman lays claim to that unwanted title. He served as agriculture secretary under Bill Clinton from 1995 to 2001, and he explains that he took office "at an interesting time" because a robust debate about organic food was just getting underway. Food activism became a thing, and Glickmanas the face of the White House food policiesbore the brunt in a very tactile way. That is, people kept throwing food at him. He ticks off a number of incidents, starting with the time naked protesters pelted him with organic seeds in Rome. But he also got hit with bison guts in Wyoming, carbonated soda during a House hearing, and a tofu pie in DC. story continues below "I have never heard of any past Agriculture secretaries being subjected to the same volume of projectiles as I was during my time at USDA," writes Glickman. "To my knowledge nobody has had any memory of a Cabinet member who came close to my record." The piece is generally light-hearted, as he recounts worried calls from his mom after each incident, along with his improving reflexes as the assaults became more common. The tofu pie, for instance, scored more of a direct hit on Health and Human Services chief Donna Shalala because Glickman ducked. But the former ag secretary also sees in all this hints of a changing political culture. "In a way, I think my career was a preview of the incivility that would eventually engulf our politics; only instead of barrages of hateful tweets and public harassment, I got food thrown in my face." Read the full excerpt. (Read more Department of Agriculture stories.) (Newser) In New York state, children as young as 7 can be arrested and charged as juvenile delinquents in family court. But is that age too young? It's a question being asked in the state, one that was amplified by the March 23 arrest of a 7-year-old in Brasher Falls, NY, on a charge of third-degree rape, reports WWNY. Virtually no additional details of the case are known due to privacy regulations (the New York Post reports the incident allegedly happened on Thanksgiving), but the New York Times uses it as a springboard for examining whether said arrest should have happened at all. According to some judges, lawyers, and juvenile justice experts they spoke to, nothey say at his age, it would be better for social service agencies to step in, which does occur in hundreds of cases each year. In 2019, New York's family courts heard 121 cases involving children 12 and under. story continues below Dawne Mitchell, head of the Legal Aid Societys juvenile rights practice, says that's because children of that age aren't cognitively capable of understanding the consequences that follow their actions, and that being put in handcuffs and taken to court exacts a psychological toll that can be traumatic and set them on a path toward recidivism. And a Queens attorney suggested to the Post that the case was as pointless as it is "absurd": "They'd have to prove he actually physically committed this act, which to me it almost seems to be an impossibility." New York's State Legislature may have a chance to weigh in by way of a bill that would up that age from 7 to 12; the Times notes that the UN in 2018 urged countries to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. Connecticut also has a minimum age of 7; North Carolina has the lowest specified age in the country, at just 6. (Read more juvenile crime stories.) (Newser) Last week, the FBI chief put the threat posed by ransomware on par with the 9/11 attacks. If that seemed like hyperbole, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal might shed some light on his thinking. The newspaper catalogs 235 attacks on hospitals and psychiatric centers in the US since 2018, plus dozens more on other health care facilities, by one Eastern European outfit alone. The attacks by the collective known as Ryuk (after their software) are devastating and potentially life-threatening: Hackers shut down vital hospital systems and ignore the resulting life-or-death pleas. As the story explains, hospitals are the perfect target: Their security systems are notoriously lax, and the high stakes (patients' lives) makes them susceptible to the pressure of paying a ransom for a quick fix. story continues below Cybersecurity experts say some ransomware operations avoid hospitals in principle because lives are on the line. Ryuk, formerly known as the Business Club, has no such qualms. They do not care. Patient care, people dying, whatever. It doesnt matter, Bill Siegel of the ransomware recovery firm Coveware tells the newspaper. Other groups you can at least have a conversation. You can tell them, Were a hospital, someones going to die. Ryuk wont even reply to that email. Sometimes hospital officials will plead poverty, only to receive a terse email with financial records proving the contrary. Ryuk now appears to be "renting" new software known as Conti to other hackers in exchange for a cut of ransoms. Conti has been blamed for a strike on Ireland's health care system last month, as well as 16 attacks in the US on hospitals, 911 call centers, and the like. (Read the full story.) (Newser) A federal board has voted to remove the word "negro" from the names of over a dozen Texas geographic locations. Per CNN, the US Board on Geographic Names approved the proposal Thursday to rename 16 geographical features in Texas that include the word. Per the Texas Tribune, the change to the names of features such as lakes and valleys comes 30 years after the state legislature last tried to remove the word from maps. In 1991, current Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis sponsored a bill as a state lawmaker aimed at doing just that, and he was under the impression it had worked until he was contacted for a related NPR story last year. story continues below Of the 19 place names Ellis sought to change, only three had actually been updated, per a statement from his office. "This day has been a long time coming, but I am proud to see this change finally happen. In this moment of racial reckoning, we must follow up our verbal commitments to racial justice with action," Ellis said. The word remains a part of some Texas locations, however. The statement notes, that 11 other sites in Texas containing the word have been identified on private land where the federal board has no jurisdiction. Ellis called for those names, and similar ones across the country, to be "erased from the public domain." (Read more racism stories.) (Newser) Authorities in Florida are in search of a man being called the Apollo Beach Hero after he selflessly tried to save a father and son caught in a riptide on Friday. Per Bay News 9, the adult victim and his toddler son were swimming at the Tampa Bay beach when they were swept away by a current and 27-year-old Kristoff Murray jumped in to help. Per a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office press release, the body of the father was found around 9pm. The man's son was found alive soon after and rushed to an area hospital, where he later died. story continues below Murray, however, has not been seen since running to their rescue and authorities believe he's dead. "Our hearts break for the father and son who lost their lives tonight. The horrible sight led a selfless stranger to sacrifice his own life, in an attempt to save them," Sheriff Chad Chronister said in the statement. "As we aggressively search these waters to try and locate this individual, we are urging everyone to remember that water safety is paramount." According to WTVT, currents at the preserve where the victims were swept out are known to be dangerous and swimming is prohibited. While Chronister said the chances Murray is still alive are slim, authorities hope to continue their search until he's found. (Read more hero stories.) (Newser) Kip Kinkel is serving 112 years in an Oregon prison without a chance of parole for killing his parents in 1998, then opening fire at Thurston High School. He's trying to get that sentence changed. But he said he'll have to continue to live with the consequences of that day, per the Oregonian. "I have tremendous, tremendous guilt," Kinkel, 38, told the Huffington Post. "Tremendous, tremendous shame for my criminal actions, that I feel intensely to this day. Those are always there, and those will never go away." Kinkel shot his parents, William and Faith, to death that day, then killed two students at his school: Mikael Nickolauson, 17, and Ben Walker, 16. He also wounded 24 people there. They were all "completely innocent people," he said, adding that he loved his parents. Kinkel made the comments to the Huffington Post in telephone interviews over the past 10 months. story continues below Kinkel said he began hearing voices when he was 12. He acquired guns, knives, explosives as his paranoia deepened; he began sleeping with a 9mm pistol his father got him. After a loaded .32-caliber handgun was found in his locker, he was expelled from school. That's when Kinkel's "whole world blew up," he said. The voices began to tell him that "everything was a threat, everything was evil, everything was ugly." They told him to kill his parents, he said. Then they said, "Go to school and kill everybody." Kinkel worries now that others are still paying for his actions. He said he feared that he inspired the Columbine High School attack and broke down when he learned of it. When state lawmakers considered a bill to no longer automatically send some juveniles' cases to adult court, his name was invoked. Kinkel said it upset him "they were going to use me" as a reason to not apply the measure to juveniles already serving time. "I have responsibility for the harm that I caused when I was 15," Kinkel said. "But I also have responsibility for the harm that I am causing now as I'm 38 because of what I did at 15." (Read more school shootings stories.) (Newser) A grieving father in Illinois is suing police, alleging officers "desecrated" his daughters remains after they searched, and possibly spilled, some of the girls ashes. Dartavius Barnes was pulled over in April 2020 by police who say he was speeding and ran a stop sign. The officer who stopped him also thought Barnes car had been hit by a bullet, CNN reports. Barnes was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car while police searched, with his permission, his blue Chrysler. Thats where they found a tiny urn holding his daughters ashes. In bodycam footage, an officer can be heard saying he checked the urn for cocaine but it looks like its probably molly. Barnes soon realizes what the police have, and starts protesting. Thats my daughter in there, he says. (Newser) As he left Cornwall after the three-day G7 summit, President Biden talked Sunday about agreements and differences among the leaders that surfaced. But he also detailed for reporters the overall message he delivered about the change in US administrations, CNN reports. "I conveyed to each of my G7 counterparts that the United States is going to do our part, America is back at the table," he said. "America is back at the table." More specifically, Biden said, "America is back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values." Biden made the comments during a press conference at the Cornwall airport on his way to meet with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle. He'll then leave England for Brussels and a NATO summit Monday. Biden previewed his message to NATO, which was strenuously criticized by former President Trump during his term. story continues below Noting that "many of the same people are going to be at that table," Biden said he'll tell the NATO nations much the same thing. "We do not view NATO as a sort of a protection racket," Biden said. "We believe that NATO is vital to our ability to keep American security for the next, the next remainder of the century." Overall, per the AP, Biden called the meeting "extraordinarily collaborative and productive." International diplomacy has returned, per the New York Times. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the return of an American leader who's "willing to cooperate." German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned reporters about expectations. "Joe Biden being elected to the White House doesn't mean the world doesnt have any problems anymore," she said. "But we can now look for solutions to these problems with more zest." (Read more Group of Seven stories.) (Newser) When the coronavirus first surged and lockdowns were expected to be brief, a Delta Airlines pilot left a note for the next person to take his seat. That cockpit note became a time capsule undisturbed for 435 days. When Chris Dennis first wrote itand posted it on Facebookhe meant it to be a time capsule, too. But he thought it would be undisturbed for two weeks, not 62, People reports. Very chilling to see so much of our fleet here in the desert. If you are here to pick it up then the light must be at the end of the tunnel, he wrote. But his next line is the eeriest: "Amazing how fast it changed! story continues below It was more than a year until First Officer Nick Perez came across the note on June 1, USA Today reports. The Airbus A321 had been stored in the California desert since its last flight from Minneapolis-Saint Paul March 23, 2020. "He had to have been thinking he was leaving his job," Perez said in a press release from Delta. But as infection rates wane in the US and lockdowns ease, planes are returning to the skies. Im in good spirits. Im very optimistic, Perez said. (Read more weird news stories.) (Newser) President Biden, the pride of an Irish American working-class family from a Pennsylvania coal town, was invited for tea at Windsor Castle on Sunday. He followed the advice his mother gave him before he first met Queen Elizabeth in 1982, CNN reports. "Don't you bow down to her," Biden was told, according to a memoir. He and his wife, Jill Biden, climbed out of a dark Range Rover in the interior quad of Windsor Castle as they arrived on Sunday. Biden wore his usual aviator sunglasses as he spoke with the British monarch but took them off when it was time to inspect the Grenadier Guardsmen. Reporters were not allowed in the castle for the talks, though they heard the queen and the president engaged in polite conversation as they walked into Windsor. But there was no bow. story continues below "It's a mighty long ride from being Scranton Joe the Amtrak commuter to dining with Queen Elizabeth, but they'll get along fabulously," historian Douglas Brinkley said, per Politico. "The wonderful thing about Biden is that he is comfortable with himself in any setting." After an hour in the castle, the Bidens left by helicopter for London, the AP reports. British news media reports have centered not on Biden's economic heritage but his Irish roots and Roman Catholicism: Brexit puts the peace process in Northern Ireland at risk. "This is more a foreign policy moment than a class moment," a Biden aide said earlier. The long-reigning queen, 95, and the Bidens also chatted Friday at a G7 event in Cornwall as the president's foreign trip began. "It's a beautiful beginning," Jill Biden said. (Read more President Biden stories.) (Newser) Benjamin Netanyahu is leaving office after 12 straight years, 15 years total. Naftali Bennett's coalition government survivedbarelya confidence vote Sunday, the New York Times reports. The Knesset, Israel's parliament, was closely split, with a 60-59 majority favoring Bennett, who will be sworn in as prime minister Monday morning, per Axios. Netanyahu dominated the political climate in Israel for a generation, despite enduring four inconclusive elections in two years and an ongoing corruption trial, Reuters reports. story continues below The new government, formed in March and confirmed Sunday, spans the political spectrum in Israel, including representation of its large Arab minority, and is united mainly around a single issue: no more Netanyahu. No sweeping changes in Palestinian relations are on the horizon. But the Raam party, part of the new government, is likely to push for spending in Arab communities, per the New York Times . Meanwhile, Netanyahu, 71, is likely to remain a strong voice as an opposition leader. (Read more Israel stories.) When Manu Fisi'ihoi and his wife Hannah were struggling to conceive, he admits he never thought it would be down to him - from a large Tongan family, surely he'd be able to have kids. "As much as we want to stay optimistic and positive about all this, there's still a sense of jealousy, a sense of anger," he told Newshub. They've been trying for a child for six years, but Manu's sperm count is next to nothing. "I even got to a point where I told her if this was really important for her to have a child, to leave, and be with someone else that could help her," he admits. "But she decided for some odd reason she didn't want it with anyone else and we would do everything we can to try and make it work." They were able to access IVF, but it ended in heartbreak. "Last month my wife had a miscarriage. She was at nine weeks." Fertility is a tough topic men often don't want to talk about, and are often unaware of. Because unless you're trying for a baby, why would you know how your sperm is doing? "There's a whole lot of guys who think it's not going to be them, that they've not got much of a role in it and it's bound to be their partner," says Dr Phill McChesney, a consultant and fertility specialist at Fertility Associates in Auckland. The prediction But an American scientist says stories like Manu Fisi'ihoi's are going to become more and more common. Reproductive epidemiologist Dr Shanna Swan has been tracking sperm counts in the UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand. She looked at 185 studies involving 45,000 men, and found between 1973 and 2011, sperm counts fell by 52 percent. "It's not just that it's dropped, but that it's dropped to a point where, this is the median, so half the men are very close to having trouble conceiving," she told Newshub from New York. Based on that trajectory, and if nothing improves, Swan says most couples will need to use assisted reproduction like donors and IVF by 2045. While she admits it's speculative and has to level off at some point, Swan says there's no sign things are improving. "When I say it hasn't levelled off, if you look at the entire time period 1973-2011, and then say 'OK let's come closer, how about the last 30 years': same slope. Last 20 years, same slope. Last 10 years, same slope. No evidence in the past of a levelling off." The prediction that there could be many more men like him is cold comfort to Manu. "Knowing that other men out there are going through this doesn't make it easier. It's actually quite sad to know there's more," he says. The possible cause We've all heard the warnings around hot laptops, and cellphones in pockets, and the usual risk factors like alcohol, tobacco, and obesity. But Dr Swan says there's something worse, and hidden: easily-absorbed, hormone-disrupting chemicals known as phthalates. "There's a lot of evidence this stuff is impacting our hormones. We just have to listen to that evidence and make the necessary changes," she says. Phthalates make some plastics flexible, and are also used in fragrances. They can be found in food packaging, cosmetics like hair spray and shaving foam, as well as cleaning products. In 2017, a Ministry of Primary Industries report found phthalates in butter, fresh meat, and takeaway noodles, having leached through packaging. MPI told Newshub the exposure and the risks are low, but in her new book Count Down, Dr Swan says it's time for better regulation, particularly as the most damaging exposure happens to a foetus in the womb. "We have to regulate in low doses, because we're exposed to very low doses. They're risky, people don't accept that, and I think a lot of regulators say 'well if it's a low dose it can't hurt you.' Well that's actually not true: in development, foetuses are very very sensitive to very low doses," she says. That means it's not so much what someone does now that's responsible for their low sperm count, more what their parents did while they were in the womb. "You can't control what your mother was exposed to when you were in utero. But you can control what you're exposed to, to some extent, as an adult." Companies are starting to disclose if something is phthalate-free on the bottle, but Dr Swan says we've been through this before with BPA, and companies always find a way around. "They can say it's bisphenol A free, when it has these other forms of bisphenol. They don't have to disclose that, and these other forms are just as harmful. So it's a bit misleading, we call it whack-a-mole, or regrettable substitution." She's calling for New Zealand to be a world leader in encouraging an outright ban. The encouragement for openness Another group of researchers in the US have called into question Dr Swan's conclusions. They found there's little evidence 'spermageddon' is upon us. Dr Phill McChensey agrees Swan's study is alarmist, but says it's important to be alarmist about these sorts of things, because otherwise you don't get action. "If we take some notice of it and think well what can we do to change this, how can we improve things, what legislative things need to change, how can we make sure companies think about the safety of their products before they put them on the shelf, then I think we're moving in the right direction." He says men are gradually realising it takes two, entertaining the possibility it could be them, and getting tested. "There's some guys who are now taking the bull by the horns and saying they'll get checked out, and make sure they're OK." Though he admits there's still some hesitancy from men over the perceived embarrassment of producing a sample. "It's a very simple thing to do, and compared to the amount of tests we put women through with their fertility, the blokes definitely have an easier job." Through his YouTube series, and this interview, Manu wants more men, especially Maori and Pasifika, to speak up, and connect. "We're too prideful to talk about that, it's almost taboo in the islands to talk about your sexuality and any private parts. Everyone gets real immature about it, or too sensitive." He also has a message for those who have become successful parents: enjoy your time with your kids. "Hold your children a lot more, love them more, teach them more." Despite their setbacks, Manu and Hannah Fisi'ihoi are doing everything they can to make things work. They've just applied for their second round of IVF. "My ultimate hope: be a dad. I want to one day teach him how to tie his shoes, or her to tie her shoes. Take them to have ice cream. All these small things I think a lot of parents take for granted," he says. 'Small things' many more could miss out on if the trend continues. New Zealand's rates of compulsory treatment were high, due in part to the over-use of community treatment orders, which were "difficult to challenge and often become indefinite treatment orders". "The abolishment of substitute decision-making [compulsory treatment] does not equate to the abandonment of support. You still provide support - but in a different way." Her colleague at Otago, psychologist Paul Skirrow, said compulsion was necessary in some cases - where people were too ill to consent or understand their treatment - but compulsory treatment orders were overused, in his view. "And not just overused, but not used in a good way - we're not working with families, working with people to keep them in hospital for the shortest possible period. The fact they are reforming the Act right now, shows we're not doing it right." The new guidelines from the World Health Organization, calling for a human rights-based approach to mental health care, were long overdue, he said. "People really struggle to assert their rights in mental health services. We see a lot of restraints and seclusion happening up and down the country and people not having access to justice. So I really think human rights approaches are the way forward." New Zealand also had "a legal imperative" to adopt a human rights approach, with its commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, he said. Dr Skirrow, who is also executive advisor to the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists, said there needed to be more emphasis on psychological treatments to aid long-term recovery, rather than just drugs to treat symptoms. "The way that human rights approaches work is they remind us we're treating people, rather than symptoms and disorders." South Auckland operation praised The WHO report cites Tupu Ake, in South Auckland, as an exemplary example of a people-based service. The peer-led operation in Papatoetoe, run by Pathways for Counties Manukau DHB, records higher satisfaction with care - and shorter average lengths of stay - than at hospital units. Pathways operations manager Ross Phillips said he hoped the government could realise its own ambition and fulfil all the recommendations to come out of He Ara Oranga. "If they really get behind the recommendations that they agreed to in that and start to fund and support the growth of it, we will see more community-based options that are person-centred and recovery-orientated and that do meet the criteria of what the WHO were trying to achieve with the Quality Rights Programme." Pathways operates a similar programme in Christchurch, while other providers run peer-led services in Waikato and the North Shore, but most regions had nothing like this to offer people in mental distress, he said. If people were properly supported and engaged in discussions early, compulsory treatment orders would not be necessary. "We need to do this before they are at that point where they are in a state of such distress that they may not have that ability to decide. "We could do that through advance directives or there are other protections to make sure people's voices are heard, like engaging family and whanau through the process to ensure people still have some authority over what services they receive, even if they are acutely unwell at the time." RNZ Under the Clean Car Discount, imported electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, both new and used, will be eligible for a rebate. The cars need to be under $80,000 and have at least a three star safety rating. The scheme will be expanded to include other low emission vehicles next year. To pay for this, imported cars with high emissions will cost extra from January next year. For example, a Toyota Hilux brought into the country could incur a fee of $2900. "Importantly the policy only applies to new and used cars arriving in New Zealand, so the existing second hand market of cars that lower income families tend to purchase from will not be affected," Wood said. The announcement comes hot on the heels of the Climate Change Commission's report on how the country should move towards net zero emissions by 2050. Climate Change Minister James Shaw said transport has the fastest growing emission profile in New Zealand. "Dealing with the energy that we use to get around within and between our cities is one of the, if not the most urgent of all our climate change challenges," he said. The scheme is predicted to bring an additional 19,000 clean vehicles into the country's vehicle fleet in the first year of operation. Drive Electric chair Mark Gilbert said hundreds of thousands of EVs were needed to meet the government's climate targets and the announcement is a step change. "Most importantly, this announcement says to global car manufacturers New Zealand is serious about EVs." He was hopeful that utes could eventually become electric. Green MP Julie Anne Genter failed to get a similar scheme over the line last term, thanks to New Zealand First throwing a spanner in the works. But now with just Labour at the wheel the scheme has been able to forge ahead - albeit with changes, such as the vehicle price cap. RNZ understands that part of the reason the scheme wasn't announced sooner was because Labour and the Greens were fighting over details of the scheme. However, both ministers would not say if any concessions had been made. National Party transport spokesperson Michael Woodhouse said it was a tax by stealth. "We welcome incentives, but my concern is that so many New Zealanders, tradies, large families, people in rural and remote areas are going to be asked to pay for this, but not actually have the choice to benefit from it. "In essence it is a reverse Robin Hood system, they are taking from the poor to give to the rich and that's just not right," he said. National supported more positive moves such as exempting EVs from fringe benefit tax, extending road user charge exemptions and allowing EV users access to bus lanes and free parking, Woodhouse said. Motor Industry Association chief executive David Crawford was happy with the announcement, especially the level of rebate on offer. However, he thought the government could go even further. "The rules around allowing the discount when calculating fringe benefit tax and depreciation will go some way to addressing barriers to uptake of low emission vehicles by businesses. "However, it stops short of the 50 percent reduction for electric vehicles we have consistently called for," he said. RNZ Green MP Ricardo Menendez March says people's livelihoods could be at stake if New Zealand fails to deliver on climate change. Speaking to Magic Talk's Sunday Cafe, Menendez March said the Government "could be sued" if it doesn't reach its emissions reduction targets. His comments follow a Climate Change Commission report released earlier this week, which recommended a rapid uptake of electric vehicles (EVs). The Government has already started to act on that advice, announcing on Sunday it will give out rebates for eligible electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. "The report is very clear unless we act further and faster on climate change, we're not going to meet our targets and there's far too much for us to be complacent," Menendez March said on Sunday. Asked by host Mel Homer what would happen if New Zealand fails to meet its targets, Menendez March said "we could be sued". Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here Alaska Computer Support owner Michael Wheeler said that his company responded to a dozen ransomware attacks of Alaska businesses in 2020 that demanded payment to unlock hacked computer systems. 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 Customs officials yesterday foiled an attempt to smuggle in 4,480 kilogrammes of banned tobacco products, worth around 90,000 Bahraini dinars, through Khalifa bin Salman Port. The banned products called Tumbak, Customs officials said, were found hidden in 112 parcels. The officials also took into custody several people suspected to have involvement in the case, jointly with the Northern Governorate Police Directorate. Officials spotted the suspicious-looking packages during a routine inspection at the port office. A thorough inspection resulted in identifying all of the 112 parcels stuffed with tumbak packages. Public Prosecution is pursuing necessary legal measures. Bahrain to get new social centres and service complexes: Minister Humaidan Bahrain to get new social centres and service complexes: Minister Humaidan TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Health Ministry has kept close tabs on the upcoming new social centres and service complexes in various parts of the Kingdom, said Jameel Humaidan, the Minister of Labour and Social Development. The facilities are coming up as per the government programme for the years 2019 to 2022. Constructions of the facilities in Aali, Issa town, Hamad Town, Budaiya, Capital governorate and Jidhafs are ongoing in cooperation with the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning. Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development is funding the Comprehensive Disability Complex and Social Welfare Complex in Hamad Town and the Social Services Complex in Isa Town. Bahrain Aluminum Company is backing the Budaiya Comprehensive Social Center, while Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Company is funding the comprehensive social centre in Manama. Comprehensive Disability Complex The Comprehensive Disability Complex, with 20,000 square meters of area, the minister said, is one of the largest to provide care and rehabilitation services for people of determination. The complex has ten buildings to provide treatment, care, education, and rehabilitation services for people with down syndrome, autism, brain damage, mental illness and those who are hard of hearing. The Kuwait funded project is currently completing furnishing. The Social care complex in Hamad Town, the minister said, is for providing psychological and health services. The project includes Juvenile Welfare Home (for boys and girls), Dar Al-Aman for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking (for men and women), the Karama Social Welfare House, and the Shared Services Building. Authorities expect the project to complete in January 2022. Social services complex in Isa Town The social services complex project in Isa Town includes rebuilding and reequipping the existing centres with advanced facilities. The project also included the development of the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait building for people with disabilities. The project expected to be operational in the second half of 2022. Budaiya Social Centre The Budaiya Comprehensive Social Center for social protection services aims at serving 550 citizens per day. The facility will provide various social assistance services, family guidance, family development programmes while also implementing judicial rulings to receive children of divorced women. The centre will also serve job seekers with an employment and training office. The minister also said that the Jidhafs day club for parents is within the Jidhafs Social Centre and will have the capacity to house more than 100 people. A civil society organisation will soon take over its management, the minister added. The comprehensive social centre in the Capital governorate, the minister said, will have a hall for celebrations and events, a club for parenting, a section for productive families, and sections for social research services, family guidance and social assistance. The centre will work along with Manama social centre in the Juffair region. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com I had the opportunity to work on three satellites, with one amongst them was in the final testing phase. These are the words of Aisha Al-Haram, a Space Data Analyst at Bahrain National Space Science Agency [NSSA]. She had this experience at the space laboratories of the Emirates Space Agency with four of her colleagues from NSSA. Their mission took shape from a deal signed by NSSA with the Emirates Space Agency, Al Yah Satellite Communications Company and the Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi to improve the skills of NSSA employees. National Space Science Authority believes that such outings will eventually help the country master the art of satellite making and space technologies crucial for the Kingdom to earn its place in the lucrative space race. When asked about her experiences at the space laboratories in the UAE, Al-Haram said, I am benefitting greatly from this opportunity in boosting my practical skills, which would contribute to NSSAs upcoming projects. She was also part of the DhabiSat, the second CubeSat designed and developed by Khalifa University students with Al Yah Satellite Company and Northrop Grumman. The satellite launched on the Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, US to the International Space Station (ISS) on 20 February 2021 will be deployed from the resupply spacecraft Cygnus NG-15 during its departure from the ISS. Al-Haram said the satellite would reach its operational orbit by the end of this month. She also associated with preparing an integrated operational plan for the satellite and its control and navigational systems. The CubeSat will gather data for space research and capture high-resolution images from an altitude of 450 kilometres. Al-Haram said she also had the opportunity to work on a third satellite. I worked to design its operating system and contributed to the projects of undergraduate students in the development of a microsatellite attitude determination and control subsystem. Al-Haram was also a member of the Mission Concept Review committee for space missions, besides handling other space science-related tasks at Yahsat Space Laboratories at Khalifa University. She will be presenting a general summary of a set of future tasks that will be part of her work during the second half of this year. She will most probably be part of a space experts team for projects implemented by Khalifa University in cooperation with the National Center for Space Sciences at the UAE University and the Center Mohammed bin Rashid Space Agency and the Emirates Space Agency. Aerospace Engineers Yaqoub Al-Qassab, Ali Al Qaraan, Amina Al Balushi and Ashraf Khater are the others in UAE from NSSA. Thank you for trusting us for your local news coverage. You have reached the maximum number of free articles per month. Subscribe today for unlimited access to News-Press NOW. It's a fast and easy way to support local journalism. DANBURY - The amount of traffic that a proposed $80 million cancer treatment center would bring to Danburys booming west side is expected to be less than a conventional medical office building, project consultants will argue at a public hearing next week. (B)ecause of the nature of this operation, traffic trips will be much lower than the formula indicates, said Thomas Beecher, an attorney representing the owners of the proposed treatment center, Danbury Proton. There will be a total of 34 employees and doctors on site and total of 48 patients visiting this facility each day. Beecher is referring to what could be the first cancer center in the state to use proton therapy to kill tumors with a minimum of damage to healthy tissue. The state Office of Health Strategy is considering Danbury Proton and a second proposal by Hartford HealthCare and the Yale New Haven Health System to use the novel therapy. The nearest proton treatment facilities are in Boston and Manhattan. A decision by the state on both applications is expected in the coming weeks. Meanwhile the other regulatory hurdle is in Danbury itself, where the Planning Commission is weighing the proposals impact on traffic and other quality-of-life issues. The proposed site at 85 Wooster Heights Road is on the periphery of the citys hot west side, where a $36 million rehabilitation hospital was recently approved within the sprawling residential development known as The Reserve, and where the new owners of a 1.2 million-square-foot office park on the grounds of the former Union Carbide headquarter are renovating space for apartments, medical offices and a 1,400-student upper grade academy. Danburys west side is a hot spot for economic development, and Danbury residents should be excited, said Drew Crandall, community engagement director for Danbury Proton. This is a good thing for Danbury. The project calls for a single-story 16,000-square-foot treatment center on a 3-acre site across Route 7 from the Danbury Municipal Airport and the Danbury Fair Mall. Because the project is in the Danbury airport approach zone, the FAA had to sign off on the location and height of the building, consultants said. In addition, Danbury Proton has already gotten permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals to amend the usual requirements for landscape plantings to prevent trees growing up into the airport space. This is a revolutionary cancer treatment center, so we just want to be good neighbors, said Michael Safranek, the citys airport administrator. This is a great thing for Danbury. Among the project documents that planners will scrutinize at Wednesdays public hearing is a 50-page traffic analysis that projects 670 daily vehicle trips for the center. The traffic analysis cautions that the projection is based on a typical medical building of the cancer centers size. It will not be a typical medical office building and (will) not generate the same levels of traffic expected from a medical building accommodating multiple appointments for patients throughout the day, as well as accommodating staff and other visitors, traffic consultant Michael Galante wrote in his analysis. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 REDDING After a 10-year career at the Mark Twain Library, Beth Dominianni is days away from her retirement. The library announced Dominianni would be leaving on June 2, noting that it will be hosting an open house celebration in her honor on June 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We invite and encourage all to stop by that day - to jot a note and drop it in a Tribute Box and share a special sweet treat as we thank Beth for her years of dedication and bid her farewell, the library said in a release. As Dominianni transitions out of the directors role, she is preparing to travel to new places such as Israel and Europe. The library is bringing in Erin Shea a former branch head at Ferguson Library in Stamford to take on the position, according to Eric Rubury, president of the librarys board of trustees. Rubury said the library considers itself very fortunate to have had Dominianni as a leader and welcome Shea, who will continue taking it into the future. Though he looks at Dominiannis retirement with sadness, he is glad to see her embark on the next phase of a very wonderful life. Beth firmly placed the library into the 21st century, he said. She has been the true leadership of the library during its largest phase of growth in its history. Under her tenure, the library has grown exponentially to include more programs and be more accessible to the public, according to Rubury. Dominianni herself, admits she has seen how programming, for both adults and children, has exploded under her leadership, and more than doubled. She has seen the library through technological changes and harnessed tech to make programs more available to residents. Whether it be offering author talks virtually or ushering in a variety of book groups, craft nights and film displays, she has been at the helm of the librarys expansion. And in all her work, she said the town has been encouraging and open to what the library cooks up. Redding is a town that loves to read, loves to learn, experience and grow. And its been a real delight to meet people here [and] work with them, she said. This has been the professional highlight of my career. The minister arrived on Saturday and was received by Ababu-Namwamba, the Chief Administrative Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Republic of Kenya. Jaishankar had a detailed discussion on several regional and global issues with the Kenyan Secretary for Foreign Affairs. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar left for Kenya to strengthen tie-up with the major East African countries. After reaching Kenya he joined a productive discussion on bilateral cooperation which will be jointly commissioned by both the nation. The minister arrived on Saturday and was received by Ababu-Namwamba, the Chief Administrative Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Republic of Kenya. Jaishankar had a detailed discussion on several regional and global issues with the Kenyan Secretary for Foreign Affairs. A detailed exchange on regional and global issues as befitting two UNSC members. A Historical solidarity is today a modern partnership., Jaishankar tweeted. As per a report, he will join the 3rd India-Kenya Joint Commission meeting to review all the aspects of the bilateral relationship. Jaishankar also met other Ministers of the Kenyan Government to improve the bilateral relation between India and Kenya. Notable is that the last meeting of the Joint Commission was held in New Delhi in March 2019. According to the reports, thousands of Muslim minorities, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Turkish, are subjected to mass internment and brutal torture. Amnesty International, a UK-based NGO working for human rights with 7 million members across the globe, published a report Thursday that unveiled Chinas atrocities on the ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The report laid evidence regarding Chinas crimes committed against the Muslim minorities, including brainwashing, torturing, and abusing in the province of Xinjiang, a dystopian hellscape. According to the reports, thousands of Muslim minorities, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Turkish, are subjected to mass internment and brutal torture. The minorities are sent to camps where they are forced to abandon their cultural traditions and religious practices and are forcefully sterilized. The report has quotes from dozens of testimonies from former detainees of the camps. Also Read: #ChineseSpyRacket Chinese spy handed over to police, Can we find links to PLA? Terming the atrocities as crimes against humanity, the Amnesty International reports threw light on the mass imprisonments and prosecution of Muslims along with the efforts of the Chinese Government to cover up these acts. According to the United Nations, more than 1.5 million Uyghurs are currently in the internment camps in XUAR. The Chinese foreign ministry denied the claims and data of the report and called it a record of lies. The spokesperson of the ministry, Wang Wenbin, said that these reports are developed to spread rumours about China and mislead the general public of the world. The Jinping government first acknowledged the camps under critical scrutiny by human-rights activists and organization after being surfaced in October 2018 and called them anti-terrorism and de-radicalization initiatives. MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) It may just be loose change, but parking meters are helping to show how tourism is booming along South Carolina's most popular beach after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted. Myrtle Beach collected as much in parking fees in May as they do in a typical June, Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Office Executive Director Brian Schmitt told The Post and Courier of Charleston. NEW HAVEN Six months after a fatal fire that killed 49-year-old Adrienne Flowers a mother of seven and injured two others in a multifamily house on Saltonstall Avenue in the citys Fair Haven section, her family is finally getting long-sought answers about how the fire started. And they miss her more than ever. She was a fun loving person she loved her kids, loved her grandkids, loved her family, said Flowers sister, Tamika Flowers of New Haven. She just was a help to the community she helped people whenever she could. ... She was my life. ... Outside of my kids, she was my everything, Flowers said. Six months after the fire, the interior of Adrienne Flowers former home remains open to the sky through a gash in the roof left by the fire, and the owners have not yet to taken out permits to fix the damage or rebuild, the citys building official said. Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media The building is at the corner of Saltonstall Avenue and Lloyd Street. A city official recently identified the resident who died in the Jan. 4 fire as Flowers. She was not immediately identified at the time of the fire. Doug Wardlaw, supervisor of fire investigations for the Fire Department, said Friday the cause of the fire appeared be careless or discarded smoking material. Wardlaw said there was some use of a substance that he did not name that contributed to the cause of that fire, There also appeared to have been some use of tobacco products. The combination of them was the ignition source, he said. Family members remain unconvinced. Tamika Flowers said, ... My sister didnt light candles period. She smoked cigarettes, yes. But shes not going to get tore up with a cigarette in her hand. Asked about the familys suggestion that the cause of the fire was suspicious, Wardlaw said, that has been disproven. ... There is no malicious or suspicious cause suspected, he said. A loving person Flowers mother, Lillian Flowers of New Haven, said its been hard adjusting to the loss of her daughter, but I just put my trust in Christ. Tamika Flowers / Contributed photo Adrienne, she was a loving person. She was doing her thing. ... She was a good person, Lillian Flowers said. She loved her children even though she didnt raise all her children. I pretty much raised her children, me and her sister. And while her daughter had her own problems to deal with, including issues with substance abuse, she didnt let nothing stand in her way of doing what she wanted to do, Lillian Flowers said. Adrienne Flowers youngest daughter, Alonjah Flowers, was at home when the fire started, Lillian Flowers said. Another daughter, also named Lillian, was living with Adrienne but was not home when the fire began, the older Lillian Flowers said. Adrienne Flowers oldest son, Billy Wright, a songwriter, said it was difficult to reduce to words what he had lost. Tamika Flowers / Contributed photo Its hard to explain. She was my mom, said Wright, whose sister, Alonjah, has been living with him since the fire. She was kind, she was funny. ... She was one of a kind. She kept everybody around her laughing. I lost a mom you only get one mom. She cant be replaced, he said. Tamika Flowers said her older sister had been laid-up physically a few months before the fire, recovering from a surgery. Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media The building owner, Club 100-New Haven 2 LLC, which lists Menachem Gurevitch as managing member, was issued a Notice of Unsafe Structure Jan. 6, and ordered to board up the building. Neither Gurevitch nor anyone at Mandy immediately returned messages left at the Mandy Management office. A total of 12 people were displaced by the fire, Mayor Justin Elicker said at the time. mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN Yale Law School professor Amy Chua, at the center of a controversy over students visiting her house, says she is being unfairly targeted for punishment by the university. Its been such a long, hard fight; I havent been able to get my work done for two months, Chua said in an interview with Hearst Connecticut. But Yale contends Chua violated COVID protocols by having the students at her home. As Dean, I have a responsibility to create a community in which all of our students can thrive. When a faculty member violates our rules and norms, it undermines all the good that comes from an environment where faculty respect and support our students, Yale law school Dean Heather Gerken wrote in a statement to Hearst. Chua is no stranger to attention: Her 2011 book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, on the virtues of extremely strict child-rearing was a best seller. She supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was then accused of sexual misconduct. This year, after news reports that Chua had invited students to her home, she was taken off the roster of professors leading small group classes. The dispute has become national news, with stories about Chua and divided loyalties at Yale Law School appearing in the New York Times, Slate, and New York Magazine, among other media. Gerken said Chua has publicly acknowledged that she served food and drink to students inside her home during the early weeks of the spring semester, when COVID was spiking and the University was repeatedly asking our community to avoid maskless indoor gatherings. She said Chua had other options besides meeting at her home. Our campus has been available since September 2020 for faculty and students to meet indoors and outdoors so long as University guidelines on masking and distancing are followed. Many faculty members have made use of this option, she wrote. In the interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, Chua denied having the parties, saying she has only had two or three students to her home at a time for conversations about academics or personal issues, and that she followed Yales guidelines. Its the most ludicrous thing, but I had to stand up for myself. I just couldnt let it go because it was so 100 percent false, Chua said. What did happen, Chua said, was a few small meetings, which she said other professors had as well. I had two or three students over at a time in crisis. So I just felt like I could not let that go, she said. She said she feels singled out. I know for a fact that two other professors have had students over, with larger numbers even, when COVID was raging even more, and multiple students have told me that, she said. Chua said that during a March 28 Zoom call with Gerken, the dean repeatedly asked her whether she had been holding dinner parties with students and federal judges and didnt mention COVID. In March, according to the Yale Daily News and the New York Times, students complained to Gerken that Chua had broken an agreement not to socialize with students. During the call between Chua and Gerken, Chua said, she withdrew from teaching the small group class. How that happened, however, depends on the source. I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that what happened on that Zoom call was, Dean Gerken said, I have decided to go in a different direction; Ive decided to go with a different small group lineup, Chua said. In her statement, Gerken said, Throughout my deanship, I have made no decision about disciplinary action involving a faculty member until the person accused of misconduct receives notice of the allegations and has an opportunity to respond. Period. Finally, in discussing curricular planning with faculty, if a faculty member offers to withdraw from a course and I accept that offer, the matter is closed. Chua, who has taught at Yale since 2001, said she does not believe she broke her 2019 agreement not to socialize with students, because she was asked to teach the small group class, which involves contact outside the classroom. That limited period of time was never clear, but it was my assumption that starting in September 2020, when Deputy Dean Ian Ayres emailed me repeatedly... to teach this small group, that those restrictions were over, Chua said. In an April 21 letter to faculty, Chua wrote that Ayres told her there were concerns about her teaching the small group because her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, might be present at their home and Ayres offered to have her hold meetings with students at the Blake Hotel. Rubenfeld is on a two-year suspension after a Title IX investigation. Students had complained about sexual harassment, verbally and through unwanted touching. Rubenfeld, who has denied the accusations, is not allowed to teach for two years or to be in the presence of students. edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382 The challenge is persistent poverty and an enormous wealth gap, by some measures among the widest in the nation. Any number of state policies have been proposed over the years to overcome these problems, and yet they remain. Connecticut is going a different route, thanks to a revolutionary program championed by state Treasurer Shawn Wooden and passed by both houses of the state Legislature. Instead of tax credits or enterprise zones or development incentives, the state is pioneering a simpler approach identifying children in need and simply giving them money. Its not quite that easy the money is set aside when children are born, and they are deemed eligible by virtue of being enrolled in Medicaid. It is then made available to be spent when they turn 18 and complete a financial education requirement. Through the magic of interest, what started as a $3,200 investment is expected to increase to around $11,000 by the time it becomes available. The money could then be used in a variety of ways. Maybe it will pay for school, or go toward starting a business or buying a home. Whatever it is used for, it will go back into the economy and help spur growth, which makes it valuable from a big-picture perspective. From a personal standpoint, it could make the difference between getting by and not. Known as baby bonds, the plan is part of a larger bonding package approved by the Legislature as the session wound down this month. The idea has been touted for years as a way to help close our enormous wealth gap by giving people the means to make a better life for themselves, and experts from across the political spectrum have come out in favor of the plan. But Connecticut is where it happened first. Wooden deserves credit, along with members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, who made the proposal a priority this year. A report last year found the states racial income gap is at the highest level its been since the 1980s. Though baby bonds are race neutral, Black and Hispanic children make up a high percentage of those eligible for Medicaid, and stand to gain most from the programs approval. It will take some time for the effects to be felt, but the program could be a major boost for people in the state most in need of help. Because of the long lag between the programs inception and when the first beneficiaries will take advantage of the funds, the need to do more to help those in need will remain acute. The budget passed by the Legislature this session makes some moves toward equity, but the need for assistance will continue. Still, this is a major step forward at taking on one of our longest-standing challenges. Though baby bonds flew under the radar a bit this year as other issues like taxes and marijuana took most of the attention, this is the bill that could have the greatest effect long term. The Legislature showed it can get it right. Niagara Falls, NY (14301) Today Rain. Low near 60F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Rain. Low near 60F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara, says the insecurity challenges in the state are getting worse. In a statewide broadcast on Sat... Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara, says the insecurity challenges in the state are getting worse. In a statewide broadcast on Saturday, Matawalle said banditry has reverted to how it used to be before his administration despite efforts to curtail it. About 90 persons were reportedly killed by bandits in Kadawa village in Zurmi LGA area of the state on Thursday night. The governor, however, said none of the criminals and their sponsors will be spared no matter how highly placed. In recent weeks, the act of banditry has reverted to the ugly dimensions it had, prior to the coming of my administration, he said. The marauders kill without regard for any rules of sanity. Women, the elderly, and children are not spared. As a result, a large number of people have been displaced in nearly every town in the state. You are witnesses to what we have accomplished from the beginning of our administration, particularly the peace and reconciliation efforts that we initiated and achieved. As a result, we have been able to shift our violent narratives to one of optimism and peaceful coexistence. Unfortunately, things suddenly took a dramatic turn and things are getting worse by the day. It is clear that some invincible hands are plotting evil against our people with the goal of making our state as terrifying as it were in the years gone by. My constant prayer is for Allah to reveal those who are perpetrating these cruel atrocities against our people. He assured the people of his governments commitment to eradicate banditry and all types of criminality from the state. The governor also urged community members to repel any attack against their communities. Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina, says he will retire to his farm after his tenure as governor of the state. Masari was first elect... Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina, says he will retire to his farm after his tenure as governor of the state. Masari was first elected governor in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. The 71-year-old politician had also served as speaker, house of representatives, between 2003 and 2007. While briefing journalists as part of activities to mark Democracy Day in Katsina on Saturday, the governor said hes held several positions and theres nothing else hes looking for. I have held various positions from commissioner in Katsina state, to the national assembly where I served as speaker of the House of Representatives, he said. I am still serving my people as the governor of Katsina state. Therefore, what else am I looking for again. My people from Katsina, like the late Umaru Musa Yaradua, contested for president and won, Muhammadu Buhari the same thing, he even served as military head of state. I think it is better we leave the stage for other people from other places. According to him, his main concern now is how to fulfill his restoration agenda, which is to rehabilitate all decayed infrastructure and bring back the past glories of the state. After I have satisfactorily succeeded in doing that, I will retire to my farm, the governor added. Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a dot in a circle. Omokri sai... Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a dot in a circle. Omokri said the June 12 protest by Nigerian youths had shown that Buhari was the dot in a round circle. Buhari had recently said the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has nowhere to go because they are a dot in a round circle. The President made the remark in an interview with Arise Television, where he vowed to mobilise security agents against the Southeast group. However, Omokri, in a series of tweets wrote: The #June12thProtest is showing Buhari that it is he that is a dot in a circle. We are 218 million strong. He and his cabal are less than 20,000. The day we unite and encircle their small, then close in on them, we will bid farewell to bad governance and 5% versus 97# government. Omokri also noted that Nigeria would not be having security issues if Buhari confront Boko Haram, herdsmen and bandits the way security agents attacked peaceful protesters. If General Buhari confronts killer herdsmen, bandits and Boko Haram as seriously as he confronts peaceful #June12thProtest protesters, we wont have a situation where over 30 Nigerians die daily from terror or banditry. It takes cowards to fight the peaceful and reward the violent, he added. Ubi Franklin, entrepreneur and former artiste manager, says his failed marriage was shaky right from when he got engaged. Franklin, ... Ubi Franklin, entrepreneur and former artiste manager, says his failed marriage was shaky right from when he got engaged. Franklin, who is often in the news over controversies surrounding his relationships, got married to actress Lilian Esoro in 2015 but they separated a year later. He spoke about his divorce which became official in February 2021 during a chat with Toke Makinwa, an on-air personality. He said: Heres what people dont know, my marriage had been shaky from engagement. Some people always say, you shouldnt have gone ahead with the marriage at all. But, when I think about it, I made the right decision. Now, my son is very important to me. With everything that happened, when I want to feel sad, I show that out. Social media is trying to push the narrative that marriage isnt important but actually is. I was reading something and a working lady was saying it was until she got married that people started respecting her. The reason people see marriage as a problem is that weve lost time having conversations. Go out for dinner anywhere and everyone is on their phone when dinner is meant for you to see the environment and reminisce on things. People are scared from the beginning of relationships to let the other know about them. Franklin, aged 35, added that a defining moment of his failed marriage was when a friend who often mediated between him and his ex-wife suddenly asked him never to visit his home with the same marital problems again. You hear divorcee but until it happens to you before youre more aware of the topic. I was coming from the US where my son was. I was being congratulated but, in my mind, I knew there were problems, Franklin recounted. The news of wanting a divorce came on a Wednesday. I left Arizona for a concert in New York. In three days, I had lost so much weight. I was like, how is this going to be broken on the internet? Fame makes divorce worse. Pressure grows in silence; its the reason a lot are depressed. Ive been there. Once youre not speaking, it becomes a problem. You need to find trust in people to tell you the truth. My emotions were anger, denial, blaming others. Tunde Bakare, overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says Nigerias coming generations must not be burdened with insurgency, hug... Tunde Bakare, overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, says Nigerias coming generations must not be burdened with insurgency, huge debt, and lack of basic amenities. Speaking during a Democracy Day dialogue organised by the Canada chapter of PTB4Nigeria, Bakare noted that the next generations of Nigerians must not bear the brunt of the mess created by those before them. The cleric noted that coming generations must not inherit generator-powered economy, pothole-infested road network and comatose refineries, adding that there should be a generation that will witness the new Nigeria. Let me reiterate that it is our responsibility as present-day nation builders to ensure national reconciliation, national reconstitution and national reconstruction to provide an enabling environment for the growth and optimisation of future generations of Nigerians, Bakare said. It is our responsibility, and we must not leave it to the coming generations. As Franklin D. Roosevelt also said, There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. I perceive this emerging generation of Nigerians has a rendezvous with destiny. Consequently, the emerging and coming generations of Nigerians, including the generation of my grandson, Rereoluwade, must not bear the brunt of the mess that we and those before us have created. Their generation must not be burdened with tackling Boko Haram, insurgency in the south-east, banditry, kidnapping, or the farmer-herder crisis. Their generation should not have to exclaim Up NEPA! nor should they be handed a generator-powered economy or a pothole-infested road network. Their generation should not be burdened about comatose refineries, nor should they be bequeathed a growing debt burden that could render Nigerians slaves on their soil. Their generation should not have to march on the streets against police brutality or the inability of the government to prevent or resolve the abductions of hundreds of schoolboys and girls. Their generation must not be burdened with a failed education system, nor should tens of millions of their peers be left out of school without access to education. Their generation should not be confronted with incessant strikes that turn four-year university courses into eight years of torture in dilapidated facilities, under poorly paid teachers and sex-for-grades merchants masquerading as lecturers. Theirs should not be a generation incapacitated with an inability to match the rising population with corresponding growth in job creation. Rather than these bleak prospects, theirs should be the generation that inherits the New Nigeria, a nation that runs on the dreams of patriotic fathers and the ideas and visions of a young generation of the most brilliant minds on the planet. Banky W says the youth in Nigeria cant possibly protest all the problems in the country. In an interview with HipTV , the actor and mu... Banky W says the youth in Nigeria cant possibly protest all the problems in the country. In an interview with HipTV, the actor and musician spoke of the backlash that trailed the governments Twitter ban. Its a shame that despite all the issues were facing as a nation, Twitter deleted a tweet of the president and the best course they thought up is to ban a service young Nigerians use in expressing themselves and in business, he said. Were as unsafe as weve never been. Kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, and robbery are on the rise. Our educational system is in tatters; healthcare is nothing to write home about. Everywhere you turn in Nigeria, there are issues. Its sad leaders lose all sense of empathy to dialogue and the automatic reaction is ban. There were [EndSARS] protests. But, instead of a dialogue where they do what the youth were asking, they started looking for scapegoats. CBN froze peoples accounts. FG seized passports. Its almost like young people are in an abusive relationship with our country. Banky W said he hopes the Twitter and #EndSARS situations would push the youth into action. I hope actions that like this push us to the wall, where we decide to speak up, stand up, push back, and fight for this democracy, he said. Not in a violent way but that we stand up for democracy; move from protest to power. Honestly, we cant protest about every problem we have. But we can focus on power and those we allow to get into positions of power. I mean, all of this is going on and where are our elected representatives? Where our senators? Where are those supposed to be speaking for us and fighting on our behalf? Surprisingly enough, everybodys quiet. Young people in Nigeria and outside need to use this as motivation, as fuel. Lets organise. 2023 is really not that far away. Lets start from the ground up. The problem is from the top down, but we can start lower and push back. We can organise ourselves and vote. Its time to take a stand. We have to be the generation all of this nonsense stops with. Watertown, NY (13601) Today Becoming cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Becoming cloudy with occasional rain late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. After years of big dreams and dashed hopes, the Wadsworth Estates land on the north shore was finally sold last week. Now St. Tammany Parish leaders want to use the site north of Mandeville as an anchor for an economic corridor that could attract industry and new jobs. The 92-acre site, which sold to Mandeville developer John Crosby last week for $9 million, is located about six miles northeast of the Mandeville lakefront, just north of the junction of Interstate 12 and Louisiana 1088. It has long been considered ripe for development, and over the past two decades the land was earmarked for a massive housing development, and later an office park that would have included the tallest Louisiana skyscraper outside of New Orleans. But development was stymied by the alleged fraud that ultimately led to the $1 billion collapse of First NBC Bank four years ago. That bank's former CEO, Ashton Ryan, and one of his partners, Warren Treme, had owned the land since the early 2000s, but their financial dealings in Wadsworth Estates is at the heart of the federal prosecutor's case against both men, who were indicted last year on bank fraud charges. More recently, after the land was auctioned in a bankruptcy sale in April, the winning bidder the former head of a $300 million nonprofit fund in New Orleans defaulted on the purchase. After Charles Beasley defaulted, Crosby agreed to buy the site for the same amount. The sale closed on Thursday. "There were a lot of missed opportunities because of the mess that site was in," Crosby said. "It just wasn't marketable before." Chris Masingill, CEO of St. Tammany Corporation, the parish's economic development agency, said he and St. Tammany Parish President Michael Cooper have already had discussions with Crosby and representatives of the Azby Fund, which owns 65 acres abutting Wadsworth Estates, about possible uses of the land. Masingill said all the parties now want to develop the site as a commercial hub for some combination of advanced manufacturing, transportation and distribution, which they say would create hundreds of new high-paying jobs for the area. 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 "We plan on really leaning in on this site development," said Masingill. "We see it as a significant step in a much bigger initiative." The combined 160-acre development would be the focus of an "economic corridor" in St. Tammany which could be subject to tax breaks and other incentives to attract other manufacturers and distribution facilities, Masingill said. The aim would be to build on other recent economic develop projects, such as the recently-announced 140,000-square-foot facility Amazon said it will build in Slidell. St. Tammany also recently signed a deal with the Port of New Orleans to market the parish as a logistics hub. Crosby said the timing is fortuitous as the pandemic has given an enormous boost to online and home shopping, which, in turn, has fueled huge growth for logistics and distribution. Many more companies are now looking for U.S. sites with good transportation links. Masingill noted that the demand for cold storage space alone is expected to grow by 100 million square feet in the U.S. over the next five years, while e-commerce spending is on track after last year's 34% boost to hit $1 trillion by 2022. All of these trends have substantially boosted demand for commercial and light industrial sites, as well as support services like data centers. "That is the largest ... development tract in south Louisiana that has wetlands and zoning approval," said Beau Box, a commercial real estate broker who is advising the Azby Fund. "There is a lot of positive momentum behind development there now that there is a new owner for Wadsworth." An uptick in demand from manufacturers looking to supply turbines for wind farms popping up around the globe is driving an expansion at Advanced Cutting Solutions. The New Orleans-based company is investing $750,000 over the next two years for at least two more machines that it uses to make wind turbine blade kits the building blocks used by manufacturers to assemble turbines for wind farms. The company expects to hire two dozen workers to run the machines to meet growing demand. Renewable energy projects have increased as customers of utilities have demanded less carbon intensive ways to power homes and vehicles, while many nations, states, cities and businesses have committed to reducing greenhouse gases by 2050. "We create the bones of the turbine blades themselves," said Peter Schneeweiss, co-founder and vice president and director of business development at Advanced Cutting Solutions, incorporated in 2014. Those bones can be quite large. The average height of wind turbines installed in the U.S. was 280 feet in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By 2017, onshore wind farm turbines are on average 466 feet, according to estimates by a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Meanwhile, offshore wind turbines can be even higher. The Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island is 590 feet. Wind turbine blades are typically longer than 100 feet. At those sizes, wind turbines are transported in pieces then assembled at the project location. Typically, manufacturers contract with Advanced Cutting Solutions and send along 3D-scanned models of the wind turbine blade mold surface. The company then builds a prototype before completing the order. The wind turbine blade bones can be made of a variety of materials, such as PET foam, which is recycled plastic, PVC or even balsa wood that is largely harvested from trees in Latin America. Whichever materials are used as the core, it is wrapped in fiberglass during the manufacturing process. "We cut those (bones) into puzzle pieces, like one through 1,000, and then turbine manufacturers assemble the puzzle" along the inside of the hull of a wind turbine blade, Schneeweiss said. The company was co-founded by Schneeweiss and Nathanial Makin and has grown to roughly 75 workers, ranging from operators to engineers. Makin, president of the company, worked as an engineer for Schlumberger in the New Orleans area for several years before the pair began the venture. Schneeweis hails from New York state and previously worked in sales for Eastman Machine Co. Wind turbine kits have been the fastest-growing part of the company's business, but it also seeks customers in marine vessel and transportation manufacturing because it can also do kit composites such as dry fiberglass and carbon fiber. The company began building only a handful of wind turbine kits each year for smaller manufacturers but then approached larger companies as it became a standardized process and grew to 40 blades a week. Now it has capacity to manufacture 72 blade kits each week and expects to produce 100 blade kits to meet demand. 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 It grew from 3,000 square feet to 27,000 square feet by 2020. Last year, the company leased a new building in New Orleans East that's about 38,000 square feet and has been customized for the business. It is inside the Michoud Assembly Facility. "We did an entire build-out over the last year," Schneeweiss said. The company has an internal formal three-month training apprenticeship-style program. It pays operators state industry averages hourly and offers health insurance benefits along with a 401(k) plan. "We really hired a lot of people without (specialized) skills, mainly people who are hardworking who we can trust and are reliable, willing to learn," he said. "We've trained almost everybody from within. It's a totally new industry." Demand for wind turbine components has expanded steadily for the past five years, Schneeweiss said. "There's a bigger push now, and our customers are looking to build more blades because their customers are looking for blades," he said. "We really put our attention to how we can get greater efficiencies for raw materials to make (wind turbine blades) more efficient. Back in the beginning, people were building these kits by hand, but one of the things that separates us is that it's automated, consistent and a reliable part every time it comes out. Customers have a more efficient kit because it's the same kit." The goal is to grow even larger and secure contracts in other industries. "We would like to expand our footprint here in New Orleans and nationwide and possibly globally," Schneeweiss said. "We'd like to expand (back) into other industries, such as transportation and aerospace." In exchange for its expansion investment, the company is seeking an Industrial Tax Exemption Program incentive from the state and from local government entities that would be an 80% break on property taxes over 10 years. It also has applied for the state Enterprise Zone program, which is a tax credit of either $3,500 one-time or $1,000 for each new job, in addition to a rebate of state sales and use taxes on materials such as machinery or equipment or 1.5% refundable investment tax credit on the total value of the capital investment. Businesses must create at least five jobs in an Enterprise Zone or certify that at least half of its employees live in a historically disadvantaged neighborhood or have received public assistance. Editor's note: This story was changed June 16, 2021, to remove an incorrect reference to the Michoud facility as a former NASA site. New Orleans police located the family of a two-year-old girl who was found alone in Central City on Saturday, an updated NOPD release said. At about 8:30 p.m., an NOPD spokesperson said the girl's family was located. The toddler was walking in the 2400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard by herself, wearing a pink and white Minnie Mouse dress and a pull-up diaper, at about 1 p.m. The NOPD release was sent just after 6 p.m. After searching the area, police said in an earlier release that they couldn't find anyone who was related to or could identify the child. Anyone with information regarding the pictured childs identity or her family is asked to contact the NOPD Child Abuse Unit at 504-658-5268 or 504-442-9138, or the Sixth District at 504-658-6060. James Gray expected it to be difficult. But he didn't know how difficult. When the Jefferson Parish School Board appointed Gray as superintendent in July, it fulfilled Gray's longtime ambition. But it also presented him with a series of massive challenges: He took office in the middle of a pandemic, which was further complicated by a record-setting tropical weather season. And nearly 20,000 of the district's students or two out of every five opted to take only remote classes, requiring a massive shift to accommodate the sudden wave of virtual learners. Nearly a year later, Gray is still managing the ongoing COVID crisis, but is also prepping for what is hoped to be a more normal year. Gray's performance during his first year has won him the praise of School Board members and some in the business community. Teachers are a bit more reserved. "The first year was very interesting to say the least," he said Monday from his sparsely-decorated office in Gretna. "I am not going to say it was easy for me to handle." The School Board appointed Gray to the post following the resignation of Cade Brumley, who left to become state superintendent of education. Gray had been a key part of Brumley's successful two years leading the state's largest school district, with approximately 50,000 students. But while the board's elevation of Gray might have signaled its intent to continue in the direction Brumley's team had taken, the worsening COVID-19 pandemic would command center stage and has yet to step aside. It created a series of downstream challenges for school leaders. Supply-chain delays slowed the delivery of computers and cleaning supplies. Guidance on how to keep students and faculty safe changed constantly. But Gray and the School Board were resolute in their desire to open schools as soon as possible, even in the face of some teacher opposition. On Aug. 31, Jefferson Parish became the first large district in the New Orleans area to get students back into classrooms, with elementary students in classrooms five days per week and older students on a hybrid model of two days in-person and two days remote. Gray praised his team. "We knew we could not slow down in front of this," he said. "We had to be nimble and have quick feet because the context shifted on us so often." But the challenges didn't stop once school started. Within weeks, the new education models were put to the test, specifically with the suspension of Ka'Mauri Harrison, a Harvey fourth-grader disciplined after a teacher saw him handle a BB gun in his room during a virtual lesson. The district said he violated a school policy prohibiting weapons on school property or during school events. But extending the policy to virtual students ignited a furor of criticism from the left and the right. Gray has refused to comment on that case and another involving a student suspended after being seen handling a BB gun in his home during a virtual lesson, citing student privacy considerations and the lawsuits the students' families have filed against the school district. At least one of the lawsuits appears headed for a settlement. In the winter, as COVID-19 cases surged in southeast Louisiana, there were additional calls to return to virtual-only learning. But Gray held firm, and kept students in school. The pandemic had an impact thousands of students were quarantined after close contact, but the year ended with no major school shutdowns caused by the coronavirus. 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 "I don t know if vindication would be the word," Gray said. "The fact that we were able to accomplish everything we were able to accomplish this year and get through a school year where we kept everybody relatively safe all those are big accomplishments." Some School Board members said Gray's performance impressed them. "I think he's very calm and collected," said board member Gerard LeBlanc, a career educator. "When you are in that job as a superintendent or principal, you get crises thrown at you by the minute and you have to handle it." LeBlanc's assessment is backed up by a majority of the board, many of whom cite Gray's efforts at communication and his management style during the pandemic as crucial to the district's success. "James Gray gets an A in my book," said board member Billy North. "We could not have gotten through this with anybody but him." Gray also has the support of leaders of Jefferson's business groups, who have long sought to play a role in the parish's educational system. "He's always been very direct about the challenges," said Tim Coulon, head of the Jefferson Business Council. "He returned the schools to as much normalcy as possible." But one group has been more measured in its evaluation of Gray's performance: teachers. The push to open classrooms drew early protests. And while those protests dwindled as the school year progressed, some teachers, particularly those asked to teach in-person and virtual students as the same time, said they feel the burden was unfairly put on them. "We made it happen, but at a huge cost," said one veteran teacher, who would only speak anonymously. "I've never been so exhausted." Kesler Camese-Jones, the head of the Jefferson Federation of Teachers, said evaluating Gray based on this year is an impossible task. "I'll be honest, it's really hard to give an accurate assessment," she said. "I don't think anybody wants to be evaluated this year." Camese-Jones praised Gray for listening to union concerns about safety in the early days. But, she said, a true measure of his performance will come this year, as things get closer to normal. She praised teachers for persevering, and Gray agreed with that assessment. "Weve had teachers to walk in day to day, everyday and genuinely want to be there to teach the kids, knowing it would be hard." Gray said. "I take my hat off to them for that. Everyone should be proud of what we accomplished." State Rep. Gary Carter Jr. will fill his uncle's state Senate seat after winning 60% of the vote Saturday in a race that pitted the New Orleans Democrat against three opponents from Plaquemines Parish. Carter, who is halfway through his second term in the state House of Representatives, argued during his campaign that he would be best positioned to bring state and federal resources to the district. The 46-year-old is a civil attorney. The 4,137 votes cast for Carter were enough to give him a majority of ballots, preventing the need for a run-off. He was followed by political novice Patricia "Patty" McCarty, who got 17% of the vote. Joanna Cappiello-Leopold, the wife of former state Rep. Chris Leopold, received 14% of the vote. State Rep. Mack Cormier, came in with about 9% of the vote. Senate District 7 includes parts of the West Bank of New Orleans, Jefferson and Plaqumines parishes, stretching along the Mississippi from Belle Chasse through Algiers Point to include portions of Gretna, Harvey and Woodmere. Carter's three opponents all are from Plaquemines and focused their campaigns in part on their opposition to the Mid-Barataria Diversion, a $2 billion keystone of the state's coastal Master Plan that would cut a swath from the Mississippi River to Barataria Bay with the goal of building and nourishing about 27 miles of new wetlands from the flow of the river's sediment. The project is aimed at helping to reverse a century of coastal erosion. But the introduction of freshwater would also harm oysters, shrimp and dolphins in the area and has drawn opposition from the seafood industry. 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 Carter took a more moderate position on the diversion, saying that all alternatives need to be studied and efforts needed to be made to minimize the proposals impacts. The race is the latest in a series of contests spurred by U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond's move to leave Congress to work in President Joe Biden's administration, prompting a special election to fill his seat. Troy Carter bested state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, also a New Orleans Democrat, for that seat in April, leaving his seat in the state senate vacant. With Carter's election, there will be yet another domino to fall to fill his House seat. That election has not yet been scheduled. Louisiana is feeling the summer heat this weekend as many cities are experiencing what feels like at least 100 degree weather. Current heat indexes, or the "feels like" temperature, is what it feels like to the human body when humidity is combined with the air temperature. The National Weather Service New Orleans reported indexes across the state as of 2 p.m., many of which were well above 100 degrees. Several ranged from 105-108 degrees. Tropical disturbance could form into tropical depression in Gulf of Mexico by next week Hurricane forecasters are tracking a disturbance over the Bay of Campeche and the adjacent land areas, according to the 7 a.m. Saturday tropic A heat index of 105 was reported at the Lakefront airport, 108 at New Orleans NAS and 101 at Baton Rouge Metro Ryan Field. 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 Quick look at Heat Indices as of 2pm across the area, many of the locations are seeing values pushing well over 100 and a few nearing 105-108. Stay hydrated, try to get into AC if possible, and avoid strenuous activities that could lead to the harmful effects of heat. #mswx #lawx pic.twitter.com/7msVdilQuL NWS New Orleans (@NWSNewOrleans) June 13, 2021 Can't see the tweet? Click here. Heat indexes reported in degrees Fahrenheit: 31 E Venice, 99. 55 E. Venice , 94. Baton Rouge Metro Ryan Field, 101. Bogalusa, 104. Gomex West Delta 27A, 104. Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport, 91. Hammond, 98. Houma, 103. Lakefront Airport, 105. New Orleans, 103. New Orleans International Airport 105. New Orleans NAS, 108. New Roads, 98. Pascagoula Lott International Airport, 93. Pike County Airport, 105. Slidell Airport, 103. South Lafourche Airport, 93. The Weather Service is encouraging the public to stay hydrated, get into air conditioning if possible and avoid strenuous in the heat. Pity the poor politician's mouthpiece, whose duties will inevitably include standing up in public and making assertions that nobody could possibly believe. Take, for instance, Beau Tidwell who was wheeled out to deal with some mild backlash after his boss, Mayor LaToya Cantrell, exhorted everyone to support a true son of the city of New Orleans, Irvin Mayfield. Mayfield is almost as good at stealing vast sums of money as he is at blowing that horn, but it is presumably the latter talent that makes him a true son of the city. It is, however, the former that necessitated Cantrell's call to arms, for Mayfield awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to living large on embezzled moolah. While he faces up to five years in the federal pen, the only possible construction we can put on Cantrell's remark is that she wants Judge Jay Zainey to give Mayfield less time, or maybe no time at all. Here's where Tidwell was required to earn his money with that time-honored trick of the PR trade, the pious whopper. The mayor believes in second chances, and in that sense, she did reach out to (Mayfield) and offer her support as she would with any resident, he said. So Cantrell would arise to rally support if some Joe Schmo of New Orleans were caught ripping off a charitable foundation for more than a million bucks? Don't be ridiculous. Mayfield is getting the VIP treatment. Maybe that's fair enough; he is, after all, a VIP, and many people will fail to see any benefit in locking up a musician who has given so much pleasure, and who is strictly a nonviolent offender. Still, this country happily locks up huge numbers of its citizens for crimes less serious than Mayfield's. If, as they asked you to believe in school, we are all equal in the eyes of the law, Mayfield ought to be singing a worried song. There is at least one person in town who hopes Zainey throws the book at Mayfield and his partner in music and crime, Ronald Markham. Dixon Stetler hopes they get the maximum sentence for stealing $1.3 million from the foundation that handles donations to the city's public libraries. Stetler's animus makes sense, for she is director of the Friends of the Library. It was, fittingly, Ray Nagin who paved the way for the great library rip-off when he was mayor. Perhaps Nagin, who was destined to do time for taking bribes, recognized in Mayfield a kindred spirit, when he named him the city's cultural ambassador, and decided a trumpeter was the perfect choice to run the library system. Mayfield and Markham later took control of its support foundation and, with nary a peep from their fellow board members, robbed it blind. Mayfield in his pomp played a gold-plated trumpet and laid his head in the finest New York hotels. That was all on stolen dollars, but it still seemed odd that, when he was caught, he was deemed poor enough to deserve an attorney at public expense. As an international star, Mayfield always was an unlikely pauper, and now that he and Markham have started paying back $1.1 million, Cantrell calls on us to support Mayfield, but why we've been paying his legal bills all this time remains an open question. Email James Gill at gill504nola@gmail.com. When it comes to incarcerated people, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana compete to lead the nation. Louisiana continues to incarcerate more people per capita than any other state. Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc have worked with corrections officials, judges and legislators on important reforms. Those have had some impact. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Louisiana had 695 people in prison per 100,000 residents in 2019, and 680 people incarcerated per 100,000 residents in 2020. Thats a 2.4% drop. But there are other parts of this picture. More than 67% of our prison population is Black and far too few of our corrections leadership team is Black. According to a detailed analysis of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections done by a group of Black retired corrections officials, there are about 1,500 prison guards and 56% of them are Black. The senior leadership looks quite different. The report, The Under-representation of Black Employees in Executive and Upper-Management Positions in the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, shows that among the top agency leaders wardens, deputy wardens and assistant wardens 70% are White. Thats not a good look, inside or outside. "That's the old plantation syndrome 70% of your inmates are Black, and almost all your wardens are White," Larry Smith, a former deputy secretary of the DOC, told Advocate reporter Lea Skene. Among the wardens overseeing the seven state prisons, only one is Black: Frederick Boutte, who leads the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. That prison is one of our smallest. Im sure there are experienced, smart, talented White corrections leaders, but where are the experienced, smart, talented Black corrections leaders? Some of them are on staff. Whalen Gibbs graduated from LSU with a criminal justice degree in 1979, and he wanted a criminal justice career. He wanted it so much that he left a well-paying construction labor job to become a probation and parole specialist in 1981, earning $1,051 a month. I made that much a week, he said, but he really wanted a criminal justice career. He quickly rose in the ranks, becoming a supervisor in about five years. Then things stalled. He couldnt get into higher levels of leadership. In 2004, he was appointed an assistant secretary by then Gov. Kathleen Blanco. He retired in 2015, with a salary of $104,000. Gibbs left the department pleased that he had achieved some success, but disappointed that others got jobs for which he believes he was more qualified. He oversaw a re-entry program hes proud of, but hes dissatisfied that more Black people havent followed him into senior leadership. He grew weary. I got tired of the fight, he said, and I walked away. When former corrections deputy secretary Larry Smith asked him to help with a comprehensive analysis of the agencys hiring, promotion and leadership, he did it for Smith, a friend and mentor, and for the people who still have a shot to achieve more. The work started after the killing of George Floyd last year. The report was given to Edwards, LeBlanc, legislative leaders and others. LeBlanc diplomatically responded. He acknowledged most failures. He even agreed that a number of White leaders had gotten into key positions as family corrections legacies. That didnt sit well with Gibbs, who called that conclusion insulting. LeBlanc has a relatively positive reputation among corrections stakeholders, including corrections staff, judges, legislators and some advocates. But even good guys sometimes dont always get things right. LeBlancs promise to hire a diversity, equity and inclusion official is good, but his acceptance of a good ol' boy system is downright disgusting. When I read about the committees work, I immediately thought about our Baton Rouge and New Orleans river pilots who claim family ties are a natural part of high-paying river navigation jobs. I also thought about South Africa and its apartheid rule. From 1948 until the presidential election of Nelson Mandela in 1994, that African nation with a majority Black population was ruled by a White minority with state-sanctioned segregation and separation. They said it was best for the nation. Black South Africans didnt have a say for a long time. LeBlanc knows whats going on. Hes been in the department for 40 years and hes led it for more than a decade. He sees the faces of his senior leadership team. Edwards shares some of the responsibility, too. Edwards and LeBlanc have worked together on penal reform. They need to institute corrections leadership reform. Norman, OK (73070) Today Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Lock Haven, Pa. Prior to this years spring commencement, Lock Haven University also held a virtual Lavender Graduation ceremony honoring seven seniors. Approximately 25 students, faculty and management attended the event on Zoom, which was organized by the Presidents Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. Lavender Graduation is a nationwide event that celebrates the academic achievements of LGBTQ students and allies. The ceremony began with opening remarks from Bre Reynolds, former chair of the commission, followed by remarks from Kenny Hall, director of diversity, equity and inclusion. Recognition was then given to Dr. Julie Story for her service to the commission as she retires from LHU. The Rev. Kyle Murphy, rector, Christ Episcopal Church, delivered the keynote speech, remarking on his own experiences as a 2006 LHU graduate in secondary education, French. Murphy noted the support system he had, especially in the campus theater program, that helped him feel comfortable with himself. He also emphasized that LHU enabled him to study and travel in France and Europe. He said the environment at LHU was welcoming and the academic opportunities were superb. Murphy also expressed praise at the universitys commitment to dedicated events like Lavender Graduation, providing LGBTQ students with a sense of belonging and visibility and hopes services continue to expand. Among the graduating seniors who were celebrated during the event, were Marcos Duarte, criminal justice major, of Sunbury; Hannah Baldwin, psychology major, of Millersburg; Hailey Carroll, social work major, of Harrisburg; Piper Harsch, social work major, of Linden; and Robert Kolterman, interdisciplinary studies major, of Burke, Virginia. Dr. Lisette Schillig, commission member, presented the seniors with certificates, rainbow tassels and cords and graduation gifts. Dr. Ron Darbeau, provost and vice president of academic affairs also congratulated the students. Concluding remarks were provided by Piper Harsch, the outgoing president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance. Lavender Graduation is open to all LHU students regardless of their sexual orientation. For more information, contact Dr. Gayatri Devi at gdevi@lockhaven.edu. For more information about the Presidents Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. LHU is a member of Pennsylvanias State System, the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Harrisburg, Pa. --With more Sunday hunting opportunities on the way, additional days available for hunters to fill their antlerless deer tags and the biggest allotment of elk licenses yet, the 2021-22 season is one that Pennsylvania hunters eagerly are awaiting. And they wont have to wait for long. Hunting and furtaker licenses for 2021-22 will go on sale Monday, June 14 and the new license year begins July 1. General hunting licenses and furtaker licenses each cost $20.97 for Pennsylvania residents and $101.97 for nonresidents. Resident senior hunters and furtakers ages 65 and older can purchase one-year licenses for $13.97, or lifetime licenses for $51.97. For $101.97, resident seniors can purchase lifetime combination licenses that afford them hunting and furtaking privileges. Like other hunters and trappers, seniors still need to purchase bear licenses to pursue bruins and obtain permits to harvest bobcats, fishers or river otters. Hunters who acquired their senior lifetime licenses after May 13, 2017 are required to obtain an annual pheasant permit to hunt or harvest pheasants. A complete list of licensing requirements can be found at www.pgc.pa.gov. Once again this year, additional hunting will be offered on three Sundays Sunday, Nov. 14; Sunday, Nov. 21; and Sunday, Nov. 28. But unlike last year, when those Sundays were open only for deer or bear hunting, this year theyre open for other species that are in season, too, except turkeys and migratory game birds. A complete guide to Sunday hunting is included in the 2021-22 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest issued to all license buyers. Pennsylvania elk hunters in 2021-22 also will be out there in record numbers. The 187 licenses available marks an increase from the 164 allocated the previous year. A record 56 of the 2021-22 licenses are for bulls. And the January late season, which in its first two years was open only to antlerless elk hunting, in 2022 will be open to bull hunting, as well. Ten of the 49 licenses to be issued for the Jan. 1 through 8 late season are for bulls. The January late season is one of three elk seasons. There are 14 antlered and 15 antlerless licenses available for the archery-only elk season, which runs from Sept. 11 through 25, when bulls are in the rut. There are 32 antlered and 77 antlerless licenses available for the general six-day regular elk season, which runs from Nov. 1 through 6. Licenses are awarded by lottery. License applications can be submitted online or at any license issuing agent. A separate application, costing $11.97, is needed for each season. Hunters wishing to apply for all three pay $35.91. In each drawing, season-specific bonus points are awarded to those who arent drawn. The deadline to apply for an elk license is July 31. Many hunters who regularly buy their licenses as soon as sales begin are motivated by securing a Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) permit, which are available in limited numbers and enable holders to harvest antlerless deer in any established deer season. Buying early also helps ensure hunters wont miss their opportunity to apply for an antlerless deer license. A resident Pennsylvanian who buys their 2021-22 hunting license is eligible to apply for an antlerless deer license July 12. Nonresidents can apply July 19. And a second round in which a hunter can receive a second antlerless deer license begins Aug. 2 for Wildlife Management Units where licenses remain. And if licenses still remain, a final round begins Aug. 16. Its as important as ever this year for hunters to submit their antlerless deer license applications on schedule. A total of 925,000 antlerless deer licenses are available, down from 932,000 last year. Hunters statewide now have the opportunity to apply for and receive additional antlerless deer licenses, as long as licenses remain available, and provided that a hunter holds no more than six unfilled antlerless licenses at a time. And the return of concurrent hunting for antlered and antlerless deer during the duration of the firearms deer season gives hunters in much of the state additional time to fill their tags. Further details are outlined in the Hunting & Trapping Digest. Hunting licenses can be purchased online at https://huntfish.pa.gov, a newly launched customer-friendly licensing platform. Just create an account or log into one you previously created to purchase all the licenses you need. A map to locate a license issuing agent near you can be found on the Licenses and Permits page at www.pgc.pa.gov. Article was reprinted with permission from First News Now. Bradford County, Pa. Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) in Towanda lifted the shelter in order around 10:30 a.m. for residents in Bradford County, Pa., on Sunday, June 13, 2021. The shelter in order had been put in place around 9:30 p.m. Saturday evening as a manhunt continued into the early hours of Sunday. State Police had also noted that residents should lock their doors. The public has been asked to keep an eye out for a white male named Christopher Shulas. He was last known to be wearing a black cut off shirt, black shorts and white sneakers. Shulas is known to be armed and dangerous. Pennsylvania State Police confirmed that the search for Shulas started Saturday evening, June 12, 2021, just after 7:00 p.m. when police responded to a domestic violence call on Oak Hill Road in Ulster Township. Shulas was identified as the attacker. State Police noted that the domestic violence incident occurred when the 18-year-old female confronted Shulas for stealing her high school graduation money. Shulas then grabbed the female and allegedly strangled her until she lost consciousness. Afterwards Shulas fled the scene while allegedly in possession of two explosive devices. A felony arrest warrant was issued for Christopher Shulas' arrest and State Police continued to search the area well into the early hours of Sunday morning with no luck. Residents have reported that a State Police helicopter Pennsylvania State Police Aviation had assisting with the manhunt in the Ulster area during the search over night. Police ask that if you see someone matching this description, dial 9-1-1. Residents are asked not to attempt to confront Shulas. The suspect has not been reported apprehended as of 11:30 a.m. Severe Thunderstorm Warning BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED Severe Thunderstorm Warning National Weather Service State College PA 345 PM EDT Sun Jun 13 2021 The National Weather Service in State College PA has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... North central Lycoming County in north central Pennsylvania... Southeastern Tioga County in north central Pennsylvania... * Until 430 PM EDT. * At 345 PM EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from near Blossburg to near Ralston, moving northeast at 20 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Blossburg, Covington, Arnot, Ralston and Ogdensburg. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. Torrential rainfall is occurring with these storms, and may lead to flash flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. Severe Thunderstorm Watch SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WS 266 325 PM EDT SUN JUN 13 2021 SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 266 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1000 PM EDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS PA . PENNSYLVANIA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE BLAIR BRADFORD CAMBRIA CAMERON CENTRE CLEARFIELD CLINTON COLUMBIA ELK HUNTINGDON JUNIATA LACKAWANNA LUZERNE LYCOMING MCKEAN MIFFLIN MONTOUR NORTHUMBERLAND POTTER SNYDER SULLIVAN SUSQUEHANNA TIOGA UNION WARREN WYOMING Harrisburg, Pa Programs that help to provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options across the 23rd Senatorial District will receive a $1,835,000 funding boost, according to state Sen. Gene Yaw (R-23). Grants are being administered by the PA Housing and Finance Agency through its PA Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund (PHARE). PHARE was established by Act 105 of 2010 (the "PHARE Act") to provide the mechanism by which certain allocated state or federal funds, as well as funds from other outside sources, would be used to assist with the creation, rehabilitation and support of affordable housing throughout the Commonwealth. The states natural gas Impact Tax provides $5 million annually to the Marcellus Shale Fund, specifically to support PHARE and address the need for affordable housing in the counties, where producing unconventional gas wells are located. PHARE is a crucial part of our overall effort to improve our economy and provide affordable housing to state residents, especially in the Northern Tier and across the Senate District I am proud to represent, Sen. Yaw said. The following projects in the region received funding: Bradford County o County Housing Program - $182,000 to fund a housing specialist position and rental assistance for homeless prevention and mitigation. o County Homebuyer Assistance - $300,000 to mitigate the effect of the housing shortage on low-to-mid income residents. Lycoming County o Transitional Living Centers Master Leasing Program - $200,000 to help those re-entering from prisons, persons with serious mental illnesses, and those at-risk for homelessness, gain housing stability. o American Rescue Workers Rental Assistance Program - $100,000 to provide short-term rental assistance to families who are facing eviction. o YMCA North Central PA Liberty House $70,000 to support those who do not fit into the recovery category, but are suffering from homelessness. o Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity Memorial Homes - $63,000 to help construct a new single-family home for qualified family. o STEP Inc. Supportive Housing Program - $265,000 to support residents in danger of eviction or mortgage foreclosure and those needing to secure housing accommodations. o STEP Inc. Urgent Need Program - $25,000 to provide housing repairs for eligible homeowners to correct urgent health and safety issues. o STEP Inc. Homes-in-Need Program - $225,000 to help eligible homeowners receive repairs such as code compliance, accessibility improvements, and weatherization. Snyder/Union counties o Union-Snyder Community Action Agency - $200,000 for the Comprehensive Housing Program that reduces homelessness through prevent, diversion, rental assistance, case management and supportive services. Sullivan County Rental Assistance - $80,000 for one-time rental assistance for eligible households. - $80,000 for one-time rental assistance for eligible households. Susquehanna County Rental and Utility Assistance Program - $125,000 to provide rental and utility assistance for low-income residents to promote stable housing and forestall eviction or utility termination. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing. Cedartown, GA (30125) Today Cloudy skies this evening followed by thunderstorms late. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Cloudy skies this evening followed by thunderstorms late. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. A tale of two school systems: What to do about the fact that New York Citys public education system remains the most segregated in the country Flag Day 2021: When is it? Is it a holiday? Why do we celebrate it? Is it the same date every year? Roseburg, OR (97470) Today A few passing clouds. Low 61F. NNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 61F. NNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. The conference, he said, is "for people who love the scriptures" or simply want to know more about them. And it's not just for Catholics. "There are people from all different denominations and also Jewish participants," he said, adding Catholics share so much of the Old Testament scripture tradition with those from the Jewish faith. Kartje, who is a native of Highland, will be giving three talks during the conference, along with other notable speakers and scholars. Among other conference speakers will be Brother Guy Consolmagro, director of the Vatican Observatory; Father Robert J. Spitzer, host of "Father Spitzer's Universe" on EWTN; Dr. Tina J. Wray, professor of religious and theological studies at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island; Dr. Joe Paprocki, national consultant for faith formation at Loyola Press; and others. Kartje, who is a teacher of Scripture at Mundelein Seminary, said he's looking forward to taking part in this conference and that it should be an enlightening experience. The priest, who has been Mundelein Seminary's rector for the past six years, said he's attended the conferences for about a decade. Kartje said he has a deep passion for scripture. He said being a part of this year's conference will allow him to "deepen spiritual life and it will also be a spiritual journey." At over 8,000 acres, Kankakee Sands is one of the largest and most diverse prairie restorations east of the Mississippi, Edmonson said. We support 600 plant species, 70 different butterfly species and nearly 250 different birds, many of which rely on grassland habitat for forage and nesting. Today, visitors can stroll through the immersive trails to experience migratory bird watching opportunities, a bison viewing area and wetlands. Kankakee Sands is providing space for thousands of species to thrive in a natural setting, Edmonson said. Without these areas, whole communities of plants would not functionally survive the development and disturbance of society. Creatures like the state-endangered regal fritillary butterfly and breeding grassland birds would disappear from Indiana, he said. We not only preserve species, but also important ecosystem functions across our site, Edmonson said. Our wetlands hold a lot of water, and our soil is teeming with life and organic matter. We are able to let nature thrive and run its course on all levels, and that is important because once you lose those building blocks and populations of species in a place, it is very hard to bring them back in a meaningful way. HAMMOND When the Donald E. Gavit High School Class of 2021 started its junior year, principal Michelle Ondas showed them a video about persevering through adversity. At the time, she didnt know the class would spend its upperclassman years facing a pandemic, but throughout it, she saw them persist and live out the virtues administrators hope all Gavit students will have. On Saturday, the Class of 2021 got the chance to gather with family and friends, celebrate their hard work and even show a little personality while crossing the stage and turning their tassels. As they all sat before Ondas at graduation, she told them, "you have not only what it takes to make it in this world, but to make it a better place." The 170 or so students that walked across the stage at The Pavilion at Wolf Lake Saturday comprised the final graduating class of Gavit, which will close before the fall as the School City of Hammond prepares to open the new, consolidated Hammond Central High School. Students will never again experience the hot auditorium, seemingly ever present "Gavit dust" or a leaking air conditioner caused by frozen pipes as class president Annikkha Setlak outlined in her speech. CROWN POINT Starting Monday, work is set to begin on the city's final leg of its 109th Avenue Transportation & Safety Improvement plan. Crown Point Chief of Staff Greg Falkowski said work on a future, $2.23 million roundabout at Iowa Street and 109th Avenue began this week with partial lane closures. Come Monday, however, the road will be completely closed from "just east of Maine Drive," to Iowa, Falkowski said. Crown Point Mayor David Uran previously told The Times closures for the project are set to last until the fall. While 109th will be closed from Delaware Parkway to Iowa Street, 113th and 101st avenues will be open, and Delaware Parkway will be open to 105th Avenue, Uran said previously. Motorists also will be able to use 113th Avenue to access Mississippi Street, he said. Falkowski noted Friday Delaware Parkway from Summit Street to 109th Avenue is set to open next week providing another detour route for motorists. The project is one of many planned for 109th Avenue this summer. The Chinese Communist Party wants to surpass the United States economically, and spread their authoritarian values across the globe, Young continued. They are doing this in part by investing heavily in the endless frontier. Its time to go on offense. Thats why I authored the Endless Frontier Act. My Endless Frontier Act is going to help Hoosiers supercharge our economy in the 21st Century. Inside Indiana Business reported that Conexus said that one-third of the states gross domestic product and 500,000 jobs are directly linked to advanced manufacturing, including automotive, medical devices and aerospace and defense, all of which rely on semiconductors. While it received bipartisan support in the Senate and faces very strong passage prospects in the House, it was opposed by most of the Republicans senators positioning for the 2024 presidential race (i.e. Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Rick Scott). Also voting against it was Youngs Indiana colleague, Mike Braun. A source close to him explained, "Sen. Braun believes red ink is going to do us in faster than Red China. So while he agrees the U.S. must stay competitive in science and tech innovation, we cannot do it through hundreds of billions in deficit spending without offsets. It certainly is true, again according to the Census Bureau, that in 2019, Blacks, who constituted 13.2% of the population, represented 23.8% of those living below the poverty line. Family breakdown nationwide But is this about racism? The data tells us that this is about family breakdown, not racism. And the problem of family breakdown is afflicting the whole nation. It just happens to be hitting many Black communities particularly hard. Poverty is excessive in households of all races that are headed by single women. Blacks just happen to have a very high percentage of households headed by single women. But, according to Statistica, only 6.4% of Black households headed by a married couple live in poverty. So, enough of racist generalizations about Blacks. And enough of the distortions that Blacks have not been gaining ground in our free country and that where we do have problems, we need more government. Black progress and achievement since the 1960s have been substantial. Where problems exist, and where progress is disappointing, invariably, government has been the problem, not the solution. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker." The opinions are the writer's. Love 6 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 An off-duty flight attendant took control of the public address system and then fought with passengers and crew members on board a Delta Air Lines flight on Friday in the latest outburst of violent behavior by airline passengers, the airline said. Delta said that Flight 1730, which had been headed to Atlanta from Los Angeles, landed in Oklahoma City after the off-duty flight attendant grabbed the public address system and made an announcement about oxygen masks, setting off a struggle with passengers and crew members who subdued him. Video from the flight showed a violent confrontation near the front of the plane involving several people who wrestled the man to the floor, while someone said: Get him down. Keep him down. The aircraft landed without incident and the passenger was removed by law enforcement, Delta said in a statement. We apologize to our customers for the delay and any additional inconvenience this caused. A Baltimore factory that rendered useless 75 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson failed for weeks to seal off a preparation area for vaccine ingredients and allowed production waste to be hauled through the area, the Food and Drug Administration said in a memorandum analyzing the plants operations. The memo, posted on the agencys website on Saturday, offered the most extensive explanation to date of why regulators believe that tens of millions of doses of Johnson & Johnsons vaccine produced at that factory must be discarded. The F.D.A. advised Johnson & Johnson on Friday that it should throw out the equivalent of 60 million doses. That brought to 75 million the total number of doses that cannot be used because of concerns about contamination at a southeastern Baltimore plant, operated by Emergent BioSolutions, Johnson & Johnsons subcontractor and a longtime government contractor. The vaccine-making factory has been shut for the past two months while regulators determine the cause of contamination that ruined many doses, whether it is safe to reopen the facility, and what to do with the equivalent of at least 170 million doses of vaccine that Emergent produced for Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, another vaccine developer. In 2009 Ellison promised some 300 pieces to the Met, much of which went on view that year in the newly refurbished American Wing. All were formally given in 2018. Ellison also branched out into European ceramics from around 1900, mostly French and English, giving the Met more than 100 examples. Then it was on to the 20th-century. Sometime in the 1980s Ellison recognized his growing collection, not painting, as his calling. His is the classic story of the driven, autodidactic collector who becomes an expert and a scholar in his own right. He has contributed a long essay to the book that accompanies the exhibition, which he also published himself. In addition, he photographed all the works reproduced in it. Coming from abstract painting, Ellison was attracted to artists who favored abstract form over function. His preference was confirmed in an epiphanic moment in 1974, when he first encountered the radically abstract work of the American Arts and Crafts (for lack of a better word) potter George Ohr (1857-1918), which came to light after being neglected for 50 years. Ohr performed his own upending, taking up improvisation in the 1890s, long before Voulkos. He threw dazzlingly thin-walled vessels on the wheel and then twisted and pinched them into sinuous, sometimes beautifully rumpled, often asymmetrical forms; his metallic glazes were also innovative. Ohrs witty, elegant pots really sculptures became a touchstone for Ellison; six of them form the heart of this show and are the only works here that he is keeping. But he gave already: 20 spectacular Ohrs are all on view in the American Wing. Readers sometimes assume art is born only from autobiography; writers know that it arises just as often from emulation. The success of The Underground Railroad or the Wolf Hall trilogy, on the page as well as in the marketplace, may be inspiring some novelists who previously dismissed historical fiction as a form. But emulation alone cant account for how rich and varied the genres current revival seems to be. Perhaps it has its roots in another phenomenon: The present has rarely felt as transitory as it does now as fleeting as a refreshed Twitter feed, or a masked dash around a grocery store. Brexit, Trump and a world-altering pandemic: The last few years have not been short of events that might legitimately break our faith in the readability and writability of our now. At the same time, they have also not been short of reminders systemic racism, rising hate crimes, mass incarceration and the shootings of unarmed Black citizens by the police that in America the past continues to erupt into the present and remains key to understanding it. Part of the power of works of fiction set in our era comes from their familiarity. A present-day setting provides a recognizable foundation from which other less stable experiences might be productively explored: love, life, loss. But what happens when history emerges as the overwhelming force shaping the entire unstable narrative of now? Franzens distrust of historical fiction stemmed from a belief that writers should grapple with the world in which they find themselves. Yet by writing powerful literary novels set on slave plantations and in the Jim Crow South, and examining the effects on characters both white and Black, writers like Esi Edugyan (Washington Black), Brit Bennett (The Vanishing Half) and Robert Jones Jr. (The Prophets) are doing exactly that. These novelists are acutely alert to the ways in which history profoundly informs the present. The historicizing impulse has crept into other media as well notably television. Dramas originally set in the present day are currently being rewritten to take place in earlier decades the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Rewinding time in this way is attractive because it sidesteps awkward questions: Should characters wear masks and reference the pandemic? Will indoor dining in an early date scene seem like Chekhovs gun, a trigger the viewer expects to be pulled with a cough later on? Perhaps its no coincidence that Netflixs winter hit Bridgerton, which is set in Regency-era London but features a 21st-century multicultural cast, has apparently been its most popular series ever. The portraitist has always been drawn to the subject that sits still and nothing about 2021 sits still. Its always fidgeting for its phone, reaching for a remote, updating and posting and refreshing in a doomed effort to keep current. Doomed because the present will always rewrite itself faster than we can record it. A kiss in Normal People may, in 2021, feel as anachronistic as a kiss in Pride and Prejudice we want Rooneys lovers to be together, but were concerned they havent shown each other their vaccination cards. In fast-changing times it becomes clear that every novel is a historical novel. Novalis is credited with saying, Novels arise out of the shortcomings of history. We do not talk of Tolstoy or Balzac or Hawthorne as historical novelists any more than we think of Shakespeare as a historical playwright. Yet when they wanted to capture their own unstable times, these writers looked to history. For better or worse, they saw history as alive rather than dead, ripe for reinvention and re-examination. A new generation of writers may find in the past better ways to capture the present. New leadership in Israel The Israeli parliament formally ousted Benjamin Netanyahu, whose 12-year reign as prime minister was the longest in the countrys history. The Knesset approved a new coalition government by a single vote: 60 to 59, with one abstention. Naftali Bennett, often described as further to the right than Netanyahu, is the new prime minister. He sees no path to Palestinian statehood, and he believes Israel should annex much of the occupied West Bank. In two years, if the government can hold, the centrist leader Yair Lapid will take his place. A savvy political operator, he coaxed the deal into place and favors many progressive policies. The eight parties in the coalition have little in common. They plan to steer clear of issues that would divide them, like the conflict with Palestinians, and promise a domestic focus: patching budgets, fixing roads and rebuilding the fumbling economy. Ransom, Recovered The Justice Department snatched back most of the ransom that Colonial Pipeline paid in Bitcoin last month to a Russian hacking group that shut down its systems and caused turmoil in the fuel industry. Thats good news for Colonial Pipeline, but bad news for Bitcoin, which was widely viewed by investors and consumers (and criminals) as untraceable and operating beyond government reach. It remains to be seen whether the government will be able to help JBS, the worlds largest meat processor, recover any of the $11 million ransom that it paid hackers in Bitcoin. Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara Whats Next? (June 13-19) Look Out, China The Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill on Tuesday that would funnel nearly a quarter-trillion dollars over the next five years into scientific research and technological development to strengthen U.S. competitiveness against China. (For comparison, the Chinese government has been doing the same thing to boost its own industrial and technological growth for years.) Now the legislation is headed to the House, where it faces tougher critics but still enjoys bipartisan support. It also has backing from President Biden. If it becomes law, it could be the most significant government intervention in industrial policy in decades. A Tense Meeting Mr. Biden will sit down with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Switzerland this week and is planning to confront him about harboring the perpetrators of the rash of recent cyberattacks on businesses operating in the United States. (Mr. Putin is known for taking a hands-off stance on hackers even encouraging them as long as they promote Russian interests and leave Russian businesses alone.) Leading up to the summit, Mr. Biden will urge European Union leaders, NATO allies and the Group of 7 wealthy nations to back a strong, unified stance on Russia. From G7 to the G20 The United States succeeded in getting the Group of 7 nations to agree to a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent that companies would have to pay no matter where their headquarters are. Its a step toward cracking down on companies that dodge taxes by basing their headquarters in tax havens like the Cayman Islands. It would also potentially force technology giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google to pay taxes to countries based on where their goods or services are sold, regardless of whether they have a physical footprint there. But the next step persuading the Group of 20 nations, which includes China and Russia, to get on board when their finance ministers meet next month will be a much tougher proposition. Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Fifty years ago today, The Times published the first article in its series on the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Departments secret study of the United States role in Vietnam. The papers, including private revelations that ran counter to the public optimism of leaders, changed American journalism and a nations relationship with its government. The Nixon administrations attempt to stop The Times from printing its series, and the Supreme Court decision that allowed the paper to continue, is a landmark First Amendment case. In a special section, rolled out online last week and in newspapers this weekend, Times journalists and contributors wrote about these themes. Heres what they think about when the Pentagon Papers come to mind. Adam Liptak Times Supreme Court correspondent Before I was a reporter, I was a press lawyer. Like all press lawyers, I never tire of hearing about the Pentagon Papers case. Im like a child with a favorite bedtime story. Over the years, I have heard the story from some of its protagonists. After law school, I worked for Floyd Abrams, who had represented The Times in the Pentagon Papers case and is a towering figure in the fight for press freedom. Then I spent a decade in the Times Companys legal department, where I got to know James C. Goodale, its former general counsel. Jim had backed the newsroom in internal debates over whether to publish the Pentagon Papers, facing down business executives who were skittish and outside lawyers who were adamantly opposed to publication. The winner of the Democratic primary is almost certain to become the citys next mayor. And while the leading candidates have indicated with their plans that they would build on Mr. de Blasios strategies, they have also criticized the mayor, implicitly and explicitly, for not providing enough financial support to the poorest New Yorkers. In a report released this year, the Community Service Society, an anti-poverty group, said Mr. de Blasios administration had significantly expanded investment in affordable housing. But most of the efforts, the group found, were directed toward those who earned at least $53,700 for a family of three, equivalent to half of the areas median income when the need was greatest among those who earned less. Ms. Garcia said that she would borrow and use state incentives and federal money to help build or preserve 50,000 rent-stabilized housing units that would be affordable to people making less than half the areas median income, as well as 10,000 housing units that incorporated social services for homeless people. She did not offer a price for her plan, but the money would be used to build new apartments, buy existing buildings, or offer subsidies and incentives to nonprofit or private developers. Mr. McGuire said he would borrow $2.5 billion a year over eight years, which would help finance the construction of more than 350,000 housing units. Most of that money would be earmarked for subsidies and incentives for developers to include rent-stabilized units in mixed-income developments that are affordable to those making less than half the median income. He said he would spend up to $500 million to create about 3,000 affordable units for older people with little income. It is a departure from what we have built for the past few years, he said. Mr. Yang and Mr. Donovan said they would spend billions of dollars a year to build or preserve 30,000 units meant for families in a range of incomes. Ms. Wiley is focused on distributing more than $1.5 billion in subsidies to New Yorkers who make less than half the median income to ensure they do not pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent. Initially, she said, federal coronavirus aid would cover the subsidies. She said the program would help keep people from becoming homeless, freeing up money that would have gone to shelters to finance the subsidies instead. Among the other faces in separate windows on the Zoom screen was a 66-year-old woman, identified simply as Nancy. She was Nancy Pryor, and she was 19 when her sister, Mary Ann, was found dead. I was an immediate adult when it happened, she said later in an interview. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. My parents couldnt handle it. She had called Bergen County every few months to ask about the case for 47 years, she said. I can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. Through the years, other people were assigned. Right up to Mr. Anzilotti. He worked hard on this. There were never any meaningful updates, until a Monday this April, when detectives knocked on her door in Ocean County, N.J., and said they had obtained a confession. She was stunned. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. He was the Torso Killer. I just ruled him out. It was quite a shock to learn it was him. It will take her a while to forget the habit of calling the detectives for updates a lifetime constant, through the deaths of her parents, her marriage and divorce, her second marriage and widowhood. My whole life has been this, she said. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. The public in Bergen County deserved to know the outcome of those girls, he said. For over 40 years, its been folklore in this county. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. After the hearing, the cameras off, Mr. Anzilotti approached Mr. Cottingham. Both men were keenly aware that it was their years-old relationship that had brought about this moment. The inmate, with no real incentive to say anything about that crime, had given the chief what amounted to a parting gift. To the Editor: As a retired physician, I read A Covid Crucible for New Doctors, by Emma Goldberg (Sunday Review, June 6), with great interest. These young men and women who were willing to graduate early and take on the Covid fight demonstrated extraordinary courage and selflessness. Not all graduating medical students (given the opportunity) volunteered for this assignment, forgoing traditional celebrations and vacation that come between graduation and further medical training. We owe these young physicians a debt of gratitude that will be difficult to repay. My hats off to them. They are true heroes. Lloyd Alterman South Orange, N.J. To the Editor: Covid is but the latest infectious disease to plague our nation. In 1980 I was a third-year medical resident at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville. There began appearing patients, mostly men, with fever, rash and weight loss. Our infectious diseases group was stumped. Many more such patients arrived and began appearing all over the country. Most died. The illness, at first, was considered idiopathic, no known cause. Was it contagious? How was it transmitted? There were many more unanswered questions, and there we all were nurses, therapists, aides, housekeepers, attending physicians, resident physicians living with uncertainty. We were treating H.I.V./AIDS. From 2014 to 2018, Mr. Buffetts wealth soared by $24.3 billion, according to ProPublica. (To underline, this is just the amount the fortune grew.) The amount of taxes Mr. Buffett paid over this period? $23.7 million. If middle-class Americans in their 40s enjoyed such a low effective tax rate, they would have paid a few dozen bucks per household over this same time period. Instead, as the ProPublica story notes, they paid around $62,000. Imagine if Mr. Buffett had to pay the same fraction of the growth of his net worth that regular people do. Taxing that money could have helped pay for bridge repairs, mammograms, and free day care. More important and this isnt said enough there is intrinsic value in shrinking gargantuan fortunes. The sway plutocrats have over public life is inconsistent with a one person, one vote democracy. The important point here is that Mr. Buffetts tax payments as detailed by ProPublica are fully legal. Though Mr. Buffett has called for changing the tax system, while we have the one we have, he will continue to benefit from the madness of taxing billionaires for their income, rather than their wealth, when their income is pretty much just a number they can construct. I asked Mr. Buffett last week, via his longtime secretary, Debbie Bosanek, if he could think of even one tax or accounting practice that he has come to regret. Sure, he may have followed the letter of the law. But was there any aspect of his patriotism or humanity that left him feeling guilty for hoarding so much untaxed when regular people pay so much in taxes? Though Ms. Bosanek responded to an initial inquiry, she declined to offer any such examples. In a long statement last week, Mr. Buffett defended himself by pointing to his long advocacy for a fairer taxation system, and then he immediately told on himself by undermining the very idea of taxes in the same letter. I believe the money will be of more use to society if disbursed philanthropically than if it is used to slightly reduce an ever-increasing U.S. debt. In other words: I believe in higher income taxes on people like me, but Im highly organized to avoid having income to report, and I dont really believe in taxes because I think I should decide how these surplus resources are spent. And this points to another way in which the Good Billionaire is hard to deal with. The crooks and the scoundrels and the people manifestly looking for quick P.R. highs come to philanthropy for the marketing payoff. When Goldman Sachs announces a new initiative on fighting the racial wealth gap despite having done little to repair the damage it did to Black homeowners in contributing to the 2008 financial meltdown, some may be fooled, but, more and more, many are not. I know there are hundreds of people dying per week. Of course, I feel sorry and very sad for that, but the most important thing for our country is to bring down the military. If not, our future generations and our country will die. DR. KYAW MOE, a surgeon and one of the doctors at Mandalay General Hospital who have gone on strike to protest the military coup in Myanmar. The family of Alton Sterling, a Black man who was shot and killed by a white police officer outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, La., has reached a $4.5 million settlement with the city, nearly five years after his death, the familys lawyers said. The settlement, which came after the family had filed a lawsuit against Baton Rouge and others, will allow the city to heal and provide a pathway for Mr. Sterlings children to be provided for financially, the lawyers said in a statement. The announcement came after a state district court judge in East Baton Rouge Parish approved the settlement and closed the case in mid-May, The Advocate reported. City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday. Mr. Sterling, 37, a father of five, was fatally shot on July 5, 2016, after two Baton Rouge police officers, Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, responded to a report that a Black man who was selling CDs outside a convenience store had brandished a gun and threatened someone. BRUSSELS President Biden and fellow Western leaders issued a confrontational declaration about Russian and Chinese government behavior on Sunday, castigating Beijing over its internal repression, vowing to investigate the pandemics origins, and excoriating Moscow for using nerve agents and cyberweapons. Concluding the first in-person summit meeting since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the leaders tried to present a unified front against a range of threats. But they disagreed about crucial issues, from timelines for halting the burning of coal to committing tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to challenge Beijings Belt and Road Initiative, Chinas overseas investment and lending push. Still, as they left Cornwall, where they had met at a resort overlooking rocky outcroppings in Englands far west, almost all the participants welcomed a new tone as they began to repair the breaches from four years of dealing with Mr. Bidens predecessor, Donald J. Trump. It is great to have a U.S. president whos part of the club and very willing to cooperate, President Emmanuel Macron of France said after meeting Mr. Biden praise that many Americans will welcome but those who embrace Mr. Trumps America First worldview might consider a betrayal of U.S. interests. Notably, Mr. Manafort had been hit with new fraud charges unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia the day before the subpoena. Subsequent developments revealed that Mr. Muellers investigators were closely scrutinizing some of his communications accounts in the following days. On the other hand, the Manafort case was largely handled in the District of Columbia, where he faced separate charges. Still, the Mueller team was also working with federal prosecutors in Virginia during that period on an unregistered foreign agent case related to Turkey and a business partner of Michael T. Flynns, Mr. Trumps former national security adviser who had also advised him during the 2016 campaign. It was also around that time that Mr. McGahn was involved in another matter related to the Russia investigation, one that included a leak. In late January 2018, The New York Times reported, based on confidential sourcing, that Mr. Trump had ordered Mr. McGahn the previous June to have the Justice Department remove Mr. Mueller, but Mr. McGahn had refused to do so and threatened to resign. The Washington Post confirmed that account soon after in a follow-up article. The Mueller report and Mr. McGahn in private testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this month described Mr. Trumps anger at Mr. McGahn after the Times article and how he had tried to persuade Mr. McGahn to make a statement falsely denying it. Mr. Trump told aides that Mr. McGahn was a liar and a leaker, according to former Trump administration officials. In his testimony, Mr. McGahn said that he had been a source for The Posts follow-up to clarify a nuance to whom he had conveyed his intentions to resign but he had not been a source for the original Times article. There are reasons to doubt that Mr. McGahn was the target of any Justice Department leak investigation stemming from that episode, however. Information about Mr. Trumps orders to dismiss Mr. Mueller, for example, would not appear to be a classified national-security secret of the sort that it can be a crime to disclose. Yet another roughly concurrent event was a Justice Department investigation into unauthorized disclosures of information about the Russia inquiry. As part of that investigation, prosecutors sent Apple a subpoena on Feb. 6, 2018, for data on congressional staff members, their families and at least two members of Congress. Apple only recently informed those targeted because it had been prohibited from disclosing the subpoena at the time. A gas explosion at a produce market killed at least 12 people and injured 138 others, 37 of them severely, in central China on Sunday, the local authorities said. The cause of the blast, which took place at around 6:40 a.m. in the city of Shiyan, in Hubei Province, was still under investigation, according to the local government. Photographs published by official media showed bricks and debris strewn in the street and extensive damage to nearby buildings. Rescue workers in helmets and orange suits worked to free people trapped in the rubble. President Biden called Queen Elizabeth extremely gracious and said she reminded him of his mother after a meeting at Windsor Castle on Sunday. She reminded me of my mother in terms of the look of her and just the generosity, he said, adding that he didnt think she would be insulted by the comparison. The two traded stories of living in Windsor Castle and the White House and dealing with visits from the public, and they enjoyed tea with the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden. Mr. Biden said the queen asked about Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Biden is meeting with Mr. Putin on Wednesday and wrapped up the Group of 7 meeting on Sunday by cautioning against the growing influence of China. As the leaders of the worlds wealthiest nations wrapped up their first in-person summit since the outbreak of the pandemic, they released a joint communique on Sunday, underscoring areas of solidarity and the differences that remain when it comes to tackling a host of global crises. The group, including President Biden, did not reach agreement on a timeline to eliminate the use of coal for generating electric power, a failure that climate activists said was a deep disappointment ahead of a global climate conference later this year. The leaders sought to present a united front even as it remained to be seen how the plans would be executed. The agreement represented a dramatic return of Americas postwar international diplomacy, and Mr. Biden said it was evidence of the strength of the worlds democracies in tackling hard problems. Haiti was spared the worst of the pandemic last year, but the coronavirus has returned to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with a fury. The nations leading newspaper is full of obituaries and hospitals are turning away patients. The average number of new daily cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks to 153, according to data collected by The New York Times. For a population of about 11.5 million, thats still relatively low, but many experts believe the number is an undercount because testing capacity is severely limited and many cases remain unreported. And Haitis government has yet to administer a single dose of any vaccine. Carissa Etienne, the director of the Pan American Health Organization, described the situation in Haiti as a cautionary tale in just how quickly things can change with this virus. At a news conference this month, she called for rapid escalation of treatment and preventive measures. After adding more hospital beds and ramping up emergency plans last year, Haiti relaxed measures to combat the virus as new cases fell. The government mothballed its presidential coronavirus panel, eased enforcement of its curfew and mask policy and held Carnival celebrations. If the end of Benjamin Netanyahus 12-year reign as prime minister is a political earthquake inside Israel, its tremors stop clearly at Israels borders. The political drama has solicited barely a shrug from Israels Arab neighbors, who do not expect it to lead to substantial changes in the issues they care about namely, Israels approach to the Palestinians or to the wider Middle East. Truly this is not being talked about or thought about, said Elham Fakhro, senior analyst for Gulf States at the International Crisis Group. For those who care about the Palestinian side, they see every Israeli government as similar, they feel like the occupation is going to continue regardless and it doesnt matter who is the face of it. Mr. Netanyahus long tenure as Israels dominant politician has seen shifts in Israels relations with the Arabs. The peace process with the Palestinians has fallen dormant. Israel has stepped up its shadow war against Iran by regularly bombing targets associated with its allies in Syria. And in cooperation with former President Donald J. Trump, Israel reached new agreements to establish diplomatic relations with four Arab states, helping erode what was long considered an Arab consensus against engaging with the Jewish state. Members of the new Israeli government put together by Naftali Bennett, the new prime minister, have referred to their coalition as a government of change. But a big question is whether there will be changes in Israels foreign and defense policies, which have been almost exclusively controlled by Benjamin Netanyahu since 2009, when he began his last term in office. Most of the members of the Bennett security cabinet have served in the past as senior members of the various Netanyahu cabinets over the past 12 years, and have backed the outgoing prime ministers policies: Mr. Bennett was Mr. Netanyahus defense minister; Avigdor Lieberman was foreign minister and defense minister; Yair Lapid was finance minister; and Benny Gantz was defense minister, and before that, the chief of staff of the military. Moreover, the new government, composed of parties across the wide political spectrum, is not expected to initiate significant changes on controversial issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the questions of establishing an independent Palestinian state or continuing to establish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel is also unlikely to significantly change its policy of waging a so-called war between the wars, on or close to its borders. This includes hundreds of Israeli attacks, almost all from the air, with the aim of preventing the continuation of the military buildup in Syria by Iran and Hezbollah, and the development of advanced precision weaponry for the Lebanese Shiite militia. We stopped the train a step before the abyss, Mr. Bennett said, explaining that the turmoil of elections and hatred had to end. Such was the tumult that Mr. Lapid skipped his planned speech. He asked for forgiveness of his 86-year-old mother, whom he had brought to Parliament to watch because he wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. He added, Instead, she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you. The pandemonium eased somewhat when Mr. Netanyahu took the podium, a confident, even haughty figure. Some sense of the awe in which much of Israel has held him was palpable. The chamber was initially quiet as he launched into his speech, which was unusually dismissive toward the United States on the subject of Iran and its nuclear program. The Biden administration is reviewing a possible return to the Iran nuclear deal, which the Trump administration scrapped. The new United States administration asked me to keep our disagreements in nuclear matters private, not to publicize this, Mr. Netanyahu said. I said I would not do this, and I will tell you why: Because the lessons of history stand before our eyes. He cited the United States refusal to bomb railroad tracks leading to Nazi extermination camps in World War II or to bomb gas chambers there, something which could have saved millions of our people. We had no state, we had no army at the time, he said. But today we have a voice, we have a voice, and we have a defending force. Israels Parliament Approves New Government, Ousting Netanyahu This briefing has ended. You can read more coverage about Israels new government here. Bennett is in and Netanyahu is out, all by a single-vote margin. Video Israels Parliament, the Knesset, approved a new coalition government by a single-vote margin on Sunday. The vote, 60 to 59 with one abstention, officially ended the longtime reign of Benjamin Netanyahu. Credit Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times The long and divisive reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, the dominant Israeli politician of the past generation, officially ended on Sunday, at least for the time being, as the countrys Parliament gave its vote of confidence to a precarious coalition government stitched together by widely disparate anti-Netanyahu forces. Israels Parliament, the Knesset, approved the new government by just a single vote 60 to 59, with one abstention. After his supporters cheered the announcement of his election, Naftali Bennett then exchanged a brief handshake with Mr. Netanyahu before walking to the rostrum at the front of the parliamentary chamber and taking the oath of office as prime minister. Yair Lapid, a centrist leader, is set to take Mr. Bennetts place after two years, if their government can hold together that long. They lead an eight-party alliance ranging from left to right, from secular to religious, that agrees on little but a desire to oust Mr. Netanyahu, the longest-serving leader in the countrys history, and to end Israels lengthy political gridlock. In a speech made before the confidence vote, Mr. Bennett hailed his unlikely coalition as an essential antidote to an intractable stalemate. We stopped the train before the abyss, Mr. Bennett said. The time has come for different leaders, from all parts of the people, to stop, to stop this madness. Before and after the fragile new government was announced on June 2, Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing allies labored hard to break it before it could take office. They applied intense pressure on right-wing opposition lawmakers, urging them to peel away from their leaders and refuse to support a coalition that includes centrists, leftists and even a small Arab Islamist party. It was a watershed moment for politics in Israel, where Mr. Netanyahu, 71, had served as prime minister for a total of 15 years, including the last 12 years uninterrupted. But given Mr. Netanyahus record as a shrewd political operator who has defied many previous predictions of his political demise, few Israelis are writing off his career. Even out of government and standing trial on corruption charges, he remains a formidable force who will likely try to drive wedges between the coalition parties. He remains the leader of the parliamentary opposition and a cagey tactician, with a sizable following and powerful allies. Israel has held four inconclusive elections in two years and has gone much of that time without a state budget, fueling disgust among voters with the nations politics. No one was able to cobble together a Knesset majority after the first two contests, and the third produced an unwieldy right-center coalition that collapsed after months in recriminations. The new coalition proposes to set aside some of the toughest issues and focus on rebuilding the economy. But it remains to be seen whether the new government will avoid another gridlock or crumble under its own contradictions. Some of its factions hope to see movement away from the social policies that favored the ultra-Orthodox minority, whose parties were allied with Mr. Netanyahu. But Mr. Bennetts party, which has a partly religious base, is wary of alienating the Haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are known in Hebrew. Supporters also hope for a return to a long tradition of Israel cultivating bipartisan support in the United States. Mr. Netanyahu has grown more aligned with Republicans and was embraced by Donald J. Trump, the former president. It was uncertain where relations would go under President Biden. Is Israels new prime minister an ideologue or a pragmatist? Image Naftali Bennett, right, at an election campaign event in 2019. Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times Naftali Bennett, Israels new prime minister, is a former high-tech entrepreneur best known for insisting that there must never be a full-fledged Palestinian state and that Israel should annex much of the occupied West Bank. The independently wealthy son of immigrants from the United States, Mr. Bennett, 49, entered the Israeli Parliament eight years ago and is relatively unknown and inexperienced on the international stage. That has left much of the world and many Israelis wondering what kind of leader he might be. A former chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels longest-serving prime minister, Mr. Bennett is often described as more right-wing than his old boss. Shifting between seemingly contradictory alliances, Mr. Bennett has been called an extremist and an opportunist. Allies say he is merely a pragmatist, less ideological than he appears, and lacking Mr. Netanyahus penchant for demonizing opponents. In a measure of Mr. Bennetts talents, he has now pulled off a feat that is extraordinary even by the perplexing standards of Israeli politics: He has maneuvered himself into the top office even though his party, Yamina, won just seven of the 120 seats in the Parliament. Mr. Bennett has long championed West Bank settlers and once led the council representing them, although he is not a settler. He is religiously observant he would be the first prime minister to wear a kipa but he will head a governing coalition that is largely secular. He leads a precarious coalition that spans Israels fractious political spectrum from left to right and includes a small Arab party much of which opposes his ideas on settlement and annexation. That coalition proposes to paper over its differences on Israeli-Palestinian relations by focusing on domestic matters. Mr. Bennett has explained his motives for teaming up with such ideological opposites as an act of last resort to end the political impasse that has paralyzed Israel. The political crisis in Israel is unprecedented on a global level, he said in a televised speech on Sunday. We could end up with fifth, sixth, even 10th elections, dismantling the walls of the country, brick by brick, until our house falls in on us. Or we can stop the madness and take responsibility. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Netanyahus rise, rule and fall: A quarter-century in the spotlight. Mr. Netanyahu and his wife leaving the White House in Washington in 2018. Credit... Tom Brenner/The New York Times Educated in the United States, speaking flawless East Coast English, warning in pungent sound bites about the threats posed by Islamic terrorism and a nuclear Iran, the Benjamin Netanyahu who stormed into Israeli politics in the 1990s was like no politician his citizens had ever seen. Before long, he would capture the prime ministers office, lose it, then seize it again a decade later, becoming Israels longest-serving leader and inspiring such admiration that supporters likened him to the biblical King David. His political agility got him out of so many tight spots that even his detractors called him a magician. He presided over an extraordinary economic turnaround, kept the perennially embattled country out of major wars and kept casualty tolls to historic lows. He feuded with Democratic American presidents, then capitalized on a symbiosis with the Trump administration to cement historic gains, including the opening of a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. He compartmentalized the Palestinian conflict, snubbing the endless peace talks that had stymied his predecessors, unilaterally expanding the Jewish presence in the occupied West Bank and treating Palestinians largely as a security threat to be contained. While the chance for a lasting peace with the Palestinians the singular achievement that could give Israelis the long-term stability and worldwide acceptance receded on his watch, he struck watershed accords with four Arab countries that had long shunned Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. Those agreements overturned decades of conventional wisdom that peace with the Palestinians had to come first, and constitute perhaps his most far-reaching achievement. Still, he was a deeply polarizing figure, governing from the right, branding adversaries as traitors, anti-Israel or anti-Semitic, obsessed with power and comfortable deploying street-fighter tactics to retain it. The intuitive media savvy that sped his rise to power curdled in time into an almost narcissistic obsession. His efforts to control his image, including allegations that he bribed media executives for favorable news coverage, led to criminal charges that haunted his final years in office. Even as he surpassed the tenure of David Ben-Gurion, Israels founding leader, in 2019, he drove Israelis to exhaustion with four elections in two years in which the main issue was him, and the electorate split down the middle each time. Now, Mr. Netanyahu leaves power nearly a quarter-century after he first became prime minister in 1996. A day of tumult and change in Israels Knesset. Knesset member Itamar Ben-Givr of the Jewish Power party being held back while shouting during the session on Sunday. At least seven members were escorted from the chamber after outburts. Credit... Emmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Heckling and mayhem in the Knesset, an intimate parliamentary chamber transformed by anger, marked the end of Benjamin Netanyahus divisive 12-year rule over Israel and the start of Naftali Bennetts term as prime minister. Mr. Bennett, a hard-right politician whose decision to join an eight-party coalition including left-wing parties has enraged Mr. Netanyahus center-right Likud party, struggled for 43 minutes to make himself heard as his opponents hurled abuse and held up posters saying, Shame on you. Mr. Netanyahu gave a 35-minute speech full of venom, contempt for Mr. Bennett and dire warnings about Israels security without him. Try to damage as little as possible of the magnificent economy we are handing over to you, so that we can fix it as fast as possible when we return, he said in a typically unapologetic speech that oozed scorn and confidence that he would soon be back. A measure of calm returned only after several hours as voting began in the 120-member Israeli Parliament. The sound of Baad, meaning in favor, and Neged, meaning against, alternated. The vote yielded a razor-thin 60-to-59 victory for the new coalition, with one abstention from a member of the Raam Islamist party, which is joining the government. Mr. Netanyahu, wearing a black mask, was impassive, even when members of Israels new government congregated around its centrist architect, Yair Lapid, and embraced. An era had ended, just. Earlier, proceedings had slowed to a crawl as yelling filled the chamber. At least seven members of Parliament were escorted out. They accused Mr. Bennett of being unfit to lead Israel because his party, Yamina, has only a handful of seats; told him he was selling the Negev desert because he has agreed to accommodate some Bedouin demands; and assailed him as a liar and traitor to his right-wing voters. In the blue-carpeted, wood-paneled chamber, the departing speaker had to call several times for order, to little avail. The turmoil was an apt portrait of a country bitterly divided after four elections since 2019. We stopped the train a step before the abyss, Mr. Bennett said, explaining that the turmoil of elections and hatred had to be end. Such was the tumult that Mr. Lapid skipped his planned speech. He asked for forgiveness of his 86-year-old mother, whom he had brought to Parliament to watch because he wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. He added, Instead, she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you. In Tel Aviv, a dance party celebrates the exit of the crime minister. Celebrations in Tel Avivs Rabin Square on Sunday night. Credit... Corinna Kern/Reuters Ecstatic Israelis descended onto Tel Avivs Rabin Square on Sunday for a celebration marking the ouster of Benjamin Netanyahu and the swearing-in of a new if precarious government. The euphoric atmosphere reflected the relief of many Israelis that a new day had sprung and that a public figure that many in the liberal enclave disdain had at last been dispatched. As music blasted into the square, it was blanketed in people of all ages carrying Israeli flags, rainbow flags and pink flags, the color adopted by members of the movement to oust the prime minister. Many wore shirts saying simply Go, in a font matching Mr. Netanyahus Likud party logo. Others wore shirts emblazoned with references to the various corruption scandals during Mr. Netanyahus tenure. Omer Ziv, dancing under a large Crime Minister banner with Mr. Netanyahus image on it, was thrilled. We feel like the democracy is back, and were super happy about it, she said. Chany Gross said she felt high, high in the sky, declaring that Israel had finally got rid of the horrible person I dont want to say his name. We are in heaven, she said. But even as they basked in the moment, some spoke of mixed emotions. They remain wary of Naftali Bennett, Mr. Netanyahus replacement, since he hails from a hard-right party not necessarily aligned with their views. Aviv and Inbal Adashi found a babysitter for the evening so they could attend the gathering. While Mr. Adashi feels ambivalent about Mr. Bennetts elevation and initially harbored doubts over Yair Lapid, another key player in the coalition, he was relieved to see Mr. Netanyahu go. Its been a very bad dream for a very long time, Mr. Adashi said. Its been a nightmare. Noam Goodman, also unsure of the new prime minister, was still optimistic, given the presence of other parties in the coalition. I think its a little pathetic that somebody with so few voters became prime minister, its not ideal, Mr. Goodman said. But I think the main thing is not whos prime minister, its whos in control, and whos in the government. Shoval Sadde expressed relief that the coalition had come together after weeks of uncertainty. Today is final, she said. There are no secret magics anymore that Bibi can pull out of a hat. Its final. Some saw a moment of closure. Yuval Geni, 76, said he felt reborn, noting the significance of the celebrations location: in the square named after Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister assassinated there in 1995 at a peace rally. Mr. Netanyahu ascended to the premiership for the first time months later. Its a kind of balancing, Mr. Geni said. Mr. Geni was hopeful that Mr. Netanyahus reign, the longest of any Israeli prime minister, would ultimately be a footnote in the countrys history. Bibi will go, he said. Hell be forgotten. It wont take long. Advertisement Continue reading the main story On top of Bennetts to-do list is coordinating with the U.S. Mr. Bennett, in his speech at the Knesset on Sunday, said that renewing the nuclear agreement with Iran would be a mistake. Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times Among the most important issues that the new Bennett government will confront is how to manage political, military and intelligence coordination with the Biden administration, which will affect how it addresses almost all other foreign, national security and economic policy challenges. At the center of current dialogue is the soon-to-be-concluded, revived nuclear deal with Iran. The defense establishment of Israel, including the military and the intelligence agencies, see Iran as the main enemy of the country, and the most difficult challenge of all. Benjamin Netanyahu took the position that the original nuclear deal, negotiated in 2015 and known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, did not give Israel enough security from the possibility that Iran would try to develop a nuclear bomb. He also objected that the deal did not cover any other crucial topics like Iranian support for militias in neighboring countries. This view was generally shared across the political spectrum in Israel, and was backed by most of the countrys defense establishment.It is apparently the position of the new government, as well. The renewal of the nuclear agreement is a mistake, Naftali Bennett said in his opening remarks in the Knesset, Israels Parliament, before Sundays vote made him prime minister. Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and will maintain full freedom of action, he added, using words similar to those used at various times by Mr. Netanyahu and members of his government. The sabotage and assassination campaign against the Iranian nuclear project led by the Mossad, Israels spy service, continued even after President Biden was elected and negotiations to rejoin the deal began. And the Mossads new director, David Barnea, has hinted that these tactics could still be on the table. The probable agreement with the superpowers only reinforces the sense of isolation we are in on this issue, he said in a speech he made when taking on the new post on June 1. Mr. Barnea said that if Iran continues with its nuclear program, it will come up against the full force of the Mossad. Referring to Irans nuclear efforts, he hinted at Israels possible responses, saying the Mossad was well aware of the programs various components, the officials active within it, as well as those who give them the orders how to operate. Still, Mr. Bennet is considering trying to influence some terms of the new deal, an effort that Mr. Netanyahu refused to contemplate. If that happens and some of the Israeli requests are fulfilled, Israels opposition to the deal may decrease. Mr. Bennet and his chief partner, Yair Lapid, have agreed that Israel will try to keep public disagreements with the United States to a minimum and not take the adversarial stand it did under the Obama administration, according to a person familiar with the negotiations that led to the formation of the new coalition. To do that, Mr. Bennet is considering replacing Gilad Ardan, the current ambassador to Washington and a longtime Netanyahu political ally, with a confidante of his own. An Arab party makes history in Israel. From left, Yair Lapid, Neftali Bennett and Mr. Abbas agreed to join forces on Wednesday. Credit... United Arab List, via Reuters The agreement on the coalition that ousted Benjamin Netanyahu as Israels prime minister after a dozen years in power includes an independent Arab party in the government for the first time, blowing up fault lines in Israeli politics and opening a potential new era. With Parliaments backing of the eight-party coalition on Sunday comes the tantalizing possibility that Palestinian citizens of Israel, who account for about a fifth of the population, might play a more active role in politics, to unifying effect. The decision by a small Arab party known by its Hebrew acronym, Raam, to join the government so soon after last months violent clashes between Jewish and Arab mobs in Israel last month reflected a growing realization that the marginalization of Arab parties brings only paralysis and repetitive elections. It also suggested a desire among some Palestinian citizens of Israel to exert more political influence. Fakhira Halloun, an expert in conflict resolution, said: Usually the dominant discourse is one of perceiving Palestinians inside Israel as an internal enemy. We need to change this perception by not being always in the opposition. Certainly, Raam, with four seats in Parliament, will be critical to the survival of the coalition, even if it will not hold any cabinet posts. The coalition will have to consider the interests of the Palestinian minority in a different way. Practically, Raams leader, Mansour Abbas, is likely to press for increased spending for Arab communities, who lag Israels Jewish population in the quality of schools, sports facilities and infrastructure. They also suffer from denial of access to land. Revocation of the so-called Kaminitz Law, which disproportionately penalizes unlicensed construction in Arab communities, has been discussed. I do not think that the two-state solution or reconciliation with the Palestinians will be achieved in the coming year or two, said Jafar Farah, the director of the Mossawa Center, an advocacy group for Arab citizens of Israel. But I do think that it is an opportunity for the Palestinian community in Israel to become a game changer. The new government is expected to hold the line on big security issues. Israeli nationalists marching last month. The new government will have to decide whether to permit a march planned for Tuesday through Arab neighborhoods. Credit... Ariel Schalit/Associated Press Members of the new Israeli government put together by Naftali Bennett, the new prime minister, have referred to their coalition as a government of change. But a big question is whether there will be changes in Israels foreign and defense policies, which have been almost exclusively controlled by Benjamin Netanyahu since 2009, when he began his last term in office. Most of the members of the Bennett security cabinet have served in the past as senior members of the various Netanyahu cabinets over the past 12 years, and have backed the outgoing prime ministers policies: Mr. Bennett was Mr. Netanyahus defense minister; Avigdor Lieberman was foreign minister and defense minister; Yair Lapid was finance minister; and Benny Gantz was defense minister, and before that, the chief of staff of the military. Moreover, the new government, composed of parties across the wide political spectrum, is not expected to initiate significant changes on controversial issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the questions of establishing an independent Palestinian state or continuing to establish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel is also unlikely to significantly change its policy of waging a so-called war between the wars, on or close to its borders. This includes hundreds of Israeli attacks, almost all from the air, with the aim of preventing the continuation of the military buildup in Syria by Iran and Hezbollah, and the development of advanced precision weaponry for the Lebanese Shiite militia. The policy was shaped by the new governments defense minister, Benny Gantz, when he led Israels military, together with others. But Mr. Netanyahus ability to conduct this war without allowing it to deteriorate to an all-in conflict depended in part on his close ties with President Vladimir V. Putin, which helped prevent clashes between Israeli forces and Russian force in Syria. Mr. Bennet does not have such a relationship with Mr. Putin, and it will be difficult for him to shape one against the background of the tension between Moscow and Washington. The new leaders of Israel, however, may want to make some changes to distinguish themselves from Mr. Netanyahu, diverging from his path in some areas like relations with the Palestinian Authority, which Mr. Netanyahu wanted to weaken. One possible such shift could be to follow the militarys recommendation at the end of the recent hostilities with Hamas to cut off the flow of funds from Qatar to the Islamist regime in Gaza, and instead direct it to the Palestinian Authority. This could change the balance of power between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. One of the first issues to confront Mr. Bennet is whether to allow a provocative flag parade scheduled to be held on Tuesday through Arab areas of Jerusalem by ultranationalist Jewish Israelis. Security officials have warned that the parade could spark a new round of Arab-Jewish violence, including a possible rocket attack on Israel by Hamas in Gaza, and the predictable Israeli military retaliation. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The coalitions partners agree on little other than ousting Netanyahu. Can it hold? Naftali Bennett now leads a new and shaky coalition government. Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times Now that the Israeli Parliament has approved a new government coalition a gravity-defying construction with a right-wing leader and blocs including the left and, for the first time, an independent Arab party its survival will immediately become its main issue. Israels parliamentary democracy veered in a presidential direction under Mr. Netanyahu. In the end, his increasingly dismissive style had alienated too many people, especially among nominal allies on the right. An agreement to return to democratic norms may be the underlying glue of an unlikely coalition. The parties are disparate, but they share a commitment to reconstitute Israel as a functioning liberal democracy, said Shlomo Avineri, a prominent political scientist. In recent years we saw Netanyahu begin to govern in a semi-authoritarian way. Success will require constant compromise. They will not deal with the highly contentious issues between left and right, said Tamar Hermann, a professor of political science at Israels Open University. In practice, that means a likely concentration on domestic rather than foreign affairs. Israel has not had a budget in nearly two years of political turmoil and repetitive elections. As prime minister, Naftali Bennett, a self-made tech millionaire who is considered to be to the right even of Mr. Netanyahu, is determined to deliver higher standards of living and prosperity to a population weary of such paralysis. The delicate questions to be deferred or finessed would include any renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinians and any major settlement expansion in the West Bank. Establishing good relations with the Biden administration, a priority, and improving relations with Americas majority liberal Jewish community, another significant goal, will also require centrist restraint. Hard core people of the right, we have the evidence, become more centrist in office, Ms. Hermann said. Yair Lapid, 57, a leading architect of the coalition, would become prime minister in two years under the deal that made an alternative to Mr. Netanyahu possible another incentive for him to help make the government work. Still, it may not. The parties, ranging from Mr. Bennetts Yamina party on the right to Labor and Meretz on the left, disagree on everything from L.G.B.T.Q. rights to public transport on Shabbat. Among measures the government has agreed on is legislation that would set a two-term limit for a prime minister and oblige anyone who has led the country for eight years to spend four years out of the Knesset. In effect, this would preclude any Netanyahu redux. The prospective government will also pursue legislation designed to make changing Israels Basic Law containing much of its fundamental legal framework more difficult. Mr. Netanyahu, who had been indicted on fraud and other charges, had eyed curtailing the powers of the Supreme Court and securing immunity from prosecution as prime minister. Lapid changed himself to change Israels political gridlock. Yair Lapid helped coax into existence the fragile coalition to replace former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government over months of phone calls and meetings with faction leaders. Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times When Yair Lapid was a rising newspaper columnist in the late 1990s, his editor, Ron Maiberg, found him a pleasant but self-centered and often intransigent man who regularly failed to cede ground in an argument. He would argue with you to death, said Mr. Maiberg, then a senior editor at Maariv, a centrist newspaper. Instead of admitting that Raymond Chandler wrote maybe seven novels and not nine or 10 he would include the short stories to explain his counting. More than two decades later, Mr. Lapid, 57, is a man transformed, colleagues and analysts say. Now a leading centrist politician, he is considered gracious and conciliatory. And it is partly because of that transformation that Israel now stands on the cusp of one of the most significant moments in its recent political history. On Sunday, Israeli lawmakers voted in a new government that replaces Benjamin Netanyahu, the countrys longest-serving leader, as prime minister. The new coalition is a fragile alliance formed from eight ideologically diffuse parties that are united only by their shared dislike of Mr. Netanyahu. If it holds, it will be largely because Mr. Lapid coaxed the unlikely alliance into existence over months of phone calls and meetings with faction leaders. To cement the deal, Mr. Lapid has even allowed Naftali Bennett, a right-wing former settler leader who wavered over joining forces with centrists, leftists and Arabs, to go first as prime minister even though Mr. Bennetts party won 10 fewer seats than Mr. Lapids. In a compromise, Mr. Lapid will take over as prime minister in 2023. But while Mr. Bennett takes the stage first, he does so only because Mr. Lapid vacated the limelight for him. Young Israelis see the end of their forever prime minister. A protest against Mr. Netanyahu last year. Credit... Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse Getty Images After 12 years with Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, young Israelis and Palestinians who can barely remember his predecessor expressed in interviews before Sundays vote a wide range of reactions to the possibility of a future without Mr. Netanyahu at the helm. Wow, said Gil Maymon, a Ph.D. candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, barely concealing her excitement. We started to think he would never leave, but now its finally happening. But Ms. Maymon, 30, expressed some reservations about the politician taking Mr. Netanyahus place: Naftali Bennett, the leader of the hard-right Yamina party, who strongly supports settlement building. Sometimes you dont get everything you want, she said. Young supporters of Mr. Netanyahu, however, said they were not only shocked, but bitter, at the prospect of his exit. Nathan Moatti, 27, an education student, said he was furious at Mr. Bennett a former chief of staff to Mr. Netanyahu for moving to unseat the prime minister. I feel betrayed, Mr. Moatti said. I very much love and appreciate Netanyahu, said Mr. Moatti, 27, who lives about 150 feet from the prime ministers residence in Jerusalem. He has transformed our economy, defended us against Iran and stood up for our country around the world. The government that was inaugurated on Sunday is made up of right-wing, left-wing and centrist political parties, as well as the first independent Arab party to join a coalition in Israels history. But many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank said they doubted that a new prime minister would bring dramatic changes in their lives. The same system and strategy the restrictions on movement, the checkpoints and the wall will stay, said Bahaa Nairoukh, 30 an accountant in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, in the West Bank. Its hard to imagine anything different because occupation is all Ive known my whole life. Mohammed Wawi, an Arab citizen of Israel, also did not expect a transformation. Its true he incited against the Arab community, he said of Mr. Netanyahu, but Bennett has also made comments against us. Mr. Wawi, 29, a physical therapist from Nazareth, said that while the Arab party that joined the coalition may be able to extract additional money in the budget for Arab towns, it was unlikely to be able to make changes to the nation-state law legislation passed in 2018 that formally declared Israel to be the nation-state of Jewish people only. Some on the right praised Mr. Netanyahu, but said that the only way Israel could overcome its political deadlock, after four elections in two years, was for him to leave office. The country got stuck, said Alon Saperia, 30, an industrial engineer who lives in the long-disputed Golan Heights. The unfortunate reality is he had to go. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Israels Arab neighbors predict little change in relations. Israeli soldiers standing guard as children play in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank in 2019. Credit... Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times If the end of Benjamin Netanyahus 12-year reign as prime minister is a political earthquake inside Israel, its tremors stop clearly at Israels borders. The political drama has solicited barely a shrug from Israels Arab neighbors, who do not expect it to lead to substantial changes in the issues they care about namely, Israels approach to the Palestinians or to the wider Middle East. Truly this is not being talked about or thought about, said Elham Fakhro, senior analyst for Gulf States at the International Crisis Group. For those who care about the Palestinian side, they see every Israeli government as similar, they feel like the occupation is going to continue regardless and it doesnt matter who is the face of it. Mr. Netanyahus long tenure as Israels dominant politician has seen shifts in Israels relations with the Arabs. The peace process with the Palestinians has fallen dormant. Israel has stepped up its shadow war against Iran by regularly bombing targets associated with its allies in Syria. And in cooperation with former President Donald J. Trump, Israel reached new agreements to establish diplomatic relations with four Arab states, helping erode what was long considered an Arab consensus against engaging with the Jewish state. But few in the Arab world expect any of that to change now that Mr. Netanyahu is being replaced at the helm of Israels government. The new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is at least as hostile to the idea of a Palestinian state as Mr. Netanyahu. And there are no signs that any of the parties to the agreements with the four Arab states, which began with the so-called Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and were followed by similar deals with Sudan and Morocco, are considering throwing them out. The Abraham Accords are not a Netanyahu accord, said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political scientist in the U.A.E. They are not even an Israel accord. They are a U.A.E.-driven accord and they will outlast Netanyahu or any Israeli prime minister. The Abraham Accords are here to stay, he continued, and that is good for the U.A.E., good for Israel and good for America. Mr. Netanyahus departure could actually make the agreement easier to preserve, Mr. Abdulla said, since the longtime prime minister was widely seen as arrogant and pretentious. It is good for the accord that he is gone, Mr. Abdulla said, adding that it would have been awkward for Mr. Netanyahu to visit Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital. Large parts of the population in many Arab countries still oppose Israels existence or strongly oppose its blockade of the Gaza Strip, which it enforces with Egypt, and its decades-old occupation of the West Bank. That gives them little interest in Israels internal politics since significant changes to those policies are not on the table. Mickey Levy is the Knessets new speaker. Mickey Levy was elected as the new Knesset Speaker on Sunday. Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times Parliament selected Mickey Levy, a lawmaker from Yair Lapids centrist party, Yesh Atid, to be its new speaker on Sunday afternoon. Mr. Levys election was considered a sign that the new government would likely pass the vote of confidence. He beat out Yaakov Margi, an ultra-Orthodox politician who is part of Mr. Netanyahus right-wing coalition. Mr. Levy, 69, is a former police officer who commanded police units in Jerusalem during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s. He later served as a police attache at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, according to his biography on the Parliament website, and then ran a bus company. After entering politics with Yesh Atid in 2013, he was deputy finance minister for nearly two years, overseeing the tax authority and serving under Mr. Lapid. As speaker, Mr. Levy will exert considerable influence over parliamentary procedure, giving his government greater influence over the passage of legislation. For Netanyahu, like Trump, only cheating could explain defeat. Benjamin Netanyahu has disparaged media coverage of his frustrated attempt to retain power as total fascism. Credit... Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse Getty Images For former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel witnessed the greatest election fraud in the history of the country. For former President Donald J. Trump, defeat last November was the crime of the century. The two mens language overlaps, it seems, because their overwhelming sense of invincibility is confounded by democratic process. Even as Naftali Bennett, a right-wing nationalist, took office as prime minister Sunday as a leader of a diverse coalition, Mr. Netanyahus raging assault on his successor did not abate, describing what had befallen his own 12-year-long tenure as a deep state conspiracy. Mr. Netanyahu accused Mr. Bennett of having conducted a fire sale on the country. A government of capitulation will now run Israel after a stolen election, he said. Mr. Netanyahu disparaged media coverage of his frustrated attempt to retain power as total fascism. In the run-up to the transfer of power on Sunday, doubts had persisted over whether it would be peaceful. Attacks by Mr. Netanyahus Likud party on Mr. Bennetts small Yamina party were so vicious last week that some Yamina politicians needed security details. And Mr. Netanyahus whatever-it-takes tactics left the lingering whiff of potential violence, reminiscent of the Trump-incited mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in January over Mr. Trumps unfounded claims that he had been robbed of victory. But Israel, unlike the United States, is a parliamentary rather than a presidential democracy. Mr. Netanyahu will not disappear to some sunny retreat beside a golf course. As chairman of Likud, he will wield considerable power. He is not going away, and he will not be quiet, said Merav Michaeli, the leader of the Labor Party, a member of the new coalition. And it will take a long time to repair the damage. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Israels ultra-Orthodox Jews face a profound loss of power. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men voting in Israels parliamentary election in March. Credit... Oded Balilty/Associated Press The heterogeneous coalition that ended the 12-year-long tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister augurs a stunning loss of the power that has long been wielded by Israels ultra-Orthodox Jews. Still reeling from the worst effects of the countrys coronavirus pandemic, then a deadly stampede at a religious festival, by Sundays end the ultra-Orthodox have no role in the new government. It is one of the most striking shifts, and could lead to a relaxation on some of the strictures on life in Israel. The ultra-Orthodox are known as Haredim, a Hebrew term for those who tremble before God. Their political representatives have sat in most, though not all, governments of Israel since the late 1970s, when the right-wing Likud party upended decades of political hegemony by the states socialist founders. Mr. Netanyahu forged a tight alliance with the two main Haredi parties, which were critical components in his coalitions. That alliance had given the Haredi parties what many critics saw as disproportionate power over state policy. Their power was punctuated by the successful Haredi defiance of national pandemic restrictions. The influence and official privileges of the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 13 percent of the population, have created resentment among mainstream Israelis and alienated many Jews abroad who practice less stringent forms of Judaism. The ultra-Orthodox-run Chief Rabbinate, the state religious authority, dominates official Jewish marriage, divorce and religious conversions and does not recognize the legitimacy of Reform or Conservative rabbis. Haredi politicians promote a conservative social agenda that opposes civil marriage, gay rights, and work or public transportation on the Sabbath, often blocking a civil rights agenda held dear by many members of the new coalition. They support an independent education system that focuses on religious studies and largely shuns secular education for boys. The Haredi parties have also secured generous state funding for their people and institutions, enabling many to engage in extended Torah study and avoid the military service that is compulsory for others. Haredi rabbis have been sounding the alarm over their political setback since the news of the coalition deal first emerged. Fear and vigilance among Haredi Jewry, declared HaMevaser, a daily paper representing the Hasidic wing of one of the ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, in a red banner headline last week. For Israels endangered Bedouin villages, a new lifeline. Maigal al-Hawashleh, one of the founders of Al-Ghara village last week. Credit... Amit Elkayam for The New York Times For decades, dozens of Bedouin villages in Israels Negev desert have been in limbo. Without the states recognition of their communities, they have long suffered from a lack of planning and basic services like running water, sewers, electricity, trash collection and paved roads. But the Israeli coalition government approved on Sunday intends to take significant strides to address the plight of these villages, according to Raam, an Arab party that agreed to join the coalition on a number of conditions, including that more benefits are provided to the Bedouin. The new government will recognize Khasham Zana and two other villages in the Negev in the first 45 days of its term, Raam said in a statement last week, and it will prepare a plan to deal with other unrecognized villages in the area within its first nine months in power. Still, such plans are unlikely to bring quick change to the ramshackle communities, said Eli Atzmon, an Israeli expert on the Bedouin, who are part of Israels Arab minority. Few of the villages recognized by Israel in recent decades have seen drastic improvements to their livelihoods, he said. There is also no guarantee that a new initiative to address inequities between the southern Bedouin and other parts of Israeli society will be more successful than previous attempts. In December, the government appeared poised to recognize the village of Khasham Zana and two others, Rukhma and Abda, but the effort stalled because of political infighting. Some right-wing members of the new government, which includes a diverse set of political parties, have suggested they would not accept efforts to recognize many villages in the Negev. That raises questions about whether the new government will be able to muster enough support to make such moves. The Bedouin, who say they have lived in the Negev for centuries, were once a seminomadic group. But in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, most were forced out of the desert or fled to other parts of the region. The Israeli authorities concentrated those who stayed in a smaller area of the desert, and later built meager townships for them. Today there are roughly 280,000 Bedouin in the Negev, about half of them under 18. Netanyahu may still lead the Likud party. An election billboard in March in Bnei Brak, Israel. Credit... Oded Balilty/Associated Press The vote to oust Mr. Netanyahu may change more than Israels leadership. It could also ultimately affect who leads Mr. Netanyahus right-wing Likud party. Mr. Netanyahu has led the party for all but six of the last 28 years 15 of which he has spent as prime minister. In a phone interview before Sundays vote, Aaron Klein, a senior adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, confirmed that even if he lost his position as prime minister, he intends to continue as leader of the opposition. But his rivals may not go along with that. Once Mr. Netanyahu leaves government office, his authority over rivals for the party leadership will diminish because he can no longer promote party allies to coveted ministerial positions, or demote rivals. That will give greater momentum to internal critics who feel the party could have remained in office had Mr. Netanyahu stepped down from the leadership earlier and allowed a colleague to take over. Three rival right-wing parties might have joined forces with Likud, giving the party a majority in Parliament, had Mr. Netanyahu not been in charge. The three parties were all led by former Likud members who were either former aides or allies of the prime minister, but who fell out with him personally. Leadership of the party, which has governed Israel for 32 of the past 44 years, is seen as one of the countrys most prestigious roles. But to oust Mr. Netanyahu from the party leadership, his rivals would have to defeat him in an internal primary in which the 120,000 Likud members would have the final say. Possible challengers include Yuli Edelstein, the health minister; Nir Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem; Israel Katz, the finance minister; and Danny Danon, chairman of Likuds international branch. Recent polls have suggested that Yossi Cohen, who was until earlier this month the director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, would be the most popular candidate among Likud members. In recent days, Israeli news outlets, citing anonymous sources, have written that Mr. Edelstein plans to run against Mr. Netanyahu, a claim Mr. Edelstein has not denied. Mr. Barkat held a rally in Tel Aviv on Thursday, nominally to discuss political policy. But commentators interpreted it as a thinly veiled statement of his leadership ambitions. The likelihood of a challenge to Mr. Netanyahu depends on how long party colleagues expect the new government to stay in office, said Mr. Danon, who has not yet decided whether he will mount his own leadership bid. Within the Likud, people will look at the government to see if its functioning or not functioning, Mr. Danon said. If the feeling will be that its not going to last, I think his position will be stronger. But if they will actually be able to work together and to survive, I think it will be more challenging. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Chaos breaks out in the Knesset as Bennett speaks. Betzalel Smotrich, a right-wing Israeli politician, shouting during the Knesset session in Jerusalem on Sunday. Credit... Dan Balilty for The New York Times Israels Parliament broke into pandemonium on Sunday afternoon when allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shouted abuse during a speech by the politician nominated to replace him, Naftali Bennett. Mr. Bennett, a former aide to the prime minister who later became his rival, began his speech on Sunday afternoon with a conciliatory gesture to Mr. Netanyahu. Thank you to the outgoing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for your many years of service, replete with achievements, for the sake of the State of Israel, Mr. Bennett said. As prime minister, you acted throughout many years to embolden Israels political, security, and economic strength. Mr. Bennett added: Expressing gratitude is a fundamental principle in Judaism. This is the time for the people to say to you: Thank you. But he was quickly interrupted and heckled by right-wing opponents. They view Mr. Bennett, a right-wing former settler leader who opposes Palestinian statehood, as a traitor for breaking with Mr. Netanyahu and allying with a coalition that includes leftist and Arab lawmakers. At least four lawmakers were thrown out of the session by the speaker, Yariv Levin, while a fifth walked out voluntarily. You should be embarrassed, shouted David Amsalem, a lawmaker from Mr. Netanyahus party, Likud. Despite the frequent interruptions, Mr. Bennett nevertheless continued his speech and used the heckling to help illustrate why he had made the decision to end Israels two-year political deadlock by joining a government of national unity, instead of sticking with Mr. Netanyahu. There are points in Jewish history where disagreements got out of control, he said. Twice in history we lost our national home exactly because the leaders of that generation were unable to sit together and compromise. I am proud of the ability to sit together with people from different sectors, he added later. We stopped the train before the abyss. After Mr. Bennetts speech, his designated deputy, Yair Lapid, a centrist former journalist, unexpectedly renounced his right to make his own full statement. Mr. Lapid stated only that his mother, Shulamit a renowned author who was born before the state of Israel existed was ashamed of Mr. Netanyahu and his allies for their lack of statesmanship. That left the rostrum free for Mr. Netanyahu himself. Mr. Bennetts coalition is an ideologically diffuse alliance that includes the far-left, the hard-right and a small Arab party, and is united only by a shared desire to force Mr. Netanyahu from office. It was expected to win the vote by only a narrow margin. To keep the coalition united, Mr. Bennett said on Sunday, it would focus on economic and infrastructure projects instead of controversial issues, such as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on which the coalitions members do not agree. We will sit together and what we agree on we will run forward with, and what we dont agree on, we will leave aside for now, Mr. Bennett said. The new government aims for practical solutions to the countrys real problems, he added. He also promised to maintain Mr. Netanyahus stance on American-led efforts to revive an Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, which faces broad opposition in Israel. The renewal of the nuclear agreement is a mistake, he said. Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and will maintain full freedom of action. Bibi, King of Israel! That is a shout from his fervent supporters that might have given pause to King David, let alone King Solomon. But Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels longest-serving prime minister, has finally lost his job, unable to cobble together a final majority in the Knesset after four elections in the last two years. The government that has now replaced him is fragile, however. Little holds it together except a desire to get Mr. Netanyahu out of office, where he will no longer be immune from punishment, if convicted, over charges of corruption. But Mr. Netanyahu still appears to rule Israels largest party, Likud, and given Israels riven politics, his fall may only be a sort of sabbatical. As coronavirus testing continues to decline in the United States, public health experts are warning that the trend will make it more difficult for the country to identify outbreaks and track the spread of highly contagious variants. Daily coronavirus tests in the United States peaked in mid-January at about 1.8 million. Since then, the number has dropped by more than half, to an average of about 700,000 tests per day, according to a New York Times database. Experts say that part of the decline is due to vaccinations, which have shrunk community spread. Fewer people experiencing symptoms means that fewer need to be tested. But the experts also say that pandemic fatigue is a likely contributor. Virus variants are spreading across a U.S. population that is only 43 percent fully vaccinated. With states reopening and travel resuming, experts say that collecting accurate data remains essential to fighting the virus. Why the Mexico City Metro Collapsed A Times investigation shows the serious construction flaws and political pressure behind a tragedy that threatens two of Mexicos most prominent figures. Leer en espanol On a balmy night in May, Tania Lezama Salgado hopped on the metro with her sister Nancy after spending hours looking for the grandest pink dress and the sparkliest shoes possible for her 15th birthday party. Tania had grown accustomed to the screeches and shakes of the metro, but as it barreled across an overpass that night jerking violently, going faster than she had ever remembered something felt different. Suddenly, she heard a loud bang, then screams, as the overpass collapsed and the train plummeted about 40 feet to the street below. When Tania came to, her neck was wedged between the doors of the metro, her head poking out of the wreckage, the smell of blood curling into her nostrils. Bodies strewn on top of her, her outstretched hands felt what seemed to be the straps of her sisters backpack. As she pulled, she said, she discovered they were the entrails of another passenger. Tania now spends her days in the hospital, unable to walk, her shattered pelvis held together by a metal contraption, four screws poking out of each side of her body. Above her hospital bed is a photo of her 22-year-old sister Nancy one of 26 people who died in the metro crash that night. Soon after, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico, who positions himself as a champion of the poor and an enemy of the elite, apologized to the victims families and urged patience while officials examined what went wrong, and who was to blame. The humble, hard-working, good people understand that, unfortunately, these things happen, he said during a news conference on Tuesday. But a New York Times investigation based on years of government records, interviews with people who worked on the construction, and expert analysis of evidence from the crash site has found serious flaws in the basic construction of the metro that appear to have led directly to its collapse. The disaster has already spiraled into a political crisis, threatening to ensnare two of the nations most powerful figures: the presidents foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, and one of the worlds wealthiest businessmen, Carlos Slim. Mr. Ebrard was mayor of Mexico City when the new metro line, known as the Golden Line, was built, a heralded expansion of the second largest subway in the Americas that could boost his credentials for a possible presidential run. And Mr. Slims construction company, Carso Infrastructure and Construction, built the portion of the line that collapsed the firms first rail project, paving the way for more. The Times took thousands of photographs of the crash site and shared the evidence with several leading engineers who reached the same conclusion: The steel studs that were vital to the strength of the overpass linchpins of the entire structure appear to have failed because of bad welds, critical mistakes that likely caused the crash. That is one of the primary explanations being considered by Mexico City officials, according to several people familiar with the official investigations into the disaster, and it underscores a pattern of political expediency and haphazard work as the metro was being built. Heres how the engineers believe the overpass collapsed, based on initial evidence. Steel beams held up the elevated track, but they were not built to support it on their own. To fortify the structure, metal studs connected the steel to a concrete slab. The steel and concrete are much stronger as a single unit. The studs were welded into the steel, which should have formed a nearly unbreakable bond. But photos of the rubble suggest to engineers that the welds were done poorly, a serious construction defect. Another telltale sign of shoddy manufacturing: Workers failed to remove many ceramic rings that fit around the studs during installation. Ultimately, the welds gave way and the studs broke off from the steel, photos show. When the train took its last journey, sections of the concrete were probably disconnected, simply resting on top of steel beams that were never designed to carry the weight alone. That night, as the train carrying Tania and Nancy passed over, the steel gave out. Initial evidence is not definitive on exactly what happened next, but it suggests the beams may have slid inward and the brace holding them apart buckled. Within seconds, the entire span collapsed. The train fell about 40 feet toward the traffic below. Sources: Engineering plans; Gary J. Klein; photographs of the site. Now Mr. Slims company is building a significant part of another signature project Tren Maya, a 950-mile railway championed by Mr. Lopez Obrador that is supposed to revitalize southern Mexico and help cement his legacy as president. But some engineers working on it say they are encountering problems that are similar to the ones they faced when they built the subway that collapsed. The Times reviewed thousands of pages of internal government and corporate documents on the metros troubled history, finding more than a decade of warnings and concerns about safety before the fatal crash. In a rush to finish, the city demanded that construction companies open the subway well before Mr. Ebrards term as mayor ended in 2012. The scramble led to a frenzied construction process that began before a master plan had been finalized and produced a metro line with defects from the start. The outcry over the problems was so intense that Mr. Ebrard eventually moved out of the country for 14 months, leaving behind what he called a political witch hunt. Federal auditors found that the city authorized poor quality work even as the line was being built. The metro was certified less than an hour before it was inaugurated, even though thousands of pieces of work had not been completed, according to a 2014 investigation by the citys Legislative Assembly. During an inspection after a major earthquake in 2017, the city found errors in the original construction of the section built by Mr. Slims company, including incorrectly poured concrete and missing steel components, according to an unreleased government document from 2017. First responders on the tracks on the morning after the collapse. Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times The night of the crash, Tania said the metro shook so much it was like it was dancing. That same phrase had been used seven years ago when city officials grew so concerned about the new subway, known as Line 12, that they shut down part of it in 2014 only about 17 months after it was inaugurated. The line was dancing, said Joel Ortega, the metro director at the time. The train, he said, was floating over the tracks. When Mr. Ebrard announced the new metro on an August day in 2007, he crowned it the Golden Line, promising to build the most modern stretch of subway in Latin America, with access for disabled riders, internet, day care centers even a museum. Mr. Ebrard vowed that it would change the lives of poor and marginalized people, offering the young mayor a chance to leave his stamp on the Mexican capital. It was a great social project, said Moises Poblanno, who worked for Mr. Ebrard at the time and remains a close aide. Marcelo did a lot of things in government but the most important, by far, was Line 12. His ambitions ran parallel to those of another giant in Mexican society: Mr. Slim, the magnate who sought to expand his empire into the lucrative rail industry. Line 12 was his companys initial venture into the sector. Im always trying to build up experience on our resume, Antonio Gomez Garcia, chief executive of Group Carso, Mr. Slims sprawling conglomerate, said in an interview. Participating in the construction of the line, or in any bid of this kind and winning it, allows you to be a part of the next one. But major problems with the subway emerged early on. Pushing to finish before Mr. Ebrard left office, the city bought train cars that arrived quickly but were not compatible with the rail line the wheels didnt fit properly on the track. The result was a constant pounding, warping and rippling of what should have been smooth steel track. Less than a year after certifying the line as safe, auditors produced a report documenting a litany of problems cracked and broken parts, deformed tracks and a relentless pummeling of the tracks. Problems With Line 12 Government reports warned of widespread problems with the line before it collapsed. Sections of the rails were deformed, uneven or cracked. Trains were shorter than what the track was designed for. The wheels were made with a different standard than the rails, raising compatibility issues. The sleepers horizontal supports under the rails showed cracks, fissures and signs of poor manufacturing or installation. The amount of rocky ballast that cushioned and sealed the structure was insufficient in large sections of the track. Trains were shorter than what the track was designed for. The wheels were made with a different standard than the rails, raising compatibility issues. Sections of the rails were deformed, uneven or cracked. The amount of rocky ballast that cushioned and sealed the structure was insufficient in large sections of the track. The sleepers horizontal supports under the rails showed cracks, fissures and signs of poor manufacturing or installation. Trains were shorter than what the track was designed for. The wheels were made with a different standard than the rails, raising compatibility issues. Sections of the rails were deformed, uneven or cracked. The sleepers horizontal supports under the rails showed cracks, fissures and signs of poor manufacturing or installation. The amount of rocky ballast that cushioned and sealed the structure was insufficient in large sections of the track. Trains were shorter than what the track was designed for. The wheels were made with a different standard than the rails, raising compatibility issues. Sections of the rails were deformed, uneven or cracked. The sleepers horizontal supports under the rails showed cracks, fissures and signs of poor manufacturing or installation. The amount of rocky ballast that cushioned and sealed the structure was insufficient in large sections of the track. Sources: Government reports and expert testimony. The damage had become so severe that it put users safety at risk, Mr. Ortega elaborated in testimony after shutting down the line. After more than a year of repairs, the city reopened it in 2015. But problems persisted, with concerns intensifying after a horrific earthquake in 2017. Some feared the flaws were never resolved, hidden too deep within the structure. This line was born with cancer, said Jorge Gavino, the metro director during the earthquake in 2017. The definition of hidden defects is that you cant see them on the surface, everything looks good, but there are problems underneath. In a statement to The Times, Mr. Ebrard said that the issues observed during construction of the metro line did not affect its operation. He suggested the cause of the crash may have been tied to maintenance, saying it was impossible to know whether his successor conducted all of the maintenance work required in the event of earthquakes of a certain magnitude. Line 12, which for years has benefited millions of people, is perhaps the most audited public work in the history of Mexico, Mr. Ebrard said. But evidence from the crash site indicates that the metros flaws ran much deeper than maintenance. Underneath the tracks, the line that carried more than a quarter of a million people around the Mexican capital every day was held together by bolt-like studs. Welded into steel and encased in concrete, they created a structure much stronger than either material on its own. The strength of the overpass depended on those studs they were an essential connection keeping it intact. But photographs of the rubble point to a fundamental lapse during construction: The welds holding everything together were far too weak. Photographs show that the studs broke clean off the steel beams, creating what engineers called an unstable structure incapable of supporting the train. Evidence in the Rubble The crash site provides clues about the collapse and suggests that studs were poorly installed. Steel beams buckled inward Initial evidence suggests the brace holding the beams apart buckled. Area of detail Ceramic ring left in Sloppy stud placements Ceramic ring left in The studs made a clean break where they were welded into the steel. Clean break at weld Sloppy stud placements Clean break at weld Steel beams buckled inward Initial evidence suggests the brace holding the beams apart buckled. Area of detail Ceramic ring left in Sloppy stud placements Ceramic ring left in The studs made a clean break where they were welded into the steel. Clean break at weld Sloppy stud placements Steel beams buckled inward Initial evidence suggests the brace holding the beams apart buckled. Area of detail Ceramic ring left in Sloppy stud placements Ceramic ring left in The studs made a clean break where they were welded into the steel. Clean break at weld Sloppy stud placements Clean break at weld Photograph by Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times A good quality weld would not have failed like that, said Gary J. Klein, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and an executive at Wiss, Janney, Elstner, a firm that studies construction-related failures. The studs were handled shoddily, with little attention to detail, engineers reviewing the photographs said. One obvious mistake: Workers never removed many of the ceramic rings used around the studs during installation. Many of those rings can be seen embedded in the concrete slabs that collapsed that night. Beyond that, the placement of the studs was so irregular that it looked more like a crews improvisation than a strict adherence to a construction plan, according to the engineers who reviewed the photos. When the metro took its last journey, the entire overpass became fatally compromised. When the studs failed, the concrete and the steel did not work together anymore, said Donald O. Dusenberry, a consulting engineer who has investigated many bridge collapses. The steel became overwhelmed. The Moment of the Collapse Source: Associated Press. Note: Sections of the video are shown at reduced speed. After an earthquake devastated the capital in 2017, the city did its own inspection and found other construction flaws in the portion built by Mr. Slims company. An internal government document from 2017 reviewed by The Times noted that parts of the overpass had structural faults, were missing steel components, and that some of the concrete was badly poured, an error that suggested carelessness. Mr. Gomez Garcia, the chief executive of Group Carso, Mr. Slims sprawling empire, acknowledged in an interview that leaving the ceramic rings around the studs was not ideal, but said it had not affected the structure. Theres something called hidden flaws, in the end these are things that can happen, Mr. Gomez Garcia said. Unfortunately, there they are in the photos. They didnt remove them. Inspecting the site of the collapse on May 10. Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times Mr. Gomez Garcia said he believed the studs sheared off only after the overpass crashed to the ground and were not the cause of the accident. He added that maintenance could be to blame, as the equipment and materials used to repair the line after it was shut down in 2014 were heavy, possibly putting too much stress on the overpass. But several independent experts rejected that explanation, noting that the photographic evidence points directly to the weak welds as the likely cause of the accident. Whatever the official investigations determine, the crash could carry immense consequences, not just for Mr. Ebrard and Mr. Slim (who was previously a large shareholder of The New York Times Company). If maintenance played a role, voters may also blame the presidents protege, Claudia Sheinbaum, who has overseen the metro as Mexico Citys mayor for the last two years. Claudia Sheinbaum, the mayor of Mexico City, last year. Meghan Dhaliwal for The New York Times As two of the most dominant figures in the governing party, Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Ebrard are widely expected to vie for Mr. Lopez Obradors blessing to succeed him and run for president in the 2024 elections. With the public outcry over the crash, Ms. Sheinbaums administration offered about $32,000 to each of the families that lost a loved one. But some have refused the money and are suing the Mexico City metro system instead. The line wasnt made right, said Bernarda Salgado Lopez, the mother of Tania, who is still in the hospital, and Nancy, who died. Ms. Salgado has joined the lawsuit. I think they should be held responsible for what happened, for everything, for everyone who died, she said. Bernarda Salgado Lopez and Humberto Lezama, the parents of Tania, who is still in the hospital, and Nancy, who died. Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times From the beginning, it was clear that the government wanted to keep costs low on the metro and move as quickly as possible. Originally, the idea was to build an entirely underground line, but it soon became evident that would be too costly and take too long. The city cut the budget for the metro line almost immediately. A consulting firm hired by the metro system listed the pros and cons of an elevated line. It would be cheaper and faster, but less safe. The city ultimately changed course and decided to go with a partially elevated line. To win the contract in 2008, Mr. Slims company, Carso Infrastructure and Construction, joined two established firms one of Mexicos largest construction companies, ICA, and Alstom of France. Carso had no experience building train lines, but it did have two attractive qualities: liquidity in the midst of the global financial crisis and access to a steel business owned by Mr. Slim. It wasnt just the money, it was the steel, Mr. Gomez Garcia said. After construction began, federal auditors discovered serious flaws. In a 2009 report, they documented badly executed work performed without quality controls, among other issues, noting that there was inadequate communication between the groups supervising the project and the construction companies. Mr. Ebrard told The Times that all observations from the federal auditors were resolved. The city put pressure on contractors to complete the job as quickly as possible. The companies faced a fine of about $120 million if they did not finish well before Mr. Ebrards term ended, according to Enrique Horcasitas, the project director. Construction began even before a master plan had been completed. Mr. Ebrard noted that using as built plans, in which companies draw up blueprints as they build, was common and allowed for technical flexibility without compromising the integrity or safety of the project. But many of the engineers who worked on Line 12 and spoke with The Times said that most of the large-scale projects they had worked on, whether in Mexico or abroad, relied on master plans from the start. It wasnt built with a master plan, said Mario Alberto Ruiz, who worked as an engineer for ICA building the line, and that was also the source of many failures. We had to build as soon as possible above all, because, as you well know, there was going to be a change of government, he said. The problem that drew the most public attention was the purchase of trains, which didnt fit tightly enough on the tracks. The mismatch stemmed from another timesaving decision. The rails were designed for American standards, according to testimony in the 2014 investigation by the city legislature. But the government ended up choosing a Spanish supplier, CAF, that provided trains designed for European specifications. The reason: CAF had promised to deliver the trains about a year ahead of its competitor, Canada-based Bombardier. Bombardier gave us a longer timeline, said Francisco Bojorquez, metro director at the time, in 2014 testimony. It was a question of time and of opportunity. The incompatibility caused so much wear that the city had to replace a half mile of rail weeks before the metro even started carrying passengers. As the inauguration in 2012 drew near, engineers and their colleagues worked through the night, scrambling to get the line in presentable shape. There was a lot of pressure, said Marcos Tapia Manjarrez, who also worked for ICA on the line. We worked in shifts Im talking about almost 18 hours straight. The tension rose when Mr. Ebrard made visits to assess how much headway had been made, engineers said. They would say, the mayor is coming and obviously that put time pressure on us, because we hadnt made enough progress, Mr. Ruiz said. Mr. Ruiz recounted installing provisional lighting, just so there would be some way to light up the stations for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The lighting was just for show they disconnected it right after. The city received the lines safety certification less than an hour before Mr. Ebrard cut the ribbon, according to the final report by the Legislative Assembly in 2014. Today we have the honor of giving this public work to the people of Mexico City, Mr. Ebrard said at the ceremony. A public work that is complete, finished, with the most advanced technology in the world. A little over a year later, the line was partially shut down. The metro director at the time, Mr. Ortega, said during the 2014 investigation that after just a year in service, parts of the metro line showed signs of wear that should be expected after a decade of use. The same company that certified the line conducted an inspection a year after and found more than a dozen problems, including abnormal warping of tracks and poor welding. In an accident, Mr. Ortega said, not only would the train run off the track, but we would probably have an enormous tragedy. On the night of the crash, as Tania and her sister returned from shopping, the train was crammed with passengers. Tania said she struggled to hold onto a pole as the train screeched across the track before plunging onto the road below. Tania struggled to find her sister as injured passengers cried out for help. Only at the hospital did she learn of her sisters death. I thought it was my fault, she said, solemnly. I had made us go look for my dress. As news of the collapse spread, a group of engineers working on Tren Maya, the new 950-mile railway being championed by the president a significant stretch of which is being built by Mr. Slims company took to a WhatsApp group chat. For months, the engineers had been trading concerns and frustrations, complaining about a disorganized and rushed construction process. Mr. Lopez Obrador inaugurated the construction last June, and the government tourism arm overseeing Tren Maya said in a statement that the project is being built with the highest quality and safety standards, although it acknowledged it was still making changes to the master plan. The Tren Maya project is a campaign promise of the current administration and we have the commitment to finish it before the end of Mr. Lopez Obradors term as president, the agency said. In hundreds of messages viewed by The Times, engineers have discussed construction progressing on Tren Maya without plans or details being approved, as well as unfinished designs. And on May 4, their attention turned to the crash on Line 12, which some of them had helped build. The engineers traded different theories about what had happened, but many seemed to agree on one point: The line never felt right. What a tragedy! one engineer said, forewarned is forearmed Greentube Rises to the Top in Emerging Swiss Market Published June 13, 2021 by Lee R Greentube is establishing a powerful foothold which could carry the Swiss market. The Swiss expansion continues with bold new private deals. New Deal for Greentube This time it's Austria Slots Powerhouse Greentube strengthening its profile in the Swiss market by taking its agreement with Switzerland operator Casino Du Lac Geneve to a new level. Interactive Titles The deal calls for NOVOMATIC's Interactive division Greentube to release its leading content to the Swiss market via Casino Du La Geneve at pasino.ch, a URL launched in November 2020 after many years as a land-based provider. . 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Britain and the EU are in a spat over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could see British sausages banned from entering Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that borders the 27-nation bloc. The dispute is raising political tensions in Northern Ireland, where some people identify as British and some as Irish. British media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked French President Emmanuel Macron when they met Saturday in the English seaside resort of Carbis Bay how he would feel if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. They said Macron replied the comparison did not work because Paris and Tolouse were part of the same country. The French presidency did not deny Macron had made the comments. It said he was explaining that Toulouse and Paris were on a geographical unity of territory, Northern Ireland is on an island. The president wanted to stress that the situation was quite different and that its not appropriate to hold that kind of comparison. Macron dismissed the kerfuffle at a news conference on Sunday, saying that as far as this subject matter is concerned everybody has got to come back to reason. "France never allowed itself to question British sovereignty, the integrity of the British territory, and the respect of that sovereignty," he said. But the French leader repeated his insistence that the U.K. implement the Brexit deal that both sided signed on to. "On this topic, everyone should return to reason, and my wish is we succeed, collectively, to put in motion what we all decided upon together several months ago," Macron said. "We should do it in all calm and with mutual respect, and I think that polemics every morning are not helpful. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the idea that Northern Ireland was not an integral part of the U.K. was not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. Can you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, northern Italy, Corsican France, as different countries? Raab said on Sky News. We need a bit of respect here. And also, frankly, an appreciation of the situation for all communities in Northern Ireland. Relations between Britain and the EU have soured since the U.K. made its final break from the bloc at the end of 2020, more than four years after voting to leave. The EU is angry over the British governments delay in implementing new checks on some goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., as was agreed in the Brexit divorce deal. The bloc is threatening legal action if the U.K. does not fully bring in the checks, which include a ban on chilled meats such as sausages from England, Scotland and Wales going to Northern Ireland beginning next month. Britain accuses the EU of taking a purist approach to the rules, leading to burdensome red tape for businesses. Johnson has said if no solution is found he may pull an emergency brake allowing either side to suspend parts of their agreement. It is intended for use only in extreme situations, but the EU briefly threatened to invoke it in January to stop vaccine doses from Ireland crossing the border. U.S. President Joe Biden has even been drawn into the spat, raising concerns about the potential threat to Northern Irelands peace accord. The new arrangements, designed to keep an open border between Ireland and its northern neighbor, have angered Northern Irelands British unionists, who say they weaken ties with the rest of the U.K. Tensions over the new trade rules contributed to a week of street violence in April, largely in unionist areas of Northern Ireland, which saw youths pelt police with bricks, fireworks and firebombs. Now on HBO Max: In The Heights Makes for a Cotton-Candy Sweet, Deliciously Summery Spectacle By Ciara Wardlow | Film | June 11, 2021 | The long-gestating film adaptation of In The Heights might have been filmed pre-Covid, but it feels tailor-made to lure audiences back into theatersthe sort of movie thats made to be seen on a big screen with a tub of popcorn and an Icee. Its a hefty dose of summer sunshine that can be enjoyed in air-conditioned, mosquito-free comfort. The summer tentpole is back! Director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) does a truly outstanding job adapting the musical for the screen, utilizing the particular strengths of the film medium in the telling of the story. The opening eponymous musical number In The Heights is a particular triumph. Instead of merely filming actors dancing, the music seeps into the very tools of cinematic storytelling, into rhythmically cut montages that luxuriate in making use of all the little details one cant really use in theater. A remarkable window reflection shot rises to the challenge of picking between an expressive close-up and an intricately choreographed wide shot by doing both at the same time. A later musical number set in a beauty salon makes a veritable tap number through clever use of acrylic nails. Alice Brooks cinematography is an MVP throughout; the location of Washington Heights, so rarely celebrated on screen, becomes a central character in the story. Story-wise, In The Heights is more vibes than plot, in the sense that the plot is the most paint-by-numbers dreamers chasing dreams story one can imagine, but the particular vibrance of the setting and the performances shine so brightly it ultimately doesnt matter. The screenplay written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, who also authored the book of the musical (Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music and lyrics) sticks close to the source overall. The central dreamer is loveable young bodega owner Usnavi (an infinitely charming Anthony Ramos) who came with his father to the US from the Dominican Republic as a child and now wants nothing more than to save up enough to make his way back. He also dreams of romancing Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), the woman of his dreams, who we are supposed to believe is unaware of this infatuation even though he follows her around like a puppy dog and never charges her for coffee because this is a musical and thats how they work. Another dreamer is Nina (Leslie Grace), a smart, determined young woman who comes home feeling defeated after her first year at Stanford, intending to drop out but too ashamed to tell her father or the rest of their close-knit community. Her storyline is subject to some of the more significant stage-to-screen revisions that are well-meant but dont fully work. To address the crux of the issue without going into spoiler mode, it feels the need to replace the obstacle of work-study balance as a low-income student with the challenge of the microaggressions and isolation of being a student of color at a PWI in a way that makes her storylines conclusion a bit of a head-scratcher and also begs the question, why not both? These are not mutually exclusiveif anything, they tend to be a package deal. Sonny de la Vega (Gregory Diaz IV), Usnavis precocious tween cousin, gets perhaps the biggest expansions in his arc, with a politically charged DACA storyline thats well-intentioned but feels like the add-on that it is. Theres a fundamental, unblinking optimism to Mirandas work that makes it impossible for it to grapple with such issues in a way that feels fully authentic. For all the grandeur and pomp on display elsewhere, an attempted protest scene is laughably pathetic in comparison. Its like watching cotton candy try to be a vegetable. Miranda has an incredible talent for telling diverse, multicultural stories without challenging the status quo in the slightest: times are hard, dreamers have dreams, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He has a gift for managing to put together character arcs without doing anything to offend or challenge literally anyone or anything. For instance, when Washington Heights swelters in a power outage for days on end and the idea that those in chargeor, you know, ConEdshould be held accountable is not even mentioned. This may be why the characters journeys feel quite repetitive; its like playing a winning game of Minesweeper, theres only one pattern you can click that works. (Its also why hes uniquely adept at putting together stories that center people of color while attracting all the sorts of audiences who can afford top dollar Broadway tickets, but I digress.) As backhanded of a compliment as this may be, ultimately what it boils down to is that Miranda is a top-tier crowd-pleaser, and please crowds this film certainly will. In a way, the film does its job too well, setting up characters, relationships, and plotlines so efficiently within the first few musical numbers that the middle hour feels like the narrative equivalent of treading water. It almost seems like the film itself is aware of this fact in how its constantly trying new things stylistically. They dont always work equally well, but the effort is always appreciated. One gravity-defying dancing on the walls sequencethat pulls a page from the book of the Fred Astaire film Royal Weddingcould have sincerely benefited from sticking even closer to the source material. Give me the slightly visible wires of the pre-CGI era over green screen uncanniness any day. The Busby Berkeley-esque handling of 96,000, on the other hand, is as impressive as it is delightful, feeling true to the spirit of Highbridge Pool while also managing to make it feel just a little bit glamorous. With Steven Spielbergs upcoming West Side Story remake also on the horizon, its enough to wonder if In The Heights is a bellwether of things to come, and if the long-neglected movie musical genre might be gearing up to make a comeback. If this is the standard others will be held to, such a trend should be a treat indeed. In The Heights is playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Peacock's 'We Are Lady Parts' Review: Welcome to Your Favorite New Show | Did Grace (Athena Karkanis) Leave 'Manifest'? Ciara is one of Pajiba's film critics. You can follow her on Twitter. Header Image Source: Warner Bros. Pictures If up is up and down is down, it makes sense then that organic food especially food that carries the U.S. Department of Agricultures treasured USDA Organic label is organic, right? Not all the time, maintains Francis Thicke, an Iowa organic dairy farmer introduced here last month. In fact, Thicke and hundreds of other long-time organic farmers maintain that large portions, maybe even a majority, of USDA-labeled organic milk, eggs, and hydroponically-grown fruit and vegetables are not truly organic. At least not organic by USDA standards in place before Big Ags powerful influence swept into the marketplace a decade ago. After that, farming practices specifically not allowed by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) like hydroponic production of any kind have taken root. As noted earlier, established organic farmers fought the moves every step of the way. Thicke and others fought from the inside; he served on the NOSB from 2012 through 2017 when hydroponic peddlers succeeded in winning USDAs approval just seven years after NOSB banned soilless organic food production or hydroponics, now often and, according to him, deceptively labeled container grown. Thats the rub, according to the Iowa dairy farmer: If youre going to change the rules and, just as importantly, not enforce other rules to benefit the bigger, corporate farms, then real organic farmers dont stand a chance in this new game. To fight the changes, Thicke and nearly 1,000 other organic producers have formed their own real organic project called, cleverly, the Real Organic Project, or ROP. It will certify that its members follow long-established rules for organic production that hasnt and wont bend or break farming rules like food pasture requirements for livestock. Equally important, since most of ROPs leadership helped to write and implement USDA organic standards, it knows its way around the USDA bureaucracy. That means these hardworking, deeply informed leaders are not going quietly. Indeed, Thicke and his ROP colleague, Dave Chapman, recently shared a 45-minute conference call with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to discuss USDAs weakening organic standards and its failure to enforce required rules for mega-producers of organic milk, egg, poultry, fruit and vegetable production. The Secretary knew the issues very well, relates Thicke in an early June telephone interview, and he knew that many organic farmers have real problems with how USDA is administering the program. Vilsacks biggest concern, however, wasnt what could be done about USDAs increased accommodation of big operators, relates Thicke. Instead it was how the rise of the Real Organic Project would confuse consumers in the marketplace. Vilsack told the farmers that organics needed one brand and that the rise of the Real Organic Project and its own label will lead to the rise of the Real Real Organic Project and then the Real Real Real Organic Project. And he might be right, concedes Thicke. But what he [Vilsack] gets wrong is that organic is not a brand to most farmers. Its a philosophy, a life, a way to farm that hopes to leave everyone and everything better off the soil, our health, the animals, our surrounding communities. That belief, that vision cant just be a USDA brand if much of todays USDA Organic milk and eggs and chicken comes from what are, essentially, CAFOs, concentrated animal feeding operations, says Thicke. Sure, he points out, changes to USDAs organic production standards have gotten us more food on the shelf that is certified as organic, the big goal of Big Ag. What it hasnt gotten us, however, is better food on the shelf or more organic farmers putting it there. Thicke and Chapman are hopeful that ROP can gain enough membership to challenge USDA as the go-to source for real organic food. It will be a long, tough uphill slog, though. Still, organic food isnt about branding or politics, he says. Its about how we grow our food. Thats as important as what we eat. The Farm and Food File is published weekly through the U.S. and Canada. Past columns, events and contact information are posted at www.farmandfoodfile.com. BLOOMINGTON Food trucks are the embodiment of curbside pickup providing, at first thought, the perfect pandemic eatery. But like many other restaurants, food trucks in Bloomington-Normal also closed for some time or experienced major setbacks in 2020. Tony Williams had his food truck repaired and was ready to serve at two large events in March 2020 until COVID-19 shutdowns shuttered his side business, Uncle Tonys Food for the Soul, for most of the year. While food trucks were allowed to stay open, most of the businesses and properties they park at did not want, nor need, a food truck in their lot, as businesses sent employees home to work. Kellie Ridgeway, who runs Curbside Grillin with her husband, Lyle, said business throughout 2020 was too much of a hit and miss to stay open full time, especially because they purchase all their meats fresh. Christie Collier, owner of Healthy in a Hurry, took two years off from her business. She took a separate job in 2019 and let her brother run the food truck that year. She was excited to get back into the food truck business for 2020, but as a single mother to two daughters, it was just too hard to juggle everything, Collier said. Healthy in a Hurry didn't open until late summer for a couple weeks. Rubi Flores, owner of La Patrona, 1012 S. Main St., Bloomington, said they only closed a little bit" last year. Ive tried to open all the time because this is the only income that we have, said Flores, who owns the business with her father, Raymundo. It was a little difficult just because we didnt have a lot of customers, Flores said. The Ridgeways, who have taken Curbside Grillin across Central Illinois for events like dog shows, car shows, a national goat show and even a monster truck event in Kankakee, suddenly had to adapt as events were canceled. They would also typically set up in downtown Bloomington on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for bargoers especially college students to grab a late-night bite. But with Illinois State University students not returning to in-person classes throughout the pandemic, the downtown Bloomington bar scene was insufficient for the food truck to set up shop. Kellie Ridgeway said block parties began to pop up around the area, offering a way for them to continue business. We had to think outside the box a little bit, Ridgeway said. We did a lot (of block parties) to get through those few months there before the weather hit us, and so that was our saving grace for those months. Despite the block parties, the business' monthly incomes did not compare to past years, Ridgeway said. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} While food trucks hit a lull in the 2020 spring and summer, business eventually came roaring back at the times they chose to reopen. Tonys Food for the Soul opened back up in August. It turned out to be a very profitable month back in August first month reopening, so to speak, and ever since then its been OK, Williams said. But its usually at the end of summer when the food truck business begins to slow again. Since January of this year I have been booked and its crazy, Williams said. I never thought 2021 would be the year for Uncle Tonys. Normally after five years in the food business you start to struggle, but Im just the opposite. Im starting to grow right now. January was the same time business starting gaining traction again for La Patrona, too. Flores credits much of the increase to La Patronas Facebook presence. She also gave credit to Larry Carius, who maintains a blog and column in The Pantagraph covering the Bloomington-Normal restaurant scene, and posted about La Patrona several times on social media. Flores added that as many people are now vaccinated against COVID-19, she thinks people are more open to being out, in turn, providing busier days for La Patrona. Business is getting back to pre-pandemic levels despite the larger events not having returned yet. Ridgeway said they were hesitant to reopen Curbside Grillin, and they didnt want to do so until they knew it could be consistent. We waited until we were booked and now everybodys booking and were turning business away because we dont have enough weekends and enough hours in the weekends, Ridgeway said, adding that theyre doing two events a day at times. The same goes for Colliers Healthy in a Hurry. In the past, she typically had two weddings booked for a summer. This year, she already has six weddings booked. Its definitely been the busiest season starting off that Ive ever had, but its hard to attribute what that is to, said Collier, whose truck has a new look in 2021. Despite the surge in business, Collier said its still been rough because grocery prices have increased a lot. Its been busier, but I feel like Im still not getting ahead, Collier said. But hopefully thatll come in time. You just keep plugging away and hoping that you eventually will make a profit. As of right now, youre still trying to recover from being shut down for a whole year, but I do feel like eventually well get there. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The business news you need With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON Bloomington elected officials on Monday will weigh whether to OK a police department request to buy new, smaller caliber handguns for its badge-holders. If approved by the Bloomington City Council, the resolution would waive technical bidding requirements and authorize the $81,495 purchase of 140 new 9mm Sig Sauer P320 pistols from Seymour, Indiana-based Acme Sports. The Bloomington Police Department currently issues each officer a .40 caliber Sig Sauer P229R DAK pistol, if the officer doesn't already own a firearm for duty use. "The biggest reason for the switch is that (9mm pistols) are quickly becoming the new standard in law enforcement across the country," Bloomington Police Interim Chief Greg Scott told The Pantagraph on Friday. "Lots of agencies have switched." Another reason for the switch, Scott said, is that the current arsenal purchased in 2013 is showing signs of age. Night sights don't glow anymore, and some of the firearms continue to have parts replaced. "It's a matter of things wearing out," Scott said, explaining that the heaviest wear on the pistols comes during annual firearm qualification, when officers put 500 to 700 rounds of ammunition through them. The manufacturer also recommends the pistols be refurbished every five years, meaning the current set has gone through and the department has paid for at least two rounds of overhauls. Scott said the 9mm pistols should last 10 years before they need complete reworkings or replacement. The department expects to save at least 20% in ammunition costs by switching to the lower-caliber firearms. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Under the deal, the new 140 service weapons would be bought at $689 each. That $96,460 total cost will be offset by $14,965 in credits, accrued by trading in 41 of the old models at $365 each. Another 62 of the older, higher-caliber pistols will be bought by BPD officers at $320 each. That $19,840 will go back into the department's coffers. Each firearm transfer will take place using form 4473 from the federal Bureau of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and will be subject to background checks through the Illinois State Police, according to a memo prepared by city staff. "There will be no special considerations except the waiver of the three-day waiting period (allowable in law) due to the firearm being a police duty weapon," the memo reads. The purchase would also mean all of the department's 123 sworn employees can carry the same department-issued firearm, without some carrying a personal duty weapon. As of now, the choice to use a department-issued or personal duty weapon is "officer preference," Scott said. Another part of the calculus to switch duty weapons, Scott said, is the inability to customize the .44 caliber pistols to each officer. The grips on those pistols cannot be changed to accommodate variations in officers' hand sizes, Scott said. "So the new duty weapons with the correct grip for hand size will make them more accurate and safer for the officer to use," Scott said. Contact Timothy Eggert at (309) 820-3276. Follow him on Twitter: @TimothyMEggert Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 I am no stranger to a contentious District 87 board meeting. Between staff turnover and weighty budget decisions, these gatherings inherently create tension. After all, maintaining the livelihood of students is imperative. In contrast to this student-centric ideal, however, to learn from my friends who attended the June 9 meeting that they were harassed by local adults was devastating. Therefore, I write this both in defense of critical race theory-inspired practices and in defense of my friends. (Foremost, regarding statements from BLN News: Recording the students in attendance without their consent was an invasion of their privacy and these recordings should be deleted immediately.) As a young person, I try my best to stay informed through educational sources online and in-depth discussions with my peers. I truly believe the young people in this community are poised to learn the truth, no matter how difficult. Unfortunately, compared to the information we receive online, what we are taught in school doesnt capture Americas racial dynamic. For instance, when the 1619 Project was released, I was an avid listener, as a source not centered around the white experience is a rarity in school. Without listening to the 1619 Project, my understanding of race in America would have remained incomplete. I learned how modern music traces back to minstrel shows, how pervasive the Black caricature is in media, and how anti-Blackness plagues the business, agricultural, and medical sectors. These truths are unquestionably saddening. Still, they are necessary to learn. It is better to understand Lincoln as a complex, biased man than it is to view him as a gallant savior. It is better to know the public opinion of Martin Luther King was initially dismal than it is to believe that the Civil Rights Act eradicated systemic racism. Believing the more digestible statements aforementioned makes it harder for students to understand how systemic racism still plagues our society. Our Black youth suffer when we do not validate their modern experiences of racism by acknowledging that their oppression is still prevalent. For those who question systemic racisms existence, consider the facts. Studies show that white-sounding names are more likely to get called back for jobs than black-sounding ones. Black mothers are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white mothers. Despite similar usage rates, Black people are significantly more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts. I cannot be convinced that systemic racism does not pervade a horrifying majority of life. That isnt a radical mindset. It is simply the belief that nothing is flawless, not even America. Teaching critical race theory practices will not divide us. Rather, it will better identify inequity, allowing us to consider effective solutions. This mindset will not make us hate America. If anything, it will show students that our country is ready to admit its mistakes. Teaching the more painful aspects of our history will empower our students to do better than those before them. That is all that the students who attended the meeting wanted. They posses a poignant desire for their education to include the tools they need to ensure anti-racist spaces in this community. When children are attacked for expressing their opinions in a well-researched way, it calls into question whether student livelihood is actually valued. They were not made to feel included when that is all they want to do for others. Denying students a voice and this method of teaching denies our community the chance to flourish like never before. Savannah Sleevar is a member of Bloomington High School's Class of 2021. Love 25 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 QAnon is hardly the first conspiracy theory to sweep the nation. Thats why QAnon, who made a messiah out of former President Donald Trump, was always bound to lose steam. It will follow the arc of furious, loopy-loo American conspiracy theories that have existed since before the Civil War. Cults like QAnon burn bright, and they fade fast. QAnons demise, in fact, is well underway. Its leader, Q, a figure from the internets dark side, is now widely suspected to be the creation of Jim and Ron Watkins. The Watkins men are a seedy father-son duo in Asia who serve up pornography and hate speech online. If the Watkins hypothesis is true, it means that Q is not exactly the patriotic, principled avenger crusading against sex trafficking that his followers have put their faith in. Q has also been silent for seven months. The cryptic things Q used to post, tone poems that served as Rorschach tests for his followers projections, have stopped appearing. They no longer headline the rave at 8kun, the horrifying online image board, administered by Ron Watkins, where they first appeared. QAnons prophecies have been abysmal failures. Early on, Q claimed the storm would take place on Nov. 3, 2017. Nothing extraordinary happened. He also repeatedly prophesied that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would quit the U.S. Senate. McCain served until he died in 2018. Q insisted that President Trumps enemies would commit mass suicide on Feb. 10, 2018. Nope. Finally the storm was again prophesied, this time for President Joe Bidens inauguration day, on Jan. 20. Zip. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Thats when Ron Watkins, who denies playing a part in the Q phenomenon, posted this to Telegram: We gave it our all. Now we need to keep our chins up and go back to our lives as best we are able. Of course, the one historic event that QAnon DID help catalyze didnt end well for the participants. On Jan. 6, Trump zealots, some in Q shirts or waving Q flags, stormed the U.S. Capitol. QAnoners who are still on board arent sure what any of it means anymore. Some have stopped talking about Trump and now just preach antisemitism. Others urge supporters to take on debt because somehow the future belongs to cryptocurrency and the Iraqi dinar. Orthodox Q types, whose numbers are diminishing, are presumably still waiting for tribunals for Trumps enemies and, of course, the storm. But then late last month, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, one possible heir apparent to the Q empire, dismissed some of the most popular Q memes at a Dallas Q convention. There are no military tribunals thats magically going to solve this problem for us, she said. And though Q used to urge followers to trust the plan, Powell announced, I dont have any evidence that theres some grand underlying plan. With Jan. 6 still fresh in our minds, and with the cultural ascendancy of next-gen conspiracists such as Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Louie Gohmert of Texas, its easy to miss evidence that QAnons power is waning. Believe it: QAnons coherence, allure and leadership are over. Trump has retired. Many QAnoners are now behind bars. Of course, thats not the end of dangers posed by fanatical groups. It might not be QAnon next time, but extremist ideologies and paranoid fantasies will always captivate the dispossessed. And if were still battling a cult thats defeated, were in strategic trouble. Not only will we have failed to learn from Qs unraveling, but we also wont be able to recognize the next catastrophe, let alone prevent it. Virginia Heffernan is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Thirty-six U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for medical purposes. In Connecticut alone, which legalized medical-use cannabis in 2012, there are 53,820 people registered as patients, according to statistics updated May 23 by the state Department of Consumer Protection. Many of these patients, who suffer from conditions ranging from cancer and multiple sclerosis to post traumatic stress disorder and Crohn's disease, attest that their conditions were debilitating until they turned to medical cannabis. It made their lives bearable, many say. Yet the financial cost of this treatment option is available only at the patient's full expense. This cost can be hefty. The price of products varies widely, but edibles cost between $2 to $5 a dose, for example. Before being able to purchase the products, patients also pay a physician to approve the application process and a $100 registration fee. The licenses must be renewed annually. Because the cost is not covered by any healthcare insurance, medical cannabis remains inaccessible to too many patients who otherwise could benefit from its therapeutic qualities. The lack of insurance coverage remains because cannabis, or marijuana, remains classified by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 drug. The DEA considers drugs in this class, which includes heroin, Ecstasy and LSD, to have a high potential for abuse and no therapeutic qualities. Lawmakers' efforts to change the schedule of cannabis, which would allow it to be prescribed by physicians, paid for by insurance and researched more thoroughly, have repeatedly failed. One supreme irony about this, however, is that opioids such as oxycodone are listed as Schedule II drugs by the DEA and are widely prescribed despite their dangers. The cost to patients is often covered by insurance. While opioids can be highly effective pain relievers, they also are highly addictive, often abused, and their role in fueling waves of heroin addiction is well chronicled. Many patients with conditions that require only temporary pain relief also end up with surpluses of the medication. Even when used judiciously and as prescribed, opioids can have serious side effects and trigger unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when patients stop using them. Another type of drug, benzodiazepines, commonly called tranquilizers, also are highly addictive, can cause dangerous side effects and dreadful withdrawal symptoms, yet also are commonly prescribed to treat anxiety, panic disorders and insomnia. The cost of these, too, are covered by insurance. In short, many common prescription drugs can be both helpful and hurtful, if not downright dangerous. Yet cannabis, with few reported adverse side effects and a lower dependency rate, can't be legally prescribed. Some historians say the legal treatment of cannabis in the U.S. has its roots in racism. A 2018 article on The History Channel's website history.com, pointed out that Anglo-Americans and Europeans knew about the medicinal qualities of cannabis since at least the 1830s, when it was used to ease stomach pain and vomiting in cholera patients. Later in the 19th century, Americans could legally buy cannabis extracts to treat migraines, insomnia, stomach aches and other ailments. Attitudes shifted with an influx of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Eric Schlosser, author of "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market," wrote: "The prejudice and fears that greeted these peasant immigrants also extended to their traditional means of intoxication: smoking marijuana." The drug was made illegal soon after. The types of patients already using medical cannabis products in Connecticut are varied. Take a trip to any Connecticut dispensary and there will be patients both young and elderly, men and women, white and people of color. But many more patients could benefit from the drug. If recreational use were legalized, patients could avoid the high costs of the medical cannabis system by growing their own product. Connecticut legislators for years have debated but failed to allow for this possibility. States have led the way on legalization of cannabis products for medicinal and recreational purposes. Republicans say they are for states' rights, yet the party has stood in the way of changing the scheduling of cannabis by the DEA and leaving matters up to the states. By putting the drug in a scheduling category that more closely meets the reality of its risks and benefits, cannabis could be prescribed directly by physicians and covered by healthcare insurance. This is already the fact in Canada. Why not in the U.S.? The Day (New London, Conn.) Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 It's being revealed this afternoon that Apple Inc. plans to drop its mask requirement for vaccinated customers at many U.S. stores beginning next week, a move that will mark yet another major retailer moving away from the Covid-19 safety protocol as states ease restrictions. "The technology giant has begun informing retail employees of the impending change in impacted markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified discussing policy changes that havent been announced. The change will go into effect as early as Tuesday, and employees have been told that they wont be required to ask customers for verification of vaccination." That could end up being a problem. But until it is, customers who are honestly vaccinated will finally feel like life is getting back to normal. Bloomberg's report further noted that "Workers will still need to wear masks at stores, Apple told staff. The company could change its plans or delay the loosening of the restriction. The requirement for face coverings will also be dropped at some of the Cupertino, California-based companys U.S. offices, according to a memo sent to corporate employees." According to the memo: "Given the progress being made in response to Covid-19 in the U.S., we wanted to let you know that a number of sites are now moving to the next phase of resumption and will begin to operate under Phase 3 onsite protocol. In Phase 3, where allowed, Apple protocols are being updated to permit optional masking for vaccinated individuals. Physical distancing requirements are also being relaxed in this phase." For more, read the full Bloomberg report on BNN Bloomberg. No news of their plan for Stores outside the U.S. were mentioned at this time. Earlier this month Apple's CEO sent a memo to employees about a work pilot program that would require employees to go to work for 3 days a week and continue to work at home 2 days a week. A group of employees openly rebelled wanting a more flexible schedule. When people start a business, they usually want to be their own boss. Time-freedom is another big factor, as time is a luxury and people want more of it. Specifically, they want free time to pursue interests and spend it with friends and family. All of these are the reasons why Justin Kimbrough ventured into the entrepreneurial world. He considers time-freedom a luxury and seeks control over his own life. At just 23 years of age, Justin has not only met but exceeded his business goals. This Texas native owns not one but multiple companies including a trucking company and a social media advertising agency. He started out on his entrepreneurial journey when he was only 15, mowing lawns to earn money. At 18, he met penny stock trader Timothy Sykes who became a mentor to Justin. This fellow entrepreneur had made millions through trading and teaching others how to do so. After seeing this life of wealth and freedom, Justin knew what he wanted, and he began on his path by turning a $3,000 loan into $100,000. In finding freedom for himself, Justin also serves his need to be authentic and give back to the world. This is why in addition to his plan of making a fortune and then giving it away, he has also established an eco-conscious company called 'Save Our Earth', which is his biggest project till date. For those looking for success, this young businessman has some excellent advice. He considers getting started as the greatest challenge among entrepreneurs. People tend to hold off on their ideas, but Justin encourages them to act immediately rather than figure out all of the pieces and parts first. There is no sense in waiting for the perfect time, because time is not going to roll around. Justin Kimbrough considers the perfect time to be now. While several entrepreneurs discuss mindset, Justin goes a step further by explaining the difference between mindset and motivation. While motivation is important, it is temporary. A mindset is a long-term business element that includes personal development and acts as an inspiration to yourself and others. With a good mindset, a person can strive to gain knowledge. The absence of knowledge is ignorance, which Justin deems the key to failure. Another advice Justin offers is not to see fear as an obstacle; fear is born out of false expectations we develop over time rather than being something we're born with. Yet, if your goals don't scare you, they aren't big enough. After all, success is what you make of it, but it is hollow if it does not bring you happiness. Finally, Justin Kimbrough advises people to be prepared to lose money, as this is something that is bound to happen at times in a business. One would expect such words to come from a much older individual, but Justin Kimbrough has shown the world that age is simply a number. Based on his current and future endeavors, this impressive young man has already made quite a stamp in the business world. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku constituency, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye has disclosed how Ghana dodged a third wave of COVID-19, even though countries like India were experiencing it. Speaking in a panel discussion on Peace FM morning show 'Kokrokoo', Dr Okoe Boye narrated how testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) served as a 'net'; sifting through the passengers arriving. Passengers who arrive at KIA are subjected to a mandatory COVID-19 test. According to the former Deputy Minister of Health, 308 of those passengers tested positive in April 2021 alone. "Another thing that helped us is the net at the airport which caught a lot of the positive cases...308 plus positive cases were reported at the airport in April alone. The cases reported at the airport indicate that there were an increase in cases in other countries and most of often if care is not taken it will be transferred into your population but because of the testing at the airport, that didnt happen," he averred. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Kumasi High Court presided over by His Lordship Mr Justice E. Senyo Amedahe, has ordered the immediate deportation of four Chinese nationals who were arrested recently for mining for gold on a disputed 40-acre land belonging to Seidu Fanzia School at Adaase within the Obuasi municipality. Defendants The four are Shi Li Wen, Huang When Jun, Li De Hao and Lan Hai Song. They were arrested together with a Ghanaian accomplice, Asamoah Kati, for mining on the land earmarked for educational purposes with the aid of gunmen providing security for them. Bail conditions Earlier, the four had failed to meet a bail condition of GH200,000.00 each with two sureties and a request by their lawyer, Benjamin Andoh, for variation was thrown out. They were to deposit their passports with work permits and all other relevant documents with the court Justice Amedahe said in a June 3, 2021 judgement said that their request for variation could not be granted because the "whole process of trying to renew their permits was tainted with fraudulent acts." Indeed, after failing to meet the bail conditions, they were initially thrown into prison custody on April 19, 2021, and it was there that they fraudulently attempted to renew their documents. The judge said it was not possible for their passports and other documents to have been renewed while in prison custody because they needed to have been physically present at the immigration office. "It is a fact that all regional offices of the Ghana Immigration Service in this country have been suspended from renewing resident permits, so the Kumasi office could not be seen to be retaining passports of these applicants for the purpose of renewing their resident permits as indicated in the slips they issued to the applicants," the judge said in his ruling. "For the above reason the court will not be in the position, legally to accept their passports as a condition of granting them bail and asking them to be attending court as illegal immigrants," the judge added. Appeal Justice Amedahe appealed to the Minister of Interior to reconsider the use of the discretion of the Immigration officers in granting resident permits to foreigners who arrive in the country on 60 days, B1 visas. He said it has become the order of the day to grant one-year resident permits to foreign visitors when they are not even qualified under the Immigration Act of Ghana to be granted. "It is a discretion which is being abused by government officials with the assistance of non-government workers largely who unfortunately are Ghanaians to the benefit of our foreign visitors, leading to the destruction of our environment here in Ghana," he said. Galamsey fight "The fight against the galamsey manic must be extended to the Ghana Immigration Service where the residential status of foreigners who come into this country with 60 days visitors visas (B1) issued by our embassies outside are quick to upgrade into resident permits by these officials," Justice Amedahe added. Plaintiffs The plaintiffs, Borometech Construction Company Limited, Seidu Fanzia School and Samuel Aboagye are seeking compensation and reliefs including the restoration of a mini development of land being foundation estimated at GH500,000.00. Source: graphic.com.gh Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, has called on Ghanaians to examine the achievements of the party in the Fourth Republic and support its commitment to the development of the party. He said the NDC was the only party that had implemented policies and programmes to champion national development since it was founded in 1992. "Only the NDC brings development to this country so if you go round the country, you would realise that all the major infrastructure like roads, hospitals, schools, markets among others were all built under an NDC government," he said. Mr Ofosu Ampofo was addressing members of the party at a ceremony at the partys headquarters in Accra to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the party. Physical attendance at the ceremony was restricted and downsized to help make room for the observation of the COVID-19 protocol. It was attended by leading members of the party including national executives members and some members of the Council of Elders of the party. Inclusiveness Mr Ampofo said the NDC had remained a formidable party in its 29 years of existence because it did not discriminate but welcomed all persons from all walks of life with a common goal of championing development in the country. Your educational background, your language or tribe, whatever it is you are welcome under the umbrella and that is why our party the NDC is called a congress and chose three important words, that is unity, stability and development. This is what the party has strived to achieve over the years and any time the party is in power there is complete semblance of national unity Rebuilding The running mate of former President John Dramani Mahama in the 2020 presidential election, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, called on party members to rise up and rebuild the party on the shoulders of its firm foundation that was rooted in the principles of probity and accountability. We will be guided by the positive criticisms and we will put away the unnecessary propaganda that doesnt bring anything helpful to anybody but whatever it is, we will not be intimidated, she said. On the national level, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the country must be united with a purpose to survive the difficulties being faced the world over. If you look at the history of this country, people refer to 1992, that is important but we have been here long before 1992 and we have been here long before independence so let us ask ourselves that what was it that kept our rivers clean, what was it that kept our environment clean and how come today we dont know what to do, she said. She called on the government and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to adopt a subregional long-term development plan that would be tapped into by member countries to encourage rapid development, she said. For his part, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said the legacy of the party, among other things, included the birth of the Fourth Republic and the 1992 constitution which had deepened the democratic credentials of the country over the decades. We have every reason to be proud of our party because when it comes to development NDC is arguably a political party that has the track record that could not be beaten by any other political party in the country, he said. He recalled the history of the party and touted its developmental initiatives which he said could be felt in every corner of the country. Flag raising A segment of the ceremony was dedicated to the raising of flags to mark the significance of the event and the anniversary of the party. The first flag that was raised was the revolutionary flag, which was hoisted to remember the 1979 revolution and the events surrounding that day which later gave birth to the NDC. The NDC flag and the Ghana flag were also hoisted by Mr Ofosu Ampofo and Prof. Opoku-Agyeman respectively to mark the day. The NDC, a social democratic political party, was founded by the late former President Jerry Rawlings. The NDC was formed as the ruling party ahead of elections in 1992. It has since contested all general elections. The party has won four presidential elections and has produced three separate Presidents under the fourth republic. This was the first commemoration of the partys anniversary without the presence of its founder who died last year. 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 Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), is admonishing supporters of the party to be measured in their criticism of the executive secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA). Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah has been facing a heavy backlash from some leading members of the NPP, including the vociferous MP Ken Agyapong, after claiming he has been ordered by the president not to employ any NPP executive at the NIA. The President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has charged me that I should make sure no party executives are hired in the process, Attafuah told the Accra-based Angel FM.He does not want to leave a legacy of employing his party members and packing them into a particular sector. No. Basic sensitivity In a Facebook post, Otchere-Darko said party supporters must rather see the positive aspect of the statement instead of launching a scathing attack on the NIA boss. We should go easy on Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah. He clearly could have phrased his words intelligently and with basic sensitivity, Otchere-Darko said. NPP should not fight this, NPP should rather see the positive spin in what he meant to say which is that for this party it is Ghana first. If you are good at what you do and can be trusted to work in accordance with the mandate and direction of the government and specifically the said institution, dont think only a party card can get you in. Thats how we build a nation. He also advised the NIA boss to apologise for his comment to put the matter to rest. Read the full post below: We should go easy on Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah. He clearly could have phrased his words intelligently and with basic sensitivity. He had no business stamping his feet on the expectations and hopes of unemployed party loyalists with such reckless callosity. Very unwise, and some may even say selfish, considering he lost this same job when NPP lost in 2008 only to regain it after NPP regained office! At least, his memory and self-benefit ought to have even guided his tongue and stopped him from speaking out of turn. My good friend, Ken, should check his excitement levels when he has an audience. It helps! The bad way he said what he actually meant to say is what has caused this whole controversy. I do not think he meant it as it came out. Surely, he couldnt have and I know so to be the case. His loyalty to the party and party members has never been in doubt. But, he is also a true patriot. A Ghanaian always eager to serve his nation. In this case, he jammed a foot in his mouth and shot from the hip when the nozzle was aimed at his own family jewels, so to speak. He must apologise and lets move on. Use this as a measure: do you actually believe Akufo-Addo would tell him or anybody in his capacity to employ no party executive (I mean how!) Those engaged nationwide to do NIA registration, are there no NPP polling station executives among them? Again, I doubt if, in reality, the NIA staff roll under Ken Attafuah doesnt even have an NPP bias. But, the principle must not be lost on us at all. Recruitments must not be based on party lines. You are a loyal citizen and competent and that must matter. It is important Ghanaians believe this to be the case. Aside NPP and NDC there are millions of Ghanaians who may not be loyalists of any party, so where do they stand in our democracy if a party card is what guarantees one employment in a public institution? NPP should not fight this, NPP should rather see the positive spin in what he meant to say which is that for this party it is Ghana first. If you are good at what you do and can be trusted to work in accordance with the mandate and direction of the government and specifically the said institution, dont think only a party card can get you in. Thats how we build a nation. 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 former Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection in the erstwhile Mahama Government, Rachel Appoh has shown an elephantine appreciation to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for their enormous support and opportunity given her as the party celebrates its 29th Anniversary as a Political Party. Rachel Appoh, who is also a former MP for the Gomoa Central Constituency described the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a great party which motivates the young women in the party to do more and reach higher height. In a statement, she said; "I celebrate you today for giving me the opportunity to serve on your ticket as the youngest female MP in the majority on the 6th Parliament and the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection of the 4th Republic. "At least I can now boast of being the first Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central constituency, the first woman to represent on Public account leadership in the history of Ghana, the youngest among the Executives/Ministers of state, the first Woman to become a Minister in the history of these two constituencies under one District, Gomoa East and Central respectively. "I had opportunity to deliver paper in different countries, ie; UK, USA, Switzerland, Turkey, Holland, Nigeria, Mexico, France, Japan, Canada, Rwanda, Dubai, Austra, Morocco, Kenya, etc and Ghana's parliament. "I can also boast of two Masters Degrees to my credit (Msc International Finance and Accounting from University of Buckinghamshire UK and Masters in Governance and Leadership frim GIMPA), Thanks to the party's leadership for their motivation. I really appreciate this great NDC party as we celebrate our 29th anniversary. Long live NDC. Long live Ghana. I am grateful #[email protected] Happy Anniversary NDC I salute Source: Atiemo Emmanuel/Peacefmonline/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Thank you for reading the Philadelphia Tribune. You have exhausted your free article views for this month. Please press the "subscribe" button below and see our introductory price of $0.25 per week for 13 weeks. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you next month. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Lythcott learned of this photo just before she met Zhukova for dinner for the first time in fact she was Googling Zhukova on her phone at the restaurant before they met to discuss the development project. At the dinner, Zhukova brought up the incident first, Lythcott said, explaining that she would understand if the episode cast too much of a shadow on the project. But Lythcott wasnt fazed by it, she said, because it was clear all that Zhukova had learned from the incident. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Perry Bacon Jr. is a Washington Post columnist. Before joining The Post in May 2021, Perry had stints as a government and elections writer for Time magazine, The Posts national desk, theGrio and FiveThirtyEight. He has also been been an on-air analyst at MSNBC and a fellow at New America. He grew up in Louisville and lives there now. PHOENIX The magnitude of the heat across Arizona and the western United States through the coming week will be one for the record books, acc KAMPALA Two days after his appointment as the new Secrerary General of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), Rt. Hon Dr. Richard Todwong appeared in the Africa- China review magazine as an alumni of Peking-University Beijing, China congratulating him upon his political achievement. There were also several praises for H.E the President and National Party Chairman Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for the choice well done. This brings me to the thinking that many of you would wish to know what the appointing authority *might have* considered in this particular choice. WORKING EXPERIENCE: He served as a Deputy Secretary General for 5 years. He was once a Cabinet Minister for Political Mobilisation. A Member of Parliament representing Nwoya in the 9th Parliament. Served as a Special Presidential Advisor for Northern Uganda. A Commissioner on the Constitution Review Commission. Former chairman of URA Staff Union. Was a Guild Speaker in Makerere University. The above are just a few of the many roles Rt. Hon. Dr Richard Todwong has played at his tender age. EDUCATION BACKGROUND He has a honorary Doctorate of Humanity by the Theological University, USA. Holds a Masters Degree in International Relations and Diplomatic Studies (MUK). Post Graduate Diploma in Management (UMI). Holds a BA (Social Sciences) in Economics and Political Science (MUK) He also trained in USA & China Before joining Peking University in Beijing- China, Rt. Hon Todwong did an executive program in the United States of America for the young leaders selected around the world. Its an executive program hosted to allow leaders study and under stand the American Democratic and Governance System and how the 3rd world Countries can benefit from the system. During such trainings, they explore the AGOA, IMF, World Bank and the WTO systems and how the poor countries can make such work better for them. They also look at Evolution of the American cooperate systems among many others. Rt. Hon Todwong was selected to represent Uganda among other 21 participating countries. Later the Chinese gave him a Scholarship to study in one of their prestigious Institutions, Peking University. Its an elite university where all the CPC leaders are trained. While there, their students are taken through the Global Governance from the Chinese perspectives , Chinas relationship with the 3rd world countries especially Africa, the China /USA trade wars, how China became the second biggest world economy within a short time and how China has transformed and eliminated abject poverty from its population among many others. This was purely an academic program in a university. Elsewhere, Rt. Hon Todwong was elected one of the executive members of the African Council of Political Parties. Its a Pan-African council of political parties from all over Africa. I am now tempted to think that you have some information about Rt. Hon. Richard Todwong. Lets support him as he takes the mantle to steer the leadership of the Party Secretariat. Comments 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. Lowell Grosse knows a thing or two about a good cup of joe, and he's hoping a $2.2 million expansion of his Charleston Coffee Roasters facility will introduce java junkies in new markets to the craft brews he's loved for decades. Grosse has been in the coffee business for a quarter-century, getting his start as an importer with Charleston's Balzac Brothers & Co. before heading out on his own in 2005 to roast, package and distribute coffee curated from beans grown around the world. Last week, he announced an expansion of his Stall Road facility that will double its size as Charleston Coffee Roasters moves into more stores along the East Coast and Midwest. Grosse said he'll be buying new roasters, grinders and packaging equipment for the additional 21,600-square-foot production site, bringing his payroll to 52 workers. "This next stage of our strategic growth plan enables us to hire more employees, continue our aggressive expansion, increase our distribution across more states and more retailers and create new gourmet coffee roasts for our customers to enjoy," he said. Grosse has built Charleston Coffee Roasters from a fledgling company with a handful of local food-service accounts to a household brand with 16 blends available in whole-bean, ground and K-cup varieties at hundreds of Harris Teeter, Publix and other grocery stores as well as through Amazon and other online retailers. The brand recently moved into Philadelphia-area ShopRite stores and Grosse is in talks with SpartanNash stores in Michigan. The company's big break, however, came in 2017 when Grosse managed to get warehouse retailer Costco to take a chance on his brand. "They do these things called road shows," Grosse said, referring to opportunities Costco gives up-and-coming brands to either sink or swim depending on how customers react to their products. Grosse would set up free sample displays at stores each week, traveling from Myrtle Beach to Greenville and other Costco stores in South Carolina. "You interact with the customers and talk about your product and then they taste it," he said. "If they like it, they buy it." 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! After a while, customers browsing the free-sample aisles got to know Grosse and his coffee, buying four or more bags at a time. Costco tracked his road-show sales and agreed to let Grosse add products full-time in five of its Palmetto State warehouses. "We kept expanding, a couple more warehouses here and a couple more there and finally they put us in the Atlanta distribution center," he said. "That got us in all the warehouses in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama." In addition to boosting coffee sales and revenue, exposure in Costco brought wider name recognition and introduced Charleston Coffee Roasters to decision-makers at Harris Teeter and other stores. By then, the company had outgrown the Huger Street location it shared with Palmetto Brewing Co. and Grosse moved his operations off the peninsula and into an industrial area along Stall Road in North Charleston. Initially locating in half of a warehouse, Charleston Coffee Roasters will take over the full building by August. "We're ordering the equipment now and hope to have it up and running in about 12 months," Grosse said. In addition to its core business, Charleston Coffee Roasters is involved in environmental and community causes, such as partnering with the South Carolina Sea Turtle Rescue program at the South Carolina Aquarium. The company's logo, found on each bag of coffee a turtle fashioned out of a coffee bean is a nod to that partnership. From his early days importing coffee to sourcing beans around the globe and tirelessly promoting his brand, Grosse said he still gets a charge out of a business that's built on the first thing most people do every morning pour a hot mug of joe. "Like music, you only know how good a note is when you hear it," he said. "And you only know how good a coffee is when you taste it." A South Carolina-based rental housing behemoth has scraped together a sizable chunk of dry powder to apply on the other side of the Atlantic. An affiliate of Greystar Real Estate Partners announced last week that it tied a bow around a new fund that has locked down about $883 million in commitments from a global group of deep-pocketed investors. The money trail that leads to the Charleston firm's Meeting Street headquarters is made up of institutional-grade backers, such as big pension funds. They hail from Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, according to statement released June 9. The firm said its new "pan-European" fund will target top cities in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria. The equity will be deployed to buy, and in some cases build, "purpose-designed" and "thoughtfully amenitized" residential rental properties, including traditional apartments and student housing. "This opportunity is the culmination of more than seven years of hard work establishing the only vertically integrated pan-European residential platform, which means we have the capabilities to invest, develop and operate assets under one roof," Greystar senior managing director Mark Allnutt said in a statement. "We are, therefore, uniquely placed to offer simplicity and scale to investors seeking European residential exposure." Market forces and shifting demographic trends are pushing the firm to up its game abroad, according to Greystar. Europe's multifamily and student housing sectors are in short supply of "quality" rental housing, it said. "This, coupled with both continued urbanization trends in Europe's top cities and the increasing unattainability of home ownership, has resulted in a growing renter cohort," the company added. Wes Fuller, Greystar's executive managing director for global investment, called the opportunity "extremely compelling." 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! The U.K is a prime example of a highly fragmented market that's ripe for an overhaul, according to a "white paper" the firm released in November. Citing figures from the commercial real estate research firm Green Street Advisors, the document noted that 98 percent of the island nation's rental housing stock was not professionally managed and unlikely to offer residents any amenity, to say nothing of building maintenance or security of tenure." "We expect coming out of the pandemic, a shift towards working from home and an emphasis on well-being will increase space requirements generally and demand for amenitized space in particular, it said. The Continent-focused investment pool is the latest in Greystar's "value-added" series of funds, which collectively have raised more than $6.2 billion in capital since 2011. It also builds on a global expansion the downtown company kicked off across the pond nearly eight years ago. Greystar's purchase of 21 student housing complexes in England in late 2013 gave the three-legged business it buys, builds and manages its first overseas real estate foothold. Deals in other foreign markets, namely Mexico, South America and Asia, soon followed. Today, the company oversees a $220 billion global portfolio made up mostly of apartments, college residences and active-adult communities in 200 markets. Its also one of the largest property management and ownership firms in the U.S., with 740,000 rental units. The COVID-19 pandemic hasn't slowed down Greystar, which CEO Bob Faith started in Houston in 1992 and moved to Charleston a few years later, when the company became an early investor in the then-fledgling and now nearly completed Daniel Island development. During the health crisis, the firm has sealed at least two major acquisitions of smaller competitors in Arizona and Texas while raising another hefty pot of cash. While the newest financing deal is aimed at cities in foreign lands thousands of miles away, one of its most recent transactions is just up the road from the home office. Last month, the University of South Carolina picked Greystar as the developer and manager of the first phase of the $210 million, 1,800-unit Campus Village student housing project to be built on the Columbia campus. COLUMBIA Five firefighters at one Columbia station, including one of the Fire Departments top officials, were fired last month after a weekslong sexual misconduct investigation that department leaders now refuse to discuss. Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins dismissed the five men from the citys Atlas Road fire station on May 7, according to documents obtained by The Post and Courier through a Freedom of Information Act request. Before the newspaper filed that request, a Fire Department spokesman refused to acknowledge any firings took place or answer a reporter's questions about them saying that would be a personnel matter. Jenkins declined to be interviewed for this story to answer the many questions that the internal documents raise. The firefighters in question also declined to be interviewed. The disciplinary records show Battalion Chief Christopher Ryan Gates, fire captains Jason McIntyre and Brandon Cook, fire engineer Dustin Ailes and senior firefighter Patrick Humphries were terminated after an internal investigation into unacceptable conversations, pranks that far exceeded the bounds of professional conduct and inappropriate touching of co-workers at the station. The filings describe the mens alleged misconduct in vague terms, indicating the violations occurred over several months at various times and came to light on April 16, 2021. The documents also hint at a cover-up of the alleged misconduct. Department leaders blamed Gates, who led the lower Richland County station as one of the citys five battalion chiefs, for failing to correct any of this conduct that he witnesses in his subordinates and found he minimized an allegation of sexual misconduct and failed to report this to his supervisor. McIntyre and Cook, the fire captains, also knew about inappropriate touching of co-workers in the station and didnt stop it, department leaders found. Gates, McIntyre and Cook actively participated in the wrongdoing they should have corrected as supervisors, the investigation found. Gates and Cook falsified records or lied to supervisors, the probe concluded. 'Nothing to add' All five firefighters were offered space on their disciplinary forms to defend themselves. None did. Gates wrote, Nothing to add at this time on his form. Ailes and Humphries refused to sign their forms, and McIntyre and Cook didnt attend their appointments to discuss it. The May 7 firings came at a time of intense scrutiny of sexual harassment and misconduct in the workplace. Because of the #MeToo movement, employees across the country are more emboldened than ever to report misconduct, and their bosses are under fire to take such complaints seriously. Word of the firings has spread quickly among rank-and-file Columbia firefighters. But their reaction is said to have been mixed, in part, because department leaders have provided little explanation about what actually happened and why their colleagues were fired. Reached by phone, Humphries said he and the other firefighters had moved on with their lives since their terminations. He said he spoke with them and his lawyer on June 11, and all agreed it would be best not to comment for this story. But Humphries said many Columbia firefighters are upset about the firings. He said the loss of five firefighters at once has left a void at the Atlas Road station, which is manned by shifts of eight at a time. Not to toot my own horn, but we were a damn good crew, the senior firefighter said. Unanswered questions Department leaders chastised all five firefighters for their failure to exercise meaningful and appropriate judgment, disciplinary records show. But those documents raise as many questions as they provide answers. They do not list the name or gender of any victims. Nor do they explain whether any victims remain employed by the Fire Department. They do not describe the misconduct in specific terms, offering only phrases like sexual harassment and sexual conduct and horseplay/engaged in unsafe activities. The documents indicate the firefighters had 14 days to appeal their terminations, but they don't show if any did, or the results of any appeals. The records also dont explain when the alleged misconduct began, how long it continued or who else might have been involved. Humphries said he understands at least two more firefighters were disciplined, but not terminated, after the investigation concluded. Fire Department spokesman Mike DeSumma declined to address those questions. Charlie King, executive director of the S.C. State Firefighters Association, declined to comment, saying we havent heard anything other than hearsay, rumors and talk about the situation in Columbia. Efforts to reach the president of the Columbia Firefighters Association, which advocates for city firefighters, were unsuccessful. Gates had served as first vice president of that group. He started at the department in May 2005 and became one of the citys top firefighters. He made just more than $50,000 a year, according to a 2018 database. McIntyre joined the department in January 2016. Cook was hired September 2007. He also made more than $50,000 a year, according to that database. Ailes, the fire engineer, was hired January 2005. And Humphries joined the department in March 2017. All were fired May 7, nearly a month after department leaders said they learned of the misconduct. Flag Day is this coming Monday, so I encourage you to proudly and properly display our American flag on your front porch, stoop, or driveway. As a retired USAF chaplain, my view of proper display may differ from yours. But I do hope you will avoid the boorish examples of some Ive seen lately. For instance, I was taken aback to see a local real estate agent post the American flag in driveways with her business card attached. Adding to my surprise, the owner of an area landscaping company named after an assault rifle, flew the flag from his pickup bed. And who can forget the flags hung during this past election season trying to claim which candidate was the most patriotic. Worse to me was a church announcing their political slant by hanging a jumbo-size flag as a backdrop on their altar. Again, I take a different view. When I look at flags hung on Americas Main Street, my mind superimposes those covering the coffins of the many soldiers Ive seen buried. Flag-lined streets take me back to a particular veterans cemetery where I conducted services for the fallen. I began with the 23rd Psalm and concluded with a prayer. At that point, my chaplain assistant would bark, Ah-ten-SHUN! and cue the color guard to assemble. Fifty yards away, a three-person detail would fire off 21 shotsa wartime custom once used to announce that the battlefield had been cleared of the dead and the fighting could resume. Over the grave of the brave, a lone bugler would play taps and the vibrating melancholic tones strained the emotions of the most stoic. On the last note, the honor guard responded like crisp marionettes strung by a masters hand. They lifted each corner of the flag from the casket, snapping it so taut that it startled nearby mourners. They folded it twice lengthwise and then began a series of folds that transformed the flag into a tight triangle. Sign up for our new opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! The officer affectionately placed three shell casings into the folded flag, each representing a volley. The folds were meant to conceal the blood-red stripes and leave nine shining stars exposed on the double-sided blue canvas. Thus folded, the implication is that Gods creation of stars and sky is the only thing to be treasured; the blood stripes, symbolizing the sacrifice of man, are minimized. Custom required the sergeant to give the folded flag to an officer or chaplain where he or she knelt before the parent or spouse to present a wrinkle-less flag. Whispered words spoken to next-of-kin were inaudible to those nearby: This flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation and the United States Army as a token of appreciation for your loved ones honorable and faithful service. The funeral director dismissed the crowd, but a few people stopped briefly to lay a rose on the casket. Only selected family members who stayed heard the sobbing as funeral directors winched the casket into the grave, a few inches at a time. So, when you display the American flag next Monday, I have a favor to ask. Imagine that same flag draping the bodies of 755 first responders killed on 9/11 and nearly 7,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen who have since died. Imagine the flag hanging from your porch covering the body of one of 791 police officers murdered in the 21st century. Only when you consider the flag as the last blanket of the fallen can you give our flag its due honor and proudly sing as we did at those funerals: O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. ----------------- This column contains excerpts Chaplain Norris book Heros Highway. His books are available at www.thechaplain.net. Contact him at comment@thechaplain.net or 10556 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602 or voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain. THE WILD SILENCE: A Memoir. By Raynor Winn. Penguin. 288 pages. $21.95. In 2019s The Salt Path, first-time author Raynor Winn rendered a remarkable account of how a late middle-age British couple overcame the loss of their family home, their livelihood and the onset of her husbands incurable neurological disorder by traversing the UKs 630-mile-long South West Coast Path, reaffirming the healing power of nature. In her stirring sequel, Winn moves back and forth in time to revisit the events leading to their grueling but restorative trek, how she came to chronicle this passage, and their current life, brightened by the unexpected critical and financial success of the first book. And by survival. We rejoin the Winns in the Cornish village of Polruan, well before the writing of The Salt Path, where Moth is continuing to pursue an academic degree and a teaching post, even as sedentary living and diminishing memory have undone some of the benefits of their long, unsheltered walk along the Path. Matters arent helped by their continuing financial distress. Raynor believes that to forestall Moths further deterioration as long as possible, they need to return to the wild. She, too, has been looking for work, but also has grown restive, hearing the call of wild silence, of re-immersion in nature. When we walked the path, our rucksacks stuffed with our only possessions, Id had no problems, so why now in the village did I feel this need to be invisible? the somewhat less-than-social Raynor recalls thinking. I realized that in the year since wed arrived (in the village) Id barely said a word to anyone other than Moth or our two children when they phoned or occasionally visited. Clearly, even village life was too confining. The time wed spent on the Coast Path shone brightly in my memory. I could feel it now, the weeks of headlands and skies, the nights of stars and rain, the smell of the weather as it blew in from the sea. Id sensed something then, a thinness between the wild world and the human, between freedom and containment. Wed walked along the barrier between those worlds and felt something of our natural state of being. We werent the same people who had started that walk; we were changed in ways beyond measure. Sign up for the Charleston Hot Sheet Get a weekly list of tips on pop-ups, last minute tickets and little-known experiences hand-selected by our newsroom in your inbox each Thursday. Email Sign Up! The echo of that feeling was at the core of her problems. Winn also recounts her mothers illness and death in especially moving fashion, as well as her giddy early days with Moth, her romantic mind infected by his adventurous, almost mystical connection to the wild. The moment he entered my life hed filled it to the brim; there couldnt be anyone else. Fast forward: The Winns solution to their malaise is to take over tenancy of a farm and farmhouse the gift of an appreciative owner and benefactor working tirelessly to restore a dilapidated property and its fields. Can Moth manage all the physical exertion as his condition continues to worsen? Can she? And what of a planned hiking trip to Iceland? Can they endure it? Winns knowledge of species, powers of observation and highly visual writing style are conducive to describing nature. There are passages in The Wild Silence so perfectly attuned, so achingly beautiful, so melancholy or joyous, that the reader is captivated. That said, she loses control now and again, succumbing to excessive romanticizing. Oddly, she does not relate the process of writing The Salt Path until almost 100 pages into the book, and casts it as a struggle with self-doubt, low expectations and the sudden celebrity that befalls them. Still, Winn succeeds, lifting our own spirits as well as hers, by finding the profound removed from the din of modern life, yet also by allowing others in, by courting change and new possibilities. But above all, it is the couples devotion to each other a silent enmeshing of lives lived in unison that gleams. A concept drawn from Celtic spirituality, a thin place is the idea of a physical locale or state of mind where the barrier between now and beyond is narrow, where one is closer to God or truth or oneness with the natural world. The Winns found that place through each other. They still do. NORTH CHARLESTON In the days after a shooting tore through the Deas Hill neighborhood, leaving a 14-year-old girl dead and 14 others wounded, the community was fearful and on edge. A daytime youth event May 22 turned into what authorities described as a raucous party after night fell. Dozens of shots erupted around 10:30 p.m., sending teenagers running down side streets, through yards and seeking refuge in the homes of neighbors who opened their doors. Ronjanae Smith lay mortally wounded. She would die less than 24 hours later at Medical University Hospital, the sole fatality out of the 15 people shot that night. Answers would begin to trickle in nearly two weeks later when police announced four suspects had been arrested. Court documents released June 4 tied the mass shooting to a rivalry between two gangs the Bloods and Rollin 20s Crips. Gang violence is not a new phenomenon, both in North Charleston and statewide, but authorities say a critical change has taken place in the past five years that's driving a new surge in violent crime. In 2005, legislators concerned about the growing impact of gangs spurred the state's Criminal Justice Academy and researchers at the University of South Carolina to survey law enforcement agencies around the state. The results, released in 2006, showed most local gangs weren't connected to national groups but often adopted their names. At the time, most agencies had only identified gang activity within five years, but researchers concluded the issue could stretch back further because it wasn't uncommon for cities to deny gang activity was taking place for fear of a bad public image. Before 2010, loosely organized groups engaged in street crime but their activity was tied to specific neighborhoods, said North Charleston Police Department Deputy Chief Ken Hagge. "The rise in violent street gangs has occurred since 2010, where a trend of gang membership went further than neighborhood lines," Hagge said. "Over the last three to four years, these hybrid gangs have transitioned into nationally tied gangs ... Crip sets, Blood sets, Gangsta Disciples, etc." With national gangs vying for footholds in the Lowcountry, law enforcement officials around the region say they have a new approach to tackling the problem and hope to drive down the surge in violence. In late March, Charleston police officials applied for a grant they say will help them fund a Lowcountry task force aimed at taking the worst offenders off the street. Signs of progress Local police won't know whether they'll receive the grant funding, provided through the S.C. Department of Public Safety, until this fall, said Charleston Police Capt. Andre Jenkins. In the meantime, work to identify gang members and secure robust state and federal prosecutions is underway, Jenkins said. Initially conceived as a gang unit, the group has been renamed the Field Intelligence Unit, a title he said better reflects what's being done. "Our guys have been meeting with our partners, talking about certain guys who are already validated gang members, talking to state prosecutors and (federal prosecutors)," Jenkins said. "We're making some great progress in getting some of these folks off the streets. We're starting to see a difference already." Sgt. Christopher Ratliffe, who is supervising the unit's efforts, said the surge in gang activity and pattern of national gangs infiltrating the Lowcountry is driven in part by recruiting over social media. "A lot of it has come from the ease of communication through technology," Ratliffe said. State lawmakers last took sweeping action against gangs with the passage of the 2007 Criminal Gang Prevention Act. While the law gives authorities some tools to identify gang members and sets the legal framework for prosecuting them for crimes committed on behalf of their criminal organization, it does not provide for gang injunctions civil court orders authorities use to restrict a gang's activity by barring members and suspected members or associates from congregating or wearing certain types of clothing while in public. It's not illegal to be in a gang in South Carolina, but engaging in criminal activity as a gang member is, Ratliffe said. The practice has long generated controversy in states such as California, where critics have said injunctions fuel racial profiling and violate civil rights. In November, a court settlement of a class-action lawsuit mandated that Los Angeles police and prosecutors could no longer broadly use injunctions and instead had to use them in a more targeted manner, according to the Los Angeles Times. Community connections For Ratliffe and Jenkins, the lack of an injunction isn't a major problem. Charleston's regional task force doesn't aim to set up a dragnet. It's going after the worst offenders, they said. "This is going to be intelligence-based," Jenkins said. "It's not going to be target-based at all." If the state grant funding, about $623,000, comes through, the city will have to match 10 percent, or $62,333, according to the application form filed in March. "The purpose of this project is to formalize existing partnerships, establish a multi-jurisdictional collaborative related to combating gang-related crime through the use of a Violent Criminal Offender Monitoring List," according to the document. "In 2020, homicides rose 100 percent. Sixty-eight percent of those homicides were gang-related." Although Charleston police are already at work combating the gang issue, the grant will allow the intelligence unit to buy computers, laptops, analytics programs and other equipment they need to more thoroughly complete their project, Jenkins said. Some of the money will also be used to set up diversion programs aimed at steering at-risk youth away from gang life. "As we're doing enforcement and getting these folks out, we're getting the maximum (sentencing) time for violent criminals," the captain said. "We're not looking for some guy for marijuana possession. These are violent offenders who commit robberies, shootings and homicides. We want to get these kids who are in the middle, who aren't gang members, and keep them from joining." Those diversion programs should be developed by the fall, Jenkins said. "The big picture from our perspective is the fact that the community has been saying there's gang members," he said. "We're not going to come in with Gestapo tactics. We're not going to come in profiling certain races or individuals. ... We're not going to come in and alienate entire communities. We know we have to work hand in hand with them." The approach mirrors the work of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program run by the U.S. Department of Justice. "Everyone nowadays recognizes the need for resources toward prevention and education," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Holloway, who runs the program in South Carolina. "The community and police working in coordination is most effective in getting support." Statewide impact The surge of violent crime and expansion of national gangs isn't limited to the Charleston area. In 2019, a Post and Courier investigation found gangs took root and expanded behind the walls of South Carolina's prisons where officials estimated, at the time, that one of every 10 prisoners was a validated gang member. Gangs provided protection, the newspaper found. Membership afforded inmates access to contraband such as cellphones, tobacco and drugs, and their activities often extended far outside prison walls. In December, federal prosecutors announced sweeping indictments against 40 people known to be Insane Gangster Disciples members or associates who operated a $50 million-a-year drug trafficking operation out of South Carolina's state prisons. For years, imprisoned members of the gang used contraband cellphones to orchestrate beatings, kidnappings and murder, according to the 147-count indictment. The case was the largest racketeering conspiracy federal prosecutors had uncovered in South Carolina. In May 2020, federal and state authorities announced indictments against 13 defendants believed to be members of associates of the Dorchester Terrace Crew, a North Charleston street gang they say was peddling drugs and spreading violence around the region. Authorities in Lexington County have tied a June 9 shooting that left an 11-year-old girl dead and another child injured to probable gang activity. Ken Hagge, the North Charleston police deputy chief, said his agency collaborates with local, state and federal partners to tackle large-scale cases because gang members no longer confine themselves to specific neighborhoods or cities. "(We have) a great working relationship with these partners to help investigate violence and drug trafficking, which largely drive gang operations," he said. North Charleston police also work with the community on programs aimed at steering young people away from gang life, Hagge said. Lt. Rick Carson, a spokesman for the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, said his agency has been fortunate. "We still seem to be dealing with the neighborhood problems," Carson said. "There have been a couple of instances where we were able to connect the dots between suspects and national gang members. However, those persons did not live in the county. They came into the county, committed a crime, and returned to their home turf." The Sheriff's Office hasn't formed a gang unit and there are no plans to do so in the immediate future, he said. If crime patterns change and a need arises for such a unit, Carson said his agency would look into funding a targeted gang unit. Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis said his agency has a detective collaborating with the Charleston police Field Intelligence Unit and has a deputy assigned to the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force. "The limited gang activity we have here I think honestly comes from the metro area," Lewis said. "What we typically find is they dont live here but they may be up here conducting some kind of criminal activity. We dont see these organized type gangs operating in Berkeley County." Still, the sheriff said he and his deputies are treating the gang problem seriously. "Any time these issues come up we work very hard to go after those violent offenders," Lewis said. "Were heavily involved and committed to helping the other agencies." Federal solutions As local law enforcement agencies continue grappling with gang violence, some are turning to federal authorities for help. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office can have more resources at their disposal to bring stronger cases against gang members and career criminals, Holloway said. Gun law violations carry harsher penalties at the federal level. The Armed Career Criminal Act, for example, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for felons convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm who have three prior state or federal convictions for violent crimes or serious drug law violations, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams. Federal authorities are also able to more effectively target large criminal organizations and bring substantial cases against them, Williams said. But turning to the federal court system isn't the sole solution to gang crime, according to Rhett DeHart, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina. DeHart said he and his team are working with state authorities to lower the violent crime rate, but they can't handle all cases. There are 40 federal prosecutors covering a state of about 5 million people, he said. If they tried to handle all unlawful possession of a firearm cases their office would quickly be overwhelmed. "They want us to focus on the worst gun cases," DeHart said. Whether falling under federal or state jurisdiction, the impact of gang-related gun violence is evident in communities like North Charleston's Deas Hill. It was June 1, 10 days after the mass shooting at the neighborhood party gone awry. A somber procession moved slowly down Abraham Avenue outside the Royal Baptist Church Family Life Center, where hundreds of mourners gathered. Bagpipes played "Amazing Grace," as two white horses pulled a white carriage carrying 14-year-old Ronjanae Smith's coffin. It would be two more days before North Charleston police announced four suspects were arrested in connection with her death. Even now, more than a week after the arrests, Ronjanae's family continues to seek justice. Her father, Ronald, has founded the nonprofit, "Positive Vibes: Ronjanae Smith, Inc." "Her death will not be in vain but it will give light to the community and the youth," he wrote on Facebook. "Change is coming." For the second consecutive day, heavy rain downtown resulted in nuisance flooding of low-lying areas. The Charleston peninsula had seen more than 5 inches of rain this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. For most of the day June 13, Charleston County was under a flood advisory. By the afternoon, the water flooding began to recede. The city deployed personnel from several departments to help clear the floods and debris in the streets. Emergency management officials and the Charleston Police Department reported that Cannon Park and Washington Street are still closed because of flooding. There is also a warning for Harleston Village, which is open but may be impacted by the waters. All lanes of the Septima P. Clark Parkway, also known as the Crosstown, are now open. It was closed this morning in both directions because of standing water. Light rain will continue to fall across the city today, but additional rainfall amounts will be small, the Weather Service said. The chance of thunderstorms will continue through tonight. From the night of June 12 through June 13, there was flooding in downtown Charleston and West Ashley. Yesterdays floods just came down so fast and I dont think our drains could keep up, said Matt Alltop, superintendent of environmental services. Alltop said that trash cans block storm drains during flash floods and could make it more difficult for water to clear from the streets. Our goal today is just to clean, clean, clean," he said, "and, to pick up the trash." Mayor John Tecklenburg advised that residents put their trash cans inside if they think their street would flood. He also advised people to keep their cars from floods when they can. Dont drive through water if you dont know how deep it is, Tecklenburg said. Vehicles are stalled in some areas. City Emergency Management Director Shannon Scaff said city officials and crews continue to work to protect the life and safety of those in Charleston. "During these types of events, with high levels of rain and flash flooding, its critical that our citizens and visitors avoid all unnecessary travel and never drive through flooded roadways," Scaff said. The storms have dropped extremely heavy rainfall from Red Top through West Ashley into portions of James Island and downtown Charleston. James Island also saw over 5 inches of rain during the event. West Ashley recorded over 4 inches of rain from storms that began around 6 p.m. June 12. Some parts of Mount Pleasant and North Charleston have seen over 3 inches. In the Hospital District, at least 5 inches of rain has fallen since the storm hit, including a 2-inch dump in the morning, according to a weather station on nearby Halsey Street. With high tide at 10:45 a.m., the floodwater had nowhere to go. A thigh-deep brown soup pooled in spots by the hospitals, as police directed traffic off a normally busy Calhoun Streets into side streets where motorists had few options to avoid deep water. At the intersection of Gadsden and Bennett streets, motorists abandoned three cars. Other motorists warily approached barricades around the vehicles and decided against trying to push through. The area has long been flood prone, and the city occasionally stations a portable pump there to whisk water from the basin toward the Ashley, a supplement to the city's aging stormwater tunnels. The city contracts that work, and it is not available on Sunday, officials said. When the storm hit Saturday night, a fierce squall erupted over the Medical District. Within about 30 minutes, the normally bustling hospitals were surrounded by a murky moat. Weather gauges in the area recorded rainfall rates of more than 6 inches per hour. Motorists scrambled to push through low spots on Calhoun Street. Floodwaters pooled by the entrance to the Medical University Hospital's Emergency Department, stranding at least one car. Fast-moving flows flowed into into nearby Cannon Park, covering nearly half of it at one point. The residents who have lived down by Colonial Lake had different reactions to the flooding on June 13. Some slept right through the storm, others watched the pools of water that rose above the storm drains. Yet all the residents who discussed yesterdays flooding agreed on one point: the flooding down the peninsula is getting worse. Shirley Gibson, who has lived on Trumbo Street for more than 50 years, thought flooding downtown has increased as the years go by. Ive watched those tides rise up over the years, Gibson said. You cant out beat mother nature. Gibson thought flash floods dont typically happen this early in the hurricane season, which began June 1, and she is worried about the storms that could happen later this year. I wont dare leave town the latter part of August and September, she said. Jerry Reddick, who has lived across the street from Gibson since 2009, also worries about the flooding. The storms get on my nerves, Reddick said. Makes me think about moving. I am thinking about moving right now. Tecklenburg said that the Charleston City Plan, which takes into account the citys urban planning, will be updated this year and will focus on flooding down the peninsula. For the first time, were taking into account future sea-level rise. The comprehensive plan should go to the Charleston City Council in about 30 days, he said. Glenn Smith and Cleve O'Quinn contributed to this report. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. On Monday, Henry McMaster ended a 15-month exhibition of what can happen when South Carolinas governor has a lot of power. Not just the kind of power most governors except ours take for granted. More. More even, on the state level, than the too-powerful U.S. president has. Im not talking about the power Gov. McMaster used to take high-profile actions to limit the spread of COVID-19: closing schools, locking down nursing homes, temporarily shuttering restaurants, beaches and even retail and personal service businesses and then briefly limiting capacity and imposing discrete mask requirements after quickly lifting the lockdowns. Even though they infuriated the far-right critics who never took COVID-19 seriously, these temporary actions fell well within the parameters of what chief executives and legislative bodies did across the nation and around the world to combat the most deadly pandemic in a century. Im talking about the much broader, and more mundane, powers state law gave him. For 450 days, while Mr. McMaster kept South Carolina in a state of emergency, all state and local officials and employees essentially worked for him. He had the authority to compel performance of them, to transfer the direction, personnel, or functions of state agencies, to order state and local police to do whatever may be deemed necessary to maintain peace and good order and to utilize all available resources of state government as he saw fit. U.S. governors dont normally have any power over other elected officials, and all states carve out some especially sensitive positions governors cant control think election and ethics officials and judges, for example. Still, Mr. McMasters emergency authority over state employees was closer to what a typical U.S. governor has than South Carolinas normal practice, which gives governors authority over far fewer than half of state employees. Yet Im not aware of any instances when he used this power to demote or reassign or threaten anyone. Mr. McMaster couldnt suspend state law during the state of emergency, but he could suspend state regulations. Regulations generally have to be undone through a lengthy bureaucratic process, so thats more power than governors typically have. But its also typical for the executive branch, controlled by a governor, to be able to write (and unwrite) regulations without the legislative veto power that S.C. law grants. Our governor used this power to, among other things, allow emergency prescription refills, authorize emergency licensure of out-of-state contractors, allow curbside delivery of beer and wine, waive the waiting period before laid-off workers could draw unemployment checks and reschedule local elections. Critics charge that either Mr. McMaster or agency directors acting on their own actually suspended laws rather than just regulations, but even if they're right, those were discrete cases. We haven't seen what opponents of executive power have warned against for three centuries: a dictatorial governor who went wild with the power he had. 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! Thats not to say that Mr. McMaster always used his power responsibly. He ordered state employees back to the office before they had a chance to get vaccinated and endangered their health by simultaneously allowing members of the public back in without masks. He required schools to let parents endanger the health of other peoples children by sending their own children to school maskless. Unfortunately, based on anti-mask provisos the House and Senate added to the state budget bill, those anti-public-health mandates seem consistent with prevailing legislative opinion. As is the disturbing timidity that kept the governor from taking such life-saving actions as imposing a statewide mask mandate, or even encouraging people to get vaccinated. But timidity is no argument against gubernatorial authority. And even if Mr. McMaster had overstepped his authority, and done it repeatedly, that wouldnt be reason to take away any of the authority governors have when theres no emergency; it would merely be reason for lawmakers to deal with those specific overreaches. Nor would it be an argument against bringing the governor's nonemergency powers more into line with other governors. One of our Legislatures worst tendencies is to make policy decisions based on personality rather than policy. To grant power or autonomy to this agency because legislators like this particular director, to take it away from governors because they dislike this particular governor. How much power to grant a governor shouldnt have anything to do with whether you like a particular governor or think he's doing a good job or even whether he's abusing the power he has. If a governor or a president uses his power badly or even abuses it, the problem is that we elected the wrong governor or president. The solution is to make a better choice next time. How much power to grant a governor is or should be about the Founding Fathers inspired idea of creating three co-equal branches of government that can provide checks and balances to prevent abuse by any one branch, or individual. We barely have that system any longer in Washington, because for years now, presidents have taken and Congress has ceded too much power, and the Supreme Court hasn't stopped it. The Congress should take back some of its authority even if it likes the president du jour. Simply because the system is unbalanced and unchecked in favor of presidents. Weve never had co-equal branches of government, guarded by checks and balances, in South Carolina. In South Carolina, our government is built around the idea of preventing executive overreach of the sort our colonial ancestors suffered under King George III. Seriously. King George is dead, the British Empire is no longer, the pandemic did not confirm critics' fears about gubernatorial overreach, and the S.C. Legislature should give governors more power, even at the risk that they might sometimes use it badly. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low around 75F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low around 75F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. There are many misconceptions about power generation and the electric grid, and a letter Tuesday contained many. If it was a simple matter of generating electricity and not managing the grid, the world would be simpler, but that is not the case. Electricity is a just-in-time commodity: The amount being generated at any moment must equal the demand, otherwise the system will not provide the correct voltage and frequency to operate our equipment. Power companies continuously monitor power demand and adjust generation to keep the system in balance. While solar, wind, hydro and other nonfossil types of generation are cleaner and can supplement our needs, they are not an answer to global warming because they cannot be managed to be available on demand. For example, when a large industry needs an additional 100,000 kilowatts within 10 minutes, that demand cannot usually be met with renewable sources. It may be dark, with no wind and in an area where there is little or no hydro power. Nuclear generation is usually base loaded, running continuously at full power. So the types of generation that can meet a surge in demand are coal, natural gas and oil. Output from these types of units can be managed by increasing or decreasing fuel input rapidly, allowing the industry to run its equipment without causing chaos for other customers. When we develop technology to store power in large quantities for long periods of time (think large batteries), renewables can possibly play a greater role in our future. This is a question of science, not politics. For the moment, fossil fuels are necessary to power our world. MIKE LANKFORD Retired manager, generation services at Santee Cooper Summerton Court Pinopolis Good news abounds Following the dark year of illness and loss for many as well as isolation, restriction and unease for all, I am grateful for the beginning of a return to a pre-COVID-19 life. Adding to the good news is the announcement of two wins for the environment and all South Carolinians, especially those of us who live in the Lowcountry: the states proposed purchase of the Sisters of Charity of our Lady of Mercy property on James Island and the denial of a permit that would have led to the development of Captain Sams Spit. These are extraordinary actions with far-reaching impact for good. Thank you to everyone who made these happen. MELINDA SCOTT ANDERSON Stiles Drive James Island Death row dilemma The front-page article Tuesday about the two death row inmates scheduled for execution hit a nerve. These men were found guilty of brutal murders more than two decades ago. Yet they both still are still alive and draining government resources. Whether its the electric chair or firing squad, the state should complete their sentences. Once an individual has been found guilty of murder in a court of law, with no questions remaining as to their guilt, proceed with the execution. With more than 2,500 inmates awaiting execution in the U.S., those who unquestionably committed murders should have their sentences carried out, including Dylann Roof. All lingering doubts of guilt must be satisfied before carrying out executions. 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! But once established, the state should carry out the execution in a timely manner. KEVIN HILDRETH Law Lane Mount Pleasant Climate actions There is no question that global warming is responsible for extreme weather, but to believe that these events are preventable is pure fantasy. Although we can provide warnings, the formation of hurricanes, typhoons, tropical cyclones and tornadoes is not under our command. The simple truth is that we cannot change Earths orbit around the sun nor adjust the tilt on its axis. We cannot change the orbit of Earths moon or control its gravitational forces. We cannot adjust the intensity of radiation from the sun or increase Earths magnetic field. We cannot stop the movement of Earths tectonic plates or prevent volcanic eruptions. These are some of the many existential factors fueling global warming. Throughout Earths history, the climate has been changing and global warming will continue to fluctuate well beyond human reign. To politicize the climate by focusing on manmade greenhouse gases is ignoring the science of planetary evolution. It is way more complicated than that. We can, and should, reduce carbon dioxide emissions for a healthier environment. Improvement in air quality by developing cleaner running vehicles and power plants is a realistic goal. Infrastructure such as seawalls in areas prone to flooding as well as permanent firebreaks in areas prone to fire are achievable. Leaders who plan for ways to deal with the future effects of melting glaciers, rising seas, droughts and monsoons understand the science and recognize that we will need to adjust our way of life in the future. JAMES DINGUS Waveney Circle Goose Creek Practice civility The June 4 Post and Courier had an article about state Sen. Mia McLeod launching her bid for governor in 2022. In the article, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association said former Congressman Joe Cunningham and McLeod would both love nothing more than to turn the great state of South Carolina into a liberal wasteland, and this Democratic primary will be all about who can do it quicker. I am tired of the negativity of our political campaigns and suggest that the upcoming elections focus on policies and potential contributions each candidate brings to the campaign versus what we have experienced in the recent past. DENNY CIGANOVIC Carmel Bay Drive Mount Pleasant Search Earth first In lieu of spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to find intelligent life on Mars or the moon, I wish someone would look for intelligent life on Earth for free. JIM PRICE Sam Rittenberg Charleston Welcome to our new website. We have a new login system for you to access the full newspaper online. Please click here to learn how to activate your new account. Bear with us as we move into this new site and bring over all our old articles and photos. 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 circulation@postregister.com for help creating one. commentary Shattering of trust in our institutions readers' views Use state budget surplus to adequately fund our schools commentary Environmental protection needs more funding in Pa. This piece by David Horowitz, John Perazzo and Mark Tapson is a hair-raising account of how the Joe Biden administration is politicizing our armed forces, thereby imperiling our national security. This is a scandal of the first order, but of course is not being reported as such. Betraying America No institution in America from government offices to schoolrooms to corporate boardrooms and beyond is safe today from the poisonous racism of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project which posit that United States history is rooted in slavery and white supremacy, and that whiteness is an incurable disease. The institution whose subversion poses the greatest threat to our national security is the military, now overseen by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a determined advocate of these repulsive anti-American views. Austin has required both Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project as core elements of the Pentagons military training programs concealing their sinister agendas under the innocuous-sounding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion label. He has ordered a purging of the military ranks of what he calls extremists, defined as opponents of these noxious views and supporters of Donald Trump and the Capitol protest of January 6th. This transformational focus of our military forces is the Biden administrations answer to the growing threat of a heavily-militarized China a purging of whiteness and patriotic pride from the ranks of our frontline defenders. Lloyd Austin III was nominated in late 2012 for CENTCOM commander by President Barack Obama, who openly sought the fundamental transformation of America, and spent his eight-year tenure politicizing the military command. When Austin retired from active duty with the U.S. military in 2016, Austin was a four-star general. He spent the next few years in the private sector as a founder and/or board member of various corporations until last December, when President Biden nominated him for the position of U.S. Secretary of Defense. The Senate subsequently confirmed Austin on January 22 by a vote of 93-2, making him the first black Defense Secretary in American history, and also the most radical even though most black Americans are patriots and are not radical. Austin was a natural choice for an administration that seems to value the skin color, gender and politics of its appointees over all other characteristics, and like the President, the Vice President, and the Democratic Party generally views America as a nation so scarred by its racist history that nothing short of a radical transformation would make it worthy of celebrating and defending. Like Obama, Austin is intent on transforming the American military with dangerous consequences for the 330 million Americans it is its mission to defend. During Austins Senate confirmation hearing on January 19, he vowed to rid the U.S. military of the many racists and extremists that allegedly have infiltrated it. The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies, he said. But we cant do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks. Or, if they preside over those ranks. When the military command divides its soldiers along racial and gender lines, demonizing some and making permanent victims out of others, the divisive effects of such guidelines can have a devastating impact on unit cohesion and troop morale. When this training includes videos lionizing Democrat presidents like Obama and Clinton as civil rights heroes but omits the gains made by black, Asian and Hispanic Americans under Trump, further seeds of division are sewn in the ranks. And when a maliciously false history of America as a nation born in slavery in 1619 is presented as truth, and the true American founding in 1776 as an avatar of equality and freedom is erased, the consequences for morale are destructive and dangerous. If your military commanders tell you that your country was a racist nightmare from its inception, how does that affect your calculation as a 19-year-old when you are considering risking your life to defend it? On April 9, 2021, Secretary Austin issued a memorandum announcing the establishment of the Countering Extremism Working Group (CEWG) to spearhead the militarys witch-hunt whose goal is to locate and stamp out extremism in its ranks. To lead the CEWG, Austin appointed as his senior adviser on Human Capital and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a black American named Bishop Garrison, who has made no secret of his profound contempt for former President Trump and the scores of millions of people who voted for him. In July 2019, for example, Garrison said in a tweet: Support for him [Trump], a racist, is support for ALL his beliefs. Hes dragging a lot of bad actors (misogynist, extremists, other racists) out into the light, normalizing their actions. If you support the President, you support that. There is no room for nuance with this, Garrison added. There is no more but Im not like that talk. This is the man in charge of purifying our military. Austins decision to appoint Garrison to head the CEWG is even more significant in light of the fact that Garrison is a vocal supporter of the 1619 Project. Garrison put forth a passionate defense of the 1619 Project in an August 2019 essay where he wrote that Americas hatred of communities of color and other vulnerable groups is deeply rooted in slavery, the treatment of African slaves, and the continued struggle of the black American community for equal treatment. No acknowledgement of course of the tremendous contributions to racial equality for blacks in the founders declaration of equality for all, the ultimate sacrifices made by President Lincoln and 350,000 Union soldiers to free the slaves, or the white majorities in Congress who passed the Civil Rights Acts. Instead: Now, arguably more than at any time in recent history, we need to recognize that extremism, racist policies, and white supremacy stand as existential threats not only to American life but to the future of our country and others around the globe, added Garrison. No evidence needed of racist policies of white supremacy or the existential threats they are alleged to pose to America and the globe. Of course, Austin claims preposterously that the CEWG is not about politics or political views. Yet, nearly all of the panels 18 members supported Joe Biden and the Democrats in the 2020 elections. And that, observes author Daniel Greenfield, makes this look even more like a political purge of the military by a radical administration. Greenfield further points out that no fewer than 6 of the CEWGs 18 members are radical Islamists, including a Pakistani national, who also view the United States as a racist cesspool. Training films shown to the troops under Austins leadership feature an anti-Semitic Black Lives Matter leader who conducted a pogrom in Los Angeless Jewish quarter, attacking synagogues and voicing support for the terrorist organization Hamas. By no means is the CEWG the only vehicle by which Lloyd Austin has set out to purge Americas military of members who would dare to hold political opinions that differ from his. In his early days as Secretary of Defense, he ordered hundreds of former President Trumps appointees from at least 31 Pentagon advisory boards and panels, to resign. Central to the worldview of the race-obsessed new Defense Secretary is a belief that racism is Americas most salient and enduring feature. That belief animates Austins passionate crusade to impose racial diversity by force upon the military that he oversees. As Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said last month about Austin, he believes theres a sense of urgency here. The time is now to start to grow that [nonwhite] talent and develop that talent and provide opportunities for that talent to continue to advance of the ranks. A worthy objective if diversity is not a cover for recruiting non-whites who share Austins racist views. Of course, there are no racial barriers for non-whites who wish to enter the armed services. A more pressing question is whether diversity, which already has no barriers, should be the primary goal for an institution whose main purpose is to defend a nation rather than to serve as a social laboratory for leftwing dogmas. If whiteness and white supremacy are perceived as the chief national security threats as President Biden has recently said, into what category does that put our real global adversaries, Communist China and Islamist Iran? Biden, Austin, and members of the administration generally, have already made it clear that the scary catch-all term extremist refers not to Islamic fundamentalists or Antifa anarchists, or pro-Chinese infiltrators (none of whom the current administration regards as a national security problem) but to the 75+ million supporters of former President Trump, Republicans, and anyone who resists the anti-white racism currently rampant in our political discourse. Austins remarks about extremists in our midst were a clear reference to the January 6 protest in the Capitol, which Democrats denounced as an armed insurrection even though there were no arms found, and therefore no insurrection. Under pressure from Black Lives Matter radicals, the incident was also denounced absurdly as a white supremacist coup. The incident itself was, in fact, far more peaceful than the more than 600 riots conducted by Democrat supporters and encouraged by Democrat mayors over the summer of 2020. In fact, the only person killed on January 6 was an unarmed Trump supporter, a 14-year air force veteran named Ashli Babbitt who was murdered by a Capitol police officer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi jailed the Hispanic reporter who videoed the murder, revealing that Babbitt was standing by herself and menacing no one. The journalist was charged with the crime of appearing at the event. Pelosi has concealed the identity of the officer. Attorney General Merrick Garland, revealing himself as a partisan extremist, called the whole event the most dangerous threat to our democracy, and refused to charge the officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman with a crime. To justify their witch-hunt in the ranks, Austin and the Biden administration voiced concern that 50 of the individuals arrested for being present at the Capitol on January 6 were, as CBS News reported, current or former military members. Actually, only one of the 50 was an active-duty service member at the time, along with four who were current part-time troops in the Army Reserve or the National Guard. The crucial point is that American citizens have every right to challenge an election result, and the Democrats have done that every time a Republican has won the presidency since 1980. Under the Biden-Pelosi new order, which resembles nothing so much as fascism, questioning the 2020 election is a threat to democracy treason. The Democrats wasted no time in smearing these current and former military members as domestic terrorists. On February 3, one month after the Capitol demonstration, Austin announced a 60-day stand down order, during which commanders and leaders across every branch of the Armed Services could search for evidence of domestic extremism among uniformed personnel. This process would include interviews with every service member about their observations of extremist ideology and behavior among their peers. Distrust of the man or woman in the foxhole next to you is the very opposite of the unit cohesion that is the core of an effective military. Being trained to regard yourself as a victim of white America is sabotage of the unity required of any military force if it is to be effective. Austin and the Biden administration decided that in order to help them determine who is, or is not, a dangerous extremist, they would rely on the judgment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) a notorious fact-challenged smear operation that routinely conflates traditional, respectable conservative organizations like the Family Research Council and the American Enterprise Institute with fascist, skinhead, and neo-Nazi fringe groups. Ben Carson, Ayan Ali Hirsi and other defenders of human rights and civility have been defamed by the SPLC as hate-mongers. On February 10, 2021, the SPLCs President and CEO, Margaret Huang a long-time head of the leftist Amnesty International sent Austin an unsolicited letter applauding the stand-down order and offering to assist in this important effort. Huang wrote, We deeply appreciate your leadership and early action to address and eliminate hate and extremism in the military. We would welcome an opportunity to meet with your staff to discuss initiatives, resources, and programs we believe could help in your mission. On May 10, 2021, Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, a commanding officer with the U.S. Space Force, released a self-published book titled Irresistible Revolution: Marxisms Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military. The book warns that Marxism and Critical Race Theory have gained a firm foothold within the U.S. military in recent years. As author Bruce Bawer has written, Lohmeiers book notes that after the death of George Floyd last spring, military personnel were shown videos that: depicted all whites as racists; described American history as, in the words of one videos director, 400 years of white supremacy; cast contemporary American society as a system of oppression; accused President Trump of promoting systematic racism; portrayed Barack Obama and the Clintons as champions of the anti-racist cause; and promoted a picture of America that, in Lohmeiers view, seemed intended to justify violent riots. As a commander of young military professionals, all of whom have taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution, writes Lohmeier in his book, I became concerned that race-based identity politics would erode the trust and confidence these young people have in their country and in the Constitution. Lohmeier recounts stories of white officers who left the military because they grew tired of being told that they are racists solely based on the color of their skin. He describes high-school students reluctant to join the armed services because they are unsure what their country stands for anymore. And he cites black West Point cadets who, as a result of the Marxist propaganda with which they have been indoctrinated, are conflicted about swearing an oath to defend a white supremacist country. In a May 7 podcast interview to promote his forthcoming book, Lohmeier criticized Austins decision to have the military stand down against extremism. I dont demonize [Austin], said Lohmeier, but I want to make it clear to both him and every service member [that] this agendait will divide us. It will not unify us. One week later, Lohmeier was removed from his post as commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron whose task is to identify ballistic missile launches because, as a Space Force statement put it, his public comments may have constituted prohibited partisan political activity. In other words, only partisan leftwing partisan political activity will be allowed in the new U.S. military under the leadership of Lloyd Austin and his commander-in-chief. The deadly perils of what Lohmeier describes in his book are obvious. He describes an arrangement that pits people against one another based on their political orientation and their skin color. It maliciously divides people who should, to the greatest possible extent, be working in an atmosphere where they feel a deep and reflexive sense of mutual respect, harmony, and benevolence toward one another. And it destroys the unit cohesion that is indispensable to the ability of military personnel to perform the one sacred duty to which they have pledged their very lives: the defense and protection of the United States and its Constitution. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) shares such concerns. In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on June 10, Cotton told Austin that several hundred whistleblowers among service members have come forward to tell us that they have been forced to watch videos about systemic racism and documentaries that rewrite Americas history as a fundamentally racist and evil nation. He added, Were hearing reports of plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and the sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected separations and retirements based on these trainings alone. Austin responded that he did not believe the military is fundamentally racist, but added that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is important to this military now and it will be important in the future. Cotton shot back, This is not about diversity in general, though. This is about a very specific kind of anti-American indoctrination that is seeping into some parts of our military based on the whistleblower complaints we have received. Sen. Cotton is correct: the issue isnt diversity. The issue is an administration in Washington so partisan, and so dedicated to defaming their own country, that they are jeopardizing the security and safety of all Americans. Two Republicans voted not to confirm Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense. It should have been 50, and all 50 should be calling now for the resignation of the first black Secretary of Defense and for his replacement by an American patriot like Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice, or an American hero like Lt. Colonel Matthew Lohmeier. When I visited Israel for the first time in 1982, I was told that relations between Jews and Israeli Arab were fairly good. In Haifa, where my father-in-law lived, relations were said to be exemplary. After spending time in Haifa and the surrounding region, it seemed to me that this was true. With the two intifadas, relations deteriorated. By the time my father-in-law died (2003), they werent all that good even in Haifa. Or so I understand. Now, they reportedly have deteriorated to the point that Israeli Arabs held mass demonstrations and engaged in violence in support of Hamas during its most recent conflict with Israel. They have deteriorated to the point that, according to the Washington Post, Arabs in Israel now tend to identify as Palestinians even though they are Israeli citizens. I lack the expertise to say that whether this development was inevitable (a big word). But I suspect it was. Thats an academic question. Heres a more practical one. Given that Israeli Arabs side with Palestinians, and indeed Hamas, in their dispute with Israel, isnt it lunacy to form a coalition government that includes an Israeli Arab party described as Islamist by the Washington Post? And heres a pragmatic one. How can a coalition that includes both that Israeli Arab party and a party led by Naftali Bennett who advocates annexing the West Bank and is hated by Arabs (according to the Post, he boasts of killing Arabs during his military service) survive? The answer to the first question is yes. The answer to the second is it probably cant. And given the answer to the first question, it certainly shouldnt. Some Israeli Arabs feel the same way. The Post reports that many, especially the younger ones, view Arab participation in a coalition with Bennett as shameful and a betrayal. They are right to feel that way, given their views on Israel and Palestine. By the same token, members of Bennetts party and others on the Israeli right should feel that way, too. In fact, its surprises me that even moderate and center-left Israeli Jews, no matter how much they hate Benjamin Netanyahu, arent disgusted that the new government includes an Islamist, pro-Palestinian party. I wouldnt want to live in a country whose government includes a party aligned with a sworn enemy bent on destroying the existing state and driving a majority of its population into the sea. BLM is bad enough. I just finished reading Alexis de Tocquevilles Democracy in America for the first time. I read it over the past two years or so in weekly lunch meetings with my friend Bruce Sanborn. Carleton Colleges Professor Larry Cooper, also a friend, served as our preceptor. We used the terrific edition translated, edited, and introduced by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop that is published by the University of Chicago Press. Like almost everyone who has ever read the book, Bruce and I are in awe of Tocqueville. Like readers in every generation, I think it seems to have been written for ours. I recommend Paul Rahes Soft Despotism, Democracys Drift and Mansfields Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction to help penetrate the text. Even though the book is long, it is written in an aphoristic style that makes it endlessly quotable. Tocqueville wrote as a friend of freedom. He worried that the passion for equality (think equity) would overwhelm freedom and that democracy would therefore tend toward a new form of despotism. Project Gutenberg has posted Henry Reeves old translation online. It is posted separately at Volume 1 (1835) and Volume 2 (1840). Here is the penultimate chapter of Volume 2 (part four, chapter 7) in Reeves translation. I have taken the liberty of breaking the long paragraphs in two in the interest of readability. Tocqueville writes: * * * * * I believe that it is easier to establish an absolute and despotic government amongst a people in which the conditions of society are equal, than amongst any other; and I think that if such a government were once established amongst such a people, it would not only oppress men, but would eventually strip each of them of several of the highest qualities of humanity. Despotism therefore appears to me peculiarly to be dreaded in democratic ages. I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it. On the other hand, I am persuaded that all who shall attempt, in the ages upon which we are entering, to base freedom upon aristocratic privilege, will failthat all who shall attempt to draw and to retain authority within a single class, will fail. At the present day no ruler is skillful or strong enough to found a despotism, by re-establishing permanent distinctions of rank amongst his subjects: no legislator is wise or powerful enough to preserve free institutions, if he does not take equality for his first principle and his watchword. All those of our contemporaries who would establish or secure the independence and the dignity of their fellow-men, must show themselves the friends of equality; and the only worthy means of showing themselves as such, is to be so: upon this depends the success of their holy enterprise. Thus the question is not how to reconstruct aristocratic society, but how to make liberty proceed out of that democratic state of society in which God has placed us. These two truths appear to me simple, clear, and fertile in consequences; and they naturally lead me to consider what kind of free government can be established amongst a people in which social conditions are equal. It results from the very constitution of democratic nations and from their necessities, that the power of government amongst them must be more uniform, more centralized, more extensive, more searching, and more efficient than in other countries. Society at large is naturally stronger and more active, individuals more subordinate and weak; the former does more, the latter less; and this is inevitably the case. It is not therefore to be expected that the range of private independence will ever be as extensive in democratic as in aristocratic countriesnor is this to be desired; for, amongst aristocratic nations, the mass is often sacrificed to the individual, and the prosperity of the greater number to the greatness of the few. It is both necessary and desirable that the government of a democratic people should be active and powerful: and our object should not be to render it weak or indolent, but solely to prevent it from abusing its aptitude and its strength. The circumstance which most contributed to secure the independence of private persons in aristocratic ages, was, that the supreme power did not affect to take upon itself alone the government and administration of the community; those functions were necessarily partially left to the members of the aristocracy: so that as the supreme power was always divided, it never weighed with its whole weight and in the same manner on each individual. Not only did the government not perform everything by its immediate agency; but as most of the agents who discharged its duties derived their power not from the State, but from the circumstance of their birth, they were not perpetually under its control. The government could not make or unmake them in an instant, at pleasure, nor bend them in strict uniformity to its slightest capricethis was an additional guarantee of private independence. I readily admit that recourse cannot be had to the same means at the present time: but I discover certain democratic expedients which may be substituted for them. Instead of vesting in the government alone all the administrative powers of which corporations and nobles have been deprived, a portion of them may be entrusted to secondary public bodies, temporarily composed of private citizens: thus the liberty of private persons will be more secure, and their equality will not be diminished. The Americans, who care less for words than the French, still designate by the name of county the largest of their administrative districts: but the duties of the count or lord-lieutenant are in part performed by a provincial assembly. At a period of equality like our own it would be unjust and unreasonable to institute hereditary officers; but there is nothing to prevent us from substituting elective public officers to a certain extent. Election is a democratic expedient which insures the independence of the public officer in relation to the government, as much and even more than hereditary rank can insure it amongst aristocratic nations. Aristocratic countries abound in wealthy and influential persons who are competent to provide for themselves, and who cannot be easily or secretly oppressed: such persons restrain a government within general habits of moderation and reserve. I am very well aware that democratic countries contain no such persons naturally; but something analogous to them may be created by artificial means. I firmly believe that an aristocracy cannot again be founded in the world; but I think that private citizens, by combining together, may constitute bodies of great wealth, influence, and strength, corresponding to the persons of an aristocracy. By this means many of the greatest political advantages of aristocracy would be obtained without its injustice or its dangers. An association for political, commercial, or manufacturing purposes, or even for those of science and literature, is a powerful and enlightened member of the community, which cannot be disposed of at pleasure, or oppressed without remonstrance; and which, by defending its own rights against the encroachments of the government, saves the common liberties of the country. In periods of aristocracy every man is always bound so closely to many of his fellow-citizens, that he cannot be assailed without their coming to his assistance. In ages of equality every man naturally stands alone; he has no hereditary friends whose co-operation he may demandno class upon whose sympathy he may rely: he is easily got rid of, and he is trampled on with impunity. At the present time, an oppressed member of the community has therefore only one method of self-defensehe may appeal to the whole nation; and if the whole nation is deaf to his complaint, he may appeal to mankind: the only means he has of making this appeal is by the press. Thus the liberty of the press is infinitely more valuable amongst democratic nations than amongst all others; it is the only cure for the evils which equality may produce. Equality sets men apart and weakens them; but the press places a powerful weapon within every mans reach, which the weakest and loneliest of them all may use. Equality deprives a man of the support of his connections; but the press enables him to summon all his fellow-countrymen and all his fellow-men to his assistance. Printing has accelerated the progress of equality, and it is also one of its best correctives. I think that men living in aristocracies may, strictly speaking, do without the liberty of the press: but such is not the case with those who live in democratic countries. To protect their personal independence I trust not to great political assemblies, to parliamentary privilege, or to the assertion of popular sovereignty. All these things may, to a certain extent, be reconciled with personal servitudebut that servitude cannot be complete if the press is free: the press is the chiefest democratic instrument of freedom. Something analogous may be said of the judicial power. It is a part of the essence of judicial power to attend to private interests, and to fix itself with predilection on minute objects submitted to its observation; another essential quality of judicial power is never to volunteer its assistance to the oppressed, but always to be at the disposal of the humblest of those who solicit it; their complaint, however feeble they may themselves be, will force itself upon the ear of justice and claim redress, for this is inherent in the very constitution of the courts of justice. A power of this kind is therefore peculiarly adapted to the wants of freedom, at a time when the eye and finger of the government are constantly intruding into the minutest details of human actions, and when private persons are at once too weak to protect themselves, and too much isolated for them to reckon upon the assistance of their fellows. The strength of the courts of law has ever been the greatest security which can be offered to personal independence; but this is more especially the case in democratic ages: private rights and interests are in constant danger, if the judicial power does not grow more extensive and more strong to keep pace with the growing equality of conditions. Equality awakens in men several propensities extremely dangerous to freedom, to which the attention of the legislator ought constantly to be directed. I shall only remind the reader of the most important amongst them. Men living in democratic ages do not readily comprehend the utility of forms: they feel an instinctive contempt for themI have elsewhere shown for what reasons. Forms excite their contempt and often their hatred; as they commonly aspire to none but easy and present gratifications, they rush onwards to the object of their desires, and the slightest delay exasperates them. This same temper, carried with them into political life, renders them hostile to forms, which perpetually retard or arrest them in some of their projects. Yet this objection which the men of democracies make to forms is the very thing which renders forms so useful to freedom; for their chief merit is to serve as a barrier between the strong and the weak, the ruler and the people, to retard the one, and give the other time to look about him. Forms become more necessary in proportion as the government becomes more active and more powerful, whilst private persons are becoming more indolent and more feeble. Thus democratic nations naturally stand more in need of forms than other nations, and they naturally respect them less. This deserves most serious attention. Nothing is more pitiful than the arrogant disdain of most of our contemporaries for questions of form; for the smallest questions of form have acquired in our time an importance which they never had before: many of the greatest interests of mankind depend upon them. I think that if the statesmen of aristocratic ages could sometimes contemn forms with impunity, and frequently rise above them, the statesmen to whom the government of nations is now confided ought to treat the very least among them with respect, and not neglect them without imperious necessity. In aristocracies the observance of forms was superstitious; amongst us they ought to be kept with a deliberate and enlightened deference. Another tendency, which is extremely natural to democratic nations and extremely dangerous, is that which leads them ta despise and undervalue the rights of private persons. The attachment which men feel to a right, and the respect which they display for it, is generally proportioned to its importance, or to the length of time during which they have enjoyed it. The rights of private persons amongst democratic nations are commonly of small importance, of recent growth, and extremely precariousthe consequence is that they are often sacrificed without regret, and almost always violated without remorse. But it happens that at the same period and amongst the same nations in which men conceive a natural contempt for the rights of private persons, the rights of society at large are naturally extended and consolidated: in other words, men become less attached to private rights at the very time at which it would be most necessary to retain and to defend what little remains of them. It is therefore most especially in the present democratic ages, that the true friends of the liberty and the greatness of man ought constantly to be on the alert to prevent the power of government from lightly sacrificing the private rights of individuals to the general execution of its designs. At such times no citizen is so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressedno private rights are so unimportant that they can be surrendered with impunity to the caprices of a government. The reason is plain:if the private right of an individual is violated at a time when the human mind is fully impressed with the importance and the sanctity of such rights, the injury done is confined to the individual whose right is infringed; but to violate such a right, at the present day, is deeply to corrupt the manners of the nation and to put the whole community in jeopardy, because the very notion of this kind of right constantly tends amongst us to be impaired and lost. There are certain habits, certain notions, and certain vices which are peculiar to a state of revolution, and which a protracted revolution cannot fail to engender and to propagate, whatever be, in other respects, its character, its purpose, and the scene on which it takes place. When any nation has, within a short space of time, repeatedly varied its rulers, its opinions, and its laws, the men of whom it is composed eventually contract a taste for change, and grow accustomed to see all changes effected by sudden violence. Thus they naturally conceive a contempt for forms which daily prove ineffectual; and they do not support without impatience the dominion of rules which they have so often seen infringed. As the ordinary notions of equity and morality no longer suffice to explain and justify all the innovations daily begotten by a revolution, the principle of public utility is called in, the doctrine of political necessity is conjured up, and men accustom themselves to sacrifice private interests without scruple, and to trample on the rights of individuals in order more speedily to accomplish any public purpose. These habits and notions, which I shall call revolutionary, because all revolutions produce them, occur in aristocracies just as much as amongst democratic nations; but amongst the former they are often less powerful and always less lasting, because there they meet with habits, notions, defects, and impediments, which counteract them: they consequently disappear as soon as the revolution is terminated, and the nation reverts to its former political courses. This is not always the case in democratic countries, in which it is ever to be feared that revolutionary tendencies, becoming more gentle and more regular, without entirely disappearing from society, will be gradually transformed into habits of subjection to the administrative authority of the government. I know of no countries in which revolutions are more dangerous than in democratic countries; because, independently of the accidental and transient evils which must always attend them, they may always create some evils which are permanent and unending. I believe that there are such things as justifiable resistance and legitimate rebellion: I do not therefore assert, as an absolute proposition, that the men of democratic ages ought never to make revolutions; but I think that they have especial reason to hesitate before they embark in them, and that it is far better to endure many grievances in their present condition than to have recourse to so perilous a remedy. I shall conclude by one general idea, which comprises not only all the particular ideas which have been expressed in the present chapter, but also most of those which it is the object of this book to treat of. In the ages of aristocracy which preceded our own, there were private persons of great power, and a social authority of extreme weakness. The outline of society itself was not easily discernible, and constantly confounded with the different powers by which the community was ruled. The principal efforts of the men of those times were required to strengthen, aggrandize, and secure the supreme power; and on the other hand, to circumscribe individual independence within narrower limits, and to subject private interests to the interests of the public. Other perils and other cares await the men of our age. Amongst the greater part of modern nations, the government, whatever may be its origin, its constitution, or its name, has become almost omnipotent, and private persons are falling, more and more, into the lowest stage of weakness and dependence. In olden society everything was different; unity and uniformity were nowhere to be met with. In modern society everything threatens to become so much alike, that the peculiar characteristics of each individual will soon be entirely lost in the general aspect of the world. Our forefathers were ever prone to make an improper use of the notion, that private rights ought to be respected; and we are naturally prone on the other hand to exaggerate the idea that the interest of a private individual ought always to bend to the interest of the many. The political world is metamorphosed: new remedies must henceforth be sought for new disorders. To lay down extensive, but distinct and settled limits, to the action of the government; to confer certain rights on private persons, and to secure to them the undisputed enjoyment of those rights; to enable individual man to maintain whatever independence, strength, and original power he still possesses; to raise him by the side of society at large, and uphold him in that positionthese appear to me the main objects of legislators in the ages upon which we are now entering. It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I wish that they would try a little more to make great men; that they would set less value on the work, and more upon the workman; that they would never forget that a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak, and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised, to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled citizens. I trace amongst our contemporaries two contrary notions which are equally injurious. One set of men can perceive nothing in the principle of equality but the anarchical tendencies which it engenders: they dread their own free agencythey fear themselves. Other thinkers, less numerous but more enlightened, take a different view: besides that track which starts from the principle of equality to terminate in anarchy, they have at last discovered the road which seems to lead men to inevitable servitude. They shape their souls beforehand to this necessary condition; and, despairing of remaining free, they already do obeisance in their hearts to the master who is soon to appear. The former abandon freedom, because they think it dangerous; the latter, because they hold it to be impossible. If I had entertained the latter conviction, I should not have written this book, but I should have confined myself to deploring in secret the destiny of mankind. I have sought to point out the dangers to which the principle of equality exposes the independence of man, because I firmly believe that these dangers are the most formidable, as well as the least foreseen, of all those which futurity holds in store: but I do not think that they are insurmountable. The men who live in the democratic ages upon which we are entering have naturally a taste for independence: they are naturally impatient of regulation, and they are wearied by the permanence even of the condition they themselves prefer. They are fond of power; but they are prone to despise and hate those who wield it, and they easily elude its grasp by their own mobility and insignificance. These propensities will always manifest themselves, because they originate in the groundwork of society, which will undergo no change: for a long time they will prevent the establishment of any despotism, and they will furnish fresh weapons to each succeeding generation which shall struggle in favor of the liberty of mankind. Let us then look forward to the future with that salutary fear which makes men keep watch and ward for freedom, not with that faint and idle terror which depresses and enervates the heart. The Gbagyi ethnic group in Kuje Area Council of Abuja say their traditional ways of preserving grains and other food crops are still the best. They said these methods were not only useful for future consumption, but was also useful to preserve crops for replanting and food security. The residents told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gbau-Kushi, a Gbagyi community in the FCT, that in spite of the widespread belief in westernised methods, traditional food preservation inherited from their ancestors was still effective. Solomon Joshua, a famer, said before the advent of modern preservative methods, Africans and Nigerians in particular had their own native ways of preserving food for both consumption and for replanting. As Gbagyi people, we have our own ways of preserving crops after harvesting them, we have mud houses built, which is called Dobu. The Dobu is a mud silos constructed with available local materials that are eco-friendly and cheap to build. We use it to preserve crops, like guinea corn, maize, rice, millets and other grains for selling or replanting in the next planting season. But very surprising, when the foreign methods came up, we did not abandon our native methods, which are still functional up till now, Mr Joshua explained. According to him, Dobu is built with no door, but has a small window with which one can go in and out. It can contain about 13 to 15 bags of grain seeds and stay for a long period of time, up to four years, before evacuation for planting or whatsoever one may want to use them for, he said. Mr Joshua said that Dobu had the natural capacity to prevent termites from attacking crops and grains inside it. Anthony John, another farmer, said using the mud silos to preserve food was a means of economic empowerment as people come from other places to buy crops from them. He said this served as a means of generating income for them. It is so unfortunate that we have totally forgotten where we come from in terms of our native way of life. For those of us who cannot acquire foreign methods of preserving food, we are still comfortable with what we saw our ancestors use and they are still useful to us, he said. To avoid economic waste, Mr John advised Nigerians and the locals in particular to embrace the old methods of farming including preservation, which according to him were still functional. Here in our locality, we dont use things like insecticide or any harmful chemical to preserve our crops; it is our forefathers ways we use. Our forefathers discovered the secret, which has been helpful to us their descendants. We are yet to discover a modern way to preserve our crops without the use of chemicals. ADVERTISEMENT But for now, we are grateful to our fathers for this special inherited traditional way of preserving our food crops, Mr John said. Gloria Zhydaghi said Dobu was still the method members of the community used for preservation of cereals and legumes and could keep them for more than four years. Ms Zhydaghi added that if the roof of Dobu was not faulty, nothing would affect the grains inside the hut. We dont store yams inside Dobu, we preserve yams in a room built in a square shape without plastering the floor, this will make the yam stay long, she said. David John, a yam farmer, told NAN that the yams were checked twice before the next farming season to ensure that any new growth was sliced out. If you allow the yams grow at home before selling, it means you are selling bad yams to people. Such yams are the ones you see looking like they have different colours inside and too hard to eat. We preserve our yams in buildings close to our houses, so we can easily check them when necessary. We dont have special chemicals for preservation, we preserve the way we learnt from our fathers, Mr John said. According to him, it is passed on from generation to generation. He explained that yam preservation was easy and simple to start. He, however, added that if one had tubers to keep or sell, the person could rent the yam house from anyone who did not have yams to preserve or sell at that time. Which is also another source of income for the yam house owner. (NAN) Nollywood starlet, Rebecca Akinsulire, has been starring in notable Nigerian movies since 2013 with the hope of becoming a household name. But, the actress, who is an albino, says breaking into Nollywoods big-league is tougher than she imagined. PREMIUM TIMES interviewed the talented actress at a recent event organised to commemorate The International Albinism Awareness Day observed annually on June 13. She spoke about her career and why it is difficult to break into Nollywoods big league as an albino. PT: What was your childhood like? Rebecca: Its been God and the help of my parents and my godfather. I joined Nollywood in 2013 with the help of my godfather, Babajide Ogungbade. He is late now. PT: How did you start the journey into acting? Rebecca: I went to PEFTI Film Institute which is owned by Wale Adenuga. My godfather sponsored me through that. From there, I started my career in 2013. The journey has not been easy because of my skin colour and everything. It is not easy for me and its just God. PT: Why did you decide to go into acting? Rebecca: From my childhood, I have been into drama even in the church. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer, but I said no. I love acting. I had to beg my godfather to talk to my dad. I didnt want to study Law; so I opted for acting and here we are today. PT: What was your first time on a movie set like? Rebecca: Well, my first time on a movie set, the movie was titled Silent. I played the role of a wedding guest. It was not easy being in front of a camera. PT: Did you encounter any discrimination while on set? Rebecca: On the set of Silent movie, some other actresses were asking if I would be able to see the camera. They asked the director if I could see clearly and if I could interpret the role? With God on my side, I was able to pull through. But, I really felt bad. Another challenge was the make-up artist. She said in Yoruba Will this one be able to use make-up? What make-up will I do for this one? There are so many challenges but I am used to these challenges. PT: Did they eventually apply the make-up? Rebecca: Then I was pissed so I just told the makeup artist to go away and that I dont need any make-up again. She didnt know that I understood Yoruba, so I just asked her to go away. My boss was like, Rebecca what happened and I said nothing, Im fine. PT: How did you get the role? Rebecca: After I finished my course at PEFTI, I joined Iyabo Ojos drama group. I attended weekly rehearsals and there we were told what to do given information about movie locations, costumes, props, and sets. PT: What are some of your memorable movie roles? Rebecca: It depends, but for now, I have three big movies like Silent, Somolu babes, and Shoprite. ADVERTISEMENT PT: How come you havent featured in several other movies? Rebecca: Well, another thing is my school. So right now Im juggling school and my acting career. I currently attend Lagos State Polytechnic where I am studying Mass Communication. It has not been easy for me, for now. PT: Whats your aspiration? Rebecca: I want to take this far. I want to be a great person in the industry. As an up and coming actress, I want to be a star and a great person. I want to be someones role model. PT: Who are your role models in the film industry? Rebecca: Odunlade Adekola, Funke Akintunde-Bello and Iya Rainbow. PT: What advice can you give to other persons with albinism who intend to go into the Nigerian film industry? Rebecca: Be patient, be jovial. If you are jovial, you will conquer everything. The widely publicised June 12 protest failed to hold in most of Nigerias 19 northern states on Saturday. Plateau State, along with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, in North-central Nigeria, appeared to be the only state in the whole of the northern region where the June 12 protest was recorded. No protest took place in the other states of the North-central, North-east, and North-west, on Saturday. Instead of protests, official ceremonies and political rallies organised by some governors to commemorate the June 12 Democracy Day took the centre stage in Kano State, with citizens in most of the states in the northern region going about their routine business. In some other parts of the country, particularly the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and the states in the South-west, many demonstrators trooped to the streets defying harassment by security forces in protest against bad governance, other forms of maladministration and the increasingly worrisome state of insecurity under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government. Both the mainstream June 12 protesters and pro-Buhari protesters, some of whom said to PREMIM TIMES that they came out on the promise to be paid, held separate rallies in Abuja on Saturday. Kano In Kano, PREMIUM TIMES observed how residents were going about their routine businesses of the day, shunning the weeks-long call by activists and civic groups to join what was designed to be a nationwide Democracy Day protest in their localities on Saturday. While Abuja and Lagos streets were buzzing with protests on Saturday, in Kano, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was receiving defectors into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led by former governorship candidates of the People Redemption Party (PRP) and Green Party of Nigeria (GNP), Salihu Sagir, and Abdulsalam Zaura, respectively. Mr Ganduje hosted the event at Kano Pillars Stadium in Sabon-Gari in Kano metropolis. The event was attended by hundreds of APC leaders and loyalists, including the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, Hamisu Chidari, among other dignitaries. Kaduna In Kaduna, the Kaduna State capital, another key northern city, major streets were deserted with only few traders conducting their routine businesses, probably due to the heavy rain that fell on Saturday. There were no protests, and people went about their normal business as much as they could under the rainy condition. Some residents who spoke to our reporter at the popular NDA Bus Stop said they could not take part in the protest because they had other important things to do and not the unproductive protest organised by Nigerians. This protest is funny, we dont buy it. We rather channel our energy toward doing something good. This is a staged protest. They have an agenda just like EndSARS. We cant buy into it. If 2023 comes Buhari will pack his things and go back to Daura (Katsina State). And we will have another leader, said Salim Haruna, a car dealer, added. Marjanatu Sani, who also spoke to PREMIUM TIMES, saw the protest as an agenda of the people in the southern states of the country. We are suffering double of insecurity in the North than in the South, but the southern people are acting as if it is affecting just them, the Kaduna resident said, adding, We the northerners are on the Presidents side. Mr Sani expressed concerns about the countrys state of insecurity which fueled the calls for the protest in the South, but maintained it did not warrant a protest against the Buhari government. They will say Buhari is empowering Fulani to kill them, but before they kill one southerner, they would have killed hundreds of northerners. Let him just finish and go we are praying that these many problems we are witnessing will come to an end one day, he said. ADVERTISEMENT Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi , Jigawa PREMIUM TIMES also observed that residents went about their routines with no protest holding in Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi States on Saturday. The Assistant Inspector-General of Police Zone 10 whose mandate covers Zamfara, Sokoto and Zamfara, Ali Janga, in a statement, said the police had deployed all legal means to protect lives and property of citizens, before, during and after the June 12 Democracy Day celebrations. The police chief also advised religious leaders, traditional rulers and all social organisations to monitor the activities of their wards and members to ensure peaceful celebrations and dissuade them from activities that could lead to mayhem in their communities. The police chief acknowledged that the country was in turmoil as a result of the various reactions, agitations and criminal activities going on in different places, assuring that all security mechanisms had been put in place to ensure that the relative peace being enjoyed in his zone was not jeopardised. He said movement was not going to be restricted, adding that all law-abiding citizens are free to move about peacefully in carrying out their legitimate transactions and (means of) livelihood. In Jigawa State, Governor Muhammad Badaru used the June 12 event to roll out his achievements which he said included the creation of thousands of jobs through the value chain for youth that are not directly involved in cluster farming. President Muhammadu Buharis often repeated promise to fight corruption with zero tolerance has remained largely unmet, a think tank has reported, saying the presidents failure fuels Nigerias worsening insecurity and undermines democratic promises. The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) slammed Mr Buhari for not doing enough to combat the endemic corruption in the public service, despite having gained power on the back of the promise to fight the ill, that is largely responsible for Nigerias rarely improving development crises. As the candidate who rode into office in 2015 on a wave of popular anger with entrenched elite corruption, he has made little effort to reform Nigerias patronage-fueled, scandal-prone public sector or hold his top officials accountable for their business-as-usual approach, CDD said in its report, titled, Buharis Anti-Corruption Record at Six Years: An Assessment. With the 2023 election season already ramping up, and Buharis hands-off governing style largely unchanged, his governments anti-corruption track record is set to go down in history as one characterised by missed opportunities and, in some respects, outright hypocrisy. His 2016 promise to demonstrate zero tolerance for corrupt practices remains largely unmet. Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, did not respond to calls placed to have him comment on this report, nor did the anti-corruption aide, Abiodun Aikomo. But Mr Buhari himself in his Arise TV interview aired on Thursday said he would ease out any official found to be corrupt with correct intelligence. CDD said, however, its criticism does not mean the Buhari administration has done nothing in the area of anti-corruption. It then gave an outline, including improved financial centralisation, referring to TSA and IPPIS; and higher conviction rates by anti-corruption agencies. The civic group also praised the president for appointing as a substantive EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, whom it described as a dynamic and experienced investigator. Notwithstanding, CDD said it noted several significant shortcomings, including the presidents willingness to appoint individuals of questionable integrity to key positions; his tendency to shield political allies from investigation and prosecution; his disinterest in how the ruling party funds its election campaigns; his failure to make key petroleum sector reforms; and his corruption-prone economic and fiscal policies. Many of these challenges remain largely unaddressed, CDD said. Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and Corruption In the name of controlling the spread of COVID-19 and cushioning the effects of the restrictions, CDD said the Buhari administration opaquely awarded contracts worth N450 million or $1 million to briefcase firms not registered with the Bureau of Public Procurement. It said the emergency spending was disbursed to politically-connected contractors and channeled through existing corrupt structures. Meanwhile, some government agencies used the pandemic as a pretext to spend lavishly on themselves The Niger Delta Development Commission, for example, disbursed 1.5 billion ($4.2 million) in large cash payments to its own staff members in the name of COVID relief. When questioned by legislators, the Commissions managing director tried to justify the payments, saying: we used it to take care of ourselveswe need to take care of ourselves, the think tank said. Corruption and insecurity Since Mr Buhari came to power in 2015, insecurity has intensified and spread, affecting virtually all parts of the country. In the north, apart from the Boko Haram in the North-east, armed bandits and terrorists alike are crumbling communities and mass-abducting students at schools in the North-west and North-central zones. In the South, herders violence has intensified and armed militias of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra are operating, with attacks on INEC and security facilities and personnel and innocent citizens. The separatists were initially unarmed and Nigerian forces under Mr Buhari extra-judicially killed scores of them betwe en 2015 and 2016, a PREMIUM TIMES Global Shinning Light Award investigation found. Hollowed out by strategic- and operational-level corruption, Nigerias military and police appear incapable of safeguarding many parts of the country, CDD said, drawing a link between the problem of corruption and insecurity, The normalisation of security sector corruption means that military and police leaders failures offer them new opportunities to racketeer and profiteer, as well as embezzle from increased emergency security spending. It added: For Nigerias top brass, peace is much less lucrative than perpetual low-intensity conflict. Yet President Buhari has done little to change their calculus, hold them accountable or exert strong oversight over their activities. Under President Buhari, security sector corruption has become both a cause and a consequence of rising insecurity across the country. Defence procurement remains as opaque and graft-prone as it did under his predecessor and largely exempt from due process rules designed to prevent corruption. ADVERTISEMENT Democratic Backsliding Fuels Corruption Under Mr Buhari, the civic space has continued to shrink, CDD said, mentioning violent crackdown on protests and moves to impose tighter regulations on legitimate civil society groups while at the same time bankrolling hundreds of fake NGOs. 90% of Nigerias 360-plus progovernment NGOs have started operating since President Buhari took office, a correlation that suggests many enjoy high-level political support, CDD claimed. At the same time, ruling party legislators have, in recent years, introduced two bills aimed at regulating NGOs through the creation of a new government agency. If they succeed, the Buhari government may be inclined to use such an agency to target civil society voices that criticise its governance, human rights and corruption record. The think tank expressed pessimism that the president would have the time or political capital to push through sustainable anti-corruption reforms, and called on other stakeholders to fill the gap. Integrity-conscious National Assembly members could, for example, introduce legislation outlawing security votes at the federal, state and local levels. Such a ban should be accompanied by transparent and comprehensive budgeting procedures and criteria for security expenditures that meet international best practices and incorporate robust oversight mechanisms, CDD recommended. It also called on Nigerias international partners to prioritise anti-corruption in their engagements and assistance toward the African nation. One night in 2014, Victoria Alkalis husband was killed and their house set on fire following a clash between herders and farmers in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, North-central Nigeria. The widow and her four children immediately took shelter with a group of women who were also survivors of the crisis. Mrs Alkalis guinea corn farm was her familys only asset but frequent cattle grazing on the farm meant she struggled to provide food for the children, and could barely pay their school fees. Unknown to her, an even bigger challenge was looming the effect of climate change on farming communities in her area was becoming more rampant. In May 2020, with the onset of rain, Mrs Alkali planted guinea corn, hoping to harvest before the herders arrived. But the rains stopped in August instead of November in what was becoming a norm, a deviation from the past. The poor harvest forced her to stop the construction of the new house she had started. To improve the yields, she started using poultry droppings as fertiliser. She had bought 10 bags of the droppings from a neighbouring community at N5,000 per bag. To her delight, it increased the yields from 10 to 15 bags of guinea corn. Research has shown that cow dung and chicken droppings can improve the soil structure to hold more nutrients and water and therefore become more fertile. Smallholder women farmers in Nasarawa State like Mrs Alkali are using such means to protect their farms from the effect of desertification. In 2017, Murna Bitrus, a maize farmer in Toto Local Government Area of the state, had also suffered declined yields from her farm due to the shortage of rainfall. Unfortunately, this was at a time a section of her house collapsed and frequent herders invasion stopped her from working her five-hectare farm located an hour from her home. She eventually found two hectares close to the local government area which she rented at N230,000 per annum. Cow dung fertiliser Being her only source of revenue, Mrs Bitrus sought several means to increase the farms yields. Later in the year, one of her friends residing in Oyo State in South-west Nigeria introduced her to the dung of a species of cow for use on her newly secured land. The friend connected her to an abattoir in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, and they arranged frequent transportation of cow dung across over 600 kilometres to Nasarawa in the North-central region of the country. She paid about N27,000 for a 50-kilogramme bag of cow dung and used two bags on the farm every month. Before she adopted cow dung as fertiliser, since the reduction in rainfall, she harvested about 30 bags of maize. But in 2020, her harvest was 85 bags, almost triple her old yield from the same farm. However, she lamented spending so much on the cow dung, citing it as the reason she could not renovate the collapsed section of her house, as she strove to keep up with other rising expenses in the house. Cow dung increased my farm output but the cost of the dung strained my finances. For example in 2020, I didnt make any profit. I put all the proceeds back into the business, she said. Irrigation In Awe Local Government Area, many farmers channel water from a dam in the area to irrigate their farms, particularly during the dry season and sometimes to supplement reduced rainfall. ADVERTISEMENT For instance, Sarah Albert, a rice farmer in Awe considered going into irrigation in 2019 after successive failed harvests. She said rainfall usually starts in March and ends in November but in recent years it has been between April and October. She paid up to N20,000 to local transporters for about 35 jerry cans of water every month to irrigate her farm. While this is an alternative means to solve the problem of reduced rainfall that affected the growth of her crops, she realises fewer proceeds using this method than during the rainy season. She harvests about 60 bags of rice when rainfall is adequate but with irrigation, she said she hardly gets 10 bags, causing her revenue to drop from N300,000 to N30,000. Climate Change Nigerian women farmers are adopting ingenious methods to address the effects of climate change, although they lament they may not be not economically sustainable. Female farmers make up 75 per cent of the farming population in Nigeria, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. However, many of them find farming increasingly stressful, frustrating and unrewarding due to the innumerable challenges they face, particularly from the effect of climate change. How Climate change births food scarcity Climate change makes agricultural development in Africa more challenging. Weather patterns in recent times have become less favourable and increase the volatility of crop yields. Climate change has caused rising temperatures, more extreme weather, flooding, changing rainfall patterns etc. According to the State of the Climate in Africa 2019 Report, these changes are threatening human health and safety, food and water security, and socio-economic development in Africa. For instance, the report said that under the worst climate change scenario, there will be a 13 per cent reduction in crop yield in West and Central Africa, 11 per cent in North Africa and eight per cent in East and Southern Africa. It also projected that rice, one of the staple foods in Nigeria and many African countries, will be part of the most affected crops with a yield loss of 12 per cent by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said in drought-prone sub-Saharan African countries, under which Nigeria falls, the number of undernourished people has increased by 45.6 per cent since 2012. Furthermore, in 2019, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs said 34 million people globally experienced food shortage due to extreme levels of climate change. On the economic front, in April 2016, the Department for International Development (DFID) in its studies concluded that climate change will cost Nigeria between six per cent and 30 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product by 2050 worth between $100 billion and $460 billion. In March 2021, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the agency that documents climate and weather data, warned farmers in the North, especially the North-central zone where Nasarawa falls, to avoid planting early with the false onset of rains or they risk losing their seedlings and crops to drought. A climate change expert, Olarenwaju Akintobi, explained that climate change was caused by the industrial age through the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. He said that while some crops depend on the gas to grow, increase in emissions reduces the quality of yields, particularly protein and nitrogen content, and as a result, causes food insecurity and a continuous cycle of poverty. Chiagozie Udeh, 2019 Global Focal point for the youth constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that heat and drought peculiar in the northern region of Nigeria upset crop yield and also increases the prevalence of pests and vectors that affect humans and crops, citing the locust invasion that started in East Africa in 2020. It is a reality that we know in Nigeria. Now, we are already on a direct line to food insecurity in Nigeria if something urgent is not done to really adapt to change in climate, he said. For Seyifunmi Adebote, a Nigerian Youth Representative to United Nations General Assembly and international climate conventions, climate change can manifest in post-harvest losses, adding that stored crops no longer last the usual shelf life due to extreme heat. You can preserve a yam for four months, keeping it perfect, but because of extreme heat that makes the temperature so hot now, in two months, it begins to rotten because it is so hot. He said flooding, another effect of climate change, prevents easy transportation of farm produce to the markets. Local women farmers groan Interviews with seven smallholder women farmers across five local government areas in Nasarawa State showed that their experiences with climate change and herdsmen invasion are similar. Although at the time of the visit, farmers were not on their farms because it was the dry season. Sarah Shambuwa recalled that farming used to be a lucrative business for her as proceeds from the farm paid her university fees up until 2012 when she graduated. With no white-collar job in sight, she continued farming and got married. After relocating to Wamba Local Government Area in Nasarawa State, she cultivated guinea corn, maize, rice, cassava, and groundnut on her farm and the returns helped her in training her five children. Things were good, she recalled, until 2020 when her husband retired from the civil service. His income fell to his N10,000 monthly pension, which was also inconsistent as the last payment was in November 2020. With the new development, coupled with the hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mrs Shambuwa hoped earnings from the farm would support the rising bills. However, 2020 came with an unprecedented change. After she had prepared for another planting season, the rain started in April and ended in August against the usual end of November. Devastated by the drop in output, she visited her farm to harvest what she could get while wondering how she would cover her other expenses for the rest of the year. On getting to the farm, she met her worst nightmare. She saw that almost all her crops were gone after cows grazed on them overnight. Climate experts say that weather changes are some of the baseline causes of the clashes between herders and farmers because desert encroachment reduces the availability and quality of pasture for the animals and the amount of cultivated lands available for farmers. The farmer-herder crisis in northern Nigeria is age-old. An attempt to solve it in Benue State with the enactment of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017 triggered more conflicts in Nasarawa as pastoralists migrated there from Benue and caused a series of clashes. Many local farmers were displaced and many people killed in the calamity. Due to the low yield from the effect of climate change, Mrs Shambuwa harvested less than a bag of rice, two bags of guinea corn, and three bags of maize in 2020, unlike in 2019 when she got four, seven, and four bags of the crops respectively. Even for cassava, we have the problem of herders. I get nothing from cassava. I cannot even go alone to my farm. The herders will either injure or kill you. The government has not helped farmers to solve the herders situation in Wamba, she said. In the midst of her troubles, for the first time, her children were sent home from school over unpaid fees. Trying to solve her financial predicament, she took a teaching job in a primary school and only now goes to her farm in the afternoon. In Obi Local Government Area of the state, farmers experience with desertification and herdsmen attack is worse. Grace Christopher, a groundnut farmer, and her husband had to leave their first home after it was razed in 2017 during a farmer/herder clash. She narrated that in Iposoge, where she lives, residents live in fear as cows continually graze on their farms. This is apart from the drop in her yields in recent times from 15 to 10 bags of groundnut caused by the shortage of rainfall. She said most times, farmers in Obi harvest their crops before they are ripe to aver cattle grazing their farms. Herders are the problem we are facing in our community. During the rainy season, their cows destroy our crops on our farms. If you challenge them, they will follow you to your house or even right there on your farm they will kill you, Mrs Christopher said. These female farmers say they have never considered relocation due to the security challenges because they worry about how to restart their lives in a strange land. In places like Awe and Toto, when such cases arise, the local authorities ask the herders to pay the farmers for their cows feeding on crops. Even though they oblige, they return to the farms, making the farmers more helpless. To alleviate the sufferings, the governor of the state, Abdullahi Sule, deployed security officials to Toto in 2019. But the attacks continued because the security operatives could not cover everywhere. Incomplete data on rainfall pattern from NiMet To verify the claims of reduced rainfall in Nasarawa by the female farmers, PREMIUM TIMES on May 4 requested from NiMet data on rainfall pattern in the North Central region between 2015 and 2020. But the Director of Applied Meteorological Services of NiMet, Yusuf Mailadi, said the agency does not give out data because it is its only source of revenue, but it would release it to the reporter because she was working for public interest. You can get that (data) but it will not tell you much. We will give you the patterns. Can you just write in follow up to this letter, can I have an interview with the DG. On May 26, an official of the agencys legal department, Nwogo Udeozo, sent infographics of the data but not the raw data of rainfall pattern requested, in breach of Section 1 (1) of the FOI Act 2011 under which the request was made. Mr Udeozo said: You are not in meteorology, you cant handle raw data and we dont give raw data free of charge. It is that processed data you should be given. We dont give that to outsiders. Those are data we store in our archives. My advice is for you is to see the Director Applied Metrological Services so they can interpret the processed data for you. The letter requesting an interview with the Director-General of NiMet was not replied to. However, PREMIUM TIMES data desk interpreted the processed data and it showed changing rainfall patterns over the years. Between 2015 and 2020, rainfall peaked at about 700mm in August 2017. This is followed by the same month of 2019 with about 600mm. The lowest amount of rainfall was recorded in November and December 2020 as well as April 2018. On average, overall, rainfall was relatively lowest in 2015. Relatively, too, 2017 had the highest rainfall. In all the years, there was a consistent increased pattern of rainfall from May to September before they fall in October and continue to dip till the end of the year, Yusuf Akinpelu, Head of Data Desk explained. Alleged Diversion of governments allocation to farmers The female farmers in the state accused local government officials of diverting agriculture supplements meant for them. For instance, in Wamba, Mrs Shambuwal confirmed bags of fertiliser are sent to the local government for distribution. However, she alleged that most were given to big men who sell them at an expensive price to local farmers who ought to be the beneficiaries. Even when they send fertilizer, they sell it to those that have money but we poor farmers, we go and buy at a higher amount in the market, she said. They give maybe a bag or five bags of fertiliser to the ward but if you look at the number of people in that ward, if they share it, it is only one kilogramme a person will get and if you have a big farm, it wont be enough, she said. Mrs Bitrus also attested to similar happening in Toto saying, When the government brings fertiliser, they will say they are sharing it from ward to ward but before you know it, the fertilizer have been given to politicians who will sell it to us at a higher price. This year, we bought fertiliser at N13,000 per bag, and the governments price is between N5,000 and N6,000. We complained severally at a series of workshops but it has not yielded any result. Call for more government intervention The farmers want access to loans, increased security on their farms, adequate provision of fertiliser and improved seeds and herbicides. They also urged the government to tackle diversion of farm supplements meant for them, provide gender-friendly mechanized equipment, and establish irrigation system for them to farm during the dry season. How Nasarawa govt is responding to climate change crisis, herdsmen invasion On its efforts to reduce the impact of climate change on farmers, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Water Resources, Otaki Alanana, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said the state government engages NiMET to get information on weather changes and they pass same to farmers for preparation. Also, he said the state government flagged off a dry season programme where it provides supplements and inputs to farmers alongside encouraging those living close to river banks or own boreholes to make use of irrigation system. We are partnering with NiMet in Abuja. Before a cropping season, we have a conference on what to expect in the rainy season, areas that are susceptible or at risk. When we get this information, we pass it to the farmers in the rural areas. This is the best we can do to make sure we have a better season. We encourage our farmers who are living by the river bank to go into irrigation. For places that dont have this opportunity but they have borehole, we encourage them to irrigate their farm using their borehole. Climate change definitely is a reality we have come to live with. The chairman of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Ibrahim Akwe, told PREMIUM TIMES that the parliament will collaborate with the executive to make more materials available for farmers during dry season. The last time they launched the dry season fertiliser, they also gave some pumping machines that will supply water for irrigation. We will bring out laws and collaborate with the state government in order to ensure these materials are made available for the farmers to be involved in dry season farming. With respect to insecurity, the commissioner said the state government is on top of it. He said it holds security meetings and ensures operatives are deployed when a disturbing signal is received to restore normalcy through collaborative efforts with the farmers and security agents. To surmount (insecurity) is not a days job. We are praying to God everything will be brought to normalcy, he added. The lawmaker said they were also proposing bills to regulate the activities of farmers and herders and to control the movement of livestock within the state. Mr Alanana said he was unaware of the diversion of fertiliser, but promised to investigate and deal with the perpetrators. Where people will collect and go and sell it (fertiliser), I am not aware. When His Excellency flagged off the distribution of fertiliser, he sounded a tough warning into everyones ears that no one should sell the fertiliser at a higher rate. But I want to assure you that if anybody is caught, he will definitely be brought to book, he said. Responding to this, Mr Akwe said his committee would start monitoring areas where the fertiliser have been distributed to ensure people do not shortchange the government and the input reach the real beneficiaries. He also said the state lawmakers would encourage more female participation in agriculture. With this discussion, we have to start up writing something that will enable our women full participation in agriculture because of their creativity which will help in terms of the food insecurity we are facing in the country, the lawmaker said. Way forward for climate change, insecurity To mitigate the effect of the climate crisis, Mr Akintobi, who is also a farmer, advised other farmers to form farm estates, which he likened to a cooperative, to pool funds to get irrigation services on their farms. He further proposed that farmers make efforts to get information around weather patterns and in places affected by flooding, farmers should plant on ridges instead of plain land. They themselves need to understand that there is something that is called climate change. They need to understand the challenges and how to overcome them. Mr Adebote urged farmers to explore value chains such that harvested crops can be reproduced in other forms so they can benefit from the main crop while protecting it and its variants. Cocoa for instance, has over 20 derivatives. Farmers who have these products in Africa, if they can come together to say they do not want to sell the cocoa in the pods but process it and add to the value chain and then sell it. That way, the crops will not get spoilt with the high temperature and they can sell at better prices and make more gain, he explained. Olumide Idowu, Chief Executive Officer of International Climate Change Development Initiative, tasked the government to provide capacity building for small income farmers to support their production and access to finance. Mr Idowu urged them to look into farm prices, invest in transportation of crops from farm to market and create friendly policies for farmers that want to export their products. The bigger farmers should be able to partner with the small scale farmers so that they will be able to produce more and get more food to the market, he added. To tackle herders invasion on farms, Mr Udeh endorsed cattle ranching, although he indicated that it causes deforestation. Studies have shown that cattle ranching across the world release approximately 340 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere and that will give you around 3.4 per cent of global greenhouse decimation. That does not mean you will not graze cattle so you need to find a sustainable way. Know where you are sourcing your cattle feed from. In growing the grasses, you are making sure, you are not depleting the biodiversity of the area. There has to be a sustainable way where the forest and the cattle feed must coexist but not be done recklessly. He also called on the government to re-green the northern part of Nigeria to limit the movement of cows on farmlands. This Report was made possible with support from the International Budget Partnership (IBP) President Muhammadu Buhari rarely grants media interviews but when he does, he makes the headlines for several reasons including gaffes. His interview with Arise Television, aired on Thursday, was not an exception. Despite the ban on Twitter activities in Nigeria, Mr Buhari trended on the microblogging platform for several hours after the interview was aired across major televisions, indicating that it was one of the most discussed topics of the day. The over 40 minutes interview, which, arguably offered more insights than the barrage of statements from his spokespersons, was an appraisal of his six years in office, touching on his successes as well as areas of deficiencies, particularly security and economy. However, Mr Buharis answers to the questions posed by the four interviewees followed a pattern set in an interview he granted two years ago to the same medium, PREMIUM TIMES analysis showed. This leaves anyone who watched the 2019 interview and the recent one wondering if Mr Buhari is just being consistent with his ideas or rigid to embrace fresh ideas. Same analogies, same data In the build up to the 2019 election, the president, who was seeking a second term, spoke with the Arise TV crew for 90 minutes. The majority of the questions centred on security and his agriculture-related projects. But most of the responses, including the analogies he provided, were repeated in the Thursday interview. For instance, he blamed the PDPs 16-year-rule for the decadence of the infrastructure when asked about what his government has done differently in 2019. This he reprised in the recent one. You know after 16 years of PDP, with the resources I have just mentioned. There have been enormous resources at their disposal. And they will use everything at their disposal to discredit the administration. Once people are making trouble for us, I sit down and wonder what have they been doing for 16 years. Did you know that the condition of the road from here to Onitsha, from here to Port Harcourt, to mention a few, have been there since Abacha time?, he said in 2019. Look at the state of infrastructure. Look at our roads. Look at the rail. Look at power. And tell me which country develops without infrastructure, he said, blaming the opposition party for the decay in infrastructure on Thursday. Also, he cited the same erroneous figures which have been fact checked to be false by Dubawa, Nigerias foremost fact-checking organisation, in 2018. This country was getting 2.1 million barrels per day and getting it out of the Nigerian territory. With a cost of, average 100 American dollars per barrel. It went up to 143 but when we came it collapsed , he said in 2019. I would like you to check how much we are earning from 1999 to 2014. From 1999 to 2014, our production (if you check you will find out that) every production was 2.1 million barrels per day. At the cost of 100 American dollars per barrel. So, from 1999 to 2014, we were earning 2.1 million times 100 dollar per day, he told the Arise Television crew on Thursday. The presidents claim that crude oil was selling for $100 per barrel between 1999 and 2014 is false as available data showed that the figure is an average of $61.7 per barrel, Dubawa concluded. On insecurity, particularly the bloodshed in Benue State, President Buharis perception of the herders-farmers clash has not been any way different from his views in 2019. He does not believe that the indigenous herders can kill, maintaining his stance that the killer-cattle rearers are from Niger Republic and Central Africa Republic in both parleys. His grouse with the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, was not also masked in both discussions. ADVERTISEMENT The Benue people know and I talk to the Benue Governor, the Nigerian cattle herder used to carry sticks and machetes to cut foliage and give it to the animals. But these ones have Ak-47, the president said in 2019. The governor of Benue said I cannot discipline the cattle rearers because I am one of them. I cannot deny that I am one of them, Mr Buhari said in the interview with Arise TV on Thursday morning. Fulanis from Mauritania or from Central Africa look the same. So, they think that they are the Nigerian ones, he added. PREMIUM TIMES also observed that the presidents solution to the herders farmers clash has always been rooted in the approach of the First Republic that provided for grazing routes and reserves. This was in the First Republic, they put houses there, windmills, even veterinary departments and any cattle rearer that allows his cattle to stray into the farm is arrested. Then the farmer will bring it, he said in the 2019 interview. I have asked to dig up gazettes of the First Republic. There are cattle routes and grazing areas. You have to stay there and if you allow your cattle to stray into another persons farm you will be arrested. Mr Buhari said in the interview aired on Thursday morning. This, however, did not consider the clamour of southern state governors for the ban on open grazing. They had opined that open-grazing is primitive and outdated. Kirikiri experience When asked about his perceived skewed fight against corruption, Mr Buhari, as seen in the two clips, is always quick to recall how he was detained during the military era for fighting corruption. He complains that fighting corrupton in a democratic setting is a herculean task. When I came to the military. I took them to Kirikiri. I told them they are guilty until they could prove themselves innocent. I too was arrested and detained and those who stole were given their money. Now Im trying to come back to the system and you are calling me Baba go slow, he said in 2019. When I collected people and put them in Kirikiri (prison) and said they are guilty until they can prove themselves innocent But what happened? Eventually, I myself was arrested. Detained. And they were given back what they had looted, the president stated as the reason for his slow fight against corruption. Mr Buhari was referring to the military era when he invoked the Decree Number 2 of 1984 to jail about 500 politicians, officials and businessmen for corruption. According to Decree Number 2, the state security and the Chief of Staff, Supreme Military Council, were given the power to detain, without charges, individuals deemed to be a security risk to the state for up to three months. This was against the provisions of the constitution and international practices that stipulate that an accused is presumed guilty until proven in court. The former military ruler was later arrested and detained in prison after his Chief of Army Staff Ibrahim Babangida ousted him in 1985. I assure you Unlike the 2019 interview, President Buharis use of the phrase I assure you, reduced. It is however unclear if the repetition of the phrase is of mannerism or emphasis. The phrase was repeated 10 times in the 2019 interview but five and with less frequency in the recent one. In the five times the president gave his words of assurance in the Thursday interview, two were on matters pertaining to insecurity, two on his resolve to fight corruption and one on the need for better infrastructure. But I assure you, in spite of the problems we are having with the system, whoever we have correct intelligence that hes not accountable, we ease him out, he said on his fight against corruption. And I believe that if you make the infrastructure work, road, rail, I assure you that Nigerians will keep themselves very busy and leave you alone, he stated at different intervals in the recent interview. Meanwhile, the opposition parties have derided the presidents performance in the interview, especially his blame of PDPs 16 years in power. While many have acknowledged Mr Buharis infrastructural strides in the last six years, the PDP insisted that the current administration has underperformed in numerous ways compared to the previous administrations and he failed to admit those failures. We want to inform President Buhari, since he is not always aware, that successive governments elected on the platform of the PDP built on these development plans leading to the expansion of major trunk roads across our country, railways and other legacy projects which, probably, his handlers are making him to believe are his, the publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbodiyan, said. On the other hand, the African Action Congress (AAC) said it is embarrassing that the president chooses when and how convenient to speak. Another shock is how, instead of reeling out his achievements over the last 6 years, the President sounded like an opposition leader. But for a closer look and the distinction of voice, one would have thought it was a member of the civil society or the NLC being interviewed. The President in his usual style blamed everyone but himself. May we remind the president that the youths he blamed for insecurity that has reached the highest crescendo, are not the ones who are constitutionally in charge of the Military and the Police. Talking about infrastructure, may we also remind the President that the youths are not the ones who took loans to the tune of trillions of naira with the promise that infrastructure would be fixed. The statements of the President confirmed the suspicion in many quarters that he is not conscious of the happenings in his immediate environment and his administration, except what he is told, the AAC publicity secretary, Femi Adeyeye, stated. Presidential spokespersons, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, did not respond to calls and texts sent to their phones seeking their comments for this report. ADVERTISEMENT The founder of Citadel Global Community Church (formerly Latter Rain Assembly), Tunde Bakare, Saturday said Nigeria must lay hold of the tripartite strategies of reconciliation, reconstitution, and reconstruction in order to reverse the trend of state failure. Mr Bakare made the disclosure at a Democracy Day virtual dialogue titled Rethinking the Nigerian State, put together by a group of Nigerians resident in Canada in commemoration of the countrys 22nd year of return to democracy. Nigerias frameworks, Mr Bakare said, came under severe onslaught by reason of exposure to the twin forces of a corrupt political class and impulsive military, culminating in the Unification Decree of May 1966 abolishing Nigerias federal structure. The Nigerian state tottered through six decades of instability, survived a civil war, and embarked on a series of failed democratic experiments and military interregna, the clergyman said. Upon the return to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the frameworks of state, including the democratic culture, the federal structure, and the institutions of public service delivery, had degenerated. Mr Bakare recommended the 1963 Republican Constitution as a model for the nation to pursue the ideals of egalitarianism, unity, truth, and justice with an emphasis on its recognition of devolution of power. The 1999 Constitution, crafted in an attempt to reconstitute these frameworks, was marred by numerous aberrations, including a false premise of We the people, an array of ambiguities, and a cocktail of inconsistencies. Mr Bakare noted that President Muhammadu Buharis gesture of honouring M.K.O Abiola and Gani Fawehinmi in 2018 is an affirmation of an effort at redressing a sore aspect of our past. The online conference had Akin Fadeyi, convener of the Corruption not in My Country Project, and Joseph Osuji , a professor at the Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada, among its participants. ADVERTISEMENT The management of Bayero University (BUK), Kano, has announced the death of Moshood Kamaluddeen, a 200-level student in the Department of Accounting. A statement by the universitys spokesperson, Lamara Garba, said Mr Kamaluddeen died on Saturday at the National Orthopedic Hospital, Dala in Kano following injuries he sustained from a road traffic accident. Another 400-level student in the Department of Political Science, Mercy Sunday, had also died of fever and vomiting in the Ramat Hall female students hostel on Tuesday morning. The statement recalled that Mr Moshood was hit by a fast-moving vehicle outside the university on Tuesday, June 8 at about 10 p.m. Upon receiving the report of the accident, the Vice Chancellor instantly directed the Dean of the Students Affairs to visit the scene and take all necessary actions. The driver of the vehicle was apprehended while the victim was rushed to the hospital under the supervision of the University Director Health Services for prompt medical attention as he sustained multiple fractures. While at the hospital, preliminary investigations revealed that Kamaluddeen had a severe crush leg injury and needed to have his leg amputated to save him. However, the doctors who observed his condition advised that in view of his unstable condition, it may not be possible to conduct such a major operation. It was in the process of stabilising his health that he gave up the ghost, the statement said. While commiserating with the family of the deceased and the entire members of the university community, the Management, however, warned against any plan by students or group of persons to engage in any act that could jeopardise the peace being enjoyed on campus in whatever form. The statement said the university will not condone any act capable of disrupting the peace on campuses, adding that any student caught doing so would be decisively dealt with. BUK asks ministry of works to erect pedestrian bridge The university management said it has requested the Federal Ministry of Works to construct a pedestrian bridge near the main gate of the new campus. In the meantime, it should also be noted that in its determined effort to ensure the safety of students and other stakeholders of the University, the Management had, early this year (2021) made a submission to the Federal Ministry of Works on the urgent need to construct a pedestrian bridge near the main gate of the New Campus for use by students in crossing over the trunk A highway that passes by the side of the university. Already, the Ministry had obliged to the request of constructing the bridge and arrangement has gone far in that regard, the statement said. ADVERTISEMENT The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Bauchi State, on Sunday, said six people lost their lives in a fatal motor accident in Gumero village of Ganjuwa Local Government Area of the state. FRSC Sector Commander, Yusuf Abdullahi, who confirmed the accident, said that 10 others were seriously injured in the crash, involving a Peugeot 406 car and a Toyota Hiace bus. According to him, the accident occurred on Saturday around 4:05 p.m. He said the car with registration number KNT503JF, collided with a bus belonging to the Zamfara State Ministry of Justice, killing six of the passengers on the spot. The FRSC commander blamed the accident on alleged speeding and wrongful overtaking. Mr Abdullahi said the deceased included four males, one female and a male child, adding that one male, six females, two boys and a female child sustained injuries in the accident. He said that the injured and the corpses were referred to the Kafin Madaki and Ningi General Hospitals for confirmation and treatment. The crash happened between a Peugeot car and a Toyota Hiace bus in Gumero village, some 15 kilometers from Kafin Madaki, headquarters of Ganjuwa Local Government Area of the state. Our men swiftly responded to the scene of the crash and they were able to rush both the survivors and the deceased to Kafin Madaki and Ningi General Hospitals respectively for confirmation and treatment, and also cleared up the crash scene, he said. While calling on road users to obey traffic rules, Mr Abdullahi said the corps would not relent in its efforts to sensitise the motorists on the dangers of neglecting traffic rules and regulations. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that two persons were also killed while two others sustained injuries in an auto crash that occurred on June 4 at Zangoro village along Bauchi Maiduguri road. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT A son of a former Nigerian Head of State, Murtala Muhammad, Abba Risqua, on Saturday, joined the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) at an occasion to mark the Democracy Day in Kano. Mr Risqua joined the ruling party alongside former governorship candidates of the People Redemption Party (PRP) and Green Party of Nigeria (GNP), Salisu Sagir and Andulsalam Zaura, respectively. Mr Risqua, who was the running mate of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 election, had announced his withdrawal from politics in December 2017 to enable him concentrate on his businesses. Most of the resources I used the last time I came to Kano were from my private pocket; and when I went back to my business, it was on the verge of crumbling, Punch Newspaper qouted Mr Risqua saying back then. The defection ceremony , which took place at Kano Pillars Stadium, Sabon-Gari, was hosted by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje. Other defectors include a former federal lawmaker, Aliyu Datti, who represented Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency. Some of the defectors were followers of former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso who is in the PDP. Mr Ganduje and the acting APC national chairperson, Mai Mala Buni, represented by Farouk Aliyu, received the defectors. ADVERTISEMENT After months of speculation, Dangote urea fertiliser is now finally on sale nationwide and it currently pushes out a minimum of 120 trucks per day across the country. The Group Executive Director (Strategy, Capital Projects & Portfolio Development), Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, revealed to the press over the weekend that the plant which has the capacity to turn out more than 4,500 tonnes of urea per day will conveniently meet the local demand and even produce for exports. According to him: We have the capacity to turn out 4,500 tonnes of urea everydaythis is a bulk application fertilisereach crop in Nigeria or globally will require Nitrogen and this is a rich fertiliser, having 46 per cent nitrogenThe company has the capacity to meet local demand and also export to African countries Currently, the demand is less than 1 million tonnes and we alone can produce 3 million tonnes, so we can easily meet local demand and also produce for export to other West African countries. Aside fertiliser production, the company, according to Mr Edwin, is already working to support the farmers with training on application of the fertiliser and even establish laboratories across the country for proper soil examination. The uniqueness of this plant, apart from the fact that we are producing is the focus on farmers support, on training, education, development as we are now establishing laboratories across the country and even mobile laboratories where we can go drive around and take soil samples for proper examination to effectively grow the agricultural outputs across the country. The urea fertiliser plant was built to tap into Nigerias demand for fertiliser, a critical component of achieving food sufficiency for Africas most populous country. The fertiliser plant is expected to manufacture 3 million metric tonnes of urea per annum, with a view to reducing the nations fertiliser imports, and generating $400 million annual foreign exchange from export to Africa countries. Meanwhile, marketers and farmers in Kano have described the newly introduced Dangote fertiliser as a game changer and a forecast for the expected agricultural revolution in the country. Marketers and farmers who were apparently excited, over the weekend welcomed the more than ten trucks that entered Kano markets at the weekend. Speaking at the event organised by Dan-Hydro company in Kano to mark the introduction of the fertiliser into the northern market, the chairman of the Kano State Agro Dealers Association, Shuaibu Akarami, said agro dealers have confidence in Dangote fertiliser as they have in all his products, adding that as a dealer who spent decades in the business, he has discovered that Dangote fertiliser will have no problem penetrating the market in the North. I have checked the product and have found out that it will have no problem penetrating the market. With my experience in agro products, I can authoritatively say the product has met our expectations and that has confirmed the confidence we have in Dangote fertiliser and other sister products of the Dangote Group, he said. The Dan-Hydro fertilizer company in Kano which took delivery of the first batch of trucks in Kano said the timing and strategy for the introduction are rife. The head of operations at Dan-Hydro, Hamadi Drammeh, said the Dangote fertiliser conforms to all set standard required by the regulatory agencies. He said the phenomenon of perennial shortage of the fertiliser product will be over in the country. He said as part of its public enlightenment plan, the company was going to work with all stakeholders in the agricultural sectors. In the same vein, the Sales Manager of Dan-Hydro, Sulaiman Tanko, assured that the product will be sold at a reasonable price that will enable fair competition in the market. Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and other global anti-graft advocates have called for the creation of an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC). The former EFCC chairman is among the over 100 world figures, including former heads of states and governments, former government and intergovernmental officials, and representatives of civil society, governments, business, and faith, who have signed a declaration for the establishment of the IAAC to tackle high-level corruption in governments. The Integrity Initiative International (III), an international non-governmental organisation fighting grand corruption, which pulled the signatories together from over 40 countries, announced the signing of the declaration on its website visited by PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday. Why IAAC is needed We know that grand corruption the abuse of public office for private gain by a nations leaders (kleptocrats) thrives in many countries and has devastating consequences, the group stated as part of the reasons for its call for the establishment of the IAAC. It added that grand corruption continues to flourish despite the existing laws that are in place to check it, noting that the menace thrives not due to insufficient laws. The 187 countries that are party to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) each have laws criminalizing corrupt conduct. Yet kleptocrats enjoy impunity because they control the administration of justice in the countries that they rule, the group said. The group, which says it is dedicated to promoting human rights, human health, and international peace and security, noted that kleptocrats corruptly enrich themselves from the trillions of dollars being spent to promote global public health and counter climate change. Kleptocrats are robbing their countries of funds needed to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the III said, adding that Grand Corruption undermines democracy as kleptocrats use their power to suppress the media and civil society, and subvert honest elections. It is also of the view that because grand corruption has global consequences and often cannot be combated by the countries most immediately victimised by kleptocrats, a new international institution an International Anti-Corruption Court is necessary and justified. IAAC jurisdiction The group said the IAAC should have jurisdiction to prosecute violations of existing domestic anti-corruption laws, or a new international counterpart of them, by kleptocrats and their collaborators, if the country the kleptocrat rules is unwilling or unable to prosecute a case itself. It said the court should also have the authority to prosecute crimes committed by nationals of Member States, and by nationals of other states who commit crimes in the territory of a Member State. The IACC should be a court of last resort with the capacity to prosecute and imprison kleptocrats, and thus create opportunities for the democratic process to replace them with honest leaders, it said. The group added that the court should have the authority to recover, repatriate, and repurpose illicit assets for the victims of Grand Corruption in civil as well as criminal cases. Signatories Some former heads of state and government who signed the declaration alongside Mr Ribadu are Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister of Sweden; Moncef Marzouki, former President of Tunisia; Rosen Plevneliev, former President of Bulgaria; and Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia and Nobel Laureate. Others include Haris Silajdzic, former Prime Minister and former Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Danilo Turk, former President of Slovenia. Mr Ribadu, the pioneer head of EFCC, Nigerias flagship anti-corruption agency, from 2003 to 2007, falls into the category of the signatories who were former government and intergovernmental organisation officials. He is the only Nigerian on the list of over 100 signatories from 40 countries. Other countries with representatives among the signatories include Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, and North Macedonia. ADVERTISEMENT Others are, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Malta, Mexico, Philippines, Republic of the Congo, Russia, and Zimbabwe. Nigeria and global corruption The issue of public sector graft is commonly associated with developing countries where opaque public institutions that often oversee large and lucrative infrastructure or natural resource projects create conducive conditions to pay out bribes. Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari who has been in office for six years suggested the creation of a special court to fight corruption in an interview on Friday. Special courts are very important especially in the case of corruption, the president said in the interview he granted in an interview with NTA aired on Friday. Nigeria is among developing countries that perform poorly in the yearly Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), an index published annually by Berlin-based Transparency International since 1995 which ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. Nigeria slumped to 149 (out of 180) on Transparency Internationals 2020 CPI, scoring 25 points out of 100. The ranking placed Nigeria as West Africas most corrupt country after Guinea-Bissau. In 2019, Nigeria was ranked 146th, with a total score of 26 (out of 100). In 2018 and 2017, the country maintained a CPI score of 27, ranking 144 and 148 respectively. A total of 180 nations are usually ranked from 0 to 100. While zero indicates the participating country is highly corrupt, 100 signifies the highest level of transparency very clean. ADVERTISEMENT Friday was exactly a week since the Nigerian government suspended the activities of popular microblogging platform, Twitter, in the country. As the suspension got into the second week, the federal government is yet to release conditions for the reversal of the indefinite suspension but claims to be in talks with the social media company. Today marks one week since Twitter was blocked in Nigeria. We have informed the Nigerian government that we are ready to meet for an open discussion to address mutual concerns and see the service restored, Twitters public policy also alluded to the governments stance on Friday. The microblogging platform, which is currently accessible to Nigerians who have bypassed governments restrictions, promised that it will continue to advocate free and open Internet everywhere. Many Nigerians expressed optimism that the government will lift the ban since the president had said it was a temporary one and the organisation, accused of bias, is ready for talks. The duration of these conciliatory efforts and what it will yield remain unknown to observers. Nevertheless, the expectations have not stopped the tongue lashes from free speech advocates and members of the international community who described the move as an attempt to stifle press freedom. They have all continued to trend #KeepTweeting, #KeepitOn and other hash tags in defiance. Nigeria #Twitterban in brief The federal government had accused Twitter of undermining the corporate existence of the country after the social media platform deleting a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari which the social media platform deemed as inciting violence The Twitter ban is believed to be a step towards social media regulation. This also added Nigeria to an infamous list of eight countries that have banned Twitter in recent months and analysts said it is reminiscent of Mr Buharis years as a military dictator who wielded prosecutorial powers without checks. Amid outrage and international pressure, the Nigerian government said the ban was temporary. Although he recently made a U-turn, the Attorney-General Abubakar Malami had threatened that violators of the ban risk prosecution. The international community, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland and Canada berated the ban which they said passes a poor message about Nigeria to investors and businesses. ADVERTISEMENT Buhari has morphed dangerously and can use his obsessive hate for others and malicious Fulani clannishness to set Nigeria on fire. Yoruba always ask that elders should wade in, at a critical moment like this, lest a loony make barbecue of the remains of his deceased mother. The Buhari government is in the autumn of its relevance. Symbolism of the end is all we see leaves are falling and it is haunted by literal death. Was it better that President Muhammadu Buhari remained unapologetically deaf to all entreaties to address Nigerians or open a window into his mind and reveal a cesspit of foul-smelling hate? Peradventure there were still nationalistic remnants among his coterie of admirers, after last Thursdays interview that the president granted Arise TV, they would be at the crossroads. Their dilemma may jolly well be addressed by a famous Maurice Switzer quote, whose authorship had before now been a subject of controversies. Was it authored by Abraham Lincoln or celebrated humourist, Mark Twain? Anyway, Switzer, in a book written in 1907, had said ( which I tinker with for the purpose of this discussion) that, It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought an ethnic bigot (inflection mine), than to talk and remove all doubt of it. If anyone was undecided whether Buhari was at the roots of Nigerias worsening ethnic crises in the last six years or so, that Arise TV interview removed all doubts. It revealed a president whose mind is a fertile breeding ground for viral ethnic divisiveness, an infection that is without any possible hope of redemption. The interview brings an urgent need to conduct a psychoanalysis on the man in the Villa. I did and the result was prim, grim and unsavoury. That perhaps was one good the Arise TV interview did for Nigerians. It ventilated the innermost recess of the mind of one of the most reticent presidents in Nigerian history. With the interview, we were obliged the opportunity to scrutinise the hidden crevices of President Buharis mind. The white apparel he wore was apparently a deliberate ploy to associate purity of mind with him. It attempted to hide the disgusting sewers his inner being harbours. Presently, the maggots began to wriggle out, in the form of huge bile and rank hatred for the Igbo ethnic stock and crass disregard for the myriad other nationalities that make up the geographical expression called Nigeria. The disgust sipped out of every pore of his gangly frame. While the world, in that interview, saw a feeble Muhammadu Buhari, what a deeper scrutiny would reveal is a re-sprouting Milton Obote, a notorious Ugandan despot and a Buhari who sees anyone but Fulani the same way the British saw Mau Mau fighters in colonial Kenya. Obote was a two-time Ugandan leader who led his country to independence from the British in 1962 and served, first as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1966; as President, from 1966 to 1971; and after his Idi Amin ouster in 1979, Obote ruled Uganda again from 1980 to 1985. In 1983, Obote of the Oyima clan of the Northern Ugandan Lango ethnic group, exacerbated ethnic tensions in Uganda and launched a bloodcurdling military expedition called Operation Bonanza, which resulted in the death of approximately 100,000 to 500,000 Ugandans. Asked about separationist agitations in Nigerias South-East, Buhari beamed that cynical smile of his, laced with a hidden serpentine venom and said arrogantly, That IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, theyll have no access to anywhere. And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties. I dont think IPOB knows what they are talking about. In any case, we say well talk to them in the language that they understand. Well organise the Police and the military to pursue them. In the presidents manifestly narrow reading of the South-East geopolitical zone, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) approximates the Igbo nation which owns assets all over Nigeria. This reminds me of the gory narrative of the Kenyan Mau Mau war. The Mau Mau uprising raged from 1952 to 1960. It was waged in the British Kenya colony between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), populated by the Kikuyu, Meru and Empu people of Kenya, against the white European settler overlords. Just like Buhari, to the British, every Kenyan was a Mau Mau who merited being mowed down mercilessly. Headed by a guerilla fighter called Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, the moment Kimathi was captured on October 21, 1956, it was obvious Britain had extinguished the Mau Mau uprising. In that spiteful summation of the Igbo uprising, Buhari was further alienating a people who only needed a sense of belonging and equity in Nigeria. One other slant of Buharis Arise TV interview, which revealed the darkeness enveloping his mind is his obsession with Niger Republic, the Fulani herders grazing routes, and his narrow reading of the serious security concern in the land. These three issues are a continuation of his dogged and relentless defence of his Fulani kin. How else can a president, whose mind is this poisoned with venomous hatred, be told that just as there are criminals among his Fulani stock, so also are there outlaws in Igbo land, who believe that violence opens the trough of peace? The sad thing is that, as Buhari exhibits this crude hatred for Nnamdi Kanu and his Igbo people, his baseless venom grooms a generation of dangerous sympathisers for the IPOB cause, just like the killing of Mohammed Yusuf was the precursor to the subsisting Boko Haram insurgency. In Buharis unguarded ire, the Igbo have come to see his selective criminalisation of the South-East as manifestation and continuation of the First Republic Hausa-Fulani hatred and pogrom against their people. Buhari is, through this hatred, promoting Kanu beyond his relevance. With the benefit of hindsight, President Buharis dot-in-a-circle theory is a product of a lazy mind and a narrow reading of the historical trajectory of secessionism in Nigeria. First, he forgot that a sentence, like a whole, is not complete without a full stop, which is a dot. By that very fact, Nigeria needs his so-called dot-in-a-circle to turn full circle. Again, what he and his commissars hounding the Igbo out of Nigeria should know is that a separatist agenda is lawful and not criminal. Indeed, the United Nations recognises it as a fundamental human right. Overtime, that mantra of Nigerias unity being non-negotiable has been dissected to be void and a refrain only on the lips of suppressors of peoples rights. Northern Nigeria is historically known to be the region that first threatened to secede from Nigeria when the Northern delegation to the 1950 Ibadan Constitutional Conference warned that unless the Northern region is allotted 50 per cent of the seats in the Central Legislature it would ask for separation from the rest of Nigeria on the arrangements existing before 1914. Again in 1966, it attempted to secede from Nigeria through its Operation Araba. It is obvious that, due to the manifold injustice, inequity and oppression of the Buhari government in the last six years, separatist calls have risen to a proportion that is unprecedented in history. At the core of those calls is this administrations equivocation of seeking peace, when it actually dishes a broth of injustice to the other partners in the Nigerian federation. In the South-West today, separatism is gaining traction. If Buhari hounds that dot-in-a-circle South-East out of Nigeria, he will do well to know that this petulance will open similar doors of secession to other ethnic groups that have been reduced to slaving partners in Nigerias pseudo-federalism. This was perhaps the sense in that statement attributed to immortal Obafemi Awolowo when he allegedly said that if Odumegwu Ojukwus Biafra was allowed to secede, the Yoruba would have no other option than to follow suit. One other slant of Buharis Arise TV interview, which revealed the darkeness enveloping his mind is his obsession with Niger Republic, the Fulani herders grazing routes, and his narrow reading of the serious security concern in the land. These three issues are a continuation of his dogged and relentless defence of his Fulani kin. His simplistic explanation of an incineration of billions of naira from Nigerias patrimony into the construction of a rail line from Lagos to Niger Republic is a sickening logic that bears every imprimatur of his Fulani ethnic groups notorious disrespect for international boundaries. How vast can Niger Republics crude oil find be to constitute such a humongous threat to Nigerias economy, such that Nigeria had to now scamper to please this imaginary oil god with such monumental infrastructural project? So, because the presidents Fulani, Kanuri and Hausa cousins reside in Niger, Nigeria must abandon its suffering people to please Niger? If this reasoning is not otiose, I wonder what else is. In the interview, Buhari merely regurgitated Abubakar Malamis lazy thesis of constitutional human rights for cattle. He confirmed that he ordered the AGF to exhume the grazing routes gazette of the 1960s, just to find a legal justification for the rapacious quest of his Fulani kin to turn the whole of Nigeria into their cattle ranch. What I did was ask him to go and dig the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws. There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) are moving up country, north to south or east to west, they had to go through there, he said. Then, he lapsed into the solipsism of a 20th century animal husbandry, where straying cattle herders were arrested and ordered to pay fine by the Khadi (judge). With that kind of reasoning, one shudders to discover that a human being could indeed live in the 21st century and remain anachronistic like a Stone Age provincial overlord! To confirm that the presidents thinking is actually frozen in an Antarctic glacier, as against the norm in a supersonic 21st century, Buhari is still fascinated with that antiquated cattle rearing model he was born into. He does not give a hoot if the whole country become a propitiation to the gods of rampaging Fulani herdsmen. He romanticised his cattle-rearing model thus: People were behaving themselves and in the grazing areas, they built dams, put windmills, in some places there were even veterinary departments so that the herders are limited. Their route is known, their grazing area is known. Unapologetically, like a conquistador bent on acquiring territories and demanding vassals, Buhari magisterially proclaimed that those who encroached on these cattle routes and grazing areas will be dispossessed in law and try to bring some order back into the cattle grazing. The fact that countries like Brazil and Argentina, which have larger herds of cattle, practice modern ranching, which gives them humongous economic and environmental benefits, matter little to our President who proudly declares himself a herdsman in the ilk of his marauding brothers! In the true sense of it, that apology should have come from Buhari as the man who failed woefully to protect the people. Not only didnt he show any remorse, no word of apology came from him to Igangan. It was as if in Buharis mean veins, no blood but cow milk flows. That is why his attempt to shift responsibility above is sadistically lame and laughable. The pertinent question to ask is, what part of the world still retains a leader like Nigerias, whose mind reeks this disgustingly of ethnic ordure? Why is Buhari this stubbornly and illogically obsessed with this antiquated grazing model, in a world that has since left this Acheulian cultural mindset? If Buhari was this much in love with an exhumation of the past, how come he didnt ask that the 1963 constitution be dug up? The other leg of Buharis tripodal assault on logic in that Arise TV interview was how he simplistically dismissed the raging Fulani herders killings that rocks Nigeria. To Governor Samuel Ortom, whose State Fulani herdsmen have turned into a mobile mortuary, he had this doggerel to say: The governor of Benue said I cannot discipline the cattle rearers because I am one of them. I cannot deny that I am one of them. No solution, no apologies. He then went further to tell the story of how two governors of the South-West visited him: Two governors from the South-West came to tell me that the cattle rearers in some of the forests are killing farmers, while their cattle are eating their crops. I told them you campaigned to be elected and you are elected. I told them (to) go back and sort out themselves, he announced, pretending to forget that in the kind of obtuse federalism we practice in Nigeria, governors neither control the Police nor the Army! There were insinuations that he was referring to Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo and Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo States. Last week, Oyo State literally went up in flames, and became drenched in tears. Igangan, a town in the Ibarapa area of the State, was visited by one of the most visceral carnages ever by Fulani herders who had apparently come for a reprisal against their eviction from the land. Properties, including the palace of the towns monarch, were set ablaze by these sons of perdition. When the quake settled, about 15 people lay dead. Governor Makinde, amid weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth of the natives, visited and soberly accepted responsibility for the killings. We failed you, he said, his voice soaked in melancholy. Though the counterfeit federalism practiced by Nigeria has castrated state governors security-wise, reducing them to window-dressing sissies, Makindes acceptance of responsibility was seen as a mark of leadership. In the true sense of it, that apology should have come from Buhari as the man who failed woefully to protect the people. Not only didnt he show any remorse, no word of apology came from him to Igangan. It was as if in Buharis mean veins, no blood but cow milk flows. That is why his attempt to shift responsibility above is sadistically lame and laughable. Igangan people and all victims of herdsmen are no less man than Buharis Fulani killers. They are only hamstrung by the legally blocked access to AK-47, which the killers wield. The AK-47 request made by Makinde is a direct test of statesmanship for Buhari who holds the knife and the yam on the control of violence. If he is not for the aggressor in the fight against terror, he should grant the request of the Oyo State governor then watch if Igangan will ever happen again. Those who accuse the governors of failing to provide security for their people, a tame and puerile route which Buhari also trod by that his hypocritical comment, are not being fair to them. If Makinde, Akeredolu or Ortom, for instance, acceded to the request of arming their people with AK-47, this Fulani presidency will give them the Zamani Lekwot treatment. You remember how that General was almost executed for allegedly arming his people in the Zangon Kataf war? Thank God, elders of the land like Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdusalami Abubakar and others are said to be meeting and will visit Buhari presently. Buhari has morphed dangerously and can use his obsessive hate for others and malicious Fulani clannishness to set Nigeria on fire. Yoruba always ask that elders should wade in, at a critical moment like this, lest a loony make barbecue of the remains of his deceased mother. The Buhari government is in the autumn of its relevance. Symbolism of the end is all we see leaves are falling and it is haunted by literal death. As the Yoruba will also say, the Buhari market is at the edge of its tethers, winding up and leaving only remnants of those who display their wares oja ti tu, o ku pate pate. Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist. I am not the only one who thinks that democracy ought to be about institutions and the rule of law, as against the rule of man. Whereas an autocrat can be attired in agbada, the flowing robe has no essential connection with the meaning of democracy. Thus, it is an aberration when those around the corridors of powertreat the elected leader as a semi-god. The question on the lips of many Nigerians as the nation marks another Democracy Day is this: Is democracy defined only by the fact that the government is led by elected civilians? That question becomes even more germane now that the Nigerian government has taken certain measures considered anti-democratic by a section of the citizenry, especially the millions of cyber-revolution natives who congregate around the global cyber-village every second of the day to greet, discuss, quarrel, trade, gather information and improve their lot in many hitherto unbelievable ways. The credit for changing Democracy Day from May 29 (the anniversary of the military handover of power to a civilian administration in 1999) to June 12, when Moshood Abiola defied the national fault-lines of religion and ethnicity to win a pan-Nigerian mandate, goes to the Buhari administration and history will give him a kind mention for that. However, Nigeria is more divided today than at any other time in the countrys history. The supreme irony is the fact that the man who gave official recognition to June 12 is presiding at a period of unprecedented turmoil in the land. Nduka Obaigbenas Arise News Channel carried out a journalistic coup by getting an exclusive interview with the most media-shy leader Nigeria has had since 1960. The reclusive Sani Abacha doesnt even come close. Coming shortly before June 12, both the interviewee and his interviewers chose the right moment. Like all interviews, this one generated its fair share of post-mortems, as can be seen in both the formal and digital media. The presidents response to questions on open grazing, succession, nepotism and the construction of a railway line to Maradi in Niger Republic attracted the most virulent comments from many critics in Nigeria, who took full advantage of the rare opportunity to spar with the president in the virtual marketplace of ideas. On the presidents statement that his party was being reorganised so that nobody could sit down in Lagos and decree how things should run, his aides quickly countered the avalanche of criticism by opponents who alleged that the president was throwing an uppercut at the jaws of his political ally, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The mention he made of Lagos, says Garba Shehu, was not a reference to the respected party leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, as the opposition partys predatory designs would put it in order to damage the excellent relationship between the two of them. I call it the Kabiyesi syndrome the transmogrification of an elected person into a pseudo royalty as if his position was hereditary like that of the authentic royal father. The word kabiyesi means no one dares question you, and it is respectfully used for royal fathers in Yorubaland. That is the real thing, not this fake one where lizards insists on being called dragons As a Nigerian committed to the progress of Nigeria, I believe that we all have to help those at the helm with ideas that can help them achieve our collective dream of a better life for all. In that spirit, we have to ask those in power whether they accept the full tenets and implications of democracy as a system of government, or if they are satisfied with just running fiefdoms in civilian garb. Does the mere fact that the political leader is an elected civilian automatically translate to democratic governance? I am not the only one who thinks that democracy ought to be about institutions and the rule of law, as against the rule of man. Whereas an autocrat can be attired in agbada, the flowing robe has no essential connection with the meaning of democracy. Thus, it is an aberration when those around the corridors of power, be they All Progressives Congress (APC) or Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, treat the elected leader as a semi-god. I examined this issue in my Daily Trust column of January 9, 2017. One of the frustrations of a columnist is that you sometimes feel like a broken record, or that your insights just bounce off the radar of the audience the way water bounces off the back of a duck. In the said piece titled, Banishing the Kabiyesi Syndrome, I said, inter alia, that: It has become part of our national character to deify temporary tenants of power. We isolate them from the people to ensure that the only way they can know what is going on is to ask those who have formed a cabal around them. At every level of governance you find elected officials who came from among the people but suddenly no longer recognise the people and their pains, hopes and aspirations. I call it the Kabiyesi syndrome the transmogrification of an elected person into a pseudo royalty as if his position was hereditary like that of the authentic royal father. The word kabiyesi means no one dares question you, and it is respectfully used for royal fathers in Yorubaland. That is the real thing, not this fake one where lizards insists on being called dragons. The real Kabiyesis are close to the people, these fake ones merely use the people as a ladder to ascend to power. But I digress. So, the leader falls into a trap from which only Providence can extricate him. He starts having messianic complex. I have seen this play out over and over again at the local, state and federal levels that I wonder if those leaders were never prepared for the high position they occupied to the extent that they had to encounter empirically verifiable reality about the problems facing the people from sycophantic third parties. Democracy shouldnt just be a label we affix to how our autocratic leaders carry on their affairs as if the mere act of voting reduces the voters from citizens to subjects. No matter what paraphernalia of transient power surrounds him/her, a true democrat knows that he is an employee of the people On the occasion of this years Democracy Day, I will repeat my 2017 counsel to President Buhari, especially as his administration inches towards the evening of its mandate: In terms of style, Buhari has to change gear The president is being turned into a national monument that is viewed only a couple of celebratory times a year. Why must he be hemmed in as if hes being protected from the people? We have had half a dozen tragic occurrences in the last one year at which the president ought to have made even a symbolic appearance to assure the people that he has their back. Any PR expert worthy of his hire would tell you that a million video clips of the leader may not have the effect of one single public appearance to reassure the people. The above can be said of many of our governors, too, who have become so removed from the people who voted them to power that they could as well have come from colonial Britain. ADVERTISEMENT Democracy shouldnt just be a label we affix to how our autocratic leaders carry on their affairs as if the mere act of voting reduces the voters from citizens to subjects. No matter what paraphernalia of transient power surrounds him/her, a true democrat knows that he is an employee of the people and that stratagems for their well being and happiness ought to consume his every waking moment. Happy Democracy Day! Fake News and Ethnic Baiting The lesson of the story is that one should be very careful in this era of fake news, lest one makes irreparable errors that can further rend the tattered fabrics of society. When you hear such a story, check, check and check again! I received the following story, attributed to Uche Onyeagocha, from a concerned Nigerian after some Northern politicians threatened to attack Igbo interests in the North, following the reported attack on Northern onion traders at Enyiogugu, Imo State, and the burning of cows in Akwatta Junction, Anambra State. It turned out that whereas the substance of the story is true, the dramatis personae were totally different. According to the story: The tragedy of the onion issue at Enyiogugu is that it belongs to an Mbaise man. His name is Vincent Ikeotuonye Ugoeke from Umuawada Onicha Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA. The man also owns the truck. His two drivers who are Northerners had been lodged in a hotel before the incident. The onion, the truck, their owner and the looters are all Mbaise. What is the quarrel of the Northern Onion Association? They quickly concluded that Northerners had been attacked and placed an Onion embargo on Ndigbo. The burning cows in the incident at Akwatta junction, Awka, belong to Mr Cosmas of Umunnachi in Dunukofia LGA of Anambra State. His truck carrying cows lost control, killed some and wounded some people. Angry bystanders got mad and set the truck with the cows on fire. Truck, cows, owner, people killed and wounded, angry mob are all Anambra people. No northerner involved. The lesson of the story is that one should be very careful in this era of fake news, lest one makes irreparable errors that can further rend the tattered fabrics of society. When you hear such a story, check, check and check again! Wole Olaoye can be reached through wole.olaoye@gmail.com. ADVERTISEMENT Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has approved the suspension of the Emir of Zurmi, Atiku Abubakar, over alleged complicity in banditry The suspension followed an attack on Friday by bandits in Zurmi local government area of the state which claimed at least 61 lives. The governor asked Bello Suleiman, who holds the traditional title of Bunun Kanwa, to take charge of the affairs of the emirate, pending the report of a committee carrying out an investigation on the matter. The committee members are mandated to investigate allegations made against the suspended Emir, on his involvement in the escalating rate of banditry attacks in the Emirate, the governors media aide, Yusuf Idris, said. PREMIUM TIMES reported how protesters burnt a section of the palace of the emir during a demonstration by residents against incessant attacks by bandits in the area. The protesters, who were mostly from vulnerable rural communities in the area, converged on Zurmi town for the protest, alleging that security agents and the emir, Mr Abubakar, were not doing enough to protect them. Attacks Residents said armed bandits arrived at Kwata community on motorbikes in broad day light on Friday and unleashed mayhem on the residents. We have buried at least 61 corpses following the attack and many other persons are uncounted for. The burial rites were conducted at Dauran community, a densely populated town in Zurmi Local Government Area, a resident said asking not to be named for security reasons. Initially, 51 corpses were recovered, seven more were later found in the bush, the source added. The source added that the attack also displaced many including women and children. The police spokespersons in Zamfara, Muhammad Shehu, confirmed the incident, adding that the police commissioner has visited the affected community. The police said 14 victims of the attack were buried at Unguwar Gwaza cemetery in Gusau, the state capital. ADVERTISEMENT The police in Ekiti on Saturday night confirmed the abduction of a farmer in a farmstead in Iyemero Ekiti, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State. Sunday Abutu, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, said while confirming the incident to journalists in Ado Ekiti that the command received a formal report from the divisional police station in the area, establishing the fact that the farmer was indeed abducted. Yes, it was this afternoon that someone came to make a formal report at our Divisional Police Station at Ikole Ekiti. The report we got showed that only one person was kidnapped and that the incident happened on Friday night. We have detailed our men in the town and they are taking measures to ensure that the victim is freed, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had earlier in the day reported that the farmer, whose name was given as Jimoh Olodan, was whisked away, allegedly by armed men suspected to be bandits. Ajayi Ogungbemi, a top community leader in the town who doubles as the Babalola of Iyemero Ekiti, broke the news to journalists. According to him, the farmstead is about three kilometres and 15 minutes drive from the community. Mr Ogungbemi said the gun-wielding abductors, numbering 18, invaded the farmstead and took away the man he described as a successful farmer. He said the gunmen shot sporadically into the air, whisking away the farmer to an unknown destination. (NAN) The police in Lagos say five persons who participated in the Democracy Day protest at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park were arrested and later released. Hakeem Odumosu, the police commissioner in the state, said no suspect was detained in connection with the protest. I want to emphasise that no single person is in police custody as a result of the protest (as at 1.30 p.m. press time), Mr Odumosu said. Five persons were arrested at Ojota, I ordered my men to release them. I thank God no one was injured, no vehicle was damaged, he said. The police chief said that everywhere he had visited was calm, stressing that reports from officers showed that everywhere was calm in Lagos. Mr Odumosu said the police had nothing against protesters as long as they were peaceful in their conduct, stressing that the only thing he requested from them was information about their protest, not permit order. He said the information sent out by the protesters, through social media, requesting residents to sit at home created panic in the state, stressing that through a press statement on Friday, the directive was countered. He said that his officials were deployed to various areas noted to be black spots as early as 2 a.m. on Saturday, stressing that his directive to his officials was that protesters had the right to do so peacefully. The police had earlier attempted to use gunshots and tear gas to disperse the protesters at Freedom Park. But Mr Odumosu said they were targeted at those trying to cause trouble at the protest venue. The only thing I need from protesters is notification of their protest and not to seek for a permit so that we can provide them with security. It is their constitutional right to protest. If Police are not involved, hoodlums may hijack the protest. I also advised the protesters to write to the state government to make use of parks for their protest, that way, they will not block the major roads and cause heavy traffic gridlock. While they have the right to protest, other road users have right of free movement on the road. The police gunshots this morning at Ojota was as a result of some people blocking the roads leading in and out of Lagos at Ojota. I have the recorded video. The protesters may have good intentions, but criminally minded people blocked the road to commit crimes. I quickly ordered my men to appeal to the protesters to leave the road and use minimum force to liberate the road so that those going out of Lagos or coming in will not be held up in traffic, particularly this time where we have traffic robbery, he said. No arrest in Ogun In Ogun, police said no protester or hoodlum was arrested. Abimbola Oyeyemi, the state Police Public Relations Officer, made this known when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun State on Sunday. Mr Oyeyemi said the state did not record any form of violence or criminal act from any protester during the democracy day on June 12. PREMIUM TIMES, however, reported how police officers fired gunshots to disperse protesters in the Ijebu Ode area of the state. ADVERTISEMENT The police are fully prepared and on ground by deploying our personnel across to state to curb criminality and ensure safety of lives and property. The state was calm and peaceful due to the massive deployment of our men as the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Edward Ajogun, has ordered such directive to stem violence by the hoodlums, he said. Mr Oyeyemi reassured residents of their safety, urging them to continue to go about their daily business without fears. He also enjoined residents not to hesitate to give reliable information that could help the police in arresting criminals in the state. He warned young Nigerians to refrain from crimes that could lead them into trouble. Mr Oyeyemi said that the police personnel would continue to be at various strategic places to ensure the safety of lives and property as well as reduce crime to its minimal level in the state. (NAN) Weeping, sorrow, disappointment and regrets filled the atmosphere in Festac Town, Lagos, on Sunday, as a Lagos State task force demolished the popular Agboju Market, shanties and other illegal buildings on the towns Buffer Zone. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that traders, mechanics and other artisans operating on the zone counted their losses as bulldozers turned their goods, shops and workshops into rubbles. NAN gathered that the task force was working for the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Both the leader of the task force and a representative of FHA refused to comment on the development. They told NAN that they did not have the authority to speak on the matter. More than 100 shops, shanties and other buildings were pulled down by the task force. While some traders and artisans hurriedly moved out some of their wares and tools, many of them could not. Some churches operating at the place were seen moving their property, removing the roofs and gates away in case of demolition. As at the time of this report, however, no church building was pulled down. NAN gathered that FHA gave the affected occupants a notice of the demotion a week ago. Many traders and artisans were seen moody and crying. They told NAN that they were fed up with challenges. Isaac Kadiri, Vice President, Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association (NATA), Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, described the demotion as a disaster. He told NAN: We believe that if government wants to chase us away, it should give us an alternative but it just gave us seven days notice to leave. We had an alternative place at 6th Avenue that was given to us by Festac Town Residents Association (FTRA) and Federal Housing Authority (FHA) but the place is not ready. We put the access roads here, but look at what we are losing. We have lost more than 100 million here. What we have lost here we cant gain back. We have mechanics, battery chargers, vulcanisers, panel beaters and painters as our members. We were served the seven days ultimatum through Lagos State Task Force, which claimed FHA invited it to carry out the demolition. Mr Kadri called on government to urgently provide an alternative place for the artisans and others affected by the demolition. ADVERTISEMENT We want government to give us a place where we can earn our living. If it says the site is ready tomorrow, we will move. We were paying rent to Amuwo Odofin Local Government. We are paying tax to Lagos State Government. We pay rent of N10,000 each, per annum. We are more than 5,000 artisans. Hamad Tijani, a panel beater and painter said: When we got here, it was just bushes and swamp, nothing was here but we sand-filled the place and many people are benefitting from here. Government should help us as citizens of this country, there is no place for us to go, he told NAN. Fatai Onidolu, a mechanic, alleged that the place allocated to the artisans by FHA at 6th Avenue had been sold. So where do they want us to go now? They gave us seven days notice which is too short to find an alternative. Why are they treating us this way? A cleric in Festac Town who did not want to be mentioned appealed to FHA to show mercy to the affect occupants. He said many Nigerians were undergoing hardship occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic, insecurity and economic difficulty and didnt need additional trouble. He said that although government had a right to its property, the timing of the demolition was wrong and the notice short. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says 107,283 persons have received the second dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in the state as at June 10,2021. Mr Abayomi made this known through his Instagram account @ProfAkinAbayomi, on Sunday while giving the states COVID-19 Vaccination update for June 10. He said that 8,929 persons received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on the reported date. According to him, 210, 633 persons who received the first jab of the vaccine were yet to get the second dose of the vaccine. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commissioner had earlier disclosed that 317,916 persons were vaccinated with the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Mr Abayomi said that administration of the second dose of the vaccine, which began on May 28, would end on July 9. He advised citizens who had received their first dose to proceed to the health facilities where they got their first dose on their scheduled appointment dates. The commissioner also advised residents to stagger their arrival at the vaccination site from between 8.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. to avoid overcrowding and overwhelming the health workers.(NAN) Plattsburgh, NY (12901) Today Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low around 60F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low around 60F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Southbury, CT (06488) Today Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. The P4G Seoul Summit is the third of four major international conferences on the environment this year. It comes between the Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden in April, and the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to be held in November in Glasgow. The two-day forum in Seoul was attended by heads of state and government, high representatives of leading countries of the world, heads of international organizations, including the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The participants discussed such issues as coping with the consequences of climate change, "green" recovery and ensuring carbon neutrality, as well as the achievement of the SDGs and the implementation of the provisions of the Paris Agreement on climate. According to President Mirziyoyev, the pandemic has shown an inextricable link between human health and the environment, economic and social progress. "We can no longer ignore the signals that nature itself sends us," he said. Central Asia is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. Over the past 30 years, the average annual temperature in Central Asia has increased by about 1 degree C. The region is experiencing rapid melting of glaciers, a decrease in the flow of the main rivers and biodiversity in the region, problems with greenhouse gases and large-scale air pollution. The severe consequences of global climatic changes are felt in the Aral Sea region, where an ecological catastrophe of a global scale has occurred. "No one doubts that countries' actions to achieve green development goals should be more active and more effective. We have no other choice," Shavkat Mirziyoyev said at the Seoul Summit. At the national level, Uzbekistan is pursuing a consistent policy aimed at transitioning to a green economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. According to its obligations under the Paris Agreement, Uzbekistan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10% of GDP by 2030, and this figure may rise. The new national strategy for the transition to a "green" economy provides for an increase in the share of renewable energy sources in electricity generation to 25%. In the coming years, it is planned to build five solar and three wind power stations. National strategies are anticipated to mitigate the effects of climate change, develop renewable and hydrogen energy, accelerate the transition to a green economy, and more. At the same time, the Uzbekistan President emphasized the importance of joining the efforts of the international community to advance "green" and sustainable development. Uzbekistan was the first in the region to join the Global Green Growth Institute and intends to open its office in the country. The country is also ready to join and become a full member of the P4G partnership. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev also proposes to hold an international conference "Green Energy for Developing Countries" next year, as well as launch a special program to attract young people to create a "green" economy to form a culture of green consumption. The President also thanked international partners for their full support of Uzbekistan's initiative, the recently adopted special resolution of the UN General Assembly on declaring the Aral Sea region a zone of environmental innovation and technology. It was proposed to continue active joint work in this direction, including within the framework of the specially created UN Trust Fund, the Global Green Growth Institute, on the platform of the P4G Partnership and other international institutions. Uzbekistan Ambassador Said Rustamov said: "Climate change is one of the key areas of the UK-Uzbek cooperation agenda. A high level delegation of Uzbekistan is to take part in the 26th UN Climate Summit (COP-26) in Glasgow this year. At the summit, the Uzbekistan delegation intends to share its views on climate change problems, the country's ongoing efforts to combat global warming and draw attention to the acute environmental problems it faces, primarily in the Aral Sea region." Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1522147/president_P4G.jpg SOURCE Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, London MIAMI, June 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A milestone more than 15 months in the making: Royal Caribbean International and the communities of the Caribbean are celebrating the cruise line's highly anticipated return to the region as Adventure of the Seas prepares to set sail from Nassau, The Bahamas yesterday. The first of Royal Caribbean's ships to resume cruising in the Western Hemisphere, Adventure welcomed more than 1,000 vacationers on its opening cruise. The ship set sail with fully vaccinated crew and fully vaccinated guests 16 years of age or older, who make up 94% of all guests on board while the remaining 6% are children younger than 16. The ship now begins a summer lineup of 7-night sailings to Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's game-changing private island destination in The Bahamas; Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas; and Cozumel, Mexico. Royal Caribbean Internationals Adventure of the Seas set sail from Nassau, The Bahamas on Saturday, June 12, marking the cruise lines highly anticipated return to the Caribbean. Adventure will sail a summer full of 7-night cruises from Nassau to Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbeans top-rated private island destination, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas and Cozumel, Mexico. "The return of Adventure of the Seas marks a start in the tremendous step forward our guests have been waiting for and we've been working toward for more than 15 months. This is all possible thanks to the government of The Bahamas, the support of our partners and the hard work of our teams across Royal Caribbean," said Michael Bayley, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. "We are excited to welcome back our guests and crew, and help our Caribbean family regain the benefits of tourism their communities depend on. This is just the beginning, as we get ready to set sail from the U.S. for the first time on July 2." Hot on the heels of the cruise line's return to the Caribbean, 11 Royal Caribbean ships are set to cruise from the U.S. and Europe once again, beginning in July and August. The complete lineup of Royal Caribbean's 2021 cruises is available here. Healthy and Safety Measures for Adventure of the Seas Bahamas Cruises Vacationers sailing on Adventure can cruise with peace of mind, knowing that all crew members and guests are tested and fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Travelers 16 years of age or older must be fully vaccinated, and as of Aug. 1, guests age 12 or older. Vacationers younger than the eligible age must undergo testing and follow other protocols. The vaccine requirement is one of the many layers of measures that safeguard the well-being of our guests and crew as well as the communities we visit. These additional health and safety protocols include our fully vaccinated crew, testing, the robust onboard ventilation system, enhanced cleaning and sanitization. A full list of the travel requirements for summer cruises from The Bahamas on Adventure are available here. Royal Caribbean will continue to evaluate and update its measures as circumstances evolve and in compliance with various government and health authorities. With cruises sailing to and from different destinations that have different sets of laws and guidelines, protocols will vary accordingly. About Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International has been delivering innovation at sea for more than 50 years. Each successive class of ships is an architectural marvel featuring the latest technology and guest experiences for today's adventurous traveler. The cruise line continues to revolutionize vacations with itineraries to more than 270 destinations in 72 countries on six continents, including Royal Caribbean's private island destination in The Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay, the first in the Perfect Day Island Collection. Royal Caribbean has also been voted "Best Cruise Line Overall" for 18 consecutive years in the Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards. Media can stay up to date by following @RoyalCaribPR on Twitter and visiting RoyalCaribbeanPressCenter.com. For additional information or to make reservations, vacationers can call their travel advisor; visit RoyalCaribbean.com; or call (800) ROYAL-CARIBBEAN. Royal Caribbean International is applying the recommendations of its Healthy Sail Panel of public health and scientific experts to provide a safer and healthier cruise vacation on all of its sailings. Health and safety protocols, regional travel restrictions and clearance to visit ports of call, are subject to change based on ongoing evaluation, public health standards, and government requirements. U.S. cruises and guests: For more information on the latest health and travel alerts, U.S. government travel advisories, please visit www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/itinerary-updates or consult travel advisories, warnings or recommendations relating to cruise travel on applicable government websites. SOURCE Royal Caribbean International Related Links http://www.royalcaribbean.com "The new Israeli government reflects the country's diversity and is determined to pursue peace, security, and prosperity," said AJC CEO David Harris. "AJC looks forward to working with the new coalition, as we have consistently done with every Israeli government since 1948, and we wish the leadership every success." Israel's 36th government is comprised of eight parties from across Israel's political spectrum, including, for the first time ever, an Israeli Arab party. Yamina party chief Naftali Bennett, who addressed the AJC Global Forum in 2018, will first serve as prime minister, and Yesh Atid party chief Yair Lapid, who addressed the AJC Global Forum in 2015, will succeed him in 2023. President Rivlin had tasked Lapid with forming the coalition after Netanyahu, head of the Likud Party, was unable to assemble the required 61 MKs in support of a coalition. Harris, who, most recently, met with Netanyahu in the prime minister's office in Jerusalem last month, praised the premier's legacy. "The prime minister of Israel is unquestionably among the most challenging leadership positions in the world," said Harris. "Prime Minister Netanyahu demonstrated impressive leadership on many issues, including expanding Israel's diplomatic ties with nations around the world, extending peace with four Arab countries, maintaining Israel's security in a volatile region, promoting exceptional achievements in innovation, spearheading the widely-admired handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and explaining eloquently Israel's unique challenges on the global stage. Moreover, his door was always open to AJC, including our young lay and staff leaders, Project Interchange visitors, and Global Forum invitations." "We will gladly work with the new government, where appropriate, to help build on these remarkable achievements, as well as to strengthen the essential ties that bind the Jewish state and Jews around the world," Harris added. AJC, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, opened an office in Jerusalem 60 years ago. Today, it is directed by Avital Leibovich. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org Once again competing in Class 7, for unlimited V6-powered race trucks, the Honda Ridgeline duo of team owner/driver Jeff Proctor and Pat Dailey faced a single-loop course of 466 miles, starting and ending in the coastal city of Ensenada. A total of 243 entries took part in this year's 25 th running of the event. Quote Jeff Proctor (team owner/driver Ridgeline Baja Race Truck) won Class 7 for unlimited V6 Trucks; fourth consecutive Baja 500 race win for Honda: "This was a very fast, yet very technical Baja 500, demanding as always. It was extremely dusty, with many single-track lines that didn't really allow for passing. But the entire Honda Off-Road Racing Team was on fire today, thanks once again to everyone for all of their effort and hard work, it all paid off for us once again." Fast Fact Making approximately 550 horsepower, HPD's 3.5-liter HR35TT engine uses the same block and cylinder heads as the production V6 that powers the production Ridgeline. Additional, custom elements of the powertrain include an HPD-designed intake plenum and custom Engine Control Unit programming. Next The Honda Off-Road Racing Team next travels to the desert of Nevada for the 25th anniversary Maxxis Tires "Casey Folks" Vegas to Reno off-road race, August 11-15, starting in Las Vegas and running north to Reno, Nevada. Honda Racing social media content and video links from the Baja 500 can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV). Additional photos and information from the Ridgeline Baja Race Truck's efforts can be viewed on Instagram at @hondaoffroadracing and @proctor_race. SOURCE Honda Racing/HPD Pratapgarh : , June 13 (IANS) A 'Corona Mata temple that had come up in Juhi Shukulapur village under the limits of Sangipur police station in Pratapgarh district has been demolished by the district administration. A probe has also been ordered regarding the construction of 'Corona Mata' temple. According to Inspector general of police, Prayagraj range, K P Singh, the police administration has removed the 'Corona Mata' temple from the village to prevent people from getting trapped in superstitious activities. He said that the police teams are also making efforts to create awareness among masses regarding Covid-19, claiming that it is a deadly virus and they should not get involved themselves in such superstitious things. The IG also said that police administration has also ordered a probe into issue after a man from village, Nagesh Kumar Srivastava, has submitted an application to Sangipur police station claiming that his brother, Lokesh Kumar, staying in Ghaziabad, had set up 'Corona Mata' temple without consultation of other family members and went back to Ghaziabad after construction of the temple. Police said that 'Corona Mata' temple had come up at Shuklapur village in Pratapgarh district three days back and hundreds of villagers had started offering prayers to ward off Corona virus. The temple was in fact built by a group of villagers after collecting donations. The villagers had started offering prayers to Corona Mata praying that the "shadow of Covid-19 should never fall on Shuklapur and adjoining villages". Not only this, they also highlighted the importance of Covid-19 protocol like use of masks and social distancing while offering prayers at the temple. The idol too wore a mask. Villagers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed, "After witnessing the Corona virus pandemic and its deadly impact which snatched lives of thousands of people, we decided to set up Corona Mata mandir under a 'neem' tree with full belief that praying to the deity would definitely offer respite to people from the deadly disease." The little white stone idol has been placed on the wall in the open temple. With the installation of the idol, daily prayers were being organised and villagers were seeking blessings to save people from the deadly disease. Radhe Shyam, the temple priest, said, "We have earlier heard the name of 'Chechak Mata' (smallpox mother) who cured the disease. Similarly, we had set up Corona Mata mandir with the belief that Mata would solve all the difficulties. We collected funds from the villagers." He said, however, this was not the first time such a temple has come up in the country. "When plague and other deadly diseases like smallpox spread across villages and towns and killed many people years back, people also worshipped in a similar manner." Villagers claimed that devotees were not allowed to touch the idol and offered only yellow flowers to the goddess. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Lucknow, June 13 : The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court against the demolition of Masjid Garib Nawab, also known as Tehseel Wali Masjid, in Ram Sanehi Ghat area of Barabanki. The Sunni Central Waqf Board has also filed a writ petition in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court against the demolition of the mosque on May 17. AIMPLB's officiating general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani said, "The action taken by the district administration and police in the dark of the night on May 17 was illegal. The mosque was registered under the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board. The mosque was on waqf land, therefore, no magistrate or any other officer can take indiscriminate action. The waqf board was formed through the Waqf Act and its matters have to be taken up by the waqf tribunal." He further said, "In March 2021, the additional district magistrate (ADM), Barabanki, had issued a notice to the mosque committee regarding the land. Against this notice, a case was filed in the high court. The court had granted 15 days' time to reply (from March 18) which was submitted on April 1. Still, the district administration demolished the mosque." A day after the demolition, AIMPLB had demanded that the government should ensure that the rubble remains on the same land, no other construction is done at the site, guilty officials be suspended and a probe should be ordered under a high court judge. It added that the government should order reconstruction of the mosque and hand it over to Muslims. "The petition is in the name of AIMPLB and Barabanki residents Hashmat Ali and Naeem Ahmad and has been filed by advocate Saud Raees. The petitioners will be represented in the court by the head of AIMPLB's legal committee, advocate Yusuf Machhala," Rahmani said. New Delhi, June 13 : The Central leadership of the BJP has advised all the party-ruled state governments to conduct proper ideological background check of any individual before giving him/her any position in the government. Though sources in the saffron camp claim that this is a verbal advisory and not a written one, the BJP-ruled states have been asked to do background check of individuals before appointing them to government positions, including their political opinions and previous actions related to the government as well as the party. A proper scrutiny of social media platforms being used by such individuals must be done, including the opinions they express about the Narendra Modi-led government, the BJP, the RSS as well as their political opponents, sources said. The move follows a controversy that erupted in Madhya Pradesh over the appointment of Tushar Panchal as the Communication Advisor/Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Within a day of his appointment, Tushar announced on Twitter that he would not join the team of the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. A senior BJP leader aware of the development said: "The state government gave an offer to an individual for a key position in the government. After facing criticism for his old social media posts, he refused to accept it. But the refusal came after the intervention of the central leadership." A Madhya Pradesh BJP leader said that the central leadership had asked as to how a man, who had criticised Prime Minister Modi, the party (BJP) and the RSS, can be made part of the government. It is learnt that the Central leadership has advised to take corrective steps to avoid any further embarrassment. After the Madhya Pradesh fiasco, the party's top leadership took the decision to communicate to all the BJP-ruled states to go conduct a proper ideological background check of individuals before making them part of the government. "Giving official positions in the government to such individuals, whose opinions against the Prime Minister and the party are available on social media platforms and are known to the public, does not look good and causes huge embarrassment," a party insider said. Riyadh, June 13 : The Saudi Arabian government has announced its decision to limit the upcoming Haj season to domestic pilgrims only with a maximum of 60,000 individuals in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In its announcement on Saturday, the Ministry of Haj and Umrah said it decided to limit the availability of registration for those wishing to perform the annual pilgrimage this year to citizens and residents inside the country only, due to the global Covid outbreaks and the new virus mutations, reports xinhua news agency. This year, vaccinated and recovered citizens and residents of the age group 18-65 who do not have chronic diseases will be allowed to register to perform Haj. The upcoming Haj will be the second season with no overseas pilgrims due to concerns of the pandemic. The Ministry stressed that the decision was taken for the safety and health of pilgrims, supported by the other Islamic states. Last year, 1,000 pilgrims of 160 nationalities living in Saudi Arabia performed the rituals, along with medics and security personnel. In the last 10 years, the Kingdom has welcomed more than 150 million pilgrims. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Ahmednagar : , June 13 (IANS) It was truly a memorable and refreshing 'day out' for some 1000-odd patients undergoing treatment at a Jumbo Covid Hospital in the tiny Bhalavani village of 7,500 people, here. For, this week, they were 'invited' to the weddings of two bright young couples who chose to tie the knot at the sprawling 1,100-bed "Sharadchandra Pawar Arogya Mandir", in this village in Parner, with around 20 relatives of the two sets of brides and grooms, permitted as per protocols. The excited couples were: Rajashri R. Kale, 30, an engineer who got married with Rahul J. Kadam, 33, a doctor working for a government hospital, and Aarati N. Shinde, 20, a final year college student who wed Niket S. Vyavhare, 32, a social worker. Parner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Nilesh Lanke, who organized the novel marriage ceremony said that the couples wished to do "something different for their upcoming weddings since there are so many strict guidelines" in force. "Last month, Rajashri R. Kale, had come to celebrate her brother's birthday and was highly impressed with the arrangements here. Then, she and the other couple insisted on getting married at the Covid centre," Lanke told IANS. Buoyed by their enthusiasm, Lanke set up a crack team of aides and NCP workers like Rahul Zaware, Babaji Tarte, Balasaheb Khilari, Rajendra Chaudhary, Shrikant Chaure, Datta Korde, Pramod Godse, Sandeep Chaudhary, Satyam Nimse and Annasheb Dalvi to make the double-marriage preparations. They secured all government and medical permissions to perform the double-marriages in the hospital campus, solemnized by two Hindu priests and witnessed by more than a thousand Covid patients, medicos, health care workers and party activists. The couples performed all the marriage rituals, including exchanging the traditional garlands, seeking blessings of their immediate family members and Lanke, with traditional Maharashtrian wedding music playing gently in the background. Seeing the festivities on the stage, many of the Covid patients rose to cheer and clap, others beamed and blessed sitting or lying on their cots, but all delighted in the diversion from their usually dull and despondent days at the hospital. Zaware said that the twin-wedding sought "to drive away the fears surrounding Covid among the ordinary folks" and pointed out how "such highly educated persons opted for the hospital as a launch-pad for their marital life". "This double-wedding is a first in India where the masses dread the very mention of Coronavirus... We hope it will create awareness that the disease is curable and people should not run from it," Lanke said. Expressing their gratitude, the two couples threw a sumptuous wedding feast, each sponsoring the lunch and dinner for all, donations of Rs 26,000 from Rajashri-Rahul and Rs 11,000 from Aarati-Niket to the Covid centre. "We are absolutely thrilled... Our weddings couldn't have been better... An unforgettable experience as we step into our new lives," gushed the two new brides Rajashri and Aarati soon after their public nuptials. Before leaving, the 'Just-Married' lovey-dovey couples went around taking blessings of the patients and gifting Covid-special boxes containing gloves, sanitizers, masks, PPE kits, basic medicines, etc to the hospital. The unique event earned admiration from NCP President Sharad Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, NCP MP Supriya Sule and other top leaders. Lanke said that the "Sharadchandra Pawar Arogya Mandir" free jumbo hospital, the country's biggest at the taluka-level, was inaugurated in August 2020, with 100-oxygen beds and all emergency or specialized equipment. It got donations of over Rs 4 crore comprising funds or medical equipment or medicines, and local villages chipped in with more than 50-tonnes foodgrains for the patients, cared for 24x7 by 200 doctors, nurses and health-workers. "We get patients from across Maharashtra and even Karnataka, and all are welcome to get the best treatment absolutely free. In the ongoing second wave, we treated 8,500 patients, including 1,000 children, with zero deaths," Lanke said with pride. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, June 13 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi continued his tirade against the union government, alleging that the government's most efficient ministry is of "Lies & Empty slogans." Rahul Gandhi on Sunday tweeted, "Which is GOI's most efficient ministry? The secret Ministry for Lies & Empty slogans." The Congress leader has been attacking the government on vaccine shortage, GST and the fuel price hike. On Friday, the Congress protested against fuel price hike across the country, when Rahul Gandhi alleged that the government is looting the country. He had said, "GDP crashing, Unemployment soaring, Fuel prices skyrocketing. In how many more ways is #BJPLootingIndia?" He had demanded that every citizen of the country walking into the vaccination centre shout get inoculated and also those who do not have access to the internet have the right to life. "Online registration is not enough for the vaccine. Every person walking at the vaccination centre should get the jab. Those who do not have access to internet also have right to life," Rahul had tweeted. The Congress leader has also been demanding vaccination of the poor for a couple of days. Patna, June 13 : The four party coalition government of NDA in Bihar may look to be running smoothly, but their policies and ideologies differ, as they look for every opportunity to score political points either on policy front or incidents having a larger impact on society. The recent bomb explosion in a Madrasa in Banka district was an example of ideological differences between the BJP and the JDU. A crude bomb explosion in Madrasa claimed one life -- Maulana Abdul Monmin on Tuesday (June 8). After the incident, BJP leader Hari Bhusan Thakur jumped on it and issued statement that may divide society. "Madrasas are the hub of terrorist activities in Bihar. I strongly demand from the state government to shut all Madrasas in Bihar," Thakur said. Moreover, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) also asked Bihar police to hand over an FIR copy of the blast for investigation. Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former CM of Bihar and president of HAM, quickly retaliated and said that when Muslims study in Madrasa, they are declared as terrorists and when poor dalits raise their voice against wrong doings, they are termed naxals. "Leaders who are declaring people as terrorists and naxals should come out of such a mindset. It is not good for the unity and sovereignty of the country," Manjhi said. "We have a clear stand about thorough investigation in the Banka blast. Now, Banka police clarified that there was no terror link in the Madrasa incident. The bomb which exploded there was crude and there is no evidence of a terror activity or no objectionable documents were recovered from there to prove that it has a terror link," said Danish Rizwan, the national spokesperson of HAM. Rajiv Ranjan, the JDU spokesperson also said that the statements given by some leaders before the investigation was completed are extremely unfortunate. "Such statements may disturb the peace and harmony of the society. Leaders should avoid making politically motivated statements," Ranjan said without taking the name of a BJP leader. A BJP leader named Tunna Ji Pandey recently gave a controversial statement against Nitish Kumar and said that he is the circumstantial chief minister of Bihar. "Nitish Kumar is a circumstantial CM of Bihar. The people of Bihar had given mandate to Tejashwi Yadav. He had stolen the mandate during the assembly election and became chief minister of Bihar," Pandey said. Following his statement, Sanjay Singh, the JDU's chief spokesperson openly warned BJP to avoid crossing the limit. "We will not listen to anything against our leader Nitish Kumar. We are silent but it does not mean we are weak. We can also speak and speak louder than them. If anyone points finger at our leaders we will strongly respond against them," Singh said. "Tunna Ji Pandey was a liquor trader in Bihar. He is angry with Nitish Kumar and making statements against him," Singh said. Upendra Kushwaha, the president of JDU parliamentary board and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi also slammed BJP for statements against Nitish Kumar. "If any JDU leader would have given such a statement against top leadership of the BJP in state or at centre, they would make an issue out of it," Kushwaha said while addressing BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal. Kushwaha further said that such a statement was deliberately given by the leaders on the direction of BJP top leadership sitting in Delhi. Amid the Corona crisis, Nitish Kumar imposed a night curfew in Bihar in the first week of April this year. Sanjay Jaiswal, the BJP state president raised questions on night curfew soon after it was announced. He said that it will not help fight the pandemic in the state. "In current circumstances, the Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Bihar and night curfew cannot help bring the situation under control. We have to make efforts in a positive direction to break the chain of the virus," Jaiswal said. "The Bihar government has taken several good decisions which are required to deal with the crisis. I am not a specialist but I cannot understand how night curfew will help reduce the spread of the virus in Bihar," Jaiswal said. Samrat Chaudhary, the Panchayati Raj minister and BJP MLC also slammed Nitish Kumar government after the death of former education minister Mewalal Chaudhary. "The health infrastructure of Bihar has completely collapsed. If this government would not save the lives of MLA or MPs in the state then imagine what would happen to common man," Chaudhary said. Cairo, June 13 : The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that it has sent a letter to the UN Security Council to reaffirm its "complete rejection" of Ethiopia's unilateral measures on the filling of the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River. The letter sent on Friday accuses Ethiopia of frustrating efforts to reach a tripartite agreement on the rules of filling and operating the dam and attempting to impose "a fait accompli" on the two downstream countries Egypt and Sudan "through unilateral measures and steps that constitute a clear violation of the rules of international law", according to a Ministry statement issued on Saturday. Ethiopia plans to go ahead with the second filling of the GERD in July, while Egypt and Sudan are concerned that the move might affect their share of the Nile water resources, reports Xinhua news agency. Last week, Egyptian Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan told a virtual conference of the International Labor Organization that Ethiopia's unilateral filling of the dam without a prior agreement would significantly harm the agriculture sector in the two downstream countries. Decade-long negotiations failed to reach an agreement regulating the filling and operation of the dam, including those hosted earlier by the US and recently by the African Union. Egypt and Sudan currently seek to form an international quartet that includes the African Union, the US, the European Union and the UN to mediate in the tripartite GERD talks. But the proposal has been rejected by Ethiopia. In February, Ethiopia said it would carry on with the second-phase 13.5-billion-cubic-metre filling of the GERD in June. The volume of the first-phase filling finished last year was 4.9 billion cubic metres. Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the dam project. Egypt and Sudan, both downstream Nile Basin countries, are concerned that the dam might affect their share of the water resources. Chennai, June 13 : If the social distancing norms are to be followed strictly at car plants, then no vehicle can be rolled out. The companies have to consider the workers as frontline warriors, said union officials at different factories. Senior officials of Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health have inspected the car plants of Renault Nissan Automotive India, Ford India, Hyundai Motor India to arrive at the uniform social distancing norms at the shopfloor level. The Madras High Court had on June 8 ordered the Directorate of Industrial Safety to visit the Renault Nissan Automotive's factory and also other comparable passenger vehicle makers located near here to arrive at a uniform guideline. "The officials from the Directorate of Industrial Safety inspected the plant in the evening after 4.30 p.m. when we were not there. We wanted to voice our views to the inspecting team," M. Moorthy, General Secretary, Renault Nissan India Thozhilalar Sangam (RNITS), told IANS. According to him, the management is not talking with the union despite the requests and hence the court case. "No automobile plant can function if the social distancing norms are strictly followed. For instance, when one person loads the wheel another worker near him will tighten the bolts. Similarly, when seats are fixed inside," a worker in Ford India preferring anonymity told IANS. "Officials from the Directorate of Industrial Safety had visited the plant but didn't hold any discussion with the union officials," a union official in Ford India told IANS. Similarly, the state government officials had inspected Hyundai Motor India's mega car plant, a union leader told IANS. Incidentally the production capacities of all the three plants vary largely. Hearing the case filed by the RNITS against Renault Nissan Automotive for non-adherence to the Covid-19 safety protocol while operating the plant, the court had issued its order. Early this month, the company and the worker's union RNITS had signed an agreement on maintaining social distancing at the shopfloor level. The two parties had agreed for the empty pitch ratio of 3:1 in the trim and chassis and body shop. "Simply put, after three cars in the conveyor belt, one slot will be empty so that a worker need not move to the next workstation to complete his work," RNITS President K. Balaji Krishnan had told IANS. While Renault Nissan Automotive has two production lines, it initially implemented the 3:1 scheme in line 2 and contended with the workers that it is not applicable to line 1 where models like Sunny, Kicks and Duster are assembled. After the court categorically said that the management was in breach of the agreement signed with the workers union, the management decided to abide by the agreement. Moorthy said the production was reduced by only 25 per cent. However, during the hearing on June 8, the counsel for Renault told the court the company is being singled out as none of the other automotive units -- Hyundai Motor, Ford India, BMW, Daimler and others -- located near here or in the country like Maruti are maintaining the 3:1 empty pitch. This resulted in the court ordering the visit of a senior official of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health to the automobile plants to come out with a uniform guideline for maintenance of social distance in factories. Senior officials of other car makers declined to comment on Renault Nissan Automotive's strategy of linking their operations to their case, which is an indication of their being a bit upset. "As per our information other car makers are not happy at linking them to the case resulting in inspection of their plants by officials of the Directorate of Industrial Safety," Moorthy said. "The inspection may bring out violations of other laws," he added. The next hearing of the case will be on June 14. (Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, June 13 : India is silently behind the craftsmanship you see at many Haute Couture presentations in Paris. In Europe, couture is seen as the pinnacle of fashion, worn by a very select group of women. In India, we have an unrivalled savoir faire of handmade crafts and textiles, so it is not wonder then that international brands look to us for artisanal details. Couture in India really has its own definition. Indian couture is about weddings and special occasion wear--- watch any edition of India Couture Week and it is obvious who the designers are catering to-brides. Last year it was this very same wedding driven couture that actually saved many designers. While the Big Fat Wedding had to get skinny thanks to the pandemic, weddings still happened, and brides still wanted that special dress. "Weddings have kept us in business," says one of India's most celebrated couturiers, Manish Malhotra. But it was a new wedding, one where the ceremony became the main occasion and not the sangeet or the reception. If you see Malhotra's current couture collection, Nooraniyat, you will notice the intricate use of silk thread embroidery gives his designs an old-world feel, though the collection is made for a young woman. "Before I think we were the label you came to for your sangeet or reception, now we have become the label you turn to for your ceremony," states the designer. Indian Couture he feels will now center around craftsmanship. "The story behind your collection needs to be strong. The young fashion buyer is asking questions about how the outfit is made, the legacy of the crafts and the designs interventions. This will change how Indian designers approach couture," he says. Couture is gaining a new meaning, and it is no longer just for special occasions and weddings, believes the designer. Couture craft centric details will be woven into ready to wear clothes too-whether it is separates that use chikankari embroidery or handwoven white khadi shirts. Handmade details lend a special connect to clothing. Ritu Kumar who can only be described as the Grande Dame of Indian fashion says, "Recent movements like "vocal for local" and the lack of big weddings will help re-establish the original concept of bespoke clothing and reimagine couture to diversify from bridal wear into becoming a wardrobe staple." India has a long legacy of bespoke garments, and she adds, "We have been making and wearing hand-woven and hand-stitched garments for centuries. Our rich legacy of artisanship and craftsmanship has long lent to bespoke clothing being part of our culture." Kumar has noted that more and more clients are coming in with saris once worn by their mothers or grandmothers, asking for them to either be restored or for new blouses to be made for them. "The pandemic, as a whole, has rewritten the fashion rules. People who invest in any garment are more interested in buying sustainable clothes, both in terms of how they are made and how long they will last." It is a new craftsmanship that clients want today- they have become used to wearing comfort clothing, and couture clothing that follows the "no pain no gain" theory of dressing will no longer be accepted by couture clients. "It is about dexterous embroidery and craft over trendy pieces," says Kumar. From Ari to Zari, it is heritage artisanship that will become the focus of couture. Of course, this second wave has meant there is a lack of confidence about when things will go back to normal, but designers believe that Indian couture is here to stay. How the collections will be presented remains a question mark in India. While Paris Couture Week will see physical shows, the second lockdown has put the India Couture Week's plans about physical shows on hold. "We are hoping to have an edition in August or September" says Sunil Sethi, President of the Fashion Design Council of India. In March they had thought a physical couture week would be possible, but the second wave has meant ateliers have been shut and there are also safety concerns. One of the most awaited shows of couture week is Gaurav Gupta--- a designer who liked to put on an extravaganza of a show, transitioned to the digital format with a fashion film, "Name is Love". With a strong narrative the show celebrated all Gaurav Gupta's sculptural and architectural trademarks. "My couture collection 2021 is almost ready, and it will be very different." Gupta admits that he is missing the charm of a physical show and says while he does not know what form his presentation will be this year, he is clear that "the show must go on". (The writer Sujata Assomull is an IANSlife columnist. Assomull is the author "100 Iconic Bollywood Costumes" and was the Founding Editor In Chief of Harper's Bazaar, India) Baghdad, June 13 : Iraqi security forces have launched an operation to clear the Islamic State (IS) militants from the rural areas in the eastern province of Diyala, the military said. The operation was launched on Saturday by a joint force comprising the Iraqi army, police, and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi, in an agricultural area south of Diyala's capital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of the capital Baghdad, a provincial spokesman told Xinhua news agency. Meanwhile, Tahseen al-Khafaji, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, told the local media that the forces "have been working for some time in the border areas with Syria by setting up towers and thermal cameras for surveillance to prevent the extremist militants from infiltrating from neighbouring Syria". IS terrorists are still active in the vast Anbar desert that stretches to the borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The militants have been infiltrating into Iraq across the border in an attempt to regroup in the country again. The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants in 2017. New Delhi, June 13 : June is marked as the LGBTQ Pride Month, usually celebrated with street festivals, events and parties. Majority of the Pride events in the USA take place in June and July to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising which mostly happen on the same weekends. So, whether youre a member of the LGBTQ community or an ally, heres all you need to know about how Pride events are celebrated in five key US cities to experience the colorful affair to the fullest. San Francisco, California Long considered as one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in the U.S., San Francisco is nicknamed 'the gay capital of the world' and is home to one of the largest and most prominent LGBT communities in the country. There are rainbow-clad streets, gay-friendly districts, and some of the most prominent LGBT festivals and celebrations take place here. And if there's any gay pride event in the U.S. you surely need to attend, it's the San Francisco Pride. It takes place in June's latter half and draws over a million people. While there will be no big Pride parade and celebration event in downtown San Francisco this year, you can still expect a mix of in-person gatherings and online events as people around the Bay Area celebrate Pride. San Francisco's Pride celebration embodies the freedom of expression, human rights and love; all things that the California city is known for embracing. New York City, New York Every June, the streets of New York are transformed into a blitz of rainbow flags, bared skin, and joyous dancing. While at first glance it might look like just a typical New York City Street party, NYC Pride's roots are steeped deeper in history. The modern gay rights movement began here in 1969, when riots followed a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, an LGBTQ bar. Those protests are now commemorated in the city's annual Pride Week celebration, one of New York's most beloved festivals and with time, it has evolved way beyond its party-hard reputation of previous decades. The late June event includes a rally and parade, with more than 350 contingents marching through Manhattan. This year, The NYC Pride March will take place virtually on June 27 with Grand Marshals Wilson Cruz from Star Trek: Discovery and activist Ceyenne Doroshow leading the event that includes live performances and street side activities. The Rally on June 25 will host a number of speakers in an online forum. There's also a human rights conference and a Black Queer town hall. Denver, Colorado Famed for its mountains, craft-beer, legal marijuana, and hunky bearded men, Denver is also a magnet for LGBTQ+ people all over the 'Wild West'. While the gorgeous Rocky Mountains are right on the doorstep, you can also find a diverse selection of gay bars, clubs, and bathhouses alongside plenty of art, culture and growing culinary scene. Denver, Colorado's PrideFest celebration, which takes place in mid-June is the most family-friendly gay pride event in the US. It has been growing in recent years, drawing more than 350,000 people. The festivities include parties, concerts, a parade, a 5-kilometer walk/run and activities like face painting for kids. Denver is also a dog-loving city, and the 'Dogs in Drag parade' is one of the most popular event of PrideFest. To keep the community safe and healthy during the Covid-19, the Denver Pride Parade is going virtual again for the 2021 Coors Light Virtual Denver Pride Parade. Charleston, South Carolina It is a charming city full of colourful architecture, oak-shaded plazas, and history aplenty plus tranquil beaches, making it a winning choice for Pride festivities. Charleston Pride Fest is a party like no other. It is one of the later pride events in the USA, taking place each year in September. It is the perfect excuse for an end of summer escape with great weather and a charming welcome. Charleston Pride Festival is held over 7 days with a series of rainbow studded events culminating in a final weekend pride festival and parade. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) New Delhi, June 13 : The last quarter has witnessed intermittent activity for the international travel community, with borders opening sporadically in step with vaccination drives in various regions. While many of us look forward to travelling in 2021, the restart of visa application processes can happen only when the concerned Embassy/Consulate provides approval and directs the Visa Application Centre to do so. VFS Global, the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide, headquartered in Dubai, UAE is a leading visa services organisation. Keeping you apprised of the re-openings of Visa Application Centres in India, and other efforts currently undertaken according to the regulations set by governments, it has resumed the visa application process (in various categories) for over 40 governments at select Visa Application Centres across India. VFS Global's Visa Application Centres across India remained open as of 07 April 2021, though timings and days of working may have varied, according to pandemic-related regulations. Some countries may have limited slots opened for appointments at present and only in certain cities. In an exclusive interview, Vinay Malhotra, Regional Group Chief Operating Officer (South Asia, Middle East & North Africa and Americas), VFS Global speaks to IANSlife about travel in 2021 and what we can look forward to in the months to come. Read excerpts: When do you expect international travel to resume, and what can one expect for the rest of 2021? Vinay: The beginning of 2021 bought hope for the travel sector, but this joy was short-lived with the virus rearing its head in the form of the second wave in many regions, resulting in border closures and travel restrictions being re-imposed. While it is difficult to predict the exact timeline for the resumption of international travel, it is safe to say that travel, having weathered similar shocks in the past, will bounce back soon. Streamlined inoculation drives, issuance of vaccine passports and health certificates, well executed travel bubbles, etc. across geographies will only streamline travel processes further and help in holistically rebuilding the sector that safeguards travellers through their journeys. People are keen to travel as soon as they possibly can; pent-up demand and new dimensions of health considerations are going to be strong driving forces for the sector to rally. Though travel remains a mid-and long-term growth sector, one can expect a complete recovery only once we've addressed and overcome our current challenges with future-proof solutions. With the second wave, India has received a lot of negative press for how it has handled the situation, do you think this will impact inbound tourism in the months to come? Vinay: India has always remained a key market for travel and tourism. With a heterogeneous portfolio comprising niche tourism products, such as adventure, cruise, medical, wellness, sports, eco-tourism, film, and religious tourism, inbound tourism is a key contributor to the growth of the travel sector. For travellers today, safety and health are a key consideration, and for India it is important to first control the Covid transmission risk through a strong vaccination drive which the government is already working towards. Along with vaccination, developing a strong infrastructure backed by technology that offers maximum contactless experiences throughout the travel journey will play a key role in bringing back the trust and confidence among tourists planning their visit to India. With the fundamental need for people to travel still intact, with a strong health infrastructure and safety measures, this market will hit the road to recovery once borders reopen. Tourism rebound, realistic or wishful thinking? Do you have a timeline in mind and why ? Vinay: Over the last six months, we have seen travel gain hope with gradual re-opening of borders, travel bubbles and vaccination drives in progress. However, this also evolved to a complete shutdown as the second wave of infections hit more fiercely in some regions. Historically, travel industry has been a resilient force that has endured many such adversities and bounced back effectively, be it economic meltdowns, terror attacks or outbreaks. What will play a key role in ensuring the revival of travel becomes a reality is how as an industry we are able to create a sustainable future for travel, assimilating the current trends and what we anticipate from here. This change in the way we enable travel has been crucial in confidence building for the sector globally. It will be interesting to see how the industry prepares itself to address this pent-up demand and add new dimensions of health considerations as a part of the travel journey. Concerted efforts by all stakeholders in overcoming the current challenges will bring a steady recovery to the travel sector worldwide. What about Outbound travellers, lots of countries may choose to passengers and flights to and from India? Vinay: For the overall industry, lockdowns and travel restrictions are temporary moves to make the future of travel safer. Borders will gradually reopen, keeping in consideration the vaccination rate, active COVID cases and acceptance of local travel rules and regulations. We can only hope that the ongoing vaccination drives and a decline in new cases will bring some semblance of normalcy, or 'new normalcy', should I say, to the current situation. With the suspension of international travel, India has seen a rise in domestic travel. Do you think this will continue or is it just a trend for the lack of options? Vinay: While the pandemic definitely stalled global travel, it clearly could not contain the desire to travel in the Indian market. The momentary surge in demand for domestic travel came as a relief for domestic airlines and hospitality players who were severely impacted by local lockdowns. However, this trend in rising domestic travel was also impacted by the second wave kicking in this year, and successive lockdowns imposed by various states in India. It may be premature to make any projections on the timeline for global outbound travel rebound from India given the prevailing uncertainty. But even during these testing times, we observed growing trends that could have a lasting effect on the global travel industry. Not only did domestic destinations, and select international ones like Maldives see an influx, they dealt with a new type of traveller - one that is more discerning, tech savvy, health and safety conscious, preferred longer stays, and expected extra levels of personalisation and convenience. Sustainable tourism is another outcome of the pandemic. With people increasingly looking for less crowded destinations, the authorities are now keen to promote lesser-known travel spots to disperse the tourism footprint from oversaturated ones. Countries and global travel enablers have taken this pause to become future-ready and create a new, sustainable traveller journey that has health and safety at the heart of everything. I am confident that once borders reopen, the industry will be better placed to bounce back, reinstating the promise in travel. The pandemic has affected how people regard the environment, do you think people will look for alternate experiences which are eco-friendly and sustainable? Vinay: Sustainability in the context of travel is no longer associated with just the environment. It now has a much broader connotation and takes into consideration the social, cultural, economic, and physical aspects of a destination. The time people have spent away from travel, and its subsequent effects on the environment, has resulted both avid and aspirational travellers rethinking the kind of traveller they want to be. Choosing low emission or carbon offset modes of transportation, staying, shopping, and eating at locally owned businesses, opting for second-city travel, and avoiding the use of plastic as much as possible are all small but critical choices that travellers are becoming increasingly aware of. One key aspect of this trend is the uptake in 'second-city travel' which has been a buzzword for some time now, but did not gain as much relevance as today. Initially conceptualised as a way to avoid over-tourism and resource depletion at popular destinations, second cities - i.e. lesser-known yet scenic destinations across the globe or less visited regions in well-known countries - will now gain prominence for the solitude they offer. In the same vein, solo or isolated holidays will also feature high on travel wish lists. Places that take one away from crowds like private villas, remote cabins, camping, etc, will be greatly favoured, thus making health and safety, along with sustainability key filters in planning future vacations. What are some of the sustainable/digital initiatives within VFS Global which could help future travellers? Vinay: As the market leader in the visa application services sector, VFS Global has been at the forefront of enabling processes with an environmentally conscious mindset. As we continue to cater to evolving consumer and market trends, sustainability has been a key aspect that drives the way VFS Global conducts its business. We are already focused on reimagining the customer journey by bringing more of the visa application process online and to the safety of our customers' homes. Right from introducing Digital Application Centres that takes the entire application journey online, to Visa At Your Doorstep that enables multiple people to enroll their biometrics at their preferred location, and self-upload options, we have consistently worked towards reducing carbon footprint through the introduction a slew of innovative digital services. Pre-pandemic we also witnessed great success with the launch of eVOA (electronic visa on arrival) in countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Suriname, among others where no biometric enrolment is required. eVisas as a solution simplified and streamlined the visa lifecycle by moving the entire application and issuance process online, making those destinations ideal for travellers looking to escape the traditional visa documentation process or a more seamless planning journey, while being environmentally conscious. We see adoption for eVisa in the current scenario when people are wary of being in crowded public spaces and prefer minimal physical touchpoints. With responsible tourism gaining attention worldwide, efforts like these will be considered key drivers in enabling a truly sustainable journey for a traveller right from the first step. Travel, tourism and hospitality are some of the hardest hit sectors by the pandemic and the Indian government hasn't offered any relief or incentives, do you think there should have been some sort of relief package considering it is one of the largest employers in the country? Vinay: The tourism industry that employes millions of people continues to remain affected with outbound and inbound travel facing a bigger threat since the onset of the second wave of Covid-19. Over the last year, we've seen various initiatives taken by state governments to push forth the cause of the local tourism economy. While the challenges continue, both the industry and the government are committed to a smooth revival. Information about visa operations is viable on VFS Global's website www.vfsglobal.com As this information is fluid and being updated regularly, please visit the country-specific guidelines. Real time updates are also posted on the social media channels and the Covid-19 Customer Advisories page. Air travel on all routes is subject to government advisories and permissions for air travel may be independent of the visa process. (IANSlife Features can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, June 13 : The high profile exit from the Congress party has set the alarm bell ringing with Sonia Gandhi meeting senior Congress leaders to get the feedback about organisational changes in the party which are ongoing in the states but major changes at the AICC level are expected too. While Jitin Prasada moved over to the BJP, the congress G-23, which is now reduced to 22, the group of which the former Congress leader was part of, has launched the direct attack on Prasada and questioned his ideological commitments. Both Kapil Sibal and Veerappa Moily who wanted sweeping reforms said that his ideology was in doubt. The former Karnataka Chief Minister even suggested that people like him (Jitin) should not be promoted in the party and governments. "Jitin Prasada joins the BJP but the question is, will he get 'prasada' from the BJP or is he just a 'catch' for UP elections? In such deals if 'ideology' doesn't matter, changeover is easy," Sinal had said. The reason behind the criticism is that the dissenters fear that they might lose the credibility, said an insider while reiterating that Sibal and Moily's ideological commitments are beyond doubt. But the group which was pushing for reforms is now on backfoot as the loyalist may turn the table citing Prasada's case. There has been aspersion on the group since the letter was leaked to media last August and many leaders including Kumari Selja made allegations on the group and even Rahul Gandhi had questioned the timing of the letter since Sonia Gandhi was in hospital at that time. While Sonia Gandhi has stepped in to control dissents and is now talking to leaders to put the house in order through consent and is taking the middle path. But after the departure of UP leader and former Union Minister Jitin Prasada, the chorus for reforms within the Congress has grown louder with a section of leaders calling for a "major surgery" in the party. Kapil Sibal, one of the vocal members of the G-23 had criticised Prasada -- a fellow signatory -- for moving to the BJP calling it "prasada politics", reiterated that the issue which had been highlighted in the letter remains and the party should look into it, if it does not want to face the consequences. Another leader who is batting for "major surgery" within the party is Veerappa Moily who said that party should build regional leadership and only promote committed people who are faithful to the ideology of the Congress. He said that Prasada's ideology was in doubt and the party should think before promoting such people. The Congress, which is reeling after its defeat in 2014 and 2019 general elections, had already seen an exodus of leaders from Assam followed by Goa, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, leading to losing its grip in these states. Before Jitin Prasada, it was Jyotiraditya Scindia, who left the party along with his supporters, leading to the collapse of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. However, Congress insiders say that "these young people want power without any effort and do not have commitment towards the party". The party exists because of lakhs of Congress workers, not the leaders who switch side for personal gains, said a party leader, speaking on condition of anonymity. But the larger question remains that the leadership is unable to hold the people because of its electoral defeats, the leader added. The larger question raised by many is about ideology which is the core to Congress, and those who differ with the ideology should not be promoted to the top echelons of the organisation or the government, say leaders. Meanwhile, the Congress is facing tough time to resolve issues in Punjab and Rajasthan, where it is ruling, as younger leaders demand their due even as it has to prepare for a string of key polls next year including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. Tripoli, June 13 : Mohamed Menfi, head of the Libyan Presidency Council, met a visiting Turkish delegation, which included Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and discussed security cooperation between the two countries. The visit of the Turkish delegation, also including Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, follows a series of mutual previous ones between Libya and Turkey in 2021 that started with Menfi's trip to Turkey in March, according to a statement issued by the Presidency Council on Saturday. During the meeting, Menfi stressed the depth of the historical relations between the two countries and highlighted the importance of enhancing cooperation and developing bilateral relations between the two countries, the statement said. The Turkish delegation stressed the continuation of cooperation in training security and police institutions, de-mining, and combating illegal immigration and organised crime, it added. The meeting also covered the upcoming Berlin conference on Libya, support of the political track, and uniting regional efforts for an international consensus that supports the stability, security and unity of the country. The Turkish delegation also met Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Lucknow, June 13 : The Congress in Uttar Pradesh is turning Left with a vengeance but its leaders, one after another, are moving towards the Right. The party is getting increasingly isolated in the state that was once its bastion. The party, its own leaders claim, is being taken over by young leaders from the Left-wing outfits. "The new leadership that is being imposed in the party is left-oriented and the party high command thinks that they can revive the Congress. "The fact, however, is that these leaders do not even understand the ideology and culture of the party. And it is this that is making other leaders quit Congress," said former Congress leader Nadeem Ashraf Jaisi, who quit the party to join the Aam Aadmi Party, a year ago. As leader after leader walks out of the Congress, a key member of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's team -- also from a left outfit -- says, albeit on condition of anonymity: "In Uttar Pradesh, party organisation and leadership is undergoing a revolutionary change. But it does not mean that old and established faces are being ignored. "Jitin Prasada, or for that matter any other stalwart, needs to understand that politics cannot be a static affair. Leadership and responsibilities change with time." In November 2019, the UP Congress had expelled 10 senior leaders -- two of them former ministers -- for anti-party activities. The 'anti-party activities' were that they had met at the residence of one of the leaders on Nehru Jayanti to discuss the state of affairs in the party. "The biggest problem with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh - and also at the Centre -- is that our leaders do not wish to listen and discuss. "Since the past two years, we have been seeking an appointment with Sonia Gandhi but have failed. If a party worker cannot meet his leader, how can you expect a party to survive?" said Haji Siraj Mehndi, a former MLC and one of the 10 expelled leaders. Almost every Congress man in the state who has been in the party for a decade, has the same grouse -- there are too many leaders from the left ideology who have been imposed on the party organization. Suddenly one finds key posts occupied by imports from Left outfits like All India Students' Association (AISA) and Rihai Manch. Starting from Sandeep Singh, Priyanka Gandhi's personal assistant, who is from AISA, there is an influx of young leaders from Left outfits handling key positions like administration head and social media in-charge. Sandeep Singh was a former AISA president at JNU. Mohit Pandey, another former AISA functionary, is the social media head of UPCC. Shahnawaz Husain, formerly with Rihai Manch which is known for its advocacy of terror suspects, is now head of UPCC's minority cell. A former UPCC spokesman said: "I have stopped coming to the party office because this is not the culture that I have lived with. You have leaders wearing shoes and putting their feet up on the table. They move around with cigarettes in their hands and do not think twice before using abusive language. They have not yet grown out of student politics and do not know the dignity that a politician should maintain." As the Congress increasingly depends on its left-wing leaders, its own leaders have turned Right -- towards the BJP -- with Jitin Prasada being the latest example. In the past few months, the Congress has lost a number of senior leaders to the BJP. Former UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was among the first to switch over to the Right before the assembly elections in 2017. Congress MLC Dinesh Singh left the Congress in 2018 to join the BJP. In 2019, former MPs Ratna Singh and Sanjay Singh walked into the BJP, followed by former MLA Ameeta Singh. Former MLA Jagdambika Pal had opted for BJP in 2014. Talking to IANS, one of the erstwhile Congress leaders who has joined BJP, said: "The problem with the Congress leadership is that they just do not seem to care. I did not wish to leave the Congress but when I found that my leaders were not even responding to what I wanted to say, I decided to walk out. After all, I am in politics and cannot afford to sit at home till my leaders begin smelling the coffee." He admitted that he would not have left the Congress if the leadership had given him an appointment to air his grievances. Haji Siraj Mehndi said: "As people from AISA and Rihai Manch have become the pivot of the party, staunch Gandhi loyalists who bore the brunt of the crackdown of anti-Congress regimes and stood by the party through thick and thin have been bundled out by none other than Indira's granddaughter Priyanka." Most of the former UPCC presidents and senior leaders have withdrawn from the state party unit. They do not visit the party office and neither are they welcomed. It is noteworthy that the Uttar Pradesh Congress has been in trouble since the nineties when 'Mandal' politics propped up the caste politics and, almost simultaneously, the Ayodhya movement fueled communal politics. The Congress was gradually left out of the playing field. The party made a sincere effort to revive itself before the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh when Sheila Dixit was projected as a chief ministerial candidate and Raj Babbar was state chief. With the slogan, "27 Saal, UP Behaal", the Congress built up a momentum and Rahul Gandhi began emerging as a politician to watch out for. However, midway through the campaign, the Congress high command decided to ally with the Samajwadi Party which they had been targeting in their campaign. The party lost credibility and workers their enthusiasm. The Congress in Uttar Pradesh now gasps for survival, not revival. The seven-member legislature party has been reduced to five after two MLAs -- both from Rae Bareli -- have turned rebels. One of the party MLAs, said: "It is time that the Congress leadership woke up to reality. If they are not willing to listen, talk and discuss, how can they expect people to remain with them?" Los Angeles, June 13 : A Delta flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia, was forced to divert its route and make an emergency landing after an unruly passenger made threats and attacked flight attendants, the airline said. "Thanks to the crew and passengers of Delta Flight 1730 (LAX to ATL) who assisted in detaining an unruly passenger as the flight diverted to Oklahoma City (OKC)," Delta said in a statement on Saturday. "The aircraft landed without incident and the passenger was removed by law enforcement." According to US media reports, the unruly passenger was identified as an off-duty flight attendant, reports Xinhua news agency. The man "made terrorist threats and assaulted two flight attendants near the front of the plane", reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper citing Oklahoma City police. Crew members asked passengers for help and several people detained the man with the help of an off-duty pilot, reported the newspaper, adding that police later said that the man had exhibited signs of mental health issues. It was the third time this month that a Delta flight out of Los Angeles had to divert due to an unruly passenger's behaviour. A Delta flight from Los Angeles to New York was reportedly diverted to Detroit on Thursday after an unruly passenger became a threat. Earlier this month, an unruly passenger was arrested after he had allegedly tried to breach the cockpit on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee, forcing the plane to divert to Albuquerque, New Mexico. New Delhi, June 13 : To plug a major health infrastructure gap in India's fight against Covid-19, especially in rural areas and smaller towns, India has started project 'Extension of Hospitals' in various states. Modular hospitals are an extension of hospital infrastructure and can be built adjacent to an existing hospital building. As Covid-19 cases surged in different parts of the country, infrastructure in hospitals was under immense pressure. Keeping in view of the need, innovative modular hospitals came as a huge relief amidst the crisis. Project 'Extension Hospitals' is one such initiative for which Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) invited private sector companies, donor organizations, and individuals to support the initiative along with various other projects of national importance. The PSA office identified requirements of close to 50 hospitals in states where the highest number of Covid-19 cases were reported. Modulus Housing, a start-up incubated at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) developed the MediCAB hospitals. This enables building a 100-bedded extension facility in 3-weeks' time. MediCAB hospitals are designed with a dedicated zone of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) that can accommodate various life-support equipment and medical devices. These negative pressure portable hospitals have durability of around 25 years, and they can also be shifted in the future for any disaster response in less than a week. These rapidly deployable hospitals will plug a major health infrastructure gap in India's fight against Covid-19, especially in rural areas and smaller towns. The office of PSA has been actively working towards securing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support to implement these projects in different areas across the nation. Modulus Housing has started deploying MediCAB extension hospitals with the help of the American Indian Foundation (AIF). Mastercard, Texas Instruments, Zscaler, PNB Housing, Goldman Sachs, Lenovo, and NASSCOM Foundation have also extended CSR support. The first batch of 100 bedded hospitals is being commissioned at Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh); Amravati, Pune, and Jalna (Maharastra); Mohali (Punjab), and a 20-bed hospital at Raipur (Chhattisgarh). Bengaluru (Karnataka) will have one each of 20, 50, and 100-beds in the first phase. The Office of PSA has also collaborated with Tata Projects Ltd to deploy modular hospitals at multiple sites in Punjab and Chhattisgarh. They have initiated work on 48 bedded modular hospitals in Gurdaspur and Faridkot (Punjab). Expansion of ICU at multiple hospitals in Chhattisgarh including Raipur, Jashpur, Bemetara, Kanker, and Gaurella is also underway. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) London, June 13 : US President Joe Biden gifted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson a custom-made bicycle while they met for the ongoing G7 Leaders' Summit in Carbis Bay, England. According to a BBC report on Saturday, the bike was made by the Philadelphia-based Bilenky Cycle Works, a business with a staff of four who usually take up to 18 months to make a machine. The US State Department has contacted the company's owner, Stephen Bilenky, on May 23 about designing the cycle with a matching helmet, the BBC quoted the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper as saying in a report. It newspaper report added that "the budget was just $1,500, a third of the minimum price the firm charges". As they met for the very first time on Friday just ahead of the formal opening of the Summit, even Johnson gifted Biden a framed picture of a mural showing the US anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass. "The image of the former slave, who became a leading figure in the 19th-Century abolitionist movement, is part of Edinburgh's mural trail," said the BBC reported. The three-day gathering, hosted by Johnson, will end on Sunday. Climate change is the main topic of Sunday's agenda as the leaders set out plans to cut carbon emissions and restore biodiversity They will be addressed by renowned naturalist David Attenborough. Kabul, June 13 : Eight Afghan policemen have been confirmed dead in an alleged insider attack at a police checkpoint in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the troubled Helmand province on Sunday. The incident took place early Sunday when "a Taliban infiltrator disguised himself as a policeman" opened fire on the policemen inside the checkpoint in Qalai Bast area, killing eight on the spot, and escaped quickly, a top provincial official said. In the meantime, Mohammad Zaman Hamdard, the spokesman for Helmand police has confirmed the incident but didn't provide details, reports Xinhua news agency. The fire exchange between the police and the Taliban rebels in Qalai Bast area inflicted casualties on both sides, he said. The Taliban outfit, which is active in parts of Helmand province, is yet to make a comment. Lucknow, June 13 : It is now mandatory for tobacco sellers in Uttar Pradesh to take a license. The government has taken this decision keeping in mind the growing problem of tobacco and the danger it poses to public health and also ensure effective enforcement of the rules and policies applicable for tobacco control. According to the government spokesman, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had sent an advisory letter to all the state governments recommending the licensing of tobacco vendors to the municipal corporation. In view of this, this system has been implemented in UP. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey conducted by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, 35.5 per cent of adults (15 years and above) in Uttar Pradesh use tobacco in some form or the other. The total direct and indirect cost of disease caused by tobacco use is Rs 182,000 crore, which is about 1.8 per cent of the country's GDP. It has also been decided that under the new system, shopkeepers selling tobacco products will not be able to sell non-tobacco products like toffee, candy, chips, biscuits, soft drinks. This has been done to prevent children from getting attracted towards tobacco products. Chennai, June 13 : The Tamil Nadu government announced more relaxations in 27 districts of the state including Chennai corporation following a decrease in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases as well as active cases in the state. Chief minister M.K. Stalin in a statement said that following representations from various sections of people, the state government is providing relaxations in 27 districts of the state including the capital, Chennai. Tea shops are permitted to function from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday but they are allowed to offer only parcel services and people are not allowed to stand near the shops and consume tea. It may be recalled that when the government announced the opening of TASMAC liquor vends from Friday, there were widespread criticisms against the government's move in not allowing tea shops to function while the liquor shops were allowed to operate. M. Pugazhendi, an avid blogger and social media influencer while speaking to IANS said, "Thanks to proactive youths of our state who came out against the government's decision to allow liquor vends and prevent tea shops to function, the government was forced to allow opening tea shops, even though we are not permitted to sit or stand near these shops and consume the brew." He adds, "The government was forced into submission as the social media posts pointing out the discrepancies in allowing liquor shops and preventing tea shops to function was a rage in the state as well as outside." The BJP and PMK had also condemned the opening of liquor shops from Monday. The BJP will stage protests across the state against the decision to open liquor shops. While hotels and bakeries are already allowed to function, the state government has now allowed sweet shops to start business from Monday from 6 a.m. 2 p.m. While construction companies are allowed to function, the offices of these companies were not allowed to open leading to difficulties in payment of salaries of the staff as also purchasing of construction materials. The offices of the construction companies will start functioning with 50 per cent of the employees. These relaxations will not be allowed in 11 districts of Tamil Nadu including seven western districts and 4 in Delta region. Srinagar, June 13 : Jammu and Kashmir Police has approached Google and US authoritiees, asking them to preserve the e-mails allegedly sent by arrested Peoples Democratic Party youth wing President Waheed Parra to Pakistan-based terror groups. Parra has been charge sheeted by the Counter Intelligence Wing Kashmir (CIK) of J&K CID under the Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act (UAPA) allegedly for establishing a nexus with militants to seek their backing for political gains and for reciprocating by way of providing a range of help and support which led to terror strikes. Through the Ministry of External Affairs, J&K Police has approached US authorities, by invoking the provisions of the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT), to provide necessary assistance in the case. "Google US has been approached through proper channels as per their standard norms to provide details/contents of emails exchanged by Parra through his three emails IDs with militant groups in Pakistan," a source said. While the CIK has submitted the charge sheet against Parra in a local court, the NIA has also presented a charge sheet against him in the designated court for allegedly paying Rs 5 crore to the son-in-law of separatist leader, Syed Ali Geelani for keeping the Valley in turmoil after the death of Hizbul 'poster boy', Burhan Wani in 2016. Both Parra and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti have denied the charges, terming them "politically motivated". New Delhi, June 13 : Days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met the central leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the national capital, the state BJP unit has started preparation for next year's Assembly polls with the formation of a frontal organisation. Series of meetings have also been started to take stock of the ground situations. UP BJP sources, however, said that teams of several frontal organisations, departments and cells have not formed over a year. A state BJP leader said that 'Morchas,Prakoshth and Vibhags' will be reconstituted with an eye on next year's Assembly polls. "The appointments of new teams were delayed due to Covid pandemic. Now ahead of next year's assembly polls it has been decided to reconstitute the teams of these frontal organisations by making new appointments," he said. A senior saffron party leader said that a deadline of a month has been set to complete the appointment process in these frontal and associated organisations from state, district to block levels.A The seven morchas are awomen, youth, minority, OBC, SC, ST and farmers'. The prakoshth works reach out to specific communities like weavers, cultural artists, fishermen, traders or professions like lawyers or doctors. The vibhag works with specific government programs like Namami Gange or Swachhta Abhiyan or party's specific works like information technology or media. Social equations will be taken into consideration while making organisational appointments in these morchas, prakoshth and vibhags at all levels. Uttar Pradesh BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Sunil Bansal has started meeting workers at different parts of the state. Bansal is meeting party leaders across the state. He is discussing ways to improve BJP's electoral fortune in 2022 Assembly polls. On Saturday, Bansal met the party leader of Western Uttar Pradesh. In the meeting it was decided to fill up orgainsational vacancy at earliest. "Bansal ji has told us to create an positive atmosphere at booth level for the party and state government," said a party leader. New York, June 13 : Find it hard to manage your team? Encouraging employees to learn on the job and speak up with ideas and suggestions for change can build teams that are more effective and resilient in the face of unexpected situations, according to new research. The study, led by researchers from Rice University in the US and University of Windsor in Canada, examined what makes employees more resilient and fosters learning in the workplace. The researchers specifically examined the interactions of 48 teams from five Canadian technology startups. They found that teams were more effective and resilient if their bosses encouraged employees to take risks, make suggestions and learn from the process. Creating a work environment centered around learning and open communication is helpful as teams grow and take on new tasks, said Danielle King, Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. Leaders must reinforce this workplace culture with positive language that signals openness and a focus on their development. For example, when a boss responds to an employee who makes an on-the-job error by saying, 'Great, now you can learn from this experience,' rather than berating them for making a mistake, it makes a big difference, the researchers said. The findings will appear in the journal Group & Organization Management. "Knowing that you have a leader who is focused on learning and not just on performance outcomes is critical. It's also important for them to be intentional about communicating this regularly to employees, as it can make all the difference in building more resilient teams. Leaders need to verbally reward a learning mindset,"King noted. Hyderabad, June 13 : Telangana government will provide Rs 7,509 crore as investment support to over 63 lakh farmers for cultivation during Kharif season under Rythu Bandhu scheme. Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy said on Sunday that the government has made all arrangements to credit the amount at the rate of Rs 5,000 per acre to the bank accounts of the farmers from June 15 to 25. This year farmers who received landholding (pattadar) passbooks and registered their details through CCLA on the Dharani portal by June 10 will be eligible to receive Rythu Bandhu assistance. The Minister said CCLA has submitted a list of 63,25,695 beneficiaries to the agriculture department. The departments estimated that an amount of Rs 7,508.78 crore is required for assistance under the scheme for cultivation on 150.18 lakh acres across the state. An additional 66,311 acres have been brought under Rythu Bandhu this year. This will benefit 2.81 lakh farmers. First time beneficiaries will have to submit their pattadar passbooks, aadhaar cards and bank details to the agriculture extension officers concerned to avail the benefit. The Minister clarified that the amount will also be deposited in accounts for which IFSC codes may have changed due to merger of some banks. He said the farmers need not have any worried over this. Among 34 district, Nalgonda district has highest number of beneficiaries (4,72,983). They hold 12.18 lakh acres of land and the district needs Rs 608.81 crore. Medchal Malkajgiri district has least number of beneficiaries (39,762). They own 77,000 acres of land and will get an assistance of Rs 38.39 crore under the scheme. The state government made an allocation of Rs 14,800 crore for Rythu Bandhu in 2021-22 budget. Under the scheme, Rs 10,000 investment support is being provided for every acre every year. The government is crediting the amount in two installments for two crop seasons. It was in 2018 that the government had launched the scheme with announcement of Rs 8,000 investment support per acre per crop. In 2019, the amount was enhanced to Rs 10,000. New Delhi, June 13 : CCTV footage turned out to be a key input in solving a crime, with Delhi Police cracking a snatching matter within a record four hours -- from registration of the case to arrest of the criminals. Scrutinising CCTV footage and the inputs developed with local intelligence led the police to solve the daylight snatching case that occurred outside Ghitorni Metro Station on Friday. Sandeep Lamba, whose mobile phone was taken, is a research scholar, pursuing his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He was also engaged in developing an app related to women safety issues. Police accelerated their inquiry after the complainant informed them that robbed mobile phone contained valuable and important data related to studies which was crucial for his career as well as the project in pipeline, related to women safety. A dedicated investigating team, comprising Sub-Inspector Rishikesh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Raj Kumar, Head Constable Ram Karan, Constables Sita Ram, Yogesh, Niranjan, Sandeep and Khushi Ram, under supervision of Station House Officer, Fatehpur Beri, Inspector Kuldeep Singh and overall guidance of ACP, Mehrauli, Ranbir Singh, was set up soon after the complaint was filed. "During the course of investigation, CCTV cameras installed at nearby place of occurrence and surrounding area were checked. Local informants were contacted and briefed about the incident. After rigorous efforts, the team finally zeroed down upon accused persons," said the police. The accused, identified as Abhishek, 21, and Rupak Kumar Pandey, 22, were caught with the help of CCTV footage and local intelligence, said the police, adding "the culprits were arrested within 4 hours of incident". The robbed mobile phone, as well as the motorcycle used in the crime, was recovered from the possession of the accused. During interrogation of the snatchers, the police claimed to have solved another similar snatching case. Investigation of the case and interrogation regarding other offences committed by accused persons is in progress. San Francisco, June 13 : Tesla has downgraded the range of its brand new Model S Long Range, which also happens to be Tesla's longest-range electric car, just a few days after launching the vehicle. The event Tesla held at its Fremont factory was more about the Model S Plaid, the new top performance Model S, but it was also the official launch of the new Model S, which also includes the cheaper Model S Long Range. It was only briefly mentioned by CEO Elon Musk during the presentation when discussing the version's longer range. "In the Dual Motor configuration, it got a 412-mile range - 420 give or take," Musk joked about almost having 420 miles of range. The 412 miles of range was indeed what Tesla was advertising since starting to take orders for the new Model S in January. However, recently, Tesla has updated the Model S online configurator to change the Model S Long Range's advertised range to 405 miles. It is a small 7-mile downgrade over the previously advertised range by Tesla for the new $80,000 version of the Model S. The official EPA estimated ranges for the new versions of the Model S are not on the agency's website, but Tesla appears to have received the official results -- leading to the change in the advertised range. -- Syndicated from IANS Chennai, June 13 : BJP Tamil Nadu president L.Murugan has slammed Chief Minister M.K. Stalin's decision to allow opening of Tasmac liquor shops from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the extended lockdown period. Murugan alleged that as the Leader of Opposition during the previous AIADMK government's tenure, Stalin had protested against the opening of Tasmac shops during the first Covid wave. He said, "When the AIADMK government announced the opening of Tasmac shops during the first wave of the pandemic, Stalin said he and his party condemned the decision and led huge protests against it across the state. Now when in power DMK-led government are opening these liquor shops. This is the height of duplicity. Government should not allow opening of Tasmac shops as it will affect the health and lives of the people." Destitute people have been largely hit by the Covid-19, said the senior BJP leader, adding, that such people will be affected more by opening of these liquor shops. "During the elections, the DMK had promised to shut down Tasmac shops, while Stalin's sister and party MP Kanimozhi, had even said the liquor making units would be shut down but the DMK-led government is now opening Tasmac shops during the pandemic, thus adding misery to the lives of poor people," he added. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mumbai, June 13 : FMCG company Ruchi Soya, which was taken over by Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurveda under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), plans to go ahead with a further public offering (FPO) in a bid to raise more funds. The move would also allow the company to meet SEBI's minimum public shareholding norms. In a regulatory filing on Sunday, Ruchi Soya said that the Issue Committee, constituted by the board, on June 12 approved the raising of funds and also approved the draft red herring prospectus to be filed with the capital market regulator. "We wish to inform you that the Issue committee constituted and authorised by the Board of Directors of the Company, by way of a circular resolution dated June 12, 2021, has approved (i) raising of funds by way of further public offer of equity shares of the Company and (ii) the Draft Red Herring Prospectus dated June 12, 2021 ('DRHP') for filing with Securities and Exchange Board of India ('SEBI') and BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited," it said. Industry sources suggested that the company has filed the draft prospectus with SEBI and may raise around Rs 4,300 crore through the FPO. The share issue would also help the company achieve the SEBI's minimum public shareholding norms. As per the data on the BSE website, as of March 31, 2021, promoters held 98.90 per cent shares in the company. At the end of the day's trade on Friday, shares of Ruchi Soya on the BSE were at Rs 1,242.35, higher by Rs 3.50, or 0.28 per cent, from its previous close. Patna, June 13 : The relatives of a man, who died due to snakebite in Bihar's Bhagalpur district, dumped his body into the Ganga on Sunday, despite objections of the local residents. The locals made video clips of the incident, which occurred in Kahalgaon block under Bhagalpur. Mithilesh Kumar died due to snake bite in his native village Nawada Bazar in Banka district. His family members took his body to the Barari Ghat in Bhagalpur but the Dom Raja of the Ghat demanded Rs 1 lakh to allow them to dump it in the Ganga. In Bihar, there is a tradition that the last rites of someone who died of snake bite are doing by putting the body into the Ganga, along with a banana tree trunk. The family members negotiated with Dom Raja and the latter agreed to Rs 11,000 but as they did not even have that money, they took the dead body to Kahalgaon, some 50 km away from Bhagalpur city. They negotiated with the Dom Raja of Kahalgaon Ghat for Rs 1,500, and also contacted a boat owner, and set a deal for Rs 2,500. Then they took the dead body to the middle of Ganga, tied it to a banana tree trunk and dumped it in the river. Local residents claimed that the District Magistrate had deployed a judicial magistrate at every cremation ground when the corona infection was at peak but these were withdrawn from June 1. Contacted for comments, R.P. Sharma, a duty officer of Kahalgaon police station, said: "We have received a complaint pertaining to this case and we are trying to contact the deceased's family." During the severe second wave of corona, people in several districts such as Buxar, Bhojpur, Patna, and Bhagalpur dumped a large number of dead bodies into the Ganga. Chandigarh, June 13 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said a centralised water monitoring system would be prepared in two years for the availability of water for the farmers. Issuing directions to prepare a plan, he said all the districts, blocks and villages would be included. Presiding over the first meeting of the Haryana Water Resources Authority, the Chief Minister said to check the depleting groundwater level there is a need for a plan for water recharge and its utilization so that people can get adequate supply for agriculture and domestic use. He directed the officers to formulate plans on the basis of different areas and prepare water availability index of each village so that people can get information regarding availability of water in the future. The Chief Minister said the groundwater level has gone down to 80 feet in districts like Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal and Panipat in five decades, which is a serious problem. While the level of water is going down, the dependence and exploitation of the groundwater has increased continuously. Along with this, scientific methods have to be adopted for rational use of water and supply of water to the areas with scarcity, he said. Water Resources Authority Chairperson Keshni Anand Arora said a customized water plan would be prepared for the availability of water. For this, the classification of groundwater level in different parts on the basis of areas will be studied. New Delhi, June 13 : Lauding the latest revision in the FAME-II norms by the Centre, stakeholders in the sector have said that the move will substantially increase the demand for electric bikes and scooters. Hero Electric MD Naveen Munjal said: "In what will be seen as one of the most significant moves in the last decade for the electric vehicles industry, the increase in subsidy under FAME II will usher in a new era of electric mobility in India." He was of the view that the increase in the cap of subsidies for EVs will be a game changer driving consumers towards electric scooters even as petrol prices continue to touch the Rs 100 mark. In a statement, electric two-wheeler maker RattanIndia-Revolt Intellicorp (Revolt) said that the company, along with its customers, are set to be big gainers of the major revisions made by the government to the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME II) scheme which has increased the incentive for manufacturers from Rs 10,000 per kWh to Rs 15,000 per kWh. "This would translate into Rs 48,000 incentive per bike that Revolt sells. This could mean FAME II incentives upto Rs 480 crore for current production capacity of 1 lakh bikes per annum," it said. "This bold policy measure clearly demonstrates the intent of the government to rapidly transform the adoption of electric vehicles," Revolt and RattanIndia Enterprises Chairman Rajiv Rattan said. Further, Revolt CEO and MD Rahul Sharma said that the decision will further incentivise both the EV manufacturers and customers and will exponentially accelerate the EV adoption in the country. Nexzu mobility Chief Marketing Officer, Pankaj Tiwari, said: "Government's move to increase subsidy to electric bikes and scooters by 50 per cent, subject to those that meet the FAME II criteria, is a welcome stimulus which will boost adoption and encourage research & development and innovation for enhanced customer experience." He was of the view that the development will provide a fillip to Indian EV companies to manufacture the finest, electric high-speed mobility solutions. It will also help firms to boost the growth of EV space across the nation, he added. "However, we would also like to see electric bicycles fall under the ambit of the FAME-II policy with an independent incentive for two-wheelers, based on some of the key features like battery power etc," Tiwari said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Thiruvananthapuram, June 13 : A man was arrested in Kerala's Kannur for beating his year-old stepdaughter with firewood, leaving her with injuries on the face and head, police said on Sunday. The man was identified as Puthenveetil Ratheesh, 39. Mother C.V. Remya, 24, was also taken into custody for not preventing her husband from beating the child. They have been held under the Juvenile Justice Act and will be produced before a magistrate. The infant is admitted at Government Medical College, Kannur, and her condition is stated to be stable. The incident occurred on Saturday night, when Ratheesh, in a fit of rage, beat the child up after she urinated inside the house. The child's grandparents immediately took her to the Peravur Government Hospital and when the doctors found that the infant had severe injuries in the face and head, they alerted the police. Child's grandmother Soudamini told IANS that Ratheesh used to beat the child for small incidents. "This was the height of his torture and my little girl is grievously injured and there is no option other than to complain to the police. Now the girl is recovering at the Government Medical College, Kannur." Kerala State Child Rights Commission Chairman, K.V. Manoj Kumar has ordered a detailed investigation into the incident. Beijing, June 13 : Smartphone brand Xiaomi has revealed that its 200W wired charging solution, which was recently showcased, drains battery capacity at a significant rate. The manufacturer said this solution is able to top up a 4,000mAh battery in just eight minutes, but it turns out that this comes at a long-term cost, Android Authority reported. The company posted a Q&A on its Weibo account and one of the questions concerned the impact of 200W charging on battery health over time. It turns out that 800 charging and discharging cycles at 200W results in the battery degrading to "above 80 per cent" of its original capacity. The 800 cycles corresponds to just over two years, so that means a phone with a 4,000mAh battery will effectively have a 3,200mAh battery (or a little more than this) after two years of charging via this method. Meanwhile, a device with a 5,000mAh battery will essentially have a 4,000mAh battery after two years of 200W charging, the report said. The Chinese brand already holds the record for the fastest wireless charging technology in a device with its 67W wireless charging technology present in the Mi 11 Pro and Mi 11 Ultra. Last year, it announced an 80W wireless fast charging technology that is yet to be supported by any device yet though it already sells an 80W wireless charger. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Thiruvananthapuram, June 13 : Amidst the raging controversy over the "modernisation" of Lakshadweep, the Union Territory's Administrator, Praful Khoda Patel is set to reach the islands on Monday, and stay there till June 20. The "Save Lakshadweep Forum", an umbrella group of local activists and opposition politicians who have been in the forefront of agitations against the new reforms of the Administrator, have already announced that they would stage protest marches in the islands. Ever since Patel, a former Gujarat Home Minister, assumed office as the Administrator, there have been concerted protests against his style of functioning with the opposition charging that he is bent on destroying the culture of the island, a charge denied by the Administrator's office. Lakshadweep District Collector S. Askar Ali told IANS that the Administrator is reaching on Monday and will continue to stay there till Sunday. "He will be reviewing a slew of projects in power sector, hospitals, and schools at the Agatti, Kavaratti, Minicoy, Androth and Kalpeni islands." While Members of Parliament from Kerala had petitioned the Administrator to allow them to visit the islands to have a first-hand study on the new measures being implemented, film maker Aisha Sultana, a native of Lakshadweep, was slapped with sedition charges after she made an observation during discussion in a television channel that the Union government had used "Bio Weapon" on the people of Lakshadweep. Sultana had later come out with a statement that she had some network problems while speaking at the television debate and that she had used the term "Bio Weapon" for Patel. Lakshadweep is inhabited almost entirely by Muslims, and coming to their support, political leaders and parties from Kerala have been conducting several protest marches across the state and had burnt the Administrator in effigy in front of his office at Ernakulam. "The Lakshadweep Administrator is planning something massive which will destroy the culture of the island and the lives of the people of this serene place," CPI-M MP, Elamaram Kareem told IANS. "This is a highly eco-sensitive place and highly fragile and any constructions like huge resorts will have a negative impact on the ecology of the region. The Administrator is acting like a dictator and is not listening to the voices of the people of Lakshadweep." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Hyderabad, June 13 : Hyderabad police have arrested a social activist after a woman YouTuber allegedly attempted suicide due to the defamatory comments the man had been making against her. Syed Saleem, who runs an NGO, was arrested by Chandrayangutta police after a video of the woman YouTuber surfaced. The woman said that she was ending her life due to harassment by the accused. The victim, a YouTube reporter who also runs Khidmat e- Khalq Charitable Trust on Facebook, reportedly tried to commit suicide by consuming sleeping pills. Saleem, a resident of Hafeez Baba Nagar and president of an NGO, had allegedly made objectionable comments against the woman and posted a few videos against her. Mild tension prevailed near the house of Saleem at Dabeerpura on Saturday night when he was being arrested. Some people who had gathered there tried to attack the accused and hurled abuses. Meanwhile, Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) leader Amjedullah Khan Khalid alleged that the police arrested Saleem under pressure from Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). He said there was mockery of democracy and total breakdown of law and order when MIM workers including corporators gathered and tried to attack Saleem and used filthy language in the presence of police. The MBT leader questioned police's quick action without even ascertaining as to when and where the woman attempted suicide. Thiruvananthapuram, June 13 : The issue of 'Love Jihad' has cropped up again in Kerala after reports that the Centre has denied permission to return to four women, who had gone from the state to Afghanistan along with their husbands and children to live in the "Islamic Caliphate" promised by terror organisation IS. Four women -- Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha, Merin Jacob alias Merrin, Nimisha Nair alias Fathima Isa, and Raffaela -- had gone with their families to Afghanistan to live in territory of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) in 2016-18. Their husbands were killed in separate attacks and the women surrendered before the Afghan authorities in November 2019. Senior Indian officials including from the External Affairs Ministry and intelligence agencies had interrogated these four women in Kabul prisons and had reported to the Indian government that these women were highly radicalised. However, Nimisha's mother Bindu has already lashed out against the reports that the Indian government is not preferring to allow these women back into the country. Addressing media at Thiruvananthapuram, Bindu said: "Why are they not allowing my daughter back into the country. Let her undergo a trial and be given the punishment according to the law of the land. She has a small child and I don't know why the authorities are so adamant on this." It was alleged that several Hindu and Christian girls were lured by Muslim youths, taken to IS strongholds, and trained as terrorists. The BJP, RSS and other Hindu organisations were at the forefront of the campaigns that girls were being lured under the guise of love, converted, and several of them were radicalised to end up in places like Afghanistan and Syria where they were doubled up as fighters for the IS. Way back in 2009, Justice K.T. Sankaran of the Kerala High Court, hearing a bail plea of a Muslim youth arrested allegedly for converting two Hindu girls, had said: "The police reports revealed the blessings of some outfits for a concerted effort for religious conversions." He observed that "indications of forceful religious conversions under the garb of love" were found and called for legislative interventions to prevent such acts. Meanwhile, the RSS and other Hindu organisations have already said that the issue of 'Love Jihad' has to be taken for major discussion with the new developments. Talking to IANS, senior RSS leader and convenor of think tank 'Prajnapravah', J. Nandakumar claimed: "You can call it 'Love Jihad', 'Romeo Jihad' or anything but these four women are a classic example as to how there is a planned and concerted effort to lure Hindu and Christian girls and how they were radicalised and sent across to fight in Afghanistan. The major political parties have become silent or looked the other side fearing the repercussion from an organised vote bank." "These four women should not be allowed to come back to India as they are already radicalised and IS chief Abubakr Baghdadi had clearly said that the trained mercenaries must focus attention on their home country to fight for the Caliphate. They will definitely abide by the call of Baghdadi and will be a major threat to internal security if they are allowed to come back to India." The Catholic church has already come out to allege several girls from the community are being lured away by Muslim youths into marriages and conversions. The Syro-Malabar Church's synod, an apex body of Catholic Bishops chaired by Cardinal George Alanchery, had accused the Kerala Police of not viewing the matter seriously. "It is a reality that 'Love Jihad' is happening in Kerala in a planned manner targeting Christian girls," it said, noting that out of 21 girls recruited to Islamic State terror outfit, half of them were Christians. However, Muslim organisations have denied the existence of 'Love Jihad'. The Popular Front of India, considered as a radical Muslim group, had, in a statement, held that no Muslim organisations in India had recognised the Islamic State. Its Kerala state President, Nasarudeen Elamaram, speaking to IANS, maintained: "There is no such thing as 'Love Jihad' and no Muslim organisation in the country had accepted the existence of the Islamic State. We have strong doubts as to who was involved in the creation of the IS." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Guwahati, June 13 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday visited the family members of the two teenage sisters, who were found hanging from a tree in their village in Kokrajhar district, and said that the police would soon discover the truth behind the incident. Sarma, who had rushed to the Abhayakhuti village in western Assam and met the family members of the victims, said that there are some doubts on a few people and police have picked up five persons for interrogation. "Of the five detainees, two deleted all messages and photos from their mobile phones. They talked with the girls for some time," the Chief Minister told the media. Sarma, who holds the home portfolio, said that prima-facie the case suggests both murder as well as suicide under duress. "If it is a murder, then the police would definitely nab the culprits and punish them. If it is suicide, then we have to find out the reason behind such a horrific incident. I have instructed the police accordingly," the Chief Minister said adding "We are not taking the killing of the two indigenous girls lightly, we would go ahead with all seriousness." Sarma said giving priority to the incident he personally did on-ground scrutiny and discussed the matter with the Bodoland Territorial Area Inspector General and Kokrajhar Superintendent of Police. The family members of the victims claimed that both the girls, who were missing since Friday afternoon, were raped and then murdered.Police said that the bodies of the two girls aged 14 and 16 were found hanging from a tree inside a forest in Abhayakuti village on Friday night. The bodies were sent to Kokrajhar Civil Hospital for post-mortem.The villagers of the tribal dominated village Abhayakhuti were shocked at the horrifying incident. Madikeri : , June 13 (IANS) Eight policemen were suspended for allegedly beating a 50-year-old man to death after he reportedly attacked a constable with a knife in Karnataka's Kodagu district, police said on Sunday. "Eight policemen, including 2 head constables and 6 constables of Virajpet police station, have been suspended after the victim Roy D'Souza's mother filed a complaint that her elder son was beaten to death for refusing to surrender after attacking beat policeman Sangmesh Shivapura with a knife on June 8," Inspector General of Police, Southern Range, Praveen Madhukar Pawar told IANS on phone. The suspended policemen are head constables M.U. Sunil and N.S. Lokesh, and constables H.J. Tanukumar, N.H. Satish, M. Sunil, A. Ramesh, K.G. Nehru, and B.T. Pradeep. "Kodagu Superintendent of Police Kshma Misra filed an FIR under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code against the policemen on a complaint by D'Souza's mother Matilda on June 10," said Pawar. The case was transferred on June 12 to the CID for probe, as per the National Human Rights Commission guidelines. According to the FIR, the incident occurred on June 8 night when D'Souza attacked Shivapura with a knife and ran after him to assault him again. As Shivapura rushed into the police station, D'Souza was asked to surrender for attacking a policeman on duty. When he refused, the policemen there reportedly thrashed him up after detaining him. "On June 9 morning, D'Souza's mother was called to the police station to take her son who lay critically injured in the police station compound. When he was rushed to the government hospital at Madikeri, doctors declared him brought dead," said the report. The CID is waiting for the post-mortem report from the hospital at Madikeri where the victim's inquest was conducted to ascertain the cause of death. "The CID will also investigate if the victim was 'mentally unsound' as alleged by the policemen," added Pawar. New Delhi, June 13 : Accepting that high fuel prices have been a cause of difficulty to the general public, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday said that at a time when the government expenditure has surged due to welfare schemes along with vaccination coverage amid the pandemic, the government is saving money for such initiatives for the public. Speaking to reporters, Pradhan said: "I accept that the current fuel prices are causing trouble to the consumers, there is no ambiguity over it. But whether it is the Centre of the state governmentsover Rs 35,000 crore is being spent on vaccination during a year. Recently, the Prime Minister announced Rs 1 lakh crore spending for giving free food grains to the poor under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana." He also added that under PM Kisan scheme, thousand of crores have been transferred to the accounts of farmers and also mentioned that recently the minimum support prices (MSP) for rice and wheat have been announced keeping in view the well-being of farmers, which have added to the government exchequer. "All these expenses (are there) and along with those, investments are required for job creation and developmental activities," he said. "In this time of difficulty, we are saving money to spend for welfare initiatives," the Minister said. On a question on criticism by the Opposition over high fuel prices, the Minister retorted by asking why the states where Congress is in power, such as Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra, fuel prices have not been lowered. The statement comes at a time when both petrol and diesel prices have surged to unprecedented levels and in several places including Mumbai, and Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, petrol prices have surged over the Rs 100 per litre mark. In Sri Ganganagar, even diesel has crossed the Rs 100 a litre mark. In Delhi, petrol was sold for Rs 96.12 while diesel was priced at Rs 86.98 per litre on Sunday. Bengaluru, June 13 : Karnataka's cybercrime police have busted a Rs 290-crore hawala (money laundering) scam, operated in the name of 'Powerbank' investment and arrested nine persons, including two Chinese and two Tibetans, an official of the state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said on Sunday. "The 9 accused, including 2 Chinese, 2 Tibetans and 5 directors of shell companies involved in the hawala scam were arrested under section 420 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and section 66 of the IT Act for cheating several investors," said CID cybercrime's Superintendent of Police M.D. Sharath here. During the investigation, the cybercrime sleuths found that a Kerala-based businessman (Anas Ahmed) was the mastermind behind the scam, operating with Chinese hawala operators in money laundering. "Ahmed, who is still at large, married a Chinese woman when he was in China for studies and established links with Chinese hawala operators. He opened shell companies to route the laundered money," said Sharath in a statement. The case was registered on a complaint by Razor Pay Software Ltd, a payment solutions firm in this tech city, which alleged that the accused had availed its solutions by claiming that they were in gaming, social and e-commerce business. "The accused defrauded Razor by misusing its solutions to deviate from their stated business and routed transactions to collect payments from investors in the name of 'Powerbank' an application (app) in Google Playstore," said Sharath. Razon came to know from investors, who invested in the Powerbank app to earn some percentage of interest daily and weekly on their investment, as promised. "The accused neither paid the interest nor returned the principal amount to the investors and laundered the money through the hawala route outside the country," said Sharath. Ahmed, who hosted the online Rummy application camouflaged and converted it into Powerbank app and lured investors with good returns. "An unusual spike was seen in user investments on the day Ahmed announced much higher returns. As per his plan, the apps from Google Playstore and other websites were removed and he absconded," said Sharath. The cybercrime wing froze Ahmed's bank accounts which had Rs 290 crore since he began the scam in November 2020. "We have also observed that the Chinese handlers are in possession of a huge number of shell companies and bank accounts. Lured by the offer of these handlers, many gullible Indians and Tibetans fell in their trap to open shell companies and open bank accounts for them," added Sharath. Hyderabad, June 13 : The Telangana government on Sunday handed over 32 Kia luxury cars to Additional Collectors, saying the vehicles are meant for the use by the officials for their village visits. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao examined the Kia Carnival car brought and flagged off from his official residence Pragati Bhavan. On the Chief Minister's instructions, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar handed over the vehicles to the Additional Collectors after the meeting where the Chief Minister reviewed implementation of urban and rural development programmes. Each Kia Carnival car cost Rs 30-31 lakh to the government. There was no official word about when and how the vehicles were procured. The move drew strong criticism from the opposition parties, which questioned the government for purchasing expensive cars at a time when the state is facing financial crisis. "At a time when Telangana is reeling under severe financial crisis with no money for Covid medical infrastructure and to buy TSRTC buses, Telangana CM has the audacity to buy 32 Kia luxury cars for Additional Collectors," said Congress national spokesperson Sravan Kumar Dasoju. He called it misuse of public money with irresponsibility. BJP leader Vidyasagar Rao condemned the "splurge" in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. He wanted to know what the Chief Minister was celebrating and for what had he rewarded the Additional Collectors. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Syndicated from IANS Dallas Rhinoplasty Surgeon Dr. Rod J. Rohrich "It is vital to educate patients on all aspects of the procedure, but never try to sell them on the procedure," Dr. Rod J. Rohrich Dallas plastic surgeon, and rhinoplasty specialist, Dr. Rod J. Rohrich, recently gave a talk at The Aesthetic Society's Rhinoplasty Symposium on management of difficult rhinoplasty cases. Dr. Rohrich's presentation offered insight and professional guidelines based on his extensive experience with complex and especially challenging rhinoplasty patients. "Rhinoplasty is in a class of its own within plastic surgery," says Dr. Rohrich, who sees a relatively large number of rhinoplasty and revision rhinoplasty cases. "Not only are you responsible for the surgical planning and performance of the rhinoplasty or revision, but also have to be keenly aware and sensitive to how every patient's unique situation and circumstances may affect that person's self-esteem, identity, and long term quality of life." In his presentation, Dr. Rohrich advises rhinoplasty surgeons to have open and candid conversations with each patient about the risks and limitations of rhinoplasty and revision rhinoplasty. Dr. Rohrich recommends that surgeons should question the patient carefully to make sure they clearly understand the patient's goals, but also be prepared to turn down patients who may have unrealistic expectations or misconceptions about what is achievable through plastic surgery. "You must be clear about what you can, and perhaps more importantly, about what you cannot do," explains Dr. Rohrich. "Never promise what you cannot deliver." Dr. Rohrich also encourages the use of digital imaging as part of the rhinoplasty consultation, a service he offers in his own practice in Dallas, Texas. Patient photographs are edited to visually show a patient what they can reasonably expect as a surgical outcome. Imaging can be useful not only for helping the surgeon communicate what they expect the outcome to be, but also to help the patient make their final decision. "We remind our patients that the imaging is educational in nature and not a guarantee of the surgical outcome." "It is vital to educate patients on all aspects of the procedure, but never try to sell them on the procedure," says Dr. Rohrich. "Ultimately, the rhinoplasty surgeon needs to provide the patient all of the information they need to make an informed decision for themselves." About Rod J. Rohrich, M.D., F.A.C.S. Dr. Rod J. Rohrich is a board certified plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas. He is considered one of the most influential surgeons in this century. Dr. Rohrich is a Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He was the first Chair of the Department of Plastic Surgery as well as the first plastic surgeon selected as a Distinguished Teaching Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He graduated from Baylor College of Medicine with high honors, and completed his plastic surgery training at the University of Michigan Medical Center and fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard (hand/microsurgery) and Oxford University (pediatric plastic surgery). He is Chair of the Dallas Rhinoplasty Meeting, Founding Chair of the Dallas Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine Meeting, Founding Member of the Alliance in Reconstructive Surgery, and a Founding Partner of the Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the most respected global peer reviewed plastic surgery journal the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal. He is Founding Editor-in-Chief/Editor Emeritus of the first open access peer reviewed plastic surgery journal, PRS Global Open. Dr. Rohrich has published nearly 1000 peer reviewed articles and seven textbooks in plastic surgery including a recent best-selling medical book entitled The Facial Danger Zones. If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here. Submit Today Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Tonight Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Tomorrow Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms in the morning. High near 80F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Hunter Biden, the presidents son, used the n-word several times in text conversations with his $800 dollar an hour attorney to celebrate the fact that the media wasnt covering his latest failures very aggressively. As I write this column the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, and CNN have not covered the story at all. In a classic example of civic action, conservatives have undertaken a variety of initiatives to counter the upsurge in progressive efforts to enlist American schools, U.S. corporations, and all levels of government in the promotion of the doctrine that the United States is systemically racist. Progressives, who generally favor civic action, have responded with indignation, derision, and calumny. The vituperation they direct at conservatives suggests that progressives either think the campaign to entrench systemic racism as the conventional wisdom stands above all criticism or suspect that it is fatally vulnerable to scrutiny. Progressives greet the conservative defense of old-fashioned liberal ideas like toleration, individual merit, and equal treatment for all with ad hominin attacks. They reproach conservatives for daring to question the tenets of critical race theory, Ibram X. Kendis antiracism catechism, and Robin DiAngelos pronouncements on white fragility -- a body of controversial opinions that many progressives believe prove racism is latent in the American spirit and woven into nations institutions. And, as is common on both sides of the political spectrum these days, they divide the world into Us and Them, seeing theirs as the party of compassion and benevolence while casting conservatives as the party of the benighted and the bigoted. Consider New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobbs recent denunciation of South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott. On April 28, Scott gave a forceful but measured response to President Bidens address to Congress earlier that evening. Scott said that Biden seems like a good man, and [h]is speech was full of good words. Scott commended the presidents goals: He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. But the senator criticized the president and the Democrats he leads for betraying that promise. Instead of adopting policies and progress that bring us closer together, according to Scott, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further apart. Scott noted that in 2020 under Republican leadership, we passed five bipartisan COVID packages. But under the Biden administration, the senator lamented, the Democrats eschewed cooperation: They spent almost $2 trillion on a partisan bill that the White House bragged was the most liberal bill in American history! The Democrats uncompromising stance on the COVID package and their proposals for massive spending on infrastructure redefined, Scott observed, to downplay roads, bridges, airports, and the power grid and to feature social programs -- were not, in his view, the most urgent breakdown of democratic comity. Nowhere do we need common ground more desperately, he declared, than in our discussions of race. No stranger to discrimination in his youth, Scott called attention to the racism now directed at him from the left: I get called Uncle Tom and the N-word -- by progressives! By liberals! Such invective, he continued, is encouraged by our schools where, as a century ago, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them -- and if they look a certain way, theyre an oppressor. While rejecting the charge that the United States is a racist country, Scott stressed that we must fashion just policies to combat the racism that persists: Its backwards to fight discrimination with different discrimination. And its wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present. Scotts opinions about race would, within living memory, have been commonplace among civil rights activists. Yet Jelani Cobb characterized them as despicable. Indeed, in The Republican Party, Racial Hypocrisy, and the 1619 Project, which appeared in late May in the New Yorker, Cobb as much as called Scott an Uncle Tom. [T]he sole Black Republican in the Senate was speaking on behalf of a Party that, under the increasing influence of the far right, has embraced a brand of belligerent and overt racism that was naively thought to have been banished from American politics, wrote Cobb, who in addition to his position at the New Yorker is a Columbia University journalism professor. This was a stunning display of cynicism, even by the standards of the current G.O.P., Cobb added, and not the first time that Scotts race had been utilized so disingenuously. Denying Scotts agency and reducing him to a prop in a conspiracy to perpetuate oppression, Cobb maintained that Republicans have adopted the pose of anti-anti-racists in order to conceal their true purpose, which is to launder the G.O.P.s reputation and facilitate the more overtly racist portions of the partys agenda. In Cobbs telling, Donald Trumps September 2020 executive order (reversed by Biden on his first day in office) prohibiting the promotion of race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating in the Federal workforce or in the Uniformed Services is a prime example of the Republican campaign to promulgate wholesale lies about the past and present. So too, according to Cobb, was Sen. Tom Cottons bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 project by K-12 schools or school districts as well as the decision by the board of trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to grant Nikole Hannah-Jones, lead author of the 1619 Project, a five-year appointment rather than tenure. These actions, Cobb maintains, spring from a racist determination to suppress the reality of racism in America. Thats absurd. Contrary to Cobbs suggestion that it was George Floyds killing last year that provoked a long overdue reckoning with the nations racist legacy, the nation has been more or less continuously reckoning with its racist past since the Supreme Courts unanimous 1954 decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, and the landmark federal legislation of the 1960s -- the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In the wake of these government actions, and thanks to schools, national media, and popular culture, most Americans under the age of 70 grew up understanding that the evil institution of slavery is an indelible part of American history, that the nation had made great progress in eliminating discrimination on the basis of race under law, and that serious work remains to be done. Conservatives oppose a peculiar set of ideas -- championed in different ways by Kendi, DiAngelo, and Hannah-Jones -- that had been in circulation for decades but came to the fore amid the peaceful protests and violent riots of late last spring and summer. According to the doctrine of systemic racism, discrimination on the basis of race is not merely still present, but a pervasive and defining feature of the existing political order and the contemporary American experience. The doctrine teaches that all white people are unjust beneficiaries of power and privilege that derive from slavery and segregation; that free speech, due process, and equality before the law must be suspended in order to ensure proportionate group representation in key institutions and professions for blacks and other historically discriminated-against minorities; and that to question any part of this doctrine is itself an expression of racism. To be sure, Republicans have not always spoken or acted as carefully as they ought in countering the promulgation of the dogma of systemic racism by schools, corporations, and the federal bureaucracy. Conservatives should not seek to ban the doctrine. Understanding the claims of systemic racism and that many Americans embrace them is part of being an informed citizen. At the same time, conservatives -- and all who honor the nations constitutional heritage -- rightly oppose efforts by schools, corporations, and government bureaucracy to espouse, advocate, inculcate, or demand assent to the dogma of systemic racism. The cultivation of an informed citizenry, one in which each individual is encouraged to think independently and listen to fellow citizens contending points of view may even prove to be a form of civic action capable of forging alliances between right and left. First of two parts The recent failure of the Senate to approve a proposed Jan. 6 commission and the removal of National Guard troops from the Capitol have returned attention to the events of that day, as has the back-and-forth between congressional Democrats pushing the federalization (and loosening) of election rules and Republican state legislatures around the country seeking to tighten those same rules. Two broad narratives are at play. Most Republican officeholders (though not former President Trump) have abandoned the stolen election line in favor of the notion that what happened on Jan. 6, though regrettable, has been blown out of proportion for partisan reasons. Democrats, on the other hand, see Jan. 6 as a crime against democracy, the blame for which rests entirely at the feet of Donald Trump and the Republicans. Bipartisan Mayhem Democrats are right that Republicans are in denial about the true character of Jan. 6. In essence, the president of the United States spent two months alleging a stolen election without sufficient evidence to carry his case, then encouraged a large crowd to march on the Capitol in hopes of forcing Congress and/or the vice president to forgo their constitutional duty in what is normally the pro forma counting of the electoral votes. Whether or not Trump intended the riot that ensued, it was a profoundly disturbing display of presidential demagoguery and narcissism. However, Democrats are wrong that they share none of the responsibility for the fiasco. In fact, there are five distinct ways that they or their allies contributed to the intensity of the post-election dispute. Whether one acknowledges that fact makes a great deal of difference to how one perceives H.R. 1 and Republican efforts in the states. Jan. 6 and the whole train of events leading to it are best seen as a perfect storm, the culmination of years of growing polarization and mutual partisan mistrust in which neither side was innocent. Donald Trump was, to be sure, the primary actor. Starting on election night, Trump made incendiary claims that he and his legal team could not support. When those claims failed in court and the certified electors met to vote 306-232 for Joe Biden, Trump refused to concede, taking a series of steps that threw fuel on the fire. These included suggesting that Republican legislatures appoint alternate electors, entertaining Michael Flynn at the White House as he proposed that the president institute limited martial law, pleading with Georgias secretary of state that I just want to find 11,780 votes, and demanding that Vice President Mike Pence use a discretion he did not properly possess to refuse to count electoral votes from disputed Biden states. Trump supporters rally on the Ellipse as Congress prepares to certify Joe Biden's victory. Had Trump been baying by himself, nothing would have happened. As it turned out, millions of his supporters believed him. According to surveys, more than half of Republican voters thought the election was stolen. Democrats and their allies in the media and academia have a simple, self-serving, explanation: Republicans are just plain stupid. Or evil. Or both. In reality, Democrats did much over many years to assure that Trump would have a receptive audience among ordinary Republicans. First, as many Republicans pointed out in the days leading up to Jan. 6, Democrats had already blazed quite a trail for those questioning the validity of presidential election results. In fact, in the three previous Republican presidential wins 2000, 2004, and 2016 one or more Democratic members of Congress objected to the counting of electoral votes. If they didnt cite the Florida recount, it was Diebold machines in Ohio; if not Diebold machines, allegations that Trump had colluded with Russian election interference. Indeed, unwillingness to accept Trumps election led to riots in numerous cities on election night 2016, more riots in Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day 2017, and a two-year-long investigation of Russian interference that turned out to be, to use a phrase much repeated in late 2020, baseless. Trumps victory was never accepted as legitimate by his opponents. If one wishes, one can go back earlier than 2000. In 1988, Democrats did not formally object to electors, but widely blamed their loss on George H. W. Bushs racist campaign highlighting the convict Willie Horton, though it was Al Gore who first brought Willie Horton into the conversation in the New York Democratic primary. For a time in the early 1990s, Democrats blamed Ronald Reagans 1980 victory on a secret deal his campaign made with the Ayatollah Khomeini to delay release of the Iran hostages, until an extensive House investigation concluded the allegation was, again, baseless. Some even tied George McGoverns loss to Watergate, as if a 49-state wipeout could be explained by a wiretap of the Democratic National Committee that stopped operating nearly half a year before Election Day. The last Republican presidential winner whose legitimacy was not challenged by at least some Democrats was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Opportunity and Motive Democrats then left a door wide open to Republican suspicions by championing emergency COVID voting changes that reduced the barriers to potential fraud. In some cases, this meant mailing ballots to every registered voter, loosening deadlines for the return of ballots, eliminating or reducing signature-verification requirements for mailed ballots, permitting ballot harvesting, and permitting or requiring unsupervised drop boxes for ballots. Sometimes federal or state courts demanded such changes and sometimes Republican legislatures or election officials participated in these moves, but there was little question that Democrats were the primary drivers. Most Democrats undoubtedly saw their own motives as pure, but Republicans had to ask: Why are Democrats so anxious to eliminate measures that ensure ballot security? Republicans did not accept blithe assurances that fraud is simply a non-issue, and they were right not to. As recently as 2018, a congressional election in North Carolina was vacated and re-run due to fraud, and it is likely that mail-ballot elections are in fact more vulnerable to fraud than other methods. Whatever the actual incidence of fraud in 2020, there can be little doubt that conditions conducive to greater fraud were created by the 2020 voting reforms. Of course, if the political temperature had been lower, the existence of greater opportunity for fraud would not necessarily have led Republicans to be more willing to believe it actually happened. Unfortunately, Democrats had spent the previous four years raising the volume to 11, effectively convincing Trump supporters that their foes would stop at nothing to hurt him. From the dubious Russia investigations to the transparent smear executed against Brett Kavanaugh to the first impeachment, Democrats gave the appearance of allowing no scruples to interfere with the goal of tearing down Trump or his initiatives. Democrats extolled this scorched-earth opposition as the resistance. Republicans saw it as Trump Derangement Syndrome, a state of mind that could easily lead Democrats into further extremes. Unbalanced Media and Rationalized Riots Fourth, the Democratic-leaning press that is to say, 95% of the mass media had become so flagrantly unbalanced during the Trump years that ordinary Republicans had lost all trust in it. If in 1968 Walter Cronkite had told them that an election was not stolen, they would likely have believed him, but by 2020 the New York Times and CNN had given Republicans no reason to take their word for it and every reason to expect that they were shading the truth. It is essential for the media to play it straight and not openly pick sides, and there are few better examples proving the point than in late 2020. When the country badly needed a respected media to help establish a baseline of agreed-upon facts, it was nowhere to be found. One can blame Fox News, and some blame would not be misplaced; but, in the end, Rachel Maddow was as much the problem as Sean Hannity. The Times and CNN may have been right about Trumps stolen election claims, but it was hard for ordinary Republicans to see that truth, buried as it was under the rubble of retracted Russiagate scoops, the 1619 Project, and television reports describing summer 2020s mostly peaceful protests while city blocks burned in the background. Anarchy in the summer of 2020 helped seed the ground for the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Altogether, Democrats had long established the precedent of refusing to accept the legitimacy of unfavorable presidential elections, had systematically reduced barriers to fraud, had demonstrated no ethical compunctions about using every tool at their disposal to bring down Trump, and had suborned the bulk of the media so successfully that most Republicans found it completely untrustworthy. The final ingredient needed for the conflagration was the support given by the Democratic Party, the liberal media, and the progressive academy for the insurrectionary violence that consumed major American cities last summer. To refresh the memory, that violence led to two dozen deaths, over $1.5 billion in property damage, a siege of the White House, a nightly attack on the federal courthouse in Portland, Ore., and the creation of an autonomous zone in Seattle. Unfortunately, lawlessness is a contagion not easily confined once let loose. Moreover, widespread rationalization and embrace of lawlessness on the left not only gave a sort of permission for lawlessness on the right but also provided it a motive by giving an existential cast to the political conflict of 2020. None of this absolves Donald Trump from his responsibility for exploiting the situation. Without Trumps demagoguery, there would have been no crisis following the election of 2020. But without Democrats and their media allies aggressively setting the stage, Trumps demagoguery would have had a much smaller audience. To put it another way, Trump provided the post-election supply of demagoguery, but Democrats had already done a great deal to stoke the demand. Andrew E. Busch is Crown Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. He is co-author of Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics (Rowman & Littlefield). By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/13/2021 ADVERTISEMENT [ Spoiler Warning: This report includes spoilers revealing if Tiffany and Ronald are still together now or if the couple has broken up.] ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT So are Tiffany and Ronald still together now or has the couple split up and divorced? 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. couple Tiffany Franco and Ronald Smith aren't seeing eye to eye about their future and where they're going to live on Season 6 of : Happily Ever After?, so did the couple break up or are they still together now? What do spoilers reveal about their current relationship?Tiffany was a 27-year-old from Frederick, MD, and Ronald was a 29-year-old from South Africa when they starred on : The Other Way's first season in 2019.Tiffany accepted a marriage proposal from Ronald but slowly learned of his faults -- including Ronald having a serious gambling addiction that led to a six-month rehab stint in South Africa.Once Ronald changed his ways and sought therapy, Tiffany moved her eight-year-old son Daniel to South Africa on a Tourist Visa so they could be a family, but she wasn't convinced it was going to be a permanent move.Ronald had to prove himself to Tiffany, and she also said she needed to make sure Daniel would love his life in South Africa and feel safe, comfortable and happy in a foreign country.As the couple lived in South Africa together, they hit some bumps in the road -- including Ronald's wild bachelor party and Tiffany worrying his gambling addiction might turn into something else, such as alcoholism.The pair's financial situation was also pretty dire as Ronald struggled to find a well-paying, full-time job post-rehab.But Tiffany followed her heart and married Ronald, and then she got pregnant with her second child.Tiffany ultimately decided to give birth in an American hospital, even though it meant Ronald would miss the delivery. She also thought South Africa was too dangerous for her children.Tiffany therefore took Daniel back to America and planned to file a spousal visa so Ronald could move to the U.S.After giving birth to the couple's daughter Carley in Summer 2019, Tiffany revealed on Part 1 of : The Other Way's Tell-All special -- which aired in October 2019 -- that life in the U.S. was "so much harder" than she could have ever anticipated without her husband by her side.Tiffany said Ronald became "very hot and cold" about eventually moving to the United States.Ronald had allegedly told Tiffany that he didn't want to waste money trying for another visa -- given he had been denied a K-1 visa before due to his criminal record -- but then Tiffany revealed she went ahead and applied for a spousal CR-1 visa for Ronald."The last time Ronald and I were physically together, it was eight months ago," Tiffany explained, "and I am all alone -- left to face everything and be responsible for everything. Ronald, right now, is not emotionally supportive and he's not financially supportive."Tiffany said Ronald never offered to send money for clothes or diapers, and Tiffany vented, "I didn't make this baby alone!"Tiffany therefore met with an attorney, Christopher Role, and said she was no longer sure if she wanted to make things work with Ronald because she was allegedly the only person trying in their relationship."I have moments when I wonder if this marriage is right for me," Tiffany confessed. "Ronald doesn't know this, but I think I want a divorce."Tiffany lamented she was feeling miserable every day and had reached "a breaking point" and feared there was "no other choice but to get divorced" because things might only get worse once Ronald arrived to the U.S.Christopher advised Tiffany not to take divorce lightly because the process would be challenging, and so he suggested the couple should attempt therapy and counseling first.Tiffany just wanted Ronald to nail down a job and help to support their family, but Ronald insisted he was making "small strides" and "ends meet" by doing odd jobs such as painting rooms for people."It's not easy having a wife who is always doubting that you are doing the right thing," Ronald explained. "I want Tiffany to see that I can be the husband I know I can be for her and this family."Suddenly, Tiffany revealed to Ronald on Zoom she had decided to cancel her family's plane tickets to South Africa. Tiffany said it wasn't fair she was always paying for things and if Ronald wanted to see her and the kids, he'd cough up the dough.Tiffany also reminded Ronald that he had spent $3,000 to fix his motorcycle instead of helping his children, but Ronald said his money isn't worth much in the U.S. due to the exchange rate.Ronald said it was "unbearable" to miss milestones in Carley's life and watch her grow up through a computer screen, and the pair got into "a huge heated" fight over the canceled tickets.Tiffany ultimately used the money as a down payment for a new apartment so she and the kids could move out of her mother's house. She was also putting her own happiness first for once.Tiffany's mother Maggie felt there was "nothing special" about Ronald and Tiffany could probably live her best life and be happier without Ronald in her life.Tiffany said she was tired of being "taken advantage of" and "walked on," but Ronald kept assuring her that everything would be okay.Tiffany said she and Ronald were "finally in a good place" after a lot of arguing.Tiffany then received an email -- which she had been waiting on "for years" -- informing her that Ronald's visa application to come to the United States had been approved and they'd be able to move on to the interview phase of the process.Tiffany shared the big news with Ronald over videochat, and he screamed and celebrated as Tiffany tried not to cry.Ronald gushed about being "overwhelmed" -- happy and scared at the same time -- but Tiffany hadn't spoken to her father Carlos yet about becoming Ronald's co-sponsor. Tiffany fell just under the income requirement to be able to completely take care of Ronald financially upon his entrance into America."If my dad says 'no' and Ronald is not coming to America, then I'm not willing to do this long-distance thing anymore," Tiffany confessed.Tiffany eventually met up with Carlos and asked him to co-sponsor and co-sign for Ronald, and Carlos replied, "That's no problem. That's no problem. I like Ronald."But Tiffany explained she had been hiding something from her father and Ronald wasn't always the nice guy he had portrayed himself to be at the wedding in South Africa. Carlos appeared confused and bewildered.Tiffany then admitted to Carlos that Ronald has a criminal record and previously struggled with a gambling addiction.Tiffany explained Ronald had been accused of drug possession but he claimed to have gotten caught with drugs while wearing a friend's jacket into a bar. Ronald insisted the drugs did not belong to him.Since Tiffany was asking Carlos to co-sponsor Ronald in the United States, Carlos told the cameras he was beginning to second-guess his decision.Carlos worried Ronald might sink back into his old habits, and he was pretty scared about the idea of financially supporting Ronald if he made mistakes again.Carlos asked Tiffany if she was doubting her marriage and future with Ronald, but Tiffany assured her father that the past does not define who Ronald is. Tiffany said everything on Ronald's record had been withdrawn and he was never convicted of anything."Although it looks really bad and it looks really f-cked up, I just want to be honest with you... I don't want to move to [South Africa]," Tiffany explained."You're my only shot at getting him here, and I promise if anything goes wrong, I'll take care of it. I just need you to sign."Tiffany promised her father that Ronald is a good man who means well and he'd behave in America.Carlos ultimately agreed to co-sponsor Ronald because he had witnessed Ronald's close relationship with Tiffany's son Daniel. Tiffany cried and thanked her father, who comforted his emotional daughter and said everything was going to be okay.Tiffany acknowledged it was so important for Ronald to not mess up in the U.S. because it would put her relationship with Carlos at risk and possibly result in Daniel losing his grandfather.Tiffany told the cameras that everything was on the line and Ronald couldn't disappoint her.Tiffany later met with an immigration lawyer to discuss Ronald's upcoming interview at the Embassy in South Africa for the spousal visa, which was in the approval stage.Ronald was told he only had one chance to get it right or else he and Tiffany would have to wait years to go through with this process again. While Ronald videochatted with the lawyer, he was sitting back on a couch and vaping.Ronald also made light of having been arrested five or six times.Tiffany watched Ronald essentially bomb the interview during a practice round with the lawyer. Tiffany explained that Ronald rambled on when asked "yes" or "no" questions and didn't seem to take things seriously.Tiffany left the meeting more worried than ever, and the lawyer predicted Ronald would have a 50/50 chance of getting his spousal visa approved.Tiffany called Ronald after the meeting and reminded him that he needed to shape up and take things seriously, but Ronald pointed out how Tiffany and the kids could always move to South Africa and live with him."I don't know if Ronald is purposely sabotaging the visa, but I do think that he's a little more careless with it because in his mind, if it doesn't work out, we can still move over there -- which is his backup plan and so he's not that scared," Tiffany explained."For me, I'm terrified because I know I'm not going there. So for me, if he fails that interview, that's it and there's no backup plan. He still thinks he has a safety net, and he doesn't."It appears Tiffany and Ronald are still together and happy, although their relationship remains complicated and long distance.In a May 24 Instagram Live session, Tiffany conducted a makeup tutorial and dropped a sly quick comment about her current relationship status with Ronald.Towards the beginning of the hour-long video, Tiffany explained she had an allergic reaction under her eyes from an eye cream."It's from when I was on the airplane coming here from South Africa. My skin got super dry and it just got really messed up," Tiffany said, before flashing a big know-it-all smile.Tiffany also said during the video, "I wish Ronald was on here so he could help me [answer questions] while I'm doing my makeup, but he is busy!"Tiffany's comments clearly suggest she and Ronald remain a couple and continue doing things together.As recently as May 18, Tiffany and Ronald went Instagram Live together, with Tiffany posting their conversation on her page.Tiffany captioned their session, "Definitely getting a divorce. Definitely getting a divorce," but she added a crying-laughing emoticon to her post to suggest she's joking.It was clear from the pair's interactions they're still married and things are going well, but Tiffany insisted all the "divorce talk" on the show was "not for ratings" and it was real.Tiffany jokingly asked Ronald when he'd be signing the divorce papers, and Ronald explained with a big smile that he didn't have a pen.Tiffany was all giggles as she and Ronald sang love songs to each other and teased one another.And on April 4, 2021, Tiffany confirmed she still loves Ronald.Ronald posted a beautiful tribute to Tiffany's son Daniel, whom Ronald also considers and calls his son.In addition to complimenting the young boy on his maturity, cleverness and being well-mannered, Ronald wrote, "I just really hope that the connection we have I hope it never dies as you get older now I'm proud to have you as my son but also I'm a bit sad not being able to be there to celebrate it with you."Ronald, who made it clear he's still living in South Africa, continued, "But make the best of it my boy just know you are in my thoughts and I wish I was there may you have a blessed year and many more and you guys better call me when your blow the candles lol."Ronald added of Tiffany, "Last thing so tell your mom @tiffanyfrancosmith its your yes day and make the best of it... you know what i mean my boy! love your dad."Tiffany actually commented on Ronald's post, "Aw love you. I'm showing him."However, Tiffany and Ronald have had a very tumultuous relationship over the last year or so.Ronald and Tiffany announced they were "separating" in January 2020 and seemed to be headed for a divorce.Tiffany accused Ronald of "adultery" and manipulation and claimed he had suffered multiple relapses of the gambling addiction he had once sought treatment for before in a rehab facility.On January 28, 2020, Tiffany told her Instagram followers in regards to her marriage "some things are just irreparable," and Ronald claimed on social media at the time he'd be "filing for divorce in South Africa" after a year-and-a-half of marriage."Tiff only tried to do good, not really control me but more protect me from wrong [people], places and temptations, and the more I think about it now, it makes sense..." Ronald wrote on Instagram during."She was more the victim and I'll admit here I was a dick to her at times, worrying about me, me, me and not looking after her feelings or needs."But rumors of a reconciliation began to swirl on March 5, 2020 when Ronald posted adorable snapshots of Tiffany and himself seemingly in South Africa together.In March 11, 2020 Ronald uploaded a selfie of the couple as well as a photo in which they were embracing in front of a fountain during a date night at Monte in Gauteng, South Africa.Ronald then flat out confirmed the next day his marriage to Tiffany was back on and thriving in the comments section of his Instagram post."Hope the rumors are true and y'all found your way back to one another!!" one person wrote."Yes," Ronald replied.When an Instagram user asked Ronald to "please work it out" with Tiffany, Ronald responded with, "We are good."One person mentioned, "I thought they got divorced," and Ronald wrote back, "Guess not," with a smiley face.And finally, one fan wrote, "Happy you're back together," to which Ronald replied, "Yes."Tiffany revealed on a May 2020 episode of : Self-Quarantined that she was waiting for Ronald to get approved for a spousal visa so he could move to the United States."We got married over a year ago, but we only applied for his spousal visa four months ago. The coronavirus has affected the whole process of the visa. This virus is stopping everything, including my family being together," Tiffany told the cameras.Meanwhile, Ronald was living in Victoria, South Africa, and apparently FaceTimed or Skyped with his family in America often. Ronald said he desperately missed his family in the United States.On top of the distance and coronavirus "craziness," Tiffany said there were trust issues in her relationship but she and Ronald were working with a counselor to get past them.Tiffany and Ronald then reunited for the holidays in December 2020 after a tumultuous year.Tiffany apparently brought her two kids, her son Daniel from a previous relationship and Ronald's daughter Carley, to South Africa to visit her husband for Christmas.Tiffany had posted a family photo of Ronald, Daniel, Carley and herself outdoors on a bench and she captioned it, "Family," along with a red heart emoticon."Such amazing holidays with the family," she captioned another photo of herself and Ronald at the time.Ronald also confirmed on his own Instagram account the pictures were not "old" or throwbacks."Merry Christmas to everyone and your family hope you all enjoy it as much as i do," Ronald wrote."Just wanted to show everyone how blessed i am to be with my family and to be able to spend such a happy time with them and make memories, having fun, playing around, and just spending quality time as a family together hehe."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! 56, of Traverse City, died, June 25, 2021. He is the son of Elizabeth Yates and brother of Marcia Emery. Scott was preceded in death by his brother, James McCann. Services will be held 11 a.m., Friday, July 2, 2021 at the Greensky Hill Indian Methodist Church, 8484 Greensky Hill, Charlevoix. Greenville, NC (27833) Today Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Norma Jean Henderson, 90, of Glen Daniel, passed away Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Born January 12, 1931, she was the daughter of the late Fred and Blanche Stover Burleson. In addition to her family, she was preceded in death by a son, Eddie Henderson, and eight siblings Betty Marsh, Ruth Snuff FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2020, file photo, Bartender Kellie Mottiqua prepares drinks at Bridgetown Taphouse in Ambridge, Penn. Not willing to wait for more federal help, states have been moving ahead with their own coronavirus relief packages. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, in February 2021, signed legislation using $145 million in reserves from a worker's compensation fund for grants of up to $50,000 to owners of hard-hit bars, restaurants and hotels. The money is expected to be available next month. (Emily Matthews/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) The Torrington Librarys Taste of Torrington guidebook is coming out Aug. 1, with dining out opportunities for residents in and around the city. The Taste of Torrington Reimagined Guidebook will offer special promotions from participating restaurants and businesses. Each business may choose a promotion that works best for their establishment. We hope that this guidebook will help restaurant owners begin to recover and heal from the devastating effects of COVID 19. Torrington has so much to offer and we want to make sure we do our part in helping people patronize the truly wonderful establishments in our community, said library director Jessica Gueniat. The COVID-19 Pandemic has been devastating to the business community and nonprofits. We knew that we could not responsibly and safely hold and in-person fundraiser this year like we did in 2019 (which had 200 attendees). We also knew that we wanted to help support the restaurant community that so generously donates to the library year after year. If we can fundraise for the library and also help the restaurant community begin to recover from this past year, we are more than thrilled to do so. Each buidebook will feature one tear-out coupon per establishment that can only be used once. All committed restaurants are offering either BOGOs or a percentage off the total bill. Each Guidebook will come in a ToT Reimagined Gift Bag that will include complimentary promotional items and gifts from sponsors. Coupons expire March 31, 2022. Guidebooks will be available to purchase online and pick up at the library. The goal is to have Guidebooks available Aug. 1, so people can enjoy participating establishments indoor and outdoor dining. The library is encouraging any restaurant interested in participating to contact Jessica at jessh@torringtonlibrary.org, call 860-489-6684, or complete the online participation form at www.torringtonlibrary.org. Coupon offerings are at the discretion of the participating restaurant. Salvation Army Week celebrated locally National Salvation Army Week was held May 10-16, an opportunity to celebrate volunteers, donors and program beneficiaries. Several locations in Connecticut celebrated National Salvation Army Week including Ansonia, Meriden, Milford, Thomaston, Wethersfield and Windham. Salvation Army flags flew in Ansonia, Bristol, Hartford and Ridgefield; and proclamations were made in Meriden, New Haven, Newtown, Norwich, Simsbury and Winsted. The week is observed immediately following Mother's Day in May and was first declared by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, 74 years after The Salvation Army arrived in the U.S. According to a statement, The Salvation Army annually helps nearly 23 million Americans overcome poverty, addiction, and economic hardships through a range of social services. By providing food for the hungry, emergency relief for disaster survivors, rehabilitation for those suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, and clothing and shelter for people in need, the Salvation Army is doing the most good at 7,600 centers of operation around the country. In the first-ever listing of Americas Favorite Charities by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Salvation Army ranked as the countrys largest privately funded, direct-service nonprofit. For more information, visit ctri.SalvationArmy.org SalvationArmyUSA.org ECAD welcomes public to June 16 graduation WINSTED For the first time since December 2019, ECAD will hold a graduation ceremony that will be open to the public at 6:30 p.m. June 16. With pandemic restrictions on public gatherings being lifted, ECAD will be able to let four clients and their service dogs celebrate in-person with family and friends. A facility dog and its team of handlerswill also graduate. Attendees may wear masks and practice social distancing if that is their preference. The ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The event will also be live streamed. ECAD is located at 149 Newfield Rd. Winsted. For information, go to https://www.ecad1.org/ or call 860-489-6550. Dealing with weeds organically Dealing with Weeds Organically - a Wholistic Approach with horticulturist Nancy DuBrule-Clemente, will be held at 7 p.m. June 24. In this virtual presentation, horticulturist Nancy DuBrule-Clemente will help participants learn to understand and manage weeds and share her organic methods and knowledge of weed control and prevention. Topics include understanding weed life cycles and growing habits, dealing with the dormant seed bank in your soil, passive bed preparation and smothering, timely deadheading, and planting in layers to reduce weed competition. A Q&A follows the presentation. The cost of the presentation is $20 for members, $30 for non-members and $10 for students with a valid ID. Visit CTHort.org to register. Proceeds from this event benefit the CT Horticultural Scholarship Fund. For more information visit www.cthort.org Thomaston summer concerts set THOMASTON The Fine Arts Connection of Thomaston opens its 18th year of free summer concerts in the park with a concert by The Chris Coogan Quintet, 7.m. June 21 at Seth Thomas Park. If it rains, the concert will be held in the Thomaston Opera House, 158 Main St., Thomaston. Other bands in the series include country favorite Goldrush, rocking Old School, Bluegrass Restless Mountain, folks Cold Chocolate, Parkway Diner, 60s Satisfaction, Shed Rats, and the Afro Semitic Experience. Seth Thomas Park is handicap accessible. The Town of Thomaston does not permit liquor in its Parks. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. To check weather status, visit the website at www.thomastonfinearts.com Jennifer Kreps filled the gap at a residential home when a Lutheran Social Service client was diagnosed with COVID-19. Care is not her area of expertise, LSS noted, but she did want needed to be done. Submitted photo GIRARDVILLE A Civil War Medal of Honor recipient was honored with a monument and revitalized gravestone Saturday at St. Josephs Cemetery. The Girardville Ancient Order of Hibernians, Jack Kehoe Division I, and American Legion Post 309 held a procession and dedication ceremony at the cemetery in honor of Patrick Monaghan, a member of the 48th Infantry and lieutenant colonel of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Joseph Wayne, president of the AOH and sergeant of American Legion Post 309, said the Medal of Honor Society, based in Ohio, identified Monaghan as one of 560 recipients who do not have a proper marker or known burial location. Wayne said Raymond Johnson, of the Medal of Honor Society, reached out to the AOH to assist with the restoration of the grave. We felt it was only right to have a proper ceremony, Wayne said. During the ceremony, Tom Dempsey, AOH vice president, gave a history of Monaghans life and service. Monaghan was part of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry Company F during the Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor from President Abraham Lincoln for recapturing the colors of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery on June 17, 1864. Wayne said flags were used during the war as a means of communication, so having the colors stolen by the Confederates could have led soldiers into a trap. Without Monaghan, Wayne said, the entire troop could have been wiped out. What he did was heroic, and he did it voluntarily, Wayne said. After his discharge, Monaghan became the superintendent of the newly formed Girardville School District, in which he served from 1871 to 1909. Monaghan died in 1917 and was buried in St. Josephs Cemetery in Girardville. The Ashland American Legion Post 434 and the Sinking Spring Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6150 also attended the ceremony to pay tribute to Monaghan with a 21-gun salute. Tom Symons, AOH historian, closed the dedication with a prayer for the happy repose of the soul of Monaghan. Wayne said he was proud of the operation and everyone who contributed to the ceremony in honor of a local hero. It is important not just on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July or Veterans Day to honor and know your history, Wayne said. As a veteran, I am glad to see Blue Mountain High School reversed its decision not to honor these young students who volunteer life and limb to defend this nation. However, I dont feel it came from the heart but rather from public opinion. I would just like to know if the superintendent or any of the other decision makers on the school board ever served this nation. Auburn I would like to congratulate Olivia Haas on her 1,600-meter second-place finish and her third-place finish in the 800-meter run. Congratulations. We are proud of you. Pottsville The person from Kline Township had to go all the way to George W. Bush to make a point. Well, the jokes on you. I wasnt old enough to vote back then. I think I was on my tricycle yet. When you assume, you look foolish. Minersville I see where President Biden is going to meet with the Russians. I hope he acts like the American eagle and not like the Cowardly Lion. Lets stop these hackers and stop all this crap coming in with the election. Remember President Biden, American eagle. Ashland Can Kline Township really be that naive? Look at the numbers of the immigration people that are coming in here illegally since Biden took office. They are historic and you are trying to blame Trump for this. Trump did build a wall. Biden put a stop to the rest of it. Why dont you start paying attention to what is going on? Frackville Those students that wrapped themselves in the Mexican flag and were refused their diplomas temporarily, they wrapped themselves in the wrong flag. Was it Mexico that gave them their education? I dont think so. Pottsville The beauty of human-made excellence, Suez Canal is known to the human civilization, but Astronaut Thomas Pesquet took the internet by storm with his magnificent clicks. Thomas Pesquet is presently onboard in the International Space Station, and from there he clicked 100 images of the Suez Canal with the maximum zoom angle. Pesquet then created a collage of the 100 pictures and shared a magnificent image of the Suez Canal. LA construction humaine que l'on peut vraiment voir depuis l'espace a lil nu : le canal de #Suez reconstitue a partir de 100 cliches. https://t.co/1AvYZ3xxxD #MissionAlpha pic.twitter.com/oLE2OPF1Ln Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) June 12, 2021 The collage has earned huge appreciation from the netizens with around 8.3k likes. The comment section of the post is flooded with admiration for the picture and people retweeted the post several times. Thomas Pesquet shares an image of Red-Earth Thomas Pesquet, Europe Space Agency Astronaut earlier also had taken the internet by storm by sharing images of Earth's stretched-out horizon with the red and ochre hue. Pesquet from his window at the International Space Station took a picture of blue-planet, Earth but the only difference was the planet was filled with red and ochre colours. Sharing the image of the Earth stretched out to its horizon with no clouds, Pesquet said he was unable to differentiate between Earth and Mars. In the post details, Pesquet said, that this was how he imagined NASA's perseverance rover to mars would have seen Mars when it landed on the red planet. Thomas Pesquet also wrote an appreciation post for the NASA teams that flew a helicopter on Mars and also the French teams that recorded the flight with audio. He also lauded the China National Space Administration that landed its Zhurong rover on Mars and shared the details of ESA's ExoMars TGO mission that is orbiting Mars and the ExoMars rover which is set for launch next year. Image Source- @Thom_Astro Twitter Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. The Bhubaneswar Municipal has enlisted 83 foreign-bound students in the special COVID-19 vaccination drive during which the students in the age group of 18-44 years can walk in at designated centres and get themselves inoculated free of cost, an official said. Of them, 19 have already been administered both doses of Covishield vaccine at two designated centres here, an official said. The others will be covered within a day or two, he said. The civic body has also set up vaccination centres for the foreign-bound students at PN College, Khurda and CMC Kalyan Mandap, Gopalpur, Cuttack. Though the Temple City is administering Covaxin to its citizens, a special arrangement has been made to make available Covishield vaccine for the students going to foreign universities for higher studies. The students will have to produce their admission letters from their respective universities, a valid ID proof for the vaccination process, the official said. The students were advised to make their requests through 1929, 24X7 Call Centre at the Bhubaneswar Operations Centre (BOC). Authorities of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited inside the BOC have designated a special desk for document verification and listing of the students, who had applied for getting the jab, before leaving the country for higher studies. Debashish Dash of Kalinga Vihar, Patrapada, who is planning to join theInternational School of Medicine (ISM) at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, took the Covishield vaccination at PN College, Khurda on Friday. "The BMC has provided a wonderful opportunity to students like us and it is of great help," Dash said. Shawan Kumar of the Khandagiri area in the city, who plans to join Siberian State Medical University at Tomsk city, is relieved after receiving his Covishield jab. "I was afflicted with coronavirus recently and after recovering from the infection, I was worried about vaccination as my admission date was also approaching. However, the BMCs special arrangement for the students has come as a breather and now I will be confidently travelling to Siberia for my studies," Kumar said. Rishav Chand, a resident of Saheed Nagar who wants to go to Saskatoon, a city in Canada, on a work permit visa after studying at the University of Saskatoon said, "the initiative is extremely useful for students as the vaccination will be a confidence-building measure before stepping into foreign soil." Suchismita Mohapatra who lives near SUM Hospital and is planning to join Kharkiv National Medical University at Kharkiv, the second biggest city in Ukraine, is happy as she has received her first dose of Covishield. "I booked my slot through 1929 Call Centre and am grateful to the authorities for doing all the needful in a short time. Its a very constructive step as it would help many students going abroad," she added. Urmila Pradhan of Unit 4 Postal Colony, a third-year student of Vinnytsia National Medical University in Ukraine, said, "I came home during COVID after completing my second year. I was under great stress to take the vaccine before leaving for the university. Now I am happy that I can go and join my class after having received both doses of the vaccine." PTI AAM MM MM (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar on June 12 called on his Kenyan counterpart Raychelle Omamo for a productive discussion on bilateral cooperation. While taking to Twitter, Jaishankar, who arrived on a three-day visit to Kenya, said that he and Omamo undertook a detailed exchange on regional and global issues. A historical solidarity is a today a modern partnership, the EAM added. Delighted to be back in Kenya. Thank FM Raychelle Omamo for her gracious welcome and hospitality. A productive discussion on our bilateral cooperation that we will be taking forward through the Joint Commission. pic.twitter.com/CnOc7TZF1m Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) June 12, 2021 Jaishankar will be in Kenya from June 12-14. According to an MEA statement, he will chair the third meeting of the India-Kenya Joint Commission meeting along with his Kenyan counterpart. The meeting will review all aspects of the bilateral relationship between the two nations. It is worth mentioning that the last meeting of the Joint Commission was held in New Delhi in March 2019. India-Kenya relationship Further, as per the ministry, the EAM will also meet with other ministers of the Kenyan government to take forward the India-Kenya relationship. The development partnership is an important aspect of the relations between the two countries which the visit will seek to deepen. Jaishankar will also interact with the Indian-origin community, which is an important bridge between India and Kenya. "India and Kenya are currently serving in the United Nations Security Council. They are also members of the Commonwealth. Kenya is an active member of the African Union, with which India has longstanding ties," the MEA said. Meanwhile, last month, amid the unprecedented second wave of coronavirus in the country, Kenya donated 12 tonnes of food products to India as part of its COVID-19 relief efforts. As per an official statement, they sent 12 tonnes of tea, coffee, and groundnut produced locally to the Indian Red Cross Society. High Commissioner of the African country to India Willy Bett said that the donation is directed to the frontline caregivers who continue to work long hours to save lives. (With inputs from PTI) Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 13 (PTI) The mother of Nimisha Fathima, a Keralite woman who landed in a jail in Afghanistan following the killing of her IS fighter husband in an attack there, hopes that the Narendra Modi-government will pardon her daughter and bring her back to India. "I've heard that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a very kind-hearted person. I have full faith in him," Bindu Sampath, Fathima's mother told PTI. She was reacting to reports that the Central government was not interested in bringing back her daughter and three other IS widows of Indian origin, now lodged in a Kabul jail. Sampath said no communication has been received from the government on the issue and reports about the government's disinterest could be one view of the Centre. "But I am very positive because there will be other views also in the government. I am banking on that. I believe in God. I am sure that God will create a situation for her return," she said. Sampath said she wanted to meet Modi and submit a memorandum, seeking the return of her daughter. "But no one is there to help me out," she said. The mother said she would seek the legal route to get her daughter back home if all efforts with the government failed. "I have consulted some lawyers of the Supreme Court. They have said there is a legal option," Sampath said. Nimisha Sampath was a Hindu before embracing Islam. She changed her name to Fathima Isa. She married an alleged Islamic State (ISIS) operative from Kerala and both were reported missing, along with 19 others from the southern state in June 2016 before reaching an ISIS-controlled territory in Afghanistan. Fathima gave birth there. She and three other women had surrendered to the Afghanistan government in 2019 after their husbands were killed in the fight with the forces there. When reports about the government's disinterest appeared in the media on Saturday, Sampath had said she feared that her daughter would fall into the hands of Taliban once the US troops withdraw from Afghanistan in September this year. "Afghanistan will be under the control of militant groups, including the Taliban, when the US troops return from Afghanistan. The government in that country has said it will release those who are imprisoned in connection with IS cases. But the Union government has not responded," she had told reporters. "It has been a year and a half since I found out that my daughter is in an Afghan prison, but attempts to get her back have not worked," she said. Sampath said she had sent e-mails to Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his help, but it did not work. It was on March 15 last year that a video was released by a Delhi-based website,showing Fathima and three other Keralite women - Rafeela, Soniya Sebastian and Merrin Jacob- expressing their interest and hope to return to India. In the video, the women were seen saying that they were living among several fighters and other families who had surrendered to the Afghanistan government in 2019, after their husbands were killed. PTI TGB SS APR ADMINISTRATOR APR ADMINISTRATOR (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) After party leader, Digvijaya Singh sparked fresh controversy with his alleged remarks on Article 370, Congress senior member Tariq Anwar defended him by adding his statements were 'in line with the Congress' stand on the issue'. Reasoning party's opinion on the matter, Anwar said that abrogation of Article 370 helped Pakistan in raising the 'Kashmir issue at international forums.' Several Congress members defended Singh's remarks as sharp criticism came from the BJP. Speaking to ANI, Anwar alleged that due to BJP-led Central Government, India is being criticized all over the world. "In 2019 by abrogating Article 370 and making Jammu and Kashmir a Union Territory, the BJP gave Pakistan a chance of raising the issue of Kashmir repeatedly at international forums. The issue of Kashmir was not being raised at international forums for a long time, but because of the BJP-led central government, Pakistan got this opportunity due to which India is being criticised all over the world," said Tariq Anwar. He further continued by reminding that Congress Working Committee has been saying the same since 2019 when the development was executed. Anwar also defended Singh's remarks by highlighting that he has not talked about reinstating Article 370, but had spoken about reconsidering it. While answering the question of the party's stand on reinstating Article 370 if it came to power, Anwar maintained that they only want reconsideration. Attack on Prime Minister and Home Minister The Congress leader additionally attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for 'not making Jammu and Kashmir part of India' by removing article 370. Hailing his party members, Anwar said that the then Congress Prime Minister and Home Minister made Kashmir an integral part of India during 1947-48. Congress party also believes PoK and Kashmir occupied by China is an integral part of India, added Tariq Anwar. "As far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, the Congress party believes that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and the part of Kashmir occupied by China are also an integral part of India," he asserted. Digvijaya Singh's clubhouse chat Several union ministers condemned Digvijaya Singh's clubhouse chat where he was heard hinting at a possible return of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir when his party returns to power. In the 1-minute clip shared by BJP IT Cell head Malviya, Digvijaya Singh tells a Pakistani journalist that the decision to revoke Article 370 was an 'extremely sad decision,' and that when the Congress comes to power, they will 'certainly have to relook on this issue.' Meanwhile, NC chief Farooq Abdullah on Saturday, said he welcomed the remarks and was grateful to the Congress MP for raising it. (Inputs from ANI) New Delhi, Jun 12 (PTI) Jitin Prasada, who recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP, criticised Digvijay Singh on Saturday for his "pro-Pakistan" views after the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister in an audio chat purportedly said that the Congress will have a "relook" at the nullification of Article 370 if the Modi government loses power. Prasada tweeted, "He is known for his pro-Pakistan views. This way one day he might even condemn Indira ji for dividing Pakistan." After the neighbouring country lost to India in the 1971 war when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister, Bangladesh was carved out of Pakistan and became an independent country. Prasada, who is from Uttar Pradesh, recently severed his family's three-generation ties with the Congress and joined the BJP. "The decision of revoking Article 370 and reducing the statehood of J&K is extremely, I would say, sad decision, and the Congress party would certainly have a relook on the issue," Singh purportedly said, according to excerpts of his clubhouse conversation available on social media. He was responding to a question about the "way forward" on the issue "once the Modi government is gone". The BJP launched a scathing attack on Singh and top Congress leaders, accusing them of speaking "the language of Pakistan" and spewing venom against India. PTI KR RT RT (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti opined that 'the architect of Indian Constitution' BR Ambedkar would have been termed pro-Pakistani by the BJP after Digvijaya Singh's remarks on Article 370. Former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh, in a Clubhouse chat with Pakistan journalists said that the Congress would rethink the abrogation of Article 370, inviting flak from the ruling BJP. Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter to claim that Article 370 -- which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir before its operative provisions were nullified by the Centre in 2019 -- was granted by the Constitution drafted by Ambedkar, but it has been "subverted" by the Centre. Mehbooba Mufti says Ambedkar would have been called pro-Pakistani 'Stick To Party's Official Stance On Art 370': Congress On Saturday, hours after Digvijaya's controversial remarks, the Congress asked its leaders to follow the party's stance on the issue of abrogation of Article 370 as articulated in the August 6, 2019 resolution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). According to the CWC resolution of August 6, 2019, Congress ''deplores the unilateral, brazen, and totally undemocratic manner in which Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was dismembered by misinterpreting the provisions of the Constitution." 'Revocation Of Art 370 Must Be Relooked': Digvijaya Singh BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Saturday shared a clip of an alleged clubhouse chat of the Congress party, where senior leader and Madhya Pradesh MP Digvijaya Singh can be heard hinting at a possible return of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir when his party returns to power. In the 1-minute clip shared by Malviya, Digvijaya Singh tells a Pakistani journalist that the decision to revoke Article 370 was an 'extremely sad decision,' and that when the Congress comes to power, they will 'certainly have to relook on this issue.' "Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoked Article 370. Their insaniyat (humanity) was not there because they put everyone behind bars, and kashmiriyat is something that is basically the fundamentals of secularism. In a Muslim-majority state, there is Hindu Praja, and both work together. The reservation in Kashmir is given to Kashmiri pandits in government services. Therefore the decision of revoking Article 370 and revoking the statehood of J&K is an extremely sad decision and the Congress party will certainly have to have a relook on this issue," said Digvijay Singh. 'African Lion' - the U.S. Africa Command's joint annual exercise - has kicked off in Morocco for the 17th time. With more than 7,000 participants from nine nations plus NATO, 'African Lion' is U.S. Africa Command's largest exercise. 'African Lion,' according to the U.S. military, aims to employ an array of mission capabilities to strengthen cooperation between partner nations and enhance their ability to operate on the African continent. An air training exercise, coordinated by the U.S. Air Forces Europe and Africa, will feature U.S. and Moroccan air maneuvers including bombers, fighters and aerial refueling. Naval maneuvers are also planned, including a naval gunfire exercise and multiple sea-based drills involving then U.S. and Moroccan navies. U.S. Air Force airmen from the Utah Air National Guard also conducted a humanitarian civic assistance event in southern Morocco. U.S. soldiers worked alongside Moroccan soldiers, tending to local patients, in a joint humanitarian exercise. African Lion activities are spread across Morocco, from Kenitra Air Base in the north to Tan Tan and the Grier Labouihi training complex further south. Activities are also occurring in Senegal and Tunisia. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Thousands demonstrated in Dori, Burkina Faso on Saturday for better security after last weekend's terror attack which left 132 people dead. According to the head of Femmes pour la Dignite du Sahel (Women for Sahel's Dignity), demonstrators came from Sahel, Sebba, Gorom-Gorom and Falagountou. Amadou Maiga, a local resident, said: "we came out to show our displeasure, the indignation that we are suffering," he said. "There have been so many solutions sought by the government, so many decrees, so many procedures. But so far, that does not prevent, here in the Sahel, our brothers and sisters from dying." The demonstration, supervised by the Burkinabe defence and security forces, began around 7 a.m. from the Hama Arba Diallo monument and ended at 11 a.m, in relative calm. Singing the national anthem, many demonstrators carried placards with the words: "Enough is Enough", "Sahelian, I am Solhan" or "Life is a right." The demonstrators also chanted "Zero!", referring to the level of security in the Sahel. Many spoke of the "silence of the state" following last weekend's massacre of Solhan, in which armed militants killed 132 people, according to the authorities. At the head of the procession, two large black banners were emblazoned with the words: "Solhan = the shame of the Burkinabe government" and calling for the resignation of Cherif Sy the Minister of National Defence. The call for demonstrations was launched several days ago by civil society organisations and local associations. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) While addressing the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, on June 12, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made comments pressing for advanced efforts to encourage nuclear talks with Iran, and denounced Washington's "unilateral bullying". China outrightly condemned the United States intentions to deploy missiles and defensive system in the neighbouring countries which could sabotage strategic stability. According to a transcript published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang Yi said, "The comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue is an important multilateral diplomatic achievement endorsed by the UN Security Council in its resolutions and is a key pillar of international nuclear non-proliferation and peace and stability in the Middle East." Chinese Foreign Minister proposed jointly maintaining global strategic stability, in adherence to international arms control treaties, addressing the non-proliferation issue via negotiations by improvising global security governance. Speaking of global security, Wang said, "China opposes the development and deployment of regional and global missile defence systems by a certain country that undermine strategic stability, and China opposes the deployment of land-based intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the neighbourhood of other countries." China lambasts US over intentions to deploy missiles in Asia China's Minister vocalized the threat to take countermeasures if the US deployed intermediate-range missiles in Asia, hinting at Washington's move to deploy high-tech Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) in South Korea. Obviously, China is concerned that the installed American defensive system in the subcontinent could watch China's missile movement. Affirming the notion that US hegemony and intervention has caused a wreck to Iranian nuclear action and that Washington has jeopardised the regional stability, Wang commented, " The unilateral bullying behaviour by the US is the root cause of Iranian nuclear issue. And lifting the sanctions against Iran is the right logic for returning to the comprehensive agreement." Without disclosing China's arsenal of nuclear weapons, Wang called on the US and Russia to reduce their nuclear weapons. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute put the number at 320, striking a huge difference as Russia's stood at 54,000 and about 70,000 US nuclear warheads. Germany's environmentalist Green party on Saturday formally endorsed Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for chancellor, amid a slip in the party's poll ratings. The Greens led many polls after Baerbock, 40, was nominated in April to make the party's first run for Germany's top public office. But more recent surveys show outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc overtaking the Greens. A state election last weekend brought a big conservative win and a disappointing Green showing. However, at a party convention in Berlin, Baerbock was officially nominated as candidate for chancellor by a broad majority of the delegates. Due to the pandemic the convention took place in a hybrid format with several hundred party members attending in person and others participating online. In a speech to delegates after her endorsement, Baerbock pointed out that fighting the climate crisis was the biggest issue to solve globally. "Above all, there is the great task of our time: averting the climate crisis," Baerbock said adding that "we as a society must also have the confidence to do this." The party's prospects of at least a share in power after Germany's Sept. 26 national election remain promising. The Greens are still polling 20% or more - more than twice the 8.9% of the vote the party received in Germany's last election, in 2017. With Merkel stepping down after 16 years in power, no candidate has the advantage of incumbency. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Pope Francis is demanding humanitarian aid be delivered to residents of the war-torn Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers are blocking food and other assistance. Speaking at his Sunday noon blessing, Francis said he was thinking of the people of Tigray who have been "struck by a grave humanitarian crisis that has exposed the poorest to famine." Francis also called for an immediate end to fighting in Tigray, the return of "social harmony" and for "all food aid and health care to be guaranteed." The United Nations and aid groups say more than 350,000 people in Tigray face famine. The Pope also recalled the recent World Day against Child Labour, saying it was not possible to look away from "the exploitation of children who are deprived of the right to play, to study and to dream." (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) A border town in northern Croatia is selling off its jilted houses for just one Kuna (11.83 Indian Rupees). While the coastal country has seen a spike in tourism in the recent past, the town of Legrad, situated just a few miles away from the countrys border with Hungary, has seen its population half in just 70 years. Once the second-most populous city, Legrad saw an exodus following the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire about a century ago. Now, to reinstate the towns population, Croatian authorities are selling off the houses at a minimal price. Not only that but they are also paying for the renovation of each of the houses to the individuals who buy them. However, the deal has a few conditions. Firstly, all individuals interested in buying the houses should be below 40 years of age. Secondly, they should be committing to staying at Legrad, the Croatian town, for at least 15 years. "We turned into a border town with few transport connections to other places. Since then the population has been gradually falling," said the town's mayor, Ivan Sabolic. 17 properties sold So far, the town has been able to sell 17 properties. Since these houses would require repair works, the municipality says it will pay 25,000 kunas towards any refurbishments needed, and for new residents wishing to buy a privately-owned home, the town will cover 20% of the price or up to 35,000 kunas, the mayor further added. Meanwhile, Croatia has continued its battle with the lethal coronavirus contagion. The country has recorded more than 358,504 confirmed COVID-19 cases to date, of which over 8,132 people have lost their lives. Although the daily infection rate in Croatia has significantly dropped from its peak in early December, authorities don't want to take any risk by easing restrictions because of the new emerging variants. Croatia started its vaccination drive last December with other EU members and has administered 23,160 doses in the last week. At that rate, it will take a further 36 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population. Representative Image: Unsplash As a part of its 'mango diplomacy' initiative, Pakistan earlier this week sent mangoes to the heads of 32 nations in an attempt to solidify ties. According to Pakistan Foreign Office (FO), mangoes were dispatched on Wednesday to countries such as the US, China, Iran, Turkey, United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Russia amongst others on behalf of Pakistan president Arif Alvi. Varieties such as the Chaunsa mango, Anwar Rattol, and Sindhari were a part of the consignments. Pakistan Mango Diplomacy rejected However, several countries have rejected the Pakistan Mango diplomacy initiative. Sources have revealed that countries such as the US have refused to accept the souvenir citing COVID-19 concerns and quarantine regulations. Amongst others include France which has still not responded to Pakistan's intent. Pakistan's all-weather friend China also rejected its fruit souvenirs. Notably, Pakistan's 'mango diplomacy' holds a special connection to China. The two countries had solidified their ties over crates of the summer fruit all the way back in the 1960s when mangoes were gifted to Mao Zedong by Pakistani foreign minister, Mian Arshad Hussain. Countries such as Canada, Nepal, Egypt, and Sri Lanka have also expressed their regrets to the Imran Khan-led government and Pakistan President Arif Alvi after declining the Pakistan mangoes. The nations have returned the mangoes back to the country citing COVID-19 concerns. (With Agency Inputs) While condemning Nepal PM K P Sharma Olis undemocratic acts and his lust for power, five former prime ministers on June 12 appealed to the countrys administration and security agencies to not be involved in such wrong activities that have long term effect on the nation. In a statement, the former PMs, including Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal and Baburam Bhattarai, made the joint appeal. They said that PM Oli, who is currently heading a minority government, has continuously been attacking the Constitution of Nepal and undermining the long and arduous struggle of the Nepali people to achieve the federal republic and its rule of law. The former premiers said, We warn the caretaker government not to do anything or direct others to do anything that would have a long-term impact on the country and people and appeal to the administration and security agencies not to be involved in such wrong activities. They added, He has displayed the ugly form of lust for power that has never existed in Nepal's political history. We condemn such undemocratic acts by Oli. Further, the former prime ministers accused Oli of resorting to unconstitutional ways to dissolve the House of Representatives for the second time last month. They also accused the PM of pushing the country into snap polls amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They said that Oli has exposed his authoritarian, arbitrary and regressive character. Ex-premiers caution against foreign intervention The former premiers also drew the attention of all against direct or indirect foreign intervention in Nepals internal interests. They said that Nepalese themselves should decide about their future. While stating that PM Oli had shown the desire to cling onto power through unconstitutional moves, the former prime ministers alleged that Oli was involved in threatening the judiciary not just through the party's meetings but also through the attorney general. Moreover, they also went on to argue that Olis move to be in power through foul means had pushed the country towards fresh uncertainty and political instability. They alleged that Oli was bent on prolonging his stay in power instead of focusing himself to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The former premiers also called on the people, the civil society and all democratic forces to express solidarity against the autocratic attack on the principles and values of Nepals constitutional system, rule of law, and democracy. They even cautioned PM Oli not to create the situation in which foreigners dictate Nepals national politics. They also took strong exception to the decision taken by the government to export sand, pebbles and stones to India in the name of bridging the trade deficit. Meanwhile, the joint statement comes at a time when the Supreme Court started hearing on the case regarding the reinstatement of the House of Representatives, which was dissolved by Nepals President Bidya Devi Bhandari on May 22 at the recommendation of PM Oli, who lost a trust vote in the House last month. (With inputs from PTI) Former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos apologised on Friday to victims of the so-called "false positives", the extrajudicial killings of civilians by members of the Colombian Army. More than 6,000 people are believed to have been killed during years of executions, which saw soldiers pass victims off as guerrillas killed in combat in order to claim benefits. "I am left with the remorse, the deep regret," Santos said during a voluntary statement to Colombia's Truth Commission, an official but non-judicial body that seeks the historical truth of the armed conflict after the signing of the peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016. Santos was defence minister and thus head of the army between 2002 and 2008, during the government of former president Alvaro Uribe Velez, the period in which there was the highest number of false positive killings, according to the Attorney General's Office and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). In February this year, the JEP raised the number of victims to 6,402, tripling the official known total so far. Santos's testimony joins those already given by former presidents Ernesto Samper in 2019 and Cesar Gaviria in 2020. Authorities have determined that the victims were usually low-income youths who were lured with a job offer, taken to remote locations and then killed. =========================================================== Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Ocean Rebellion activists took to the sea off the coast in Falmouth, England, on Saturday to highlight the lack of climate change action from world leaders attending the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall. Campaigners accused the G-7 governments of spending money on conferences and summits, but not doing enough to protect the environment, and in particular the oceans. The activists also highlighted the negative environmental impact of the summit itself, singling out the host, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for talking about climate change, but then flying to Cornwall and having the Red Arrows aerial display team doing a flypast. Another target for the protesters was the "Silja Europa" ship currently docked in Falmouth port, which sailed from Estonia to Cornwall to house police officers while on assignment for the summit. was brought from Estonia to Cornwall. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Several hundreds protesters from different UK locations gathered in Falmouth, Cornwall to call the attention of the G-7 leaders to the situation in Tigray region. The protesters claim the political leaders should do more than just condemn what they say is a "dire" and urgent situation in the region in northern Ethiopia. The grinding war in Tigray started in early November, shortly before the harvest season, as an attempt by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to disarm the region's rebellious leaders. On one side are guerrillas loyal to the ousted and now-fugitive leaders of Tigray. On the other are Ethiopian government troops, allied troops from neighboring Eritrea and militias from Ethiopia's Amhara ethnic group who see themselves as rivals to the Tigrayan guerillas. Trapped in the middle are the civilians. More than 2 million of Tigrays 6 million people have already fled, unable to harvest their crops. And those who stayed often cannot plant new crops or till the land because they fear for their lives. The war has spawned massacres, gang rapes and the widespread expulsion of civilians from their homes, and the United States has declared "ethnic cleansing" in western Tigray. Protesters in Falmouth were hoping that leaders of some of the world's richest nations, who are at a nearby English seaside resort for the three-day Group of Seven summit, would heed their calls. UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada make up the group of seven nations (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations have agreed to challenge Chinas nonmarket economic practices and call out Beijing for rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. At the end of a three-day summit in southwestern England on June 13, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States said their countries would continue to "consult on collective approaches to challenging nonmarket policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. Locked Up In China: The Plight Of Xinjiang's Muslims Radio Free Radio/Radio Liberty is partnering with its sister organization, Radio Free Asia, to highlight the plight of Muslims living in China's western province of Xinjiang. "We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms, and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration," the G7 leaders also said in their final joint communique. Beijing is facing growing international criticism over its policies in Xinjiang, with the United States using the word genocide to describe the treatment of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim indigenous people. Hong Kong is a part of China but has been governed under the principle of "one country, two systems," meaning the former British colony has its own legal system and rights, including free speech and freedom of press. But many in Hong Kong, as well as rights groups and Western democracies, have accused Beijing of eroding those freedoms and autonomy in recent years. Beijing has repeatedly hit back against what it perceives as attempts by Western powers to contain China. A statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in London on June 14 denounced the G7 statement, accusing it of "lies, rumors, and baseless accusations." "The Group of Seven takes advantage of Xinjiang-related issues to engage in political manipulation and interfere in China's internal affairs, which we firmly oppose," an embassy spokesman said in a statement. A day earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters at the G7 summit that democracies were in a global contest with "autocratic governments," and that the G7 had to deliver viable alternatives. "We're in a contest, not with China per se...with autocrats, autocratic governments around the world, as to whether or not democracies can compete with them in a rapidly changing 21st century," he told reporters. Based on reporting by AP and Reuters The Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations has urged Russia take action against those conducting cyberattacks and using ransomware from within its borders, as it wrapped up a three-day summit in southwestern England. In their final joint communique issued on June 13, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States also called on Moscow to conduct a probe into the use of chemical weapons on Russian soil. The communique said Russia must "stop its destabilizing behavior and malign activities" and "hold to account those within its borders who conduct ransomware attacks, abuse virtual currency to launder ransoms, and other cybercrimes. That issue is in the spotlight after a cybercriminal group that the U.S. authorities said operates from Russia penetrated a pipeline operator on the U.S. East Coast, locking its systems and demanding a ransom. Last months hack caused a shutdown lasting several days and led to a spike in gas prices, panic buying, and localized fuel shortages in the Southeast. Describing the practice of encrypting victims' data and demanding payment for its return an escalating" threat, the G7 leaders called on all states "to urgently identify and disrupt ransomware criminal networks operating from within their borders, and hold those networks accountable for their actions." The G7 called on Russia to urgently investigate and credibly explain the use of a chemical weapon on its soil" after the Kremlin's most vocal critic, Aleksei Navalny, was treated in Germany for what German doctors said was poisoning with a Soviet-style chemical nerve agent. The anti-corruption campaigner has insisted that the poisoning attack in Siberia in August 2020 was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin denies. Navalny was arrested in January upon his return to Russia from Germany and is now serving a sentence of over 2 1/2 years in prison in an embezzlement case that is widely considered as being politically motivated. In their statement, the G7 leaders also urged Russia to stop "its interference in other countries democratic systems" and "its systematic crackdown on independent civil society and media." With reporting by AFP and Reuters BUDAPEST -- A controversial Chinese university project is becoming a contested political issue in Hungary and pushing Prime Minister Viktor Orbans dealings with Beijing into the national spotlight ahead of parliamentary elections in 2022. At the heart of the controversy are government plans to build a $1.8 billion satellite campus for Shanghais Fudan University in Budapest. Leaked documents show the government would take out a $1.5 billion loan from a Chinese bank to cover the majority of the costs and use Chinese contractors to complete the project by 2024. The plans have galvanized Hungarys disparate opposition -- which plans to select a single candidate to go head-to-head against Orban next year -- and provided a political rallying call for the prime ministers opponents as they scrutinize his governments close ties with Beijing. After a series of media investigations over the campus plans that sparked a backlash, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony -- who opposes the plan and is eyeing a run against Orban as the oppositions candidate -- announced that streets surrounding the project site were being renamed Free Hong Kong Road, Dalai Lama Road, and Uyghur Martyrs' Road to highlight sensitive issues around Chinas human rights record. That was followed by protests in Budapest on June 5, where thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against plans for the university, which is slated to be built at a site where affordable housing for Hungarian students was previously planned, and opinion polls show is unpopular among the electorate. The government wants to put more than [$1.5 billion] of debt on us because of [Fudan University], which takes money from the pockets of every Hungarian, as this debt must be paid by our children and even our grandchildren, Karacsony told RFE/RL. Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, appeared to backtrack after the protests, saying no final decision had yet been taken and that plans for the campus would be "ready for public discussion" by 2023. On June 10, Orban confirmed that the issue would be put to a referendum. "This has become a political issue and we should decide this in a way that is the most acceptable to all," Orban said. The back-and-forth sets up a prolonged and tense political showdown in Hungary as the country prepares for the 2022 parliamentary elections. Opposition parties have finally united against Orbans Fidesz party as the prime minister faces what appear to be the first competitive elections after three successive landslides since 2010. The opposition has caught up with Fidesz in the polls and chosen Orbans chummy China ties and the Fudan University plans as an early target in the long campaign. The referendum should be nationwide. It should be about Chinas debt and the prospects of rural youth, said Karacsony. We didnt protest against the Chinese people but against the underhanded sale of Hungary's sovereignty. Chinese Ties In The Spotlight Foreign policy issues generally dont resonate with the population, according to analysts and polling, but Hungarys opposition is hoping Orbans relationship with Beijing and the details surrounding the Fudan University project can be a useful way to frame larger issues about the government. China itself has very limited potential as an issue, Gabor Toka, a senior research fellow at Central European University, told RFE/RL. But it can grow because it is an issue that is symptomatic of wider concerns to do with transparency and corruption that get to the very core of the current government. Hungary signed a strategic agreement with Fudan University on April 27 that would open a campus in Budapest in three years. The deal would make it the first Chinese university in the European Union and the first foreign outpost for the prestigious Shanghai-based school, which the Hungarian government says will raise higher-education standards in the country. But the project quickly sparked controversy and became unpopular with voters. Around two-thirds of Hungarians do not support building the university, according to the liberal think tank Republikon Institute. The same poll also showed that one-third of Orban voters disagreed with the project. The Fudan deal is a very bad deal and its hard to sell to the people, said Toka, who monitors polling and data around Hungarian elections. Documents obtained in early April by Direkt36, a Hungarian investigative-journalism outlet, showed the large and opaque loan that the government would be taking out from a Chinese lender. A separate investigation by Direkt36 showed that plans for the campus date back to 2019, when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Hungarian politicians that the university in Budapest was a top priority for Beijing. Hungary has built close ties with China over the years, which have expanded since Orban returned to power in 2010 and launched an "Eastern Opening" policy meant to cultivate close ties with Beijing and Moscow in order to attract investment and economic opportunities following the global financial crisis. Since then, Orban has forged relations with other illiberal governments, while repeatedly clashing with the European Union by curbing the independence of the judiciary and the media. Budapest has also angered allies by blocking critical statements from the EU on China's record on human rights several times this year and, in April, Chinese President Xi Jinping thanked Orban for safeguarding the overall China-Europe relations. Chinese investment in Hungary remains low, but Orbans ties with Beijing have led to other high-profile projects. Hungary took out a 20-year, $1.9 billion loan in 2020 from Beijing to build a railway link that would connect Budapest with the Serbian capital, Belgrade. But the project remains controversial at home and across the region due to delays and a lack of transparency. In April 2020, the Hungarian parliament voted to give the government extraordinary emergency powers on the premise of combating the pandemic, but it also voted to keep all details around the railway project classified. Gearing Up For 2022 Despite the reaction against plans for the Fudan University campus, targeting China ties is a difficult political tightrope for the opposition, analysts say. While opinion polls show a majority of Hungarians have negative views toward China, opposition figures are looking to keep the discussion grounded within Hungarian domestic politics. Karacsony announced that he and other opposition figures plan to write a letter addressed to Xi saying that if they win the election the plans for Fudan University in Budapest will be canceled. But the mayor has also looked to frame the issue around the Orban governments democratic backsliding and lack of transparency, rather than specifically targeting Beijing. "Although we are worlds apart on human rightswe really just don't want a Chinese elite school built at the expense of Hungarian taxpayers," Karacsony told the June 5 rally. Since backtracking and announcing a referendum, the Orban government has sought to both defend its position and deflect the blowback from the decision after next years election. While no date has been set and there is no clarity about whether it would be a national or only citywide vote, comments from Gulyas indicate that any referendum would take place once plans for the campus are finalized, which the Orban aide has said wouldnt be ready until 2023. To cancel the plans would be too much of a loss of face for China, Philippe Le Corre, an expert on China and Europe at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told RFE/RL. [Orban] cant let China lose face in this way. Orban also appears to be turning his attention to other issues that resonate with the electorate, such as migration, which polling shows is still seen as a top concern by a plurality of voters. During a radio interview on June 11, the prime minister said that as the pandemic is being reined in, migration will once again become a top issue in European politics as he warned that legions of migrants are banging on almost all European doors. People have many reasons to make their minds up about this government, but it won't be made over China, said Toka. The Orban government is a well-oiled machine and savvy with their PR. They know how to get their message out there. The Iranian and Russian negotiators meeting in Vienna with global powers played down the hopes for a quick settlement in the talks to revive the 2015 landmark deal that curtailed Tehran's nuclear programs. Abbas Araqchi, Tehrans chief negotiator, said late on June 12 that he did not think they could conclude this week, ahead of the country's June 18 presidential election. "Personally, I don't think that we can manage to reach a conclusion this week in Vienna," Araqchi was quoted by state media as saying. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's representative, told reporters that we need a couple more weeks to clean up the existing text and to remove square brackets around secondary topics. We need to concentrate on how the deal will be implemented. But I remain optimistic. Despite the remaining differences, the trend is positive, the Russian added. Moscow is one of Irans main allies. Iran is voting on June 18 to replace President Hassan Rohani, who promoted the 2015 deal and whose successor is widely expected to be a hard-liner. Rohani is ineligible to run after serving two four-year terms. Representatives from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and Iran are meeting in the Austrian capital in an effort to bring Washington back to the deal and Tehran back into compliance with its terms. The future of the 2015 accord has been in danger since U.S. President Donald Trump took the United States out of the deal in 2018 and began reimposing damaging financial sanctions against Iran. In response, Tehran steadily has exceeded limits on its nuclear program spelled out in the deal. Since taking office on January 20, U.S. President Joe Biden has indicated a willingness to rejoin the deal on the condition that Iran respects its commitments to the original terms. U.S. negotiators are indirectly taking part in the Vienna talks -- brokered by European diplomats -- although the Americans are not meeting directly with Iranian counterparts. So far, there have been five rounds, with negotiators saying early this month that the talks are heading into their most delicate phase. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged parties to be flexible. "It is about flexibility and pragmatism from all participating parties," he told Reuters. "Playing for time is in no one's interest." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sounded pessimistic recently when he told lawmakers that it remains unclear whether Iran is willing and prepared to do what it needs to do come back into compliance." Politico reported early on June 13 that negotiators have produced some 20 pages of text with options on how to resolve remaining issues. The report said U.S. and European powers are pushing to include a mention of follow-on talks that would address Irans ballistic-missile program and its broader regional behavior. For its part, Iran wants guarantees the United States wont again exit the deal, as Trump did in 2018. With reporting by Politico, Reuters, AP, and AFP President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would be ready to hand over suspected cybercriminals to the United States but only if Washington did the same for Moscow and if the two powers reached an agreement on the matter. Putin made the comments in an interview aired in excerpts on state television on June 13 ahead of a June 16 summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva. Ties between the powers are badly strained over an array of issues. If we agree to extradite criminals, then, of course, Russia will go for it. But only if the other side -- in this case, the United States -- agrees to the same thing, Putin said, without elaborating. Putin said he expected the Geneva meeting to help establish bilateral dialogue and revive personal contacts. The White House has said Biden will bring up ransomware attacks emanating from Russia at the meeting. That issue is in the spotlight after a cybercriminal group that U.S. authorities said operates from Russia penetrated a pipeline operator on the U.S. East Coast, locking its systems and demanding a ransom. The hack last month caused a shutdown lasting several days and led to a spike in gas prices, panic buying, and localized fuel shortages in the southeast. Colonial Pipeline decided to pay the hackers who invaded their systems nearly $5 million to regain access, the company said. Ransomware rackets are dominated by Russian-speaking cybercriminals who are shielded -- and sometimes employed -- by Russian intelligence agencies, according to security researchers, U.S. law enforcement, and now the Biden administration. Asked if Russia would be prepared to find and prosecute cybercriminals, Putin said that would depend on Moscow and Washington reaching an agreement. Since taking office in January, Biden has challenged Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, alleged meddling in elections, and cyberattacks emanating from Russia. But the U.S. leader has also said the United States wants a "stable, predictable" relationship that allows Moscow and Washington to work together on common issues like strategic stability, arms control, and climate change. In segments of an interview broadcast by NBC on June 11, Putin said that the U.S.-Russia relationship had "deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years." Biden will hold a solo press conference after his summit in Geneva next week with Putin, a U.S. official revealed on June 12. An unnamed U.S. administration official said Biden appearing alone was "the appropriate format to clearly communicate with the free press the topics that were raised in the meeting -- both in terms of areas where we may agree and in areas where we have significant concerns." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the announcement, but suggested it didn't necessarily bode badly for the summit. With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Interfax MANSFIELD In Darrell Smiths opinion, Juneteenth is a day that recognizes the unity of the country but hasnt been promoted very much. That is why he and some community members are organizing the Juneteenth Festival, which will take place at John Todd Park on June 19 from noon until sunset. Smith said multiple food vendors will be available, including Ms. Lils Fish, Maries Soul Creations and his business, Smittys & Co. There will also be live music, games and giveaways provided. Organizations and businesses will set up informational booths, Smith said. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will help people register to vote. New Mercy Outreach, a nonprofit foster care network, is going to provide information regarding the process of becoming foster parents. The festival is presented by Smittys & Co, Shirley A. Foundation and True Ballah Entrtprises. Smith said he hopes it will develop into an annual event, especially after not celebrating last year. Cleve Gordan, founder of Shirley A. Foundation, said the Juneteenth celebration educates the public about the Black culture, so he wanted to contribute to the event. I feel like the way the world is today, we need more information on that, he said. Smith said Mansfield used to have a big celebration for Juneteenth with African dance performances, vendors and speakers. It doesn't get celebrated like it should be, Smith said. And it's really important. I mean, I think it should be a national holiday. Juneteenth marks the day that freedom finally came to everyone in the U.S. While the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863, it was not implemented in places under Confederate control, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. On June 19, 1865, about 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas and announced that more than 250,000 enslaved black people were free. That day has been known as Juneteenth. Smith said the country celebrates the Fourth of July, but not everyone was free until Juneteenth. He hopes the celebration for Juneteenth will keep growing and become as big as Independence Day in the future. I don't believe it's just about a group of people (African Americans). I believe that's where we started to become one nation, Smith said. The organizer said the Juneteenth Festival welcomes people of any ethnic group because any history in America is everybody's history. We are a melting pot and we all contribute to each other, he said. For more information about the event at John Todd Park on June 19, contact Darrell Smith at 567-307-1850. This story is part of the SoJo Exchange from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems. Click here to read the original story. When building something new that will affect lots of people for decades to come, it pays to ask people about what they want. It also pays to pay those people to tell you. Rochester, a city of 100,000 located 77 miles southeast of Minneapolis and home to the Mayo Clinic, is facing growing pains. Downtown parking is in short supply, streets are congested, and its not always easy to get around without a car. To alleviate parking and traffic congestion, the citys transit agency is planning a bus rapid transit route, which will start near the Mayo Clinic and head west toward a planned park-and-ride near a suburban tract of single-family homes, stopping at a satellite Mayo Clinic campus and a small retail corridor along the way. But to make sure that the project benefits those who will use it, the transit agency has convened a paid advisory committee made up of 10 Rochester residents to gather and provide feedback from all over the city. They are paid $25 per hour and offered childcare reimbursement, provided they commit to 30 hours of work between September 2020 and June of this year. Theyre just one of many agencies across the nation who realize just how important it is to hear not just from those who typically appear at council meetings and hearings (who research shows tend to be older, whiter and wealthier than the overall neighborhood), but from people from different backgrounds who otherwise couldnt afford to show up. Paying participants for their time is important to Nick Lemmer, project manager for Rochester Public Transit. He tells Next City they wanted to deliberately seek out communities whose voices arent often heard when undertaking a large project. To get the word out about the committee, they reached a variety of organizations and used social media and a public service announcement that aired on local TV and radio stations and ran in their local daily newspaper. With 38 applicants, they selected a team of 10, who are mostly people of color representing all age groups, with at least two students and two immigrant participants. Compensating community members is just a part of what is called the co-design process, where project managers get to know the people, their lived experiences, and their values, to devise solutions. Just as if I would ask a professional consultant to spend their time with me, I wouldnt expect them to show up for free or for a coffee card, said Jess Roberts, Culture of Health By Design lead at the Minnesota Design Center in the University of Minnesota. Roberts worked with the City of Rochester on a different project several years ago. Because committee members come from all walks of life and may not be familiar with what is being asked of them, the project team has two monthly meetings. In the first meeting of the month, the planning team introduces topics, such as station design principles and priorities for station, bus, and streetscape features. At the second meeting, co-designers share their own personal feedback and experiences, as well as from those around them. The planning team also hosts one on one check-ins to ensure co-designers feel supported. And they do feel supported. They do make sincere attempts at eliciting responses from us and its done in various ways, polls, voting, really, they do try to listen, says Valerie Guimaraes, a nurse at the Mayo Clinic and one of the co-founders of Greater Rochester Area Dakota Supporters, a nonprofit organization that supports and educates the region about the local Dakota presence. Guimaraes doesnt currently rely on Rochesters transit system saying it doesnt serve her needs but many of her patients and people she knows in the community do. She says she got involved because she wanted to connect her community with the projects planning process. Ideas the committee members recommended include having a cafe and restroom at the park-and-ride, as well as chargers for electric wheelchairs. Sylwia Bujak, another committee participant and the executive director of Rochester active-living organization 125 Live, links the cafe to her experiences riding public transit in Europe, and to safety. [The riders] have to feel safe at the west lot, especially in the early morning. The [kiosk worker] can keep the toilet clean and [also] pay attention to what is happening, says Bujak. Neither the city nor the consulting firm working on the project collected demographics about the participants, who are technically subcontractors, erroneously citing state and federal law. (The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allows employers to collect demographic information for legitimate business needs, such as to track applicant flow, and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which enforces the Minnesota Human Rights Act, actually encourages employers and contractors to gather demographic information to prevent discrimination). Bujak self-identifies as a Polish immigrant, and Guimaraes self-identifies as a Native American of Ho-Chunk and Dakota descent. Agencies that want to do this work need to think carefully about how they engage with community members. The Minnesota Department of Transportation hasnt compensated a single community member for their time in the planning process since 2019. They used to hand out gift cards at certain meetings, but have since enacted a moratorium because of questions from their staff about when it was appropriate to compensate, and who that compensation was going to. Philip Schaffner, director of statewide planning for MnDOTs Office of Transportation Systems Management, is part of an agency group working to develop consistent guidelines, which the group hopes to finish this year. Its important to Schaffner to have these guidelines so they can be sure they are compensating people from marginalized backgrounds who are participating in the planning process. [Some people may] have lots going on, may be working more than one job and have kids. [They are] persons who are very important for us to hear from, says Schaffner. For now, they invite members of the public to suggest ideas through their agencys website. MANSFIELD When 2019 Miss Ohio winner Caroline Grace Williams was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Type III, she felt a sense of relief. For many years, she experienced fainting spells, an accelerated heart rate and nausea. After going so long with no diagnosis, she began to think she was a hypochondriac. Now, the Cincinnati native who will be in Mansfield this week to crown the next Miss Ohio on June 19 is able to look back on everything she went through with a perfect understanding of what she was experiencing. It was finally something that made sense and was an explanation for why I had felt the way I felt all those different times in my life where (my family and I) just brushed it off, Williams said. It is rare to be diagnosed with EDS at Williams age as it is most common in older adults. Because of that, her EDS went overlooked by doctors and was only used as a last-resort diagnosis. Before that shed visited a cardiologist for months and wore a heart monitor, however, the doctors could not find any abnormalities. To be diagnosed with EDS Type III, you must display a series of symptoms. Williams symptoms included atopic scarring, dental issues, a family history of hypermobility, bending both left and right pinkies past 90 degrees, the ability to place your palms on the floor while bending over and more. It is classified as a rare disease, but we don't know if it's just under-diagnosed, Williams said. Or maybe it is more common. But with further education, we can come to these conclusions. Williams' doctors discovered she had EDS through her other disease, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which is a heart condition that can accompany EDS. Although there is a connection between EDS and POTS, there is no scientific evidence to explain why. A third disorder, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), can also accompany EDS and POTS. Williams has not been diagnosed with it so far, though she is being monitored closely for a potential triad diagnosis and takes two daily allergy pills after presenting with a few symptoms. EDS can express itself differently in everyone. Some symptoms include chronic pain, joint dislocations and unexplained medical issues. Because there is such little research, there is no research into why EDS can present so inconsistently. On some days Williams will feel "normal" with no pain or sign of EDS. Other days she is fatigued and light-headed. As a competitive person by nature, she can often become frustrated when she cant do something because her body cannot handle the stress, but she continues to do what she can. I've learned to be accepting of myself and my abilities and what I can and cannot do but also hold myself accountable for what I can do and encourage myself to be strong and push forward, Williams said. There is no treatment for EDS. Instead, individual symptoms are treated. Williams is encouraged to increase her salt intake to increase blood volume. Each year, every Miss Ohio winner must choose an important issue theyre passionate about advocating for the entire year of their reign. Williams chose emergency services, particularly text to 911, and getting that implemented statewide. Shes also promoting it in the counties where it's available, which goes hand in hand with EDS and POTS because people with disabilities can have easier access. With the connections shes built since becoming Miss Ohio, Williams has met others with her rare condition. The group of friends shes made she can confide in and ask for advice on how to stay healthy and discuss the specialists she shares in common. Being honest and sharing my personal journey was something that I wanted to do from day one, Williams said. Currently, Williams is doing work in South Carolina with one of the only clinics in the world doing extensive research on EDS. I think that a lot more people likely have EDS and they just don't know, Williams said. Because a lot of times, you are not going to seek out the medical attention you need And so I think even just people being aware of it could really save lives. Richmond, KY (40475) Today Cloudy this evening then becoming foggy and damp after midnight. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy this evening then becoming foggy and damp after midnight. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Rocky Mount, NC (27804) Today Isolated thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 72F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Isolated thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 72F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rocky Mount, NC (27804) Today Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 72F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 72F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. As the founder of the Diamond Little Star brand, Liu Jiangjiang is actively involved in various business activities. He founded the Lab-Grown Diamond Research Centre and the Lab-Grown Diamond Club in China. At the same time, he is also the General Counsel of the X Diamond brand of the Singapore Investment Group. Liu Jiangjiang has obtained the PRCs Professional Qualification Certificate for Jade Jewellery Quality Inspector, which is the highest-level qualification certificate in the field of gemology in China. Natural diamonds come from the earth, and lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) are the result of developments in science and technology. At present, human society has entered the stage of highly developed science and technology, and people study the balance between nature and technology. The harmonious coexistence and joint development of the natural diamonds representing nature, and lab-grown diamonds representing technology, is the first problem the people dealing with both categories should resolve. In his exclusive interview with Rough&Polished, Liu Jiangjiang expresses his plans for the future with confidence. Some excerpts: When and where in China was your company Diamond Little Star incorporated; and what growth rate have you witnessed to date? Also, any other companies or associations you are active in? Please give details. Diamond Little Star was founded in July 2019 in the jewellery capital of China, Shuibei, Shenzhen. 2019 is the first year of the commercial retail sales of lab-grown diamonds in China. It was symbolic that the lab-grown diamond lots were at the centre of the traditional Chinese jewellery supply chain, on the same stage where the natural diamonds were. After two years of the companys development, it has an over 50 per cent average annual growth rate; especially over the past six months, the companys business has almost doubled, mainly due to an increase in the companys main product categories, which also indicates the large development of the lab-grown diamonds in the country within the framework of diversification. As an industry player, the founder of the Diamond Little Star company actively organizes offline and online workshops for the industry companies and sole proprietors to share the experience and resources; he uses very popular online media channels such as public WeChat accounts and short videos and provides an objective consumer promotion and advertising of the lab-grown diamonds. Liu founded the Lab Grown Diamond Club in China based on a membership system. The main members are the institutions and individuals involved in the lab-grown diamonds sector. The club organizes offline events for all its members from time to time. Liu also serves as General Adviser of the X Diamond brand of the Singapore Investment Group and uses his expertise and resources to consult on the brands cross-border development. How successful is your brand in China now? Do you have a presence in other countries? Please give details. With a gold age of only over ten years, Chinas jewellery industry has started to develop quite recently, so we have a tough job to catch up with the major brands that enjoy high popularity and recognition abroad. Objectively speaking, there are not many jewellery brands in China that can be called successful. Now, the vast majority of the Chinese jewellery brands are still developing, they are moving along the way of homogenization and expanding the scale of activities and so far, they cannot receive a sufficient brand premium. At present, Diamond Little Star is positioned primarily as a supplier and customer of a vertical category, which - to some extent - can guarantee the brands premium. But it cannot influence the entire industry and consumers yet. In this sense, we cannot yet say that our brand is highly successful. Nowadays, Diamond Little Star is mainly entering the domestic market and does not have branches abroad. Depending on the development of the international business, we will open a branch or a representative office in North America in the next two or three years. Image credit: Diamond Little Star Does your company have its outlets currently in China, or other countries? Diamond Little Star is an independent physical corporation based in Shuibei, Shenzhen. It has both various offices and also the research, development, sales departments that hold meetings with the organizations or individuals who come to have negotiations or exchange their experience. Due to the different domestic and foreign business models, as well as logistics, cross-border payments, and other objective factors, we do not yet have a plan to open brick and mortar stores in other countries. Are the company products, both loose LGDs and jewellery available on e-commerce platforms? How successful are your online businesses, if any? What is your opinion on e-retailing jewellery as a viable business? Diamond Little Star strongly believes that in the current epidemic situation, e-commerce is the most reliable in terms of investments and sustainability. Chinas e-commerce platforms are developing fast. Now, besides the traditional e-commerce platforms like Taobao, JD.com and Vipshop, there are also new e-commerce platforms like Xiaohongshu, TikTok, Kuaishou and Pinduoduo. With the fast development of e-commerce in the form of live streaming in China, they represent the fastest way for the growth of new businesses. Diamond Little Stars goods are promoted on Taobao, Taobao live streaming, WeChat small shop, Weibo live streaming, and other platforms. In the future, they will be launched on the platforms visited by the companys target consumers. Currently, the online business has only been existing for six months, but it has grown quite fast - from our initial loss to the profit: the number of consumers and the transactions revenues has increased significantly. This is currently equivalent to the transaction number of a small offline jewellery store. What is the current scene in terms of lab-grown diamond jewellery demand from the millennials in China, given that other luxury items are vying for a piece of their purchasing power? The biggest trait of the Chinese millennials is that they want to accentuate their individuality through the consumption process. In different situations, they wear different accessories to show their status and character, to express their preferences and clearly distinguish each circle of trends. The millennials dont pay much attention to the materials the jewellery is made from and pay more attention to the ideas and design styles expressed by the jewellery pieces. Therefore, the Chinese millennials prefer lab-grown diamond jewellery as compared to other population groups. They have their attitude towards what they buy, highly value the goods that are made of environmentally friendly and renewable materials, as well as the high-tech goods. Any plans to expand further into other consumer markets, globally? Do you expect the current trade war between the US and China to negatively affect your business? Your thoughts. The Diamond Little Star company believes that globalization is the only way to ensure future development. The lab-grown diamonds are a new type of jewellery, and they draw the attention of the whole world. When the product differentiation in the foreign markets begins, the company will use the resources existing abroad to export competitive stones and pave the way for the supply chain. When the company takes a certain market share, it will officially enter the global market. The China-US trade war is mainly caused by the ideological differences between the Orient and the West. With the development of the trend towards global economic integration, any behaviour that raises obstacles for international cooperation and trade will gradually weaken. And the development model based on mutual understanding, cooperation and mutual benefit will ultimately be the best choice for all parties. The trade war is a counter-example. It only means that in the process of human development, there are situations when people resort to a trial-and-error method, and the trade war will exist just for a relatively short period. Our company has not yet officially started its business abroad, and the first step will be to develop trade with India, which is closer to China, so the China-US trade war will not have a great impact on the current and future development of the company. What steps are you taking to keep millennial interested in LGD & jewellery? What level of growth are you looking at for your LGD jewellery business in the next few years? The Chinese have been living frugally since ancient times. Although the current economic situation in China has improved significantly, the data show that consumption of several high-end luxury goods is very high, but the number of buyers in the total consumer segment is very small. The advent of lab-grown diamonds has given a new choice to ordinary millennial consumers, giving them more opportunities to appreciate and own the beauty of diamonds at a lower cost. At the same time, by creating an atmosphere of live communication and discussion of hot topics of the day, it is possible to attract the attention of a larger number of potential jewellery consumers to lab-grown diamonds. Relying on the development of the market supply of synthetic diamonds in China, our company is mainly engaged in the sale of lab-grown coloured diamonds and high-quality large-size ones. It currently holds the leading position in the domestic diamond industry. In future, with the development of the end-user market, the company will participate in the supply chain of some medium and large brands, become part of the commercial diamond supply chain, cover a certain market share, and become one of the well-known lab-grown diamond companies in China. Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished Searchlight New Mexico is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigative reporting in New Mexico. This story was produced by the Indigenous Investigative Collective, a project of the Native American Journalists Association in partnership with High Country News , Indian Country Today , National Native News and Searchlight New Mexico. It was produced in partnership with MuckRock with the support of JSK-Big Local News. Close In the past week, the United Kingdom has reported cases of Monkeypox, a viral zoonotic disease whose signs and symptoms are similar to smallpox, albeit being a rarer disease. On Friday, June 11, the World Health Organization has released a news statement regarding the presence of a laboratory-confirmed case of monkeypox. A report from the UK and published by the WHO says that the patient arrived in the UK last May 8, 2021. Prior travel history reveals that the patient previously worked and lived in Delta State, Nigeria. Local public health officials on the case said that the initial case was most likely acquired overseas and carried into the UK. Additionally, both cases were identified in at least two people from the same household. ALSO READ: Modern Human Lifestyle a "Perfect Storm" for Pandemics Like COVID What Is Monkeypox? According to a 2019 article, also from the WHO, Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease, meaning it spreads between humans and animals. Caused by the monkeypox virus - under the Orthopoxvirus genus from the Poxviridae family, it mainly occurs in tropical rainforest areas of West and Central Africa, being occasionally carried by hosts to other regions. The virus usually incubates for 6 to 13 days, though in some cases, it takes anywhere from 5 to 21 days. Infection with monkeypox is often divided into two periods. The first one, the "invasion period" that lasts up to five days, is characterized by intense headaches, swelling of the lymph nodes, fever, back pain, and muscle aches, and an intense case of weakness. More specifically, the swelling of lymph nodes, technically known as lymphadenopathy, is a distinct symptom that generally sets monkeypox apart from other similar diseases like measles, chickenpox, and smallpox. The second period displays skin eruptions one to three days after fever. Additionally, rashes tend to appear more on the face and extremities more than anywhere else. Severe cases of the disease lead to lesions that could even coalesce and lead to sections of the skin sloughing off. Fighting Against Monkeypox In 2019, a vaccine was approved to combat monkeypox. Additionally, traditional smallpox vaccines also offer cross-protection against its rare relative, though these are not widely available and easily accessible. For the recently reported case in the UK, local health authorities have already deployed an incident management team and have implemented countermeasures such as isolation of the cases and conducting contact tracing. The UK has also relayed relevant information to the Nigerian National IHR Focal Point to conduct investigations on potential infection sources and exposures in the African nation. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration has also approved Jynneos Smallpox and Monkeypox Vaccines intended for the prevention of these diseases for adults 18 years old and older. The WHO has also advised the public to report any illnesses during travel or return to health professionals. This includes disclosing information about travel and immunization histories. Also, residents and travelers to countries endemic to the disease should avoid contact with sick animals that might carry the monkeypox virus, as well as staying away from eating or handling bushmeat or wild game. Lastly, hand hygiene by washing with soap and water, or alcohol-based sanitizers, should be stressed. RELATED ARTICLE: Brain-Swelling Nipah Virus The Next Pandemic? Scientists Warn Its 75 Times Deadlier Than COVID-19 Check out more news and information on Zoonotic Diseases in Science Times. Theres one place that even the most passionate Disney fans, the ones who can rattle off foolproof strategies for getting boarding passes for the most in-demand rides and who have the locations of every churro cart in any park committed to memory, still havent visited. Aulani, on the island of Oahu, is a resort thats both a luxury Hawaiian vacation and a Disney property so while you can experience the magic of the islands, you can get a strong dose of Disney magic sprinkled in. At least, thats what I was hoping for when I visited. In March, like most of the rest of the world, I was burned out. Not just the normal kind of burned out, but the particular kind of 2021 pandemic-edition existential dread that had me physically, emotionally and spiritually drained to the point where it was hard just to make it through the day. You probably know exactly what I mean, because you probably felt something similar at some point over the past year-plus. Julie Tremaine Travel is my job, but its also my passion and my escape. It is never lost on me how incredibly lucky I am to be able to write about exploring the world. Every time I get on a plane I remember what it was like before, when I would work my 9-to-5, scrape together enough vacation time and cash to go somewhere, and then take a redeye back home and go straight into the office. I dont miss those days. But I have, so deeply over the past year, missed the sense of excitement that comes from a last-minute decision to go on another adventure. So when a friend said she was going to Aulani, Disneys Hawaii resort, in just a couple of weeks, I struggled with the decision. Hawaii at that time was reporting its lowest infection rates to date and has been very strict about testing to enter the state. I also knew I could safely quarantine between my test and my flight. But still, it was a big trip with a lot of risks. It was also a big splurge. But my happiness is more important to me than my savings account, and right then, I needed a big dose of happiness. I searched high and low for the cheapest way to get there and the most affordable room, and off I went. Julie Tremaine Im making it sound easy, but getting into Hawaii, even right now, is not quite as simple as that. Youre required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test administered within 72 hours of departure, even if youve been vaccinated on the mainland, and that test has to be through a laboratory approved by the state of Hawaii. Those tests can be done through Walgreens or CVS, and many relatively accessible other places, but theyre expensive. Mine cost $150 that I wasnt expecting when I agreed to the trip. Once I got my results, I uploaded them through the state portal and was prequalified to enter and issued a QR code that was scanned at a checkpoint at the Honolulu airport and at Aulani when I checked into the hotel. The checkpoint was quick, but a lot of people have been reporting having issues with getting their results late or delays in getting those results verified and have had to quarantine for part or all of their trip. There have been other travel issues, too, namely with transportation on the islands. I had some trouble getting an Uber Aulani is about 30 minutes north of Honolulu but eventually got one for normal-ish pricing. Rental cars have been in such high demand that it can cost nearly $1,000 a day for one right now. Julie Tremaine That wasnt an issue for me, though, because I didnt intend to leave the resort. I was so drained that all I wanted was four days of R&R on Aulanis semi-private beach lagoon, or by its pools, preferably with a mai tai in hand. "Ill explore the island next time," I told myself. "I dont have the energy for anything else." I also wanted to maximize my resort time because Aulani costs about as much per night as Disneylands most expensive hotel, and I was getting every penny of my moneys worth. There is also so much to do on the property, from the saltwater snorkeling lagoon to the spa with a waterfall to the nightly luaus, that I assumed my vacation time would be totally spoken for. When I arrived, I was expecting the lobby doors to open in the classic Walt Disney World resort style: a blast of freezing air from the air conditioning to counteract the Florida humidity, and an immediate waft of whatever expensive-smelling lobby scent they use at all their luxury resorts that they could easily sell by the bottle. Julie Tremaine The doors opened at Aulani, and all I saw was blue. The narrow lobby is all glass and had all its doors open, so I walked in and was hit with the most gorgeous panorama of bright blue sky dotted with palm trees, and sparkling ocean beyond, that I have ever seen. Photos dont do it justice. Neither can my description. There was so much beauty in that moment that it hit me like it was a physical thing. As soon as I got to my room, like a true Disneyland reporter, I started looking for the hidden Mickeys. Its pretty much a guarantee that a hotel room on a Disney property, no matter where you are, will have some. But here none. Not in the birds of paradise print on the couch, not in the palm leaf pattern on the carpet, not in the painting of the beach hanging on the wall. I didnt quite know what to make of it. (I did hear from people that before the pandemic, there were some in the rooms, in the coverlet especially.) That whole first day, I was trying to reconcile what I expected of a fancy Disney experience with what I was finding at Aulani, and the two werent matching up. There were definitely a few Disney touches at the resort, especially in the character meet-and-greets that were still happening despite the pandemic, but the longer I was there, the happier I was that there was a lot more Hawaii culture at the resort than there was Disneyana. There were some of the happiest place touches I was expecting, though: I got a Mickey-shaped shave ice, and I took a picture of my chopsticks that had a little Mickey on them. They were nice, but I was much more interested in the Native Hawaiian musicians playing music and explaining the cultural and historical significance of each song than I was in seeing any talking mice. Julie Tremaine Instead, the magic I felt was in watching the sunrise over the ocean (thanks, time change), in snorkeling with tropical fish in the resorts saltwater lagoon, in tasting the best pineapple and mahi mahi Ive ever had in my life, in watching the sky glow pink and orange at sunset and in just slowing down, taking a breath and releasing what I had been carrying for so long. That spa ended up being closed, and the luaus were paused, both because of the pandemic. The kids activities that normally keep little ones occupied werent happening either. Because the resort was busy but also had significantly limited amenities, the restaurants and pools were busier than they normally would be. You had to get out there at 7 a.m. if you wanted a spot, even though the pools didnt open until 8 a.m. Maybe under other circumstances, I would have been disappointed. But honestly, I was just happy to be anywhere at all other than alone in my apartment. Julie Tremaine The more the islands energy relaxed and rejuvenated me, the more I wanted to explore. I did leave the resort quite a few times, not just to go shopping in Waikiki but to find a beach where I could (from a very safe and legal distance) see sea turtles, to visit Hawaiis oldest surf shop, to eat kalua pork on the North Shore and to drive those winding coastal roads Im still dreaming about even now. It was nothing that a zillion other tourists hadnt done before, but it was the first time I did it, and I quickly realized why people talk about visiting Hawaii like its a life-changing experience. Because, quite simply, it is. BEIJING (AP) At least 12 people were killed and 39 seriously injured Sunday after a gas line explosion tore through a residential neighborhood in central China. Responders to the early morning blast in the city of Shiyan in Hubei province sent more than 150 people to the hospital, according to officials quoted by state media. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. Stall keepers and customers buying breakfast and fresh vegetables at a food market were the majority of victims when the explosion hit shortly after 6 a.m., according to the reports. The blast struck a two-story building built in the early 1990s, which includes pharmacies, restaurants and other businesses. More than 900 people were evacuated from the area. Images showed rescuers climbing over broken concrete slabs to reach those trapped inside. Chinese president Xi Jinping called for a thorough probe into the cause of the blast in order to create a good atmosphere for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party on July 1. In light of numerous accidents at companies and on campuses, all must work together to shoulder their responsibilities, strengthen their political comprehension and root out the causes of such hazards," Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. The Shiyan explosion came a day after eight people died and three others were injured when toxic methyl formate leaked from a vehicle at a chemical handling facility in the southwestern city of Guiyang. The blast appeared similar to one that occurred in the northeastern port of Qingdao in 2013, in which 55 people were killed when underground pipelines ripped open following a leak. Frequent deadly accidents are usually traced to weak adherence to safety standards, poor maintenance and corruption among enforcement bodies. Those responsible are often handed harsh punishments, but high demand and the desire for profits often trump such concerns. Among the worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. The blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials. ALBANY, Ore. (AP) A Woodland, Washington man has been found guilty of manslaughter and other crimes for killing two Sweet Home, Oregon teens in a head-on drunk driving crash. A 12-member jury found 22-year-old Austyn Hillsman guilty of two counts of second-degree manslaughter, third-degree assault, driving under the influence of intoxicants and reckless driving, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported. NEW YORK (AP) The NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system will require all of its 48,000 employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they have a valid exemption, hospital officials announced Friday. As a leading health care organization, we believe it is essential to require vaccinations to protect our patients and ourselves against the threat of further harm from the pandemic and the possibility of more dangerous mutations, Dr. Steven Corwin and Dr. Laura Forese, the president and executive vice president of the 10-campus hospital network, said in an email to staff. Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman, KSP Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr. and KSP Honor Guard laid a wreath at a ceremony at the KSP Training Academy in Frankfort honoring the 37 troopers, officers, and highway patrolmen who have died in the line of duty since the agencys inception. Keene, NH (03431) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.. Tonight Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Loren Rodgers - Fotolia Police have arrested a San Francisco man accused of a laundry list of thefts amid a broader spike in burglaries during the first half of the year. Jamal Davis, 39, has been booked into county jail on a dozen warrants for alleged crimes including grand theft, burglary, possession of stolen property, resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer, according a police statement on Saturday. No bail was initially set for one grand theft charge, but bail for the other offenses ranged from $500 to $25,000. San Jose police are investigating two separate stabbings, one of them fatal, that occurred within one hour of each other early Sunday, officials said. The first stabbing was reported at 1:44 a.m. on the 1700 block of Story Road. Police said a man was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Marin County is the most vaccinated place in California, but last month it got a taste of the hazards that may lie ahead as the state reopens and pockets of people remain vulnerable to the coronavirus. County health officials first spotted a handful of cases across Ross Valley, a cozy part of Marin County that has mostly avoided the worst of the pandemic. Over two weeks in early May, the outbreak grew to 19. All but two were people who hadnt been vaccinated. Later, officials linked the outbreak to the delta variant the highly contagious strain first identified in India that has caused a resurgence in cases in the United Kingdom. Weve seen a glimpse of what the summer will look like in an otherwise vaccinated community, said Dr. Matt Willis, the Marin County health officer. These are the kinds of things well be watching for: These little spot fires, as opposed to the wildfires. Im more confident we can ascertain and control clusters, he said. But it tells us the community is still vulnerable. The Ross Valley cluster, along with a second outbreak tied to a Marin County school a couple of weeks later, underscores the still-precarious pandemic climate in California, on the cusp of the statewide reopening Tuesday. Nearly half of all Californians will be fully vaccinated by then, and public health and infectious disease experts widely agree that its reasonable to drop almost all pandemic restrictions and let people return to most of their normal activities. Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle Generally high vaccination rates, combined with the roughly 20% of people who have immunity from previous coronavirus infection, mean most parts of the state have enough immune protection to prevent another surge like the one that crushed California in the winter. Its hard to imagine a scenario that would require a renewed statewide stay-at-home order, experts say. But there are still obstacles ahead, including some that could set back the states recovery and prompt renewed local restrictions or targeted closures. California will be vulnerable to outbreaks in unvaccinated communities, such as the clusters reported in Marin County. Last week, Sonoma County officials reported a troubling rise in cases, primarily among young, unvaccinated residents who were defying public health orders and gathering together. Public health officials also will be watching for cases of serious COVID-19 illness among young children who cant be vaccinated potentially a sign that the virus has mutated and become more virulent and for hints that vaccine protection is waning faster than anticipated. The source of greatest concern, and uncertainty, is the potential for variants to emerge that could make vaccines less effective, though most experts say they dont expect that to happen soon, if ever. For now, the vaccines provide strong protection against all known variants. I really am ecstatic about where we are. And its very hard to argue against the current trajectory of reopening, said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley who has often taken a cautious approach to controlling the pandemic. But I dont think were out of this problem yet. We wont be taking two or three steps back like we did in the past and go into a lockdown. But we may have to take a step back periodically. Health officials say that in addition to high vaccination rates across the Bay Area that should keep new cases low, they are now well-armed with tools to help them control outbreaks. Fifteen months into the pandemic, they say they have surveillance systems to quickly identify clusters or troubling trends in hospitalizations or deaths. They have contact tracing crews that can investigate all new cases, and reliable access to genomic sequencing that will help them track variants. Those tools will allow for a more surgical approach to controlling the pandemic, instead of relying on blunt, community-wide orders, experts say. We may close down a facility or a school if theres an outbreak, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF. It would be like what we do for a norovirus or influenza outbreak. Parts of the state with low vaccination rates are particularly at risk as California reopens. In some rural counties, only about a quarter of the population is fully vaccinated, compared with well over half in most of the Bay Area. A few of those under-vaccinated counties already have reported swells in cases over the past month, and public health experts say they expect to see more of the same over the summer as California drops its mask mandate and other restrictions. Certain populations not defined by geography also are under-vaccinated, including children under age 12 who are not yet eligible for the shots. Black and Latino residents have lower vaccination rates than white and Asian American residents. We have deep pockets whether theyre geographic or demographic that are under-vaccinated still, and you dont see why its a problem while everyone is still wearing masks and following a lot of orders. You only see the problem when we start opening up, said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, vice dean for population health and health equity at UCSF. If we see outbreaks, its going to be in unvaccinated people, she said. I dont think theyre going to be bad enough to shut us down, but theyre something to watch out for. New, more infectious variants could put unvaccinated groups even more at risk. The delta variant has been racing through communities in the United Kingdom that arent yet fully vaccinated, with cases rising so quickly in some places that the country has reconsidered ending a national lockdown this month. Theres one word that keeps me awake at night at the moment: England, said Nicholas Jewell, a UC Berkeley biostatistician who has family in London. England is not that different from California in vaccination rates. But theyre facing this new uptick. Federal authorities have warned that parts of the U.S. are especially vulnerable to the delta variant, which is still being reported in low numbers nationwide but is quickly climbing. It currently makes up about 6% of cases that are sequenced, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert. In some states, especially in the South, only about a third of the population has been fully vaccinated, meaning they could still see significant outbreaks, especially if the delta variant gets a foothold. Delta is unlikely to wreak havoc in California, however. And though theres concern that the variant could cause more serious illness and has contributed to rising hospitalization rates among young people in some parts of the world, infectious disease experts say the evidence is mostly anecdotal. So far, young adults and children infected with delta in the United States dont seem to be suffering more severe symptoms. But the rise of yet another worrisome variant should serve as a reminder to people who arent vaccinated to take extra care or better yet, get their shots as soon as possible, experts said. Some of the models say that delta is going to become the predominant strain throughout the United States, said Dr. Susan Philip, the San Francisco health officer. We want to make sure people are fully protected with vaccine before that becomes more common. The vaccines being used in the United States work well against delta, along with the other variants. Most infectious disease experts say they dont expect the virus to make an evolutionary leap that would let it completely evade vaccines any time soon, or ever. But as long as the pandemic rages in other parts of the world, variants will be a cause for concern. Im hopeful this doesnt happen, but if some dreadful variant pops out somewhere that can evade immunity generated by the vaccines were using, we could be right back in the soup, if you will in a dreadful situation no different than a year ago or in the winter, said Dr. Art Reingold, a UC Berkeley epidemiologist. Thats possible, and no virologist that I know of could truthfully tell you whether they know thats likely or not likely. With the delta variant in mind and knowing that more than half of the state isnt yet vaccinated Shannon Bennett, chief of science at the California Academy of Sciences, said shes advising caution in the coming months. Watching whats happening in other parts of the world, even as California prepares to drop its collective guard Tuesday, makes her nervous, she said. The academy, along with a few other child-friendly museums in California, plans to keep a few extra restrictions in place. Capacity may remain limited at some exhibitions, and all visitors, regardless of vaccination status, will be asked to keep their masks on for now. Were trying to walk a fine line between visitors comfort level wearing masks versus not wearing masks. We want guests to feel like its a safe space, especially when theres mingling with young children and unvaccinated adults, Bennett said. I just feel like changing everything at once and going back to normal, theres some risk there. Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday Of the 40 or so Californians who have filed statements of interest to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom as the states governor in the upcoming recall election, Kevin Paffrath is the only one with 1.65 million followers on YouTube. But when the Southern California real estate broker showed up in San Franciscos Civic Center Plaza on Saturday, around 150 people huddled in front of a stage where a sign urged voters to Meet Kevin Paffrath and Vote YES on Recall. Many of the attendees told The Chronicle they are followers of Paffraths popular YouTube channel, Meet Kevin. The gathering was billed as Paffraths FIRST BIG CAMPAIGN RALLY!!! on his YouTube account, which was created in 2010 and until recently has emphasized mostly financial topics. Unlike Caitlyn Jenner, Im not running as a joke, Paffrath said at one point, referring to the former Olympic gold medalist who announced in April that she is running for governor as a Republican. Im running to solve California. After several minutes of technical sound issues, Paffrath stepped off the stage with microphone in hand and moved in front of the crowd, prompting dozens of attendees to crane their necks and lean closer. At the City Hall steps across the street, dozens of people were clustered for an unrelated demonstration. Elsewhere on the plaza, families played badminton and spikeball while Paffrath shared his vision, referencing notes on an iPad. Paffrath condemned the states education system, reports of California residents leaving the state, the number of people experiencing homelessness across California, and the states plan for its high-speed rail system. He detailed a portion of his 20-Part Plan for California, which involves removing the state income tax on the first $250,000 made; establishing a 14-day fast-tracked legal immigration process; and providing housing for everyone experiencing homelessness within 60 days via emergency powers, among other objectives. People will not die in our streets anymore, he said energetically to raucous cheers and applause. No one should be starving in the fifth-largest economy in the world. No one should be dying on our streets. The crowd was composed of parents with their children in strollers or climbing trees, couples, and individuals raising their cell phones to record his campaign remarks. The attendees included Rachel Laing and husband Dean Laing, who stood near the plazas trees with their 10-month-old daughter, Alice. Dean Laing, 27, follows Paffrath on YouTube but is especially impressed by the candidates education proposals that, Laing suggested, would help high-schoolers transition into life better. Jurgen Ordenana, 32, said he learned about Paffrath while surfing YouTube channels specializing in finances, real estate and the stock market. He said hes been a fan of Paffrath since 2019. Ordenana, who says he swings pretty center right as an independent, said Paffraths values fall in line with his own, specifically relating to taxes, financial stability and responding to homelessness in the state. I grew up in the city my whole life. I moved to Foster City a couple years ago just to get out of the insanity of what San Francisco is, he said, referring to growing homelessness. Newsom has failed with the homeless problem. Hiu Mei Ma, 32, told The Chronicle that she stumbled upon Paffraths YouTube channel when she was researching the housing crisis in San Francisco, a city that she had lived in for many years before moving to San Leandro. She said she wanted the chance to meet Paffrath and understand his vision to improve San Francisco, and the state. She said she was still learning Paffraths platform, but that she plans to vote for him. Not long after the end of his talk, the first-time candidate headed back to his campaign van. But first came a cheerful farewell: Thank you so much for having me, California. See ya later. Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez One simple rule about cities is that when you make big complicated changes, things are a lot harder to fix if something goes wrong. Or if the big change was a bad idea to begin with. Which brings us to San Franciscos Hallidie Plaza, named after the inventor of the cable car, Andrew Hallidie. The plaza, which opened 48 years ago at Powell and Market streets next to the cable car turnaround, has been a mess ever since. Now Mayor London Breed has pledged to invest more than $1 million to make the faded dream shine. Good luck. The reason this brick-paved space is so grim, even with a busy BART station on one side and the cable cars above, isnt that it needs prettier plants and more cleaning. Or that the pandemic derailed mass transit and closed Union Squares hotels. The problem is a design that sank Hallidie Plaza 20 feet below the city around it a literal void that decades of good intentions have been unable to fill. Its really challenging, said Karin Flood, executive director of the Union Square Business Improvement District. This is one of our most important public gateways, but its not a positive experience. The high point of the plazas sad history probably was in March 1973 when hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the dedication of what Mayor Joseph Alioto called a spot of artistic beauty. Some leaned against the brass railings at street level, looking down into the tiered levels of space. Others sat on comfortable benches amid potted flowers and young trees, or relaxed against the chiseled granite walls. Terry Schmitt/The Chronicle 1973 But when you telescope a public space deep into the ground, you hide it from surrounding streets. Thousands of people might pass through on their way from BART and Muni up to Market Street and Union Square, but why stick around? Within a decade, City Hall was making periodic police sweeps to clear out drug dealers in response to complaints from transit riders. Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko marveled at how the expensive depression could look simultaneously vulgar and bleak. By 2005, the benches had been removed to chase off supposed troublemakers. Ficus trees on the upper tier were cut down. Bleak became stark, if thats your idea of an improvement. These days, the scene isnt threatening so much as forlorn. Theres a sparsely patronized cafe in a fake cable car. The dark passage below Fifth Street is tomb-like, with a large empty storefront that once held the convention bureaus visitor center. This area may be subject to video recording, warns a sign on a tilted metal post. That should be a center of the city, said Rodney Fong, president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, but it doesnt feel like it. As part of the downtown recovery plan that Breed announced in late May, the city will invest $175,000 this year to give Hallidie Plaza a figurative boost. There will be extensive new plantings, folding tables and chairs and a beefed-up cleaning schedule. Electronic art will be installed in the gloomy passage to perk it up. An additional $1 million is included in Breeds budget proposal for next year. The idea is to make it possible to add food and crafts kiosks, and overhaul the elevator from Market Street that is closed more often than not. At this point, the goal is just to beautify it and start to generate positive activity, Flood said. The obvious solution one that I argued for in my starry-eyed youth is to raise Hallidie Plaza up to street level and add a small building on the west side of Fifth. But the expense and structural logistics rule out that scenario, realistically, given all the citys other problems. Instead, during the past 15 years weve had a procession of well-meaning efforts to spruce things up. None of which stick. What went wrong with Hallidie Plaza was baked in from the start. Its a variation of larger wounds that scarred the urban landscape in the decades after World War II, such as the freeways that tore apart neighborhoods, or the urban renewal that would raze multiple blocks to clear the way for a supposedly better future. San Francisco got rid of the Embarcadero Freeway along the waterfront, but only because it was damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. But the Black community of the Western Addition never recovered from the targeted demolition of supposedly blighted homes. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle The plaza itself was the result of a ballyhooed effort in the 1960s that sought to transform Market Street into our version of Paris Champs-Elysees. Spoiler alert: It didnt. We need to invest in cities. Heres the catch: We also need to do so in ways that can be tweaked over time without a lot of effort. When I asked Flood during our phone conversation for details on the current plans, she paused to look them up on her computer. The search took longer than expected. Weve been working on Hallidie forever, Flood sighed. There are a lot of files here. John King is The San Francisco Chronicles urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron Confronting racism in Piedmont, a city of white affluence surrounded by a diverse East Bay, isnt easy. Few people know this better than Meghan Bennett. The 41-year-old Piedmont native was inspired by last years national racial justice movement to uncover her citys hidden history. What she found was the story of Sidney Dearing, Piedmonts first Black homeowner. Racist residents repeatedly threatened the lives of Sidney and Irene Dearing when the couple moved to the exclusive foothill enclave in 1924. By 1925, they were forced to sell their house back to the city. Time and apathy swept Dearing from the local historical record; Bennett, who is white, tried to bring him back. She completed her research and started SidneyDearing.com in June 2020, weeks after George Floyds murder. Piedmont Exedra, a progressive news outlet, and the Piedmont High School paper both picked up Dearings story with lengthy articles in the months that followed. I was just embarrassed that I lived here and didnt know this story, Bennett told me. Most people dont and its something we all should be talking about. Yet the citys Historical Preservation Society still makes no mention of Dearing on its website. And a Piedmont City Council members idea back in August 2020 to create a historical marker for the citys first Black homeowner hasnt materialized. Officially acknowledging Dearing is the least Piedmont can do especially considering that its racist history continues to shape the city decades later. Meghan Bennett In the 1920s, Piedmont was known as the City of Millionaires. But it was also a city with racist housing covenants that excluded people of color from owning property within its boundaries. It was in this hostile environment that Dearing made local history. Based on the information gathered by Bennett, Dearing moved to Oakland in 1907. He opened Creole Cafe in West Oakland in 1918. It was one of the first venues on the citys Seventh Street to feature Black jazz musicians. The money Dearing made as a business owner meant he could afford a home in Piedmont. But because of the citys racial covenants, Dearing had to have his white mother-in-law buy the house using $10,000 of his money. A few months after moving in, a mob of 500 residents surrounded Dearings home and demanded he leave. When verbal intimidation failed, Dearings neighbors turned to the violent kind. Police found multiple bombs around Dearings property over the next month. Luckily, none detonated. Dearing needed protection, but couldnt exactly count on Police Chief Burton Becker, who was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan. Dearing eventually told Piedmont residents and officials that he would not sell under peaceful conditions for less than $15,000, and that under the present harsh conditions for nothing less than $25,000, the Piedmont Exedra reported. Dearing agreed to sell his Piedmont home in February 1925, though it was never reported for how much. Piedmont is no longer a city where Black residents are openly terrorized. But its anti-Black history echoes almost a century later, in subtler ways. Where the city once used housing covenants and angry mobs to prevent people of color from accumulating property and wealth, the same is being achieved today through single-family zoning restrictions and surveys showing that some residents prefer affordable housing be outsourced to Oakland. The invisible gates of the past still stand. According to Piedmont Historical Society data, less than 1% of the citys population was Black in 1920. As of 2019, only 1.4% of Piedmonts 11,000 residents are Black, U.S. census data shows. With median home values above $2 million, its no wonder the city faces a dearth of affordable housing and local ambivalence about addressing it. Since last summers racial reckoning, more people are confronting Piedmonts whitewashed history. In July, a group of anonymous high school students started an Instagram account focused on racist behavior in the school district, called Reporting Racism in Piedmont. In August, the Piedmont City Council passed a resolution apologizing for racially motivated, discriminatory or exclusionary aspects of the Citys history. All it took was 96 years for an apology. But that isnt action. Gary Theut currently lives in Dearings former home at 67 Wildwood Ave. He only learned of his propertys backstory this year. He wished he knew sooner. History is important, Theut told me. If were shining a light on racism and focusing in on it, even though its far too complex of an issue to be fixed overnight, at least we can start addressing it in a way thats productive. Dearing was a victim of 1920s racism. He was also a pioneer. Six decades after slavery was abolished, he risked his life for a piece of land in one of the Bay Areas least welcoming cities. He showed other Black folks that they had as much of a right to the American Dream as their white counterparts. Piedmont disagreed then. How about now? San Francisco Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips appears Sundays. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips JERUSALEM (AP) Israels parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. The vote, capping a stormy parliamentary session, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four deadlocked elections. Those votes focused largely on Netanyahus divisive rule and his fitness to remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. To his supporters, Netanyahu is a global statesman uniquely capable of leading the country through its many security challenges. Ariel Schalit/AP But to his critics, he has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents. Outside the Knesset, hundreds of protesters watching the vote on a large screen erupted into applause when the new government was approved. Thousands of people, many waving Israeli flags, celebrated in central Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. President Joe Biden quickly congratulated the new government. I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations, he said in a statement. He said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government "to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region. Bennett's office said he later spoke by phone with Biden, thanking him for his warm wishes and longstanding commitment to Israel's security. The leaders agreed to consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran, the White House said, adding that Biden said his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on advancing peace, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. Much of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu was personal. Three of the eight parties in the new government, including Bennetts Yamina, are headed by former Netanyahu allies who share his hard-line ideology but had deep personal disputes with him. Bennett, 49, is a former chief of staff to Netanyahu whose small party is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers. As he addressed the raucous debate, he was repeatedly heckled and shouted down by Netanyahus supporters. Some were removed from the chamber. Bennett, an observant Jew, noted the Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting. This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility, he said. To continue on in this way -- more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook -- is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss. The new Cabinet met briefly, and Bennett recited a prayer for new beginnings and said it was time to mend rifts. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, Bennett said. The millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur faces a tough test maintaining an unwieldy coalition from the political right, left and center. The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. We will forge forward on that which we agree -- and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side, Bennett said. He also promised a new page in relations with Israel's Arab sector. Israels Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections. Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. He also vowed, like Netanyahu, to oppose U.S.-led efforts to restore the international nuclear accord with Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, he said. Israel is not party to the agreement and will maintain full freedom to act. But he also thanked Biden for his support of Israel. He promised to take a different approach than Netanyahu, who has alienated much of the Democratic Party through his antagonistic relationship with then-President Barack Obama and close ties with former President Donald Trump. My government will make an effort to deepen and nurture relations with our friends in both parties -- bipartisan, Bennett said. If there are disputes, we will manage them with fundamental trust and mutual respect. While Bennetts speech was conciliatory, Netanyahus was confrontational. He boasted of his achievements, including diplomatic treaties with four Arab states and a successful coronavirus vaccination drive, before belittling the man who is replacing him. He accused Bennett of abandoning Israels right-wing electorate and joining weak leftists to become prime minister. He said Bennett did not have the backbone to stand up to Iran or pressure from the U.S. to make concessions to the Palestinians. I will lead you in the daily struggle against this evil and dangerous leftist government in order to topple it, he said. God willing, it will happen a lot faster than what you think. In the opposition, Netanyahu remains head of the largest party in parliament. The new coalition is a patchwork of small and midsize parties that could collapse if any of its members decide to bolt. Bennett's party, for instance, holds just six seats in the 120-seat parliament. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver. For that, they need time and achievements, he said. Still, Netanyahu will continue to cast a shadow, Plesner said. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years in a rotation agreement with Bennett, if the government lasts. Lapid called off a planned speech, saying he was ashamed his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Netanyahus place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years more than any other, including the countrys founding father, David Ben-Gurion. But his reputation as a political magician has faded -- particularly since he was indicted in 2019 for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu had hoped to form. On March 23 of last year, with COVID just beginning its deadly rampage across America and the stock market tanking, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took to Fox News to issue a call for sacrifice: The economy had to stay open at all costs. If older Americans caught COVID and died, so be it. As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? If thats the exchange, Im all in. Fifteen months later, Patrick is still alive. Nearly 600,000 Americans are not. Hes also still lieutenant governor of Texas. And while openly suggesting that wiping out the elderly to prop up the stock market struck many, myself included, as grounds for removal, if not public flogging, its now clear that millions across the country agreed with him at least in spirit and expressed that support in the form of mass revolts against social distancing, masking and business closures. Its easy to dismiss these attitudes as phenomena born of Trumpism, QAnon and anti-vax fervor. But clinging to the status quo no matter how deadly, delusional or amoral has long been part of our national character. In December 1942, America was fighting a world war on two fronts. And it was in crisis. The Japanese army had seized the primary American supply line for rubber and we were running out. U.S. military forces were in danger of exhausting the inventory they needed to continue their fight. Lives were on the line. And the best and easiest way to preserve those lives was to get Americans out of their cars to keep them from burning rubber. There was only one problem: We wouldnt stop driving. Voluntary driving restrictions didnt work. Western states in particular recoiled at any mention of mandatory cutbacks. It took a year of politicking before FDR finally rammed through gas rationing rules. Faced with a choice between convenience or death, even members of the Greatest Generation were perfectly happy to pick convenience. Absurd as this recalcitrance was, it pales in comparison to the American unwillingness to break from its status quo on race. Even in the face of crisis. In 1933, nine years before its rubber shortage, America faced unprecedented economic collapse from the Great Depression. New Deal plans were hatched to center a recovery around home ownership. If the federal government inserted itself into the mortgage business by providing cheap loans, it could expand the housing market, creating jobs and sustainable middle-class wealth in the process. This was a radical break from established capitalist norms. But crisis dictated action. There was, however, a hitch: Democrats in the South and other parts of the country preferred economic ruin to the idea of empowering non-white people with the opportunity to become their financial equals. If Black people and other minority groups were given its benefits, the plan was doomed politically. The result of this impasse was the Homeowners Loan Corp., a government lending institution that revolutionized home ownership in the United States, but also systematically racialized it. The lending institution created lending maps that carved up American cities into graded racial territories. Exclusive white residential neighborhoods were given an A grade, and therefore the best loan terms. Black neighborhoods as well as racially integrated areas were painted red on the map, given a D grade and denied access to credit entirely. This was the origin of the term redlining. For decades, even after the Depression lifted, this system gave white buyers exclusive entree to cheap federal loans. This helped create an unprecedented expansion of home wealth for white America, and a powerful financial disincentive to integration. America figured out a partial solution to an economic crisis, by expanding its racial one. The byproduct of that decision continued to be so ingrained in our status quo, most hardly knew it was there. Until COVID. Amid the sea of selfishness and incompetence that characterized much of the American response to COVID pandemic, the Bay Area was an island of ahistorical reason. Eight decades after being part of the Western Bloc, which refused to voluntarily give up driving to stave off an invasion, Bay Area cities took early and decisive action to protect citizens from the spread of COVID. When residents were told to comply with strict lockdown and masking ordinances, we did. When vaccines became available, we took them. These efforts saved lives. And yet they still werent enough. COVID didnt miss the Bay Area. Instead, its impacts were racialized. Two months ago, The Chronicle published a map of how San Francisco neighborhoods were hit by COVID. Much of the city escaped relatively unscathed. But students of history will see patterns in the patches of COVID hot spots. The viruss trail is so firmly etched into the racial zones of the old Homeowners Loan Corp. maps, its as if the disease spread via government-sanctioned segregation in the 1930s. Which, in many ways, it did. It would be hard to find a more blatant visual illustration that the past is prologue. That racism and death continue to live embedded in our status quo even in the face of good intentions. COVID was a test run. It showed us what our future holds without drastic action. In the next few months, well almost certainly smell the smoke-scented perfume of the coming climate emergency. As the years pass and that threat worsens, well see history repeat itself. Those who can afford to will flee for safer, more comfortable environs. Or theyll work from home while the essential risk their lives to fulfill the basic needs of their economic superiors. Who lives, who dies, who suffers will be guided at least in part by the racist policies of the past. The Bay Areas COVID response showed what a community united can accomplish. But it also revealed the limitations of good intentions absent systemic change. On Tuesday, California will reopen. COVID restrictions will be lifted. A close approximation of our old lives will be available to us if we chose it. It is our duty to resist. A return to the status quo is no different than Dan Patricks suggestion that Grandma die for the economy. Matthew Fleischer is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: matt.fleischer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MatteFleischer As many Americans prepare to head back to the office, companies are hammering out policies on the extent to which they will require, or strongly encourage, employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The bottom line is that companies are legally permitted to make employees get vaccinated, according to recent guidance from the federal agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Heres the latest about the rules in the United States on vaccinations in the workplace. Employers can require employees to get vaccinated and offer incentives to do so. Federal laws do not prevent companies from requiring employees to provide documentation or other confirmation of vaccination, though they must keep that information confidential. Employers can also distribute information to employees and their family members on the benefits of vaccination, as well as offer incentives to encourage employees to get vaccinated, as long as the incentives are not coercive. If an employee will not get vaccinated because of a disability or a sincerely held religious belief, the agency said, he or she may be entitled to an accommodation that does not pose an undue hardship on the business. The agency said examples of reasonable accommodation could include asking the unvaccinated worker to wear a face mask, work at a social distance from others, get periodic COVID-19 tests or be given the opportunity to work remotely. Still, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines recommend employers to keep in mind that some individuals or demographic groups may face more barriers to receiving a vaccine than others. In addition to private companies, government entities such as school boards and the Army can require vaccinations for entry, service and travel, a practice that follows a 1905 Supreme Court ruling in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that allowed states to require people to be vaccinated against smallpox. That decision paved the way for public schools to require proof of vaccinations from students. Isnt this a HIPAA violation? The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has protections for patients confidential health information, but it covers what your health care provider can share with others, rather than employers and what they can ask for. Then why do many businesses remain hesitant about requiring vaccinations? A Rockefeller Foundation and Arizona State University survey of more than 1,300 medium and large companies in the United States and Britain found that more than half said they would require employees to show proof of vaccination. Nearly nine out of 10 said they planned to encourage or require employees to get vaccinated, the survey found. But while it is legal to mandate vaccinations, many companies are avoiding the thorny issue. Some companies dont want to create mandates until the coronavirus vaccines have received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which has so far granted only emergency-use authorization to the three vaccines in use in the United States. Others, including hospitals, have refrained from issuing guidance to avoid lawsuits. Houston Methodist, a hospital in Texas, is facing a lawsuit from more than 100 people after it told employees they all had to be vaccinated by Monday. Dozens of staff members gathered outside the hospital systems Baytown location on Monday, holding signs that read Vaxx is Venom and Dont Lose Sight of Our Rights in protest of the policy. On Tuesday, nearly 200 of the employees were suspended, and the hospital said if they did not get vaccinated by June 21, it would start the process to end their employment. There is some murkiness, since the rules vary state by state. In theory, federal law should trump state law, but the situation is tricky: The recent guidance mostly functions as a reminder that federal equal employment opportunity laws do not prohibit employers from requiring vaccines. But states have been staking out their own paths. In South Carolina, for example, state agencies can encourage employees to get vaccinated, but they cannot require them to be. They also cannot require South Carolinians to provide proof of their vaccination status as a condition for receiving government services or gaining access to any government buildings, following an executive order by Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican. On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, also a Republican, signed a law prohibiting businesses or government entities in the state from requiring digital proof of vaccination, joining states such as Arkansas and Florida. It is not clear whether the new law will affect Houston Methodists mandate that employees be vaccinated. Which major companies have said they are requiring employees to be vaccinated? Many companies are encouraging employees to get the jab rather than requiring them to do so. Target, for example, is providing up to four hours of paid leave for employees to get vaccinated, and covering taxi rides to and from the appointments. The supermarket chain Kroger is offering $100 to all associates who provide proof of vaccination. Salesforce, the software giant, will allow up to 100 fully vaccinated employees to volunteer to work together on designated floors of certain U.S. offices. Delta Air Lines said last month that it would require new hires to be vaccinated but exempt current ones, becoming one of the first major companies to do so. United Airlines also said that it would require new hires to provide proof of vaccination within a week of starting, but would make exceptions for people who had medical or religious reasons for not getting vaccinated. It is giving three days of extra vacation to flight attendants who have received at least their first vaccine dose by Wednesday. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Two Bay Area residents have been arrested on suspicion of running a multi-million dollar human trafficking operation in the South Bay. "The investigation began in December of 2019, when detectives from the Milpitas Police Department and Investigators from the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office identified a brothel in the City of Milpitas," Milpitas police said in a statement. According to prosecutors, David Davies, 57, and Larong Hu, 38, advertised their brothel on Backpage and through their own website. They allegedly trafficked women from overseas and confiscated their passports once they arrived. Six female victims were rescued, and $2 million was seized in the investigation. The rescued victims were provided services through Community Solutions, an organization that provides critical services for victims of human trafficking, according to police. "These women are forced to have sex with between 10 and 15 men a day. They come in, in half hour intervals," Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Vanier told NBC Bay Area. According to the district attorney's office, Davies and Hu were using a high-end residential complex as one of their brothels. One current tenant told NBC Bay Area that rent there can be up to $5,000 a month. There is no indication either tenants or apartment employees knew about the alleged brothel, which was apparently run in a high-trafficked area. As part of a larger human trafficking investigation, additional brothels were found throughout the county and search warrants were served in Milpitas, San Jose and Palo Alto, police said. On Wednesday, Davies and Hu were taken into custody in the 100 block of Tiger Lily Street in Milpitas. They have been charged with crimes related to human trafficking and are both due in court on Monday. According to jail records, they are being held with no bail. Anyone who is a victim of human trafficking, or knows someone who is, should call 911 immediately or call the 24-Hour National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. Callers can also reach the hotline by texting 233733 to initiate online chats. Human trafficking victims, whether U.S. citizens or not, are eligible for services including immigration assistance. The Bay City News Service contributed to this report. CARLISLE, Ind. (AP) State police said over the weekend that two men have been arrested in a recent shooting that killed a 15-year-old high school girl in a small town in western Indiana. The fatal shooting of Mezmariah L. Wilson, of Shelburn, occurred around midnight Thursday as two large groups gathered at an intersection in Carlisle, 40 miles south of Terre Haute, according to Indiana State Police. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Authorities say two people drowned and a child who was found unresponsive in a pool was hospitalized in three separate incidents in Minnesota on Saturday. The Washington County Sheriff's Office says 46-year-old Chandra Mohan Laghuvaram, of Plymouth, was swimming in the St. Croix River when he went under for reasons that aren't clear. The Washington County Fire and Rescue found Laghuvaram in about 8 feet of water and brought him to shore, where medics unsuccessfully tried to revive him. MIAMI (AP) The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against a Florida man investigators say misappropriated more than $1 million in investor funds for personal use. The SEC also says it caught Larry Brodman using money from newer investors to pay a portion of the supposed profits of earlier investors. The Miami Herald reports on the complaint, which also involves another Florida man accused of acting illegally as an unregistered broker while offering and selling the securities involved. Anthony Nicolosi was charged with violating the offering registration and broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws. JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Alaska budget negotiators reached a tentative agreement Sunday on a state spending package that includes an estimated $1,100 dividend for residents this year. But the check size could be cut to $525 a person if the House or Senate fails to muster sufficient support surrounding use of budget reserve funds to help pay for the dividends, according to information provided by the Legislative Finance Division. Dividends have typically been paid using earnings from the states oil-wealth fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund. But the budget compromise reached Sunday would cobble together money for dividends from various sources, including the constitutional budget reserve fund that requires three-fourths support in each the House and Senate to tap. Sen. Bert Stedman, one of the lead budget negotiators, said the budget maneuver certainly encourages some folks to seriously consider what position they're going to take on the constitutional budget reserve. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, on social media, said with the conference committee proposal the dividend is again a political football subject to the whims of politicians and called it proof that a dividend should be enshrined in the state constitution. A longstanding formula for calculating dividends was last used in 2015, and dividends have become a perennial and politically charged debate. Despite various ideas that have been floated, including from Dunleavy, lawmakers have yet to coalesce behind a plan to possibly reshape the program long term. A number of lawmakers have pushed back against the assumptions underpinning Dunleavy's dividend proposal, which has seen little momentum during the current special session. Lawmakers in 2018 began using permanent fund earnings to help pay for government and sought to limit withdrawal amounts for dividends and government expenses. One of the debates this year has been over whether to exceed to the draw amount. The limit would be maintained under the budget proposal that advanced Sunday, said Alexei Painter, director of the Legislative Finance Division. Rep. Bart LeBon, a member of the Houses minority Republican caucus who served on the budget conference committee, supported the dividend language, which he said was "probably more my position than a caucus position. He said he was concerned about exceeding the draw limit. Rep. Mike Prax, a fellow Republican who was visiting with LeBon in LeBon's office after the conference committee meeting, expressed concerns with the dividend approach in the tentative agreement. My thought is, if we don't have a commitment, really, to solve the long-term problem, there's no point in agreeing to a short-term solution, he said. The budget package that advanced from the six-member conference committee must go to the full House and Senate for consideration. Senate President Peter Micciche and House Speaker Louise Stutes said votes in their respective chambers could happen Tuesday. Lawmakers have until Friday to complete their work in this special session, called by Dunleavy in part to finish the budget. The new fiscal year starts July 1. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Louisiana lawmakers wrangled their votes, worked out their deals and wrapped up their session. But they still have two hurdles to getting their most significant measures enacted: persuading the voters and surviving the governor's veto pen. One top tax priority for Republican Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder heads to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' desk while others go to an Oct. 9 election for voters to consider. The complicated tax swap plan to disentangle Louisiana's income taxes from federal tax collections and a bid to start the consolidation of sales tax collections were sent to the fall ballot. An effort to shift up to $300 million more annually in tax collections to roadwork and away from other government operations awaits a decision from Edwards, who sounded skeptical about the idea. Hundreds of other bills were sent to the governor before the session shut down Thursday and await his bill review. Voters who thought they might have a light election year without statewide or congressional positions up for grabs instead will face nine proposed constitutional amendments passed by lawmakers. The House and Senate created a statewide election specifically to get amendment decisions from the public, rather than wait for the 2022 election. Voters will make decisions on property tax adjustments, levee districts' taxing authority, state investments and allowable political activity by civil service workers. But most important to legislative leadership are sales and income tax proposals. Lawmakers want to start the process for centralizing sales tax collections through a commission, rather than dozens of local government agencies. That's a long sought goal of business organizations that argue the current system is too complicated and discouraging to companies. And that should be a fairly easy concept to explain to voters. The income tax proposal is more complex because it's a multi-bill package tied to the constitutional amendment. It would get rid of personal income tax and corporate tax deductions for federal income taxes paid in exchange for lowering the states overall income tax rates. Louisiana also would eliminate the corporate franchise tax for small businesses and lower the rate for others. Schexnayder, a Gonzales Republican, noted that tax experts, economists and government watchdog groups had recommended the changes for decades. They said it couldn't be done. It got done, Schexnayder said. But the ballot language doesn't really incorporate all that or even explain that the public would be voting to give away a tax break it currently receives. Instead, the proposal facing voters will read: Do you support an amendment to lower the maximum allowable rate of individual income tax and to authorize the legislature to provide by law for a deduction for federal income taxes paid? Lawmakers and organizations backing the measure will need to do a strong sales job to voters if they want to ensure the long-sought tax swap idea can actually happen. Meanwhile, Republican legislative leaders might need to make a full-court press to Edwards about their proposal to steer $300 million a year in the sales taxes charged on vehicle purchases to transportation projects. Those dollars would be stripped from the state general fund where they help pay for health care, education and other government operations. Houma Rep. Tanner Magee, the House's second-ranking Republican, described the measure as the state's first sizable, continuing investment in infrastructure in decades. He said the bill's passage marked a really big day for Louisiana. But the Democratic governor and some outside groups worry about the impact on other services by reshuffling the money and the budget gaps that could be caused for future governors and lawmakers. I'm not yet ready to tell you whether this particular bill is one I'm willing to sign, Edwards said. Hoping to lessen opposition, backers of shifting the vehicle sales taxes to roadwork didn't start the transfers until mid-2023, intend to phase it in over two years and added provisions to reduce the transfer to $150 million if Louisiana faces a sizable budget gap. Still, the governor noted Louisiana has a 0.45% temporary state sales tax set to end in mid-2025, lessening tax collections by $400 million. In addition, he said consumer spending buoyed by federal coronavirus assistance has produced a short-term bubble in state tax collections and in federal Medicaid aid propping up the budget. "There's a lot to be taken into consideration, Edwards said. ___ EDITORS NOTE: Melinda Deslatte has covered Louisiana politics for The Associated Press since 2000. Follow her at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte. WASHINGTON (AP) Apple informed former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn and his wife that the Justice Department had subpoenaed information about accounts belonging to them in 2018, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday, days after two House lawmakers disclosed they, too, had their information secretly subpoenaed. Its not clear yet why the Trump administration sought the McGahns' records. But the others were part of a leak probe related to the investigation of Russian-related election interference. The extraordinary disclosure that the Justice Department sought records of a sitting White House counsel and others, which was first reported by the New York Times, raises questions about how far the Trump administration was willing to go to ferret out who it thought might be responsible for damaging information about the administration. Separately on Sunday, the Senates top Democrat called on the Justice Departments chief national security official a Trump appointee who has remained in the Biden administration to testify under oath voluntarily or face a subpoena to answer questions about secretly seizing the phone data from House Democrats and reporters as part of the aggressive investigations into leaks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it is imperative the Senate Judiciary Committee issue a subpoena to John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, in addition to former attorneys general Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, if they refuse to appear voluntarily. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Sunday also called on Barr, Sessions as well as Rod Rosenstein, the no. 2 Justice official at the time, to testify under oath in the House about what they knew. She declined to say whether she would push for subpoenas if they refused to appear. The Justice Department has been rogue under President Trump, understand that, in so many respects, Pelosi told CNN's State of the Union. This is just another manifestation of their rogue activity." Schumer and Pelosi's demands come days after news emerged that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed Apple for metadata from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and another Democratic member of the panel, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, in 2018, as their committee was investigating the former presidents ties to Russia. Schiff at the time was the top Democrat on the panel, which was led by Republicans. Demers has been in charge of the departments national security division since February 2018, being sworn in a few weeks after the subpoena was issued to Apple for the Democrats' records, and his division has played a role in each of the leak investigations. Schumer called on Senate Republicans to join in a demand to issue the subpoenas. This was nothing less than a gross abuse of power, Schumer said of the seized records. I dont think weve ever had a record of this in the past. This is about separation of powers. President Joe Biden has nominated Matt Olsen, an executive at Uber who has experience in the Justice Department and served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center and as general counsel for the National Security Agency, to be the next assistant attorney general for national security. But Demers has remained in place while Olsen awaits a confirmation hearing in the Senate. The former Boeing airline executive is one of the few remaining Trump appointees still in office. The records of at least 12 people connected to the House intelligence panel were eventually shared with the Justice Department by Apple after the subpoena was issued in 2018, including aides, former aides and family members. One was a minor. The subpoena, issued Feb. 6, 2018, requested information on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses, Apple said. It also included a non-disclosure order that prohibited the company from notifying any of the people and was renewed three times, the company said in a statement. On Friday, the Justice Departments inspector general launched a probe into the matter after a request from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Inspector General Michael Horowitz said he would examine whether the data subpoenaed by the Justice Department and turned over by Apple followed department policy and whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations. Horowitz said he would also investigate similar Trump-era seizures of journalists phone records. In recent weeks, the Justice Department notified news organizations that it secretly seized phone records belonging to reporters at the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN as part of criminal leak investigations. Following an outcry from press freedom organizations, the Justice Department announced earlier this month that it would cease the practice of going after journalists sourcing information. MELVILLE, N.Y. (AP) Police who have been banned from marching in New York Citys Pride parade are instead able to take part in festivities in the suburbs of Long Island. Its a twist from a previous era when officers often felt more comfortable marching in the city rather than closer to home where acceptance of gay officers lagged, evident by the fact that they weren't even allowed to march in uniform in parades in Nassau and Suffolk counties until the early 2000s. ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) When bats come to mind, people generally think of horror movies and vampires, but bats actually play an important role in the ecosystem. But theyre in danger. White Nose Syndrome, WNS, was discovered in New York in 2006 and has been affecting the U.S. and Canadian bat populations ever since, The Spectrum newspaper reported. Its a white fungus that attacks the skin of the bats while they hibernate and wakes them. The bats attempt to clean off the fungus, and it gets on their ears and noses hence the name White Nose Syndrome. Since WNS attacks bats during hibernation, the bats spend precious energy awake and using up their food stores, essentially starving them to death. There is no known cure, and it has a 90-100% fatality rate. WNS has made its way across the U.S. and only a few states are currently WNS free: Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and Louisiana. WNS spreads through pores that travel on humans shoe wear and gear they might bring into caves. It also spreads through bat-to-bat contact, spreading rapidly since fungus thrives in cold, dark places like caves. WNS is not that big of a deal in places that have already been affected and it seems to hit certain species of bats harder than others, said Kimberly Dickerson, WNS regional coordinator for Mountain-Prairie Regions. Climate plays a large role in the spread of WNS and places like Florida have no reported cases because they dont have caves where bats hibernate. Utah doesnt have an especially large number of caves and in Southern Utah, it tends to stay warm year-round. Enough so that bats can be seen flying around for most of the year and have a shorter hibernation period. There are probably around a dozen bat species in Washington County, Keith Day, a wildlife biologist, said. Eighteen bat species reside in Utah and the Division of Natural Resources surveys the local bats in rotation every three years. Day has been doing bat surveys in Utah since before 2009 when the rotation started. He said he brings out interns from the DNR to camp and catch bats in soft netting so that they can take measurements and monitor the bat populations. Day and his team look for WNS and there is a large concern that it will spread to Utah, so monitoring the bats in different areas is vital. Most bats are inactive in the cold weather or wintertime, or mostly inactive. There is bat activity year-round down here in Washington County. Its warm enough that they can be active year-round mostly spring, summer, and fall, Day said. Places with water attract large numbers of insects and with Utah being a dry climate, its also a prime area for bats to visit during dusk. Day said that all the bats in Utah are insectivorous. There are caves and mines where bats like to hibernate but here in Southern Utah, you can find bats in places like the Red Hills Desert Reserve, Ivins near the canyons, and Quail Creek. The caving community is working hard to make sure gear is cleaned off and the WNS spores arent moving. But you cant disinfect all the equipment, Dickerson said. Though bats spread WNS by being near each other during hibernation and flying to different locations, humans play a large role in the spread of WNS. Especially in places like national parks and caves where tourists often go. As resilient as these fungi spores are, they can stay on caving equipment, clothes and shoe wear through plane rides and transfer to a new location. Its essential that when caving or going to an area with known bats to clean off equipment and clothing as soon as possible to eliminate the spread of WNS. One concerned citizen even took his idea to implement cave management on the Arizona strip to the local government but has been turned down. I dont think that the organizations (here in Utah) have been active enough, said Richard Spotts, a retired environmental lawyer and St. George local. Spotts said he wants to see the states that have not have suspected or confirmed cases be more proactive in the prevention of WNS. Though bats tend to be associated with horror movies or vampires, their role in pollination and keeping mosquito populations to a bearable amount is what really counts. Without bats, Utah farmers would have more pests eating their crops and they would lose a pollinator. FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) The shift, mainly within younger generations, toward spirituality rather than religiosity can be seen in Fayetteville. The Rev. Kelli W. Taylor, chaplain and vice president of religious life and community engagement at Methodist University, said church research suggests a shift among younger Black Christians. The move is from being religious to being spiritual, when religion is defined as adhering to a specific set of organized beliefs and practices, while spirituality suggests a more individual approach to faith and practice, she said. Stacye Blount, an associate professor of sociology at Fayetteville State University, talks about a difference between religiosity and spirituality. When we talk about religiosity, or what may also be termed religiousness, we are talking about how the measurement of ones religiousness or religiosity connects to beliefs, practices, rituals in which people participate, she said. With spirituality, people are searching for the sacred to try to find meaning in life and they are trusting in some higher power. With these definitions, Blount added, people can be spiritual but not religious and vice versa. Shatara Het Heru Bey is using her business Divine Doula Goddess, to not only assist women givinge birth but to also help people on their spiritual journey. Het Heru Bey started her spiritual journey in 2009 after she was taught breathing techniques. Five years ago, she went to an event called Mothers for the Earth that required her to get in touch with the land and connect with ancestors. That was just an eye opening experience on how in tune we are with the Earth, she said. It was so healing, it was so refreshing, it was cleansing. It was just so different and I had never experienced anything like that in my life. Blount said the shift toward spirituality swept through the younger Black generation, beginning with the death of Trayvon Martin. Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old, was shot and killed by a community watch group member who thought the teen looked suspicious wearing a hooded sweatshirt in the rain. The shooter claimed he believed Martin had a weapon. The teen, who was in the neighborhood visiting relatives and was coming back from a nearby 7-Eleven, was found to be in possession of only a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona Iced Tea. The man who killed him was found not guilty of murder at trial. I think it sent them on a quest for some faith, a spiritual experience that centered them more within their ancestral origins, she said. I am inclined to believe that they are spiritual,m but I think they have had enough of organized religion, especially as they become more social-justice oriented. Taylor said she sees it from a different perspective on how younger Black generations view religion after spending time in the community. She said she doesnt think they are completely abandoning organized religion. Instead, Taylor said, she has seen evidence that Black students are dedicated to prayer and studying scripture but also have developed a sense of weariness. They are weary of prayer without action and scripture study that ignores the central message of the gospel that says you cannot say you love God and hate your brother or sister, she said. They want to engage the message of the biblical prophets who were social critics. Taylor agrees that the younger generation lean toward social justice. What I observe is more African American young people finding engagement and living out of their Christian convictions in civic organizations that are on the front lines of social justice rather than in the church, she said. Within the Black community, the use of crystals and burning sage have been seen as witchcraft or something sinister; a disconnect Blount says can be traced back to slavery. (Religion) was used as a mechanism of control because they used scripture to justify what they were doing, she said. Blount added that it isnt clear to her why those who used religion as a form of control would think slaves would completely forget the traditions from their homeland. She said misconceptions of spiritual practices also are also connected to misinformation based on fear. Het Heru Bey said she believes that the control and misconceptions taught about spirituality have had an opposite effect. She said she feels the need to share her spirituality with others in the Black community because its a birthright. It actually gives us more power, makes us feel even better about ourselves, she said. It makes us being able to see like another way of life and just know wholeheartedly that this is what our ancestors did. Blount said the exhaustion with organized religion caused millennials and Generation Z to look for a different path, which led them to conclude that spirituality isnt negative. So once they do research, especially if they do research to the degree whereby they find out just how rich the faith traditions were of their African ancestors, and that desire to want to connect to that, then they find out, oh well there is really nothing wrong with burning sage, she said. Its just been the way it has been explained to us and if you looked at a crystal you were dabbling into some occult practice. MIAMI (AP) Leaning against the wooden gate in front of the mobile home she boarded up and painted herself, Brandy Sarut realizes that, at 24, shes facing the threat of eviction for the second time in her life. The first time was when she was still a kid, growing up in Miami-Dade County. But this time, Sarut is a caretaker. She works just three days a week as a waitress at a nearby Dennys and has a 3-year-old girl, Mariana. Her father, who lives in a trailer behind hers, is retired and disabled. What little she makes at the diner goes into paying her $600 monthly rent to live in a small trailer, about the same amount paid by the 30 families living in one of the few non-subsidized affordable housing options left in the city. And, as of now, homeowners are likely to lose the bulk of the investments many made on their trailers decades ago. Residents of the Paradise Park Mobile Home Park, west of the 27th Street bridge near fast-growing Allapattah, received a six-month notice of eviction last November, just a few days after the trailer park was bought by Miami-based developers for $15 million and about a month before one of South Floridas worst COVID-19 outbreaks. Although the park has survived the threat of evictions and demolitions in previous years, this time its likely all residents will have to find new homes. I dont want to be a statistic and this type of stuff makes people statistics, said Sarut, who has lived at Paradise Park for two years. This is whats been keeping me stable, been keeping me afloat. And for somebody to just come with all that money ... and snatch it from all of us, its not fair. River Rapids Partners LLC, a company that owns the majority of the parks land, is the latest to buy up the 3.83-acre property along the Miami River part of what developers perceive to be one of the last desirable waterfront areas ripe for redevelopment in Miami-Dade County. The New York-based Jacques Leviant 2004 Descendants Trust owns a third of the land. According to the lands price history on Zillow, it last sold for $1.6 million in 2000. Attorneys for the River Rapids Partners LLC did not return a request for comment. According to the notice, the trailer owners were told River Rapids Partners LLC were changing the use of the land and all the families would have to leave by the end of May. But on the last day of May last week, Paradise Park residents were still awaiting word from the landowners on whether their evictions would proceed as planned. Davalyn Suarez, the attorney representing the parks Homeowners Association in a lawsuit challenging the evictions, is hoping to reach a deal for more time and more money to find new homes. She says the case of the Paradise Park residents is crucial because they arent able to take their most valuable possession with them: their trailers. Our position is that were challenging the park closure and were challenging the park closure specifically because when an owner buys land they have to give a relocation package to these residents, Suarez said. While their homes are considered mobile, they cannot be physically moved from the land beneath, which they all rent from the owners. Some residents told the Miami Herald the landowners offered them about $4,500 to leave in January. But the money offer has since dwindled to between $1,300 and $1,500, which Paradise Park homeowners argue is not enough to rent in most places in Miami-Dade County. Residents also say the owners have so far refused to pay for their trailers, which cost some residents up to $18,000 several decades ago. All this money that youve invested in your home stays there, said Suarez, who is a lawyer with Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. This is happening too often and affordable housing is just more and more rare. ... The trend is they buy the mobile home land and they build condos, or they build apartments and theyre able to rent them out to a lot more people and theyre able to make more money. The Allapattah area has appealed to developers in recent years who hope new condos attract potential residents from the nearby Miami health district. In the past 10 years, since 2011, typical home values in that neighborhood have more than tripled in price, from $88,500 to $287,000 in April 2021, according to data from Zillow. In the past year alone, home values have risen by 11.7%. But the trend Suarez is referring to is not limited to mobile home parks. About 200 tenants of the Hamilton on the Bay apartment complex in Edgewater, which a Denver-based development company bought during the pandemic, are being evicted in 60 days in what attorneys call a bait and switch, the Miami Herald reported on Tuesday. Residents said they were asked to sign a new lease with a longer 18-month agreement, but it included an early termination clause to end the lease. Its a business decision and they have rights as property owners. The tenants can find something. Its not going to be as nice or on the water, but theyve had it nice for a long time, said one real estate expert, Chris Zoller, broker associate with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. This is not the first time Paradise Park residents have been threatened with eviction. In 2019, the city of Miami wanted to demolish the park, which continues to attract drug dealers and prostitution, citing illegal alterations and unsafe conditions that could not be repaired. But the homeowners successfully challenged the action at the time. And in 2013, when there were still about 100 trailers there, city and state officials swept the park looking for code violations and drugs, and called the living conditions uninhabitable. The park still struggles with maintenance and safety. According to an amended complaint from the Paradise Park homeowners, residents struggle with pest infestations in derelict homes, open potholes in the communitys roads and wires hanging out of electrical boxes in abandoned lots. But for many residents, its the only place they can imagine calling home. While the physical eviction process could still take months, homeowners have still not reached a final agreement with landowners. I want them to give us a solution. They should either pay for our trailers or tell us, Stop paying the rent, start saving. Because the truth is they are still receiving our money, said Silvia Gomez, 55, who has lived for 24 years in the same trailer where she raised her son on her own. She now lives there by herself. Like Gomez, who cleans homes for a living, many of the residents are low-wage, immigrant families, some of them older people who live alone, and have owned their trailers for several decades. Gomez said she has still struggled to make ends meet during the pandemic, because from the dozen or so homes she used to clean regularly, now she only has two steady clients to depend on. If we go somewhere else, theyre going to charge us double that, she said. Thats why Im happy here. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) Former U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh and Dan Coats are taking on roles with Indiana University as distinguished scholars. The university announced this past week that Bayh will work with the ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, while Coats will join the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. Their projects will include working with a new masters degree in international affairs program that involves both IU schools. There is no shortage of job openings for local election officials in Michigan. It's the same in Pennsylvania. Wisconsin, too. After facing threats and intimidation during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, and now the potential of new punishments in certain states, county officials who run elections are quitting or retiring early. The once quiet job of election administration has become a political minefield thanks to the baseless claims of widespread fraud that continue to be pushed by many in the Republican Party. The exits raise a pressing question: Who will take these jobs? Barb Byrum, clerk of Ingham County, Michigan, has an idea. These conspiracy theorists are in it for the long haul. Theyre in it to completely crumble our republic, and theyre looking at these election administrator positions, said Byrum, a Democrat. Theyre playing the long game. It's difficult to quantify exactly how many election officials across the country have left their posts and why, since the departures are not generally tallied. Retirements also are common after presidential elections. But in places that do track such information, along with anecdotal accounts from county officials, it is clear that many have recently left because of the newfound partisan rancor around the jobs and the threats many local election workers faced leading up to the November election and afterward as former President Donald Trump and his allies challenged the results. About a third of Pennsylvanias county election officials have left in the last year and a half, according to a spokesman for the states county commissioners association, who cited heavy workloads and rampant misinformation related to voting among the reasons. It was particularly challenging last year with all the misinformation and angst out there, said Lisa Schaefer, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. And none of it was caused by county election officials. The executive director of a clerks association in Wisconsin said more than two-dozen clerks have retired since the presidential election and another 30 clerks or their deputies quit by the end of 2020. Thirteen have left since the beginning of this year. In Michigan, Byrum said she didnt know a precise number of newly vacant positions but was able to rattle off several seasoned election officials who have recently left. The local election jobs are being vacated as Trump's false claims of fraud persist within the GOP and provide a platform for his loyalists to launch campaigns to become top election officials in several swing states. In Georgia, U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, a Trump recruit who voted to overturn the presidential results in the House of Representatives, is challenging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who has been attacked by his own party for upholding President Joe Bidens victory. Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, who was at the Jan. 6 rally outside the Capitol and is a chief supporter of a partisan review of ballots in Maricopa County, is running for secretary of state. Former Nevada lawmaker Jim Marchant, who has clung to the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from Trump, is campaigning to replace Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who has repeatedly denied claims of election fraud. Cegavske can't run again because of term limits. Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for Common Cause, which advocates for expanded voter access, said that while the statewide positions come with more power, local officials generally have much discretion over how to solve common Election Day issues such as long lines, voter roll problems or trouble with voting machines. If you have an elections official who doesnt want to expand access to the ballot, who finds democracy disturbing to them, theyre not going to fix problems and then theyre going to multiply, she said. Races for county offices receive far less attention than those for statewide positions, and many of those roles arent up for election for another year or more. Still, partisanship has already seeped into the process. Republicans in Michigan chose not to re-nominate a GOP member of the state election board after he voted to certify Bidens win in the state. In Scott County, Iowa, a GOP board chose not to hold a special election after the abrupt resignation of the longtime top elections official, a Democrat, and instead appointed a Republican. The exodus comes as Republicans in a number of states pursue legislation that imposes new fines or criminal penalties on local election officials or makes it easier to remove them, as part of the GOP campaign to rewrite rules for voting and administering elections. A new law in Iowa imposes a $10,000 fine on election administrators for a technical infraction of election rules. A similar law in Florida could lead to $25,000 fines for election supervisors if a ballot drop box is accessible outside early voting hours or is left unsupervised. Republicans in Texas have pushed a measure to make it a crime for local election officials to send voters unsolicited absentee ballot materials. Georgias new election law allows the GOP-dominated legislature to appoint a board that can replace a local election official. Wendy Helgeson, president of the Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association and clerk of the village of Greenville, said the new penalties, coupled with the charged atmosphere around election work, could make the job unpalatable to some. Its hard to convince someone its a good way to give back to the community when youre afraid of going to clerk jail, she said. Its harder and harder to get people to work in government as a whole. ___ Izaguirre reported from Lindenhurst, New York. ___ Associated Press coverage of voting rights receives support in part from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for this content. JERUSALEM (AP) Naftali Bennett, who was sworn in Sunday as Israel's new prime minister, embodies many of the contradictions that define the 73-year-old nation. He's a religious Jew who made millions in the mostly secular hi-tech sector; a champion of the settlement movement who lives in a Tel Aviv suburb, and a former ally of Benjamin Netanyahu who has partnered with centrist and left-wing parties to end his 12-year rule. His ultranationalist Yamina party won just seven seats in the 120-member Knesset in March elections the fourth such vote in two years. But by refusing to commit to Netanyahu or his opponents, Bennett positioned himself as kingmaker. Even after one member of his religious nationalist party abandoned him to protest the new coalition deal, he ended up with the crown. Here's a look at Israel's new leader: AN ULTRANATIONALIST WITH A MODERATE COALITION Bennett has long positioned himself to the right of Netanyahu. But he will be severely constrained by his unwieldy coalition, which has only a narrow majority in parliament and includes parties from the right, left and center. He is opposed to Palestinian independence and strongly supports Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians and much of the international community see as a major obstacle to peace. Bennett fiercely criticized Netanyahu after the prime minister agreed to slow settlement construction under pressure from President Barack Obama, who tried and failed to revive the peace process early in his first term. He briefly served as head of the West Bank settlers council, Yesha, before entering the Knesset in 2013. Bennett later served as Cabinet minister of diaspora affairs, education and defense in various Netanyahu-led governments. Hes a right-wing leader, a security hard-liner, but at the same time very pragmatic," said Yohanan Plesner, head of the Israel Democracy Institute, who has known Bennett for decades and served with him in the military. He expects Bennett to engage with other factions to find a common denominator as he seeks support and legitimacy as a national leader. ___ RIVALRY WITH NETANYAHU The 49-year-old father of four shares Netanyahu's hawkish approach to the Middle East conflict, but the two have had tense relations over the years. Bennett served as Netanyahu's chief of staff for two years, but they parted ways after a mysterious falling out that Israeli media linked to Netanyahus wife, Sara, who wields great influence over her husband's inner circle. Bennett campaigned as a right-wing stalwart ahead of the March elections and signed a pledge on national TV saying he would never allow Yair Lapid, a centrist and Netanyahu's main rival, to become prime minister. But when it became clear Netanyahu was unable to form a ruling coalition, that's exactly what Bennett did, agreeing to serve as prime minister for two years before handing power to Lapid, the architect of the new coalition. Netanyahu's supporters have branded Bennett a traitor, saying he defrauded voters. Bennett has defended his decision as a pragmatic move aimed at unifying the country and avoiding a fifth round of elections. ___ A GENERATIONAL SHIFT Bennett, a modern Orthodox Jew, will be Israel's first prime minister who regularly wears a kippa, the skullcap worn by observant Jews. He lives in the upscale Tel Aviv suburb of Raanana, rather than the settlements he champions. Bennett began life with his American-born parents in Haifa, then bounced with his family between North America and Israel, military service, law school and the private sector. Throughout, hes curated a persona thats at once modern, religious and nationalist. After serving in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, Bennett went to law school at Hebrew University. In 1999, he co-founded Cyota, an anti-fraud software company that was sold in 2005 to U.S.-based RSA Security for $145 million. Bennett has said the bitter experience of Israels 2006 war against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah drove him to politics. The monthlong war ended inconclusively, and Israels military and political leadership at the time was widely criticized as bungling the campaign. Bennett represents a third generation of Israeli leaders, after the founders of the state and Netanyahu's generation, which came of age during the country's tense early years marked by repeated wars with Arab states. He's Israel 3.0, Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, wrote in a recent profile of Bennett. A Jewish nationalist but not really dogmatic. A bit religious, but certainly not devout. A military man who prefers the comforts of civilian urban life and a high-tech entrepreneur who isnt looking to make any more millions. A supporter of the Greater Land of Israel but not a settler. And he may well not be a lifelong politician either. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) When Minnesota Republican Tyler Kistner announced his candidacy for the U.S. House in April, he asked voters to ponder two questions: What America will we leave for our children?" and "Will they be taught to hate their police? Across the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District aired a digital ad this spring to demand that their Democratic congressman stand up to attacks on law enforcement. And in Iowa, a Republican governor who had promised additional checks on police conduct after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer plans to sign a law making it harder for police to be sued on the job. As rising murder rates gain attention in American cities, Republicans have ramped up a misleading campaign to cast Democrats as anti-police and lax on public safety. It's a message they believe helped them stave off greater Democratic gains in last year's elections and one with renewed potency as cities consider cuts to department budgets as part of an effort to revamp policing. It's not at all clear that the GOP strategy, which stretches back to President Richard Nixon and was used by President Donald Trump, is a winning one. But it may be prominent as Republicans search for ways to gain ground in suburban areas critical to winning control of the U.S. House next year. A recent special election in New Mexico wasn't a good sign for the strategy. GOP candidate Mark Moore used Albuquerque's rising crime and city officials' decision to create an alternative public safety department to hit Democrat Melanie Stansbury. But Stansbury won easily, with a larger share of the district's votes than President Joe Biden garnered last year. Stansbury's district is overwhelmingly Democratic, making it an imperfect test case. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's House campaign arm, believes the issue will have a larger impact in swing districts, where the party plans to tie moderate Democratic incumbents to their more liberal colleagues who have supported the defund the police movement. That term is used to describe diverting money from police budgets to other social services, such as mental health support and drug addiction mitigation. The GOP focus is on places such as Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, where 13-term Democratic incumbent Ron Kind is being cast as insufficiently supportive of law enforcement, though he does not support defunding police departments. It also includes Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, who beat Kistner in 2020 and represents the Minneapolis and St. Paul suburbs where rioting broke out last year after Floyd's death. Since then, several cities have struggled with the police funding debate, while experiencing rising gun violence. The NRCC chair, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, said he believes the message will resonate with voters because crime is rising in America, yet Democrats still support the dangerous idea of defunding the police. Neither statement is fully accurate. It's true that violent crime has risen. The FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System recorded 25% more homicides in 2020 than in 2019, and 12% more violent assaults. But the increase in homicides is nationwide, including in some cities that increased police spending and in some cities led by Republicans. Other crimes such as burglaries, drug offenses and other categories, however, have decreased. It also is not accurate to describe Democrats as uniformly supportive of defund the police efforts. The Democratic-controlled House passed a sweeping police overhaul bill in March that did not include a provision to allow diverting money away from police departments. Kind was one of only two Democrats to oppose the bill. He said it did not include sufficient protections for police. Craig voted for the measure. The bill has stalled in the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans oppose it. Like Emmer, U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tried to preemptively blame Democrats in this case, Biden for what McCarthy claimed is widespread rising crime caused by cuts to police budgets. We are concerned about whether the Biden Administration is prepared to address the surge of violent crime in American cities, McCarthy wrote in a letter Friday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. It's a noticeable shift in tone from a year ago, when many Republicans across GOP-led states briefly joined with Democrats to ban specific physical restraints and require tighter scrutiny on police in the tumultuous aftermath of Floyd's death. In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said last June while signing a bill banning chokeholds: This is not the end of our work. It is just a beginning. A year later, Reynolds' proposed racial profiling ban quietly died in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Lawmakers passed a crime bill giving police greater protection from lawsuits and cracking down on protesters. Reynolds plans to sign the measure Thursday. Republicans in other states have made it harder for cities to cut police budgets. The Republican-led legislature in Missouri made it easier this year for cities to be sued for approving deep cuts in police budgets. Similar laws were adopted in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The change from a year ago reflects the general unpopularity of cutting police spending, especially in pivotal suburban areas, North Carolina-based Republican pollster Paul Shumaker said. Though most racial justice demonstrations were peaceful, some scenes of violence and property damage left a lasting image and were highlighted in Republican campaign ads. A majority of Americans support progressive criminal justice proposals such as programs to help people released from prison transition into society and changes in sentencing laws to allow probation or shorter prison sentences for some first-time convictions, according to a May poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll also found that about 6 in 10 Americans oppose reducing funding for law enforcement agencies. The Democrats' policing bill passed the U.S. House without a single GOP vote. It would ban chokeholds and end qualified immunity from lawsuits against police officers, while creating national policing standards in an effort to bolster accountability. The bill does not back defunding police departments, and Democrats didn't even debate the idea, in part because swing-district representatives such as U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who opposes defunding police, raised concerns about the political backlash. Shumaker found the issue brought some independents who were unhappy with Trump's pandemic response and had fallen away from supporting Republicans back into the GOP's ranks last fall in parts of suburban North Carolina, including outside Charlotte and Raleigh. The defund the police movement gave Republicans a foundation to go back and repair some of the erosion with those suburban voters that was created by the coronavirus, Shumaker said. It's not clear how crime will figure in the mix of issues in next fall's elections. The nation is now just emerging from a year of political battles over COVID-19, recovering from the economic fallout and getting a handle on Biden's agenda to rebuild the economy. In an interview outside Richmond, Virginia, this past week, Spanberger said the message on crime can help Republicans unless Democrats speak up. Its always going to be difficult when a simple message is easy to gin up anxiety," Spanberger said. "It becomes difficult to counter that. But it takes a lot of effort." ___ AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson in Washington and Associated Press writer Steven Sloan in Maidens, Virginia, contributed to this report. HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) For the second time in more than three years, an administrative law judge has recommended reinstatement of four of the New Jersey police officers fired after the city of Hackensack said they engaged in a warrantless search of an apartment in late 2016. NJ.com reports that Judge Andrew Baron said Thursday that Hackensack should not have fired Sgt. Justin de la Bruyere, Det. Rocco Duardo, Det. Mark Gutierrez and Officer Victor Vazquez. The four and three since-retired officers were suspended in 2017 after they were accused of an unlawful search of an apartment and then falsifying a police report to cover it up. Then-Bergen County prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, now state attorney general, dismissed eight criminal cases and told Hackensack prosecutors not to pursue others. Baron said the officers were never given a fair chance to dispute their Brady list designation as officers whose history of lying would have to be disclosed to defense attorneys in criminal cases. A defense attorney earlier called the designation a scarlet letter B that made it nearly impossible for an officer to get a job in law enforcement. Barons decision is a recommendation that the state civil service commission can uphold, amend or disagree with. City attorneys and lawyers for the officers can also file exceptions to the recommendation ahead of the commissions decision. In February 2019, another administrative law judge decided that the four officers and a since-retired detective should be reinstated. The commission upheld most of that recommendation but said two of the officers should be fired. Attorney Charles Sciarra, who represents the officers, called Barons decision vindication that his clients shouldn't have been fired in the first place. Hackensack spokesman Phil Swibinski said the city was already preparing its opposition to the recommendation and officials absolutely stand by their decision to terminate these officers due to their egregious conduct." He said the city will dispute Baron's conclusion that the officers didn't have a chance to dispute the Brady designation. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Louisiana has recognized Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, as a legal state holiday. The third Saturday in June will be celebrated as Juneteenth Day under a bill passed without any nay votes and signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards. WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) Police in Connecticut have charged a New York man with killing a man in Waterbury last month. Waterbury police said Sunday that Gerome Philips was taken into custody in the Bronx last Tuesday by U.S. Marshals. He was extradited to Waterbury on Friday. BEDFORD, Pa. (AP) A judge dismissed the most serious charge against a man accused of shooting a civil rights activist during a confrontation in rural Pennsylvania with a group of marchers on their way to Washington D.C. from Milwaukee last summer. Bedford County Judge H. Cyril Bingham dismissed the felony aggravated assault charge and several simple assault counts against 52-year-old Terry Myers following a five-hour preliminary hearing last week. District Attorney Lesley Childers-Potts withdrew a criminal mischief charge and other simple assault and reckless endangerment counts. The judge ruled Myers should stand trial on seven other reckless endangerment charges and one harassment charge in the Aug. 24 shooting of 37-year-old Orsino Thurman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Theres a sense of relief that the most serious charges are gone, but there is a level of disappointment they werent all dismissed, defense attorney Matt Zatko said, according to The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat. He has maintained that his client fired in self-defense. Thurman, who did not appear for the hearing, faces simple assault and reckless endangerment charges as well as a charge of illegal possession of a firearm. The group of about 20 had set out early in August 2020 on a 745-mile march from Milwaukee to the nations capital to mark the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream Speech. Late on Aug. 24, 2020, the group stopped alongside rural Route 30 in Bedford County near the towing garage and home of Myers father, who saw them outside and yelled at them to leave. Police said there was no indication that they heard him. A state police affidavit said Terry Myers arrived and fired twice in the air with a shotgun, then scanned the crowd with his gun and fired after seeing two flashes, hitting Thurman in the face, The Tribune-Democrat reported. Two pistol shots then rang out and Myers responded with another blast, police said, citing footage they had reviewed. Thurman was recorded moments later saying Myers shot me with the buckshot. I hit him, too, the report said. OXFORD, Miss. (AP) Oxford author Michael Farris Smith will soon see his fourth novel, The Fighter, come to life as production for the film adaptation, retitled Rumble Through the Dark, will begin in the Delta at the end of July. It was recently announced that actor Aaron Eckhart, best known for his roles in The Dark Knight (2008), and Thank You For Smoking (2005), will be portraying the storys lead character Jack Boucher. Boucher is a seasoned fighter on the bare-knuckle circuit who is plagued by a career riddled with concussions and whose harsh circumstances eventually lead him to take on his greatest challenge. Released in March 2018, the book is significant to the award-winning authors relationship with Oxford because it was his first as an Oxonian. I think it is very cool (that) The Fighter was my first novel published as an Oxford resident, said Smith, who has published two books since this one. He also tasked himself with writing the screenplay adaptation for his own book which isnt a typical undertaking for a novelist. The movie is scheduled to start filming in Natchez on July 27, and Smith feels fortunate for the opportunity to be hands-on with the production. This is due in part to his close relationship with the films directors, brothers Parker and Graham Phillips, who head Phillips Pictures, based out of New York City and Los Angeles. The brothers first movie, The Bygone, is a Western which has been sold to Netflix and also starred Graham. This follow-up effort was originally supposed to start filming last summer, although like so much else, it was put on hold due to the pandemic. Phillips Pictures also developed another of Smiths novels, Blackwood, which Parker said in a recent phone call will start filming after Rumble Through the Dark is completed. Smith said the interest in turning his book into a movie began with an email he received from Cassian Elwes, producer of Oscar-winner Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Mudbound (2017), and scores of indie films, shortly after a book tour stop he had at Lemuria Books in Jackson. So, it started long ago, said Smith, reflecting on that initial email from Elwes, which set the project in motion. That was three years ago. In 2019, when the Phillips brothers discovered The Fighter, they reached out to Smith but learned the book had already been optioned by Elwes. So, Smith connected the brothers with the producer, and it just kind of snowballed from there, said Smith. The author and the brothers bonded quickly during their first visit, and they fell in love with Mississippi after jumping in Smiths jeep for a tour of the Delta, Smith said. Regarding the authors desire to adapt his own novel to screenplay, Parker said, thats one of the special things about him as a writer. Hes able to cross mediums, which not a lot of people can do. Parker also said that since the book is on the smaller side, it will make its transformation into a movie easier unlike in the past when hes had to make difficult decisions about what parts to leave out. This wasnt the case with The Fighter, he said. The Mississippi native pushed for the movie to be filmed in Mississippi, largely because locations in the story include Clarksdale and Natchez. Its very difficult to fake the Delta, he said, a sentiment that was repeated by Parker. It would take some of the shine off it, if we had to, said Smith. The author said he suspected the atmosphere of the story, and uniqueness of the Delta, may have been what drew the Phillips brothers to the novel in the first place, and he was right to do so since Parker later confirmed the fact. The Fighter is very atmospheric, and I think this movie that Graham and I are going to direct has got to be atmospheric as well, because place is such an important character, Parker said. Mississippis such a unique place and we all know that, Smith said. When I have a story thats going to make it to film, I really want it to be in this unique place. Ive been very fortunate to have producers and directors that all agree on that. The brothers also fought to shoot in the place where the story is set. Its very rare for a film to be filming at the place where the story exists, Parker said. So, we feel very lucky. THANKS TO THE INCENTIVE PROGRAM A major player in the productions commitment to filming in Mississippi is the current tax incentive, which had disappeared for a while. As Georgia and Louisiana have been luring filmmakers to the region with tax breaks in recent years, Mississippi is making a noticeable comeback. That had a lot to do with us being able to make it at home, Smith said. The Mississippi Motion Picture Incentive Program provides a cash rebate on eligible expenditures and payroll, and provides sales and use tax reductions on eligible rentals/purchases, according to the Mississippi Film Office website. Using local cast and crew, I mean its good for the economy. Its good for jobs. Its good for the imagination Its a win all the way around, Smith said. Im excited to be part of it. There are Mississippi-based producers also involved, including John Norris, and Crooked Letter Picture Company-owner Tate Taylor, who both helped bring us the hugely successful The Help (2011). Also, Cleta Ellington of Jackson is among the homegrown production talent. Its great to be a Mississippi writer and work with Mississippi producers right here at home, to make some great movies hopefully, Smith said. BRUSSELS (AP) U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will bid a symbolic farewell to Afghanistan on Monday in their last summit before America winds up its longest forever war and the U.S. military pulls out for good. The meeting is bound to renew questions about whether NATOs most ambitious operation ever was worth it. The 18-year effort cost the United States alone $2.26 trillion, and the price in lives includes 2,442 American troops and 1,144 personnel among U.S. allies, according to figures from Brown University. NATO does not keep a record of those who die in its operations. Those casualty figures dwarf Afghan losses, which include more than 47,000 civilians, up to 69,000 members of the national armed forces and police, and over 51,000 opposition fighters. The military effort followed the 2001 arrival of a U.S.-led coalition that ousted the Taliban for harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Few experts argue that it brought long-term stability, meaningful democracy or security. At this point, you get the impression that NATO leaders almost want to downplay and leave quietly, rather than making too big a deal of it, and going on to focus on other business, said Erik Brattberg, director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. With the U.S. leading the withdrawal, European allies and Canada want to hear Bidens thinking about how security will be assured at their embassies, along major transport routes and above all at Kabul's airport. Many wonder whether the Afghan government can survive a resurgent Taliban. Some think Kabuls capitulation is only a matter of time. We are currently in intense discussions with our member states, the United States, NATO and the United Nations on the absence of essential security conditions for our continued diplomatic presence. It will be difficult to keep it in place, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. For now, NATO plans to leave civilian advisers to help build up government institutions. Its unclear who will protect them. The 30-nation alliance is also weighing whether to train Afghan special forces outside the country. As an organization, NATO will not provide sanctuary for Afghans who worked alongside its forces routinely risking their lives although a few individual members will. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says it's simply time to leave. Afghanistan has come a long way, both when it comes to building strong, capable security forces, but also when it comes to social and economic progress, he told The Associated Press. At some stage, it has to be the Afghans that take full responsibility for peace and stability in their own country. Few Afghans share that assessment of their country, which has a 54% poverty rate, runaway crime, rampant corruption and an illicit economy that outstrips the legal economy. When NATO took charge of international security operations in 2003, Afghanistan was its first major mission outside Europe and North America. The aim was to stabilize the government, build up local security forces and remove a potential base for extremist groups. Yet 18 years later, security is at its lowest ebb for most Afghans. The capital is rife with criminal gangs, many linked to powerful warlords, and there are routine attacks by an upstart Islamic State. Quite early into the operations, as combat took its toll on NATO troops, extremists and civilians, a stalemate developed. The Taliban could not be routed from outlying areas, but neither could its fighters seize and hold major cities. Troop surges made little difference, and it soon became clear that NATOs military training effort was its exit strategy. Only by creating a big army capable of standing on its own feet could the organization wind up its operations. But the Afghan army was plagued by corruption, desertion and low morale. Experts say it still is, and this remains a major concern as NATO insists on funding the nation's security forces after it's gone. Donald Trump's unilateral decision to leave by May 1 stunned U.S. allies. It highlighted NATO's weakness: European members and Canada simply cannot sustain major operations without logistical support from their biggest partner. Bidens decision to pull U.S. troops out by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington changed little, although he did consult allies this time. James Dobbins, a former Afghan envoy who now works for the RAND Corporation think tank, predicts the exit will mean the loss of government legitimacy. The U.S. departure will be seen as a victory for the Taliban and a defeat for the United States, he said in an opinion piece. The result will be a blow to American credibility, the weakening of deterrence and the value of American reassurance elsewhere. On Monday, NATOs leaders will reaffirm the strength of their alliance and go back to what they know best: their old nemesis, Russia. Biden will brief his partners before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was not invited to NATO's summit. There is little appetite left to continue investing in Afghanistan, Brattberg said. There is a sense of being fed up in a lot of NATO countries, and now its just time to pack the bags and get out with little consideration about the consequences that could have on the ground. ____ Associated Press Writer Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed to this report. LAS VEGAS (AP) Roger Bloss sat parked in his vehicle near a smoking area outside a prominent Strip casino resort. Bloss, the CEO of MJ Holdings, a Las Vegas-based company that grows cannabis in Nevada, observed dozens of people inhaling and exhaling for about an hour. Id say 90% of them were obviously smoking weed, Bloss told the Las Vegas Sun. I feel thats not conducive for certain kinds of tourism and I certainly think it will impact our convention business in Las Vegas Mondays through Thursdays. What Bloss said he witnessed isnt an uncommon sight on the Strip, in parking garages, or downtown on Fremont Street. And if a person in the tourist corridor doesnt see someone smoking marijuana, theyre likely to smell it at some point when outside of a building. There soon could be another option. A new law approved by the state Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak paves the way for marijuana consumption lounges to open in Nevada next year. The states Cannabis Compliance Board, which regulates the industry, will approve licenses for lounges at existing dispensaries and for free-standing independent businesses. At the sprawling Planet 13 dispensary near the Las Vegas Strip plans are already being made for a consumption area. Most customers are Las Vegas tourists. In the first quarter of this year, Planet 13 reported nearly $24 million in earnings at its Las Vegas dispensary, or about 9% of all dispensary revenue reported in Nevada for the period from Jan. 1 through March. Soon, they could have a place to smoke. Its been kind of a dream of ours to allow for consumption within this complex, said David Farris, a spokesman for Planet 13. Now, were gearing up and getting a team together to put together some solidified plans. The idea, Farris said, will be to build something that could potentially cater to hundreds of cannabis users and become an attraction that rivals the Strip itself. Southern Nevada hosted over 42 million tourists in 2019, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Allowing them a place to consume cannabis was one of the driving ideas behind Assembly Bill 341, sponsored by Assemblyman Steve Yeager. Obviously, there have been some problems with people consuming in public, said Yeager, a Democrat and a former chief deputy public defender in Las Vegas. Soon, there will be an answer when tourists ask where theyre allowed to consume. I also think well get some tourists to come here because of that consumption lounge experience. Bloss said MJ Holdings will explore the possibilities surrounding a consumption area in Las Vegas that would encompass the health, wellness and social side of the cannabis market. Since federal law still recognizes marijuana as an illegal drug, its doubtful that major casino companies and other gambling license-holders in the Las Vegas area will have on-property consumption lounges. Citing federal law, the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 2018 required that licensees shall not participate in the marijuana industry. Bloss, however, said he sees possible changes following the new Nevada law. Theres going to be consumption lounges, and people will be leaving the resorts to go to these lounges, he said. Casinos will eventually have consumption lounges. It will happen when competition forces it to happen. He called the smell of marijuana too pungent for casino floors and said people wont be able to smoke a joint at gambling tables. Layke Martin, executive director of the Nevada Dispensary Association, said she hopes to see license applications available late this year or early in 2022. There are about a dozen dispensaries in Clark County that have the space or are acquiring the space for a lounge, Martin said. The hope is that some of these places will end up being destinations in and of themselves. Maybe its a video game venue with cannabis, or a comedy club, but we see some new and interesting concepts coming from this. The law will ban dispensary owners from operating a stand-alone consumption lounge that isnt located inside an existing cannabis store. Alcohol sales will not be permitted in any consumption lounge, though single-use cannabis products will be allowed to be sold. The compliance board is expected to issue 20 independent lounge licenses, half of which will be reserved for social equity applicants, which is defined as any applicant who has been adversely affected by provisions of previous laws which criminalize activity relating to cannabis. We really contemplated how to increase the inclusivity and diversity in the cannabis industry in Nevada, Martin said. Just like with dispensaries, free-standing consumption lounges will need to be at least 1,500 feet (457 meters) from any casino with an unrestricted gaming license, 1,000 feet (305 meters) from a school and at least 300 feet (91 meters) from a community facility. Simon Nankervis, CEO of The Source, which has dispensaries in Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and North Las Vegas, said the company could add lounge space at an additional dispensary that is still in the planning stages, assuming its granted the appropriate green light from the compliance board. The Source tends to cater to local residents, although it also sells to tourists. He said any lounge would likely fit two or three dozen people at capacity -- smaller than what Planet 13 officials have in the works. We should be able to have a better way of controlling how cannabis is used now, Nankervis said. We know that tourists are using on the Strip and on Fremont Street. I think this (legislation) will change the way we, as an industry, think about the market. Nankervis said industry leaders are anxious to learn specifics of the lounge licensing process. Its the next step, he said, for a maturing cannabis industry in Nevada, which legalized recreational cannabis in 2017. Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, allows for legal consumption lounges, as does California, but the coronavirus pandemic made it difficult for businesses to flourish. If you look at the markets that are more developed, like Colorado and California, theyve had consumption lounges for some time now, and that creates an environment where things are more controlled, Nankervis said. This law in Nevada puts us in a place as an industry where were on par with our neighbors. For Yeager, Sisolaks signature marked the end of a year-long process. What we could see here in Las Vegas could be better than Amsterdam, Yeager said. I cant tell you how many people I talked to from the cannabis industry, the Chamber of Cannabis, gaming, the governors folks, and those looking to get into the industry. In the end, we got more support than I thought wed get. TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) Blessing Ovies wings werent just clipped. They werent just broken. No, it was much worse than that. The world took Ovies wings from her. The world convinced her that she didnt have wings, that she never had wings that she never would. Ovie, who is now 20 years old and lives in Traverse City, believed she had no wings. She believed it for years. Ovie resigned herself to a flightless life, one without dreams or goals or hopes or even a tomorrow. She left Nigeria at 9 years old, bound for Morocco with no parents to look after her. Life was no easier there. It was worse, and Ovie numbed herself to the pain to survive each day. She doesnt talk publicly about the details of her ordeal between the ages of 10 and 17, but to hear her speak in generalities of the damage done spares the listener from the brutality Ovie faced. There was no hope. Nobody believed in me. Nobody cared. Everything went away. Everything just died, Ovie told the Traverse City Record-Eagle. I was just living for this day. If theres today, theres today. If theres food, well eat. Well sleep and if theres a tomorrow, then theres a tomorrow. Ovie talked to God. She prayed for a better life. Nearly a decade passed before God started answering those prayers. The United Nations in Africa and Bethany Christian Services in the U.S. got Ovie out of Morocco as an unaccompanied minor refugee. She was put on an airplane to Chicago and eventually made it to Traverse City, where she has lived with her foster parents, Steve Baumgartner and Danielle Beauvais, since 2018. Ovie calls Baumgartner her dad and Beauvais her mom. Theyre the only parents shes ever known. She is a remarkable person, Baumgartner said. I would be dead 15 times over (if I went through what she went through). Those wings Ovie thought were gone forever? Well, she started to feel a little flutter when she came to the U.S. You know when something dies and you feel like this thing is done for, but all of a sudden you turn around and you see something rising up? At that point, youre not sure what youre seeing. Thats what happened when I came here, Ovie said. I was trying to secure the half part of my heart that was remaining or the part that wasnt broken I was trying to save it. Just as Ovie finished talking about her heart, her 2-year-old daughter Mirabelle who did much to heal Ovies broken heart and make it full again ran up to Ovie and nestled into her chest. Ovie wrapped her arms around Mira and hugged her tightly as the toddler worked to writhe free, sparking smiles and eliciting giggles from both of them. Ovie held Mira and brought her in even closer. If they got any closer, they would have become one. But Ovie and Mira already are one. The love and bond between them is singular and unbroken, strong and unquestioned. Ovie had no idea she was pregnant with Mira until the day she left Morocco for the U.S. She received a call from her doctor telling her they forgot to give Ovie a pregnancy test during her physical. When the test came back positive, Ovie was afraid officials wouldnt let her go to the U.S. Fortunately for the expectant mother and the baby growing inside of her, Ovies pregnancy was not an issue. All it meant is that Ovie had more company on the plane. Mira was like, Youre not going to America alone, Ovie said. Once Ovie arrived and settled in Traverse City, the 17-year-old needed to be enrolled in school. She hadnt been in a classroom in nearly eight years, and she wasnt getting much of an education outside of the classroom when she was in Morocco. She began at Traverse City West Senior High School in February 2018, but she soon transferred to Traverse City High School. TC High is the districts alternative high school that provided the services, such as the Generations Ahead program, Ovie would need as she navigated being a student while also being pregnant and eventually a mother. Teachers and staff helped her as her belly grew, and they almost needed to help when Ovie went into labor. She said she became used to ignoring pain during her time in Morocco because no one ever cared about her pain. She got so used to the pain that she ignored the contractions she was having while she was in class on that September day. Ovie figured it was just a stomachache, a stomachache that kept happening throughout the day and started to happen more frequently. Beauvais rushed to the school and told Ovie it was showtime. I was like, Showtime for what? Ovie said. A few minutes later, the pain was crazy. Ovie can laugh about it now, but the pain she felt while giving birth to Mirabelle was the kind that she said made her promise God she would never sin again. Although the TC High staff said Ovie could take three weeks off before coming back to school, the new mother took just two weeks and continued to do her schoolwork while caring for Mira with the help of her mom and dad. Mira started coming to school with Ovie and staying in daycare at TC High when she was a month old, allowing Ovie to take breaks from class to feed and change and just be with her daughter. Finding the right balance to stay on her feet was not easy, but Ovie managed. She said is eternally grateful to the TC High staff for everything they did for her and Mira. That is why Ovie has such a difficult time understanding the stigma that TC High students face or why anyone would ever say anything negative about the school. Every time I would try to see what was wrong with TC High, I found there was nothing wrong with TC High, Ovie said. That is where I felt the most welcome. The teachers are really amazing. They care. They understand. They listen. They help the best way they can. Jen Ciolek, a science teacher at TC High, cared and understood. She listened and she helped. Ciolek also watched Ovie blossom into the person she is today, growing from shy and quiet to a true leader. She is truly one of the hardest working students Ive ever seen, Ciolek said. She wants to learn. She wants to understand. She wants to take on every opportunity that is available for her. Ovie saw opportunities at the Career-Tech Center and took them. She saw opportunities to dual enroll at Northwestern Michigan College and took those, too. Ovie even had a job outside of school, which she held down while also caring for Mira. It has been an awesome journey to watch her grow into a confident young woman who will continue to own that going into the future, Ciolek said. Her past will not determine her future. She is shaping her own future. She has taken control. Some of the dreams that died while Ovie was in Morocco started to reemerge while she was at TC High. Ovie always pictured herself on TV when she was a child. She imagined what it would be like to be a TV host or a presenter. She always wanted to tell stories through a camera. That dream came true for Ovie through the CTCs Film and New Media program. Ovie said she immediately felt accomplished just being accepted into the program. Simply being a part of a film, holding a camera and editing footage was enough to make her dream feel realized. But she gave back to the program as much as she got from it. She was the benchmark the other students had to meet and now have to uphold after she graduated from TC High on Friday. She set the standard for the whole class, said Christina LaMie, paraprofessional for the program. She has made an impact on the next group of kids, everyone looks up to her and respects her so much. She is one in a million. The next few months will be busy for Ovie. Now that she is a high school graduate, Ovie will begin work at the Childrens House Montessori school this summer while Mira attends there. Shell also prepare to go to NMC full time with the intent of transferring to Western Michigan University to study to become a physical therapist. Although so much good has come to Ovie in the past three years, she still has a difficult time accepting it as her reality. Shes felt her wings get stronger and she knows theyre stronger because of the people surrounding and supporting her. But part of Ovie is still unsure what will happen if she makes the leap. I wanted those wings so bad to fly. Now that I have them and I have people telling me I can fly or that theyll hold me up or that theyll be down there to catch me if I fall, Im scared to fly, Ovie said. I tried to fly before, and I fell so bad that I couldnt stand and I just lied down flat. No one would blame Ovie for staying on her perch after what she went through. But she didnt have a mom then. She does now. She didnt have a dad. She does now. She didnt have sisters. She does now. She has friends and so many others who love her. And she has Mirabelle. With all of that, Ovie has strength and she has her wings. I know when you pray to God and you ask for something, but this is too much. I know I asked for it, but it was just ... wow, Ovie said. It feels so flawless and so perfect, everything Ive experienced here. Everything is a miracle. A miracle and a blessing. BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) Marijuana legalization is coming to Virginia, but universities in the state aren't following suit. Virginia Tech recently updated its student code of contact to make clear that marijuana is still banned on campus even after July 1, when Virginia's new legalization law takes effect. LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) Officials in northeast Nebraska continue to press the state to complete it's long-delayed system of four-lane expressways to connect every community larger than 15.000 people to an Interstate. About 178 miles of the 600-mile system remains undone 33 years after the expressway system was launched back in 1988 with several of the missing links in parts of northeast Nebraska between the cities of Columbus and Norfolk and Interstate 80. CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) Two children were critically injured in a quadruple shooting in Cincinnati, authorities said. Officers responded at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday to the city's Westwood neighborhood and found a 6-year-old, and 8-year-old and two young adult males in their late teens wounded, police said. The children were taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital in critical condition, police said. Anytime you have somebody struck with gunfire at that age its going to be critical, Lt. Col. Mike John told WCPO-TV. The adult victims were taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center with injuries deemed non-life-threatening, authorities said. John said he believed at least two suspects fled the scene on foot. Authorities urged anyone who saw anything suspicious to call investigators. Mayor John Cranley said police had what he called strong leads and he was confident that those responsible would be brought to justice. We are all outraged that two children have been caught in the crossfire of a shooting last night. Our whole city prays for their recovery," Cranley said. ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) Allentown police say an officer shot and critically wounded a man who repeatedly fired a handgun outside a strip mall in the eastern Pennsylvania city over the weekend. Police said in a statement that the officer was on routine patrol in the American Plaza Shopping Center parking lot just before 2 a.m. Saturday when he heard shots fired amongst a crowd of people and saw a 22-year-old man repeatedly firing a handgun." ROME (AP) Pope Francis demanded Sunday that humanitarian aid reach hungry people in the war-torn Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers are blocking food deliveries and other assistance. Francis called for an immediate end to the fighting in Tigray, the return of social harmony and for all food aid and health care assistance to be guaranteed. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) Saudi Arabia said Sunday a bomb-laden drone launched by Yemens Houthi rebels crash-landed in the premises of a school in the province of Asir near the kingdoms southern border. In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, the department of Civil Defense in Asir said no injuries were reported. The statement accused the Iran-backed Houthis of launching the drone from inside Yemen. Demands for political loyalty. Disputes about racism. A fight between conservatives and ultra-conservatives. It sounds like current debates within the GOP, but on Tuesday thousands of Southern Baptists will gather in Nashville to vote on issues that will shape the massive denomination's future, including the choice of its next president. More than 16,000 people are expected to attend what is likely the largest religious gathering since the pandemic, as well as the biggest Baptist meeting in decades. What is especially unusual about the meeting is infighting at the highest levels of leadership that has become public in recent weeks. New details released to news media outlets have shined a light on the backroom dealings of several of its high-profile leaders. Russell Moore, who previously led the SBC's public policy arm, recently left his position and his church for a new position at Christianity Today magazine. On his way out, two letters he sent to SBC leadership were leaked to media, in which Moore described a culture of racism and mishandling of sexual abuse claims. Since Moore's letters were leaked, several leaders have called for a third-party investigation into how the SBC leadership has responded to the issue of sexual abuse within its churches. The letters also exposed how many institutional leaders are unable to speak openly about what is taking place inside the convention without committing professional suicide within the SBC. The Washington Post interviewed a dozen employees of SBC institutions, as well as five pastors, all of whom said they could not speak openly about what has taken place without jeopardizing their jobs. The SBC is full of highly influential pastors and Bible teachers who vouch for one another and promote one another's books, conferences and networks. With no pope or hierarchy and a democratic system of voting, its system is designed to protect its own leaders and the institution by generally not publicly criticizing one another. Several people, however, have recently broken those unspoken rules. - - - One Black pastor has decided to share his removal earlier this year from his job as director of information technology (IT) at the SBC's missions and church planting institution, the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Tez Andrews, who also serves as an SBC pastor in Atlanta, said that in March, he published a Facebook post about one of the candidates running to be SBC's president, Mike Stone, who spoke on a podcast against critical race theory (CRT), an intellectual framework used to examine systemic racism in the U.S. NAMB, which poured $130 million into SBC churches in 2020, is a powerful force within the convention since it decides how to distribute money to things like relief efforts and church planters, generally with the expectation that recipients will remain Southern Baptist. On a podcast posted in March, Stone compared people who use CRT as a framework to Catholics, Methodists and Pentecostals - Christians with whom Baptists have major theological differences and who cannot be in the SBC. He compared CRT to issues of women's ordination and LGBT-endorsing churches. He complained that SBC leaders have bent over backward to apologize over Black pastors who have left the SBC over leaders' disagreement with CRT. "If one group in the Southern Baptist Convention believes that critical race theory is a helpful tool but another group believes it is completely incompatible with the Bible and ultimately destructive to our gospel efforts, there can be union, but there cannot be true biblical unity," Stone said. Andrews responded to Stone on Facebook: "Critical Race Theory is a theory and a model that helps predict systemic race issues in society. Mike Stone and people like him are afraid of losing their supremacist position." Andrews was told to take his post down, which he did, but he was later told he would still be fired. "They basically said, you disrespected Mike Stone, so you're gone," said Andrews, who will attend the Nashville meeting. "To me, it's the good 'ol' boy system." Stone wrote in an email that he was told by the president of NAMB that an unnamed employee was fired but that he was not trying to force anyone out of their job. When asked about Andrews, a spokesman for NAMB said that NAMB's core values were publicly violated. "Respecting our partners, especially in this era of divisiveness, is a critical core value to which we consistently hold every member of our team accountable," the organization said in a statement. Andrews said NAMB leaders told him it would invest money in his lower-income community, yet he is still waiting for the money to come through. When Andrews negotiated his severance, NAMB leaders had Andrews sign a nondisclosure agreement and a nondisparagement clause, which Andrews signed. It said he agreed to not say anything bad about NAMB. Dwight McKissic, a Black pastor in Arlington, Texas who decided not to go to Nashville this year, said the SBC has an "unwritten code" in SBC life. "You have rules outside the Baptist Faith and Message that you don't know. Now CRT is becoming one of those litmus tests, and whether you vote Republican, and whether you against women preaching. It's a test of whether you're in or out," McKissic said. "When you don't know the players or don't have the good grasp of the cultural dos and don'ts, it's extremely difficult for a person of color when you're trying to navigate waters that are not your waters." Another person recently singled out for speaking out about SBC issues is Jamie Ivey, a prominent Southern Baptist Bible teacher and podcaster. She was disinvited to events around the SBC's annual meeting because of comments she made to The Washington Post about being a mother of Black children and raising them in a mostly White evangelical world that of late has been highly critical of CRT. After describing herself as someone who doesn't think of herself as a Southern Baptist and isn't looking to attend an SBC seminary, she was disinvited to speak at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary's breakfast, as well as at NAMB's conference where she was originally listed alongside SBC President J.D. Greear. "From my understanding they pulled me from their women's track the day the article released because they didn't feel I was all in as a Southern Baptist and that the article was full of disdain and disgust of the SBC," Ivey wrote in an email. Two people involved said that the decision was made because leaders were concerned that Ivey calls herself a preacher and that she and her husband drink alcohol. (NAMB has a policy that doesn't allow its church planters to consume alcohol.) "We fully respect her right to speak what is on her heart and mind," a spokesman said in a statement. The SBC prides itself in the"autonomy" of individual churches, which operate independently but contribute to multimillion dollar budgets for missions, seminaries and other collective efforts. The transactional nature of the denomination allows pastors and lay members to financially benefit from things like pastors' health insurance and reduced tuition rates at its schools. What matters at the convention is that individual members come forward and vote collectively to find a unifying voice on different matters and to vote for its next president. One insider said that NAMB has been pouring money into getting urban church leaders to the annual meeting to get enough votes to secure the presidency for Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor who has promoted work on racial reconciliation. Litton's wife, Kathy, heads NAMB's ministry for wives. A NAMB spokesman said that it will send 150 church planters to the meeting this year. - - - Some Southern Baptists have been raising the issue of transparency among SBC leaders for several years. Ben Cole, a Baptist member from Texas who used to work for Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson and considered him a mentor, has been posting internal SBC documents and audio files online in recent years. He told The Post he is "on a warpath of transparency for the SBC." Cole believes Patterson, who helped lead a conservative takeover of the denomination in the 1970s and 1980s, generated a high level of secrecy and manipulation. "What I have done is given a tiny window into the backhanded ways that denominational power brokers have spoken to each other and about each other for decades," Cole said. In other documents obtained by The Washington Post, Patterson criticized one of the SBC's most prominent pastors, Rick Warren, who is based in California and wrote the best-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life." In a 2005 email, Patterson described Warren's influence as "not wholesome for the church of God" and detailed his attempts to work against Warren. "My involvement with it has to be carefully orchestrated," he wrote, noting that California pastor John MacArthur, a prominent pastor who is not Southern Baptist, was also working to undermine Warren. A spokesman for MacArthur said that his critiques of a Warren's church ministry are public, and that Patterson probably found his work helpful. Patterson and Warren did not return requests for comment. Patterson, who in 2018 was fired from his job as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for his handling of rape allegations at seminaries, is expected to return to this year's meeting. Several SBC insiders said they are worried Patterson is attempting to stage another hard-right takeover of the convention by getting allies elected to key leadership positions, including Stone as president. They said a member of Patterson's group, called the Conservative Baptist Network, is working to unseat Rolland Slade, the first Black chair of the executive committee, which helps run the operations of the SBC, such as the big annual meetings. Slade said he is aware of such efforts to unseat him, but he's not paying much attention to them. "I've seen behind-the-scenes deals happen in the business world," said Slade, who is a pastor in El Cajon, Calif. "I'm disappointed that it's so entrenched in the SBC." Slade wants to see a revival take place at the SBC, but he believes that first the convention has to be "cleaned up." "This stuff has to be exposed and acknowledged and we need to own the truth and repent of it and turns toward God," he said. "That's what the majority of SBC wants to be a part of." --- On Thursday, several audio recordings of high-profile meetings were leaked by a pastor who used to work for Moore. In newly leaked audio recordings of meetings between Moore and Ronnie Floyd, the head of the SBC's executive committee that runs the denomination's finances, Floyd said ahead of a Southern Baptist conference focused on caring for survivors of sexual abuse that he wasn't not worried about what they would say but he said he was particularly concerned about "the base" of the SBC. "I just want to preserve the base," Floyd said. "And that's what I would say to y'all, as you think through the strategy, do everything you can to remember the base." In a statement, Floyd said the tapes were released as an "attempt to mischaracterize" the meetings. He also apologized "for any offense that may have resulted from my remarks." Speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his current job, a former employee of Moore, the departed SBC leader, said Moore used to make fun of people who left the denomination because the institution would cultivate people, provide training and often an education. Through its financial and relational transactions, that employee said, the denomination cultivates a kind of loyalty usually only broken once a person says farewell. Moore did not return requests for comment. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) As Southern Baptists prepare for their biggest annual meeting in more than a quarter-century, accusations that leaders have shielded churches from claims of sexual abuse and simmering tensions around race threaten to once again mire the nations largest Protestant denomination in a conflict that can look more political than theological. More than 16,000 voting delegates are pre-registered for the two-day gathering that starts on Tuesday in Nashville. Southern Baptist Convention members have been a powerful force in conservative Republican politics for a generation. This years convention follows weeks of internal controversies stoked by leaked letters, secret recordings and video rebuttals. Despite claiming 14 million members, the denomination has been in decline for 14 years. Adding to long-term membership losses have been the recent loud departures of its top public policy official, a mega-selling author and several prominent Black clergy over issues that include sexual abuse, racism and the treatment of women. Key votes on who leads the convention and where it stands on these issues will not only set the denominations direction but determine whether more people head for the exits, including Black clergy who see the denomination regressing on racial issues. Controversy is not new to SBC meetings, but this year it has reached a fever pitch thanks to leaked letters from Russell Moore, who resigned two weeks ago as head of the denominations powerful public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Moore was a staunch advocate for abuse victims and an ally of the denominations Black pastors. The letters and subsequently released secret recordings purport to show some SBC leaders tried to slow-walk efforts to hold churches accountable for sexual abuse and to intimidate and retaliate against those who advocated on the issue. In the documents, Moore accused certain leaders of caricaturing sexual abuse victims as at best, mentally disturbed and, at worst, as sexually-promiscuous sinners. Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor who is running for SBC president this year, is specifically called out as pushing back against Moores accountability efforts. In an interview, Stone said Moores allegations were outrageous, especially considering that Stone is himself a victim of childhood sexual abuse. However, Stone said the fact that the convention is a loose affiliation of autonomous churches makes it difficult to act on the issue. The Southern Baptist Convention was not, and to a large degree is still not, set up today to do the kinds of things that Russell Moore wanted to see us doing, Stone said. Amid calls for a third-party investigation of Moores allegations, Executive Committee president Ronnie Floyd announced Friday that the panel had retained a firm to conduct it. But some pastors reacted with calls for an independent task force, saying they don't trust the committee to oversee an investigation of itself. Another burning issue is how, or even whether, to address systemic racism. Stone is among those calling for a repudiation of critical race theory while some Black pastors are exiting the SBC in frustration over what they see as racial insensitivity from overwhelmingly white leadership. Moore, who is white, says in a letter that his work on racial reconciliation led to constant threats from white nationalists and white supremacists, including within our convention. The role of women in ministry could also pop up after bestselling Christian author Beth Moore, not related to Russell Moore, left the denomination earlier this year. Women are not allowed to serve as pastors in SBC churches, but some members go further, believing that women should never preach to men or even teach them in Sunday school. Beth Moore accused them of using those beliefs as a litmus test for theological purity. Meanwhile, the SBCs second largest church, Saddleback, recently ordained three female ministers. How Southern Baptists feel about these issues will likely determine who is elected SBC president. Stone is part of the Conservative Baptist Network, which accuses Russell Moore, current president J.D. Greear and others of contributing to a liberal drift. Another leading candidate, Al Mohler, has been supportive of sex abuse victims but angered some Southern Baptists for endorsing Donald Trump last year and for signing a statement, in his capacity as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, denouncing critical race theory. Meanwhile, Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor, is supported by Fred Luter, the only Black pastor ever to be denomination president. The two are among the co-signers of a statement by a multiethnic group of Southern Baptists asserting that systemic racial injustice is a reality. For all the Baptists who will be in the room this week, looming large will be the influence of a non-Baptist whos not present: Trump. The Conservative Baptist Network announced at its formation in February 2020 that members had been concerned over an effort to keep former Vice President Mike Pence from speaking at the 2018 meeting. Strong Southern Baptists support for Trump contributed to the estrangement between the denomination and Beth Moore and Russell Moore, both of whom had criticized the former president. One of the things that is happening is that many conservative evangelicals want their denomination and church to line up to what they are hearing on cable news, said Ed Stetzer, executive director of Wheaton Colleges Billy Graham Center. So if they hear that critical race theory is a huge problem in the culture, they want it dealt with in the church, even though its not a major issue there. The meeting is shaping up as the most contentious since the late 20th century, when those championing more conservative views on the Bible, politics and male authority in homes and churches took control of seminaries and denominational offices. The current controversies are driving huge pre-registration numbers. Eric Costanzo, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said hes bringing more church members than normally attend. Ive also assembled a team of leaders to dig in deeper to the issues facing the SBC, he said. They have not enjoyed most of what theyve seen. ___ Smith reported from Pittsburgh. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content. PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) Two homes have been destroyed in a brush fire that prompted mandatory evacuation orders for residents of the eastern Riverside County community of Pinyon Crest, authorities said. Three other homes and three outbuildings were damaged. U.S. Forest Service firefighters said the fire started Sunday morning and has since charred 400 acres (160 hectares). Authorities previously reported the fire charred 150 acres (60 hectares). High heat, winds and rocky terrain continue to pose challenges for firefighters, authorities said. ST. LOUIS (AP) An 18-year-old has been charged with murder in the shooting death of another teen on the grounds of a suburban St. Louis high school. William Bellamy, 18, was found dead with gunshot wounds early Saturday on the grounds of McCluer North High School in Florissant. Bellamy had graduated from the school earlier this year. LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. (AP) A 16-year-old California boy has suffered critical injuries after his personal watercraft collided with a boat on Lake Havasu. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office says the collision happened Saturday around 3:40 p.m. in the lake's North Basin. The impact of the crash with the 28-foot (8.5- meter) boat threw the teen off his watercraft. Authorities say the 49-year-old man steering the boat and other bystanders immediately called 911 and pulled the teen out of the water. They took him to Lake Havasu State Park to meet paramedics. The teen, who is from Rialto, California, was later flown to a Las Vegas hospital. He is listed in extremely critical condition. The Mohave County Sheriffs Office Division of Boating Safety so far believes speed and operator behavior of the personal watercraft were contributing factors. The incident remains under investigation. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The widow of a New Mexico State Police officer fatally shot in the line of duty in February has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, asserting the agency failed to equip her husband. The Albuquerque Journal reported Sunday that Gabriella Jarrott filed the suit in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, naming the state Department of Public Safety as a defendant. It has been filed on behalf of her and the couple's three young children. MOSCOW (AP) Russian emergency workers fought wildfires burning Sunday on more than 550 square kilometers (212 square miles) of territory mostly in Siberia and the Far East. The state agency responsible for fighting forest fires, Avialesookhrana, said the largest blaze was in the far northeasts Sakha Republic, where 34,000 hectares (74,000 acres) were on fire. The Irkutsk region in Siberia had fires encompassing about 20,000 hectares (49,500 acres), the agency said. MACOMB, Ill. (AP) Western Illinois University is reviving a program that was shuttered decades ago that allows students to gain teaching experience at Native American tribal schools in Wisconsin. In a news release, the school said its College of Education and Human Services and the Office of Study Abroad and Outreach will beginning in the fall allow students to complete their student teaching in three tribal schools. TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Psychiatric facilities have enough beds to treat children in Kansas in need of intensive mental health care, but a worker shortage means that about 100 of those spots remain empty. Kansas News Service reports that in recent years, children have often waited months for openings in specialized facilities that offer long-term psychiatric care. In mid-2018, the average wait was nearly 200 days. The wait time fell in 2019 and 2020, and as of last month, the average wait was 44 days. Yet 146 children remain in line for their turn, even though 104 beds are open. Residential care centers are struggling to fill jobs that are physically and emotionally taxing, yet sometimes pay less than $15 an hour. KidsTLC in Olathe is urging the state to help with incentives that could range from college tuition waivers and signing bonuses to subsidies for health insurance or child care. KidsTLC bought land in March 2020 to add another 50 beds for children, and that work was finished in December, nearly doubling KidsTLC's residential capacity. Forty-five of the new beds remain empty. We had space, we were licensed, and were feeling just exceptional about that and being able to make a significant dent in that waitlist, CEO Erin Dugan said. And then it became really hard to hire staff. Nonprofit facilities offer more than 400 beds for long-term psychiatric youth care in Kansas. Many of those slots were added within the past 18 months as the administration of Gov. Laura Kelly worked to license more beds and reduce wait times. Andrew Brown, the states commissioner of behavioral health services, said the state would like to get to a point where the average wait time is a week or less. KidsTLC has almost 300 workers but wants about 425. It has not struggled to hire and retain therapists and other salaried specialists. But hourly staff trained to work on site around the clock are a different matter. Dugan said her organization offers starting pay of $14 an hour. It is now considering raising that to $16 an hour, but doing so would require significant fundraising by KidsTLC, which gets paid for its patients by Medicaid. Medicaid rates are widely considered low compared to private health insurance. How does KidsTLC find a couple million dollars?" Dugan asked. Its not sitting around. Meanwhile, the state has called on one of its Medicaid contractors to reduce wait times. KanCare, the state's Medicaid system, is privatized and run by three companies: Aetna Better Health of Kansas, Sunflower or UnitedHealthcare. Those companies review and approve applications for residential treatment, but the state's tracking of wait times that began in 2019 found that children with Aetna waited significantly longer than the others. The state found that Aetna appeared to have problems promptly gathering paperwork such as parental releases to get children in line for care. We hope that we will see improvements, Brown said. Aetna said it took swift action after the state pointed out the problem. We immediately took steps to review our process, identify causes for delays, and implement the changes necessary to minimize interruptions in care for our members, a company statement said. As a result of our internal review we have modified our processes to eliminate avoidable delays. Sharon, PA (16146) Today Some clouds. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 57F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 57F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. CARBIS BAY, England (AP) Leaders of the world's largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan Saturday for the developing world to compete with Chinas global initiatives, but they were searching for a consensus on how to forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses. Citing China for its forced labor practices is part of President Joe Bidens campaign to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing. But while they agreed to work toward competing against China, there was less unity on how adversarial a public position the group should take. Canada, the United Kingdom and France largely endorsed Biden's position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed more hesitancy during Saturday's first session of the Group of Seven summit, according to two senior Biden administration officials. The officials who briefed reporters were not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity. The communique that summarizes the meeting's commitments was being written and the contents would not be clear until it was released when the summit ended Sunday. White House officials said late Saturday that they believed that China, in some form, could be called out for nonmarket policies and human rights abuses. In his first summit as president, Biden made a point of carving out one-on-one-time with various leaders, bouncing from French president Emmanuel Macron to German chancellor Angela Merkel to Italian prime minister Mario Draghi as well as Japan's Yoshihide Suga and Australia's Scott Morrison, a day after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as if to personally try to ward off memories of the chaos that his predecessor would often bring to these gatherings. Macron told Biden that collaboration was needed on a range of issues and told the American president that its great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate. Relations between the allies had become strained during the four years of Donald Trump's presidency and his America first foreign policy. Merkel, for her part, downplayed differences on China and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which would transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. The atmosphere is very cooperative, it is characterized by mutual interest," Merkel said. "There are very good, constructive and very vivid discussions in the sense that one wants to work together. White House officials have said Biden wants the leaders of the G-7 nations the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy to speak in a single voice against forced labor practices targeting China's Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Biden hopes the denunciation will be part of a joint statement to be released Sunday when the summit ends, but some European allies are reluctant to split so forcefully with Beijing. China had become one of the more compelling sublots of the wealthy nations' summit, their first since 2019. Last years gathering was canceled because of COVID-19, and recovery from the pandemic is dominating this year's discussions, with leaders expected to commit to sharing at least 1 billion vaccine shots with struggling countries. The allies also took the first steps in presenting an infrastructure proposal called Build Back Better for the World, a name echoing Biden's campaign slogan. The plan calls for spending hundreds of billions of dollars in collaboration with the private sector while adhering to climate standards and labor practices. It's designed to compete with Chinas trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which has launched a network of projects and maritime lanes that snake around large portions of the world, primarily Asia and Africa. Critics say China's projects often create massive debt and expose nations to undue influence by Beijing. Britain also wants the worlds democracies to become less reliant on the Asian economic giant. The U.K. government said Saturdays discussions would tackle how we can shape the global system to deliver for our people in support of our values, including by diversifying supply chains that currently heavily depend on China. Not every European power has viewed China in as harsh a light as Biden, who has painted the rivalry with China as the defining competition for the 21st century. But there are some signs that Europe is willing to impose greater scrutiny. Before Biden took office in January, the European Commission announced it had come to terms with Beijing on a deal meant to provide Europe and China with greater access to each others markets. The Biden administration had hoped to have consultations on the pact. But the deal has been put on hold, and the European Union in March announced sanctions targeting four Chinese officials involved with human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing responded with penalties on several members of the European Parliament and other Europeans critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Biden administration officials see an opportunity to take concrete action to speak out against Chinas reliance on forced labor as an affront to human dignity." While calling out China in the G-7 communique would not create any immediate penalties for Beijing, one senior administration official said the action would send a message that the leaders were serious about defending human rights and working together to eradicate the use of forced labor. An estimated 1 million people or more most of them Uyghurs have been confined in reeducation camps in Chinas western Xinjiang region in recent years, according to researchers. Chinese authorities have been accused of imposing forced labor, systematic forced birth control, torture and separating children from incarcerated parents. Beijing rejects allegations that it is committing crimes. Johnson, the summit host, also welcomed the leaders from guest nations" South Korea, Australia and South Africa, as well as the head of the United Nations, to the summit to intensify cooperation between the worlds democratic and technologically advanced nations. The leaders planned to attend a barbecue Saturday night, complete with toasted marshmallows, hot buttered rum and a performance by a sea shanty troupe. India was also invited but its delegation is not attending in person because of the severe coronavirus outbreak in the country. Biden ends the trip Wednesday by meeting in Geneva with Russias Vladimir Putin. The White House announced Saturday that they will not hold a joint news conference afterward, which removes the opportunity for comparisons to the availability that followed Trump and Putins 2018 Helsinki summit, in which Trump sided with Moscow over his own intelligence agencies. Only Biden will address the news media after the meeting. Putin, in an interview with NBC News, said the U.S.-Russia relationship had deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years. He added that while Trump was a talented and colorful person, Biden was a career man in politics, which has some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements by the U.S. president. ___ Lemire reported from Plymouth, England. Associated Press writers Danica Kirka and Sylvia Hui in Falmouth, England, contributed to this report. The days when Connecticut hospitals were nearly full with COVID patients are over, and health care systems are starting to return to their pre-pandemic form. COVID-devoted hospital wings are being converted back to their original wards and mass testing and vaccination sites are winding down. If you look at the hospital in February 2020 and you look at the hospital today, were the same, said Dr. Daniel Gottschall, vice president of medical affairs for the Fairfield region of Hartford HealthCare and St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport. Just, for the last 15 to 18 months we were changing, sometimes on a daily basis. St. Vincents Medical Center, which once had more than 160 COVID patients at once, had none as of Thursday. That was about 80 percent of our census, Gottschall said of the COVID patients. Everybody was touching the lives of these patients. Every ward was basically a COVID ward. As COVID hospitalizations statewide have dropped below 100 in recent weeks, health care systems have begun diverting resources. At St. Vincents, where three intensive care units had been set up to treat COVID patients, the hospital is back to just one ICU and one progressive care unit. Staff members who had been pulled from other disciplines to treat COVID patients have also returned to their original jobs. A mass testing site in the parking garage of Bridgeports Webster Bank Arena closed in recent weeks, because, Gottschall said, we dont need to do mass testing anymore. Throughout Hartford HealthCare the system that includes St. Vincents, as well as Hartford Hospital and other facilities there are now around 25 COVID patients being treated, according to Dr. Ajay Kumar, Hartford HealthCares chief medical officer. At one point when demand for COVID vaccines peaked, Kumar said HHC offered six mass vaccination sites throughout the state. At our peak, (these sites) were vaccinating up to 6,000 people a day, he said, adding that each mass vaccination clinic was immunizing anywhere from 800 to 1,200 patients a day. But demand has dropped and three of the mass vaccination clinics have closed. Kumar said the systems vaccination clinics now only see a total of a few hundred patients each day. St. Vincents two mega sites at Sacred Heart University and Central High School in Bridgeport are still open, but are expected to close soon. Kumar stressed that patients will still have access to vaccines, through acute care facilities and medical group clinics, as well as a mobile clinic. HHC is not shutting down access to the vaccine, he said. At Nuvance Health, which includes Norwalk, New Milford, Danbury and Sharon hospitals, COVID measures have also been scaled back. We used to have multiple ICUs and COVID floors going on at the same time in each of our hospitals, said Dr. Diane Kantaros, the systems chief quality officer. But now, theyve all been able to scale back. At Yale New Haven Health, cases have dropped to as low as 23 systemwide, said Dr. Thomas Balcezak,the systems chief clinical officer. As a result, the system has converted the three floors dedicated to COVID-19 patients at its Smilow Cancer Hospital back to regular oncology beds. Other changes include shutting down its mass vaccination clinics as demand for vaccines has waned. However, Balcezak cautioned that COVID will likely never completely go away. I feel like well always have some cases kicking around, he said. Balcezak and other health experts said if another COVID surge occurs, they are prepared to shift their resources back to addressing the illness at a moments notice. Hopefully, we wont have another surge, but feel pretty confident, that having (handled two surges already) we could do it again, Kantaros said. The letter sent on Friday accuses Ethiopia of frustrating efforts to reach a tripartite agreement on the rules of filling and operating the dam and attempting to impose "a fait accompli" on the two downstream countries Egypt and Sudan "through unilateral measures and steps that constitute a clear violation of the rules of international law", according to a Ministry statement issued on Saturday. Cairo, June 13 (IANS) The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that it has sent a letter to the UN Security Council to reaffirm its "complete rejection" of Ethiopia's unilateral measures on the filling of the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile River. Ethiopia plans to go ahead with the second filling of the GERD in July, while Egypt and Sudan are concerned that the move might affect their share of the Nile water resources, reports Xinhua news agency. Last week, Egyptian Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan told a virtual conference of the International Labor Organization that Ethiopia's unilateral filling of the dam without a prior agreement would significantly harm the agriculture sector in the two downstream countries. Decade-long negotiations failed to reach an agreement regulating the filling and operation of the dam, including those hosted earlier by the US and recently by the African Union. Egypt and Sudan currently seek to form an international quartet that includes the African Union, the US, the European Union and the UN to mediate in the tripartite GERD talks. But the proposal has been rejected by Ethiopia. In February, Ethiopia said it would carry on with the second-phase 13.5-billion-cubic-metre filling of the GERD in June. The volume of the first-phase filling finished last year was 4.9 billion cubic metres. Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the dam project. Egypt and Sudan, both downstream Nile Basin countries, are concerned that the dam might affect their share of the water resources. --IANS ksk/ Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Sunday said that the Chief Minister MK Stalin will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week and request for more COVID vaccines. Speaking to the news agency ANI, Subramanian said, "When Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin meets PM Modi in Delhi next week he will request to provide more vaccine doses to Tamil Nadu." "Death numbers are expected to decrease in coming days. Vaccination is the only solution to get rid of corona infection so people should come forward to get Vaccination," he added. Health Minister Ma Subramanian, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi jointly reviewed the vaccination drive which is going on for vegetable shop vendors in Chennai Koyambedu. Speaking about the drive, Subramanian said, "Koyambedu market was a hot spot in first wave. So Chennai corporation, CMDA, and health department are in the Vaccination drive process here. 9,655 people have been vaccinated in Koyambedu. More than 10,000 will get administered today which will be a huge number per day in a single place." "Vendors are eager to get vaccinated. We have received 1.6 vaccine doses, out of which 98 lakh vaccine doses have been used till now, as per CM's advice," he added. He also informed that the Tamil Nadu government is probably the first in India where handicapped were vaccinated at their place. 5000 handicapped have been vaccinated in the state. By David Vujanovic NICOSIA (AFP) -- An Athenian "neo-muralist" is blending Greek mythology and Byzantine iconography with graffiti and street art to depict how the coronavirus has forced people the world over to put down roots. From Bangkok to Rabat and Zurich, Fikos has painted the walls of many cities, but he's now adding a splash of colour to the sun-beaten facades of the Cypriot capital Nicosia. "Here in Cyprus there are not many murals yet," he says. "It's the beginning phase of the street art scene in Cyprus, so... they are impressed and kind of awed when they see this happening." The 33-year-old spends time wandering the narrow back alleys of Nicosia's Old City in search of walls to use as a canvas. The one he chose for his latest project is the cracked veneer of a crumbling mud-brick house in an abandoned, dusty lot near the UN-patrolled buffer zone that divides the city's Greek and Turkish-speaking halves. The Greek artist, who describes himself as a "neo-muralist", says he has been living on the Mediterranean island for the past year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a theme reflected in his latest piece. Standing on a wobbly platform, he gets to work with a brushstroke along the brow of Amaracus, the perfume-maker of the mythical goddess Aphrodite, whose fate he says befits life in the time of the coronavirus. Bit by bit, a sketch evolves into a jade-green male figure with leaves sprouting from his head, branches protruding from his chest and roots extending from his legs. "He got punished by the gods and got turned into a plant or flower," says Fikos, who explains that he used the story from Cypriot mythology as an analogy for the pandemic, during which people "have grown roots" by staying in one place for so long. Stigma Fikos says Cypriots have taken to his artwork, unlike others who tend to attach to it the stigma of graffiti. His works now adorn five facades on the Greek-Cypriot side of Nicosia, which has been divided on ethnic lines since communal unrest erupted in 1963-4. Fikos says he draws from a varied palette of influences, from art in ancient Greece to Egypt and Japan. One such artwork is located near the Green Line that divides Nicosia. It shows King Onassagoras, who ruled the kingdom of Ledra around 672 BC, next to three female figures -- one of them Nicosia, depicted as a woman split in half. "I studied Byzantine painting since I was 13 years old in Athens, and I studied the art of the street in the streets," says Fikos. "Street art has evolved from graffiti and it has different rules. You must leave your stamp," he says. "But my point of view is totally different. I'm always trying to adapt my sketch to the environment and get inspired from the colours of the neighbourhood. My approach is more like fine art, I'd say." Mythology endures Fikos says in the past he was unable to convince Athenians to let him paint over the garish graffiti that blankets the city, even for free. But now his appeal is growing both at home and abroad, and he gets paid for his work. Fikos says he has been commissioned to paint murals in many countries, including France, Ireland, Mexico, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. They can cover entire facades of buildings as high as 17 storeys, like one in Kiev, yet they aren't overbearing and don't look out of place. "Most of the time they have something in mind, they give me a theme," Fikos says of his commissions. "But... I do my research on history, mythology or whatever I find appropriate, then I sketch and I start to paint." Once the research is done, the process of painting the murals can take just two or three more days, he says. "I'm mostly inspired by Greek mythology, because I trust that if these myths have survived, they must have something to say." 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! Two Australian coins sold for about $1.5 million each in Monaco on Saturday, which ranks as the highest auction prices of Australian coins worldwide, according to an international coin expert. Lot 104, a 5 coin minted in Melbourne in 1921 and one of a strike of just seven coins, sold for 992,000 ($1.56 million including a 24 per cent buyers fee). It is described by auctioneers MDC Monaco as: An exceptional coin, the rarest type of 5 pounds! This is the finest known specimen. The five pound coin minted in Melbourne that sold at a Monaco online auction on Saturday. In 1921 the Melbourne Mint struck seven copies of the five pound coin, which was modelled on an earlier coin designed by engraver Joshua Payne in 1852 following the gold rush in 1851. Another coin is believed to be held at the Victoria Museum in Melbourne. Lot 123, a George V Sovereign minted in Sydney in 1920 showing St George and the dragon, sold for 942,400 ($1.48 million including buyers fee). The catalogue states: This is the only graded coin and the most beautiful of the four minted known. This is the only specimen strike known. There are just three other coins known of normal striking. It is the greatest rarity of the sovereign series. The 2021 Queens Birthday Honours list boasts the highest proportion of female recipients in the history of Order of Australia honours, says Governor-General David Hurley. But womens advocacy groups say that for women to comprise 44 per cent of the 947 honourees in the orders general division is not good enough. Governor-General David Hurley. Credit:Getty Images. The groups called for mandating of equal numbers honours going to males and females, but General Hurley stopped short of supporting such a move. There are few politicians and celebrities among those honoured this year, and the community category has the most recipients (396) in the orders general division, followed by medicine (108) and sport (93). Patricia Paddy Bergins friends in the legal profession describe her as a private person, but she took on a very public role in exposing the links between Crown Casino and organised crime. That desire for privacy perhaps explains why she did not want to talk much about her appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queens Birthday honours for her distinguished service to the law, the judiciary, to legal administration, and as a mentor and adviser. Its an immense honour, is all she wanted to say. Patricia Bergin: Its an immense honour. When she was appointed as a Justice of the NSW Supreme Court in March 1999, Ian Barker QC remarked on her wicked sense of humour and noted she was a very private person. Her mentor Tom Bathurst, who is now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was equally private. But Ms Bergins administration of justice made front-page headlines, after 60 days of public hearings last year about what was going on behind closed doors at the James Packer-backed Crown group. In her final report, Ms Bergin found that Crown was unfit to hold the licence for its $2.2 billion casino on Sydney Harbour. Ethics code idea for newspaper owners A former Whitlam government minister, Mr Joe Riordan, suggested that newspaper proprietors and editorial executives should have to disclose outside interests and should be bound by a code of ethics as members of the Australian Journalists Association were. He also stated that during the events of late 1975, newspaper, radio and television interests in Australia had distorted facts and suppressed news. Cold cream saved Castro It was reported in the New York Sunday News that a teenage girl who had caught the eye of Fidel Castro aboard the luxury liner, Berlin, one month after he seized power in Cuba, was sent to Havana by the CIA to kill the Cuban leader with poison tablets slipped into his coffee. The assassination attempt failed as the girl had secreted the tablets in a jar of cold cream in her handbag to avoid detection, and they had melted. Vultures await casino laws Dominic Perrottet is complaining about reduced migration holding us back economically. For years, Australia has grown on the backs of poor countries around the world (Low migration holding NSW back, June 12-13). We have imported doctors and dentists from India and other parts of Asia. We import these highly trained people selfishly, without having to contribute to the expense of their training. Australia should pay its own way and invest in the training of its own people. Australias skills shortages were inevitable as this government has been destroying our TAFE system for years. Australia can afford altruistic immigration. We can take lesser trained people including refugees and train them here. They will eventually contribute to our economy. The selfish immigration that Perrottet promotes cheats the developing world. - Tom McKibbin, North Epping One solution to the shortage of skilled workers in Australia is to train our own instead of poaching workers from overseas. Youth unemployment in this country is in excess of 10 per cent and instead of recruiting and training from that pool of potential workers, some businesses want to appropriate the benefits of those who have been willing to invest in training. One of the main complainants in the article was a tax advisory company; how many so-called skilled migrants are versed in Australian tax law? To quote from a well-known economist, there are leaners and there are lifters. - Gary Sullivan, Sans Souci If billions had not been lost on Perrottets watch with icare, think what this could have done for the TAFE NSW training budget to grow our own skilled people. - Laurie McDougall, Beecroft They keep saying it, that Australia is a generous, welcoming country. Yet in the past week, I read reports of how much the wealthy pay to avoid paying their fair share of tax, how donations to charities are shrinking, and how were using the appalling detention of children as bargaining chips to discourage people smugglers. Add indefinite detention of asylum seekers and the reduction in foreign aid budgets for years. If these are our policies and these are our actions, then we are not generous. We are not welcoming. We are fooling ourselves. - Michael Berg, Randwick As I visited a winery at Greta in the Hunter Valley, I asked one of the staff how to find the former Greta migrant camp. He told me he had never heard of it and had lived in the area his whole life. I told him my parents stayed there in 1953 and wanted to visit the site. We drove into Greta, stopping at a shop asking if they knew of the camp and one of the employees gave us directions. We eventually found it. If we had blinked, we wouldve missed it. To our astonishment, it was a small brick memorial with a plaque on it stating Site of Greta Migrant Camp 1949-1960 set in bushland. An estimated 100,000 newly arrived migrants and refugees stayed at this camp. Apart from them and their descendants, very few Australians seem to know of its existence and importance. Surely, immigration is an important part of our countrys history and should be taught and acknowledged and not abandoned to be remembered only by migrants. - Con Vaitsas, Ashbury Awards are no stranger to Leah Purcell, a renowned actress, director and writer whose work showcases Indigenous culture and experience. Ms Purcell has been awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the performing arts, First Nations youth and culture, and to women. This will be added to a long list of achievements which include the UNESCO City of Film Award (2017); and the 2017 Victorian and NSW Premiers Literary Award for The Drovers Wife, based on the Henry Lawson short story. Managing to shoot before the pandemic shut down production: Leah Purcell in The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson. Credit:Brett Boardmen Loading The youngest of seven children, Ms Purcell grew up in Murgon, Queensland. Familiarity with Lawsons short story The Drovers Wife came through bedtime recitings from her mother. In a Herald interview with Ms Purcell in 2016 she said: My mother used to recite The Drovers Wife to me when I was a little girl. Ive still got that book, with all my scribbles in it. Mum always used to say to me, Dont write on the words. So all the drawings are on the blank pages and in the margins of this tattered little book. It has been almost 50 years since 15 people died in a Brisbane nightclub arson attack, but in the few months before a new inquiry into the Whiskey Au Go Go fire, two key witnesses have died. A fresh two-week coronial inquest into the 1973 firebombing starts in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday, after it was ordered in 2017 by then attorney-general Yvette DAth. James Richard Finch in London. Credit:Peter McNamara However, earlier this year, James Richard Finch died in the UK, to which he was deported in 1988. Finch was one of two men convicted of murder over the mass killing at the Fortitude Valley nightclub. The other, John Andrew Stuart, died in his cell in 1979 after a hunger strike. After living across Carlton, East Brunswick, Richmond, South Yarra and now Windsor over her 15 years in Australia, Streifer says shes more comfortable in the south with the bars, restaurants and op shops of Chapel Street, her spin classes and the beach. I feel like its a bit more outdoorsy and free. I feel like youre not as judged for your opinions on certain topics, so you dont need to talk about political topics all the time, she says. I like to say that Im not cool enough for the northside. James, by contrast, has lived the majority of his adult life in the north, with much of his family based in Clifton Hill. Ive always felt more comfortable in the northern suburbs, its felt more like my people, he says. I think the main difference is you find more alternative sort of culture north of the river, and something different than the south. Thats a view also held by 37-year-old Lauren Boland, a self-proclaimed defector from the south. While shes lived in East Melbourne, Camberwell, Fitzroy and most recently Elsternwick, her recent shift to Northcote is likely to be permanent. Im 100 per cent a northsider, she says. Boland went from a cramped apartment in Elsternwick, where she spent the lockdowns of 2020, to a house with a yard in Northcote where her neighbours all stay in touch via a group WhatsApp chat and hold street parties. During the pandemic last year Lauren Boland escaped a tiny apartment in Elsternwick for a house in Northcote. Credit:Wayne Taylor Its pretty unique, I guess Ive never really found that in other places, parts of Melbourne, and definitely not southside, where people kind of stick to themselves a little bit more. With siblings spread across the city from Niddrie to Ripponlea, and another in Daylesford, Bolands family like many others sprawled across the Yarra have designated neutral zones for family catch-ups. Most of the time well go to South Melbourne because its easily accessible from the motorways for everyone, she says. Dr Andrew May, a social historian at Melbourne University, says the good-natured jesting of Melburnians either side of the divide has potentially been given new life in the period of COVID-19 as people have come to know their local areas better. But he says there are many holes to be poked in the cliches about the different cultures of the north and the south, including the glorification of the north as the home of the working class and derision of the south as only being for the well-heeled. Id probably say what was once a fact is now more of a myth and I think its the mythmaking aspect of it thats most interesting, he says. For example, while Clifton Hill, Northcote and Brunswick were once the home of the working class of the citys industries, there were always poorer and more disadvantaged pockets within stereotypically affluent southern and eastern suburbs. Down the bottom of the hill in Hawthorn could also be very working-class as well, May says. The idea of the north always having been the counter-cultural heart of the city is also questionable, according to Melbourne University urban geographer Dr Kate Shaw. In the 60s and 70s, the alternative cultural scene, for want of a better term the musicians, the artists, the hippies, the students it was kind of spread throughout inner Melbourne, she says. There were bars and live music venues in Carlton, in East Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda they were actually spread out all over the place. Then in the 1970s, initial waves of gentrification in Fitzroy and East Melbourne pushed out those who were down on their luck including cash-strapped musicians and artists and St Kilda in the south became the centre of counter-culture. St Kilda especially, it was very grungy in the 1970s, says Shaw. There was a lot of explicit drug- dealing on the streets and a lot of sex work. It was the sex, drugs and rock n roll side of town, and so naturally that was the place for the live music venues. But with the 1987 stock market crash came the gentrification of St Kilda, driven by speculative investors. A lot of money went out of shares and went into the built environment, Shaw says. St Kilda, because it was so down-at-heel and so cheap, became the area for the property development attention. From the late 80s through the 90s and into the early 2000s, Shaw says the counter-culture scene began to transition back to the north, as live music venues hunted for cheaper rents. But she doesnt believe theres much truth to the idea that the north is more cultural than the south. Such cliches are what May calls the psychogeography of Melbourne, the stories we as humans like to construct about our environment, and its nothing specific to Melbourne; he points out most cities with a river around the world have rivalries and stereotypes of this sort. Its not a Melbourne thing, its an urban thing, he says. They all draw on some element of truth or historical reality, but actually are an embellishment to serve contemporary needs as much as tell real stories about past. Meanwhile, Lauren and Andrew, who met through pure chance (Andrew works on St Kilda Road, meaning he slipped into Laurens five-kilometre dating app algorithm), say their love is strong enough to bridge the Yarra and the cultural divide, real or imagined. Hes the most magical, supportive, lovely human, says Lauren.He could have lived in Timbuktu and I would have been like well make it work. Delivering Meals on Wheels for 50 years Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Shes been a Meals on Wheels volunteer for 50 years and Adele Allen still enjoys it immensely from the camaraderie with other volunteers to bonding with clients over pets and music. Her only bugbear is with the traffic congestion, but that hasnt been a problem, of late. Actually its been good with the lockdown there hasnt been the traffic around, she said. Adele Allen delivers a meal to Patricia Shing on Friday. She started doing deliveries for Meals on Wheels 50 years ago. Credit:Justin McManus. As well as delivering meals and a good chat to the aged and house-bound for half a century, Mrs Allen, 75, has been a pastoral worker for Croydon Uniting Church for 30 years. For her community service, Mrs Allen has been given the Medal of the Order (OAM) of Australia. Its a bit overwhelming, she said. I feel very humbled that somebody has recognised what volunteers do, I guess. Advertisement Croydon Uniting Church minister the Reverend Dr Peter Mallen says the honour is well deserved. Shes one of those lovely, quiet Australians who is always ready to help others and to look out for others. As a pastoral worker, Mrs Allen has visited and phoned people who were lonely, sick or troubled. Shes very good at connecting with others, Dr Mallen said. In the last 18 months thats been really important, because of COVID-19. A lot of older people have struggled with loneliness and not feeling connected with people because theyve had to stay home. Shes very unassuming and does everything with a smile. In 1971, while Mrs Allen was working as a nurse and had a baby son, she heard the local Meals On Wheels would have to close if more helpers werent found. So, once a month, Mrs Allen and a friend accepted a shift delivering meals cooked at Croydon Senior Citizens Centre to the local aged and infirm. Fifty years on, now retired from nursing and a grandmother, Mrs Allen does Meals on Wheels once a week, seeing about eight clients. Advertisement The service was never about just providing food. For Mrs Allen, it involves chatting with clients about pets or their families, and seeking help with health or other issues if they need it. Its a very good service because were eyes and ears, for the community, Mrs Allen said. - Carolyn Webb The long-time ambo keeping history alive When Chas Martin, 83, began his career with the Victorian Civil Ambulance Service back in 1962, things were very different to how they are today. It was certainly pretty archaic in those days, we only had 30 cars running around Melbourne back then, he said. Advertisement Chas Martin worked as a paramedic for 40 years before starting the Ambulance History Museum in Bayswater. Credit:Jason South. Its changed that much, there wasnt the drugs. It was basically first aid and that was it. It was a different job, the training was different. The kids now have to do three years of uni, we had one day a week while on the job. After his retirement, Mr Martin was asked to help to tell the story of Victorias ambulance service by keeping in touch with its past. He founded the Ambulance Victoria Museum in 2006 and still volunteers there one day a week as honorary curator. For service to community history, Mr Martin has been given the Medal of the Order of Australia. These days, the museum in Bayswater is home to 26 fully restored ambulances, dating from 1912 until modern times, as well as thousands of other artefacts, including uniforms, documents and medical equipment. We wouldnt have anything [if we hadnt done this], they would have just let it all go, he said. Mr Martin loves the fleet of vintage vehicles, which include models such as the Chrysler Royal, Ford Mainline and Ford Fairlane. The chrome bumpers and single flashing lights are a long way from the modern Mercedes-Benzes driven by paramedics these days. Advertisement Mr Martin said he had a team of about two dozen volunteers, including mechanics, who helped bring the museum to life. I believe that all history should be kept and thats why Im doing this, he said. Theyve all been beaut cars, it was a big job restoring them all. Mr Martin said he did not know who nominated him for the Queens Birthday honours, but he was thrilled to bits to be recognised. He said he had no regrets about dedicating his life to Victorias ambulance services. Over his 40 years as an ambo hes estimated to have done tens of thousands of journeys. I loved it, if I had my time over again Id do exactly the same, he said. - Tom Cowie Advertisement Leading health experts from across the nation have decried the Morrison governments decision to keep a Tamil asylum-seeker family on Christmas Island, saying it will lead to lifelong trauma for the children. Family friends say the mental health of the Murugappans two young daughters is deteriorating as the youngest is kept under guard at Perth Childrens Hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia and sepsis. The Biloela Tamil family at the centre of the deportation row. Credit: Supplied Priya and Nadesalingam Muruguppan and their Australian-born daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, have been detained on the island since August 2019 after authorities swooped in and removed them from the Queensland town of Biloela. Both parents have lost their attempts in the courts to be given refugee status in Australia. Yet the federal court decided in February that Tharnicaa had been denied procedural fairness, which means the familys legal fight continues. The fate of a Tamil family detained on Christmas Island will be decided within days as the federal government faces growing calls to release the four asylum seekers after one of them was evacuated for treatment in a Perth hospital. Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is close to a final decision on whether to intervene in a long-running court dispute over the familys claims, with Liberals and Nationals asking him to let them rejoin the community. The Biloela Tamil family at the centre of a deportation row. Credit:Facebook But government backbenchers are not being told which way the decision could go and some MPs believe the outcome should be left to the courts, given a Federal Court decision that the two parents should not be granted refugee status. Federal crossbenchers stepped up their calls for compassion for the family on Sunday, saying Mr Hawke should use his discretion to give the four family members visas to settle in Australia. Frances Adamson, the most influential Australian diplomat and female public servant of her generation, has been award nations highest civilian honour. She has been a trusted adviser to both sides of politics in a near 40-year career, as chief of staff to Labor foreign affairs and defence minister Stephen Smith and later as international adviser to Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister. Ms Adamson, 60, said she was deeply honoured to be appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia as she readies to leave the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade this month, which she first joined in 1985, to become Governor of South Australia in October. Frances Adamson, the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, during a Senate Estimates hearing this year. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer This award is an acknowledgment of the vital role our department plays in protecting Australias interests, she said. I dedicate the award to DFAT staff the world over, whose service to Australians has been my inspiration. A plan to turn Sandown Racecourse into a suburb the size of Wangaratta has stalled as a result of a new state government tax that would cost the sites owners hundreds of millions of dollars. Melbourne Racing Club is seeking an urgent meeting with the Victorian government to clarify the details of the windfall tax announced in this years state budget, which a leading commercial property agency says will cost the club at least $200 million for a rezoning of Sandown alone. The Melbourne Racing Club has paused plans to rezone its Sandown racecourse and sell it for housing. Credit:Joe Armao A club spokesman confirmed it was also considering pulling the reins on its plans for a $570 million sports and entertainment precinct at Caulfield Racecourse, which it also operates, if it was affected by the tax. The club loses about $5 million a year on its Sandown operation. Treasurer Tim Pallas said the intention of the policy was to ensure multimillion-dollar overnight profits were shared with the community to help the states economic recovery, but critics in the property industry say it will stifle development at a time when the economy needs stimulating. Microsoft has unveiled a slate of new video games coming to its platforms, many of them exclusive to Xbox and PC, as it seeks to address a dearth of games over the past several years. At a showcase ahead of the E3 conference held annually in Los Angeles but occurring wholly online this year due to the pandemic Xbox highlighted 30 games, all but three of them to be included at no extra cost with its Game Pass subscription service. Starfield, from Bethesda Game Studios, opened the Xbox showcase ahead of E3. This included Starfield from the recently-acquired Bethesda Game Studios, known for Skyrim and Fallout 4, which will be releasing in November 2022 exclusively on Xbox. Also shown was the narrative campaign and expansive multiplayer of this years Halo Infinite, a new entry in the Forza Horizon series of open world racing games set in Mexico and coming in November, and co-operative vampire-slaying shooter Redfall from Arkane, the studio behind Prey and Dishonored. Microsoft launched its Netflix-like Game Pass service in 2017, and a pair of next generation consoles in the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series S last year, but compared to rival Sony its had a notable lack of big-budget exclusive games over the last decade. Windsor: US President Joe Biden and his aviator sunglasses met Queen Elizabeth II on a bright Sunday afternoon. The Queen hosted the President and first lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle, her royal residence near London. Biden flew to London (on Monday AEST) after wrapping up his participation in a three-day summit of leaders of the worlds wealthy democracies in Cornwall, in southwestern England. US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden smile while standing with Britains Queen Elizabeth II watching a Guard of Honour march past before their meeting at Windsor Castle. Credit:AP He arrived at the castle aboard the presidential helicopter and was ferried to the queen in a black Range Rover. The 95-year-old monarch greeted the Bidens in the castles quadrangle, where she waited beneath a covered dais that shielded her from the sun on one of the hottest days of the year so far in the United Kingdom. Washington: Vladimir Putin has dismissed Joe Bidens description of him as a killer as Hollywood machismo. Ahead of their summit in Geneva on Wednesday, Putin also described Donald Trump as an extraordinary and talented individual. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed questions about his reputation as a killer. Credit:AP In an interview with US network NBC, Putin was asked directly if he was a killer, as Biden has alleged. The Russian President chuckled at the question, saying: Over my tenure, Ive got used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons, and of different calibre and fierceness, and none of it surprises me. He added that killer was a macho term common in Hollywood. Bologna: Rome prosecutors are investigating the disappearance of at least 120 paintings, etchings, sculptures and tapestries from the offices of Italys public broadcaster, Rai. Some of the missing artworks - which include valuable etchings by Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley - disappeared from Rai offices, while others were replaced with fakes. Authorities suspect disgruntled employees may be behind the thefts from the impressive collection, which includes 1500 artworks worth millions of euros that were purchased over the years with public funds. Italian households are required to pay 90 ($141) a year in television licence fees, although Rai - which is owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance - is still 523 million in debt. Rai, the Italian broadcaster. According to the Il Messaggero newspaper, which first reported the Sacking of Rai story, top bosses at the broadcasters Rome headquarters uncovered the issue by chance in March, when a painting supposedly by Florentine artist Ottone Rosai fell to the floor, its broken frame revealing it was actually a copy. Netanyahu has condemned the incitement while noting that he has also been a target. His place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years more than any other, including the countrys founder, David Ben-Gurion. Heres what to expect from the new government: A FRAGILE COALITION The coalition holds only a slight majority in the 120-member Knesset and includes parties from the right, left and centre. Loading They are expected to adopt a modest agenda acceptable to Israelis from across the ideological divide that steers clear of hot-button issues. Their first big challenge will be to agree on a budget, the first since 2019. Economic reforms and infrastructure spending may follow. Bennett will serve as prime minister for the first two years, followed by the centrist Yair Lapid, a former journalist who was the driving force behind the coalition. But thats only if the government survives that long. MANAGING THE CONFLICT Bennett is a religious ultranationalist who supports settlement expansion and is opposed to a Palestinian state. But he risks losing his job if he alienates his dovish coalition partners. That will likely mean a continuation of Netanyahus approach of managing the decades-old conflict without trying to end it. Annexing the occupied West Bank and invading Gaza are probably off the table, but so are any major concessions to the Palestinians. Every Israeli government has expanded Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. This government is expected to do so in a subdued way that avoids angering the Biden administration, which is pushing for restraint and an eventual revival of peace talks. The new government is expected to maintain Netanyahus hard-line stance on Iran and oppose President Joe Bidens efforts to revive its international nuclear deal. But senior officials have already vowed to do so behind closed doors rather than bringing the rift out into the open, as Netanyahu did during the Obama years. The new government will also likely work with Biden to strengthen ties with Arab states. HEALING DIVISIONS The biggest change will likely be felt domestically, as the government struggles to heal the divisions in Israeli society that opened up during the Netanyahu years, between Jews and Arabs and between ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis. Loading The government will work for all the Israeli public religious, secular, ultra-Orthodox, Arab without exception, as one, Bennett said Friday. We will work together, out of partnership and national responsibility, and I believe we will succeed. The United Arab List, a small party with Islamist roots led by Mansour Abbas, is the first Arab party to sit in a coalition. In return for helping to oust Netanyahu, he is expected to secure large budgets for housing, infrastructure and law enforcement in Arab communities. Israels Arab citizens make up 20% of the population and face widespread discrimination. They have close familial ties to the Palestinians and largely identify with their cause, leading many Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion. Tensions boiled over during last months Gaza war, when Jews and Arabs fought in the streets of Israels mixed cities. The new government already faces hostility from Israels ultra-Orthodox community staunch supporters of Netanyahu. Earlier this week, ultra-Orthodox leaders condemned it in harsh terms, with one demanding Bennett remove his kippa, the skullcap worn by observant Jews. RETURN OF THE KING? After a quarter-century at the highest levels of Israeli politics, no one expects the 71-year-old Netanyahu, dubbed the King of Israel by his supporters, to quietly retire to his private home in the seaside town of Caesarea. As opposition leader and the head of the largest party in parliament, Netanyahu is expected to continue doing everything in his power to bring down the government. His best hope for avoiding conviction on serious corruption charges is to battle them from the prime ministers office, with a governing coalition that could potentially grant him immunity. Loading But his domineering presence could continue to bind his opponents together. Bennett, already branded a traitor by much of the right-wing base he shares with Netanyahu, heads a tiny party and is unlikely to get another shot at the top job. Netanyahu could meanwhile face a challenge from within his defeated Likud party, which includes a number of would-be successors. They know that without the polarisation around Netanyahu, the Likud would be able to assemble a strong, stable, right-wing government. But Netanyahu retains a strong hold on the partys institutions and its base, and senior members are unlikely to challenge him unless his downfall is assured. Netanyahu began his long rule by defying the Obama administration, refusing to freeze settlement construction as it tried unsuccessfully to revive the peace process. Relations with Israels closest ally grew even rockier when Netanyahu vigorously campaigned against President Barack Obamas emerging nuclear deal with Iran, even denouncing it in an address to the US Congress. But he suffered few if any consequences from those clashes and was richly rewarded by the Trump administration, which recognised contested Jerusalem as Israels capital, helped broker normalisation agreements with four Arab states and withdrew the US from the Iran deal. Netanyahu has portrayed himself as a world-class statesman, boasting of his close ties with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also cultivated ties with Arab and African countries that long shunned Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians. Victorville, California: In March 2020, Delta pilot Chris Dennis left a note in the aircraft he was parking in a storage lot in Victorville, California, thinking it would be found after a two-week quarantine. But after being discovered 435 days later, the note is now being called a time capsule. Dennis said he parked the aircraft with dozens of other planes and said each represented hundreds of jobs. He described the scene as Chilling, apocalyptic, surreal in a Facebook post in March 2020. Delta Airlines aircraft parked at Victorville, California. Credit:AP Airlines were parking passenger planes en masse as travel fell to historic lows. Washington: How much would you pay to go to space with Jeff Bezos? For at least one person, the answer is $US28 million ($36 million), an astounding sum that won a live auction for a seat on the first human spaceflight for Bezoss Blue Origin space company. The price to rocket into space next month with Bezos and his brother is a cool $36 million. Credit:AP The identity of the winner wont be made public for a couple of weeks, the company said, leading to speculation over who the mysterious bidder could be. A tech entrepreneur? A wealthy foreigner? Or maybe a want-to-be-astronaut backed by a countrys government who would be the first from his or her homeland to go to space? Whoever it is, the person will get to strap into New Shepards capsule alongside Bezos, his brother Mark and a fourth, yet-to-be-named crew member, for a rollicking ride to the edge of space that lasts all of 10 minutes. The flight is scheduled for July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, from the companys launch site in West Texas. PHILIPSBURG:--- Was last Fridays meeting of parliament regarding GEBE a foreboding of things to come? is what the UD faction is wondering. That meeting was one requested 7 months ago and questions asked nearly 2 months ago. More answers are still to come, but in the meantime, another government-owned company drama seems to be unfolding. UD MP Wescot elucidates: Not quite the same, but these developments at GEBE are reminiscent of the PJIA saga that played out over a period of several months, without the shareholder exerting its authority to bring the matter under control. The consequences of that inaction by the government of St. Maarten are plain for all to see. MP Wescot: Now the government is scrambling to do some damage control, while the people anxiously await the outcome. As the MP has asserted several times before, she again emphasizes: Whether it was rightful or wrongful what Knops did, does not help our situation at this time. The government had to realize that the cat-and-mouse game it played with the SXM Princess Juliana international airport was going to catch up with the SXM government at some point. That has happened now! And back to GEBE, like in the airport case, while a lot is played out via the media, we cant assume to know the whole story or all the stories for that matter. This has nothing to do with arms length or (un)due processes, but all to do with taking charge of an issue that could boomerang.again. The MP opines: Tranquility and trust in our government companies are of utmost importance for the companies workers, their clients, and other relevant stakeholders. Responsible for that trust and tranquility is the shareholder, the supervisory board of directors and the management board, together. If there are cracks in that top, the government has to act and act swiftly. Concluding, Our advice is simple: take charge, dont delay. The ultimate shareholder, the government of St. Maarten needs to step in and bring parties back in line, based on the corporate structure of the company and the alignment of the vision for the countrys electricity company. Despite a time of Covid, big fines of up to USD 1200 are being levied by the Immigration & Naturalisation Service (IND) on airport departing visitors from St. Eustatius who have overstayed their statutory three months period. Last week, one such passenger, Chris Russell who is a pensioner and married to a Statian was told that he had exceeded his stay by 99 days and was duly fined US 800 - without a receipt. Throughout the world, millions of people have been displaced by travel restrictions or border closures because of the pandemic, Russell maintains. That is why most governments including the Netherlands have negotiated a relaxation of visa regulations with nearly all countries to assist foreign and Dutch nationals that are stranded. However, this level of common sense and understanding has not reached the IND that operates out of Bonaire and controls the BES islands. My original return flight to Europe was cancelled and as a result of Brexit, I could not return to The Netherlands where I live because of a travel ban for non-EU nationals. So I was stuck between the Golden Rock and a hard place! Last Monday, the IND office at the F.D.R. airport was a mess. Because her immigration colleague was late, the agent had to control the incoming arrivals before she could deal with departures. This when Winair despite broken promises to the Dutch Government operates only a few flights a week. With a smiling face, the agent ignored my situation, disbelieved me and kept me prisoner until the last moment whilst the plane was waiting on the tarmac. When it became evident that Mr. Russell would be stuck on the island, he was assured by the Statia IND office on the Cottageweg that he would simply have to explain his circumstance at the airport and he would be granted freedom to pass. He was also informed that some 200 other visitors to Statia have also been displaced and are unable to return home. It beggars belief that the IND that is run by the Ministry of Justice should be represented by a badge in such an unjust way, Russell explains. The Historical Gem is a wonderful Island with wonderful people. Such attitude and conduct does not assist the local tourist economy or anybody. Chris Russell Support local journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute 3 1 of 3 Peter Yankowski / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Peter Yankowski / Hearst Connecticut Media Group Show More Show Less 3 of 3 NEW MILFORD The body of a second person reported missing earlier this week has been pulled from the Housatonic River, according to Mayor Pete Bass. Bass said on his Facebook page that the individuals remains had been recovered earlier Saturday afternoon. VIENNA (AP) Diplomats from outside the European Union cautioned Sunday that negotiations with Iran to salvage a landmark nuclear deal still need more time, as leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations reaffirmed a commitment to stop the Islamic republic from building nuclear weapons. Iranian envoys held another round of negotiations with international delegations in Vienna a day after EU coordinators suggested that differences over the 2015 accord limiting Iran's nuclear activities had narrowed further. But Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state media he thought a deal was unlikely to emerge in the coming week. A diplomat from Russia also said more time was needed to work out details. TOKYO (AP) Americans Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor go on trial in Tokyo on Monday on charges they helped Nissan's former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, skip bail and flee to Lebanon in December 2019. HOW DID THE TAYLORS END UP IN JAPAN? The Taylors were arrested in Massachusetts in May 2020 and extradited to Japan in March. They have not been released on bail and are not available for comment, which is standard in Japan. They were formally charged in March with helping a criminal escape. Michael Taylor, a former Green Beret, told The Associated Press while still in the U.S. that Peter was not in Japan when Ghosn fled the country. The elder Taylor has helped parents rescue abducted children, gone undercover for the FBI and worked as a contractor for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. WHAT HAPPENED WITH GHOSN? Ghosn led Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. for two decades before his arrest in Tokyo in November 2018. He was charged with falsifying securities reports in underreporting his compensation and with breach of trust. He says he is innocent and the compensation he is accused of not reporting was never decided on or paid. Ghosn says he feared he would not get a fair trial in Japan, where more than 99% of criminal cases result in convictions. Japanese prosecutors say he paid at least $1.3 million to organize his escape. Ghosn is on Interpol's wanted list, but Japan has no extradition treaty with Lebanon. ESCAPE IN A BOX Tokyo prosecutors say Michael Taylor and another man, George-Antoine Zayek, hid Ghosn in a large box meant to carry audio equipment, snuck him through airport security in Osaka, central Japan, and loaded him onto a private jet to Turkey. Peter Taylor is accused of meeting with Ghosn to help with the escape. Zayek has not been arrested. A U.S. appeals court rejected the Taylors' petition to put their extradition on hold. COURT PROCEEDINGS The Taylors will go through the Japanese equivalent of entering a plea before a panel of three judges. They may also give statements. They have said they didnt break any laws because skipping bail is not technically illegal in Japan. But Ghosn was not supposed to leave the country. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Hiroshi Yamamoto said prosecutors will outline the charges, but he declined to comment specifically on the case. Japanese suspects are tried even if they plead guilty. The Taylors are held at the Tokyo detention center on the city's outskirts. Their lawyer can visit them, and they can receive snacks and books. Ghosn spent more than 100 days at the center before his release on bail. The cells are simple, with Japanese-style futon mattresses. The facility has an exercise area and clinic. WHAT LIES AHEAD? English translations will be provided and media coverage is allowed, but no filming or recording. If convicted, the Taylors face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 300,000 yen ($2,900). They also could get suspended sentences and not serve time. In principle, people accused of crimes in Japan are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the conviction rate is higher than 99%. ANOTHER AMERICAN Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, also an American, is being tried on charges of falsifying securities reports in underreporting Ghosns pay. He says he is innocent and was trying to find legal ways to pay Ghosn, partly to prevent him from leaving Nissan for a rival automaker. Kelly's trial began in September and a verdict isn't expected for months. If convicted, Kelly faces up to 15 years in prison. WHAT DOES GHOSN SAY? During the interview in Lebanon in May, Ghosn told The Associated Press he was eager to clear his name. He declined to give details of his escape. Ghosn accuses other Nissan executives of plotting to force him out to prevent him from giving its French partner, Renault, more power in their alliance. Renault sent Ghosn to Japan in 1999 to rescue the automaker when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. HOW IS NISSAN FARING? Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car, the Z sportscar and Infiniti luxury models, has struggled as sales slumped during the pandemic. It expects to remain in the red this fiscal year, the third straight year of losses. Ghosn's successors have promised a turnaround. ___ Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) A central Indiana judge has rejected a new trial for a man convicted in the 1993 murder-for-hire slaying of a woman found shot to death in her garage. Jess David Woods was convicted in 2009 of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Teresa French's May 1993 killing and sentenced to 100 years in prison. Woods was hired by the Muncie woman's estranged husband to kill the 29-year-old mother of three, The Star Press reported. In his bid for post-conviction relief, Woods and his attorney claimed authorities had not pursued evidence suggesting Anthony French could have fatally shot his wife. Woods, 69, also said last year that his hearing problems had prevented him from understanding witness testimony at his 2009 trial. But in a ruling released Thursday, Delaware County Judge Wolf said that Woods had failed to prove how any of the alleged claims, even if true, individually or collectively would have changed the outcome of the trial. Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said Friday in a statement that society is much safer given the fact that Woods will spend the rest of his natural life in prison. Anthony French, 60, was convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in his wife's death by a Delaware County jury in 2008 and sentenced to 80 years in prison. RUSHFORD, Minn. (AP) Officials in a southeastern Minnesota city say a police officer fired his gun while responding to a restraining order violation. No one was hit and no injuries were reported. The Rushford Police Department said the incident occurred around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The suspect is in custody and police say there is no ongoing threat to the public, WCCO-TV reported. On Wednesday, the Black Lives Matter flag will be hoisted over the State Capitol, an early Juneteenth commemoration, but a fitting symbol for the year. The pandemic shut down the 2020 General Assembly and the May death of George Floyd in Minneapolis set off an explosion of protests nationally and in Connecticut over longstanding health, economic and social inequities. Connecticut lawmakers last year set a Juneteenth agenda. In the recently finished regular session, the legislature tackled a wide variety of racial-fairness issues, with many positive results. Equity was a word that was highlighted not only in the pronouncements of Gov. Ned Lamont and Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, but in all of the 26 legislative committees, where dozens of pieces of legislation were aimed at both sweeping changes and incremental advances in fairness. Among them: a bill that declared racism a public health crisis. The list is long and still growing, with a special legislative session set for Tuesday and Wednesday to apply finishing touches to public policy. We came out of a year from hell, Lamont told reporters on Thursday afternoon, the day after the 22-week budget-setting session ended. I think it was really important that we came together.to make sure that we take care of those hardest hit by COVID. Make sure that those urban communities, in particular Black and brown people, the hardest-hit, get a chance to get back on their feet. A five-year, $1.5-billion Community Investment Fund will help the states cities with economic development, education, housing and internet availability. Expanded insurance opportunities will add 40,000 more low-income residents to the 130,000 already on the states Access Health CT exchange. Federal pandemic support will allow expanded child care opportunities and summer programs so single parents can get back into the workforce. Working families will be able to claim higher levels of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Formerly incarcerated people can have many criminal records deleted after seven or 10 years, the so-called clean slate law that Lamont signed last week, even though he said it went too far and asked lawmakers to revisit the bill to remove some felonies from the list. Lamont supports another bill that will allow incarcerated people to finally have free phone calls, saving some families a thousand dollars a year or more. An adult-use marijuana bill that couldnt get final action in time for the deadline last week will be the focus of this weeks special legislative session. Its centerpiece is one of the nations most-ambitious attempts to offer career opportunities in the states new cannabis industry to neighborhoods where generations of Black and brown people were targeted during the failed war on drugs. The intense focus on equity in the Black Lives Matter era started last summer with a controversial police transparency and accountability bill in a special summer session. But while last years Capitol closure limited lawmakers to just a few issues, this year the racial equity theme blossomed amid increased awareness of institutional unfairness against minority communities. We did a lot of work this year in a complicated environment, House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said in a Friday interview. In addition to the investment fund, Rojas stressed changes to the formula used to fund public schools that will funnel more money into districts with concentrated poverty and children who are English learners. I made a commitment Rojas highlighted another bill, the CROWN Act, which will protect people who want to wear their hair in traditional racial and ethnic styles, from discrimination in the workplace. Still another new law will allow property owners to go to their town and city halls to revise property records and excise racially restrictive covenants, which although have no legal power, date from the days of more-overt discrimination against minorities. I feel very encouraged, said Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport. We always can do better. We can always do more. I just feel this was a great year for us. I am very proud of the Senate and House and the committee work at every level. I made a commitment during Black Lives Matter to address racial equity in everything I did. This is our time to bring it together. Much of the equity agenda was made possible by the federal American Rescue Plan, with $2.8 billion in coronavirus stimulus shoring up state finances and paying directly for some programs, such as child care. Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend it the way we need to, Moore said. Its up to the governor to spend it and not neglect communities of color. Setbacks and disappointments The agenda fell short in key areas. A bill aimed at forcing suburbs to provide more affordable housing was drastically rewritten and diluted by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Efforts by progressive Democrats to hike taxes on the states wealthiest, to pay for urban neighborhood projects, were rejected by Lamont. That would have also paid for a proposed $600 tax credit for most children in the state, which failed in budget negotiations. We have a long way ahead of us, said Rep. Brandon McGee, Jr., D-Hartford, co-chairman of the legislative Housing Committee. We havent touched the surface when we talk about equity. When you think of the progress, how far weve come, how far we have to go, responding to the woes of the pandemic and were slowly getting to the new normalcy, folks are facing the same challenges in housing. The Housing Committee was able to successfully push legislation to provide tenants a right to legal counsel in eviction proceedings, a bill that was signed into law by Lamont on Thursday. But other tenant-protection bills did not survive the legislative process. I am livid that we were unable to pass policies that would help more tenants and homeowners, McGee said. My school of thought is that on the Housing Committee, we should focus our attention and state resources on specifically long-term, urban residents who have experienced a lack of housing options. We should be able to focus on zoning and make major investments in new housing. We have to follow through in a holistic way and look at what equity means to the whole state. The biggest disappointment, to urban lawmakers and progressive Democrats, was in the watering down of affordable housing and desegregation bills, which were sharply opposed in communities including Greenwich. One part of that legislation, for example, would have allowed local housing authorities to propose and support new residential opportunities in neighboring communities. It failed. Even before the pandemic, a lot of people were unable to go forward and improve their quality of life by buying new homes, said Rep. Andre Baker, D-Bridgeport, vice chairman of the legislative Planning and Development Committee. People want to own and they want to move to certain areas to live, like Trumbull or Fairfield, but theyre blocked out. We really wanted to open the door for people to do that. However, Baker said that the watered-down bill on affordable housing, which among other things will allow single family homeowners to more easily create accessory dwelling units in their homes, is a start. But if were looking to have companies move to Connecticut, we have to show that were an open, diverse state. It could be whatever we want it to be. A game-changer for cities For veteran state Rep. Chris Rosario, D-Bridgeport, the biggest positive out of the session is the Community Investment Fund. This is going to literally re-ignite urban areas such as Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury, Rosario said Friday. We have have had a lot of investments in cities, but not necessarily in our neighborhoods. This should kick start it, get it up and going and help drive the economy of our urban centers. The clean slate law should also help his district. Its also an economic-development bill, because for people who go seven or 10 years without contact with the police, they can get their records erased, which can allow them to have a better paying job, move to a better neighborhood, or buy a home. Another bill, restricting the state Department of Correction on the use of solitary confinement, will also help the mental health of incarcerated people, Rosario said. If you are going to torture people, you are just going to maintain the cycle of people leaving prison and getting rearrested, he said. Free prison phone calls will save important amounts of money for families, said Rosario, speaking about his brother, who is incarcerated. The lawmaker spends about $1,200 a year in calls to him. I can afford to communicate with him, but other families go for years without talking to their loved ones, he said. Undoing the drug war Rosario, who was first elected in 2014, said he is currently studying the adult-use cannabis bill that was approved in the Senate last week, but did not make the House floor before the legislative session ended at midnight on Wednesday. While he appreciates the equity components, allowing people from neighborhoods impacted by the war on drugs to get various licenses to get into the market, Rosario currently has reservations on whether he will support the controversial bill in the special session next week It is a great starting point, considering where we were at the beginning of the session, Rosario said of the cannabis legislation. Some advocates are pushing for more equity. Rosario, who is a civilian employee of the Shelton Police Department, recalled that when Bridgeports longtime manufacturing industry finally collapsed, creating an unemployment crisis in the 1980s, many of his neighbors found themselves dealing marijuana to help make ends meet. And they paid a deep price for it, he said. Lamont contends that the two-year, $46.4 billion budget that will take effect on July 1 goes a long way toward addressing equity imbalances, though critics on the left say it doesnt go far enough notably, Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the legislative Finance Committee. In a speech Wednesday on the Senate floor, he railed against the removal of sections that would tax the states wealthiest about $800 million in the budget year that starts July 1. Our policies are a knee on the neck of the Black community and other under-served communities of our state, said Fonfara, the architect of the rejected new taxes on the wealthy. We can do better, and we must do better. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT A British woman who was attacked by a crocodile in Mexico has spoken out for the first time. Twins Melissa and Georgia Laurie, 28, were swimming in a lagoon with a tour group when Melissa was dragged underwater. Georgia managed to save her sister by punching the 10-foot reptile repeatedly in the face and pulling her to safety by her hair. Melissa, a zookeeper, suffered deep bites to her body, legs, hands and wrists and was placed in an induced coma. She has subsequently been brought out of the coma and is improving after developing sepsis. Speaking from her hospital bed in the surfing resort of Puerto Escondido 10 miles away Melissa said she was so happy to be alive. I am extremely grateful that I came out of this alive, she told the MailOnline. And that I had Georgia fight my side for me. Speaking about the day of the attack, Georgia said the pair had been aware there may be crocodiles in the lagoon. I actually said to the guide, this looks like a place where crocodiles make their home. But their guide insisted it was safe to swim, the BBC reported. The guide is understood to be a German national who was not registered with the tourism authority and has since fled. Lalo Escamilla, a boatman and local ornithologist who waded into the shallow waters to help the twins, believes the region has been taken over by inexperienced guides. Theyre not guides, he said. Theyre not federally-approved experts, they dont know this place. Thats the problem. Ogden jazz icon Joe McQueen may be gone, but his memory and legacy live on. One physical reminder of his life, McQueen's lifelong home at 3158 Grant Ave., has now become available for sale. The house received extensive remodeling, but as investor Richard Casperson has said, "Joe's energy is CAN DO Inc., the Hazleton areas industrial and economic development corporation, reflected on a year of transition and growth at its annual meeting Tuesday night. Bill Magnotta stepped down as chair of the board and discussed the challenges of the past year and beyond, as the organization and area businesses adapted to and stepped up to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, while seeing growth and new opportunities. The new development, the expansions of existing companies and, most importantly, continued additions of new job opportunities for the Hazleton area was exhilarating, he said. After years of planning, the Humboldt Industrial Park is in the final stages of the connection of White Birch Road to the state Transportation Departments expansion to Interstate 81. The Hazleton area has arrived as the strategic point between major cities and roadways that our founders thought it would be years ago, Magnotta said. The credit goes to those who had the vision, guts and determination over the years. Congratulations to all. He also thanked all who supported CAN DO, the staff, committees and board members for their commitment during his tenure, and for the opportunity to serve. Best of luck to Joe Lettiere, the CAN DO team and all the supporters for a bright future for CAN DO and the Hazleton area, Magnotta said. Community and business leaders alike rose to the challenge and worked together to navigate the uncharted waters of a global pandemic in the past year, said Joseph Lettiere, CAN DO president and CEO. CAN DO was looked upon to do things that were outside of the normal course of our economic development efforts and, with that, we needed to rely on our partners, he said. One of our strongest partners for many years has been the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce and its fitting that this year the chamber receives our Partner of the Year Award. CAN DO along with the chamber coordinated communications with employers as part of the recovery and resiliency task force, bringing together industry leaders, municipal and elected officials and other stakeholders to distribute needed health-related information, he said. CAN DO, the chamber and their partners also established an emergency relief microgrant program to help small business get through the crisis, and partnered to build online presences for small business with CARES Act funding, Lettiere said. The CARES funding also launched Hazleton Works workforce education and training campaign, which rolled out in April, he said. While the pandemic may have brought to the forefront our strong partnership, our connection with the Chamber of Commerce has been present since Dr. Edward Dessen founded the organization in 1956, Lettiere said. He presented the Partner of the Year Award to Mary Malone, chamber president. Magnotta then announced Donna Palermo, board member and former chamber president, as the recipient of the Chairmans Award. Palermo, who spent 26 years in service at the chamber, the last 13 as president, served as the CAN DO Community Relations committee chair and a member of the executive board. She was active in the student board activities, annual Curb Appeal Awards, CAN DO Community Christmas and Operation CAN DO. Vice Chairman Charles Burkhardt recognized this years Student Action Committee, who also had to adapt to their year of service and learned from these challenges to help build their future. Seniors recognized were Cleidy Castillo, Immanuel Christian School; Noah Long and Christian Badamo, MMI Preparatory School; Maxwell Schwabe, Marian High School; Allison Gottstein, Hazleton Area Academy of Sciences; Kelly Royer, Weatherly Area High School; and Alivia Platek and Isabelle Ritz, Hazleton Area High School. Outgoing officers on the board, Joseph Baran and Maryanne Petrilla, were also recognized for their service. The Blood Transfusion Center "Colonel Professor dr. Nicolae Nestorescu'', located inside the Central Military Emergency Hospital Dr.Carol Davila, is hosting on Monday, in partnership with the Romanian Patriarchate, a blood donation activity to mark World Blood Donor Day. According to a press release sent on Sunday by the Ministry of National Defense (MApN), will participate in the action and donate blood students of the Medicine-Military Institute, of the Military Technical Academy Ferdinand I and of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Police Academy, soldiers with "Mihai Viteazul" 30th Guard Brigade, representatives of the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service, the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Gendarmerie and the General Inspectorate of the Border Police. "The Blood Transfusion Center "Colonel Professor dr. Nicolae Nestorescu'' is the only transfusion center in the National Defense, Public Order and National Security System in Romania. It supplies blood to both military and civilian hospitals, and donors can be both military and civilians," reads the release, Agerpres informs. At the same time, according to a statement of the Patriarchate sent AGERPRES on Sunday, in parallel with the event in Bucharest, blood will also be donated to the Ploiesti Blood Transfusion Center, under the slogan "Celebrate the Donor! Celebrate the Future!". Donors from the "Toma N. Socolescu" Technological High School, the "Saint Apostle Andrei" Technological Services High School, the "Queen Marie of Romania" Post-secondary Sanitary School, the FEG Post Secondary School, "Saint Vasile cel Mare" Post Secondary Sanitary School, "Anghel Saligny" Technological High School, "Carol I" High School, Plopeni, 'Virgil Madgearu' Economic College, ""BY PROFESSION, HUMAN" Association, the "Pavel Zaganescu" School for Non-Commissioned Officer - Firefighters and Civil Protection, Boldesti, Prahova, and Police Academy "Vasile Lascar" are expected there. In the period 2013-2020, the Romanian Patriarchate carried out medical endowment projects for the Blood Transfusion Centers in Bucharest, Ploiesti, Constanta, Cluj, the "Prof. Dr. CT Nicolau" National Institute of Transfusion Hematology, Bucharest and the Blood Transfusion Center "Colonel Professor dr. Nicolae Nestorescu'', worth 130,000 euros. Every year, World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on June 14, an opportunity to raise awareness on the importance of blood donation, but also to thank voluntary, anonymous and unpaid blood donors for their gesture of saving lives. World Blood Donor Day was first celebrated in 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa The Romanian Army is able to carry out defense operations, in a national and allied context, in the event of the invocation of NATO's Article 5, Chief of Defense Staff (SMA) Daniel Petrescu said on Sunday. "(...) The Romanian Army is able to carry out defense operations, in a national and allied context, in the event of the invocation of NATO's Article 5, at the same time with implementing the support measures of the host nation to allied forces transiting or acting throughout the national territory," declared Daniel Petrescu, on the occasion of the DEFENDER-Europe 21 Exercise. He added that our country is an important "actor" in the Black Sea region, which provides security and stability, Agerpres informs. "The North Atlantic Alliance and the Romanian-American Strategic Partnership remain fundamental elements in the dimension of national defense necessary to achieve security. Romania is an important actor in the Black Sea region, on the Eastern Flank of the Alliance, providing security, stability and contributing significantly to these at regional, European and Euro-Atlantic level. Daniel Petrescu also stated that the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East (HQ MNC-SE) has currently reached the necessary level of structural capacity to enable it to function as a corps formation within the NATO Force Structure. "This capability will progressively continue to grow until it reaches its final operational capacity in 2024," said the Chief of Defense Staff. DEFENDER Europe 21 is a large-scale joint multinational exercise, planned and led by United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF), aimed at increasing the response capacity and interoperability between the U.S. Armed Forces and forces of NATO member and partner countries. At its final stage, the DEFENDER-Europe 21 exercise integrates approximately 28,000 soldiers from Allied and partner military forces from 26 nations, who are simultaneously training in more than 30 training areas in 12 countries. The activities specific to the command exercise DEFENDER Europe 21 CAX / CPX, which takes place between June 10-14 in Romania (Bucharest) and Germany, are attended by about 400 soldiers belonging to the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East and 46th Support Battalion, the British Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, V Corps from the U.S. Army Europe and Africa, as well as from various structures of the Romanian Army. This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com The owners came home to find the injured driver and called for help. The dogs are currently detained at the home, as no veterinary clinics would take them, the sheriff said. He said the dogs have no history of violence and have been out and about before, including to The Pavilion, an open-air restaurant in Kampsville on the Illinois River. I know there have been FedEx drivers there before and neighbors have been there, he said, adding that the driver was new. I dont know what happened. Nobody was there when it happened, he said. You never know how somebodys pets are going to interact with strangers. Rebecca G. Mazzaro and John E. Lichthardt were ordered to appear in a Calhoun County court Tuesday by summons on a complaint for vicious dog determination, online court records show. Heffington said the judge will decide what will happen to the dogs. It wasnt clear if the judge could order the dogs to be euthanized. Neither Mazzaro nor Lichthardt could be reached for comment. UPDATED at noon Monday with more details on shooting. FLORISSANT A feud between two 18-year-olds led to the shooting death of a McCluer North High School graduate late Friday and a murder charge Saturday against the other teen, police said. William Bellamy, of the first block of Holly Lane in Florissant, was found dead on the school campus at 705 Waterford Drive early Saturday morning of apparent gunshot wounds, police said. The person who called police about the shooting, Aurelius Collier, was the one who shot Bellamy, Florissant police said in a news release. St. Louis County prosecutors issued charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action against Collier, of the 400 block of Holiday Hill Drive in Florissant. He is being held in the county jail in lieu of $500,000 cash bail. Police said the killing stemmed from a feud between the teens but didnt release any additional details. Despite the shock and worry, I'm really glad to be here. I wish my husband was with me, Taffe McFadden said. It's a highly coveted dog show to be at, and for them to work this hard to make it happen is pretty awesome. This year marks the first time the show, which dates to 1877, is outside Manhattan. Part of the competition is usually in exhibition buildings on Hudson River piers, and the rest in Madison Square Garden. Many owners and handlers say they and their dogs relish the fresh air and breathing room of the sprawling Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, New York. Still, the outdoor setting came with some challenges, including not having a power and water supply for grooming. Some participants brought their own the McFadden team, for instance, was set up in a parking lot with five generators, six 6-gallon jugs of water, a tent and small fenced pens for the dogs to bide time outdoors. For others, it was more catch-as-catch-can. Janet Atkins and Charles Namey bathed and blow-dried their bearded collie, Moet, at a local pet store Friday, then brushed her and did other final touches Saturday on a table outside their minivan, with plastic sheeting for a canopy. You make do with what you can, said Atkins, of Winter Park, Florida. One of the worst crimes any government can commit is to imprison an innocent person. The unjust denial of liberty formed a pillar of the conservative tea party movement during the previous decade and inspired conservatives in the Texas Legislature to get solidly behind bills designed to free the innocent, compensate them for their losses and to punish wayward prosecutors. In Missouri, however, Gov. Mike Parson cant bring himself to recognize an egregious injustice when he sees it and then take corrective action. The case of Kevin Strickland, 62, is one where a judge, prosecutors, witnesses and the defense all seem to agree: He did not commit the 1978 triple murder for which he is serving a life sentence. The fact that he is Black appears to have weighed heavily in the judicial railroading that landed him in prison. In its final days, the Trump administration reached a new low in efforts to stifle press freedoms. It waged a court battle entirely in secret to force the handover of New York Times and CNN reporters email logs that could reveal who their sources were. Because of a gag order, Times and CNN editors and reporters were not allowed to know what was happening so they could defend themselves. For a while, even Times lawyers werent allowed to know, which prevented them from challenging an egregious violation of First Amendment rights. The Biden administration continued to enforce the Trump policy until March. Only then would the reporters involved and the American public know the full extent of the governments unprecedented intrusion. We understand the position taken by Republican as well as Democratic administrations that leaks of classified information need to be investigated to protect national security. But too much surrounding this episode smacks of retaliation or an attempt by then-President Donald Trump to find out who might have tried to embarrass him. The use of government surveillance and seizure powers to monitor reporters activities is a chilling affront to one of the nations most cherished freedoms. The administration obtained the records via subpoenas of Apple, while also securing a gag order to prevent the tech company from telling the targets their data was being collected by the government. The targets included a minor. Leaking classified information is a serious issue, but evidence abounds that this was, at its core, the use of the presidency to improperly persecute the presidents political enemies. Among those whose data was secretly collected was Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., one of Trumps most vociferous critics and a frequent target of his public attacks. The initial data probe apparently turned up no evidence that Schiff or any other target had leaked information, since the investigation stopped while Jeff Sessions, Trumps first attorney general, was still in office. Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation and reportedly wasnt personally involved in the secret collection of data, meaning underlings at his office undertook it. Given Trumps bellicose public demands for protection by his own Justice Department, it strains belief that he didnt influence that decision. These are the most-read letters from last week. Regarding State GOP lawmakers try to limit teaching about race, racism (May 29): It is obvious that there is a Herculean effort underway in some state legislatures to hide historical facts from the developing minds of public school students. As a late-1950s to 1960s graduate of local Catholic elementary, high school and university institutions, Im also interested in what private schools have done to ensure that all historical facts are presented in history and social studies curricula. As a prime example, I personally only learned from media reports in recent years of the horrific Tulsa, Oklahoma, and East St. Louis racial attacks by white mobs. Those reports included photos of the fires and mass destruction of Black-owned businesses and residences. And we have come to learn from the news media that other, similar incidents occurred across the country. Taiwan, facing the prospect of an overwhelming Chinese surprise attack, is finally upgrading its SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) capabilities. This includes purchasing the most modern HARM (High Speed Anti-Radiation) missile the U.S. has available for export; the AGM-88E. Taiwan is getting the latest upgrades for these missiles, meaning the AGM-88Es wont arrive until late 2022. Taiwan also has some of its F-16s upgraded, to the latest F-16V version, that includes the ability to use the AGM-88E. Taiwan is in the process of upgrading all its F-16s to this F-16V Block 52 standard. The one missing element to the Taiwanese SEAD upgrade is intel on Chinese search and air defense radars along the nearby coast. For decades American ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) aircraft flew along the Chinese coast, outside of Chinese air space but close enough to be detected by Chinese radars and have those radar signals recorded and analyzed to determine what they were being used for. This is a key element of SEAD and it's only in the last few years that newly developed Chinese ELINT aircraft have been operating off the coasts of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. SEAD development is also tied with efforts, since the late 1990s, to keep American recon aircraft away from Chinese coastal areas. This was to prevent these aircraft from detecting and recording activity by Chinese air defense systems and other military electronics. Carefully analyzing these systems from a distance (international waters are anything at least 22 kilometers from the coast) reveals vulnerabilities that the U.S. could exploit in wartime. This is doubly troubling to the Chinese because the Americans are known to share this kind of information with their allies, especially Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. All this Chinese ELINT activity is now contributing to improving their new SEAD aircraft as well. China is building more ELINT ships and aircraft and these are always nearby when American naval forces hold training exercises, especially if it is done with American allies equipped with American and other Western equipment. This has always been the case when the U.S. comes to the training even with their own AGM-88 HARM. These come in various models, giving foreign users lots of options. Some export customers still buy the older AGM-88Bs but China is most concerned with the recent AGM-88E and AARGM models which Australia recently bought. One reason the E model is so popular is that it is capable of going after moving ships. This makes the AGM-88E an effective anti-ship weapon as well. China is very keen to find out how well this works in practice. The AGM-88F, the first version with anti-ship capability, completed testing in 2014 and entered service. There had been so many new features in the F model that eventually the 88F got a new name; AARGM (Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile) instead of a HARM. The older AGM-88s can easily be upgraded by simply replacing older sensors and guidance system components with new ones. The AGM-88F has a GPS guidance (with less accurate but jam-proof INS as a backup) added. The older AGM-88D also used GPS so that the missile, which normally homes in on radar transmissions, could be used to attack targets by location alone. The F model expands on basic GPS capabilities and also includes other features that assist in defeating enemy electronic defenses. What the GPS/INS provides is a way for HARM to act on previous intelligence (about where an enemy radar is) while also using its radar signal homing capability and new anti-decoy features. Many countries now use a decoy emitter that sends out a fake radar signal to lure the HARM away from the real radar. The 88F model uses GPS and more sensors and new software to get around all known deceptions and some that havent been invented yet. The first 88E production models were delivered in 2010 for testing on existing aircraft like the EA-18G, which entered service in 2011. AGM-88E testing ran into many problems in the three years before it entered service and there were more hardware failures than expected. The manufacturer admits that it is still working on some of these issues, but in its current state the AGM-88E is good to go. The AGM-88 moves at high speed (2,200 kilometers an hour or 36 kilometers a minute). Over 24,000 AGM-88s, of all types, have been produced since the 1980s. AARGM weighs 361 kg (794 pounds) and can detect and attack targets more than 150 kilometers away while travelling at a speed of 2,450 kilometers per hour. The AGM-88E can transmit a picture of the target, just before it is hit, so the user can be certain of what was taken out. The AARGM was developed jointly by U.S. and Italian firms. The original 1960s anti-radiation missile (ARM) quickly evolved into the HARM. Currently, there are orders for over 2,000 AGM-88E/Fs from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, Italy, and Germany. The United States developed and began using anti-radiation missiles in the mid-1960s. The AGM-88 HARM entered service in 1985 as the AGM-88B and used passive radar seeker which home on enemy fire-control radars emissions in order to destroy it and thus render Surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems useless, least of all those which use radars for target tracking. In 1999 (Kosovo War) HARM was found to be vulnerable. The Serbian forces limited their radar usage to a minimum and used quick radar shutdown techniques and pack and leave tactic for their SAM units. Because of these HARM had problems with acquiring targets because the missile has precision guidance only when enemy radar is working during all the time. In offline mode HARM used INS/GPS only. As a result, NATO forces failed to silence Serbian SAMs during the campaign. The problem has since been solved. China is apparently hoping to steal the new U.S. ARM technology and incorporate it into their various HARM missiles which must eventually be tested at sea to ensure that the anti-ship versions are working properly. If you know more about enemy HARM tech these systems are a lot less effective. This is especially true if you can keep secret how much you know. This the importance of ELINT, especially off the coast of foreign adversaries. That information also helps if you are developing a Chinese SEAD. That works both ways and one thing you need to keep to yourselves is how much you know about enemy radars and how much they know about yours. Who is ahead in this area wont be known unless China attacks Taiwan. New hires will expand data-powered, portfolio management capabilities SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- EQUIAM, a data-powered, venture capital manager with a mission to democratize venture investing, has announced the close of its second private fund, the EQUIAM Private Alpha Fund, with assets under management of $50 million. The Private Alpha Fund uses the EQUIAM Systematic Ranking (ESR), which applies a suite of proprietary algorithms to distill approximately 10,000 private companies and 10 million data points into an evolving, ranked list of approximately 30 investment targets. In addition to offering diversified access to growth and late-stage companies, the Private Alpha Fund deploys capital faster and allows for a comparatively shorter fund duration and a faster path to liquidity than most traditional venture capital funds. EQUIAMs Private Alpha Fund marks a new era in growth and late-stage venture investing, where data-powered investment signals replace gut feel, says Ziad Makkawi, Founder and CEO of EQUIAM. The interest in our pioneering, quantitative approach from both institutions and individual investors shows that quantitative, risk-managed investing is the future of venture capital, where data availability continues to grow exponentially. We expect demand for VC 2.0 to continue growing, and we are building out our investment and distribution capabilities to meet it. EQUIAM adds to investment and operations teams with three new hires Laxus Tat has joined as Investment Engineer with experience automating and optimizing portfolio management using a variety of technologies, building dynamic asset allocation models, analyzing investing strategies and controlling portfolio exposure for different risk factors. Tats previous experience includes AssetMark and Los Angeles Capital Management. He holds a Masters of Financial Engineering from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Samantha Chow has joined as a Senior Associate, Operations, bringing experience in fund operations, reporting and accounting. Her previous experience includes Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Later this month, Shachi Shah will begin her role as Director, Strategic Operations, drawing on experience managing business operations and leveraging data analytics to accelerate start-up businesses. She joins from Plug and Play Tech Center and previously held roles at ICICI Bank and as a founder of Craftsy. She earned a postgraduate diploma in management from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. About data-powered, risk-managed venture investing The EQUIAM Systematic Ranking (ESR) engine drives EQUIAMs investment process. ESR draws information on an investable universe of more than 10,000 private companies and generates investment signals designed to identify companies with ample, high-quality data, well-established revenues, efficient use of capital and a higher probability of outperformance. ESR is designed to enable EQUIAM to consider a larger opportunity set and construct larger, more diversified portfolios than most traditional venture capital (VC) funds. ESR signals are also designed to avoid overvalued companies during portfolio construction and identify poor performing portfolio constituents for potential divestment. EQUIAMs operational model seeks to deploy capital faster than many traditional venture capital funds resulting in a comparatively shorter fund duration of four years and a relatively short two-year reinvestment period, and liquidity from any exit afterwards. To access the companies highly-ranked by the ESR algorithms, EQUIAM has built broad sourcing capabilities that include private secondary marketplaces, issuers, VC firms and primary funding rounds. The EQUIAM Funds also have lower minimum investment than is often required for venture capital fund investments and provide exposure to some of todays most sought after late-stage private companies. Our approach has attracted the interest of larger institutions who see the parallels with data-powered investing in the public markets, continued Makkawi. Individuals and many family offices, on the other hand, have typically been unfairly locked out of venture capital investing until now. These unventured investors recognize that extensive value-creation is taking place today during the decade or more that the average company remains private. The booming secondary market for private companies demonstrates this increasing investor interest, and we believe the market is in the beginning stages of exponential growth. About EQUIAM EQUIAM is a data-powered VC manager that has pioneered a quantitative approach to constructing risk-managed portfolios of growth and late-stage private companies. EQUIAM funds are designed to offer diversified access, faster capital deployment and a shorter path to liquidity than many traditional venture fund investments. EQUIAMs first fund, the EQUIAM Private Tech30 Fund held its first closing on February 15, 2019 and its final closing on June 30, 2019. Given the success of the EQUIAM Private Tech30 Fund, EQUIAM launched the EQUIAM Private Alpha Fund. The recently closed Private Alpha Fund uses the proprietary ESR process to analyze the investable universe of growth and late-stage private technology companies. Combined, the two funds represent almost $90 million in assets under management as of June 7, 2021. A third fund is planned for late 2021. Disclosures The material herein is for informational purposes. Nothing contained herein constitutes an offer of services or a solicitation to purchase or sell securities in the EQUIAM Private Tech30 Fund, the EQUIAM Private Alpha Fund, or any fund managed by EQUIAM (each, an EQUIAM Fund). In fact, the offering periods of both the EQUIAM Private Tech30 Fund and the EQUIAM Private Alpha Fund have expired and neither of these EQUIAM Funds is holding any further closings. The information contained herein does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the more detailed discussions contained in the EQUIAM Funds offering documents. Any offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to purchase an EQUIAM Funds securities shall be made only by formal offering documents which contain additional information not set forth herein, including certain risks of investing, which such additional information is material to any decision to invest in an EQUIAM Fund. Readers should not construe any of the information contained herein as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Prospective investors should consult with their own tax, financial and legal advisors before making any investment decisions with regard to an EQUIAM Fund. The past performance of EQUIAM, the EQUIAM Funds, EQUIAMs principals, or employees is not indicative of future returns of any EQUIAM Fund. There is no guarantee that EQUIAM will be successful in achieving any EQUIAM Funds investment objectives or that the ESR will perform as anticipated. An investment in an EQUIAM Fund contains risks, including the risk of complete loss of an investors commitment. No information is warranted by EQUIAM or its affiliates or subsidiaries as to completeness or accuracy, express or implied, and is subject to change without notice. Forward-looking statements contained herein, including observations about markets and industry and regulatory trends, reflect EQUIAMs views as of the date hereof with respect to possible future events. Forward-looking statements may be identified by, among other things, the use of words such as expects, anticipates, designed, believes, or estimates, or the negatives of these terms, and similar expressions. Actual results could differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of factors beyond EQUIAMs control. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. No party has an obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements herein. The information herein should be considered current only as of the date of publication without regard to the date on which you may receive or access the information. EQUIAM maintains the right to delete or modify information without prior notice. Statements made herein that are not attributed to any third-party source reflect the views and opinions of EQUIAM. Additional information is available upon request. 2021 EQUIAM View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210610005561/en/ Kerstin Osterberg The Neibart Group 347-866-3032 EQUIAM@neibartgroup.com Source: EQUIAM SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Icosavax, Inc. today announced the appointment of Thomas J. Russo as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Russo brings more than 25 years of diverse industry experience, including in finance and operations for public biotechnology companies, as a sell-side equity research analyst covering biotechnology, and in operations and vaccine manufacturing for a large pharma company. Tom is a great fit for Icosavax. He has extensive expertise across biotech finance, operations, and the investment community, combined with relevant experience in vaccine manufacturing and a deep drive to advance innovative medical products to address infectious diseases, said Adam Simpson, Chief Executive Officer of Icosavax. He makes a great addition to our team, as we advance our vaccine candidates to address significant unmet medical needs in protecting at-risk populations from life-threatening respiratory viruses, including RSV, hPMV, and SARS-CoV-2. I am thrilled to be joining Icosavax at such an exciting time for the company, as the opportunity for next generation vaccine technologies has never been clearer, said Mr. Russo. From my earliest career experiences, I have been motivated by the impact that vaccine innovation can have on the worlds health. Im impressed by the companys computationally-designed virus-like particle platform technology, because I believe it has the potential to generate best-in-class products, and I look forward to working with the highly-experienced team at Icosavax to advance it. Mr. Russo joins Icosavax from Assembly Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage, public biotechnology company, where he was Chief Financial Officer and contributed to more than $220 million of gross proceeds raised through the capital markets and non-dilutive sources of financing. Previously, he spent seven years across finance and commercial operations roles at Gilead Sciences, Inc., including serving as Vice President, Head of Commercial Finance. In that role, he supported a $20-30 billion revenue business and multibillion-dollar budget across North America, Europe, Asia, and emerging markets. Prior to Gilead, Mr. Russo was Equity Research Senior Analyst covering biotechnology for investment bank, Robert W. Baird & Co., Incorporated, where he advised institutional investors and received WSJ Best on the Street recognition. Earlier in his career he was at Merck & Co., Inc., in roles of increasing responsibility within the manufacturing division and with particular focus on vaccines. Mr. Russo received a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is also a CFA charterholder. About Icosavax Icosavax is a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its innovative virus-like particle (VLP) platform technology to develop vaccines against infectious diseases, with an initial focus on life-threatening respiratory diseases. Icosavaxs VLP platform technology is designed to enable multivalent, particle-based display of complex viral antigens, which it believes will induce broad, robust, and durable protection against the specific viruses targeted. Icosavaxs pipeline includes vaccine candidates targeting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (hMPV), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Icosavax was formed in 2017 to advance the breakthrough VLP technology from the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington with the goal to discover, develop, and commercialize vaccines against infectious diseases. Icosavax exclusively licensed the VLP technology for use in several vaccine fields, including RSV and hMPV, and four other infectious diseases, from the University of Washington. For SARS-CoV-2, Icosavax has a non-exclusive, worldwide (excluding South Korea) license, along with an option to convert to exclusive rights in North America and Europe from the University of Washington. Icosavax is located in Seattle. For more info, visit www.icosavax.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210610005177/en/ Media Contact: Jessica Yingling, Ph.D., Little Dog Communications Inc., jessica@litldog.com, +1.858.344.8091 Icosavax Investor Contact: Laurence Watts, Gilmartin Group, LLC, laurence@gilmartinir.com, +1.619.916.7620 Source: Icosavax, Inc. The Current Retail Trader / Investor Situation: Why Does This Matter? The Secret is Out! The Lie is Dead! What Next? What Do You Need to Do? True Trading Group is Changing Lives TONIGHT! *ATTENTION* NON True Trading Group Members This Has Never Been Done Before Until Now! ANYONE That signs up for TTG3 before tonight's 8:30 pm EST live stream will be automatically entered to win $500 cash, LIVE on tonight's stream! The post Whether You Trade Marijuana Stocks, Large Cap Stocks, Options, or Crypto This is Important! appeared first on Marijuana Stocks | Cannabis Investments and News. Roots of a Budding Industry.(TM). COMTEX_388224507/2683/2021-06-13T14:28:16 Is there a problem with this press release? Contact the source provider Comtex at editorialpr@comtex.com. ENSENADA, Mexico, June 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Honda Off-Road Racing Team returned to Baja California this weekend, and continued its string of Baja 500 successes with another Class 7 victory at the iconic off-road race. The impressive result was the fourth consecutive class win for the Ridgeline Baja Race Truck, and the fifth for the Honda Ridgeline in the last six years. Once again competing in Class 7, for unlimited V6-powered race trucks, the Honda Ridgeline duo of team owner/driver Jeff Proctor and Pat Dailey faced a single-loop course of 466 miles, starting and ending in the coastal city of Ensenada. A total of 243 entries took part in this year's 25th running of the event. QuoteJeff Proctor (team owner/driver Ridgeline Baja Race Truck) won Class 7 for unlimited V6 Trucks; fourth consecutive Baja 500 race win for Honda: "This was a very fast, yet very technical Baja 500, demanding as always. It was extremely dusty, with many single-track lines that didn't really allow for passing. But the entire Honda Off-Road Racing Team was on fire today, thanks once again to everyone for all of their effort and hard work, it all paid off for us once again." Fast Fact Making approximately 550 horsepower, HPD's 3.5-liter HR35TT engine uses the same block and cylinder heads as the production V6 that powers the production Ridgeline. Additional, custom elements of the powertrain include an HPD-designed intake plenum and custom Engine Control Unit programming. NextThe Honda Off-Road Racing Team next travels to the desert of Nevada for the 25th anniversary Maxxis Tires "Casey Folks" Vegas to Reno off-road race, August 11-15, starting in Las Vegas and running north to Reno, Nevada. Honda Racing social media content and video links from the Baja 500 can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV). Additional photos and information from the Ridgeline Baja Race Truck's efforts can be viewed on Instagram at @hondaoffroadracing and @proctor_race. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/honda-ridgeline-baja-race-truck-wins-again-at-baja-500-301311320.html SOURCE Honda Racing/HPD TICKERS: AVU; AVPMF; 8AM Source: The Critical Investor for Streetwise Reports (6/12/21) The Critical Investor takes a look at recent drill results at its copper-zinc project in Portugal, a JV with MATSA. It has been a long wait before Avrupa Minerals Ltd. (AVU:TSX.V; AVPMF:OTC; 8AM:FSE) was able to report new drill results at its Sesmarias 8 Lens target at the flagship copper-zinc Alvalade project in Portugal, operated by Avrupa and MATSA in a JV, but it finally did so on June 9, 2021. As the geology of the 8 Lens is complex, management is drilling several fences (rows of drill holes across perceived mineralized zones) in order to map geologic structures, before stepping out much further. The latest intercepts were decent although not very economic, with, for example, hole SES21-033 with 22.25m @ 0.42% copper from 363m, and SES21-036 with 17m @0.39% copper from 406m, both with significant zinc and lead credits. As the aim of management (and MATSA) is at least 1% copper, the search goes on, and in this update I discuss the latest drill results and other things with President and CEO Paul Kuhn. All presented tables are my own material, unless stated otherwise. All pictures are company material, unless stated otherwise. All currencies are in US Dollars, unless stated otherwise. Avrupa Minerals and MATSA are trying to track down a pretty complex and intensely folded potential mineral deposit, as can be seen here in this conceptual section A-B, drawn after the latest results came in: As can be seen, folded structures like this can only be described properly by strings of closely spaced drill holes, mapping stratigraphy and mineralization in a detailed fashion. Since mineralization could be located at significant depth in this case, deep drilling is also necessary. Keep in mind the nearby historical Lousal Mine which mined 20Mt and is estimated to contain another 30Mt of ore, has a similar mineralized envelope consisting predominantly out of black shales and massive sulphides, and this is exactly what Avrupa and MATSA are looking for at Sesmarias. For more understanding, here is a slightly enlarged version of the map containing this section: At this time, 3,580 meters (m) of diamond drilling has been completed, consisting of seven holes on three sections (050N, 000 and 070S). The individual results will be discussed later on in this article. As a reminder, hole SES008 was the discovery hole in this area with 5m @ 0.64% copper (Cu), 36.8 g/t silver (Ag), 0.94% lead (Pb) and 1.54% zinc (Zn). Hole SES20-032 didn't hit any massive mineralization, and SES028 intercepted something that is believed by management to be the edge of a significant feeder zone beneath the 8 Lens, with anomalous values like 0.18ppm Cu over 13.5m from 447m depth. Hole SES20-031, on a different section, returned 10.75m @ 0.19% copper and 0.74% lead. Management interpreted these results, as follows: "Drilling in SES028, in 2018-19, intercepted a long interval of stockwork mineralization interpreted to lie geologically below potential massive sulfide mineralization. Drilling in SES20-031, late last year, intersected weakly mineralized silica material interpreted to lie geologically above possible massive sulfide mineralization." So despite the absence of economic mineralization, management felt it got sufficient clues to proceed with unraveling the Sesmarias puzzle, and recently commenced drilling of hole SES21-038, located more to the southeast following the 070 S fence, in order to test strike mineralized potential to the south. When we take a look at the results of SES21-34 and SES21-35, drilled at section 050 N in order to test the northern strike potential, nothing but anomalous levels were hit unfortunately. According to management, not all is lost: "However, geological complications caused by faulting and folding of the target units appear, for all practical appearances, to have transposed the massive sulfide targets somewhat to the east. As both drill holes now appear to have been collared too far to the west, the results indicate that the Company drilled over the potential massive sulfide zone, just as SES21-032 did in Section 000. SES21-034 crossed mineral horizon gray and black shales with elevated results in indicator metals arsenic and antimony, as well as lead. SES21-035 crossed 12.2 meters of stockwork sulfides in mineral horizon black shales from 333.90 meters to 346.10 meters. Geochemical results show anomalous gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc levels, as well as elevated indicator metals antimony and arsenic, suggesting close proximity to a potential massive sulfide zone." And: "SES21-035 stockwork intercept results are strongly anomalous and suggest potential for nearby massive sulfide mineralization. The Company is planning to drill further on Section 050 N. Given this anomalism and a good understanding of the geology, it is apparent that the next hole on this section should be collared to the northeast of SES21-035, to target northerly extension of the 8 Lens and potential copper-zinc mineralization." This implies that faulting sub-parallel to the current fence directions (050 N, 000, 070 S) potentially displaced mineralized zones to the northeast. This made me wonder if not a few holes should be drilled perpendicular to the sections/fences outlined so far, in order to get a firm grip on faulting and displacements first. CEO Kuhn had this to say about it: "At this point, potential mineralization southeast of Section 000 looks to be following a predictable strike. We collared SES21-038 to test 50 meters strike extension to the SE and will place SES21-039 in a position to test another 50 meters strike extension to the SE. If all goes well, then we will collar another hole on the Section 050 N, to be collared to the northeast of SES21-035. So far, it is quite apparent that the strike of the mineralization is NW-SE, and in this area variably dipping to the NE." The best two holes of the latest batch were SES21-033 and SES21-036: SES21-033: 22.25 meters @ 0.42% Copper, 2.07% Zinc; 1.05% Lead; 0.58 ppm Gold and 39.3 ppm Silver in semi-massive to massive sulfide mineralization from 363.00 meters to 385.25 meters, with total amount of sulfides generally increasing with depth, and is terminated by the lower fault SES21-036: 17.00 meters @ 0.39% Copper; 2.11% Zinc; 1.10% Lead; 0.4 ppm Gold; and 34.1 ppm Silver in semi-massive to massive sulfide mineralization from 406.10 meters to 423.20 meters, within a wider zone of sulfide mineralization starting at 341 meters depth. Metal values increased downhole as the amount of sulfides increased until the drillhole passed through semi-massive sulfides at 406.10, and continued through massive mineralization to 423.10 meters, where it is truncated by a fault. Since the mineralization is defined by faults in the sub-vertical direction, I wondered if these fault planes were (sub-)horizontally oriented or (sub-)vertical, and if this has consequences for geological conceptualization and drill targeting. CEO Kuhn thinks that the folding and faulting is highly complex. The value of drilling on a section allows us to make certain observations of continuity of the structures, and gives us a higher margin of predictability. We see these complexities in the field at Monte da Bela Vista and at Lousal, and the re-logging of our previous drill holes at Sesmarias supports a similar geological interpretation in the SES002 area and the SES010 area. Please note that these grades still don't represent economic mineralization, although the calculated CuEq grade comes in at around 2%: Avrupa and MATSA are fully aware of this, and Kuhn told me they are clearly looking for average 1% Cu grades in order to make this work. He and MATSA also had no interest in "window dressing" (as he called it) the low copper grades via the byproducts by mentioning CuEq grades. I must say with such credits and resulting CuEq it wouldn't be uncommon to mention equivalents instead, but as they are predominantly looking for copper, and zinc grades would outscore copper metal values, this is probably the most appropriate thing to do. "Geological and geochemical results from drilling along Section 000 suggest a downdip projection of about 150 meters of massive sulfides on this section, up to 20 meters thick, and lying within a wider package of lower grade stockwork/replacement sulfide mineralization. Results from both a recent mise-a-la-masse geophysical study and a coincident grid geochemical survey covering the overall 8 Lens target area suggest further massive sulfide potential, both to the northwest and to the southeast." As discussed in my last update, the company is also defining exploration targets to the north of the 8 Lens in the Brejo area. Permits for exploration drilling are being processed now, and they are looking to add a second drill rig in the near future to drill these targets. It was my understanding the company would be drilling there now, but according to CEO Kuhn they realized that they were just beginning to figure out the structural complications at the 8 Lens, so they elected to follow the known (or at least partially known) geology and potential mineralization first. He had this to add about the complex geology around hole 008: "Hole 008 hit a sulfidic zone about 2030 meters thick, including about 5 meters of massive sulfide at the end, cut off by a fault as you know. In this case, even though we are drilling down, we are actually going up in stratigraphy. So we hit stockwork, then semi-massive, then massive, which is the proper progression stratigraphically, even though we are going downhole. We recognize that there are bounding faults to the mineral hosting zone and that the orientation of these faults suggests a wider zone of potential mineralization as we go down. " The company is also re-mapping the Monte da Bela Vista target area and is in the midst of a 375-sample, grid soil collection program in order to define further drill targets. Another subject discussed in the earlier update was the completion of the VTEM survey, slated for mid-March, so I wondered what the status was. Kuhn replied that the survey was completed and the results returned in April, but he didn't know if it was appropriate for a separate news release. However, combined with some other updates, the company will issue another news release in the near future, followed by more drill results when they become available. Something that has had my interest for a long time is the Lousal Mine, and its assumed remaining historic 30Mt resource. In the last update the company disclosed that it was a high priority besides the drill program, and it was mapping geological structures that were visible in the old mine workings, and would finish compiling the old data in a few months. We are passed that point now, so again I turned to CEO Kuhn and asked for an update. As a reminder: initial work there clearly shows similarity of ore control characteristics to what is known now about the Sesmarias massive sulfide mineralization. Historical documents and academic studies (non- compliant to NI 43-101 standards) indicate a universal metal resource at the old mine of over 50 million tonnes of massive sulfide material. Review of original mine records by Avrupa demonstrates that less than 20 million tonnes of ore were actually extracted from Lousal. For me this is the low hanging fruit of Alvalade, and I was very curious about the current status. CEO Kuhn stated the following: "With all the other work going on, including mapping, sampling, VTEM anomaly follow-up, re-logging of historical drill core, land access permitting work, environmental and social baseline studies, and nearly 4,000 meters of drilling, we just haven't had the time and staffing to push the Lousal research. The VTEM program was originally scheduled for the second year of the project work, but we had an opportunity (and funding!) to do it earlier, in the midst of the first year, so we took advantage of that 'gift' and pushed other projects back a bit. Once we complete all of the necessary annual reporting for the Mining Bureau, then we will see how to get going with all the Lousal data. This will be a complicated digital re-construction, and incredibly important to be as precise as possible as to the location of all the old workings. When we get to the first drilling there, we want to be (more or less) sure that we are targeting rock and not old holes! "Completion of all this work will give us a better answer for Lousal and MBV. In addition, we have discovered a possible way to access part of the SES002 area without having to deal with landowner issues. So there are a lot of targets easier to get to, with plenty of positive possibilities around the license, already supported by geology, geochem, and geophysics." After this, Kuhn added he was actively looking into other projects as well. I was a bit surprised by this, as Alvalade with Lousal as a base with a historical resource and MATSA as a JV partner is everything a small prospect generator like Avrupa could wish for. Other projects would cost precious cash and resources, as it already seems Avrupa staff is spread out over all Alvalade work, and new projects would inherently have exploration risk, starting from zero all over again. If Avrupa could get Lousal and Sesmarias to a combined 50Mt @1% Cu and some nice by products to go with that, at current metal prices we would be looking at a US$500700 million NPV project for the JV. In my view it is impossible for Avrupa to find a better project at an acquisition price under C$710 million, not even talking about the 100-150% dilution which would be necessary. So I wondered why MATSA isn't throwing more money at Alvalade, and for example start doing serious work on Lousal and use three or four drill rigs combined on Lousal and Sesmarias. Regarding drilling around underground workings I referred to another client of mine, Meridian Mining, which is doing exactly this at their Cabacal copper-gold VMS project in Brazil. Kuhn answered this: "Rigs are very difficult to find, and experienced drillers even more difficult! MATSA has two rigs going on their projects in Spain. The MATSA chief geo was here last week, and would like a second rig in the near future, but deals with budget constraints at the end of year 1. We have about 350K euros left in the year 1 budget, and he wants to utilize that in the way we are going, before expanding in year 2." Let's see what MATSA will allow to be budgeted into Alvalade. The metal prices surely aren't any objection, as copper recently went to all-time highs and is still hovering at US$4.50/lb, and zinc isn't exactly bad either at US$1.37/lb. One last subject I wanted to touch upon is the company's intention to do a financing soon, as several funds already expressed their interest back in Q1, 2021, and the roll back has been a while now, with the share price again under 10c. CEO Kuhn had this to say about it: "Timing of a financing is a subject for discussion. It would be very helpful to get a few more good drill holes, of course. The relatively slow progress and not a lot of economic drill results so far probably decreased support now for a financing. However, with some new possibilities at Avrupa and continued positive results from Alvalade, there may be good reason to consider a financing again. Copper and zinc prices are high, and general sentiment for exploration is certainly better than it has been in a long time." It will be obvious how important good drill results will be for Avrupa Minerals, despite the MATSA JV, which has fully funded exploration work for the foreseeable future. Conclusion Avrupa Minerals is still in the process of chasing economic mineralization at Sesmarias, and from the looks of the latest drill results and the provided insights by management it seems they are getting closer and closer. I can't say I fully understand the decision of MATSA not to pursue the historical Lousal resource much more forcefully, but as MATSA is budgeting this campaign, Avrupa can only wait patiently for its plans. In the meantime, Avrupa is looking to acquire or option new projects, and maybe this will provide the company with interesting opportunities. For now, ongoing drilling could finally provide the company with economic intercepts, which could incentivize MATSA to speed things up. I hope you will find this article interesting and useful, and will have further interest in my upcoming articles on mining. To never miss a thing, please subscribe to my free newsletter on my website www.criticalinvestor.eu, in order to get an email notice of my new articles soon after they are published. The Critical Investor is a newsletter and comprehensive junior mining platform, providing analysis, blog and newsfeed and all sorts of information about junior mining. The editor is an avid and critical junior mining stock investor from The Netherlands, with an MSc background in construction/project management. Number cruncher at project economics, looking for high quality companies, mostly growth/turnaround/catalyst-driven to avoid too much dependence/influence of long-term commodity pricing/market sentiments, and often looking for long-term deep value. Getting burned in the past himself at junior mining investments by following overly positive sources that more often than not avoided to mention (hidden) risks or critical flaws, The Critical Investor learned his lesson well, and goes a few steps further ever since, providing a fresh, more in-depth, and critical vision on things, hence the name. [NLINSERT] Disclaimer: The author is not a registered investment advisor, and currently has a long position in this stock. Avrupa Minerals is a sponsoring company. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to www.avrupaminerals.com and read the company's profile and official documents on www.sedar.com, also for important risk disclosures. This article is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to be investment advice of any kind, and all readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and talk to their own licensed investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions. Streetwise Reports Disclosure: 1) The Critical Investor's disclosures are listed above. 2) The following companies mentioned in the article are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. 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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. 5) 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 Avrupa Minerals, companies mentioned in this article. Charts and graphics provided by the author. FORT SILL, Okla. (Tribune News Service) Regulators approved a $60 million plan that could equip Fort Sill with a backup power supply capable of keeping the base operating independently for up to two weeks, but a change in cost recovery amounts has the project in jeopardy. The plan put forward by the Army and utility about a year ago proposed building a new power facility that would use both natural gas-fired reciprocating engines and solar power. PSO asked regulators for the ability to recover $117.9 million from rate payers to fund the project, but those regulators recently slashed that amount nearly in half, to $60 million. The reduction is forcing the public utility to reevaluate whether to pursue the project. Elected members of Oklahomas Corporation Commission have said they didnt object to the utilitys plans to help the base upgrade its abilities to maintain mission readiness during emergency situations, but they did take issue with the estimated cost. Officials said the final amount reflects what experts who testified in the case stated would be more in line with what those upgrades should cost the utility. The average PSO customer would see a rate increase of less than $1 per month at the reduced amount. The upgrade would provide PSO with an additional 50 megawatts of capacity to serve all its 562,000 customers, but it could be used under emergency conditions as a way the base could be independently powered for up to 14 days. This week, Commission Chairman Todd Hiett and Commissioner Dana Murphy signed the order, which does not authorize the recovery of all the costs the utility initially sought. Commissioner Murphy drafted the order for the commissions review, noting it incorporated bits and pieces from an administrative law judges recommendation and from other proposed orders submitted by interested parties. It approves the project ... accepts the solar facilities as proposed ... but it modifies the reciprocal internal combustion engines, as far as costs, and it modifies the rider and sets out more specific terms, Murphy said. In previous meetings, Commissioner Anthony (who did not sign the order) argued strenuously commissioners should have approved PSOs initial request, saying he worried any deviation potentially could put the post on shaky ground during future evaluations by federal leaders on what bases should be closed. Anthony noted that PSO and the Army worked together to develop the proposal in an effort to create secure, on-site facilities required by a directive issued by the U.S. Defense Department in 2020. Fort Sill, located about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, is a hub of joint and multinational partnered training that covers almost 94,000 acres, including more than 80,000 acres of training land. The base is home of the Fires Center of Excellence, which continually and progressively educates, trains, and inspires Fires soldiers and leaders and develops requisite capabilities to ensure current and future forces can accomplish their missions. Fort Sill also is a designated National Historic Landmark and serves as home of the U.S. Army Field Artillery School as well as the Marine Corps site for Field Artillery Military Occupational Specialties school, United States Army Air Defense Artillery School, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade and the 75th Field Artillery Brigade. The post is one of the four locations used for basic combat training by the Army, too. It has played a significant role in every major American conflict since 1869, data on its website states. Time will tell if todays limited approval meets the need, Anthony stated in a separate opinion he released on the case. A spokesman for the utility said Thursday the project as originally proposed both met the capacity needs of all PSO customers and helped meet Fort Sills resiliency needs. We are reviewing the commissions order and the conditions on cost recovery, particularly conditions placed on the natural gas generation proposal, to evaluate the financial viability of the project, spokesman Stan Whiteford said Thursday. (c)2021 The Oklahoman Visit The Oklahoman at www.newsok.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Fort Sills Key Gate West. (U.S. Army) The USS Cod Submarine Memorial has sat on Clevelands lakefront since it first arrived in 1959. (Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer/TNS) CLEVELAND (Tribune News Service) The USS Cod, a submarine which has sat on Clevelands lakefront since it first arrived in 1959, struck a moored U.S. Coast Guard vessel Sunday morning while it was being towed to Pennsylvania for maintenance. The allision happened about 11:30 a.m., a press release from the Coast Guards 9th District says. The submarine was being towed by a vessel called Manitou and struck the USCG Morro Bay, an icebreaking tugboat stationed in Cleveland. The Morro Bay sustained superficial damage to the hull and its superstructure, the news release says. Its unclear if the Cod sustained any damage. The submarine was heading to Erie, Pa., for maintenance, though the Coast Guard did not specify what kind of maintenance the USS Cod required. The USS Cod celebrated its diamond jubilee 60 years on Clevelands lakefront in 2019. The allision between the Cod and the Morro Bay is under investigation by the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit. 2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Buy Photo A Marine stands with his back to the USS Arizona Memorial during a rifle salute Dec. 7, 2019, at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial that was part of a ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Oahu. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes) HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Navy and the Pentagon have a conundrum on their hands involving unidentified crew members from one of the most famous and tragic battleships of World War II, the USS Arizona. The accounting agency, charged with investigating, recovering and identifying American service members missing from past wars, proposed disinterring 85 USS Arizona crew members buried as unknowns at Punchbowl cemetery in Honolulu, but not for identification, which has been the practice for hundreds of other World War II remains. Rather, DPAA, as it is known, suggested the unprecedented step of disinterring the Arizona crew and re-interring them, unidentified, back on the sunken battleship in Pearl Harbor. More than 900 men remain entombed on the Arizona, which became a deadly inferno on Dec. 7, 1941, after a Japanese aerial bomb pierced its deck and ignited forward gunpowder magazines. The proposal described as preliminary and notional represents a departure from the 2015 disinter-ment for identification of all 388 USS Oklahoma crew unknowns at Punchbowl, officially known as the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. The accounting agency is nearing the end of that project, with an expected 90% identification rate for return to families. DPAA has exhumed casualties from the USS West Virginia and USS California and the 1943 Battle of Tarawa, along with hundreds from the Korean War, to boost its annual identification totals. Its now planning to disinter from Punchbowl about 400 buried as unknowns who died as prisoners of war on Japanese transport ships, including the Enoura Maru, whose conditions were so bad they were called hellships. Some USS Arizona families with still-missing relatives are not at all happy with DPAAs proposed departure from the norm. They fly all over the world to bring our servicemen home and identify them and return them to their families, said Teri Mann-Whyatt, 50, whose uncle, William E. Billy Mann, was a gunners mate 3rd class on the famed battleship. The USS Arizona is a flagship in our country to never forget, and were going to forget them? Why are they not important? Why are they not worth it? said the Seattle resident, who still gets choked up thinking about her lost uncle and his one still-living sibling, a sister whos 93. We know that theres means to identify them, and the Arizona members and their families deserve everything that everyone else has been given, Mann-Whyatt said. A monumental task The accounting agency, which ventures to the ends of the earth to make recoveries, says the identification of the 85 USS Arizona unknowns would be a monumental scientific undertaking that would be much more difficult than the USS Oklahoma project. As a very recent example of the lengths to which it does go, DPAA, which has a $155 million budget, recently sent a 24-person team on a 72-day mission to Belgium, where 1, 013 tons of soil were screened seeking the remains of one man, 1st Lt. Eugene Shauvin, a crew member on a C-47 that crashed in 1944. But accounting agency Director Kelly McKeague said at a Feb. 20 online family member update that we could never take on the process of disinterring the 85 USS Arizona unknowns for identification, in part because DNA reference samples would have to be obtained from the families of all 1, 177 of the ships fatalities. The attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. (U.S. Navy) We have had preliminary discussions with the Navy, and one of the proposals that we have notionally talked about is to disinter all of them not for the purpose of identification but to entomb them in the hull of the Arizona along with their shipmates, he said during the update. McKeague had been asked by a caller when the USS Arizona unknowns would finally get disinterred. In his response, Mc Keague said the number of USS Arizona unknowns at Punchbowl was 94. He later corrected that number to 85. In a subsequent interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, McKeague said never is a strong word. Obviously, we could identify the crew members. My point ... was to say that right now, we have 12 of the 1, 177 (DNA) family reference samples on file for the USS Arizona, he said. We have reviewed 700 of the 1, 177 wartime records, personnel records, (and) within that we only found dental records for 130. We only found stature measurements for about half of them. Without those two pieces of data, searching for, again, 1,177 family reference samples would be a monumental task. McKeague said he estimates that 38,000 Americans still missing from the nations past wars are recoverable. In order to provide equitable treatment to all family members, its a balancing act for us to be able to assess the likelihood of identification in order to determine the appropriate use of limited resources, he said. Thats what it comes down to. So its a balancing act; limited dollars, limited capacity and capabilities. Given the circumstances, identification of the Arizona unknowns would not be prudent from our perspective, McKeague said. The six-year Oklahoma identification project resulted in the exhumation of 388 crew members and the sequencing of more than 5,000 DNA samples, but DPAA noted all of that battleships unidentified crew member remains were recovered for analysis. All of them were there at the Punchbowl, as opposed to the Arizona, which is very unique that only 85 are there and the other 900-plus are in the hull of the ship, Mc Keague said. The key point, he said, is that we dont have enough historical, biological, scientific evidence with which to pursue identification today of the Arizona remains at Punchbowl. New policy on remains The accounting agencys proposal, however conceptual it might be, to re-inter the 85 crew on the battleship memorial and grave stems from the disinterment of a presumed Arizona crew member 20 years ago who subsequently could never be identified. The Defense Department has a relatively new policy that says remains kept in the lab for over four years need approval for further analysis or must be re-interred, Mc Keague said. Were getting pressure from the Pentagon to re-inter that one set of remains, he said, adding, the question is where? That dilemma prompted DPAA to question whether that one unidentified individual, as well as the 85 at Punchbowl, should be re-interred on the battleship. Last year, I had two preliminary conversations with the assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs to propose that in order to account for all 1,072 unaccounted for from the Arizona, is there any interest in the Navy ... to disinter (the 85 ) to re-inter in the ship? McKeague said. Such a step would achieve the fullest possible accounting of the entire USS Arizona crew, he said. A total of 1,177 were killed on the Arizona still the single greatest loss ever for the U.S. Navy with 105 recovered and identified, he said. That resulted in 1,072 unaccounted for, with about 985 of those men still entombed on the ship, according to DPAA. McKeague said the Navy is not open to the identification of the 85 Arizona unknowns, but any disinter-ment decision ultimately rests with the assistant secretary of defense for manpower and reserve affairs. He also said the decision could be made to re-inter the one presumed Arizona crew member back in Punchbowl. Seeking identification Some of the families of missing USS Arizona crew say they were not informed by DPAA of the disinterment possibility but now that they are aware of it, they want the men identified for a decision to be made by family as to where their final resting place should be. Molly Baumann, 30, feels a connection to her great-great-uncle, Charles Casper Ehlert, a 3rd class signalman on the Arizona. He was a great artist, the Wisconsin resident said. I have a drawing of the ship that he drew by hand, and he also drew the ships bell by hand. I have that as well. Her interest in Ehlerts life kind of grew into a thing : Who were all these men (on the Arizona ), and what did they do with their lives? she said. Arizona crew member Lauren Bruner related some of the time he spent on the Arizona with Ehlert, as well as his high school buddy, Billy Mann, in the book, Second to the Last to Leave, a reference to Bruners last-minute escape from the burning ship on Dec. 7, 1941. We liked listening to Billy strum Red Sails in the Sunset on his ol guitar, Bruner is quoted saying in the book. When his singing and strumming wafted out across the harbor, everything sorta hushed up around the other ships, moored close by. Always believed they were listening, too. At the same time, Casper would often work on one of his drawings ... of life aboard ship. Damn he was good. Of average build, only about 5-foot-7 in height, he was a hell of an artist. I know the chances of my great-great-uncle being in those (85 ) remains is not very great, Baumann said, but either way, I believe that they should be identified. Mann-Whyatt, the niece of crew member Billy Mann, said, No matter what, if they can identify (the 85), they should go to every means possible to identify those men and return them to their homes. Randy Stratton, the son of Arizona crew member Don Stratton, who along with Bruner was badly burned but able to shimmy hand-over-hand across a rope 70 feet above Pearl Harbor to safety on the adjacent repair ship USS Vestal, already is lobbying for the disinterment and identification of the 85 crew. Don Stratton and Bruner had sought posthumous recognition for years for Joe George, the Vestal sailor who threw them that rope. A Bronze Star with V for valor was finally awarded in 2017. Stratton died at age 97 in 2020. Randy Stratton said hes already communicated with a DPAA official, letting her know hes now on a mission to get the 85 men identified. I know this is going to take maybe three to five years, could be longer, Stratton said. I said weve waited 80 (years), but lets make sure we do this, that they identify those guys. He also let the DPAA official know Im the voice of these unknown sailors, and I said my dad would have been the voice of these unknown sailors, but now its on me. (c)2021 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser Visit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. WASHINGTON Iran and the United States have made progress on virtually every issue under discussion in indirect meetings over the past two months. But as they began a sixth round of talks Saturday, the Biden administration remained unsure whether they are any closer to final agreement than they were at the beginning. There have been advances on every issue, every time we meet, a senior administration official said of the talks aimed at both sides returning to compliance with the nuclear deal they signed in 2015. Remaining gaps could be closed in a matter of weeks, said the official, one of several U.S. and European officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive meetings in Vienna. But 70 or 80 percent doesnt matter, the official said, until basic mistrust between the two sides is overcome and political decisions are made to accept the negotiated results. Both have stated, in some cases with great specificity, steps they are willing to take toward compliance with the original terms of the nuclear deal. The administration has indicated which of the many U.S. sanctions on Iran it is prepared to lift. Many were imposed, or reimposed, by the Trump administration as part of its maximum pressure campaign begun after it withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. Iran has said it is prepared to reverse steps it has taken in response to Trump, and in violation of the agreements limits on the quality and quantity of uranium enrichment it can undertake, including decommissioning of newly deployed sophisticated centrifuges and disposing of the more highly enriched product they have produced. Weve checked quite a few boxes, said an official from one of the European countries Britain, France and Germany that remain among the original signatories of the deal and are acting as go-betweens for Iran and the United States in the talks. The other signatories, also participating in the talks, are Russia and China. While unresolved questions of U.S. sanctions and Iranian capabilities remain, were optimistic from a purely mathematical perspective that agreement is feasible, the European official said. But thats only part of the answer. The rest is more political. At the highest political levels, each wants something that would make agreement far easier to sell at home but may be impossible for the other side to give. Iran seeks assurances that U.S. reentry into the nuclear deal would not be reversed, and sanctions would not be reimposed, by a future administration. The administration wants Iran to explicitly agree that the deal would lead to follow-on negotiations over longer and stronger restrictions on its nuclear program, and over its ballistic missile programs, human rights and alleged support for terrorist groups. U.S. and European officials are less concerned partly by necessity about Iranian presidential elections scheduled for Friday. When the talks began in April, the election was seen as an informal deadline, particularly if a hard-liner emerged victorious. Now, with moderate candidates disqualified by Irans clerical leaders, the optimistic assessment has changed to a belief that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the electoral favorite, hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, will want the massive economic boost of lifted sanctions. In moves Thursday that it said were not directly related to the nuclear talks, but acknowledged would show U.S. good faith, the administration lifted sanctions on two Iranian companies and three former government officials who were first designated in 2013 by the Obama administration. The State Department said that the measures, which it took along with the Treasury Department, was as a result of a verified change in status or behavior on the part of the sanctioned parties. These actions demonstrate our commitment to lifting sanctions in the event of a change in status or behavior by sanctioned persons. All such changes, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said without further explanation on the specific cases, are an indication that one way or another, our policy objectives have been met. On Friday, Iran paid the United Nations $16.2 million in delinquent dues after the Treasury Department granted a license for South Korea to release frozen Iranian funds for that purpose. The United Nations said earlier this month that, under its rules, it was suspending voting rights of Iran and four African nations for failure to pay for two years. In a letter Wednesday to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called the suspension economic terrorism, and blamed it on U.S. sanctions. South Korea had long indicated it was prepared to release up to $7 billion it has been holding in frozen Iranian money, but would only do so after consultations with the United States. At the same time, however, the administration levied new sanctions on a dozen additional Iranian individuals and entities it said were involved in financial support for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. And the Pentagon, asked whether it would take action against two Iranian naval vessels in the Atlantic and allegedly en route to deliver weapons to Venezuela, said it would consider the delivery of such weapons . . . a provocative act and a threat to our partners in this hemisphere. As such, we would reserve the right to take appropriate measures in concert with our partners to deter the delivery or transit of such weapons, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. Administration officials noted that a weapons procurement deal was signed between Iran and Venezuela more than a year ago, and described it as part of the negative fallout from Trumps shortsighted behavior toward Iran. A decade-long U.N. prohibition banning Iran from conventional weapons trade expired in October, over U.S. objections. Iranian military officials have said that the ships are in the Atlantic to practice seafaring capability in rough seas and had no plans to stop at any port. How much would you pay to go to space with Jeff Bezos? For at least one person, the answer is $28 million, an astounding sum that won a live auction Saturday for a seat on the first human spaceflight for Bezoss Blue Origin space company. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The identity of the winner wont be made public for a couple of weeks, the company said, leading to speculation over who the mysterious bidder could be. A tech entrepreneur? A wealthy foreigner? Or maybe a want-to-be-astronaut backed by a countrys government who would be the first from his or her homeland to go to space? Whoever it is, the person will get to strap into New Shepards capsule alongside Bezos, his brother Mark and a fourth, yet-to-be-named crew member, for a rollicking ride to the edge of space that lasts all of 10 minutes. The flight is scheduled for July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, from the companys launch site in West Texas. Blue Origin promises that the trip will be profound allowing the passengers to see the Earth from a distance, view the dark sky above and marvel at the curvature of the Earth. And it will pave the way for more flights to come, as the company begins to ramp up commercial service, routinely flying paying customers out of the atmosphere. In all, nearly 7,600 bidders from 159 countries participated in the auction, driving the price to a level well beyond what some company officials had anticipated. Blue Origin flies its New Shepard capsule to an altitude of about 65 miles, where passengers can then unbuckle from their seats and experience about four minutes of weightlessness. The $28 million is about half the cost of what some private citizens are paying for a trip to the International Space Station, where theyll live and work for about a week before flying home on SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft. The money raised in Blue Origins auction is to go to support the companys foundation, Club for the Future, which encourages future generations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math to help invent the future of life in space. The auction comes as several companies are working toward flying a host of private astronauts. Blue Origins chief rival in the suborbital space tourism market, Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic, recently completed its third human spaceflight mission. Branson was supposed to allow one more test flight before he strapped into the companys space plane, known as SpaceShipTwo, for his flight. But he has been desperately eager to get to space for years, and the company has left the door open to allowing him to fly earlier in an attempt to compete with Bezos. Elon Musks SpaceX, which flies a much more powerful rocket, the Falcon 9, has several private astronaut missions on the manifest as well. But unlike Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, which shoot their spacecraft on ballistic trajectories that fly almost straight up before falling back down, SpaceX sends its Dragon spacecraft to orbit around the Earth at speeds of 17,500 mph. It has several trips scheduled to send passengers to the International Space Station at a cost of $55 million per seat. Blue Origin officials had said they expected bidders to pay a premium for the seat. Its the companys first human spaceflight mission, after 15 test flights without people on board. And flying alongside Bezos may have been an attractive prospect for some. The company has not said what it will charge the public for seats once tickets go on sale. Virgin Galactic had charged $250,000 before discontinuing sales. When they come back online later this year, the company has said they will be more expensive. It hasnt named a price, but analysts said they expected it to be about $500,000. After the auction, Blue Origin said it would begin contacting the runners up to sign them up for future flights as well. Through a partnership with Drone Express, Kroger is beginning a pilot program to test grocery drone delivery in Centerville, Ohio. (Facebook) (Tribune News Service) Krogers first commercial drone delivery only took a few minutes Wednesday. But theres a historical through-line between that brief flight in Centerville, Ohio, and years of work by local advocates pursuing federal authorization for a certain kind of drone research in the Dayton and Springfield areas. That first drone delivery did not happen in the New Jersey backyard of TELEGRID Technologies drone operator Drone Express. It didnt happen in the vicinity of Krogers Cincinnati headquarters or any of the companys Queen City stores. It happened in the Miami Valley area. Local advocates say thats no accident. Proximity matters. We truly believe that. And were seeing that now more than ever, said Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Development Coalition. The coalition is the organization whose executives and staff pushed for years to achieve Federal Aviation Administration authorization for BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) control of drones operating a drone beyond a drone pilots ability to see the craft, without a chase plane following or observing. That authorization was won in April 2019 by the Air Force Research Laboratory, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The Ohio Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center in Springfield and AFRL started testing the technology at the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport. Loren Thompson, a nationally consulted defense industry analyst and chief operating officer of the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute, said at the time that the Dayton-Springfield region might be the only locale in the nation with FAA authorization for BVLOS research. This is the latest step in Daytons continued emergence as an aerospace innovation center, Thompson said in 2019. Unmanned aircraft are the wave of the future in aerospace, and now the Dayton area will have a major flight testing facility. The door was opened. Through that door stepped an engineer named Beth Flippo. The right people Flippo, principal engineer and chief technology officer for TELEGRID Technologies Inc., said her company was drawn to the Dayton area for two reasons. First, TELEGRIDs customer, Kroger, is headquartered in southwest Ohio. And second, the area already was practicing the kind of drone flight her company needed to work with Kroger BVLOS flight. After several visits, we realized that aviation is just in the blood of the people in Dayton, Flippo said. And even though Kroger was in Cincinnati, we knew this was really where all flights were happening, all the newest aircraft are being built at Wright-Patt. She added: If we wanted to find the right people, if we wanted to find people who knew how to run a factory to build these kinds of things and fly this type of equipment, it had to be Dayton. TELEGRID will hire 50 to 100 people at its Monroe manufacturing center to build drones for Kroger and other customers. The move was a risky one. Flippo moved from New Jersey even before her company had cemented its relationship with Kroger, said Micah Newburg, the Dayton Development Coalitions manager for business development in aerospace and defense. She knew that she wanted to tackle the 800-pound gorilla and grocery chain Kroger, Newburg recounted. She moved here without any real connections to Kroger. FAA officials, with whom Flippo had long been working, in turn told her that if she was going to Ohio, You need to meet with the National UAS (unmanned aerial systems) Center (in Springfield) and also look at flying BVLOS in Springfield, Newburg said. Thats exactly what Flippo did. Soon, the coalition introduced her to Andrew Shepherd, Sinclair Community Colleges executive director and chief scientist for unmanned aerial systems, and the states FlyOhio organization. From those introductions and meetings came contacts with Kroger, Newburg said. The rest is history. Six months later she (Flippo) is on a contract with Kroger to do flights outside of Centervilles store, he said. This is a fantastic step forward The approval of BVLOS flight in Springfield was itself years in the making, starting from the early days of the unmanned aircraft industry, coalition advocates said. Retired Air Force Col. Joe Zeis helped start the work while he worked with the coalition. Today, he advises Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on the states defense and aerospace strategy. It is really the embodiment of that BVLOS technology that we as a region and state have pursued over the long term, Zeis said in a statement last week, celebrating Krogers achievement. To be commercially viable, a UAV really needs to operate safely and effectively beyond the line of sight of the original departure location. I think this is a fantastic step forward, and to see an Ohio company lead the way forward is extraordinary, Zeis added. Hoagland joined the coalition in 2011, as drone technology was fast becoming a top priority. The FAA issued a solicitation seeking six UAS test sites across the nation. At the time, Zeis was leading the effort to have Dayton-Springfield named one of those test sites. The region did not win that effort. But neither did it give up, Hoagland said. The next step became BVLOS authorization, opening new vistas in drone control. We had a vision, Hoagland said. We had a plan, and we put that plan in execution. ... Thank goodness we did it. Coalition and Air Force leaders understood that beyond visual line of sight flight could create new commercial and research opportunities. Achieve that, and companies would flock to the region, they believed. We want them to come here to test and stay here to build, said Shannon Joyce Neal, a coalition spokeswoman quoting her colleague Elaine Bryant, the coalitions executive vice president for aerospace and defense. Hoagland and his team point now to the Air Forces $35 million push for electric flying vehicles capable of nimble vertical takeoffs and landings, vehicles sometimes called flying cars. Though the pioneers in that field range across the country, Springfield is again exerting a magnetic pull. The Air Force development effort, dubbed Agility Prime, is overseen at AFRL at Wright- Patterson, and in December, the Air Force broke ground for an advanced urban air mobility technology simulator and charging station at Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport. Development in flying cars is moving five times faster then advancements in drones, Hoagland said. You cant slow it down. Its just happening. Vyrtx, a Dayton life-critical transport company, is refining its own drone flight capabilities in preparation for work transporting human organs for medical purposes, coalition members say. Were hosting companies who want to be Springfield on a monthly basis, Newburg said. Here we are today, and now were talking about Agility Prime, Hoagland said. Were talking about flying cars. (c)2021 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. UPDATED 5.30pm: State Highway 5 in Whakarewarewa has reopened after a crane was brought in to right a truck that crashed earlier today. SH5 approximately 1.5 km south of Rotorua, was closed from 11am for the crane to remove the truck and trailer unit. Police were called to the crash at 7.20am this morning, says a police spokesperson. It appears they've gone into a ditch and possibly rolled the vehicle. EARLIER 10.50 am: State Highway 5 in Whakarewarewa will be closed today due to a truck crash. SH5 approximately 1.5 km south of Rotorua, will be closed from 11am until at least 6pm this evening, says a police spokesperson. Detours will be in place but motorists are advised to expect significant delays. The road closure is to allow a crane to remove a truck and trailer following a crash earlier this morning. Standard vehicles travelling north into Rotorua from SH5 should head west onto Waikite Valley Road into Whirinaki Valley Road North onto SH30. Vehicles travelling southbound should go from SH30, to Whirinaki Valley Road North and then onto Waikite Valley Road. Trucks and heavy vehicles need to travel the main routes of SH5, SH1 and SH 30 as the above detours are unsuitable for heavy vehicles. EARLIER: State Highway 5 in Whakarewarewa will be closed this morning due to a truck crash. Waka Kotahai NZ Transport Agency is reporting because of a crash south of Waipa State Mill Road, SH5 will be closed for vehicle recovery from 11am for approximately 4 to 5 hours. Police were called to reports a truck had crashed on SH5 in Whakarewarewa at 7.18am this morning, says a police spokesperson. It appears they've gone into a ditch and possibly rolled the vehicle. NZTA is advising the following diversions for light vehicles use SH30, Whirinaki Valley Road, Waikite Valley Road, SH5. For heavy vehicles use SH30, SH1 and SH5. At the scene? Call 0800 SUNLIVE or email photos to newsroom@thesun.co.nz A Tauranga aviation legend and World War II veteran has taken his final flight. Bryan Cox passed away yesterday afternoon after suffering a stroke earlier this week. He will be remembered by friends and family as a real gentleman and teller of many stories. NZ Warbirds Association chief pilot Frank Parker says it is with very great sadness that we have learnt that the wonderful Bryan Cox passed away. His son Greg was with him today listening to music. Bryan flying at age 92. Video: Tauranga Aero Club. The 96-year-old has 12 flight logbooks, flew over 21,145 hours, with 20,000 of those hours out of Ardmore Airport instructing learner pilots. Frank says he touched so many aviators lives. We were extremely lucky that Bryan donated much of his photographs and memorabilia to us here at NZ Warbirds and worked closely with JK Kelly to create an outstanding display of his aviating in the Pacific in both P40's and Corsairs. Bryans fascination with planes started at Hamilton Tech in 1940, his English teacher Gummy Martin had the whole wall of the English classroom papered with Illustrated London News, in colour. Mostly shot down German aircraft, Spitfires and Hurricanes, Bryan told Stuff in lead up to ANZAC Day this year. His whole wall was decorated and thats where we all decided, the whole class possibly. A very high percentage went to the air force rather than the army. The first Air Training Corp parade he saw, November 13, 1941, when he joined the air force, March 1943, and when he first arrived on the island of Guadalcanal, site of some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific War, November 1944. Bryan, 19 years old at the time, arrived after the Allies had succeeded in pushing the Japanese forces off the island. He was then sent to Green Island in the Solomons. His role, and the role of 16 Squadron, was to keep a lid on the Japanese forces 150 miles away on the island of New Britain, clustered mainly around the main base at Rabaul. There were 100,000 Japanese, and we patrolled over Rabaul to stop them flying off their five airfields. The Japanese anti-aircraft guns were fairly primitive, but you still had to be careful, he said. To hit you they had to aim in front of you. Theyd wind madly on these handles then pull the trigger, it automatically aimed the correct distance ahead of you. Bryan also saw action in Bougainville, part of the Papua New Guinea islands, dropping 1000-pound bombs in support of Australian soldiers on the ground. He said they would use smoke bombs, two either side of the Japanese troops. Thats when Bryan would fly in, something he did 31 times in total. I could have killed a thousand Japanese. No doubt I was responsible for many deaths of Japanese soldiers. In March 1946 he was posted to a Japanese town called Iwakuni, barely 40km from Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bomb attack the world had ever seen on August 6, 1945. He flew over the city every day. For about 5 miles by 3 miles, was black. Nothing there, just black. Bryan returned to New Zealand in March 1947. After a short stint milking cows, Brian became flight instructor where he racked up his flight hours. His last flight was only three years ago. I started flying in 43 and didnt fully give up until 93, he said. He has been given a Certificate of Appreciation for service given to New Zealand, from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and then-Defence Minister Ron Mark. Frank says, We will truly miss Bryan's smiling face and his characterful stories here at NZ Warbirds. Our most sincere condolences to Bryan's family. Blue skies Bryan - you will be forever missed. Additional reporting Benn Bathgate/Stuff. Do you already have a paid subscription to any of the SWNewsMedia newspapers? If so, you can Activate your Premium online account by clicking here. Activation will allow you to view unlimited online articles each month. To activate your Premium online account, the email address and phone number provided with your paid newspaper subscription needs to match the information you use in setting up your online user account. If you are having trouble or want to confirm what email address and phone number is listed on your subscription account, please call 952-345-6682 or email circulation@swpub.com and we'll be happy to assist. Lawton, OK (73501) Today Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low near 70F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low near 70F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. 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Our small town occupies a BIG part of your heart. Keep in touch with all things Taos when you subscribe to FIVE of our national award-winning magazines, plus access to the website and e-edition for a full year at the special low rate of just $55. Seminole, FL (33772) Today Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 76F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 76F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Thank you for Reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and Purchase a Subscription to continue reading. (Photo : Blue Origin) Jeff Bezos finally sold the only seat for sale in Blue Origin's spaceflight for a whopping $28 million. Amazon's previous CEO, Jeff Bezos, recently announced that one of his plans after stepping down as the company's CEO is to fly to space. He and his brother, Mark Bezos, founded a commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin, back in 2000. The company has already produced a brand new spacecraft named "New Shepard." The brothers plan to finally explore space on July 20 using their spacecraft. Since the brothers want to give back to other space enthusiasts, Blue Origin had an auction for an extra seat in the spacecraft. As a result, almost 7,600 people were ready to register for the bid --coming from a total of 159 countries. On Saturday, July 12, Blue Origin officially announced the auction winner. However, the winner's name has not yet been announced. $28 Million Flight to Space with Jeff Bezos On Instagram, Jeff Bezos announced his intentions. According to Hype Beast, Bezos stated that he has already dreamed of traveling to space ever since he was five years old. Finally, he will take a journey to space on July 20. He added that the flight would be the most incredible adventure that he will spend with his best friend -- his brother. Blue Origin's New Shepard will have a total of six seats, two of which will be occupied by the Bezos brothers. Together with the auction winner and the crew members, they will travel a total of 62 miles on top of the Earth's surface. Read Also: Blue Origin Conducts Space Tourism Rehearsals: What Does This Mean for The Future of Commercial Space Travel? The total winning bid amount that Blue Origin will garner will be donated to its foundation, Club for the Future. Bezos said that the foundation aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Blue Origin's First Spacecraft - 'New Shepard' Hype Beast also reported that Blue Origin's first-ever spacecraft, named New Shepard, got its name from a famous astronaut, Alan Shepard. He was the first American astronaut to visit space and became famous for his mission to Mercury. According to the report, Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft is a reusable suborbital rocket system. It will fulfill Bezos' lifelong dream to take curious tourists, researchers, and scientists way beyond space's internationally recognized boundary, commonly known as the Karman Line. Space: A New Target for Billionaires Blue Origin's first flight to space will take approximately 11 minutes. New Shepard will feature a pressurized crew capsule that can fit up to six people, and it will also have huge windows so that passengers can see what the outer space looks like. However, Bezos is not the only tech tycoon who plans to have space launches shortly. In one of his tweets, Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, confirmed that SpaceX's ongoing spaceport called "Deimos" is now under construction. He also mentioned that it would start its operations in 2022. Ocean spaceport Deimos is under construction for launch next year https://t.co/WJQka399c7 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 30, 2021 Related Article: Elon Musk: Cryptocurrency' Space Race' with Leading Crypto's New Mission After Dogecoin, Ethereum's Planned Launches This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Fran Sanders 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The huge hole that the China Rover "Zhurong" bore in Mars after its successful landing hints an alarming safety issue that enormous landers should watch out for. On June 12, a scientist warned that due to the soft composition of the red planet, catastrophic events could occur. The warning comes after the state media of China released new photographs of the Chinese Rover Zhurong on Mars on June 11. It even includes a selfie of the spacecraft that looks like a bird flapping its wings. BBC and most news outlets noticed the scenery wherein the rover flaunted a large flag of China as it stands proudly. China Rover 'Zhurong' Hole On the other hand, Jonathan O' Callaghan, a space journalist, noticed something beyond what other people have talked about, Futurism reported. This is very cool. The hole blasted by China's Mars lander when it touched down on the Red Planet. pic.twitter.com/FNfF4EpX8v Jonathan OCallaghan (@Astro_Jonny) June 11, 2021 The post had a photo attached to it that focused on the crater-like hole that the Zhurong produced below it as it stands firm on the ground of the red planet. A Twitter user replied that the hole is either a crater or "a very angry Martian coming out of its burrow to see what all the fuss is about." Meanwhile, the crater caught the attention of Phil Metzger, a scientist at the University of Central Florida. He noticed the risk that could birth from it. At the same time, he was astonished at the size of the hole. Safety Issue for Big Landers Metzger believes that the crater hints at a problem that could arise from the soil composition of Mars. He said that the unpopular hole is caused by the bonding of the soil. He further illustrated how a heavy and big lander will find itself in danger as it lands on top of the red planet. Metzger noted that a 40-ton lander, given its weight, could possibly destroy the soil below it. In turn, the rover could be found crushed deeply in the deep soil it digged itself. The planetary scientist cleared out that the slump will occur after a few weeks as the crater-like hole faces dehydration. As such, the soil above the legs of the rover could disintegrate and lead to it being sucked down below. Read Also: NASA Ingenuity, Perseverance to Look for 'Ancient Life' on Mars, After Moving on to a New Landing Site Working on Solution According to Interesting Engineering, Masten Space Systems, an aerospace manufacturer, together with the University of Central Florida, is thinking of a solution to refrain rockets from punching a huge crater. When the results from the study are in, future explorations in Mars could face more assurance in landing safely. Related Article: NASA Photos Show 'Mushroom' Fungus Growing on Rocks in the Red Planet-Is There Life on Mars? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A COVID-19 researcher revealed that his "Chinese colleagues" developed a "SARS-like" "killer" virus in a video from a 2016 forum that resurfaced recently. EcoHealth Alliance President, Peter Daszak, made the revelation in a 2016 forum that talked about "emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic," which we are coincidentally experiencing now. Back then, the general public did not take notice of such developments. Peter Daszak and Wuhan Institute of Virology As per Nature, Daszak's company has collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) ever since 2014. The funding for the study that the two are working on was granted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Dr. Anthony Fauci is part of. EcoHealth and the WIV study collected samples from bats and people to know more about the viruses that arise from bats. Furthermore, Fauci has repeatedly denied that COVID-19 emerged from the laboratory. However, on June 3, Dr. Li-Meng Yan revealed that she have notified the NIAID doctor that the latest coronavirus is being used as a bioweapon. Separately, President Joe Biden asked the United States intelligence to "redouble its efforts" to find out the actual source of the coronavirus. Daszak and WIV Director Shi Zhengli have written more than a dozen research papers, and have worked for more than 15 years, Nature added. However, it was not clear if Zhengli was one of the "Chinese colleagues" that Daszak mentioned. 'SARS-like' 'Killer' Coronavirus In a C-Span video unearthed by The National Pulse, Daszak confidently talks about how his colleagues overseas produce a deadly and contagious virus. He said it is for the sake of studying diseases that could arise naturally from animals. The endeavor is supposed to prime the world for upcoming pandemics. Daszak further illustrated how EcoHealth produced viruses to understand how it emerges. He said that his "colleagues in China" adds spike proteins to a virus. Then, they observed how the curated contagion enters human cells. He added that as they commence the process of creating the "SARS-like" virus, it has become more evident that it is indeed pathogenic to humans. As such, according to Daszak, the result of it ends up producing viruses, which to him "really do look like killers." Read Also: Crypto Conference Attendees Test Positive for COVID-19 After Return from Miami Continued Study on Bat-Virus Daszak further told Nature on August 21, 2020, that he plans to continue the study with China, now more than ever, as the world faces a pandemic. He claimed that every day, a person in China, or Southeast Asia, in general, is battling an emerging coronavirus that originated from bats. Daszak also added that the possibility of someone currently strolling in the streets is carrying another COVID-19-like infection. The mission of EcoHealth is to prevent the emergence of another pandemic in the years to come. And according to Daszak, studying bat viruses is a step forward to achieving just that. Related Article: Twitter Account of Scientist Who Emailed Fauci That COVID 'Looks Engineered' Disappeared - Was It Deactivated? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Samsung said that the Galaxy S21 Fan Edition production remains undecided whether it will proceed or a suspension is more appropriate. The statement is a response to a report that claimed the South Korean giant is likely delaying the launch of the said device due to the global chip shortage. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is supposed to be the budget-friendly counterpart of the S21. It is the first time that the smartphone maker produced a cheaper version of their flagship device. The mass production was reportedly starting in July. On the other hand, the official release is anticipated to happen in August, alongside the fancy phones, such as Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3. It is noteworthy that the report of production delay is not farfetched as Samsung CEO, Koh Dong-Jin, said that the Galaxy Note upgrade is skipping 2021 due to a component supply issue. S21 Fan Edition: Production Delay Bloomberg reported that the Fan Edition of S21 could face a production delay due to a shortage of Qualcomm processors globally. It is first reported the development on June 12, in which it cited a person close to the situation. It was reported that the budget-friendly smartphone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888. "While we cannot discuss details of the unreleased product, nothing has been determined regarding the alleged production suspension," Samsung briefly told Bloomberg in a text message after the report surfaced. The initial report has since been deleted. Read Also: Samsung Galaxy S21 Vs. S20: Is 2020 Model Still Worth It? Here's an Advanced Comparison Samsung Chip Shortage Samsung is battling a serious problem with chip shortage. It even warned that its flagship phones are facing a possible delay due to it. It dubbed the shortage issue as a "serious imbalance" of semiconductors. Furthermore, the South Korean company is not the first tech company to talk about the drying supplies of chips. The matter's extent has also affected the auto industry. Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, even blamed other companies for hoarding as the primary reason why the supply vanishes at a rapid phase. Despite the tribulation that the world's largest phone maker goes up against, it vowed to find a solution for it. To be exact, On March 17, Samsung said that it is working closely with its partners around the world to balance out the supply, as per NDTV. "Despite the difficult environment, our business leaders are meeting partners overseas to solve these problems. It's hard to say the shortage issue has been solved 100 percent," Samsung said via NDTV. Related Article: Samsung's Sam Virtual Assistant to Arrive Soon and Here's the New 3D Version's First Look This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Microsoft Teams still has a lot more improvements to do before it can fully benefit its users. Although this is the case, this messaging platform still proved its value during the ongoing pandemic, where users are forced to work remotely and communicate with their co-workers online. And now, the giant tech firm confirmed that its giant video chat platform will receive a new feature called Chat Bubbles. This new capability simply works like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and other chat apps. On June 13, Microsoft Teams has evolved into a place where you can communicate, just like how you use Discord, WhatsApp, and other applications. On the other hand, Microsoft hopes that the new Chat Bubbles would allow the platform to be optimizable for consumers as well. To give you more ideas, here are other details of Microsoft Teams' new Chat Bubbles feature. Microsoft Teams' New Chat Bubbles According to Windows Latest's report, the new Chat Bubbles feature is a part of the tech firm's latest effort to improve its Microsoft Teams chat experience. Also Read: Microsoft Store Xbox Series X Restock | Can You Order Within 3 Seconds? The company added that this new update is pretty easy to use, especially since most people are familiar with how WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger work. Microsoft is trying to recreate these applications' capability on Windows 10 and macOS by enabling support for new chat bubbles in Teams. Specifically, the company explained that the new Chat Bubbles can easily be identified since they will appear on the main screen of your Microsoft Teams display. This will allow you to see the chats of those who are not speaking during the video chat. The new Chat Bubbles will surface on the screens of all meeting participants and it will allow users to participate in the discussion without having to switch to the current chat screen. Microsoft claimed that this new feature will make its Teams platform more central to conversations. Other Plans Of Microsoft Aside from the new Chat Bubbles, Microsoft is also conducting some improvements for its in-demand products and online services. These include its support for Windows 10. Business Line reported that the tech firm is planning to end its support for Windows 10 this coming 2025. Some rumors claimed that the main reason behind the removal is the arrival of Windows 11. Microsoft confirmed that its Windows 10 support will be removed on October 14, 2025. For more news updates about Microsoft and its upcoming innovations, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Microsoft Windows OS Update: Six Zero-Day Bugs Including 49 Security Flaws Are Now Patched This article is owned by Tech Times Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tehachapi, CA (93561) Today Mostly clear. Low 57F. WNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 57F. WNW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. The person accused of shooting three people in the parking lot of the Lafayette Police Department Friday night was also shot at on Interstate 10 in the Baton Rouge area later that night, authorities say. Artella Andrus, 22, was arrested in conjunction with the Lafayette shooting after an unidentified suspect opened fire on his vehicle Friday night on I-10 in West Baton Rouge Parish, according to Lafayette Police Department spokesperson, Sgt. Wayne Griffin. On Sunday, Lafayette police identified the three victims who were shot in the police department parking lot as Abram Landry, Cleveland Hamilton and Trevis Hudson. The three men, all of whom are 20 and from Lafayette, were in stable condition after being treated for injuries. Police also identified three Lafayette residents, all 19 years old, who did not suffer gunshot wounds in the shooting as CamRon Savoy, Jaylon Ozenne and Jotrel Taylor. 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 Andrus faces six counts of attempted first-degree murder in connection to the Lafayette shooting. Andrus was arrested in the Baton Rouge area and will be transported to Lafayette this week, according to Griffin. The Lafayette shooting happened around 8:15 p.m. Friday after the six victims left a nearby apartment complex on foot. They were walking near the Lafayette Police Department when Andrus drove by, opened fire and fled the scene in a vehicle, Griffin said. Lafayette investigators were contacted by deputies from the West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office in conjunction with the shooting investigation that occurred on I-10. Staff writer Megan Wyatt contributed to this report. Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission Louisiana saw the lowest number of people die from COVID-19 in April and May than any other months since the disease began tearing through the state, but despite the recent lull in severe cases, health experts fear low vaccination rates make the state vulnerable to yet another spike in cases. The state has hit a wall with getting shots into arms, and the number of people being hospitalized for COVID-19 has remained fairly flat albeit historically low for the past several weeks, according to state Department of Health figures. Meanwhile, more infectious variants of the virus are spreading in parts of the country and appear to also affect the unvaccinated far more severely than the initial version of the virus that gripped the state last year. The height of whatever future spike in cases Louisiana will experience largely depends on the number of people who are vaccinated when cases begin to rise, as they typically do with any virus, said Dr. Catherine ONeal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge. This strain is more contagious, more deadly and its spreading among younger people at a faster rate, she said. I would not be lulled into a sense of security over last years statistics because they will not mirror this years surge. That could spell trouble at a time in which loosened restrictions have allowed the state to approach a sense of normalcy even as COVID-19 vaccination rates have stayed stubbornly sluggish and below the national average. In fact, Louisiana has the nations third-lowest vaccination rate among adults at about 44% a rate thats ahead of only Alabama and Mississippi, according to state and federal figures. It's a contrast to some states that have vaccinated close to 70% of their adults. In some parishes, less than 20% of residents have had one dose of the vaccine. I dont like to be low on the rankings, but what pains me more is its reflective of people who have not protected themselves and might get sick for what is now a vaccine-preventable illness, said Dr. Joseph Kanter, the state health officer. He added that there really are only two ways to stamp out infections: reverting to mitigation measures or getting more people to roll up their sleeves. "I think most people would prefer the latter," Kanter said. A sizable drop in deaths and the number of people needing to go to the hospital in the past few months has, however, been an encouraging sign that vaccines are helping to blunt the worst effects of COVID-19. Available vaccines have also proven to be highly effective at keeping people from becoming seriously sick, even from known variants. According to an analysis of state Department of Health data, at least 132 people died from complications from COVID-19 in May the lowest tally in any prior month. For scale: The agency logged nearly 1,900 deaths during the most deadly months of the pandemic in March and April 2020, when Louisiana became an early epicenter for viral spread. Vaccine data show deep gap between nursing home residents and those who care for them Residents in Louisiana nursing homes are vaccinated against COVID-19 at nearly twice the rate of care center staff, according to newly release About half of Louisianas fatal coronavirus cases at that time came from nursing homes. The viruss effects were especially lethal in those settings because residents live in close quarters and are more likely to have severe and life-threatening COVID-19 symptoms due to older age and underlying health problems. Cases and deaths within nursing homes have dropped significantly since the beginning of the year, and nearly 80% of long-term care residents are vaccinated, state figures show. Observers have said the high vaccination rate in nursing homes could be a glimpse of what a fully inoculated society may look like. 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 Despite lower turnout for other age groups particularly young adults nearly 80% of Louisianans 70 and older are fully vaccinated, which mirrors the nations rate for that age group, according to state and federal data. Of the more than 10,000 people believed to have died from COVID-19 in Louisiana, more than 7,100, or 67%, were age 70 and older, a grim statistic driven mainly by nursing home residents. But that gap appears to be closing with middle-aged adults who are vaccinated at lower rates. ONeal said all of the Lakes current COVID-19 patients werent vaccinated, and the regional health system has continued to see younger patients, children and a scary amount of 40-year-olds. I would caution anyone to think that because elderly people are vaccinated that thats OK because elderly people were most at risk, she said, noting how variants may affect people this year. In attempting to encourage vaccinations for patients, some doctors say they've run into roadblocks in recent weeks. Dr. Stephen Brierre, who chairs critical pulmonary care at Baton Rouge General Medical Center, said an increasing number of his unvaccinated patients arent even interested in talking about the shots. You can feel how polarized they are against it, he said. Its almost as if a defensive shield comes up immediately. Its a contrast from a few months ago when he saw more wary patients open up about their concerns, ask questions and ultimately decide to get the shots. Many of those patients who've declined vaccines also tend to be middle-aged, which is particularly worrisome because that demographic tends to be more out and about by going to jobs, eating at restaurants and attending social gatherings and other events. If we did have a variant creep into the country for which the vaccine efficacy was lower and youre looking at a population thats less likely to be socially distanced, then you can imagine a scenario where we could be dealing with another surge, Brierre said. State leaders have recently sought to entice the unvaccinated by offering incentives like free admissions into state parks and free drinks at certain bars and restaurants. Other states have floated similar carrots in the form of lotteries and cash prizes. But likely a more effective path to encourage vaccinations is getting people whove gotten the vaccine to share their experiences with family and friends. Were clearly in this new phase. Now its about making people who are hesitant or have concerns feel comfortable, Kanter said. Thats something in which the government is not going to be the main player. After a man died by apparent suicide while detained at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, a local advocacy group is again calling for accountability from public officials as the jail death rate remains well above the national average. Saul Diaz, 40, of Baton Rouge, died early morning Thursday after two recent visits to see medical staff for suspected alcohol withdrawal, according to Casey Rayborn Hicks with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. His cause of death has not yet been officially determined. Diaz had been arrested and booked into the jail on Sunday for unauthorized entry of an inhabited home, simple criminal damage to property, disturbing the peace and intoxication. His bond was set at $15,000. Members of the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition, long vocal critics of the jail medical program and advocates for more oversight of the facility, held a press conference Saturday morning to recognize Diaz as the 47th person to die in custody at the facility since 2012 a number significantly higher than the national average for jail deaths. According to a recently released study from Loyola University in New Orleans on jail and prison deaths in Louisiana between 2015 and 2019, East Baton Rouge Parish Prison also leads the state in parish jail deaths. "[This was a] pretrial man who belonged to his family, who belonged to the community, who literally was booked into this facility on Sunday and did not walk out on Wednesday," said Rev. Alexis Anderson, a member of the organization. "We come to you today because this cannot stand." Coalition members demanded the removal of CorrectHealth, the embattled private company in charge of jail medical care, which is already facing several lawsuits after inmate deaths. They also sought more robust mental health services and suicide prevention policies. City officials announced their decision last year to solicit new contract proposals for the jail medical program. That process is now underway and could result in CorrectHealth being removed in the near future. Baton Rouge jail staff failed to prevent inmate suicide despite numerous red flags, lawsuit says When Shaheed Claiborne was booked into jail last January after trying to break into a Baton Rouge detox center, law enforcement officials agre 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 their 2015 to 2019 study, Loyola researchers found that more suicides occurred at parish jails than at state facilities, and the majority of suicides in all Louisiana detention facilities were the result of hanging. Coalition members were particularly critical of Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, arguing that they have made their requests known to the current administration for years without seeing substantial changes. "We are calling out the administration," said Sherie Thomas, a member of the group. "We are no longer making requests. We will not continue to sit and let the blood be on our hands." Latest inmate death at Baton Rouge jail comes as officials weigh new health care contract News that an inmate of the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison died last weekend came at a pivotal time for the private company in charge of prison Mark Armstrong, a spokesman for the mayor's office, said Diaz's death is "very tragic," and that the administration has "been concerned and responsive to the calls for better medical care." "We've worked very hard to make important improvements at the prison in regards to medical care, with prison reform advocates involved in this process," he said. The coalition also demanded a compliance officer be instated and that death reports wrap up in 30 days and given to bereaved families. CorrectHealth officials have previously said they complete thorough investigations whenever an inmate dies, but the company has repeatedly refused to release the findings of such probes. "We will not have somebody die and their death be treated like some incidental event," Anderson said. "Mr. Diaz was a human being with a family and a life. He was not convicted from anything because they took his life before he even got his day in court." With first Louisiana location now open, Eleanor Health brings compassionate, whole-person care for addiction and mental health to Baton Rouge Housing costs have drawn level with health as the biggest worry for people in NSW as soaring property prices stoke fears about affordability. The Ipsos Issues Monitor, which asks a representative sample of NSW adults to identify the three most important issues facing the state, shows housing now ranks the equal top concern alongside health. Craig Storkey at home in Mount Annan. Credit:Edwina Pickles After the onset of the pandemic last year healthcare, the economy and unemployment were the communitys biggest concerns. But since property prices began to take off late last year housing has climbed back up the states worry list. House prices in Sydney rose 3.5 per cent last month, one of the biggest monthly gains since the late 1980s, CoreLogic figures show. The median house price in the city reached a record $1.186 million. An Australian Electoral Commission spokesman said terminals in AEC offices provide public access to the electoral roll. However, a limitation imposed by the Electoral Act means the right to publicly inspect the roll does not include the right to copy or record by electronic means any part of the roll. As noted to users on the public access terminals themselves, they are provided to the public for the purpose of monitoring the accuracy of the electoral roll for the conduct of elections, he said. He said there had been no recent inquiries or complaints regarding the matter. Members of Parliament and political parties also have access to the electoral roll for mail-outs. Loading Police in Queensland confirmed they were looking at the letters after they had been referred further correspondence allegedly authored by a G Church. The content of this correspondence is currently being reviewed. It is not appropriate to provide any further comment as this is an operational matter, a spokesman said. In 2015, Queensland Police dropped an investigation into the letters, saying no offence had been identified. While the original letters investigated in 2015 mostly contained anti-Muslim content, the most recent letters from Mr Church oppose giving a voice to Indigenous Australians in Parliament, describing it as racial gerrymandering, apartheid and smashing the national unity. Paula Matthewson, a political writer who worked as a media advisor to John Howard while he was prime minister, received a letter mid-last year from G Church, just after she had moved house. It wasnt so much the content ... but it was that someone had my address, she said. My apartment number as well as my address. The specific nature of it was what sort of confronted me. I live in a secure building so its fine but if I didnt then I would have been a lot more alarmed that this clearly very agitated and passionate person had taken umbrage with something I had written and now knew where I lived. I was quite surprised ... how did I end up in this persons sights to the extent they went to the trouble of finding me? Loading She did not report the letter to police but has remained concerned about how the writer obtained her address. In the end, she threw out the letter, but it continues to make her uneasy. Even being in a security protected building, I was very alert for a period of time afterwards and every now and then when going to the post box I think about it. The Age is also aware of several people in Melbourne who have received the letters in recent weeks. A Melbourne resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, first received a letter in 2017. They then received another last week, despite having moved homes since receiving the first letter. What unnerves me about this is that this person identifies particular people of interest through their online or media presentations and then accesses personal information, the recipient said. The manifesto is quite odd I do not feel personally threatened by the content, but the fact that it is addressed to my personal residence is concerning. The recipient said the latest letter included the original material sent the first time, but with additional content about Indigenous Australians having the right to their own voice and self-determination. I think its really odd [he] can track us, find our personal address and send information to our homes. Im not worried about my safety but there is potentially a cyber breach happening somewhere where this person is able to access personal information. I think thats a problem. In 2015, more than two dozen people said they had received the unwanted propaganda, including a top economists wife, former election candidates, community activists and even those with no public profile. Victoria Police said it was aware that letters had been sent to Victorian addresses by this person previously, but had not received any reports related to more recent instances. A man who died after falling from a cliff while bushwalking in a remote part of the Blue Mountains on Saturday has been remembered as a good person who brought joy to his fellow hikers. The 60-year-old died after plunging five metres onto a ledge as he was attempting to scramble up a section of rock on a remote trail at Blue Drum Creek, about 20 kilometres south of Wentworth Falls. The tragedy occurred about 2.20pm but it took police and paramedics more than 24 hours to recover his body due to the remoteness of the area. Experienced bushwalker Alan Chan, who was leading the group of eight hikers, said he was very sad about the incident. He was a very good person. He always brought joy to us, Mr Chan said. The announcement of this years Queens Birthday Honours is an opportunity for Australians to acknowledge and celebrate those among us whose actions have helped to make our nation and its communities better. For the 947 people who have been recognised in the general division of the Order of Australia awards, Monday will be a highlight of their lives a moment to savour and cherish, a reward for sacrifice and hard work. For Australians broadly, the list of recipients and their achievements is a reminder that not only are we capable of great things but that the actions of individuals at all levels of society can make a difference. Governor-General David Hurley. Credit:Getty Images. The list also offers a reminder of the value of community and the critical roles of our health professionals at a time when we have been tested by the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. The addition to the awards of a COVID-19 Honour Roll is welcomed. Appropriately, it is the community category that is by far the most heavily acknowledged in the general division of the awards. Its 396 recipients make up 41.8 per cent of those honoured. These are the volunteers, the coaches, the carers who are the heartbeat of their communities. The crowd waits anxiously for the Beatles to appear at the Melbourne Town Hall in 1964. Credit:The Age Archives Hospitals reported the injured, none of whom was admitted, mainly suffered from faints, bruised ribs and hysteria. Police estimate 250,000 people welcomed the Beatles at the airport, along the route and in the city. Barriers Down As the crowd waited for the Beatles to appear on the hotel balcony overlooking Exhibition Street: Barricades to keep clear a section of the street in front of the hotel were swept away. Girls fainted but were carried along upright in the crush. Police on horseback and on foot were sometimes powerless to halt the human tide. Numerous fights broke out but lasted only seconds. One slightly built girl began hitting a man over the head with her stiletto shoe when he blocked her view. Some fans climbed on top of ears; others scaled trees in the centre of the street. One tell 10 feet into the crowd when the branch of a tree snapped. Fans wait outside the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne to catch a glimpse of The Beatles. Credit:The Age Archives The Beatles, who had come from Melbourne Airport in a closed car, entered the hotel by a staff entrance in Little Collins Street. Their welcome at the airport, by a crowd of 5000, was comparatively quiet. Many of their young fans in Exhibition Street had been walling for hours. When the Beatles appeared eventually on the hotel balcony, cheering and chanting rose to a crescendo. The Beatles joked and laughed with the crowd for several minutes. At one stage, they gave mock Nazi salutes because the scene must have reminded them- as it reminded many onlookersof a Hitler youth rally. When the Beatles went inside the hotel, the crowd soon dispersed. All Right Inspector L M. Patter-son, of Russell Street, who was in charge of police operations, said that despite the casualties things went all right. The Beatles at their Melbourne press conference, Southern Cross Hotel. Credit:Laurie Richards It was hectic for everyone concerned from the airport into the city, but there were no bad incidents and no ill feeling either way. he said. Inspector Patterson said more than 25 police cars and 300 policemen were used to supervise the crowds. During the big crush the lounge room floor of the Australian-American Club was like a battlefield strewn with bodies. Crushing, foot and leg injuries and hysteria cases were laid out on blankets and carpets all over the floor and propped up in arm chairs lining the walls. Steady Flow They were brought in two entrances in a steady stream some on stretchers borne by police and ambulance-men, some supported by friends, others carried bodily. Many were unconscious when brought in, while others sobbed in pain, or were hysterical with emotion. Girls outnumbered boys by 10 to one in the casualty room. First casualty was Marilyn Arthur, 14, of Nathalia, who screamed so hard at the earlier airport arrival of drummer Ringo Starr that she burst a blood vessel in her throat. Loading At the Southern Cross welcome to the Beatles, unconscious people were passed over the heads of the crowd to get them to safety. One policeman who had been on the job for three hours before the Beatles arrived described it as the second battle of Flanders. They pushed forward 20-ft. taking the barriers with them. We muttered all our strength and pushed them back 15 feet. Then the whole thing started all over again. It was frightening, chaotic and all rather inhuman. Airport Contrast By contrast, the airport arrivals of Ringo Starr and the main groupfor which greatest fears were heldwere almost uneventful. One of the tour organisers, unaware of the Southern Cross crush, said: It looks as though our public appeals for fans to keep away from the airport have been successful. Five thousand teenagers were simply in good voice when the airliner carrying Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and stand-in drummer Jimmy Nichol touched down from Adelaide at 3.15 p.m. The group alighted from the plane, waved to their screaming idolisers and swiftly completed two circuits of a special reserve for Beatle fans in an open truck. Loading The earlier arrival of drummer Ringo Starr and the groups manager, Mr. Brian Epstein, was at least livelier. Ringo, whose departure was delayed by a severe bout of tonsillitis and laryngitis, left London on Friday and arrived at Melbourne airport at 9.55 a.m. yesterday. More than 2000 fans some of whom had been camped there since early on Fridaylined the wire mesh fence of a special reception area. Frenzied squealing began when his airliner came into sight, and reached a crescendo that drowned even the sound of aircraft motors when the mop-haired drummer stepped onto the passenger gangplank. Having panic attacks before work and taking stress leave to deal with soaring levels of anxiety has become common for workers at one of Perths major hospitals dealing with chronic staffing shortages. Employees at Fiona Stanley Hospital sounded the alarm about the burnout and the risks understaffing posed to patient safety in March, including the above claims, but say they have been ignored. Morale at Fiona Stanley Hospital has plummeted. Credit:Peter Bennetts / Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration It comes days after WAtoday reported staff morale at metropolitan hospitals had reached a new low, with doctors and nurses feeling so overwhelmed they were turning down shifts. In the March letter penned to hospital executives, a letter staff say has not been properly addressed three months later, one midwife at the facility reported extreme levels of stress and anxiety among staff, compromising the care they provided to mothers and newborns. Carbis Bay: Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia wont sign a rushed trade agreement with Boris Johnson unless its the right deal, as both leaders prepare to thrash out the final terms over a lavish Downing Street dinner. The new post-Brexit economic pact is due to be settled this week during Morrisons five-day tour of Britain but a dispute over tariffs and quotas for agricultural goods still needs to be resolved. Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson greets Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during an official welcome at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Credit:AP This deal is important, of course it is, Morrison said during the G7 summit being hosted by Johnson in Cornwall. But Im patient for the right deal not any deal. And its important, I think, for both countries that we get the right deal. And so Ill be patient for that. Carbis Bay: A split has opened up between the United States and Britain over whether a lab leak was responsible for the coronavirus pandemic, as world leaders rebuke China for its campaign of economic coercion against Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said no nation in the G7 would have accepted any of the 14 grievances China listed against Australia last November in a dossier revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. US President Joe Biden during a news conference at the G7 summit on Sunday. Credit:AP There is not a country that would sit around that table that would seek a concession on any of those 14 points as something they also would tolerate. So I think you just set out very clearly that there are differences in world view here and they may never be able to be resolved, Morrison said at a press conference. Morrison raised the dossier of grievances with leaders at the meeting saying it wouldnt be of any surprise to European countries which have similar experiences. Carbis Bay: Growing tensions between Britain and the European Union threatened to overshadow the G7 summits conclusion on Sunday, with London accusing France of offensive remarks over Northern Ireland. Ever since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the two sides have been trying to work out how to deal for frictionless post-Brexit trade, but the British provinces land border with the EU member Ireland has been problematic. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets French President Emmanuel Macron during the G7 summit. Credit:Getty Images Ultimately, the talks keep coming back to the delicate patchwork of history, nationalism, religion and geography that intertwine in Northern Ireland, but the latest spat over the Brexit divorce deal is centred on sausages. During talks with Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit, British Prime Minister Johnson queried how the French President would react if Toulouse sausages could not be sold in Paris markets, echoing Londons accusation that the EU is preventing sales of British chilled meats in Northern Ireland. Washington: While shopping for prescription glasses in Des Moines, Iowa, last year, Shane Wayne Michael was approached by a patron and asked whats become a familiar question during the coronavirus pandemic: Can you pull your mask over your nose? But Michael, whose nose was exposed, did not take kindly to the question in November, according to a criminal complaint. What happened next, police say, was a carp park fight in which Michael allegedly attacked Mark Dennings eyes and genitals. Denning told authorities that Michael then pulled down his mask and began to cough and spit in his face. If I have it, you have it! said Michael, referring to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to the complaint. Weeks after the Iowa man was convicted of willful injury causing serious injury, Michael, 42, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for the violent attack stemming from the mask dispute. Michaels sentence is among the sternest yet in the US related to an argument over face coverings since the start of the pandemic. The sentencing comes amid a continuing flurry of incidents and arrests at places like banks and polling places over masks. Airlines have seen an unprecedented rise in unruly passenger behaviour, with the Federal Aviation Administration saying that a large majority of its incident reports this year have involved people who would not comply with the federal mandate to wear a face covering. A maskless Florida woman was recently sentenced to 30 days in jail for purposely coughing on a customer at a Pier 1 store last year. A Family Dollar security guard in Flint, Michigan, was fatally shot last month, authorities said, after telling a customer that her child had to wear a face covering to enter the store. Up for debate: Live legislation tracker Check out the latest developments on bills pending before state lawmakers in four key topics. Instant unlimited access to all of our E-Editions and content on thechronicleonline.com. The Chronicle E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street! This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers. (The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement) This is the temporary subscription pass for users returning from the Vision Data subscription process. Your subscription will be updated within 24 hours, after your information is verified. Please click the button below to get your pass. FILE - This Thursday May 20, 2021, file photo, shows New York City mayoral candidate Maya Wiley, as she campaigns and meets with health care workers outside New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in New York. Candidates in New York City's heavily contested Democratic mayoral primary urged people to go to the polls in the coming days as early voting kicked off today. Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org. Click the image to the left and log in to get your exclusive reader perks. A man kneels to pray in front of seats cordoned off with caution tape due to the CCP virus at the International Church of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on May 31, 2020. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) 2 Nevada Counties Go Constitutional Elected commissioners in two Nevada counties declared that the Bill of Rights will be upheld in their jurisdictions, even if it means standing against unconstitutional acts by state and federal authorities. According to a resolution approved in Elko County on June 2, abuse of the constitutionally protected rights of citizens in Elko and Lander counties will be dealt with as criminal activity. Officials in Lander County approved a similar effort. Under the leadership of constitutionally minded sheriffs and elected commissioners, the two rural counties in Nevada have decided to become constitutional counties, where the rights of citizens will be protected from all attacks. That means local authorities intend to uphold the entire Bill of Rights in those jurisdictions, and that even federal and state officials must comply with the U.S. Constitution when there, they said. As part of the effort to become a constitutional county, the two county governments also became the first in the country to officially join the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). The national organization, made up of sheriffs and other law enforcement officials dedicated to upholding their oaths of office to the U.S. Constitution and their state constitutions, has been training sheriffs about their constitutional role for years. Countless law enforcement officers from across America are individual members. But before 2021, no county government had ever requested to join as a county, and CSPOA didnt even have that available as a membership option. Now there are two that joined in the last month. Sheriff Mack Speaks The people of these counties and their elected officials have had it up to here with unconstitutional dictates and mandates, retired Sheriff Richard Mack, the founder and chief of CSPOA, told The Epoch Times. Under the measure, county officials, including sheriffs and deputies, are strictly bound by their oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and protect the rights of constituentseven if that means defying what they view as unconstitutional orders, mandates, decrees, or statutes from state or federal authorities. The two rural counties in question both overwhelmingly approved the decisions to become official members of CSPOA and warn officials from every level of government to abide by the oath of office. The leadership of Elko County is an example to all Nevada and the entire country that tyranny will no longer be acceptable, Mack said. He also noted that elected officials in these counties understand they have a duty to protect the liberties of their people against anyone who may seek to undermine them. For years, Mack has traveled the country educating sheriffs and communities on what he claims is their duty to protect the constitutionally guaranteed liberties of their constituents from efforts to undermine themeven from federal and state governments. He said that having locally elected officials tell federal and state authorities that the Bill of Rights will be upheld in their jurisdictions helps protect the God-given freedoms that each citizen was born with. This is the peaceful and effective solution millions of Americans have been praying for to take back America county by county and state by state, Mack said. These public officials are actually doing something that has been lost in political correctness for a very long time; they are courageously keeping their oaths of office to uphold, defend, and preserve the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Nevada. God bless Elko County. Mack has challenged the federal government on constitutional matters himself, famously winning a Supreme Court case against the Clinton administration while still serving as a sheriff. In his landmark 1997 lawsuit against federal gun-control programs, the Supreme Court delivered a major win for proponents of the U.S. Constitutions 10th Amendment, which reserves all powers not delegated to the U.S. government for the states or the people. Constitutional scholars have argued that the case was among the most important Supreme Court rulings protecting states rights. Under what has come to be known as the Constitutions anti-commandeering doctrine, the high courts opinion in Printz v. United States also reiterated that sheriffs arent bound to help enforce federal statutes or regulations. The Elko County Resolution The resolution adopted by Elko County included language indicating that county officials will protect the rights of all citizens within their jurisdiction, even if it means going against federal or state authorities. The people of these United States are, and have a right to be, free and independent, and these rights are derived from the Law of Nature and natures God, the resolution states, echoing the language of Americas Founders in the Declaration of Independence. As such, they must be free from infringements on the right to keep and bear arms, unreasonable searches and seizures, capricious detainments, and every other natural right whether enumerated or not, pursuant to the 9th Amendment. The document, approved unanimously by the Elko County Board of Commissioners, also reaffirms the U.S. Constitutions 10th Amendment protecting states from the federal usurpation of unauthorized powers. Next, the resolution notes that no federal agency can create policies that supersede the Constitution and that the executive branch of government isnt authorized to make law under Americas system of government. The document then goes on to list a variety of abuses that will not be tolerated. At the top of the list are orders infringing on the rights to freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and other liberties guaranteed in the U.S. Constitutions First Amendment. Other acts that wont be tolerated include efforts to register firearms, gun confiscation, violations of privacy or property rights without a warrant, and detainment or arrest without following constitutional procedures. Commissioner Behind the Effort Speaks Out Speaking to The Epoch Times, Elko County Commissioner Rex Steninger, who proposed the resolution, called on counties across the United States to take similar actions in defense of the Constitution. We need a majority of counties in all the freedom-loving states to join, Steninger said after his resolution passed unanimously last week. Right now, the Swamp controls our federal government and our nation is in decline, he said. Citing Mack, the Elko County commissioner argued that the only way to take our country back is to do it county by county, sheriff by sheriff. My advice to other Americans is that they had better wake up and fight back or we will lose our wonderful country, Steninger said. We are slipping quickly from the Republic of our founding into a dictatorship. Becoming a constitutional county and joining the CSPOA is one way local authorities can resist the escalating abuses, he said. I feel joining the CSPOA was needed to signal to our leaders up the ladder that we are tired of their unconstitutional orders and we are not going to obediently follow them anymore, Steninger said. According to Steninger, the public has been overwhelmingly supportive of the countys move. At a meeting last week, the commissioners voted to set up a fund so citizens could voluntarily pay for a patriotic celebration of the effort on June 20. They quickly collected more than what was needed. That tells me the citizens of Elko County are eager for some resistance, he said. Leaders of Lander County, which approved a similar move last month, have also been receiving a positive response from citizens. All but one of its commissioners voted to join CSPOA and become a constitutional county as well. In the end, Steninger and other local officials argue that the Constitution must be protected, starting at the local level. The Constitution is the framework of our Republic, he said. It is what enabled us to rise from a fledgling collection of immigrants into the most powerful nation on Earth in just 150 years a historical blink of the eye. It was the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution that allowed our citizens to flourish and excel. Every elected official swears an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as well as the constitution of his or her state. But the pandemic has really illustrated how far we have fallen, Steninger said in a public speech supporting the initiative, pointing to what he views as government attacks against even the most basic freedoms. The First Amendment guarantees the right to freely exercise ones religion and peacefully assembleamong the most fundamental rights protected in the Constitution. Yet governors across the nation told us we could not leave our houses or gather with our friends, Steninger said. They told us to close our churches and avoid celebrations for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And most of us obeyed. The Fifth Amendment says we shall not be deprived of our property without the due process of law, he said. But the governors ordered us to close our businesses and most obeyed. That was a mistake, in Steningers estimation. We should not have obeyed, said the commissioner, who is reaching out to other elected officials across the state and encouraging them to follow Elko Countys lead. We should have revolted. Adopting this resolution and joining the CSPOA is a first step in reclaiming our Republic and the God-given rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Just the Beginning? Sheriffs from across Nevada were at the rally held in Lander County in support of becoming constitutional counties. As the word spreads and citizens across the United States get involved, these two counties are likely just the beginning, Mack told The Epoch Times. CSPOA Operations Manager Sam Bushman, who worked closely with the county officials on the effort, emphasized to The Epoch Times that this is a citizens push and partnership with all public officials. Its important to remember that without the people, these efforts would be for naught, he said. This is a peaceful stand for the rule of law. Its accountability for allincluding and especially those who work for the people and take an oath. Bushman said he was already working with other elected officials on the issue. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolaks office didnt respond to requests for comment by press time. Marine Corps Sgt. Andrew Biggio (L), the author of "The Rifle: Combat Stories from Americas Last WWII Veterans, Told Through an M1 Garand," poses with a WWII veteran. (TheWWIIRifle.com) Cherishing the Memories of Americas Last WWII Veterans Commentary After Andrew Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand rifle, he brought it over to show his neighbor, World War II veteran Corp. Joseph Drago. When Drago held the rifle in his hands, his eyes lit up. The frail, elderly man was suddenly overcome with a burst of energy and began talking about the Battle of Okinawa. The rifle had unlocked memories that Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. When Drago was done speaking, Biggio, a veteran himself who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, asked his neighbor to sign the rifle. The young Marine always wanted to remember those precious hours. Thus began Biggios mission to find as many World War II veterans as possible, record their stories, and collect their signatures on his rifle. This two-year mission led Biggio on a journey across the United States, to every corner of the country. He found soldiers from each theater, each service branchhe wanted to represent the whole war on his rifle. The result of all this was a new book, The Rifle: Combat Stories from Americas Last WWII Veterans, Told Through an M1 Garand, which came out earlier this month. Biggios work is a treasure trove of memories and wisdom from some of our nations last living veterans of historys costliest war. Their stories are raw, honest, inspiring, and heartbreaking. I was fortunate enough to interview Biggio on the latest episode of my podcast, Newts World, and hear some of these stories. Biggio, a police officer, is also the founder of the Boston Wounded Vet Ride, which raises money for wounded veterans. Whats so striking about these veterans is that they were just regular Americansordinary men thrown into an extraordinary time, as Biggio phrased it. Many of them went on to become police officers, firemen, doctors, teachers, lawyers. But they are all genuine heroes, as were those who died fighting for their country. Indeed, that 19-year-old worker at a refrigerator factory in Kentucky who died storming the beaches of Normandy, and that 25-year-old highway laborer from Pennsylvania who was killed in Iwo Jima, did more for the American people than anyone serving in government today could ever hope to do. They saved Western civilization, plain and simple. We are all forever in their debtand therefore owe it to the members of the greatest generation to ensure their legacies live on. This is why Biggios project is so important: Today, a tiny sliver of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive. And, sadly, they are dying quickly. It is our sacred duty as a nation to document and cherish their memories. We can all learn from their insight and experiences, just as Biggio did, and transmit their values to future generations of Americans. From Gingrich360.com. Newt Gingrich, a Republican, served as House speaker from 1995 to 1999 and ran as a presidential candidate in 2012. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. AstraZeneca Shots Should Be Halted for Over-60s Too: EU Official MILAN, ItalyCountries should also avoid giving the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people over 60, the head of the EU drug regulators COVID-19 task force was quoted on Sunday as saying, amid fears over rare blood clotting and as more vaccines become available. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) considers the AstraZeneca shot safe for all age groups. However several European Union member states have stopped administering it to people below a certain age, usually ranging from 50 to 65, restricting its use to the older population, due to the rare cases of blood clotting, mainly among young people. In a pandemic context, our position was and is that the risk-benefit ratio remains favorable for all age groups, COVID-19 task force chief Marco Cavaleri told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. However, as the number of COVID-19 cases is falling and taking into account that the younger population is less exposed to COVID-19 related risks, Cavaleri said it would be better to use on them COVID-19 vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, such as Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. Asked whether health authorities should avoid giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 60, Cavaleri said, Yes, and many countries, such as France and Germany, are considering it in the light of greater availability of mRNA vaccines. The Italian government said on Friday it would restrict the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 60, after a teenager who had received the shot died from a rare form of blood clotting. Like many European countries, Italy briefly halted AstraZeneca inoculations in March over concerns about the rare blood clotting problems. It resumed them the following month with the recommendation that the product be preferably used for people over the age of 60, after the EMA said its benefits outweighed any risks. By Elvira Pollina (L-R) Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President of the European Council Charles Michel, US President Joe Biden, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italy's Prime minister Mario Draghi, France's President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel pose for the family photo at the start of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall on June 11, 2021. (Leon Neal/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Australian Prime Ministers G7 Pitch for World Order Favouring Freedom Commentary Before jetting off to the G7, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the USAsia Centre in Perth on June 9. His address entitled A world order that favours freedom is an ambitious attempt at demonstrating that liberal democracies work considering that, in many countries, freedom is an elusive or vanishing goal. Nevertheless, the prime minister confirmed that, Our challenge is nothing less than to reinforce, renovate, and buttress a world order that favours freedom. This is the message that Morrison will bring to the Cornwall G7 (Group of Seven) meeting of advanced liberal democracies, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States. Australia, for the third year in a row, has been invited to participate, along with South Korea, South Africa, and India. Morrison repeatedly referred to Australia as a liberal democracy. This is somewhat surprising, considering Australia is inexorably entering a dangerous illiberal period in its existence. Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivers a keynote address during a luncheon at the Perth USAsia Centre on June 9, 2021 in Perth, Australia. (Matt Jelonek/Getty Images) Australian governments, whether they be state or federal, have been surrendering to the illiberal demands of progressive interests in society. They have condoned the introduction of social engineering laws, for example anti-vilification legislation, and created safe-access zones around abortion clinics, thereby limiting freedom of movement and the peaceful expression of views. There are many laws and practices that demonise freedom of religion, while free movement has been decisively curtailed in this COVID era. This has, in turn, resulted in greater surveillance and violations of privacy rights. Hence, the prime ministers confident assertion that Australia is a liberal democracy does come across as vacuous in some respects. The address, however, is not important for what it says but is interesting for what it omits. Specifically, although the prime minister confirmed that Australias interests lie in the Indo-Pacific, he did not directly discuss the nations tenuous relationship with the Peoples Republic of China. Nevertheless, a close reading of the speech reveals obvious hints towards Beijings increasing belligerence in the region. Morrison firstly acknowledges that the global trading system and rules-based order is under serious strain and threat. He also asserts that Australia will be an advocate for a free and fair rules-based system for international trade founded on open markets. The prime minister is pushing for reform to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), while acknowledging its flaws, and regards the organisation as the most practical way to address economic coercion. The World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva on April 12, 2018. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images) Specifically, he is pushing for the appellate body of the WTO to be up and running again at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in November this year. The WTOs dispute resolution mechanism is found in the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). In the event of a dispute, a member state has the right to request a consultation at the WTO. The opposing member state then must reply within 10 days and begin consultations in good faith within 30 days. If consultations fail, the member state may ask for the establishment of a panel, where a report and ruling will be handed down. An appeal against the decision is available in Article 17.1 of the DSU, which allows for a standing appellate body to be setup. The appellate body, however, has not had the required number of members to hear appeals since 2019. Morrisons reference to a rules-based international order and a reliable and effective dispute resolution mechanism is undoubtedly a reference to ongoing proceedings, launched in December last year, with China over tariffs that were implemented on Australias barley exports. Former Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said at the time, Whilst Australia respects Chinas right, as with any nation, to undertake domestic investigations into anti-dumping matters, we do not agree with Chinas decision to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley. Consultations stalled in January this year, with Australia requesting a panel be established in March. A report is now due, which could be appealed to the appellate body. The Australian prime ministers comments on repairing the WTOs appellate body system have merit. Indeed, one of the weaknesses of the appellate body lies in its limitation to only deal with issues that have been covered in the panel report and legal interpretations developed by the panel. A further weakness is that non-state entities (private companies etc.) do not participate directly in the WTO dispute process and have no enforceable right to compel their government to file a complain on their behalf. Another notable aspect of Morrisons speech is that he does not mention directly Beijings geopolitical ambitions, notably its incursions in the South China Sea, its extinguishment of the civil rights of Hong Kong residents, or its retaliation to Australias push to establish an independent expert committee to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. A health worker prepares to inoculate the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine to Chinese nationals living in Sri Lanka in Colombo on April 6, 2021. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images) The closest the prime minister comes to identifying China is his statement that the escalation of great power strategic competition potentially threatens Australian security and prosperity. He says, Rapid military modernisation, tension over territorial claims, heightened economic coercion, undermining of international law, including the law of the sea, through to enhanced disinformation, foreign interference and cyber threats, enabled by new and emerging technologies. The speech did receive some criticism from the State Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan, who said Morrison needed to be more careful in speaking about China and that Beijing is simply acting in its best interest. This comment, however, is largely self-serving due to Western Australias heavy reliance on China as an export market for its mining industry. The most contentious statement in the prime ministers speech is his insistence that liberal democracies work. I would argue that getting Australias house in orderby spending more time nurturing the rights to freedom domesticallyis just as critical an objective, if not more manageable, for the prime minister. Gabriel A. Moens AM is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Queensland, and has served as Dean of Law and Pro Vice-Chancellor at Murdoch University. He is also the Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of the International Trade and Business Law Review and has taught extensively across Europe, Asia, and North America. He is the author of short stories and a novel on the origins of the COVID-19 virus, A Twisted Choice (Boolarong Press, 2020). Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. China is one of a number of countries that are systematically buying up or leasing large tracts of arable land overseas. (Martin Hunter/Getty Images) Ban CCP Land Ownership in the USA: A New Bill From Texas Commentary Dont mess with Texas. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican who represents the 21st Congressional District, which includes parts of Austin and San Antonio, is taking on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in a big, Texan way. Roy proposes to ban CCP members from purchasing land in the United States. Its a short, sweet, and brilliantly cutting edge bill that should be voted into law ASAP. This two-page bill has a potent engine of a single sentence: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall take such actions as may be necessary to prohibit the purchase of public or private real estate located in the United States by members of the Chinese Communist Party. Roys press release to accompany the bill pulls no punches. In their quest for global domination, China has been buying up land and strategic infrastructure all over the world and in the United States, it reads. Direct Chinese investment in the U.S. economy is a major threat to the American way of life and requires that we take serious action to thwart the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from ever seizing control of strategically valuable domestic assets in the U.S. The bill is called the Securing Americas Land from Foreign Interference Act. According to a statement from the congressman: Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that foreign investors control nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland, roughly the size of Ohio. Texas has the second-highest amount of foreign ownership with 3 million acres under foreign control. The release notes that a China-based energy company bought more than 130,000 acres in Texas, near an Air Force base, and is now attempting to build a wind farm to access the U.S. power grid. Roys office notes that China is the second-largest foreign owner of land in Australia, including an Australian island that is now off-limits to Australian residents. China leased an airport in Australia for 100 years, and now, China owns the airspace and Australian citizens cant land in their own country without approval from the Chinese government. The Chinese consulate in Perth, Australia, on March 24, 2014. (Will Russell/Getty Images) Kyle Bass, the billionaire Texan who has long criticized the CCP and shorted currencies from China and Hong Kong, supports the bill. He wrote in an email: The Communist Party of China exploits every nook and cranny of our open society to achieve their goal of primacy over the U.S. Allowing strategic purchases of land and improvements by CPC members here in the United States presents clear and present dangers to U.S. national security. Bass has asked a series of tough questions related to the ownership of land by CCP members. How many purchases have proximity to U.S. military bases? How many direct connections to the U.S. power grid do they already have control over? How many of these purchases are on farms where they are stealing valuable genetic seeds to ship back to the mainland? Why have we allowed a Chinese company to acquire one of the largest poultry producers in America? He appealed to the principle of reciprocity, supported by the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) last November, with respect to land sales to CCP members. China doesnt allow former U.S. military officers to acquire 200 square miles of land between an active Chinese military base and their border with Taiwan so why should the U.S. allow such strategic purchases by Chinese nationals? he said. In April, Bass gave testimony to the Texas Senate on the issue of CCP ownership of land in Texas, specifically, the ownership by Guanghui Group America (GH America Investments Group Inc.) and its leader, former Chinese Peoples Liberation Army officer Sun Guangxin, of multiple Texas land (at least 10 Texas ranches) and business holdings (spanning at least 130,000 acres and including Blue Hills Wind Farm in Val Verde County). Bass noted in his testimony: GH America, Sun Guangxin, and Guanghui Group are closely connected to the Chinese military and the Communist Party of China. Sun is a former member of the 8th, 9th, and 11th sessions of the Xinjiang Chinese Peoples Consultative Conference (CPPCC). SUN maintains close and positive relations with current and former Communist Party leadership. These relationships are likely the key to his business success in China. Guanghui Groups website emphasizes the conglomerates determination in supporting Communist Party of Chinas leadership, as well as prioritizing Party-building amongst its employees. As of 2018, Guanghui Group operated 40 internal Communist Party committees, 227 local grassroots CPC branches, and employed more than 6,000 Communist Party of China members. it appears that Guanghui Group is much more embedded in the Communist Party-State apparatus than most other private sector businesses. Sun and his GH America are the types of entities that would be targeted by Roys CCP land bill. But there are a couple of arguments that detractors will throw against the bill. First, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) already reviews some land purchases by Chinese nationals (including CCP members). So CFIUS can cancel any sales that have national security implications. CCP investment in non-strategic land, say in the middle of Nowheresville, United States, provides an economic hostage of sorts. For example, if the U.S. government needs to confiscate CCP property in the United States as compensation for economic damages from COVID-19, it would be useful to have CCP property in the United States available for the taking. The more property the CCP keeps in the United States, the less willing it should be to risk expropriation of that property by harming America. However, given the magnitude of damages owed by China, which are at least $19 trillion globally, the quantity of land that the CCP is purchasing is too negligible to make a difference. But it could make a difference if strategically located, or it provides a foothold for political influence, espionage, or elite capture. The second major argument against the bill is that it will remind detractors of alien land laws of the late 19th century, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the Immigration Act of 1790, amended in 1875, along with other such laws. Many argue that these laws were racist. For example, one law of 1923 targeted the land ownership of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent. A 1921 law in Washington that targeted the Japanese went to the Supreme Court, was upheld, and caused diplomatic tension with Japan. Some laws focused on new Asian immigrants, but not new Scandinavian immigrants. These types of argument, however, can conflate patriotic support for American democracy and anti-communism with racism, or reject the sovereign right of a nation to control immigration. They typically fail to account for the growing military, economic, and diplomatic power of 21st-century China, or its totalitarian characteristics under the rule of the CCP. The China of today is not the China of the 19th century, nor is it the Japan of the 1920s. Today, China is communist, territorially aggressive, promoting its political influence globally, and threatening elite capture in nations small and large. The CCP today enables the destruction of political, cultural, and linguistic diversity on a domestic and global level, including through its genocide against the Uyghurs. The CCP leads that genocide. The bill proposed by Roy, therefore, is the right bill for 2021. But it will need a lot more support to become law. Bass noted, For the bill to be powerful, I believe it needs Democratic sponsors and Republican sponsors alike. Thats exactly right. Three representatives who have done the right thing to introduce the bill with Roy are Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), and Randy Weber (R-Texas). Where are the Democrats? Where is the Republican leadership? At the very least, where is the rhetorical support for reciprocity with China on the issue of land ownership? Americas failure to act decisively against the threat of the CCP, if such indecision continues, will be its own undoing. Roys bill is decisive. Its a corrective. With the introduction of this bill, hes putting the heat on not only the CCP, but other members of Congress. Who is going to step up to the plate, buck the naysayers, and do the right thing to cosponsor this bill? How much longer will American politicians of both parties allow China to walk all over us? Anders Corr has a bachelors/masters in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored The Concentration of Power (forthcoming in 2021) and No Trespassing, and edited Great Powers, Grand Strategies. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Beijings Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law Puts Global Businesses in Further Bind Commentary Foreign companies doing business in China will soon find their operating environment littered with economic roadblocks because of a series of new anti-foreign sanctions rules that Chinas legislature rushed to pass on June 10. The new rules were introduced as countermeasures against foreign nations enacting sanctions on Beijing. This development may put foreign organizations and individuals enforcing their home countries sanctions against China in a tough position going forward. The new law expands the Chinese regimes toolkit to fight back against sanctions and can be used in conjunction with the existing Unreliable Entities List of companies it created last year. The measures are extensive and give the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) broad powers to sanction organizations and individuals complying with sanctions against China. So, what exactly can it do? The CCP could deny visas for, deport, and restrict travel for affected entities, seize properties they have within China, block business or personal transactions, put pressure on the targets family members and associates, and any other necessary measures deemed appropriate by the regime. Basically, the law allows the CCP to do anything it wants under the pretense of combating discriminatory foreign sanctions. Immense Pressure The CCP rushed the legislationit gave hints that this was coming merely days priorduring the 29th session of the 13th National Peoples Congress, without the usual period of public consultation. Beijing has been increasingly dismayed by recent escalating pressure from the United States and its allies. The international community has stepped up criticism of the CCPs human rights abuses against Uyghur minorities and Falun Gong practitioners and its suppression of political freedoms in Hong Kong. Several actions were taken during the past few years, including Canadas house arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, international retailers boycott of Xinjiang-harvested cotton, U.S. sanctions and trade restrictions affecting Chinese state-linked companies, and the EU putting on ice its trade and investment pact with Beijing, all of which were viewed by the CCP as measures to contain and suppress a rising China. Foreign Companies to Be Marginalized The CCPs new retaliatory sanctions laws broad language makes it unprecedented in scope compared to historical sanctions enacted by other countries. As a result, foreign companies could easily find themselves with a target on their backs. Beijing could retaliate against companies or individuals complying with legal sanctions from their home countries. AmCham China Chairman Greg Gilligan summarizes it well. This new law presents potentially irreconcilable compliance problems for foreign companies, he told Bloomberg News in an interview. For example, imagine an international bank complying with President Joe Bidens updated executive order to affirm the Trump administration policy of restricting the purchase of stock in certain Chinese companies with military links by refusing to buy those companies stock in its Asia emerging markets fund. In this scenario, the CCP could punish the bank by forcing Chinese companies to cancel all their business with the bank. Beijing could go as far as seizing property or assets owned by the bank in China. If the bank is one of the major U.S. investment banks such as JPMorgan, which recently took full ownership of its China subsidiary, the CCP could seize its Chinese business entirely. Take fast-fashion retailer H&M as another example. H&M earlier this year was caught in a firestorm in China for its earlier statements condemning forced labor in Chinas Xinjiang region. With the new law, the CCP can go much further than inciting social media users to boycott H&M in China. The CCP can outright shut down H&Ms stores in China or permanently ban it from operating in the country. While these are hyperbolic examples and I dont expect the CCP to resort to such measures casually, these measures are now available to the CCP under the new law. For foreign investors and investors in multinational corporations with a presence in China, this law is a compliance nightmare and severely increases operational risk in China. Corporate CEOs could be facing a dilemma with few viable solutions. Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on June 11 told reporters in Beijing, in one of the most obtuse statements of the week, that the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law is a net positive for foreign investment in China. China will only open its door wider to the world and remain committed to fostering a better business environment for foreign companies, Wang said. Ironically, if the law is carried out, China will automatically be forcing foreign companies to decouple from China. Fan Yu is an expert in finance and economics and has contributed analyses on Chinas economy since 2015. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Tracy Stone-Manning listens during a confirmation hearing for her to be the director of the Bureau of Land Management, during a hearing of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington on June 8, 2021. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo) Biden Bureau of Land Management Nominee Tracy Stone-Manning Was Involved in Eco-Terrorism Case, Resulted in College Roommates Conviction, Prison Sentence, Court Records Show President Joe Bidens nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, received legal immunity to testify in a 1993 criminal trial, court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show. The trial resulted in a 17 month prison sentence for tree spiking, a violent tactic used to prevent logging. Stone-Manning testified that she sent an anonymous and threatening letter to the Forest Service in 1989 on behalf of John P. Blount, who she identified as her former roommate and a member of her circle of friends, court documents show. The letter warned that a local forest in Idaho set to be logged had been sabotaged with tree spikes, according to the documents. P.S. You bastards go in there anyway and a lot of people could get hurt, the letter stated. Tree spiking, which The Washington Post and other news outlets have described as an eco-terrorism tactic, is a form of sabotage in which metal spikes are nailed into trees to make them unsafe to log. If gone unnoticed, tree spikes can cause serious injuries for workers. A 23-year-old mill worker in California, for example, had his jaw cut in half in 1987 when his saw exploded upon striking an unnoticed tree spike, The Washington Post reported. Stone-Manning told local media outlets at the time of the trial she waited until 1993 to inform federal authorities of her role in sending the letter because she was scared Blount would threaten her life. She also said she has always denounced tree spiking. If confirmed as Bidens BLM director, Stone-Manning would oversee 245 million acres of public lands, equivalent to about 12 percent of the U.S. landmass. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Sen. John Barrasso told the DCNF that Stone-Mannings involvement in the tree-spiking incident should disqualify her from serving in the position. Tracy Stone-Manning collaborated with eco-terrorists, Barrasso said. She worked with extreme environmental activists who spiked trees, threatening the lives and livelihoods of loggers. While she was given immunity from prosecution to testify against her companions in court, her actions were disgraceful, the Wyoming Republican told the DCNF. The anonymous letter Stone-Manning said she sent on Blounts behalf stated that a total of five hundred pounds of spikes measuring 8 to 10 inches in length were unloaded in a local forest to prevent an upcoming logging sale, court records show. The sales were marked so that no workers would be injured and so that you assholes know they are spiked, the letter stated. I would be more than willing to pay you a dollar for the sale, but you would have to find me first and that would be your WORST nightmare. The anonymous letter Tracy Stone-Manning told a federal court she sent to the Forest Service in 1989 on behalf of John Blount. Stone-Manning testified that she was somewhat shocked by the contents of the letter Blount asked her to send but decided to mail it to the Forest Service after thinking it over for a night, court records show. I wanted people to know those trees were spiked, she testified. I didnt want anybody getting hurt as a result of trees being spiked. Stone-Manning testified that she retyped the letter word-for-word, but also said she removed profanity. But before Stone-Manning sent the letter, she testified that she retyped it from a rented typewriter because she didnt want it on my personal computer. She also began to explain because my fingerprints, before a defense attorney cut her off. Stone-Manning told the Missourian in June 1993 that she retyped the letter because my fingerprints were all over the original and I was scared. What I really feel, though, is that I reported a crime, although anonymously, she added. The federal jury found Blount guilty of spiking trees. He was sentenced to 17 months in prison. Stone-Manning has provided differing accounts to the media and lawmakers of her involvement in the case in the years since her testimony. Stone-Manning informed the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee in writing in May that she has never been the target of any federal criminal investigation. However, she disclosed to the committee that she testified before a federal grand jury in 1989 as part of an investigation into an alleged tree-spiking incident, and later testified in a trial that resulted in the conviction of a responsible individual according to written testimony obtained by the DCNF. Stone-Manning did not disclose to the Senate committee that, according to reporting at the time by the Missoulian, she told reporters she could have been charged with conspiracy in the matter had U.S. prosecutors not granted her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. She also didnt disclose that, according to the Missoulian, prosecutors investigating the matter subpoenaed her in 1989 and required her to give handwriting and hair samples to a federal grand jury. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Breitsmater wrote in a pre-trial memo that the individuals who were subpoenaed in 1989 were believed to be involved in the spiking. Breitsmater added that the individuals were subpoenaed as part of a criminal investigation, but the evidence collected at the time was not sufficient enough to identify the individuals responsible for the tree spiking. Stone-Manning told the Casper Star-Tribune in May 1993 that Blount had a shotgun in his possession and had threatened to kill anyone who spoke to authorities about the tree spiking. Stone-Manning said Blount left the state shortly after law enforcement officials launched their investigation in 1989. Also in May 1993, Stone-Manning told the Missoulian newspaper that upon reading news of Blounts arrest, she felt safe enough to inform federal authorities that she mailed the letter to the Forest Service on Blounts behalf. Once he was in jail, I was safe, she told the Missoulian. It was time to come forward. It was my responsibility. The Missoulian also reported: Stone-Manning said she could have been charged with conspiracy because she mailed the letter for Blount, were it not for her agreement with the U.S. attorney. The outlet reported that U.S. Attorney Maurice Ellsworth sent a letter to Stone-Mannings lawyer stating she will be granted use immunity for the statements which she makes to the degree that it may incriminate her. Stone-Manning offered a different version of events in 2013 after then-Montana Gov. Steve Bullock nominated her to serve as the director of the states Department of Environmental Quality. The Missoulian reported in 2013 that Stone-Manning said Blounts ex-girlfriend unsolicitedly contacted her in 1993 and said Blount was soon to be released from jail due to an unrelated domestic abuse matter. She told Stone-Manning that she wanted him to stay imprisoned and that Stone-Mannings testimony in the tree spiking incident would keep him behind bars. She knew everything about the tree-spiking story and she knew if she told everything that could keep him in jail, Stone-Manning said in 2013, according to the Missoulian. She asked if I would testify, and I said yes, and he went to jail. Neither version of events presented by Stone-Manning align completely with the timeline presented in Breitsmaters pre-trial memo. Breitsmater wrote that Blounts ex-girlfriend contacted a Forest Service agent in December 1992 and told the agent that Blount was responsible for the 1989 tree spiking incident. She also said that Stone-Manning was the individual who mailed the threatening letter, according to the memo. Neither BLM nor the White House immediately returned requests for comment. The National Wildlife Federation, where Stone-Manning served as a senior advisor for prior to her nomination, did not immediately return a request for comment. From The Daily Caller News Foundation By Andrew Kerr President Joe Biden speaks about the May jobs report at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, in Rehoboth Beach, Del., on June 4, 2021. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Biden: Putin Right That US-Russian Relations Are at Lowest Point in Recent Years President Joe Biden said he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putins assessment that U.S.-Russia relations are at a low point. Let me make it clear I think hes right its a low point, and it depends on how he responds to acting consistent with international norms, which in many cases he has not, Biden told reporters at the conclusion of a Group of Seven (G-7) leaders meeting in the UK. The president was referring to a comment made by Putin last week to NBC News where he said, We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years. Biden said the United States will not try to facilitate a conflict with Russia, saying that the two nations can try to reach agreements on certain, key issues. We are looking to resolve those actions which we think are inconsistent with international norms, number one. Number two, where we can work together, we may be able to do that in terms of some strategic doctrine that may be able to be worked together, were ready to do it. There may be other areas. There is even talk there may be the ability to work together on climate, Biden told reporters Sunday. In recent months, the United States has slapped sanctions on Moscow over its alleged role in the SolarWinds cyberattack that affected multiple federal agencies as well as Russias alleged interference in recent U.S. elections. Biden also responded to ABC News George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton administration staffer, in March when he asked if he thinks Putin is a killer. Biden replied, I do. During his NBC News interview last week, Putin said Bidens comment is not something I worry about in the least. Over my tenure, Ive gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext and reasons and of different caliber and fierceness and none of it surprises me, Putin said. Next week, the president is slated to hold a meeting with Putin. The two leaders, however, will not attend a press conference together, a move that Biden defended. This is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other, Biden said oon Sunday. Its about making myself very clear what the conditions are to get a better relationship with Russia. In 2018, Trump appeared alongside Putin during a news conference that was criticized by mainstream news outlets, coming in the backdrop of allegations that the former president colluded with the Kremlin to win the presidency in 2016, which Trump has long decried as a witch hunt. It was later found, however, that Trumps campaign didnt conspire with Putin, according to an investigation from former special counsel Robert Mueller. Biden added to reporters: I dont want to get into being diverted by did they shake hands, how far did they, who talked the most and the rest. Now he can say what he said the meeting was about and I will say what I think the meeting was about. Thats how Im going to handle it. The two leaders are slated to meet on June 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. (L) President Joe Biden waits to speak as he visits the Sportrock Climbing Centers in Alexandria, Va., on May 28, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) (R) Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with members of the Council of Legislators of the Federal Assembly, at the Tauride Palace, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on April 27, 2021. (Alexei Danichev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) Biden Reveals Why He Wont Hold a Joint Press Conference With Putin President Joe Biden revealed on June 13 why he decided to avoid a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Switzerland next week. I always found, and I dont mean to suggest the press should not know, but this is not a contest about who can do better in front of a press conference or try to embarrass each other, Biden told reporters at a press conference at the Cornwall Airport Newquay in England. Its about making myself very clear what the conditions are to get a better relationship are with Russia. In 2018, when President Donald Trump met with Putin in person and held a joint news conference, corporate media outlets launched attacks against Trump and suggested the joint appearance meant the two had a cozy relationship. It came amid then-special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into whether Trumps campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Mueller, after a 22-month investigation, ultimately turned up insufficient evidence to support the allegations. I think the best way to deal with this is for he and I to meet, he and I to have our discussion. I know you dont doubt that Ill be very straightforward with him about our concerns, and I will make clear my view of how that meeting turned out and hell make clear from his perspective how it turned out, Biden said. Biden then seemed to make reference to the possibility that the meeting would trigger rampant speculation from the press. I dont want to get into being diverted by, did they shake hands, who talked the most, and the rest, he said. During the Group of Seven (G-7) summit on June 13, the president said he would raise concerns during his meeting with Putin. Leaders of the G-7 pose for a group photo overlooking the beach at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, on June 11, 2021. (Patrick Semansky/Pool/AP Photo) We are not looking for conflict. We are looking to resolve those actions which we think are inconsistent with international norms, number one, Biden said. Number two, where we can work together. We may be able to do that in terms of some strategic doctrine that may be able to be worked together. Were ready to do it. When asked about whether he believes that U.S.Russia relations are at a low pointsomething Putin had said in recent daysBiden agreed. I think hes right, its at a low point, he said. It depends on how he responds to acting consistent with international norms, which in many cases he has not. But Biden said the poor relationship was the fault of Russia, and again alleged that Moscow engaged in malign behavior during U.S. elections, as well as cyberattacks against American infrastructure and industries. Biden also claimed, without providing details, that Putin was directly responsible for an unspecified cyberattack. I checked it out. I had access to all the intelligence. He was engaged in those activitiesI can respond to that, Biden told reporters on June 13. This is not a contest about who can do better in a press conference, embarrass each other. Its about making myself very clear what the conditions of our relationship are. The White House placed new sanctions on Russia following the sweeping SolarWinds breach and for alleged interference during the 2020 election. The FBI said that Russia-based groups were behind the SolarWinds cyberattack, which affected several federal agencies. Biden said in a March interview with ABC News that he agreed with the claim that Putin is a killer, which prompted criticism from Russian officials. Putin in an interview with NBC last week brushed off the comments. Putin, according to a Russian-to-English translation, attempted to tie Bidens remarks in March to some deep things in Hollywood and macho behavior that can be treated as cinematic. So, as far as harsh rhetoric, I think that this is an expression of overall U.S. culture, Putin said. But that is part of U.S. political culture, where its considered normal. By the way, not here [in Russia]. It is not considered normal here. The Department of Defense authorized $150 million in defense aid to Ukraine on June 11, amid renewed tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over the Donbas region. Earlier this year, there were large military movements of Russian troops and armor toward the eastern Ukraine border and into Crimea, sparking fears of a wider war, although in April the Kremlin signaled that it would attempt to deescalate tensions by withdrawing some of its forces. Can You Spot the Camouflaged Leopard Blending Perfectly Into This Rocky Hillside Scene? A photographer in India managed to capture on camera an elusive leopard showing off its impressive ability to camouflage on a rocky hillside. Abhinav Garg, 34, had no idea hed managed to capture the leopard in his shots on June 5, until after hed gotten home. Hed waited hours for a sighting after locals told him about the leopard while he was visiting the Aravali Hills in Jaipur in western Rajasthan. Heres one of the photos that Abhinav took; can you spot the leopard in the rocky hillside scenery? Abhinav Garg, 34, unknowingly snapped photos of a leopard in the Aravali Hills in western Rajasthan, India. (Caters News) It was really the best camouflaged animal I had seen in my life, the amateur photographer from New Delhi said. Abhinav, a web engineer by trade, was on a visit to a temple when locals told him about a leopard sighting. It was lovely weather on a Saturday evening and we reached the temple around 5pm, the photographer added. This temple is surrounded by Aravali Hills and temple priest told us many stories of leopard sightings. While returning from the temple few villagers were discussing about leopard sitting on the rock in hills opposite the temple. Excited, he placed his camera facing the rocky patch on the hill, but much to his dismay, he couldnt spot the leopard after waiting for several hours. It was only after he transferred the photographs onto his computer that he realized the leopard was in the pictures. The well-camouflaged leopards location is revealed here. (Caters News) We also tried to see the leopard but we could not spot it despite waiting for some time, Abhinav added. We decided to leave as it was getting dark and I clicked some random shots of hills without sighting leopard. After returning home, I transferred all pictures on my laptop and started zoom in them. To my utter surprise, I found a leopard resting on rock which was not visible from naked eyes earlier. I had not seen a leopard before and I was really excited to spot it. Here is another shot of the hillside; try and locate the leopard hiding in this landscape. Another photo of the leopard, hidden in the rocky landscape. (Caters News) The leopard is right here. The hidden leopards location revealed. (Caters News) Need a closer look? A detail of the photo confirms the leopards presence. (Caters News) 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 A policeman at the U.S. embassy in Beijing following a blast near the premises on July 26, 2018. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images) Chinas New Counter-Sanctions Risk Spiralling Into Economic Decoupling Commentary The Chinese regime just enacted a broad extraterritorial law against anyone who aids in sanctions against China, including Chinese nationals and Chinas private companies. Chinas new counter-sanctions, announced June 11, include the ability to seek compensation from foreign companies doing business in China. They are leveled at discrimination against Chinese nationals, and could apply against organizations, which is such broad wording as to include not only companies, but also governments. The law is broad enough to underpin sanctions against immigration or science restrictions on Chinese nationals who seek to emigrate or study science abroad. Given the likely persistence of democratic sanctions against China, its new laws will make it increasingly difficult for foreign companies to do business in the country, which will increase pressures for wealthy democracies to decouple from China, and will force other countries to decide between doing business with China, or doing business with an alliance of democracies, including the United States, European Union, Japan, and perhaps India if it takes a stand with democratic allies rather than following a policy of non-alignment. Most other countries, based on their trade interests with the larger economic bloc, will likely cleave to the democratic bloc if forced to make a choice. Even disregarding normative preferences for assisting democracies against Chinas totalitarian government, the continuation of business with China will not be in company interests if China threatens them for following laws in the rest of the world, when the rest of the world reasonably sanctions China for its human rights abuse. Chinas Peoples Liberation Army soldiers march next to the entrance to the Forbidden City during the opening ceremony of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference in Beijing on May 21, 2020. A report analyzed the dependency of five democratic countries on China and recommended decoupling from the increasingly belligerent Asian nation. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images) Chinas GDP is just 20 percent of the combined GDP of the United States, Europe, and Japan, making it too economically weak to attempt counter-sanctions of the magnitude it has just enacted. The country is likely subject to dictatorial hubris and information failures, which would explain its outrageously aggressive, and self-defeating, behavior. Notwithstanding, such an irrational and unethical state is still highly dangerous to the international system and rules-based democratic norms. The case of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who enacted sanctions against China in March on the Hong Kong issue, illustrates the new laws. According to the South China Morning Post editorial board, The targeting of China over the response to social unrest in Hong Kong gave [the counter-sanction law] more urgency. The law could extend to what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is calling Belt and Road countries, as if they were some colonial possession. Beijing has been discussing the latest step for some time, even before the US increasingly targeted China with sanctions, according to the Post. There was a need to come up with an effective response to sanctions on development partners in the Belt and Road Initiative. Chinas new law provides the basis to counter-sanction Blinken and any companies that hire him into leadership positions in the future. For example, if Boeing or Apple is looking for a new CEO or C-level adviser, they might hesitate to employ Blinken after he leaves office because this could be grounds for China to then sanction these companies, which do billions of dollars of business in China every year. Knowing this, Blinken might soften his approach to China while in office in order to avoid personal sanctions that affect his future job prospects. Blinken has, for example, cooperated in the past with Asia Society, a New York-based nonprofit that for years paid former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd approximately $1 million per year. Asia Society has a Hong Kong chapter, which per the new law would be subject to secondary sanctions were Rudd subject to primary counter-sanctions for taking a tough stand on China when he was prime minister. Given that Blinken likely knows that Asia Society has deep pockets for former politicians, and that a $1 million job wouldnt work out if he took a tough stand against China while in office, he might prefer softer State Department policies. On Jan. 21, the day after Joe Bidens inauguration as president, China sanctioned 28 U.S. officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for seriously violating Chinas sovereignty. Pompeo had just declared that abuse of the Uyghurs by China amounted to genocide. Dont expect Asia Society to hire Pompeo for $1 million a year anytime soon. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 27, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Blinken agreed with Pompeos assessment during his confirmation hearings, again making him a likely target for Chinas counter-sanctions. While the threat of counter-sanctions may lead to subtle changes in U.S. law and policy, they are unlikely to radically change its direction given Chinas recognized genocide and increasing military tensions. Sanctions and counter-sanctions will continue in the U.S.China relationship over the next years as Beijing perceives a weak Biden presidency that can be pushed around, and the Biden administration pushes back forcefully in order to prove itself as a tough-on-China contender for the 2024 elections. Commentators expect Beijings new law to pressure some U.S. corporations, which seek to avoid increasing risk, out of China. Others believe that the law will encourage U.S. corporations to lobby their own officials to moderate U.S. policies regarding Beijing. This is already happening, according to my sources and reports. The Post predicts as much with respect to the new law. Once aware of a serious legal risk, [foreign companies] may feel enough pressure to be prompted by self-interest to lobby their own governments on Chinas behalf, according to its editorial board. That would be China using its economic power to affect the laws and policies of democracies globally. The CCP is pushing against attempts to hold China accountable for its genocide, abrogation of the Hong Kong treaty with Britain, and abundant other human rights abuse and territorial aggressions. A new cold war is upon us, creating a chill against United States, European, Japanese, and allied business in China. The erosion of this business will over time further increase political tension, in a downward spiral, that increases the likelihood of broad economic decoupling and military conflict with China. Anders Corr has a bachelors/masters in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored The Concentration of Power (forthcoming in 2021) and No Trespassing, and edited Great Powers, Grand Strategies. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Delta Airlines aircraft are lined up at Terminal 5 in Los Angeles International Airport on Dec. 21, 2016. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS) Delta Jet Makes Emergency Landing as Passengers, Crew Detain Unruly Man By Shaddi Abusaid From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ATLANTAA Delta Air Lines flight bound for Atlanta had to make an emergency landing Friday evening when an unruly passenger attacked two flight attendants and threatened to bring down the plane, authorities said. The incident occurred on Flight 1730, which took off from Los Angeles but had to be diverted to Oklahoma City, Delta confirmed Saturday morning. Oklahoma City police said a man became unruly, made terroristic threats and assaulted two flight attendants near the front of the plane. Crew members asked passengers for help, and several people detained the man with the help of an off-duty pilot, an agency spokesman said. One passenger said the man attempted to open the cabin door midflight, but a Delta spokesman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that was not the case. Police said the man exhibited signs of mental health issues. He was taken to an Oklahoma City hospital when the plane landed and questioned by the FBI, police said. Oklahoma City police initially intended to charge the passenger with assault and battery, but confirmed Saturday afternoon that the case has been turned over to the FBI. Thanks to the crew and passengers of Delta Flight 1730 (LAX to ATL) who assisted in detaining an unruly passenger as the flight diverted to Oklahoma City (OKC), the company said Saturday in an emailed statement. The aircraft landed without incident and the passenger was removed by law enforcement. We apologize to our customers for the delay and any additional inconvenience this caused. Police searched the plane after it landed in Oklahoma City but found no issues, authorities said. The delayed flight was eventually allowed to continue to Atlanta, where it landed early Saturday morning. 2021 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. Then-President Donald Trump introduces Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a homecoming campaign rally at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., on Nov. 26, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Florida Gov. DeSantis Responds to Speculation He Will Join Trump in 2024 Bid Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says hes had no discussion with former President Donald Trump or anyone else about being the former presidents running mate for a 2024 presidential bid. There has been speculation that DeSantisa Republican who has developed national prominence for his policies targeting critical race theory, lockdowns, and vaccine passportscould potentially run for president in 2024 or join Trump if he decides to run again. I havent had any discussions with anybody about anything beyond what we are doing now because, you know, we are putting a lot of points on the board, and we are really going on offense, moving the ball forward, DeSantis told Fox News Sunday Morning Features on June 13 when asked about whether he has had discussions with Trump. DeSantis then attempted to downplay the 2024 speculation and focused on his own state. I have a great state, a big state, he said. Weve got a lot on our plates here. We take it one day at a time and try to achieve things for the people of Florida. While DeSantis hasnt made any definitive statements about running for a national office, he told a crowd in May that he has only begun to fight. The governor has also been embarking on a fundraising campaign with GOP donors across several states. During several interviews in recent months, Trump has said he would consider the Florida governor as a running mate for a potential 2024 run at the presidency. There are numerous people that are great for vice president, Trump told Fox News last week. I would certainly consider Ron, he said. I was at the beginning of Ron. I was the first one to endorse him when he came out as a congressman that a lot of people didnt know and my endorsement helped him tremendously and I know him very well. Hes a great guy. Trump made a similar remark in late April by saying DeSantis would be considered as his running mate if he runs for president. However, the former commander-in-chief hasnt made any definitive statements regarding a possible 2024 bid, saying an announcement would likely come after the completion of the 2022 midterms. From a legal standpoint, I dont want to really talk about it yet. Its a little too soon, Trump said in a separate interview on April 20. I say this: I am looking at it very seriously. Beyond seriously. A recent report from Politico, which cited anonymous sources and his multi-state fundraising campaign schedule, suggested DeSantis has been heavily fundraising for his reelection efforts as Florida governor but is also working to create a national donor network for a possible 2024 bid. I just felt he was a perfect fit to come into Kentucky, especially with the group that we had, GOP donor Kelly Craft said in the report. A lot of the folks have places in Florida, and the reception was amazing. This is a guy who has a national name, but at the same time is focused on Floridians. President Joe Biden takes part in a press conference on the final day of the G-7 summit at Cornwall Airport Newquay, near Newquay, Cornwall, on June 13, 2021. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) G-7 Leaders to Take On Beijings Debt Trap Diplomacy Leaders of the worlds seven richest nations on June 13 agreed to counter Beijings growing influence in developing countries through its controversial development program, the Belt and Road Initiative, which has left many poor nations with heavy debt loads. The advanced economies pledged to provide a democratic alternative to Chinas ambitious program to address the infrastructure gap in poor countries, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Following a three-day summit in Cornwall, England, Group of Seven (G-7) leaders issued a communique that recognized the significant infrastructure needs across low and middle income countries. Reflecting our shared values and shared vision, we will aim for a step change in our approach to infrastructure financing, notably on quality infrastructure and investment, to strengthen partnerships with developing countries and help meet their infrastructure needs, the communique states. The new initiative, called Build Back Better World, or B3W, will help finance bridges, ports, roads, and other infrastructure projects in developing countries. It will apply transparent, open, economically efficient, fair, and competitive standards for lending and procurement. It also will mobilize private sector capital and expertise. The objective is to help meet the more than $40 trillion infrastructure need in the developing world, according to President Joe Biden. The point is that whats happening is that China has this Belt and Road Initiative, and we think that theres a much more equitable way to provide for the needs of countries around the world, Biden said on June 13 at a press conference after the conclusion of the summit. Since its launch in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) has poured billions of dollars into emerging countries to help build massive infrastructure projects. The initiative, however, has been perceived as a debt trap, raising the risk of economic distress in borrower countries through unsustainable loan levels and opaque contracts. The G-7 initiative will be good for the entire world and represent values that our democracies represent, and not autocratic lack of values, Biden said. The G-7 leaders agreed to put together a committee that will work on the details of the global infrastructure initiative, Biden said. The plan is to fund development projects in four key areasclimate, health, digital technology, and gender equity. The G-7 countries also reiterated calls for supporting the poorest nations as they continue to face significant debt crises. These countries face inequality in terms of access to credit markets and have growing fiscal deficits. Since the start of the pandemic, both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been urging the worlds 20 wealthiest economies (G-20), including China, to provide temporary suspension of debt service payments to the worlds poorest countries to avert a debt crisis. Low-income countries will need roughly $200 billion to combat the pandemic and $250 billion in investment spending for the next four years, according to the summit communique that cited the IMFs estimates. China is the worlds largest creditor, accounting for almost 65 percent of official bilateral debt. While China and other countries agreed to provide debt relief for countries that are in financial distress, Beijings opaque lending practices complicate these relief efforts. We support fair and open lending practices, and call on all creditors to adhere to these, the communique stated. Most BRI projects are financed mainly through a wide range of Chinese local government and state-controlled institutions. A study led by AidData, a U.S. research lab at the College of William and Mary, showed that Chinas loan contracts with emerging countries have uncommon secrecy provisions, collateral arrangements, and debt renegotiation restrictions. The researchers analyzed the legal terms of 100 Chinese loan contracts to 24 developing countries, many of which have participated in the BRI. They conducted an in-depth review over a 36-month period and found that Chinas loan contracts contained unusual confidentiality clauses that prevented borrowing countries from disclosing the terms or sometimes even the existence of the loan contracts. The study also found that contracts contained provisions that placed Chinese state-owned lenders as senior creditors whose loans should be repaid on a priority basis. Informal collateral arrangements put Chinese creditors at the top of the repayment line. In addition, Chinese lenders were given the freedom to terminate loans or accelerate repayment if they disagree with a borrower nations policies. Chinas debt-trap diplomacy also has allowed Beijing to expand its human rights abuses. Theres an increase in harassment of Chinese dissidents abroad. China also has been using its economic and political influence to silence critics in developing countries. The BRI encompasses 139 countries, including China. These countries account for 40 percent of the global economy and 63 percent of the worlds population, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. A general view of G7 leaders and their guests is pictured at a working sesssion during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK, on June 12, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) G-7 Rebukes Chinese Regime Over Human Rights, Demands COVID-19 Origins Investigation Group of Seven (G-7) leaders called out the Chinese regime on June 13 over its human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, vowed to counter Beijings unfair trade practices, and demanded a thorough investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. After discussing how to come up with a unified position on China, leaders of the worlds wealthiest democracies issued a highly critical communique that delved into a range of concerns targeting the communist regimes behavior domestically and abroad. We will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms, and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the G-7 said. Global pushback against Beijings aggression has risen recently, and President Joe Biden has pledged to rally allies to confront the regimes economic abuses and push back against human rights violations. Speaking after the summit in England, Biden said leaders agreed to a proposal to finance infrastructure projects in the developing world that would counter Beijings Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road project has been criticized as a form of debt trap diplomacy that saddles developing nations with unsustainable debt levels, while bolstering Beijings political and economic clout in those countries. We think there is a more equitable way to provide for the needs of countries around the world, Biden said. The president also called on the regime to abide by global rules. China needs to start to act more responsibly in terms of international norms and human rights and transparency, Biden said. He demanded Beijing provide access to its labs so the world can probe the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the possibility that it was the result of an experiment gone awry. The world needs to have access, Biden said. The G-7 called for a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study including, as recommended by the experts report, in China. Before the criticism emerged, China pointedly cautioned G-7 leaders that the days when small groups of countries decided the fate of the world were long gone. The G-7 also said they underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues. We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions, they said. The communique further highlighted concern about forced labor in global supply chains, including in the agricultural, solar, and garment sectors. These industries are the main supply chains of concern in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, a White House fact sheet noted. The Chinese regime has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of camps in the region. Inhabitants and detainees have been subject to torture, political indoctrination, forced sterilization, forced labor, and mass surveillance under Beijings sweeping crackdown. Many Western fashion brands, tech companies, and other international businesses have come under growing pressure to prove their supply chains arent tainted by forced labor from Xinjiang. Leaders agreed on the importance of upholding human rights and of international labor standards, and committed to protect individuals from forced labor, the White House said in a fact sheet. Reuters contributed to this report. Helping or Hurting the Homeless; Andy Ngo Determined Despite Antifa Attacks Homelessness is a growing problem, not only in major cities but in smaller ones too. But why? We take a deep dive into the topic looking at one reason, a policy called Housing First. (1:01) In our first panel, former St. Johns shelter CEO Michele Steeb explains Housing First from the first-hand experience and from writing her new book, Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic. Brenda Gilchrist describes how the policy affected her community of Santa Rosa, California. And Chris Keys from the Redwood Gospel Mission in Santa Rosa describes how Housing First just doesnt work. (13:20) In our second panel, we hear from two women who made it off the streets. For Jennifer Reyes and Adrianna Granlund, Housing First didnt help them, so what did? (48:48) In America Q&A, we see how comfortable people are with giving COVID vaccinations to children. (35:44) Antifa is not an ideaits a violent, extreme leftist movement, as independent journalist Andy Ngo knows all too well. He was again viciously attacked by an Antifa mob. He shares with us why he remains determined despite the obvious risks. Hong Kong Police Arrests at Least 3 on Anniversary of 2019 Anti-Extradition Protest HONG KONGHong Kong police arrested at least three protesters on the anniversary of mass protests against an extradition bill involving China in 2019 that rocked the financial hub and eventually led to Beijing introducing its national security law that has stifled dissent in the city by making anti-government speech and organizing illegal. The protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and failing to produce proof of identity, while at least 10 people were summoned for violating a ban on gatherings, police said, after protests in the Kowloon district of Mongkok and the chanting of slogans in breach of a National Security Law imposed last June. Some people blocked roads by placing rubbish bins and other objects in them, police said. The police strongly condemn protectors acts endangering public health and safety, police said in a post on Facebook shortly before midnight on Saturday. The three people arrested were male aged 15 to 19, police said. Small groups gathered on Saturday to commemorate the first major clashes between protesters and police two years ago when tens of thousands demonstrated against a proposed law for the former British colony that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to the mainland for trial. Many Hong Kong residents saw the proposed law as further erosion of the citys special status that was supposed to be guaranteed under a one country, two systems formula agreed when Britain handed it over to Chinas ruling communist party in 1997. The 2019 protests snowballed over subsequent months into a mass movement for freedom from the Chinese regime and liberal democracy, as opposed to Chinas socialist democracy, that included regular clashes between protesters and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Protesters occupy Harcourt Road the government headquarters in Admiralty, Hong Kong, on June 12, 2019. (Lin Yi/The Epoch Times) Police fired tear gas toward the protesters over 10 times near the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on June 12, 2019. (Song Bilong/The Epoch Times) Police deployed 2,000 officers around the city on Saturday, the South China Morning Post reported. Police said on the eve of the anniversary that they had arrested two people on suspicion of promoting and inciting others to join an unlawful assembly. Activist group Student Politicism said two of its leaders were arrested. There was no sign of any protests on Sunday. The Indiana Statehouse, which houses the Indiana State Supreme Court, In Indianapolis, Indiana on May 26, 2007. (Mark Goebel via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0) Indiana Court Orders Land Rover Returned, Ending Long Legal Battle Over Asset Forfeiture Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court established an important precedent by ruling in Tyson Timbss favor, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled last week that after an eight-year legal odyssey, the man is entitled to get back his vehicle after it was seized when he used it to sell illegal drugs. The case is of legal significance because the nations highest court used it to apply the Eighth Amendments ban on excessive fines to all U.S. states. In February 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Indiana Supreme Courts finding that the state was entitled to keep a white 2012 Land Rover LR2 Timbs purchased for $42,000, which was confiscated from him when he was arrested in 2013, as The Epoch Times previously reported. Timbs used the vehicle when selling a total of $385 worth of heroin to undercover police. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of house arrest and five years of probation, receiving no prison time. For good reason, the protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield throughout Anglo-American history: Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court. The legal theory behind civil asset forfeiture is that because the vehicle was used to commit a crime, it becomes an instrument of the crime and can be seized. Civil libertarians have long complained that asset forfeitures arising from criminal convictions and cases in which a person is merely suspected of a crime can be arbitrary and excessive. According to the Institute for Justice, which represented Timbs before the U.S. Supreme Court, the practice is sometimes referred to by the pejorative policing for profit. The 4-1 ruling on June 10 by the Indiana Supreme Court highlights the long, grinding process individuals face in civil asset forfeiture appeals. After the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the Indiana Supreme Court, the latter then sent the case back to the trial court, instructing it to decide anew whether taking the vehicle was unconstitutionally excessive. The trial court then ruled for Timbs and the state appealed, bringing the case a third time before the Indiana Supreme Court In her new ruling, Chief Justice Loretta Rush of the state Supreme Court compared Indianas long-running quest to retain the white vehicle to Captain Ahabs chase of the white whale Moby Dick in Herman Melvilles classic novel. The proportionality inquiry remained unresolvedthat is, was the harshness of the Land Rovers forfeiture grossly disproportionate to the gravity of Timbss dealing crime and his culpability for the vehicles misuse? Rush wrote of the cases journey as it bounced from court to court. Indiana had urged the court to wholly abandon the proportionality framework from an earlier ruling in the case, Rush wrote. The state had argued that the vehicle seizure was within bounds because it was used to commit a crime and that its value wasnt extraordinarily high, when compared with the $30,000 Timbs had spent feeding his former heroin addiction. Today, we reject the States request to overturn precedent, as there is no compelling reason to deviate from stare decisis and the law of the case; and we conclude that Timbs met his burden to show gross disproportionality, rendering the Land Rovers forfeiture unconstitutional, Rush stated in the majority opinion. The lone dissenter, Justice Mark Massa, wrote in his opinion that the forfeiture here was indeed harsh, perhaps even mildly disproportionate, given all the facts in mitigation, but not grossly so. I am skeptical that dealing in heroin can ever be a crime of minimal severity, Massa wrote. No narcotic has left a larger scar on our state and region in recent years, whether overly prescribed or purchased illicitly on the street. Institute for Justice attorney Sam Gedge hailed the ruling. As the Indiana Supreme Court correctly recognized, Indianas campaign to take Tysons car is just the sort of abusive forfeiture that the Excessive Fines Clause is designed to curtail, Gedge said in a statement. The State of Indiana has spent nearly a decade trying to confiscate a vehicle from a low-income recovering addict. No one should have to spend eight years fighting the government just to get back their car. Timbs has said his heroin addiction began after he was prescribed hydrocodone for foot pain. The office of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, didnt immediately respond to a request from The Epoch Times for comment. New Israeli Government Wins Majority Vote, Ending Netanyahu Tenure JERUSALEMBenjamin Netanyahus 12-year run as Israels prime minister ended on June 13 with parliament approving a new government of change led by Naftali Bennett. Heading into opposition, Netanyahu, 71, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, pledged he would soon return to power. In a raucous session in which Netanyahus supporters shouted shame and liar at Bennett, 49, parliament voted confidence in his new administration by a razor-thin 6059 majority. Israels designated new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, speaks during a Knesset session in Jerusalem on June 13, 2021. (Ariel Schali/AP Photo) His alliance includes for the first time in Israels history a party that represents its 21 percent Arab minority. Israels longest-serving leader, Netanyahu was prime minister since 2009, after a first term from 1996 to 1999. But he was weakened by his repeated failure to clinch victory in the polls since 2019 and by an ongoing corruption trial, in which he has denied any wrongdoing. Under a coalition deal, Bennett will be replaced as prime minister by Yair Lapid, 57, in 2023. The new government, formed after an inconclusive March 23 election, plans largely to avoid sweeping moves on hot-button international issues such as policy toward the Palestinians, and to focus on domestic reforms. Chinese Wind Farm Poses a Threat to Critical Infrastructure in Texas J. Kyle Bass testified before the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce at the 87th Session of the Texas Senate on April 19, 2021. The following is his testimony: Chairman Hancock, Vice-Chairman Nichols, my name is Kyle Bass, Chief Investment Officer of Dallas-based Hayman Capital Management and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my views on the grave security concerns I have for the State of Texas, the United States of America, and our critical infrastructure in relation to the ownership by Guanghui Group America (GH America Investments Group Inc.) and its leader, former Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Officer, Sun Guangxin, of multiple Texas land (at least 10 Texas ranches) and business holdings (spanning at least 130,000 acres and including Blue Hills Wind Farm in Val Verde County). I am a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China and have lectured at our top universities (Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, University of Texas, etc.) on the Chinese financial system and the immediate threat that the Communist Party of China (CPC) poses to the United States and the rest of the developed West. I currently sit as a Trustee of the Texas Wildlife Association Foundation and am a member of the Board of Directors of The Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation. I care deeply about the security of our state and our country. I am here in my personal capacity as a deeply concerned Texas resident and I support SB 2116 to prohibit contracts and other agreements with certain foreign-owned companies in connection with critical infrastructure in the State of Texas. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence released our Intelligence Communities Annual Threat Assessment for 2021 (pdf) of the largest threats to U.S. national security. In this report, China is listed as the single largest threat to United States national security. In the report, there is a focus on how the Chinese government and their companies intend to use cyber attacks to disrupt critical infrastructure of the United States. We assess that China presents a prolific and effective cyber-espionage threat, possesses substantial cyber-attack capabilities, and presents a growing influence threat. Chinas cyber pursuits and proliferation of related technologies increase the threats of cyber-attacks against the U.S. homeland, suppression of U.S. web content that Beijing views as threatening to its internal ideological control, and the expansion of technology-driven authoritarianism around the world. We continue to assess that China can launch cyber attacks that, at a minimum, can cause localized, temporary disruptions to critical infrastructure within the United States. FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in his July 2020 speech that China represents the greatest threat to our national security. Wray went on to say: Weve now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours. Of the nearly 5,000 active FBI counterintelligence cases currently underway across the country, almost half are related to China. And at this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions conducting essential COVID-19 research. GH America, Sun Guangxin, and Guanghui Group are closely connected to the Chinese military and the Communist Party of China. Sun is a former member of the 8th, 9th, and 11th sessions of the Xinjiang Chinese Peoples Consultative Conference (CPPCC). SUN maintains close and positive relations with current and former Communist Party leadership. These relationships are likely the key to his business success in China. Guanghui Groups website emphasizes the conglomerates determination in supporting Communist Party of Chinas leadership, as well as prioritizing Party-building amongst its employees. As of 2018, Guanghui Group operated 40 internal Communist Party committees, 227 local grassroots CPC branches, and employed more than 6,000 Communist Party of China members. Suns closest advisors, Yang Tiejun and Shang Jiquiang are also former Chinese military officers. After thorough analysis of local information sources, press, social media, and business records, it appears that Guanghui Group is much more embedded in the Communist Party-State apparatus than most other private sector businesses. Threats to Texas Critical Infrastructure (Specifically to ERCOT) The Blue Hills Wind Project in Val Verde County, Texas, is owned by Chinese-owned GH America and Sun Guangxin. Given that the Blue Hills wind turbines will be generating electricity, the project involves critical Texas infrastructure as it will plug directly into the Texas power grid. There is complete Chinese control over this project and these interconnections. This will increase the imminent threat to the Texas power grid THAT ALREADY EXISTS as a result of the current direct connections being made by yet another company associated with Sun Guangxin through his Rocksprings Val Verde Wind Farm. The risks of Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean cyber-attacks on electrical grids in the U.S. are well documented. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Offices report to Congress (pdf) titled Electric Grid Cybersecurity dated March 2021: Nations, including groups or programs sponsored or sanctioned by nation states, use cyber tools as part of their information-gathering and espionage activities. According to the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community and the 2020 Homeland Threat Assessment, China and Russia pose the greatest cyberattack threats; of particular concern, they have the ability to launch cyberattacks that could disrupt or damage critical infrastructure. To the extent that Blue Hills, Rock Springs, or any other projects that are Chinese controlled connect to control systems or requires other network access that can be linked to U.S. electrical control systems, grave cybersecurity concerns are obvious and represent a clear and present danger to Texas electric grid. Our grid here in Texas has just shown all of us exactly how fragile it can be in times of stress. Given that we in Texas dont wish to allow the U.S. Federal Government to have control over our state electric affairs, why would we ever allow malign State-sponsored actors (like China, Russia, or North Korea) to plug directly into our electric grid? It seems unconscionable to me. Proximity to Laughlin Air Force Base and the Potential to Provide Clandestine Surveillance and Collection of Sensitive Information About How Texas Monitors Its Border With Mexico Proximity of these windfarms to our largest USAF pilot training base (30 miles from Laughlin Air Force Base and only 10 miles from its restricted airspace), creates a myriad of potential illegal surveillance opportunities for the former Chinese military officer Sun Guangxin. With the Chinese owners proposed 700-ft. turbines, their ability to monitor, via line-of-sight, the Texas border, USAF planes and their pilots, and other technical surveillance capabilities will be greatly enhanced. Wind turbines also provide a quiet and undetectable power supply for hidden surveillance equipment. Something Doesnt Add Up Sun and GH Americas windfarm project in Val Verde County is their only known renewable energy project in the United States or abroad. Its reported that Sun and GH America grossly overpaid for their land purchases in the Devils River area of Val Verde County. I find it curious that the wind values in the county are amongst the lowest in the entire state of Texas. If truly economic investors (as opposed to State-sponsored actors with alternative agendas) were to strategically place a windfarm investment, Val Verde County would be amongst the last places in the State of Texas due to its poor wind values (see below). Sun Guangxins Obvious Ties to the Communist Party of Chinas Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity It has been widely reported that the Chinese Government has created concentration camps in or near the capital of the Xinjiang region of China. Upwards of three million ethnic Uyghurs have been ripped from the streets and forcibly placed into these camps. The United Kingdom has determined, through an extensive Tribunal (pdf) run by Sir Jeoffrey Nice QC, that these prisoners are having their organs harvested from their living bodies. Sun Guangxin and Guanghui Group control nearly two-thirds of the real estate market in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Some Chinese-language reports estimate that the conglomerate owns more than 50 percent of the real estate in the entire region. It is likely that given Suns deep party ties and his vast ownership of the real estate in Urumqi, that he and his company are tied to what the United States State Department has classified as Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. In closing, its important to note that I am a major supporter and investor in alternative energy companies. Im proud that Texas produces the most wind power of any state and I applaud the states efforts to promote wind and solar. The threats posed by Suns windfarms on Texas critical infrastructure are here for all of us to see in plain sight. This is not a partisan issue, its simply a clear and present danger to the state of Texas, the United States, and our critical infrastructure. I urge all of you to pass SB2116. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Medical workers and pedestrians cross an intersection outside the Houston Methodist hospital in Houston, Texas, on June 9, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Judge Dismisses Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit by Staff of Houston Hospital Editors note: An appeal was filed on June 14. Original story below. A federal judge in Texas on June 12 dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 Houston Methodist hospital employees who sought to block the hospital systems COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In a five-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes wrote that firing the employees as a result of their refusal to take the COVID-19 shots wouldnt amount to wrongful termination. Under Texas law, an employee is considered to have been wrongfully terminated if fired solely for refusing to perform an illegal act. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Hughes, a Reagan appointee, also rejected several claims from the plaintiffs under federal law, including an assertion that the employees are being forced to participate in a human trial for the vaccines since the shots are only being allowed under an emergency use authorization. The hospital, the judge wrote, isnt participating in a human trial for the vaccines. Bridges says that she is being forced to be injected with the vaccine or be fired. This is not coercion. Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus, Hughes said, referring to Jennifer Bridges, the lead plaintiff. Bridges can freely choose to accept or refuse a COVID-19 vaccine; however, if she refuses, she will simply need to work somewhere else. If a worker refuses an assignment, changed office, earlier start time, or other directive, he may be properly fired. Every employment includes limits on the workers behavior in exchange for his remuneration. This is all part of the bargain. In an emailed statement on the ruling, Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist, told The Epoch Times, We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service, and innovation. Our employees and physicians made their decisions for our patients, who are always at the center of everything we do, Boom said. They have fulfilled their sacred obligation as health care workers, and we couldnt ask for a more dedicated, caring, and talented team. Jared Woodfill, the lawyer representing plaintiffs in the suit, told The Epoch Times in a recent interview that he planned to file an appeal if Hughes dismissed the case. Were taking it all the way Supreme Court, he said. The exterior of a Houston Methodist hospital in Texas, on June 9, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Houston Methodist announced the vaccination mandate for more than 25,000 of its employees on April 1. By June 8, 24,947 were fully vaccinated. But 178 who either chose not to get a vaccine or who werent fully vaccinated were suspended for 14 days without pay. Boom wrote at the time that the workers have decided not to put their patients first, according to an internal memo obtained by The Epoch Times. The suspended workers would be fired if they didnt get fully vaccinated by the end of the suspension period. The hospital allowed some employees to forgo vaccination for religious reasons or medical concerns; 285 employees received a medical or religious exemption, while 332 were granted deferrals for pregnancy or other reasons. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said recently that businesses can require employees to get a vaccine without violating federal laws but that employers must provide reasonable accommodations for workers who cant or wont get vaccinated due to religious reasons, pregnancy, or a disability. Over 100 employees from the system filed the lawsuit last month, asserting that officials were forcing employees to be human guinea pigs as a condition for continued employment. Bob Nevens, a former Houston Methodist employee who is one of the plaintiffs, told The Epoch Times in an email that he was terminated after asking to work from home or keep social distancing and wearing a mask in lieu of getting a vaccine. I was a 10-year highly decorated employee who was very well respected until I made a decision to wait until these vaccines complete their clinical trials, he said. Bridges, the lead plaintiff, told The Epoch Times that hospital workers have seen numerous patients who have suffered adverse reactions after getting a COVID-19 vaccine and a number of so-called breakthrough cases, or COVID-19 infections that take place in individuals who are fully vaccinated. So it doesnt protect you from getting or spreading COVID, and the likelihood of a severe adverse reaction is happening a lot right now, so your risk versus the benefits just dont weigh out. So were not comfortable because we dont want to risk our lives or our future over getting this vaccine that doesnt even work, she said. Federal authorities say that based on clinical trial data, the three vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States are effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, but that a small percentage of people getting the vaccines have suffered adverse events, including blood clots and heart inflammation. Bridges also pointed to the growing body of research that indicates that people who have had COVID-19 enjoy natural immunity against the illness. Most of us have already had COVID, so this vaccine does absolutely no good because we already have our own antibodies for it, she said. Follow Ivan on Parler: @IvanPentchoukov Like Hell Went to Hell: The Tragic Demise of Venice Beach LOS ANGELESWorld-renowned Venice Beach has long been a place where visitors, residents, and business owners have commingled with artists, musicians, and entertainers from all over the country. Over 10 million tourists visit the California beachs famous boardwalk each year, drawn in by the ocean view and the unconventional lifestyle of the neighborhoods eccentric community. But the famed destination no longer circulates in headlines for its wacky tourist attractions or local eateries. Instead, the beach town has become known worldwide for its flourishing homeless encampments, burgeoning filth, skyrocketing crime rate, and increasingly violent transients. As officials dawdle, the beachside area is falling to ruin, residents say, overwhelmed by the homeless, who are making their lives a living hell. Their cries for help have gone largely unheededuntil now. Last week, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced a July 4th sweep that aims to clean up the mess. For residents who have been trying to get local officials to act for months, the action cant come soon enough. During a recent trip to Venice, Villanueva said the tents need to be cleared by Independence Day, after reports of crime, arson, and filth went unaddressed for months. He blames elected leaders for not handling the issue. When I was out there in Venice, I talked to a shop owner, and he was fit to be tied, Villanueva told The Epoch Times. Hes tired of politicians, tired of people in the city doing nothing. And its impacting his ability for customers to come in, [added to] the cost of people trying to break into his business and people causing scenes, fights, [and] outside fires. Its like a third-world country. But not all locals approve of the sweep. Some activists quickly criticized the move on social media. Why is this @LASDHQ dressed like this to do outreach? Why do they have guns? the Peoples City Council asked on Twitter. For some residents, the uptick in recent violent attacks by the homeless on workers, residents, and the elderly are justification enough. A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Cleaning Up the Mess Within the last two weeks alone, there have been three reports of alleged attacks by the homeless. A 70-year-old man, a small business manager, and a security guard were all victims of random attacks, according to local reports. It was the final straw that caught the attention of law enforcementeven though residents say the problem has been bubbling to the surface for months. Butch Say, a traveling transient who sings rock and roll on the boardwalk, has called Venice home for the past two years. He said people like him are attracted to the neighborhood by its welcoming culture and the weatherbut even hes noticed that things are getting worse. Its nutty, but they like it. And thats part of the reason a lot of people come here, Say told The Epoch Times. Say watched on June 8 as 18 officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Housing Outreach and Services Team (HOST) descended on the boardwalk, cleaning up trash and alerting the homeless of the upcoming action. The trash is going to fill right back up in a few days, Say said with a chuckle. HOST stepped in to mitigate the chaos thats been ensuing in the area and tried to connect homeless individuals with housing and other stabilization resources ahead of the July 4th sweep. Say says this was the first time hed seen the Sheriffs Department in force. You never see them. Its usually LAPD [the Los Angeles Police Department], and theyre cool. They roll by and they just keep the peacewhich is not much more you can ask from them, because this is on nonstop, 24-hours-a-day going, this lifestyle, and it gets crazy, he told The Epoch Times. Some people, you know, [do] too much drugs. Theyre up for daysweeksand theyre just psychotic, running around screaming at invisible trees and whatever. Deputy Lewis, one of the officers on duty that day, told The Epoch Times, To be honest, I didnt know about Venice Beach until 6 a.m. this morning. But Lt. Jeff Deedrick, who led the HOST team, was bothered by the recent attacks. Our mission is humanitarian; this is a crisis, and this is bad. And the acts of violence here have been significant, Deedrick told The Epoch Times. It was heartbreaking to see the gentleman the other day get punched in the face in broad daylight. That cant happen. We have to have a civil society. And it needs to be to where everybody can enjoy this place. A law enforcement officer speaks to a man on Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Skyrocketing Crime The conditions in Venice Beach have been deteriorating for over a year. City codes prohibiting encampments on the beach and sidewalks were rolled back per new COVID-19 regulations when the pandemic hit, and normal street sweeping crews were cut to limit contact. Then Venice was declared a sanctuary zone by Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, whose district includes the beach. Tents were no longer violating city policy. Bonin, who is facing a recall effort over his policies, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also championed temporary bridge housing units in Venice to help with the problem. But residents have told The Epoch Times that the facility has only served to attract more homeless to the nearby streets since its development. Tents and trailers parked on the side of the street are present outside the complex. Many of those same people living in bridge housing are dual residents, with some still dwelling in their tents outside, according to locals. Soledad Ursua, chairwoman of the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC), told The Epoch Times that the issue is one of lack of enforcement due to COVID-19. Thats really how a lot of these crime problems have really spiraled out of control, she said. And its sad that we have to ask the city to resume enforcing our laws, you know, laws that we have on the books. So, Venice residents, we have to basically beg for our laws to be enforced again. The Los Angeles Fire Department announced last month that more than 54 percent of fires in the county this year had been started in homeless encampments. In Venice, a number of fires sparked in encampments have been reported, with one corporate building burning to the ground earlier this year. A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Say said he recently witnessed a homeless person start a fire on the beach. It was somebodys little wagon with batteries, and they wired it up wrong to play their musical instruments, and it blew up, caught on fire, [and] burned itself out, Say recalled. The neighborhood is also experiencing a sharp uptick in crime, according to statistics provided to the Venice Neighborhood Council by LAPD Capt. Steve Embrich. Year-to-date numbers show that robberies have nearly tripled since the same period last year. Homeless-related robberies are up 260 percent, homeless-related assaults with a deadly weapon are up 118 percent, property crimes and area burglaries are up 85 percent, and grand theft auto is up 74 percent. According to Embrich, felony arrests are up 68 percent, while misdemeanor arrests have grown by 355 percent. But arrests arent enough; suspects are often released back onto the streets within hours. So, arrests are way upthe officers arrested a lot more peoplebut you may not see a difference because most of those arrests, like 99 percent, are we arrest them, and theyre coronavirus releasedtheyre released back into the community shortly after we book them, Embrich told the VNC during a recent meeting. Grand theft auto (GTA) incidents in Venice are much higher than the rest of the area, Embrich said. And with our GTA, what we see is that we have a very short recovery window. So, most of the cars that are stolen are recovered within Pacific area, very close, or theyre recovered in Culver City or whatever adjacent cities, and the recovery period is shortthat means your cars are being stolen out of Venice, for the purpose of sleeping or for the purpose of transportation. A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Tearing the Community Apart From Within How to solve the problem is tearing the community apart, according to Venice Neighborhood Councilman Brian Averill. The city of LA has dropped the ball on the crime in Venice. Its not being addressed. So people on different sides of the issues in our community are sort of turning on each other. Not only is it unsafe, but its really tearing the community apart from within, Averill told The Epoch Times. Because people pay taxes to feel safe and to feel protected, and it is chaotic out there, so thats the citys sort of ineptitude. Say said he understands the residents frustrations. Its crazy about the fighting stuff. Ive seen neighbors and houses fight, and it goes on for years down here. Theyre in the morning ready to chop each others heads off, and at night theyre sharing dinner, Say said. Averill said the push for housing first, a theory the city has embraced that believes more housing units are needed as the first step to help the homeless, does not treat the complexities of each individual case, as people may need other resources to rehabilitate them. He said that a triage situation would be the best option right now. Its a disaster out there, frankly, he said. Why were not seeing some sort of triage is beyond me. You should be getting people into the triage, figuring out what they need. Some people just need $1,000 so they can get a bus ticket or a plane ticket home, some people need addiction help, some people need detox. Some people need serious, you know, mental illness help. On June 7, Averill was present at a press conference on the boardwalk when a knife-wielding homeless woman was subdued steps away from LA Councilman Joe Buscaino. At the time, Buscaino was in the middle of a news conference addressing homelessness on the boardwalk as part of his mayoral campaign. Bystander Nico Ruderman yelled Knife! and LAPDs Embrich subdued the woman, suffering minor cuts while arresting her. Its unclear if the woman intended to attack Buscaino. Some witnesses say she was arrested because the knife fell out of her pocket. Within hours, however, the suspect was released back onto the boardwalk, charged only with a misdemeanor. VNCs Ursua said: Our concerns are valid. We were afraid to go out. If a councilmember can almost get stabbed, it means that it could happen to us. A few days after the incident, Buscaino requested that the city restore its ban on sidewalk encampments. A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Inept and Corrupt Politicians Since the pandemic began, the boardwalk has become like hell went to hell, according to Say. It was bad [before], but it wasnt like this. For years, the colorful history of homeless dwellers has been an integral part of Venice Beach, with locals referring to them as street people. Business owners told The Epoch Times they used to know most of them by name. They were part of the communityuntil the pandemic brought a massive influx of new transients. It was with COVID, people getting tossed and all that. This place filled up quick: all women, men, middle-aged, you know, everybody here, little kids sometimes, Say said. A lot of new people, they try to blend in. They say, Ive been here 20 years, and its like, Ive only been here two and I havent seen you. If parents have little children, they get hooked up quick with help, Say said. And if youre part of itthey call it the family, you knowif youre part of the family, they know you down here, youre OK. But they still get into fights with each other, he added. Ive seen people fighting, screaming, threatening [each other] with pipes and poles in the morning, and bringing them a pair of shoes at night and sharing their dinner, he said. Venice Beach Bar manager Luis Perez told The Epoch Times previously that when the stay-at-home orders were declared last year, homeless people were bused in from other cities and dropped off on the boardwalk. It was clear they didnt fit in with the culture, he said. Most of them were addicts. Now, attacks against visitors and other homeless people are regularly documented on social media by a local watchdog group, with new videos uploaded nearly every day. In the meantime, the encampments are still growingand impacting local businesses. Recently, another tent community appeared behind the Rose Cafe restaurant on nearby Rose Avenue, a few blocks from the beach. The encampment has barbecue pits, dressers, and motorbikes parked inside the tents. Right outside businesses on the boardwalk, trash, needles, and tents can be seen piled up in plain sight. Klaus Moeller, who owns the Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream shop on the boardwalk, has been dealing with problems caused by the homeless for over a year. On June 5, he filed a police report against a homeless person who attacked his manager. Woman hit a Hare Krishna monk, then threatened our customer. When our manager asked her to leave, she hit the manager in the face, Moeller told The Epoch Times in an email. The police did nothing. Police refused to make an arrest and told us that an assault apparently now is considered a misdemeanor, he said. Moeller said he doesnt blame the police, as current catch and release policies make any arrest a waste of time for them. I blame the inept and corrupt politicians, he said. Moeller said that only a day earlier, a beloved local security guard at a nearby skate shop was hit over the head with a bottle and then repeatedly stabbed by a homeless guy in their parking lot. He says hes reached out repeatedly to Bonin, the local representative. But his attempts at communication have failed. I have tried for a year now to have Mr. Bonin speak with me but emails are not answered. Our very own councilman, whose salary is paid with our taxes; refuses to even talk to us or acknowledge that there is a problem, Moeller said. Bonins office didnt respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. However, he released a series of tweets defending his housing policies. A homeless encampment in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) There is loud and growing criticism of homeless housing from people saying homelessness is about addiction and mental health, not housing. We absolutely need more mental health & drug rehab servicesand we cant address these issues among the unhoused without housing, Bonin said in a June 3 tweet. On June 10, Bonin asked the Los Angeles Homeless and Poverty Committee to shift $5 million in budgeted aid to fund housing programs in his district. But Say warned that not every homeless person wants the help. He said most of the people living in Venice get government support. He pointed to a homeless man in a wheelchair wearing pajamas. The man gets $1,400 a month from the government, Say said, and he loves it out here. Say said that government Section 8 housing vouchers are available to many people, providing a nice place to live, and if youre older, you get priority. But many people, like the man in the wheelchair, prefer to live on the street. They go, No, I love it out here. Nobody tells me what to do, and I run around in my underwear, Say said. You know, whatever. Theyre crazy. What can I say? Its Venice. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly described Averill as an eyewitness to the actions of the knife-wielding woman on the boardwalk. Averill was present at the press conference but didnt see the womans actions prior to the arrest. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Mens Health Week an Opportunity to Make a Positive Difference On average, nine Australians take their own lives every day. Seven of them are men. This year, Mens Health Week is focusing on encouraging connections with the aim of helping people make a positive difference. In 2019, more than 3,300 people died by suicide nationwide, with 75 per cent of those men. It remains the leading cause of death for Australians between the ages of 15 and 44. Dr. Neil Hall from Western Sydney Universitys Centre for Male Health says it is particularly important during the coronavirus pandemic for men and boys to connect with family, community, and healthy culture. Connecting with family is a prime protective factor for good mental health and wellbeing, he said. A simple conversation between friends can be the start of something positive. It might be through hosting an event to create awareness, through to picking up the phone to a loved one, or sharing resources and information. Hall, who has been a social work academic for more than 20 years, said he is seeing a generational shift of younger men coming forward to seek help. He said a recent survey of teenage boys in Sydney found half are not uncomfortable talking about their feelings and one-in-five reported mental health or mood issues, a figure in line with the broader population. One of the things were starting to see, the stigma associated with mental health problems is reducing, he said. In the last five years theres been a boom in the number of community support groups for men. We estimate there are 300 across the country, whereas ten years ago there might have been ten. However, he said there is a lack of male-specific mental health funding from government, including in the May federal budget. A lot of money, rightfully so, was put into mental health and suicide prevention, he said. But not once in the documentation of suicide prevention were men specifically mentioned. Thats got to be something of an oversight, given 75 per cent of all suicides are men. The Australian Mens Shed Association wants men to book a date with their mates this Mens Health Week, which begins Monday. Youre never too old to get something out of having a group of friendswhether theyve been around forever and a day, or theyre new connections, executive officer David Helmers said. The empirical evidence is clear. Social participation is positively linked to mental wellbeing and quality of life, particularly in older people. By Ethan James. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. Monteverde Cloud Forest Is the Star of a Costa Rican Tour The last 18 miles of the road leading to the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica, full of ruts and potholes by design, takes more than an hour and a half to navigate, and the locals like it that way. They choose not to fix it because it would be too easy for tourists to visit. This may not sound all that hospitable, but it illustrates the emphasis that Costa Ricans place on conservation. The Cloud Forest, which I visited prior to COVID-19 as part of an Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) tour of Costa Rica, is indeed an ecological marvel worth savingand seeing. But you have to really want to go there. An aerial view of a river flowing through the lush green cloudforest of Monteverde. (christianthiel.net/Shutterstock) So what exactly is a cloud forest? Contrary to popular thinking, it isnt where all your technology apps are stored. It is, instead, a rare kind of rainforest where plants actually grow on top of trees. The technical explanation is that the combination of altitude, humidity, and irregular topography creates a unique environmental situation where the clouds remain low for most of the year, preventing the advent of sun, locking in moisture and creating an atmosphere where plant activity is so high that they actually cover the trees. The non-technical explanation: Lots of clouds and rain result in every inch of the trees from bark to branch to be covered by things green and growing. These epiphytes, as the plants are called, cover every branch and limb, creating a dense wonderland of greenery. Ive been to rainforests before but never one so overwhelmingly green and lush, a blanket of emerald and jade and olive and lime, unrelenting and opaque. There are no empty branches, tree trunks, or ground area so that the immersion in this sea of green is utterly complete. Each branch, bush, and leaf is so unique in its color, design, texture, size, shape, and sheen as to more resemble an art form than a fragment of foliage, in which Ellen Kaiden of Sarasota, Florida, the artist in the group, claimed to detect different emotions. I was overwhelmed by the life force of the Costa Rican Cloud Forest, she said. We were privileged guests in an alternative universe of the canopy. Equally important to the expansive plant life is the multiplicity of animal life living among it. This enormously rich ecosystem supports 7 percent of the worlds plant and animal diversity on only 0.1 percent of the earths surface. Its an amazing place, but it was only one of several forests, beaches, villages, and farms we visited as part of OATs 13-day Costa Rican adventure. What sets OAT apart from many other tour companies is its emphasis on learning and discovery, a part of the OAT philosophy that the company takes very seriously. And with a guide like Andres, a botanist with two masters degrees in ecotourism and sustainability, it was hard not to be learning all the time. Woven into the formal activities are opportunities to learn about the people, explore local markets and towns, and participate in cultural exchanges. The elusive flying resplendent quetzal. (Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock) What happens outside the official itinerary is equally interesting. The rides from place to place may be long, but theyre never boring. Perhaps, you stop for lunch and get as dessert an unexpected exhibition of resident show horses belonging to the owner of the restaurant. A bathroom break brings a surprise demonstration of sugar-cane extraction in an old mill. The fact that they mixed the resulting samples with local Costa Rican rum made the experience all the more special. Add to that a random opportunity to milk a cow at a local farm and the stops not included on the itinerary compete with those that are for excitement. A woman walks on a bridge at canopy level. (frozenblizzard/Shutterstock) Meanwhile, back at the Cloud Forest, there was quite a bit of local color to break up the monotony of greenness. Time was spent seeking outand reveling inthe unusual resplendent quetzal, a large, rare, and brightly colored bird that is as elusive in Costa Rica as the kiwi is in New Zealand. Traversing a series of hanging bridges provided a birds-eye view of the forest very different from what you can see from the ground, and a visit to a hummingbird sanctuary where hundreds of the colorful little guys flapped their little wings with impossible-to-measure speed entranced travelers who desperately tried to capture them on camera. A glasswing butterfly, with its transparent wings. (Lukas Kovarik/Shutterstock) A meeting with Martha Campbell, the daughter of one of the original Quaker settlers of Monteverde in 1951, provided some historical context to the Cloud Forest community, which, at that time, had no plumbing, no electricity, no phone service, and very few people. Though the community survived by cattle ranching initially, eventually they discovered that a far greater goodas well as more moneycould be accomplished through conservation and the expanded tourism trade that followed. Still, she somewhat bemoans the large influx of tourists of the past two decades. I wish there would be less development, she said. Sure, there are more job opportunities, but also more cars, maybe more crime, and I just miss the simple life we used to have. I would hazard a guess that the road leading to the Monteverde Cloud Forest isnt going to be fixed anytime soon. When You Go Trips are expected to resume in late summer 2021: OATTravel.com Fyllis Hockman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at Creators.com. Copyright 2021 Creators.com Odes to Fathers, Courtesy of Baroque Artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo Art lovers can spot Bartolome Esteban Murillos trademark Madonnas from across a room. The Spanish painters ethereal, raven-haired, porcelain-skinned portrayals of the Virgin Mary tenderly embracing her son or hovering on heavenly clouds grace museums across the world. Yet for every innovative image of the Mother of God that the Baroque artist painted, he produced an equally pioneering depiction of fatherhood. To illustrate paternal virtue, Murillo used scriptural examples, and his greatest source of inspiration was St. Joseph, husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus Christ. More subdued in color and gesture than his radiant Madonnas, Murillos St. Joseph paintings extol the nuanced qualities that typify great fathers. St. Joseph took a long time to find his place in the history of art. Without a single spoken word recorded in the Bible, he remained absent in early Christian frescos and carvings, eventually appearing as a worried old man crouched in the corner of Nativity scenes. By the Renaissance era, his iconographic repertoire had expanded to include his marriage to the Virgin Mary, proposing the saint as a model husband. In the wake of the Protestant Reformation, St. Joseph finally took center stage as a subject worthy of his own altarpiece, not as the factotum of the Holy Family but as an engaged, protective, loving father. Spain did much to launch the image of Joseph as the Worlds Greatest Dad, spurred by several saints who felt a special connection with the silent yet steadfast figure. Murillo, always ready to take on new iconographic challenges, took advantage of this shifting spirituality to revolutionize the portrayal of Joseph, resulting in some of the most inspiring images of fatherhood in the history of art. Murillos St. Joseph as the Good Father Murillo explored different paternal qualitiesvigilance, devotion, playfulness, loyalty, and forgivenessin each of his numerous paintings of St. Joseph. His striking 1665 altarpiece in Seville shows a larger-than-life Joseph towering over the viewer, standing next to the luminous Christ Child. Joseph With Infant Christ, 16651666, by Bartolome Esteban Murillo. Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, Spain. (Public Domain) Typical of his style, Murillo arranged a few classical architectural fragments on one side, while leaving the rest of the space uncluttered to focus solely on the two figures. Jesus, perched on the ruins of an ancient altar, nestles close to Joseph while gazing serenely at the viewer, confident in his fathers protection. The mauve color of his robe and soft skin emphasize his humanity and vulnerability. Joseph shields the child with his body, looking warily in the distance, seemingly ready to whisk his son away at the first sign of danger. In the Bible, Josephs prompt reactions saved the infant Jesus by escaping the murderous rage of King Herod. Murillo rejected the painterly precedent of portraying Joseph as an old, decrepit man, depicting him with dark flowing hair and strong youthful features bearing a striking resemblance to the mature Jesus. Murillo then transformed Joseph from virile defender into a doting father for a private patron who would have commissioned a more intimate version for domestic use. A smaller work from 1670 opens a window into the personal relationship of Joseph with his divine charge. As father of 11 children, Murillo mastered the art of rendering the pudgy flesh of infants, producing a cuddly Christ Child who appears ready to be taken into the arms of the viewer. Joseph contemplates the boy intently, eyelids lowered, lips slightly parted; he seems to delight in Jesuss physical presence, absorbed in his golden curls, warm touch, and sweet scent. St. Joseph With the Christ Child, 16701675, by Bartolome Esteban Murillo. (Public Domain) At the same time, Joseph appears awed by the fact that this adorable infant is also the Messiah. Jesus places a flowering branch in Josephs hand, an allusion to the divine selection of this man to be the husband of Mary and the guardian of Christ. The wispy brushstrokes give the impression of spontaneous movement, as if this were a candid snapshot where Joseph, caught unawares, reveals the depth and intensity of his fatherly love. Murillo, who lost his father and mother by the age of 10, practically invented the image of the Holy Family at home. While some of his versions showed the parents at work and the child at play, The Holy Family With a Dog from 1650 captures a moment of cheerful respite from the labors of the day. The Holy Family With a Dog, 1650, by Bartolome Esteban Murillo. (Public Domain) In a spartan workshop, St. Joseph leaves his carpentry tasks for a moment to play with his son. Jesus, whose only indication of his exalted status is the blue and gold band around his waist and the intensified light on his face, teases a lapdog with a bird. A smile seems to play around Josephs lips as he points toward the patient pet, enjoying this quiet domestic moment. Mary also pauses at her spinning to take in the scene, but as she looks at the finch in Jesuss hand, symbol of his future passion, framed against the crossed wooden bars of her spindle, her mind seems to stray to more somber thoughts. While Murillo portrayed St. Joseph as dark-haired and handsome, he added a few lines across his brow and around his eyes to indicate the passing of youth. Josephs life was spent in relative poverty, constantly working to sustain his family, and Murillo suggests the great dignity of a lifetime of sacrifice. Other Fathers Murillos artistic studies of fatherhood were not limited to St Joseph. In the wake of the Spanish plague of 1649, Murillo painted six large canvases recounting the story of the Prodigal Son. This parable tells of a young man who demanded his inheritance while his father was still alive, only to squander it on raucous living. Reduced to poverty, shame, and starvation, he returned home hoping to join his fathers servants. The star of the story is the father, who without rancor or recrimination welcomes his son home. Of the six scenes, the father features in three, openhandedly giving away his money to the ungrateful boy, dejectedly watching him depart, and, most powerfully, joyfully welcoming his destitute son. In this final panel, the family members stand in shadow as the boy, draped in rags, falls to his knees before the old man. Where the other family members, clad in bright apparel, remain in the shadows of the doorway, the old man, in his robe the color of earth, propels himself toward the boy. The Latin word for earthhumusis the root of humility, one of the most prized virtues of the age. The father, with right on his side, who has enjoyed the respect and loyalty of all except his son, puts aside his pride to forgive his humiliated boy. The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1660s, by Bartolome Esteban Murillo. Oil on canvas; 41 1/8 inches by 53 inches. Presented by Sir Alfred and Lady Beit, 1987. Beit Collection. (National Gallery of Ireland) Murillos images, 400 years later, seem tailor-made for a modern Fathers Day. They are emblems of gratitude toward the men who faithfully support, serve, protect, and love their families no matter how difficult the circumstances. Elizabeth Lev is an American-born art historian who teaches, lectures, and guides in Rome. Pennsylvania State Representatives Introduce Bill Banning the Teaching of Critical Race Theory Two Pennsylvania state representatives are attempting to ban the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in the states schools, with the introduction of a bill aimed at prohibiting the teaching, funding, or dissemination of racist and sexist concepts, according to a statement on June 4. House Bill 1532, or the Teaching Racial and Universal Equality (TRUE) Act, was introduced by state Reps. Russ Diamond and Barbara Gleim, both Republicans. It has collected at least 25 sponsors so far and was referred to the state Education Committee for a vote on June 7. CRT further divides us by making the immutable traits of race and gender a prime factor in how we view othersexactly the opposite of Dr. [Martin Luther] Kings dream, a memorandum states. The bill will ban the teaching of racist or sexist concepts across the commonwealth, defined by the bill as an individual receiving favorable treatment due to the individuals race or sex or that an individual, by race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. Diamond told The Epoch Times that the Pennsylvania Constitution states that we do not try to separate people by race, or ethnicity in any way, especially in any way that declares any particular race to be inferior or superior to another. Diamond said that children should be taught that all Americans are equal and we should celebrate what we used to call The Great Melting Pot. He added that CRT is similar to Marxist ideology because it divides people into groups and treats them as part of a collective rather than as individuals. Diamond said he is deeply concerned that CRT has infiltrated the educational system. Although CRT supporters usually deny the connection between CRT and Marxism, there is at least one university professor in Pennsylvania admitting openly that CRT is a Marxist ideology. But America is not a Marxist country, so we dont need to teach Marxist ideas to our children, he said. He said that the bill will apply to any school receiving any commonwealth funds. Over 300 colleges and universities in the United States have Critical Race Training programs, according to criticalrace.org, which also emphasizes its influence in primary and secondary education as a growing issue. Tina Descovich, co-founder of nonprofit Moms for Liberty, expressed particular concern about CRT targeting young children. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Descovich said CRT is being implemented as fact and truth right now to four year olds and five year olds, which is unacceptable because its a theory and very damaging, very harmful to young minds. Descovich believes that CRT is divisive, as it takes societys problems and uses them as a way to divide people by the color of their skin. She argued that CRT denies the value of an individual based on the content of their character and their actions. Thats not who we are as Americans, thats not who we want to be, and thats not what we want our children to learn, Descovich added. Second World War Veteran Turning 101 Seeks Birthday Cheer A World War Two veteran who turns 101 on Flag Day is asking fellow Lake Forest, Calif. residents to help celebrate by sending him 101 birthday cards. Frank Wendzel, an Army Air Forces Captain during the Second World War, was born June 14, 1920. After joining the Army Air Forces in 1941, Wendzel served at various locations throughout the United States and also flew B-17 airplanes, according to a Veterans Affairs blog. He also took part in Operation Crossroads, a pair of nuclear weapons tests in Bikini Atoll in 1946. For his service, he received an American Campaign Medal, a European-African-Middle East Campaign Medal, a World War Two Victory Medal, and Overseas Service Bars. After his time in the military, Wendzel worked for NASA, where he helped with Project Mercury, NASAs first man-in-space program. It had the objectives of orbiting a manned spacecraft around Earth, investigating mans ability to function in space, and recover both man and spacecraft safely, the blog said. In a post on the City of Lake Forests Facebook page, a photo of the centenarian holding a bright green poster board writes, I am a proud WWII vet. I will be 101 years old on Flag Day, June 14, 2021. I would love to receive 101 cards for my 101st birthday. Last year for Wendzels 100th birthday, he was able to go outside for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. He celebrated his milestone birthday with a car parade from veterans groups. He was also nominated as a community hero by the city of Lake Forest. He received more than 1,200 cards from members of the community last year. Those that would like to send Wendzel a birthday card are asked to send the cards to: Captain Frank Wendzel Freedom Village Health Center 23442 El Toro Road, Bldg. 2 Room 139-B Lake Forest, CA 92630 Security Breach at the Ballot Warehouse in Fulton County; Pristine Biden Ballots That Looked Xeroxed | Facts Matter The November 2020 election which took place in Fulton County is under the microscope right now. Sworn affidavits from poll workers were so compelling, that they convinced a judge to unseal 147,000 absentee ballots in order to investigate them for possible fraud. However, at the very last minute (literally one day before it was scheduled to begin) county officials filed motions to dismiss and indefinitely postponed the investigation. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Because 2 days later, a security alarm went off in the supposedly secure building where the physical ballots were being stored. Photos from that day show the door to the building was left wide open. The guards who were supposed to be on duty happened to just leave 20 minutes beforehand and so, the building was left unattended. What exactly happened there? And amidst all this, the mother and daughter team who were present at the State Farm arena when ballots were being counted in the middle of the night they were just issued notices from the court to come in for an official deposition. Resources: State Farm Arena Timeline: https://ept.ms/2Ts8kOh Pristine Ballots: https://ept.ms/3xj1GZq Judge Unseals Ballots: https://ept.ms/3gxOA3E Judge Postpones Examination: https://ept.ms/3xmSBit Security Breach: https://ept.ms/3izM7Zd Trumps Statement: https://ept.ms/3gKbRjl Election Workers Deposed: https://ept.ms/2U4am7N https://ept.ms/35tibqd Shooting Leaves Children, Aged 6 and 8, in Critical Condition in Cincinnati: Police A shooting in Cincinnati, Ohio, left at least two children critically injured and two others wounded on Saturday night, officials said. A 6-year-old and an 8-year-old were critically injured in the incident, authorities confirmed to local media outlets. The Cincinnati Police Department said that several individuals were shooting at the intersection of McHenry and Cavanaugh avenues, and they know of at least two suspects who fled on foot. I think when you have children involved it changes the whole dynamic here. It shakes the conscience of a neighborhood when you have children hit. These arent people engaged in high risk activity. Theyre just little kids, Lt. Col. Mike John told reporters, according to WCPO-TV. CPD spokesperson Emily Szink said in a statement that two adult male teenagers were taken to a local hospital for their injuries. I believe the children were just hanging out in that lot, and its just a tragic, tragic situation, its awful, John also said. Thoughts and prayers go out to the families in an incident like this. I mean, this is just, you cant explain it. Its a Saturday evening in the summer. Its just a terrible situation. He added: We can tell that from the shell casings left at the scene, multiple weapons used, at least two [suspects] we can confirm, but like I said, its possible there were other shooters as well. Other details about the shooting were not provided. Witnesses are asked to call the Cincinnati Police Departments Crimestoppers at 513-352-3040. Sneaky Tigress Confidently Walks by Safari Visitors as They Look the Wrong Way The hilarious moment when a sneaky tiger almost slinked by keen-eyed wildlife lovers unnoticed has been caught on camera. Wildlife photographer Ravindra Jain, 44, captured the humorous moment of the powerful tigress named Riddhi walking past a jeep full of curious visitors at Ranthambore National Park in India in late April. The mighty tigress was just a few steps away from the jeep, and incredibly, it took almost nearly 10 minutes for the big cat to be noticed by the group. Jain explained that due to tigers and other animals in the park being familiar with safari vehicleseven using them to hide as they huntthe tiger slid toward the jeep mostly undetected. He said: I was almost a hundred meters away from this tigress so Im not sure what the other photographers were looking for and ignoring this beautiful creature. Maybe they were busy seeing some birds or else they would hear the alarm call for tigers and realize they were made for this tiger that was just next to them. In one of Jains pictures, a little boy appears to be holding back a smirk as he is among the first to spot the huge striped predator sneaking past their safari vehicle. Jain said that, on that hot afternoon, Riddhi the tigress was on her way trying to sneakily hunt. After spotting deer in the park, she quietly crept into the tallgrass, patiently waiting for around 50 minutes before trying unsuccessfully to pounce for a second time. He said: The deer was close but the tigress could not attack them and when she finally did, the herd of deer ran away and she got frustrated. After this disappointment, she sat down tiredly in Raj Bagh Talab, a large pond. Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. 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 A Chinese traveler checks in for a flight in the nearly empty departures area at Beijing Capital International Airport on March 24, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Southern Chinese City Halts Local Flights for 10 Days as Virus Spreads As COVID-19 variants continue to spread in Guangzhou, a provincial capital in southern China, the adjacent city of Foshan has tightened travel restrictions. On June 12, Foshan authorities said on Chinese social media site Weibo that Foshan Shadi Airport would cancel all flights from June 13 to June 22. Local authorities have also stopped the operations of trans-provincial passenger traffic lines and some intercity bus lines, according to the level of risk. A total of at least 90 lines between Guangzhou and Foshan have been suspended, detoured, or shortened, including 61 local lines and 29 intercity lines. Charter bus services, cruising cabs, online car-hailing, and shared bicycles were banned. The recent outbreak in Guangdong Province is both fast-spreading and deadly, according to Chinese officials, and can be transmitted by having a meal together, or by brief nondirect contact. Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, was locked down two weeks ago. For districts under control in Guangzhou, only a very few freeway entrances and exits are opened for licensed vehicles. Marginal highways were closed except for specific trucks during restricted hours. Local Outbreak Chancheng district in Foshan was upgraded to a medium-risk area on May 31. The outbreak in the district was reportedly due to cross-infection triggered by public square dancing, or Guangchang Wu, a popular public exercise routine among the older generation in China. Wang Qiang (a pseudonym), a local resident of the Nanhai district in Foshan, told The Epoch Times that his neighborhood had been locked down since May 28 at 4 a.m. No one was allowed to leave, but only to enter, after the community recorded one confirmed case. Someone from Hainan village [in Guangzhou] drove to our district to join the square dance, resulting in cross-infection. The square dancers have been put into quarantine, and the rest are undertaking home quarantine, Wang said. Foshan authorities issued a notice on June 6 requiring regime organs at all levels, including enterprises, schools, and travel agencies, to halt unnecessary trips outside the city or province from June 7. Negative CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus test results are necessary for those who need to travel. The 2021 High School Admissions Test will be carried out June 2628 in Foshan, but because of the new restrictions, candidates have to apply for a health code at least 14 days before the exam. Schools will be required to continuously monitor the body temperatures of students. According to Chinas official reports, three areas of Foshan have been classified as medium-risk areas. A man walks through a heavily damaged hospital in the city of Afrin, Syria, on June 13, 2021. (Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo) Hospital Hit by Artillery in North Syria, at Least 15 Killed AFRIN, SyriaThe death toll from an artillery strike on a hospital in northern Syria has risen to at least 15, medical officials said Sunday. The shelling, a day earlier, caused widespread destruction and knocked out the hospitals maternity ward and surgery unit. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack that also wounded 43 and came from areas where both government troops and Kurdish-led fighters are deployed. Al-Shifaa hospital is in the northern town of Afrin, in an area controlled by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters. Much of the ceiling of the facility collapsed, and electricity cables dangled in a main corridor. The delivery room, the childrens section, and the first aid hall suffered the mostleaving hospital beds covered with rubble. Blood stained the floor of one debris-filled room, while a mangled wheelchair and a soiled stretcher were piled up in an operating theater. The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Adnan, said two shells damaged the maternity ward and the surgery unit, while a rocket hit the clinics. The hospital had been crowded at the time of the shelling, and patients and the wounded were evacuated to other hospitals. This was a condemned terrorist act that targeted civilians, said Adnan, adding that the hospital serves the town of Afrin and its countryside, an area home to about 350,000 people. Over 350 births take place every month at the hospital, all free of charge, he said. A man walks through a heavily damaged hospital in the city of Afrin, Syria, on June 13, 2021. (Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo) Adnan and the Syrian American Medical Associationan aid group that assists health centers in opposition areassaid two hospital staff members were killed. SAMS also said 11 of its staff were injured, including a midwife seriously. SAMS called for an investigation into the attack, adding that the coordinates for the hospital, also financed by USAID and the United Nations, had been shared as part of a U.N.-led mechanism to unwind the conflict. In a statement, the U.S. State Department condemned the attack, saying it was part of a recent escalation of violence in the area. It called for a nationwide cease-fire in Syria. This barbaric attack took the lives of children, medical staff, and first responders. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, must never be the target of military action, it said. On Saturday, the governor of Turkeys Hatays province blamed the attack on Syrian Kurdish groups. The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces strongly denied claims that it was behind the shelling. Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took control of Afrin in 2018 in an operation that expelled local Kurdish fighters and displaced thousands of Kurdish residents. Ankara considers the Kurdish fighters who were in control of Afrin to be terrorists. Since then, there have been several attacks on Turkish targets in the area. By Ghaith Alsayed The Flavor of Gratefulness: Restaurant Owner Shares Her Pandemic Journey Its been more than a year since Gov. Gavin Newsom mandated the closure of all California restaurants to curb the spread of COVID-19. The stay-at-home order devastated the food industry, cost nearly 1 million related jobs, and resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue. Restaurants throughout Southern California struggled to survive the restrictions; many didnt make it. But Wilmas Patio in Orange Countys Newport Beach has managed to endureand owner Sheri Drewry told The Epoch Times shes grateful for the loyal customers who provided the opportunity. Im a people pleaser and Im a foodie, so I love the whole process of how food brings people together and creates a job industry for people, Drewry said. Its always been about making people happy. Wilmas Patio is a family-friendly eatery specializing in homestyle cooking. The eatery has become a fixture on Balboa Island since it opened in 1982, nearly 40 years ago. While other restaurants on the island struggled, Drewry and her team kept a positive attitude, thanks to gracious customers and a supportive community. The mindset allowed Wilmas Patio to stay afloat, surviving the worst of the pandemic as it looked forward to a full reopening. A set table in Wilmas Patio restaurant in Newport Beach, Calif., on June 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) How Do We Do This? Drewry took over the restaurant after her parents passed away. Despite immense challenges, she continued to serve loyal diners with team members that have become like family to her and to each other. Some have been working together for 20 to 30 years. But nothing could have prepared any of them for the complications the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus would bring to local eateriesbeginning with the mandatory closures in March 2020. In the beginning, everybody thought it was just going to be two [or] three weeks, Drewry said. Soon, however, she realized it was going to be much longer. The day after we closed, we started with the to-go only, and boy, that was really weird, she said. Before long, she began to ask herself, How do we do this? Drewry and her staff quickly adapted by modifying their business plan. We decided we were going to do free deliveries on the island, she said. Restaurant employees started to bring food to peoples homes, right up to their front doors. That was a really smart move that paid off well. But in the beginning, it was so much unknown. Scheduling adjustments were made to keep the entire staff working through the restaurants reduced hours. But it was Balboa Islands atmosphere during the most stressful stretch of the pandemic that helped her team stay positive, she said. One thing I think Im the most grateful for is the fact that Balboa Island was probably the one place in the universe that felt almost normal, where everything else felt like youre in the Twilight Zone, she said. You could still walk around the island, and they would flip it on different days, you know, so you could walk to the left and go around the island that way, or go walk to the right and walk around the island, she said. Because it was an outdoor activity we had a lot of people coming to the island just to walk, to get out, so that helped the sanity sector. But although Balboa Island remained comfortable for Drewry, some of the other local businesses didnt make it through the pandemicincluding some that had been around long before Wilmas Patio had been established. Even the Starbucks didnt survive, she said. We lost a lot here to be honest with you, so its nice to see the stores slowly filling back up again. The damage may not yet be over. There could definitely be a domino effect, depending on what industry it is, she said. But I think the ones that were hit really hard was any business with a storefront. Balboa Island in Newport Beach, Calif., on June 3, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Community Support Drewry credits many moments of individual kindness with helping her team get by over the course of the challenging year. It was unreal how caring the customer base was to my team, she said. We had one guy come and spend $3,000 in cash to buy gift certificates. I had another come and just hand me $1,500. I had people mailing me money to give to my staff. Drewry also found hope and encouragement when the city of Newport Beach issued her the permits she needed, allowing the restaurant to serve customers outdoors on the sidewalks. I think it was a constant adjustment, daily to weekly, on how to survive this thing, she said. The local restaurant community banded together during the pandemic to support each other during monthly meetings. The gatherings have been so successful that they have continued. Its a bunch of us restaurateurs that meet every month and talk about what were going through with the pandemic, she said. We talked about everything and tried to be there for each other. Members of the group can all relate to the current challenges they face in finding employees, Drewry noted, and many are offering sign-on bonuses. Restaurants are really struggling to get the help they need. The amount of money that these cooks and kitchen help are now getting has just skyrocketed, she said. Im not sure if its from the unemployment [benefits], or if it is because some of the people changed industriesIm not sure why. Drewry said she considers it a blessing that she was able to keep her employees, who are like family to her, throughout the struggle. The employee pool is dried up and gone away, especially for cooks and things. Im so grateful I was able to keep most of mine when so many lost theirs. Drewry and her team look forward to the full reopening of Wilmas Patio on June 19. In the meantime, she continues to run the family business with the same mentality she had prior to the pandemic: being able to find beauty in the challenges and enjoying the opportunity to bring people together with delicious food. This last couple of months have been so beautiful, because Ive finally seen people I havent seen in years, she said. Thats what keeps me going every daybecause its a hard, hard industry. The family-friendly, casual dining atmosphere of Wilmas Patio is open for business at 203 Marine Ave. in Newport Beach, on Balboa Island. Dine-in, curbside pickup, and deliveries are available. Simon Cheng (front left) and Finn Lau (center) in a march commemorating the two-year anniversary of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, in London on June 12, 2021. (Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times) Thousands March in London Amid Global Rallies on 2nd Anniversary of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Movement More than 3,000 people joined a rally in London on Saturday to support the people of Hong Kong in the pursuit of freedom while the Group of Seven (G-7) leaders meet in Cornwall. Rallies were also held in about 52 cities across 23 countries on the same day to commemorate the two-year anniversary of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement. Ten UK cities joined the commemoration, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, Nottingham, Reading, Leeds, and Liverpool. MPs, Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, and representatives of other human rights groups were among those attending the London rally. Supporters of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement gather at a rally at Marble Arch in London on June 12, 2021. (Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times) Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses the single biggest threat to the concept of freedom around the world at the moment. But its afraid of free people such as pro-democracy Hongkongers because they can change China, and thats what they will do, he said. Speaking to the crowd on Saturday, Duncan Smith said he was humbled to be at the rally. You are the great people. Not people like me or politicians, it is your determination to stand for freedom. Many years ago, a British politician called Gladstone said there is no greater bulwark against tyranny than the breasts of brave men and women. You are the breasts of free men and women and I am proud to stand with you today, he said. Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith speaking at a rally commemorating the two-year anniversary of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement in London on June 12, 2021. (Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times) Duncan Smith also said that the fight between the CCP and the democratic world is an ideological fight that is going to get worse, and that theres no way of hiding any longer for the Western governments. I think all the G-7 need to understand the real challenge that we face, which is an intolerant, dictatorial, communist regime, Duncan Smith told reporters ahead of the rally. Speaking to NTD afterward, Duncan Smith said: What we represent on the other side of that is freedom through democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Its very simple. This is an ideological fight that is going to get worse. But the Western governments need to face up to this. Theres no way of hiding any longer. Chinas ambition is to turn the world into China. And our job is to stop that. Duncan Smith said that World War II taught us that if you fear to speak out, then the other side win; if you fear to defend freedom, then freedom is lost, so what G-7 countries do after the summit matters. The UKs Shadow Minister for Asia and Pacific Stephen Kinnock speaking at a rally commemorating the two-year anniversary of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement in London on June 12, 2021. (Yanning Qi/The Epoch Times) Labour Party Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific Stephen Kinnock also paid tribute to Hongkongers at the rally and in Hong Kong. Whats happened over these last years has been a full-frontal assault on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, Kinnock said. We have seen the Chinese government completely violating the basis of the SinoBritish declaration of the [Hong Kong] Basic Law. Those are legally binding obligations that they themselves have signed up to. Kinnock told NTD that the Chinese regimes behaviour revealed that its interested only in complete monopoly of power. And they will even break international law in order to achieve that monopoly of power, he said. Kinnock criticised the so-called golden era of SinoBritish relations boasted of by former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. The idea was that we were going to open up our markets to China, and that in return we were going to get China aligning with international norms and standards. The opposite has happened. The golden era strategy has been a complete disaster, he said. Kinnock also blasted the UK government for having not sanctioned Hong Kongs Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other senior executives, and British judges who are still serving on the Hong Kong Court of Appeal. Crossparty lawmakers from both houses of Parliament have urged the UK government to impose sanctions on Lam and others responsible for human rights abuses in China, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Unsatisfied with the governments suspension of the controversial extradition bill, an estimated 2 million Hongkongers took to the streets to demand the bills full retraction and Hong Kong leader Carrie Lams resignation, in Hong Kong on June 16, 2019. (Gang Yu/The Epoch Times) On June 12, 2019, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents protested outside the Legislative Council (LegCo) against the second reading of an extradition bill, which would allow the citys top official, the chief executive, to sign off on extradition requests, including from mainland China, without approval from the LegCo. The reading was canceled as a result of the protest, and the bill has since been withdrawn. However, police fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse the demonstrators, injuring over 80 people, including one who was reportedly shot in the eye. The Hong Kong government called the protest a riot, triggering 2 million people to protest four days later and igniting a wider pro-democracy movement. Frank Fang, Annie Wu, and NTD reporter Jane Werrell contributed to this report. Then-President Donald Trump speaks before he signs the coronavirus stimulus relief package in the Oval Office at the White House on March 27, 2020. Listening are from left, Larry Kudlow, White House chief economic adviser, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarty (R-Calif.). (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) Trump: Senate Would Be 60 Democrats Versus 40 Republicans If Not for Him Former President Donald Trump said Democrats would have had a 60-seat majority in the Senate if it wasnt for him and blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for why the Republicans lost control of the chamber in the 2020 elections. Trump made the claim on June 12 during an event in Wisconsin, in which he appeared on a video with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. If it wasnt for me, right now the Senate would be 6040 against, Trump said. Because I made teleconference callsthey call them town hall callsspeaking to tens of thousands of people, for congressional candidates and senators. And we would be at 6040 against instead of 5050, Trump said, adding that McConnell hurt us very, very badly in Georgia and lost those two seats, and we should have never lost those two seats. With the latest comments, it appears that the relationship between McConnell and Trump is still frayed, coming after McConnell sharply criticized the former commander-in-chief in a Wall Street Journal opinion article for his remarks after the Nov. 3 election. McConnell, who didnt vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, suggested that it was Trump and his comments that caused Republicans to lose two runoff elections in Georgia in early January. Theres no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day, McConnell said during Senate floor remarks in February, referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. Trump has denied that his words triggered the breach. During a rally on Jan. 6, the president called on demonstrators to act in a peaceful manner. Also in February, Trump asserted that with McConnell at the helm of the Senate GOP caucus, Republicans wont have much success in the upper chamber. He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country, Trump said of McConnell at the time. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership. The former president then noted that in December, he proposed that Americans receive $2,000 stimulus checks, which was supported by Democrats, but not McConnell. Then came the Georgia disaster, where we should have won both U.S. Senate seats, but McConnell matched the Democrat offer of $2,000 stimulus checks with $600. How does that work? Trump said. It became the Democrats principal advertisement, and a big winner for them it was. McConnells office didnt immediately respond to The Epoch Times for comment. Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow steps out of a Hong Kong Correctional Services vehicle after being released from the Tai Lam Correctional Institution in Tuen Mun district in Hong Kong on June 12, 2021. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images) US Commission Says Hong Kong Activist Agnes Chow Should Never Have Been Imprisoned The CongressionalExecutive Commission on China (CECC), a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, spoke out on June 12 against the imprisonment of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow. Chow, 24, was released from prison on June 12 after being imprisoned for more than six months for taking part in an unauthorized protest near Hong Kongs police headquarters on June 21, 2019. She was convicted along with fellow activists Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam in December last year. On June 12, the CECC took to Twitter to voice support for Chow, as well as others who remain behind bars in Hong Kong. #AgnesChows release only highlights the injustice of her imprisonment, the CECC stated. A more appropriate action to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of 2019 #HongKong protests would have been to drop charges against those who participated in those protests & release all other political prisoners. Chow was released before the end of her 10-month sentence for unknown reasons. Wong is currently in prison after being convicted of taking part in several unauthorized assemblies in 2019 and 2020. June 9, 2019, marked the start of the pro-democracy, anti-Chinese Communist Party movement in Hong Kong, when more than 1 million Hongkongers took to the streets in protest against an extradition bill that would have seen suspects being handed over to China for trial in Party-controlled courts, which are notorious for being used to silence critics and punish dissidents. The extradition bill was formally scrapped months later. After the bill was shelved, protesters in Hong Kong continued to demand universal suffrage and an independent investigation into police brutality against protesters. The protests died down in the Chinese-ruled city after the Chinese regime imposed a draconian national security law last year. Since then, activists and opposition figures have been charged under the law while others have sought asylum in other countries. Demosisto, a Hong Kong pro-democracy political party founded by Chow, Wang, and fellow activist Nathan Law in 2016, disbanded shortly after the national security law went into effect. Hong Kong police arrested more than 10,100 people and prosecuted over 2,300 people between June 9, 2019, and Nov. 30, 2020, according to the police departments Facebook page. Many of those prosecuted were accused of riot, illegal assembly, or criminal damage. The CECCs views were echoed by Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chief executive of London-based NGO Hong Kong Watch, and by Washington-based organization Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC). I am glad @ChowAgnes has been released from prisonbut she should never have been jailed in the first place! Rogers wrote on Twitter. HKDC wrote on Twitter: She [Chow], and countless others, should never have been arrested in the first place. And every day a single activist spends in jail is one day too many. On June 12, Chow didnt speak to the media after she was released from the Tai Lam Correctional Institution in Hong Kong. She wrote on Instagram later that day. The painful six months and 20 days are finally over, Chow wrote. Whats next is to take a good rest and take good care of [my] body because [my] body has become too thin and weak during this time period. She ended her brief message with the words (wry smile). One of several hundred schoolboys freed after being seized in a mass abduction prays during a meeting with Nigeria's president Katsina, Nigeria, on Dec. 18, 2020. (Kola Sulaimon /AFP via Getty Images) US Policy on Nigeria Needs an Unblinkered View of Atrocities Commentary Nigeria, despite boasting Africas largest economy, is falling apart, warn that nations Catholic bishops. Pointing to the mayhem let loose by various Islamic terrorist groups and criminals, they describe government authorities that are either unableor worse still, unwillingto take up the responsibilities of their office. Citing the bishops, Council on Foreign Relations Nigeria expert Ambassador John Campbell agrees, aptly summarizing the crisis in the headline of his May 31 analysis, The Giant of Africa Is Failing. A chaotic, bloody disintegration of Africas most populous nation would be catastrophic for the region and beyond, witnesses emphasized at a June 9 hearing of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Former Congressman Frank Wolf, the original sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), was among the USCIRF witnesses. Having visited the country and learned of the ongoing atrocities, he emphasized that there are warning signs of genocide against Nigerian Christian communities and others, which must be taken seriously. He urged the Biden administration to appoint a special envoy for an inter-agency, regional, and international response to this crisis, and a special investigator to give trusted input on the mass atrocities, especially needed in the Middle Belt, a region that stretches across central Nigeria. Emergency personnel stand near the wrecked remains of a vehicle ripped apart following two suicide bombings in Nigerias northeast city of Maiduguri on Oct. 29, 2016. (Joshua Omirin/AFP/Getty Images) The scale of human suffering in Nigeria is already horrific. In fact, last December, the U.S. State Department designated Nigeria, along with China, North Korea, and a shortlist of other of the worlds worst religious persecutors, as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), under IRFA. Inexplicably, the department stopped short of adopting specific policies and sanctions with its determination, invoking a legal waiver for Nigeria instead. Beyond giving generous amounts of humanitarian aid to Nigerias burgeoning numbers of refugees and displaced, the United States has no serious policy to address this looming man-made disaster. It seems to even misunderstand the religious problem. The State Departments report largely reduces the violence to a climate change-driven clash over resources between two rural economic classesfarmers and herders. It does not state the grounds for its CPC determination. U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, asserted to a visiting delegation of American Jewish and Christian leaders that the conflict is fundamentally a resource issue, and not about religionan assertion, they found alarming. Even a cursory review of attacks shows victims can be targeted for a crime not solely for financial gain, but also for the jihadist intent of forcibly converting, punishing, or eradicating them. USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, concluded in its report that in Nigerias Middle Belt, nonstate militants also conducted attacks on houses of worship, religious ceremonies, and religious leaders, with Christian communities hit particularly hard. Last December, the Congressional Tom Lantos Commission held hearings eliciting similar reports. Over twenty Catholic priests have been abducted, reports the Jesuit magazine America, as well as unrecorded numbers of other Christian leaders. Many of them were also murdered: Fr. Alphonsus Bello was found dead on May 21, after being kidnapped from his parish in Sokoto state, along with Fr. Joe Keke, who remains missing. On May 19, an Assemblies of God church in northern Nigeria was attacked, killing eight people. On, May 17, gunmen attacked Kadaje community in Kaduna state, killing eight people and kidnapping 11 others, including a Catholic priest. On Jan. 15, Rev. John Gbakaan pastor of St. Anthonys Church was abducted in Niger state, and found dead the next day, tied to a tree and mutilated by a machete. On Dec. 10, also in Niger state, Rev. Jeremiah Ibrahim of Evangelical Church Winning All was murdered, and his wife and four other women were taken hostage. Also last year, Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Adamawa state, was beheaded after being abducted. Nigerian civil rights group International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law reported that, in 2020, 2,400 Nigerian Christians were targeted and killed by jihadists, mostly by Fulani herdsmen. And this year through April, no fewer than 1,470 Christians were killed in jihadi attacks, including 89 who were Igbo Christians. I received stomach-churning photos of 50 others in the southern Oyo state who were hacked to death as they slept last Sunday nightsuch attacks feed a secessionist movement there. As the bishops lamented, there is typically no state investigation, arrest, or prosecution in these atrocity cases. Certainly, Christians arent Nigerias only atrocity victims but there can be no doubt that in certain areas they are targeted, and its because of their religion. Since December 2020, heavily armed gangs have abducted and ransomed almost 1,000 schoolchildren, reported the Wall Street Journal. These children are mostly Muslims but are targeted anyhow for defying the Islamists religious prohibition against Western education. Some 15 million Nigerian children are now barred from school, as a result, demonstrating the increasing control of the jihadists and their criminal partners. Freed Chibok schoolgirls sit during a meeting with Nigeria Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, in Abuja, Nigeria, on Oct. 13, 2016. (Sunday Aghaeze/Nigeria State House via AP) Journalist Douglas Burton reported for The Epoch Times on Nigerias jihadi sex slavery. Teenager Leah Sharibu and 110 other Christian Chibok schoolgirls remain in captivity, as well as many other girls abducted in rural villages and from buses at jihadi checkpoints. Unless used as suicide bombers, these girls are forced to convert to Islam and submit to lives of sexual abuse as jihadi wives. (In 2014, ISIS wrote admiringly of Boko Haram for reviving the practice of enslaving infidel women, which it then copied on the Yazidis.) The United States takes pride in its foreign policy to advance democratic freedoms, including religious freedom, around the world. The Biden administration urgently needs to turn unblinkered attention on Nigeria. It should begin by taking up Mr. Wolfs recommendations. Nina Shea is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute where she directs the Center for Religious Freedom. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. US, UK Sign New Atlantic Charter Setting Focus on Red China The United States president Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a new Atlantic Charter on the eve of the G7 summit in the United Kingdom. The agreement and the related joint statement by the two heads of state set focus on communist China. On June 10, Biden and Johnson signed the agreement that is modeled after the 1941 Atlantic charter signed by then-U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt and the British prime minister Winston Churchill in a pledge to cooperate on peace and democracy when Adolf Hitlers National Socialist German Workers Party was invading the European continent. The new charter will now see the allies cooperate again to face the expansion of socialism with Chinese characteristics as Beijing continues to challenge the international liberal democratic rules-based order. Our revitalised Atlantic Charter, building on the commitments and aspirations set out eighty years ago, affirms our ongoing commitment to sustaining our enduring values and defending them against new and old challenges, Biden and Johnson said in a statement. We commit to working closely with all partners who share our democratic values and to countering the efforts of those who seek to undermine our alliances and institutions. As was the case with the 1941 statement, the new Atlantic charter outlined eight key areas in which the United States and the United Kingdom have pledged to collaborate. They include defending the principles, values, and institutions of democracy and open societies and human rights, freedom of navigation and lawful use of the seas, and a commitment to open and fair trade between nations. Environmental and health stewardship were also mentioned among the eight key commitments. The document did not mention communist China by name but it is clear that the commitments in the charter outline how the two countries intend to together face the threats posed by Beijing. The commitments regarding human rights, rule of law, free press, fair trade, freedom of navigation, and protecting the liberal Wests innovative edge in science and technology directly address the Chinese regimes ongoing encroachment on freedoms in Hong Kong, genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, as well as its increased military aggression in the disputed South China Sea, setting of debt traps for nations involved in its Belt and Road Initiatives, and systematic stealing of others intellectual property. The Chinese communist regime quickly responded to the new Atlantic charter on the same day, in what the regime saw was action targeting Beijing. Chinas state-run English media Global Times said the document misreads the major trend of the time and risks destabilizing Europe. Biden and Johnson said in a joint statement that the new Atlantic Charter would deepen the two countries cooperation in the key areas. They stressed that the United States and the United Kingdom support a thorough second phase investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically named China. We will also support a timely, transparent, and evidence-based independent process for the next phase of the WHO-convened COVID-19 origins study, including in China, and for investigating outbreaks of unknown origin in the future, the statement read. A general view of G7 leaders and their guests is pictured at a working sesssion during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK, on June 12, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Virus Probe Necessary to Avoid Repeating Absolute Carnage of COVID-19 Pandemic: Australian PM A thorough probe into the origins of the coronavirus is necessary to avoid a repeat in future, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says. Morrison joined G7 leaders to discuss health issues on Saturday in the UK coastal resort of Carbis Bay, with talks focused on the recovery from the pandemic and how the world can be better prepared for an outbreak of other diseases. He also sat down with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. President Joe Biden, issuing a statement saying the strategic context in the Indo-Pacific was changing and that there was a strong rationale for deepening co-operation between the three governments. The G7 group of wealthy democraciesthe UK, United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japanhave invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea, South Africa, and India to take part in the three-day summit in Cornwall this year. The Australian governments strong support on the international stage for an independent investigation into how COVID-19 emerged has angered officials in Beijing and further damaged strained relations with communist China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019. The purpose of these inquiries is to understandits got nothing to do with politics or frankly blame or anything elseit is about understanding it, Morrison said. So we all, on a future occasion should it occur, can move quickly and can respond and avoid the absolute carnage that weve seen from this pandemic to both lives and livelihoods all around the world. UK Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, presented the G7 leaders with an outline of how treatments, tests, and vaccines could be developed within a 100 days of a new disease being detected. What is important in the future is that should there ever be an event, should there ever be a seriously communicable virus or disease that the world acts swiftly, Morrison said after the talks. I thought the 100-day plan that was set out today was brilliant. Earlier, he said more investigations and reforms were necessary to fight potential pandemics. The process we called for is not yet done It is recommending that there be further powers for WHO officers to be able to identify these things early and to ensure that that information is reliably passed on in a timely way. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 25, 2020. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) His comments were echoed by WHO head Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who told a G7 media briefing after the session, This is very tragic and I think the respect these people (the estimated 174 million infected with COVID-19 and the 3.75 million who died) deserve is knowing what the origin of this virus is so that we can prevent it from happening again. Tedros said that the WHO was now preparing for the second phase of the COVID-19 origin study, which is something the WHO takes really seriously. We will need co-operation from the Chinese side, he said. We need transparency in order to find the origin of this virus. Tedros also said the theory the virus could have emerged as a result of a laboratory leak was raised at the talks among G7 leaders on Saturday. G7 host Johnson and his wife Carrie formally welcomed Morrison to summit on Saturday afternoon, greeting each other with elbow and lower arm taps. Australians are always at home on a beach, Morrison said as he approached his counterpart on the boardwalk at St Ives. Bondi, eat your heart out, Johnson replied. Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomes Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison to the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall on June 12, 2021. (LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) Morrison posed alongside fellow summit attendees for the official G7 group photo shortly before 8 p.m. on Saturday, standing next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Morrison also held talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier in the day. By Michael Mehr. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. Leaders of the G-7 pose for a group photo on overlooking the beach at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, on June 11, 2021. Leaders from left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Council President Charles Michel, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Patrick Semansky/Pool/AP Photo) Wheres the Detail? G-7 Nations Agree to Boost Climate Finance CARBIS BAY, EnglandGroup of Seven (G-7) leaders agreed on Sunday to raise their contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 billion a year to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming, but campaigners said firm cash promises were missing. Alongside plans billed as helping speed infrastructure funding in developing countries and a shift to renewable and sustainable technology, the worlds seven largest advanced economies again pledged to meet the climate finance target. But climate groups said the promise made in the summits final communique lacked detail, most importantly a figure for the increases. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said individual nations were expected to set out the size of the increases in due course. In the communique, the seven nationsthe United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japanreaffirmed their commitment to jointly mobilise $100 billion per year from public and private sources, through to 2025. Towards this end, we commit to each increase and improve our overall international public climate finance contributions for this period and call on other developed countries to join and enhance their contributions to this effort. There was a clear push by leaders at the G-7 summit in southwestern England to try to counter Chinas increasing influence in the world, particularly among developing nations. The leaders signaled their desire to build a rival to Beijings multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative but the details were few and far between. In a statement released late on Saturday, G-7 host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, Protecting our planet is the most important thing we as leaders can do for our people. As democratic nations we have a responsibility to help developing countries reap the benefits of clean growth through a fair and transparent system. The G-7 has an unprecedented opportunity to drive a global Green Industrial Revolution, with the potential to transform the way we live. Pledge Overdue Some green groups were unimpressed with the climate pledges. Catherine Pettengell, director at Climate Action Network, an umbrella group for advocacy organizations, said the G-7 had failed to rise to the challenge of agreeing on concrete commitments on climate finance. We had hoped that the leaders of the worlds richest nations would come away from this week having put their money their mouth is, she said. Tasneem Essop, executive director at Climate Action International, said rich countries must put new and additional finance on the table. Developed countries agreed at the United Nations in 2009 to together contribute $100 billion each year by 2020 in climate finance to poorer countries, many of whom are grappling with rising seas, storms, and droughts. That target was not met, derailed in part by the coronavirus pandemic that also forced Britain to postpone the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) until later this year. The G-7 also said 2021 should be a turning point for our planet and to accelerate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep the 1.5 Celsius global warming threshold within reach. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the G-7 leaders had agreed to phase out coal. The communique seemed less clear, saying, We have committed to rapidly scale-up technologies and policies that further accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity, consistent with our 2030 NDCs and net zero commitment. But there were few details on how they would manage to cut emissions, with an absence of specific measures on everything from the phasing out of coal to moving to electric vehicles. Pettengell said it was encouraging that leaders were recognizing the importance of climate change but their words had to be backed up by specific action on cutting subsidies for fossil fuel development and ending investment in projects such as new oil and gas fields, as well as on climate finance. British environmentalist David Attenborough appealed to the group to take action. We know in detail what is happening to our planet, and we know many of the things we need to do during this decade, he said in a recorded video address to the meeting. Tackling climate change is now as much a political and communications challenge as it is a scientific or technological one. We have the skills to address it in time, all we need is the global will to do so. By Elizabeth Piper and William Schomberg Epoch Times staff contributed to this report TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) If China is to meet its tentative goal of vaccinating 80% of its population against the coronavirus by the end of the year, tens of millions of children may have to start rolling up their sleeves. Regulators took the first step last week by approving the use of the countrys Sinovac vaccine for children aged 3 to 17, and on Friday announced the same for the Sinopharm vaccine. No date has been set for the shots to start. Children have been largely spared the worst of the pandemic, becoming infected less easily than adults and generally showing less severe symptoms when they do catch the virus. But experts say children can still transmit the virus to others and some note that if countries are going to achieve herd immunity through their vaccination campaigns, inoculating children should be part of the plan. Vaccinating children is an important step forward, said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kongs medical school. Doing so, however, may be easier said than done for reasons ranging from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine availability. Even in countries with enough vaccines to go around, some governments are having problems convincing adults that the shots are safe and necessary despite studies demonstrating they are. Such concerns can be amplified when dealing with societys youngest. There's also the issue of approval. Few regulators around the world have evaluated the safety of COVID-19 shots in kids, with the majority of shots approved only for adults right now. But the approvals are starting. The United States, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong are all allowing the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children as young as 12. The Sinovac and Sinopharm announcements could open the way for the vaccines, already in use in dozens of countries from Brazil to Indonesia, to be given to children across the world. In Thailand, where Sinovac makes much of the countrys vaccine supply, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul welcomed the news that China had approved emergency use for children. Once it gets approved, we are ready to provide the vaccine to cover all ages, Anutin said Monday. Other vaccine makers are also working to expand access to younger people. Moderna is seeking permission to use its shot in children as young as 12, like Pfizer. Both companies have studies underway in even younger children, down to age 6 months. Another obstacle to vaccinating children is that many countries are still struggling to get enough doses to inoculate their higher-risk adult populations. Thailand, for example, has vaccinated only 4% of its population so far and adult demand for vaccines far outweighs supply. Right now given the shortages of vaccines, any available vaccine should be placed in age-based prioritization and risk-based prioritization, said Jerome Kim, head of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul. Its really important to get this vaccine out in the places its needed now. In many places there are also concerns among the public about the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines versus Western rivals. While efficacy rates cannot be compared directly, owing to the trials being conducted under different conditions, the Western vaccines have shown to be very effective in preventing infection in real world tests. Sinovac's shot has been shown to be effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization. Sinopharm's shot has revealed comparatively less data. The World Health Organization have approved both vaccines for emergency use in adults aged 18 and older, paving the way for its use in global programs aiming to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. The WHO has given no indication of when it might approve it for those younger. Vaccines are often approved separately for adults and children because younger immune systems may react differently to the doses. Experts say inactivated vaccines are generally considered safe for children, as the technology has been in use for a long time, such as in mandatory childhood immunization programs, and have shown low risk. Nikolai Petrovsky, a vaccine expert at Flinders University in Australia, said that while it is reasonable to assume the vaccines would safe for children, he questioned the necessity of vaccinating them against a virus they are relatively protected from using a vaccine that has yet to show it blocks transmission. As far as I am aware there is no data to suggest the Sinovac vaccine will block transmission in children," he wrote in an email. "Without such evidence we need to ask why we are immunising the children. China has a population of 1.4 billion, meaning it needs to inoculate 560 million people to reach its goal of 40% vaccination by June and 1.12 billion people to get to the 80% goal. It will be hard to do the latter without vaccinating many of its 254 million children who are younger than 14. When China starts inoculating children will be determined by the government's National Health Commission in accordance with the epidemic situation, Sinovac CEO Yin Weidong told state broadcaster CCTV last week. A spokesperson for Sinovac did not respond to a call requesting comment. Chinas National Health Commission directed the AP to a news report that summarized Yin's comments. ___ Associated Press writers Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Fu Ting in Bangkok contributed to this report. NORWALK Opened in 1971, the Artists Market on Main Street is closing its doors and clearing out the 5,000-square-foot studio and gallery space. After decades of art shared and framed, market owner Jeffery Price decided to close the shop and retire to spend time on personal projects in his Amish-built cottage near his home. Artists Market was housed where World of Beverages now stands until 1985, when the market moved to a new gallery built on the property of a former woodshed and barn. I wanted it to have an intimate space where people could get close to the artwork, because I tend to like little black-and-white prints, and get up close to them, Price said. I wanted a low ceiling part and a high ceiling and a workshop. Thats what we designed, and weve been here for 35 years in this building. With the market closing, Price had to find the right new owner of the property and reached an agreement with a local interior designer to take over the space. The next step in the closing process was getting rid of the copious, professionally framed art and photographs accumulated over the 35 years in the gallery. We had a short sale, but we were left with a lot of beautiful things, Price said. Thats what we did for decades and decades. We looked for places where they can go. In looking to find a home for the artwork, Price contacted Keystone House, another Main Street organization, which offers housing for adults with psychiatric disorders. Keystones three group homes house 26 residents struggling with mental illness, Keystone Development Officer Kim Carter said. Its bittersweet, Carter said. We were honored to be chosen as the wonderful recipient for our group-homes of this beautiful art. Price contacted Carter about two weeks ago and donated about 25 framed artworks to the Keystone facilities, Price said. Carter estimated the works amounted to upwards of $10,000. We wanted to thank them for what theyve done for the community, Carter said. Theyre framed photographs and theyre amazing. (Artists Market) is known to be an extraordinary art and framing gallery and theres just Jeffery himself. While Keystone received most of the remaining art, the rest was split among the city of Norwalk, the Stamford Nature Center and Temple Beth El, Price said. The markets last day in business was May 22 and the new owner moves in Wednesday, Price said. Its been a 50-year run, which was challenging, but its satisfying, Price said. Im trying to spread the art and supplies around. In his retirement, Price plans to visit his three children, two in Maine and one in New York, and his grandchildren. In his spare time, he will continue in the art field, working on personal projects and reading often. The Amish in Pennsylvania built the cottage in the backyard, its a 400-square-foot cute building, Price said. I will be able to have a home office and workshop. I am looking forward to things like reading books during daylight, that sounds fascinating to me. Ive always had to cram them in before I went to sleep. With a degree in art history from the University of Connecticut, Price married the daughter of the markets first owner and soon after began working as a framer for the store. Over his decades of work as a framer, Prices work has been displayed at the Yale University Art Gallery and a museum in Greece, among other places. These are things that dont normally happen in a gallery or in Norwalk, Price said. We made a reputation for ourselves with good framing, interesting pictures and fine art. The Artists Market became more than a shop, it became a destination, a place with an atmosphere, a place people liked to come. They were surrounded by beauty, music and people to talk to them. At 69, Prices age and the rapid shift to online shopping led to his decision to close the gallery. Prices wife of 19 years, Esta Berman-Price, said working in the store during busy, holiday seasons, she came to know the regular customers as well and is sad to leave it all behind, but believes it is time to start a new chapter. It has been a daunting task to pack up 46 years of memories, said Berman-Price, an elementary school teacher for more than 40 years. My husband has worked exceptionally hard in his lifetime. He has been a success, and its time to have new challenges. abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com Contributed / Ledyard Police Department LEDYARD An officer was struck by a passing vehicle when conducting a traffic stop, according to a press release from the Leyard Police Department. The incident occurred at around 2:33 a.m. Saturday on Route 2 just west of Watson Road, according to the release. NORWALK The Triangle Community Center held a sailing event Saturday along in honor of June as LGBTQ+ Pride month. The event, dubbed the Pride Parade of Sail 2021, included a dinner lobster bake. Boats rendezvoused between Peach Island and Norwalk Cove Marina, sailed to the Maritime Center and Calf Pasture Beach, then to Sheffield Island for a celebration and lobster bake, according to a Triangle Community Center statement. Proceeds from the event benefited the Triangle Center. The event began with Pride flags raised and boats congregating around 11:30 a.m., with boats arriving at Sheffield Island around 2 p.m., according to the statement. Limited tickets were sold for the boating space and lobster bake. Boats were allowed to join the parade for free, while those who wanted to attend but did not own a boat were able to purchase VIP tickets to score a ride to and from Sheffield Island, according to the statement. abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com NORWALK Board of Education Chairman Colin Hosten says he wants to shout it from the mountaintops the appreciation he and the rest of the community have for the citys public schools employees. We are so grateful to the Norwalk Public Schools employees for getting us through this crazy year, he said. With a blitz of signs and support from businesses large and small, the Norwalk Education Foundation has organized an effort for the community to show its appreciation on Tuesday. Drivers on Interstate-95 will see the SoNo Collection sign that will thank the Norwalk Public Schools staff. There will also be 100 lawn signs reading, We love our teachers and staff posted around the citys streets, and NPS employees can get discounts, free ice cream and coffee, even a free plant at businesses that are participating in the initiative. I just wanted to recognize the people who worked so hard without complaint during these tough two years, said Jeff Deorio, owner of Reynolds Farm Nursery. NPS employees can receive a free 2-gallon Spirea plant by showing their identification badge on Tuesday. Steve Tyminski, owner of Sweet Ashleys, is offering a 20 percent discount for NPS employees. Teachers are some of the most important people around. They educate the young ones, reeducate the old ones, and reeducate themselves, and I am grateful for it, he said. The NEF board (of which I am a member) and NPS usually host Excellence in Education, a year-end gala dinner honoring individual teachers and paraprofessionals. But this year, NEF wanted to recognize the excellence in every employee. Norwalk schools stayed open for the entire school year, and that was hard, said Marge Costa, NEF executive director. It was a phenomenal effort on everyones part to keep the schools open, and we dont want that to go unnoticed, so were saying thank you in a small way. Some businesses jumped at the chance to show gratitude. On Tuesday, NPS employees can receive discounts and free ice cream or coffee at a number of places in Norwalk by showing their ID badge. The PTO Council is spearheading an effort for parents at individual schools to show their appreciation. I have never been happier to be in Norwalk, said Jenn McMuerrer, PTA president at Marvin Elementary School. She said Norwalk schools let parents make their own decisions about what was best for their children full in-person, hybrid or remote learning. Her two children needed to be in-person full-time. I learned that I may be an exceptional mother, but I am not an exceptional teacher, she said. She was grateful that exceptional teachers were there for her kids. I always say that the teachers are everything, but this year they had to be so flexible and pivot in so many ways at so many times, she said. Norwalk school employees appreciation day With a Norwalk Public Schools ID badge, employees can receive these offers on Tuesday: Discounts: Post Road Diner: 20% Sweet Ashley's: 20% Station House: 15% Jordan's Pizza: 15% Silver Star Diner: 15% Liz Sue Bagels: 10% il Posto Restaurant: 10% Rowayton Pizza - small cheese pizza and soda: $6 East Ave. Pizza - small cheese pizza: $6 Free: Reynold's Farm: 2-gallon Spirea plant Stew Leonard's: Small ice cream cone Overton's: Small ice cream cone Brendan's 101: Small ice cream cone Starbucks, Conn. Avenue: Small coffee Starbucks, Route 7: Cake pop Starbucks, Westport Avenue: Small coffee or cake pop See More Collapse Flexibility was key. Since Sept 8, there have been 1,437 cases of COVID in the schools among students and staff. A total of 10,842 people had to be quarantined over the course of the year, resulting in many classrooms or entire schools going remote on a moments notice. It was an all-out team effort for schools to stay open, said Brenda Wilcox Williams, chief communications officer for NPS. The custodians had completely new protocols to follow, she said, sanitizing the buildings and bathrooms, and moving furniture around to comply with social distancing. The food service workers made sure students and families had access to meals at all times last spring, this year, and through the summer. Their commitment to making sure students were fed was phenomenal, Williams said. School nurses were on the front lines for contact tracing. This was a public health crisis and the school nurses went above and beyond, Williams said. And secretaries did what they do best everything. Hosten was especially grateful to the administrators principals, assistants, and central office staff. We have folks working in curriculum helping teachers refocus lesson plans for hybrid teaching. Our finance people found their budgets thrown completely out of whack and had to figure out how to pay for everything, he said. And Superintendent of Schools Alexandra Estrella had just been hired when COVID closed the schools last spring. It was a new job, and new district, and then COVID, Hosten said. She worked non-stop making tough decisions. As this school year ends, hope is high that next year will be normal. But we all carry images of this historic year seared in our memories. As a reporter covering education during COVID, I cant forget the image of a long line of cars at Ponus Ridge Middle School as the principal and assistant principal gave out bags of food. For Williams, it is the image of the first day of school and the children getting off the school buses wearing masks, being greeted by the superintendent wearing a mask. And for McMurrer, its two different images the final day of school last year when her son was running around the house because his teacher created a remote scavenger hunt as a celebration, and the image of the children walking into school with their masks on in September. What I have learned from this was how resilient everyone was the teachers and the kids, she said. And echoing a phrase I heard over and over during my reporting this year, Hosten said, At the end of the day, we just did it. We didnt have a choice, we just did it. Roz McCarthy is a former Norwalk school board member and Norwalk Public Schools employee. Email her at rozmcc2@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Police have arrested one suspect and are searching for another after a mass shooting on a crowded downtown Austin street left 14 people wounded early Saturday, two of them critically. The Austin Police Department said in a news release that the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force assisted in making the arrest, but it provided no other details other than to say it is continuing to follow up on leads for the suspect still at large. Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon said the shooting happened around 1:30 a.m. on a street packed with bars and barricaded off from vehicle traffic. He said investigators believe it began as a dispute between two parties. Chacon said both suspects are male, but declined to disclose details such as whether both fired shots, saying the investigation was ongoing. "Most of the victims were innocent bystanders, but we're still sorting out all of the victims to see what their involvement is in this case, Chacon said. The mass shooting one of at least three in the U.S. overnight sparked panic along 6th Street, a popular nightlife destination in the city that's home to the University of Texas. One witness, Matt Perlstein, told KXAN-TV that he was waiting with a friend to enter a bar when gunfire erupted. Everything was totally fine, Perlstein said, then gunfire erupted. We just heard like ... a bunch of gunshots going off. Everyone got on the ground. We couldnt even comprehend what was going on at the time. Chacon said his officers responded quickly to the area. They were able to immediately begin life-saving measures for many of these patients, including applications of tourniquets; applications of chest seals, he said. Because of the chaos on the barricaded street, police drove six of the wounded to hospitals in their squad cars. Ambulances transported four people and the other four made their own way to hospitals, he said. Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement thanking police and other first responders and offering prayers to the victims. Abbott said the state Department of Public Safety is assisting in the investigation and Chacon said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were also assisting. John Raoux/AP President Joe Biden said on the fifth anniversary of a mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that he will sign a bill naming the site as a national memorial. The deadliest attack on the LGBTQ community in U.S. history left 49 people dead and 53 people wounded as Latin Night was being celebrated at the club. Biden said in a statement Saturday that he has stayed in touch with families of the victims and with the survivors who have turned their pain into purpose" and described the club as hallowed ground. SAO PAULO (AP) Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro led thousands of motorcyclist supporters through the streets of Sao Paulo on Saturday and got hit with a fine for failure to wear a mask in violation of local pandemic restrictions. The conservative president waved to the crowd from his motorcycle and later from atop a sound truck, where helmeted but largely maskless backers cheered and chanted as he insisted that masks were useless for those already vaccinated an assertion disputed by most public health experts. Sao Paulo's state government press office said a fine equivalent to about $110 would be imposed for violation of a rule that has required masks in public places since May 2020. According to a survey by local authorities, 12,000 motorcycles participated in the pro-Bolsonaro event. Bolsonaro's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The procession of motorcyclists wound out of the city and back, arriving at Ibirapuera Park, where the president clambered atop a car to defend his denunciation of masks for the vaccinated. Whoever is against this proposal is because they dont believe in science, because if they are vaccinated, there is no way the virus can be transmitted, he said. Vaccines are designed chiefly to protect recipients from getting sick, not necessarily from being infected. While studies show many vaccines reduce viral load, and likely spread, not all varieties have been fully studied. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, The risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus. Less than 12% of Brazil's population so far has received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Ministry of Health, and many Brazilian experts say masks can only be abandoned after the majority of the population has been vaccinated. Bolsonaro also was fined for failure to wear a mask during a rally with supporters in May in the northeastern state of Maranhao. Governors of that state and Sao Paulo have been feuding with Bolsonaro over their restrictive measures to stifle the spread of the coronavirus. Cristina Melo, 47, a businesswoman in the computer industry, said she and her husband were at the motorcycle rally because we are patriots. "And of course we defend our president Bolsonaro, she said. WOOD RIVER The Madison County Health Department will offer its final Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine clinic from 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday, June 13, at the American Legion Post No. 435 in Glen Carbon. Appointments are preferred, but walk-ins are welcome. To schedule an appointment time, visit https://events.juvare.com/IL-IDPH/fdade/. ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The 49 people killed in a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida were honored in Orlando and around the world on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the attack. Speakers at an evening remembrance ceremony on the grounds of former Pulse nightclub said a rainbow appeared as survivors of the shooting, family members of those who died and first responders gathered. The site, south of downtown Orlando, was turned into an interim memorial lined with photos of the victims and rainbow-colored flowers and mementos. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who donated blood recently in honor of the people who were killed, said the dead must continue to be remembered with real change. He promised to help foster a community where everyone feels equally valued and protected. Brandon Wolf recalled walking into Pulse on June 12, 2016, arm in arm with his best friend, Drew Leinonen. Six days later, he helped walk Leinonens casket down the aisle at his funeral. Wolf admitted to the crowd that he felt like running away after the massacre but instead made a promise to his late friend: to never stop fighting for a world he would be proud of. Now the media relations manager for the LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality Florida, Wolf said the anniversary of the shooting should remind people to recommit themselves to taking action. Bigotry and hatred are not asleep. They still move around us, he said. And if we are going to snuff them out, we must make the same defiant choice we made on this site five years ago today, and that is to embrace the power of community and reject the temptation to come apart at the seams of our differences. Members of the onePULSE Foundation, a nonprofit incorporated by the owners of the nightclub, said a memorial and museum is in the works. The group also offers educational programs and legacy scholarships. President Joe Biden said Saturday that he will sign a bill naming the nightclub as a national memorial. He emphasized in a statement that the country must do more to reduce gun violence, such as banning assault weapons and closing loopholes in regulations that enable gun buyers to bypass background checks. At Saturday evening's memorial, family members read the victims names as a slideshow showed their photos. City of Orlando officials say more than 600 places of worship worldwide tolled their bells 49 times to honor each victim who died in the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The First United Methodist Church of Orlando gathered loved ones and community members and read the victims names. The deadliest attack on the LGBTQ community in U.S. history left 49 people dead and 53 people wounded as Latin Night was being celebrated at the club. Gunman Omar Mateen was killed after a three-hour standoff by SWAT team members. He had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Deputy Orlando Police Chief James P. Young, an openly gay man who reported to the scene the night of the shooting, said hes seen friendships strengthen and the community unite over the past five years. If we use our shared experiences and our shared values, including those of strength and unity, love will always win, Young said. Local officials gathered along the East River this morning to announce they have set aside $7 million to develop a beach and park under the Brooklyn Bridge. The proposal was initially detailed in the East River Blueway plan, a joint visioning exercise conducted by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh and many community groups. The 11,000 square foot area, currently inaccessible, will include sand, seating, a walkway and concessions. Half of the money for the project is coming from the City Council; the other half from Stringer. Council Speaker Christine Quinn (a mayoral candidate) and Stringer (a candidate for city comptroller) were front and center at todays media event on the esplanade. In addition to the Brooklyn Bridge beach, theres a separate plan to create a kayak and canoe launch in Stuyvesant Cove, between East 18th and East 23rd streets. According to Council member Dan Garodnick, the Stuyvesant cove boat launch will give East siders a new low-maintenance way to engage with their waterfront. Superstorm Sandy definitely influenced the design of the new waterfront area. The new park will be built for storm resiliency with salt marsh planters, wetlands, ripraps, reef balls and wave attenuation walls. Stringer While the new beach will give residents waterfront access, it will be a long while before people are encouraged to go swimming in the East River. As the Daily News noted this morning, officials hope that some day wading pools can be created, utilizing treated water. But that part of the vision is unfunded. The beach project is expected to take about three years. A day after the city announced plans for Essex Crossing, the billion dollar project on the Seward Park site, theres plenty of new information to pass along. First of all, some clarification regarding the future of a community task force that helped the city select the development team for the large residential and commercial complex. The task force, appointed by Community Board 3, will meet quarterly with the development team. Its composition might change somewhat but many of the members previously involved will continue their roles. As construction gets underway in the spring of 2015 the developers will step up their outreach to the immediate community. There will be a website set up to keep residents informed regarding construction issues and a liaison will be appointed to communicate with the community board and the neighborhood as a whole. The design team and city officials are likely to appear before Community Board 3s land use committee next month to fill in details of their plan. There are lots of unanswered questions; the development firms only found out Monday theyd been chosen to build the Seward Park project. Were told no firm decisions have been made about many commercial tenants. While the mayors press release indicated yesterday that Essex Crossing would include a large grocery store, city planning officials say discussions are ongoing with several full service grocery operators. Also, we have some additional information about the new Essex Street Market and the Market Line, a concourse running along Delancey from Essex Street to Clinton Street. The Essex Market will be 30,000 square feet (double the size of the current facility) on the ground level of a building on the southeast corner of Essex and Delancey streets. It will also include a 7,000 square foot mezzanine, which will be used for seating, bathrooms and an event space/demonstration kitchen. The Market Line, which will sit partially below ground level and feature skylights, is a 90,000 square foot space. It will include 40 micro-stalls designed for start-ups; the developers are creating a special fund to support these businesses. There will also be a culinary incubator and a training center where people can learn craft skills; its a Brooklyn import called 3rd Ward. Among the many retail ventures will be a group of vendors curated by the creators of the Brooklyn Flea. Yesterday, some readers were asking about the construction timetable. The mayors press release noted: The anticipated groundbreaking for the project is spring 2015. The first five buildings (all of the sites south of Delancey except the two adjacent sites between Norfolk and Clinton Streets) consisting of 580 units of housing, including 316 permanently affordable units, are anticipated to be completed by Summer 2018. The next two buildings (the remaining parcels south of Delancey, and the parcel located just north of Rivington Street on Essex Street), including the majority of the remaining housing, are anticipated to be completed by summer 2021, and the final two buildings (the remaining parcels north of Delancey Street) are anticipated to be completed by 2022 and 2024. We asked the citys Economic Development Corp. for clarification. The plan, a spokesperson explained, is to begin with sites 1,2,5 and 6. Sites 3 and 4, were told, are the remaining parcels referenced in the press release. The idea is to build a significant amount of housing, including affordable housing, early in the project. In practical terms, theres no way to build simultaneously on all nine sites. The first wave of building will include over half of the affordable housing, the new Essex Street Market and the public open space. Finally, the LES Business Improvement District is out with a statement today concerning Essex Crossing. Heres an excerpt: A huge crowd converged on Grand Street Settlement last night for an information session on affordable housing opportunities at Essex Crossing, the large development project in the former Seward Park urban renewal area. While it was a vivid illustration of the pressing demand for low- and middle-income apartments on the Lower East Side, the chaotic session also showed how unprepared city officials were to handle the situation. It was standing room only inside the meeting room on Pitt Street. A large group was prevented from even coming inside due to the large turnout. The event was moderated by representatives from the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Housing Development Corp. (which is financing portions of the project). Delancey Street Associates, the development consortium, was also on hand. Notices were sent to about 200 people who have identified themselves as former Seward Park site tenants. Some of them were in attendance last night, along with lots of other people from every demographic group on the LES. Essex Crossing includes 1000 apartments; 500 will be affordable to low-, middle- and -moderate-income families. 311 of those affordable units will be built in the first phase of construction, beginning this summer and fall on the first four development parcels. People wont be able to apply for the affordable housing lottery for another year to a year-and-a-half. But given the high interest from the public, city officials agreed to hold the informational session well in advance. From the moment their presentation began in the sweltering meeting room, things did not go according to plan. Residents yelled at the officials to speak more clearly. There was no Spanish or Chinese translation in a room with a substantial number of non-English speakers. After several minutes, people rushed to the front of the room to get their hands on informational handouts. At that point, the city representatives lost control of the proceedings, they were heckled and the meeting was cut short before a question & answer period could even begin. The handout (which was available in multiple languages) did contain some useful details. It explained that a former site tenant is defined as any individual who lived in the Seward Park Extension Urban Renewal Area in the years 1965-1973. The area was bounded by Delancey Street, Essex Street, Grand Street and Willett Street. In order to qualify, people must show government-issued documents to prove their address (passports, voter id cards, etc.) The handout emphasized that even former site tenants are not guaranteed of an affordable apartment at Essex Crossing. They must meet family income requirements. In the lottery, residents of Community District 3 will receive priority for 50% of the apartments. Within that allotment, approved former site tenants will have an additional priority. The officials urged residents to sign up for alerts on the NYC Housing Connect website, where the application will eventually be available. Applications may also be requested by mail. There was also a chart that detailed affordable housing availabilities in the first phase of construction. These numbers are based on Area Median Income (AMI), as determined by the federal government, which for New York this year is $86,300. Heres a summary: Site 1 : 11 Condominium apartments available at 110% of AMI. Family of 1: $66,550 household income; Family of 4 $94,930 household income. : 11 Condominium apartments available at 110% of AMI. Family of 1: $66,550 household income; Family of 4 $94,930 household income. Site 2 : 98 rental apartments available between 40-155% of AMI. Family of 1: $24,200-93,775 household income. Family of 4: $34,520-133,765 household income. : 98 rental apartments available between 40-155% of AMI. Family of 1: $24,200-93,775 household income. Family of 4: $34,520-133,765 household income. Site 5 : 104 rental apartments available between 40-155% of AMI. Family of 1: $24,200-93,775 household income. Family of 4: $34,520-133,765 household income. : 104 rental apartments available between 40-155% of AMI. Family of 1: $24,200-93,775 household income. Family of 4: $34,520-133,765 household income. Site 6 (senior housing): 100 rental apartments available at 40% and 80% of AMI. Family of 1: $24,200 or $48,350 household income. Family of 4: $34,520 or $69.050 household income. The city officials suggested that people who need help determining whether theyre eligible contact two non-profit organizations on the Lower East Side: Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) UPDATE 4:15 p.m. A spokesperson from Grand Street Settlement tells us this afternoon that the fire department responded to the facility last night due to the large crowd that had assembled. Firefighters asked the city agencies to wrap up the meeting as soon as their agenda was complete. In response to growing interest in the Essex Crossing project, were told future events of this type will be held in meeting rooms that can accommodate larger crowds. Lower East Side resident Kami Scott has more photos shot from above Essex Crossing sites 5 and 6 today. The development team puts out a weekly email detailing the activity on each of the four active construction sites. Heres this weeks version: Site 1 (242 Broome St.) This week Site 1 will placing the concrete mud slab. The concrete trucks and concrete pump will be located within the site. Drilling will begin for the sleeve for the elevator piston. The drill rig will also be located within the site gate. Flag persons will be positioned at the gate to direct pedestrian & vehicular traffic. Noise and dust control will be standard daily operations. No after-hours work in anticipated. Site 2 (115 Delancey St.) Site 2 will continue excavation and support of excavation at the cellar and sub-cellar level. Sub-cellar and cellar concrete pile cap installation will continue this week. Both of these activities will continue on Saturday, March 26th between the hours of 9am-5pm. Site 5 (145 Clinton St.) Foundation and superstructure work continues at Site 5. Underslab plumbing and electrical installations continue along with concrete pours. Concrete pours are anticipated to take place on Monday, March 21st and Thursday, March 24th in the early morning hours. Site 6 (175 Delancey St.) The coming weeks activity at Site 6 includes pouring concrete for the foundation on the north side (Delancey) and pouring concrete for the east half of the 1st floor slab. No after-hours work is scheduled. Job Opportunities Delancey Street Associates has partnered with workforce organizations the Lower East Side Employment Network (LESEN), a group of local agencies that assists Lower East Side and NYC residents to advance their careers and Workforce1, service provided by the NYC Department of Small Business Services that prepares and connects qualified candidates to job opportunities in New York City. To register for construction related jobs and job training programs in several growth industries, including trainings to more successfully pursue temporary and permanent opportunities at Essex Crossing, please visit this site. M/WBE Opportunities Delancey Street Associates encourages Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) contractors to participate in the development of Essex Crossing across multiple trades. For more information about upcoming bid opportunities, as well as information about future M/WBE trade fairs, networking events and workshops related to the project, please fill out an inquiry form on our website. For updated info on construction activity at Essex Crossing, click here. NXPO, Thai Space Settlement Design Competition join hands At the tail-end of the 16th century, William Shakespeare once said that all things are ready if our minds be so. Many centuries later, it seems as though the rocket scientists and satellite engineers who guide Thailands space programs have taken Shakespeares motivational words to heart. Education By Press Release Sunday 13 June 2021, 01:34PM A meeting was held between the executives of the NXPO and the executives of the Thai-SSDC which explored the possibility of a mutual collaboration between both parties. A meeting was held between the executives of the NXPO and the executives of the Thai-SSDC which explored the possibility of a mutual collaboration between both parties. New to Southeast Asia, the Thai Space Settlement Design Competition (Thai-SSDC) is a branch of the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC), a NASA legacy educational initiative for teenagers aged 14-18. Its goals are to allow Thailands most talented teenagers to work with real-life rocket scientists and aerospace engineers from space agencies around the world in an exciting game competition which could even see them competing at the ISSDC Global Finals at the Kennedy Center, at NASA (Merritt Island, Florida, USA). The Office of National Higher Education Scientific Research & Administration Policy Council (NXPO) is an autonomous public agency that has been involved with many previous aerospace educational programs and which presently serves the youth of Thailand. On March 1, 2021, a meeting was held between the executives of the NXPO and the executives of the Thai-SSDC which explored the possibility of a mutual collaboration between both parties. Attending on behalf of the Thai-SSDC were Chairman Jason Jellison, Operations Manager Oranush Kunatirojana, and Youth Ambassador Sittisak Muangkaew, with Treasurer Jon Santangelo and Co-Director Imran Farzal joining by way of teleconference. Thailands well-known qualified astronaut and satellite engineer Phirada Techavichit helped coordinate communication for both organisations. The meeting formulated a general list of ideas. On April 27, 2021, the NXPO generously agreed to sponsor the first 10 high school teams which enroll in the competition, as well as to cooperate on an outreach to the Thai school system. Im absolutely overjoyed that the NXPO and such a large international coalition of experts have joined hands to make this happen for the youth of Thailand, Chairman Jellison said. The current health crisis has made todays times very painful for our young people, but to think that out of all of those closed schools, out of all of todays historic pain, suffering and darkness, to think that out of all of that gloom, that now our young people will have a new shot at the stars; its simply overwhelming, and I thank the NXPO for their gracious generosity. Many Thai teenagers are frustrated with todays school closures, not seeing their friends, and stress from online learning. Jellison continued. The world has changed dramatically since COVID-19, and were all running to catch up. In reality, there are many young Thai people who look up at the stars and dream of whats up there. Now, these special young people can express themselves in a new and exciting way, and quite a few of them could really live to see their dreams come true. The ISSDC started at NASA in 1984, and the Thai chapter is hosted by Astrium Competitions. It puts 14- to 18-year-old high school students into the shoes of real-life engineers. A school team is composed of approximately 10 students, one of whom must be competent in English. A representative team is formed, and the team files a Request for Proposal, which outlines their own idea for new technology which would be needed in an outer space settlement. The Request for Proposal is the very same document that a real engineer uses to file their designs, and it is precisely those engineers who review the students plans. When a plan is approved by active and/or retired aerospace engineers, the student team is directly connected with the engineers who approved their plan. They all spend several months working together on the student project. Students ultimately work out the engineering problems largely of their own accord, with these knowledgeable engineers and scientists shining a light onto their path. Normally, it costs a representative team a flat fee of B5,000 to enroll, or about B500 per person. Participation fees are not settled yet, but Operations Manager Oranush Kunatirojana advises the Thai-SSDC tries to keep fees as low as possible for the students, and that the Thai-SSDC staff are mainly volunteers who work with no salary for the benefit of Thailands young people. The NXPO is assisting the Thai-SSDC by sponsoring the B5,000 entry fee of the first 10 school teams, and registration is now open. The first Thai national round is scheduled to be held in Bangkok in November at a location yet to be announced. Top placing teams will get the chance to compete at the Asian Finals in India, in January 2022. The top finishing teams from the Asian Finals will get the chance to compete at the ISSDC Global Finals, at the Kennedy Center, in July 2022. Its the opportunity of a lifetime. said Jellison. I encourage any student who has dreamed of living and working in outer space to form a team and go for it. He continued by saying that the ISSDC is a life-changing event which has built many careers in the space industry and contributed to many prestigious university enrollments. Entire young lives are often transformed before their onlooking families eyes. The Thai-SSDC can be contacted in either English or in Thai, but the language of all international aerospace events is English. General Thai and English-language enquiries can be sent via email to astrium.th@gmail.com, or through the Thai-SSDC Facebook site. Headmasters, teachers, and the media can send special enquiries directly to Mr Jellison at his personal email address, mitnoy@live.com, and curious readers can look at many inspirational videos of past national and global competitions throughout the world for free on YouTube by typing in ISSDC. Phuket Opinion: Silence is killing confidence PHUKET: The lack of clear information about the July 1 reopening of Phuket to receiving vaccinated foreign tourists needs immediate attention before the silence does any more damage to just the confidence among prospective tourists that local officials have any idea of what they are doing to prepare for the milestone event. opinionCOVID-19tourismhealth By The Phuket News Sunday 13 June 2021, 10:00AM Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn was in Phuket in person yesterday (June 12) to make sure the message for July 1 was being heard, yet more needs to be revealed publicly to instill confidence among the public. Photo: TAT International expert reports calling the preparations for the July 1 reopening chaotic is being polite. Not in that nothing is being done, but the near-daily announcements of changes in the requirements and the scramble to make sure hotels and other tourism-service businesses are ready is not helping. Having reports circulate just yesterday citing Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn saying that Phuket will not be ready for July 1 would have deterred any prospective tourists from making any decisions of travel to Phuket even if just for day until they learned that Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn was in Phuket in person that same day (yesterday) to lead a workshop with leading Phuket tourism figures about making sure that businesses and services that will be open for the reopening are so in full compliance with anti-COVID measures. It should be taken for granted that if July 1 were no longer going ahead, the governor of the most important international tourism agency for the country would not be wasting his time with leading such a workshop. Mr Yuthasaks attendance in person was to prove one point only: a clear message of the importance he is personally giving to July 1. The problem stems from right here in our province, where our local leading provincial officials are not providing the assurances needed to instill confidence in the messages the public is receiving. The lack of updates and reports even if the answer to any particular issue, say the vaccination of expats on the island, is we do not know right now, please wait forces people to look elsewhere for answers. That is how expats across the island started looking at the ThailandIntervac.com/expatriates web portal to register to be vaccinated, exactly how they were told repeatedly by officials in Bangkok. It was not until the grapevine advice of seasoned expats on the island, using their own contacts and understanding of local bureaucracy, and of the required kreng jai kowtowing to superiors in the capital, that it has become clear that Phuket expats are not to be registered by that system. The public relations exercise has been a farce. Mr Yuthasaks visit yesterday was not reported by local government agencies. Not even a link to the report posted in the TATs main website was shared on Phukets official channels, leaving any observers open to taking the report of Mr Phiphats claim which still may be true at face value. People just do not know what is true. Silence on the last three COVID deaths in Phuket now three deaths in under two weeks also leaves a chasm in peoples confidence, as everywhere else in country seems to be appraised of the COVID situation in their provinces. If Phuket officials are withholding information because they have been ordered to by superiors in Bangkok, they must say so. If higher-ranking officials are making announcements directly regarding Phuket while elsewhere in the country, those reports must be relayed through Phuket officials. Constant reassurance is needed. Without it, Thailand will reap what it sows through confusion. Phuket Sandbox Workshop prepares for July 1 reopening PHUKET: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) together with the Phuket Provincial Government hosted a Phuket Sandbox Workshop in Phuket yesterday (June 12) to prepare the island to safely reopen to local and international visitors from July 1. tourismeconomicsCOVID-19 By The Phuket News Sunday 13 June 2021, 09:30AM TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn travelled to Phuket in person to lead the workshop, which was also attended by all three Phuket Vice Governors Piyapong Choowong, Pichet Panapong and Vikrom Jakthee as well as TAT Deputy Governors, reported the TATs main office in Bangkok. Also presenting at the workshop were Phuket Tourist Association President Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, along with representatives and figures from Phukets tourism-related public and private sectors, the TAT reported. The workshop was described as a vital opportunity for government officials, business operators, and community leaders to address in detail on all points concerning the reopening of Phuket as a pilot destination to welcome fully vaccinated foreign visitors from 1 July, 2021, onwards. The workshop consisted of four key discussions: marketing strategy and communications plan to promote Phuket in Q3/2021; standard operating procedures and specified routes for vaccinated foreign visitors during their stay in Phuket; COVID-19 restrictions, entry/exit measures and contact tracing guidelines, and the importance of the SHA Plus certification. The TAT report noted that the final official details of the Phuket Sandbox model are currently under review by the Royal Thai Government, but directed people to view its comprehensive list of details and entry requirements that are currently expected to be introduced. The Centre for Economic Situation Administration (CESA), chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, on June 4 approved the Phuket Sandbox reopening for July 1. However, the scheme still requires confirmation from the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), which is expected to announce its decision next Friday (June 18), before the plan is presented to the Cabinet for final approval on June 22. 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. RIDGEFIELD Main Street will soon be home to dozens of musical musings as local artists prepare for Make Music Ridgefield. Starting June 21, the town will join more than 1,000 communities worldwide for the global celebration of music by offering a variety of performances throughout the day. From Ballard Park to Keeler Tavern, residents will be able to listen and interact with nearly 30 participating musical groups and instructors all over town. All events are free and open to the public. Attendants will be able to enjoy live music at Ballard Park, with performances by The Ridgefield Jazz Giants, Bach to Rock, School of Rock and The Five OClocks. During the event, Lounsbury House and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will host programs celebrating the language of music and the role it can play in enhancing creative expression, according to a release. From 2 to 3:30 p.m., Lounsbury will host violist Suzanne Corey-Sahlin and cellist Gunnar Sahlin of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra as Guild of Artists members Clarice Shirvell, Tina Phillips and Katushka Millones paint alongside them. At the same time, the Aldrich will host members of the Western Connecticut State Youth Orchestra as they play a selection of classical music for children to listen to as they paint. Susie Buckley, a local photographer and Aldrich volunteer, will guide the children as they paint the music. Paint packs will be available for purchase at Sedona Art at 450 Main Street before and on the day of the event, but participants can also bring their own supplies. The event is being produced by the Ridgefield Arts Council. And while this is the third time the town is celebrating Make Music Day, this year it will serve as the kick off to a new promotional initiative: Summer of Song. Heres whats happening at Make Music Ridgefield Gazebo Grooves, Ballard Park, 10:30 a.m. Gong/Drum Circle, Ballard Park, 11:30 a.m. The Ridgefield Jazz Giants, Ballard Park, noon Compassionate Ridgefield leaf sale, Town Hall, noon WMD2, Keeler Tavern, 12:45 p.m. Bang the Can Poetry Jam, Ridgefield Library, 1 p.m. Ukulele lessons with Juliette Axen, Toy Chest, 1 p.m. William Knispel, Ridgefield Crossings, 1:30 p.m. Bach to Rock Faculty Band, Ballard Park, 2 p.m. Maggie Seligman, Keeler Tavern, 2 p.m. Paint the Music, Lounsbury House, 2 p.m. WCYO Paint the Music, The Aldrich, 2 p.m. Music Learning Centers of Ridgefield & Danbury, Ridgefield Crossings, 2:15 p.m. Chris Belden, Town Hall, 2:45 p.m. Marko Katra and Kai Fozouni, Keeler Tavern, 3 p.m. Sing-a-long with Barrett Jones & Trevor Gladwin, Ridgefield Library, 3 p.m. Maggie Seligman, Tewes-CARES, 3 p.m. WCYO, The Aldrich, 3 p.m. Pete Wikul Jazz Band, Lounsbury House, 3:45 p.m. School of Rock House Band, Ballard Park, 4 p.m. The Ridgefield Jazz Giants, Keeler Tavern, 4 p.m. Macklin Burke, Ridgefield Library, 4 p.m. Mazer, Graham Dickenson SPIRIT Skate Park, 4 p.m. Robust 7, Tewes-CARES, 4 p.m. Brian Butler Quartet, Town Hall, 4 p.m. Ridgefield Chamber Orchestra, Ridgefield Library, 5 p.m. The 5 O'Clocks, Ballard Park, 6 p.m. Angry O'Hara's, Keeler Tavern, 6 p.m. Danbury Mad Hatter Barbershop Chorus and Blue Moon Quartet, Town Hall, 6 p.m. Rohan Connally & Owen LoFaso, Mamanasco Beach Club, 7 p.m. Absofunkinlutely, Keeler Tavern, 8 p.m. See More Collapse A joint effort by the council, the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce and the Economic & Community Development Commission, Summer of Song celebrates more than two months worth of programming that residents and visitors can expect this season. The brochure boasts more than 80 event listings from CHIRP, the Playhouse, the Theater Barn and other venues taking place throughout the summer, providing a comprehensive look into the towns cultural arts community. Brochures are available for pickup at participating organizations and include a scanable QR code that provides digital access to the full calendar of events. This is the first time weve combined the nonprofit and for-profit worlds as a way to bring business into town and let people know whats happening, Ridgefield Arts Council Chair Jennifer DiLaura said. We have this cultural designation, lets use it. ECDC Chair Geoffrey Morris referred to the Summer of Song as a visual highlight of everything Ridgefield has to offer. Recognizing the resiliency of local artists many of whom continued to create despite the pandemic COC Executive Director Sarah Grossman said the initiative would help keep money circulating within Ridgefield. Commerce in this town is so contingent on the arts community, she said. As a chamber we asked ourselves how can we be an asset and aid to the town? We realized we needed to help further create this community (so) businesses would continue to thrive as they did before. First Selectman Rudy Marconi agreed. As he read off a laundry list of the towns performing arts venues and cultural destinations as well as all they have to offer he said, Thats what will bring this economy back, thats what plants the seeds of growth for the future. For more information about Make Music Ridgefield website. For more information about Summer of Song visit its website. alyssa.seidman@hearstmediact.com Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 27C. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 16C. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%. EDWARDSVILLE An East Alton woman was charged Friday with aggravated arson after allegedly setting a fire to an apartment complex on Fourth Street. Vicki E. Thomas, 57, of East Alton, was charged June 11 with aggravated arson, a Class X felony. The case was presented by the East Alton Police Department. According to court documents, on June 6 Thomas allegedly set fire to an apartment complex at 23 Fourth Street, knowing that people were in the building. Bail was set at $150,000. In an unrelated incident, two men were charged with shooting at each other in early May in Pontoon Beach. Aamarion R. Bey, 18, of Pontoon Beach; and Kameron J. Perry, 19, of St. Louis, were each charged June 11 with reckless discharge of a firearm, both Class 4 felonies. The cases were presented by the Pontoon Beach Police Department. According to court documents, on May 9 Bey allegedly fired a Stribog SP 9 Adam I 9mm handgun at Perry and Perry fired an unidentified firearm at Bey. Bail was set at $15,000 each. Other felony charges filed June 11 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include: Nathaniel Smith, 29, of Glen Carbon, was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On June 10 Smith allegedly struck a senior citizen with a beer can. Bail was set at $33,000. Michael F. Winston, 31, of St. Louis, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. On June 10 Winston allegedly was found to be in possession of a Smith & Wesson .45 caliber handgun. He has a 2011 conviction for unlawful use of weapons out of St. Louis. Bail was set at $25,000. Jamey A. Cassens, 35, of Athlen, Illinois, was charged with offenses relating to a motor vehicle, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On June 10 Cassens allegedly was found to be in possession of a stolen 2018 Ford Focus. Bail was set at $50,000. Billy J. Clark, 40, of Hartford, was charged with driving while license revoked, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On June 10 Clark allegedly was found to be driving on Collinsville Road, Collinsville, while his drivers license was revoked for DUI in 2005. He has prior convictions for driving while license revoked in 2006, 2009, 2010 and on May 25, 2021. Bail was set at $15,000. FALMOUTH, England (AP) The Group of Seven wealthy democracies have wrapped up their first face-to-face summit in two years at a seaside resort in southwest England. The leaders of the G-7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States made commitments on a range of topics, from sharing coronavirus vaccines to tackling climate change and making corporate taxation fairer. Their final agreement from the three-day meeting also included a section on challenging China over non-economic economic practices and calling on Beijing to respect human rights. Here are details on the key topics they covered: VACCINE SHARING The presidents and prime ministers committed to sharing at least 1 billion vaccine shots with struggling countries over the next year, with deliveries starting in August. U.S. President Joe Biden pledged 500 million doses. Britain and Canada committed to 100 million shots each, and France said it would pitch in with 60 million doses. However, the World Health Organization has said that 11 billion doses are needed to truly end the pandemic. Public health advocates also argue that promising vaccine doses isnt enough, and that money and logistical help are needed to get shots into the arms of people in poorer countries. THE ENVIRONMENT Leaders committed to ending new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation -- the use of coal without technology to reduce carbon emissions - by the end of the year, and backed a $2-billion coal transition fund. They also pledged to conserve or protect at least 30% of their countries' land and marine areas by 2030 as part of global biodiversity targets. And they agreed to increase financing for projects to curb climate change until 2025 and reaffirmed their support for a target of producing net-zero carbon emissions no later than 2050. Leading climate groups said the summit fell far short of delivering meaningful details. They urged rich countries to go beyond reiterating existing obligations and to put concrete new climate financing on the table. CHINA The G-7 leaders said they would work together to challenge Chinas non-market policies." They also agreed to call on Beijing to respect human rights in Xinjiang, the remote western region where Chinese authorities are accused of committing serious rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. U.S. President Joe Biden had wanted to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing and to strongly call out Chinas nonmarket policies and human rights abuses. The leaders committed to remove forced labor in global supply chains, including state-sponsored forced labor of vulnerable groups and minorities." This section of their meeting communique did not mention China by name, but the White House said the language was aimed at the main supply chains of concern in the Xinjiang region. CORPORATION TAX G-7 leaders endorsed a global minimum tax of at least 15% on multinational corporations, a measure meant to stop businesses from using tax havens to shift profits and to avoid taxes. Their agreement backed a plan outlined earlier by G-7 finance ministers. The seven countries hope many more will sign on, but thats a fraught proposal in nations with economies based on using low corporate taxes to attract businesses. GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE Leaders agreed to an infrastructure proposal called Build Back Better for the World" that calls for spending hundreds of billions of dollars in collaboration with the private sector to finance greener infrastructure projects in poorer countries. It is designed to compete with Chinas multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road" initiative, which funds a vast network of infrastructure covering large portions of the world, primarily Asia and Africa. FUTURE PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS Leaders said that in the event of a future pandemic, they will seek to ensure the availability of safe and effective vaccines, treatment and diagnostic tests within the first 100 days. Patrick Vallance, the British government's chief scientific adviser, said a 100 Day Mission report gave leaders recommendations for speeding up responses to another pandemic but acknowledged that any such response must be global and include countries that don't belong to the G-7. GIRLS' EDUCATION The leaders said COVID-19 has exacerbated underlying inequalities and led to an education crisis, especially for girls. They backed a target of getting 40 million more girls in school by 2026 in poorer countries, and committed to a combined $2.75 billion in funding over the next five years for the Global Partnership for Education. HARTFORD Saturday morning work changed the look of Illinois 3 in Hartford forever. A large section of pipeline bridge, from the Dock Lines Project, moved off of private property and across Illinois 3 to the west side of the industrial levee. The pipeline bridge will carry petroleum-based products to and from the Mississippi River. Workers from Mammoet a large scale moving company were joined by others from Phillips 66, JF Electric, Widman Construction, Federal Steel and the Illinois Department of Transportation to place the pipeline bridge across all four lanes of Illinois 3. Mammoet workers started moving the giant structure shortly before 7 a.m. Saturday. Within an hour, they had it across the highway near its final mounting position. Then, for hours, final adjustments to mount the bridge to its supports continued Saturday. JF Electric crews killed power to some lines in the area for the pipeline bridge placement. IDOT officials prevented motorists from driving around barricades including a large group of cyclists who were riding the top of the levee during the move. And a drone from the Phillips 66 operated refinery documented much of the move from the air. Once it was safely across Illinois 3, crews placed the west side of the pipeline bridge on a temporary support to allow the multi-wheeled rig to reposition itself closer to the center of the span. Illinois 3 was closed at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and was not scheduled to re-open until 9 p.m. Sunday. The work had been scheduled for June 5-6, but was delayed because of a hazardous materials response at railroad tracks near Hartford and Wood River. It would take a lot more than a destructive act of nature and a deadly global pandemic for Sydney Read to give up. The Old Forge residents first semester of medical school at Ross University in Barbados came to a halt when Hurricane Maria devastated part of the Caribbean in September 2017. Then, in her final semester, her coursework was thrown for a loop when the coronavirus pandemic broke out. As it caused shutdowns throughout the globe, it also forced all of her in-person instruction to take place online, including Reads clinical rotations, which involved seeing and treating patients. Still, Read saw her future as a doctor more clearly than ever, and nothing was going to stop her from realizing her dream. It honestly didnt even cross my mind to quit, Read said recently from her Downvalley home. I had wanted to be a doctor my entire life. How could I just abandon that? Read cant even remember a time when she didnt want to become a physician. Her mother went back to school to be a nurse when she was young, which also influenced her decision. As a student at Holy Cross High School, Read made the distinguished honor roll each of her four years there and earned first-place awards in regional and state Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science competitions. She also was recognized as a Scholastic Superstar by The Sunday Times in 2013. Read earned a bachelors degree in neuroscience from Temple University in 2017 before enrolling in medical school. She chose the Caribbean school after meeting a few graduates whose work she greatly admired. Her interest in a more global outlook on health and medicine also pushed her toward a medical school outside the country. Shortly after arriving, however, she began to receive warnings about a looming tropical storm. Maria began as a low-category storm, Read remembered, and while previous storm Irma didnt leave nearly as much damage as forecasters initially thought, Maria would soon prove to be much worse, quickly shooting up to Category 5. As the eye of the storm passed over the island, Read recalled, it became the most surreal experience of her life. She then lost her internet connection, which meant she couldnt get in touch with her family to let them know she was OK. Read, her classmates and the schools faculty then needed to evacuate. I was really so upset for the faculty, because those were their homes, she said. We were all temporary residents, but their whole lives were there. Its heartbreaking. To make it out of Barbados, Read took a 13-hour boat ride to St. Lucia and then flew to Miami. She couldnt get in touch with her parents until she arrived in St. Lucia. By then, it had been days since she last spoke to any of them. They were definitely worried and thinking the worst, she said, adding that there was a misunderstanding with the head count, which added to her familys concern. She didnt hear from the school again until October, when she learned classes would resume on ferry boats through Ross Universitys School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitts and Nevis. The boats couldnt dock for the whole day since it was a cruise ship port and there was no room. Each day for two months, Read boarded a ferry that took her out into the ocean, where she had anatomy lessons and even cadaver labs. Read experienced lots of interruptions in her coursework, including internet connection issues on the boats as well as sea-sickness. Once, the boat left unannounced several hours early, which caused Read and her classmates to miss one of their finals. The seasickness, that was awful, and youre in the middle of the ocean, so you have no internet some days, but were supposed to be having class online. It wasnt what I expected when I started school, thats for sure, she said. Going through the hurricane was stressful, but then there were so many obstacles to overcome in just those first couple months. By the end of the semester, the school arranged for students to take classes in the United States. Read continued her education in Knoxville, Tennessee, before heading to Los Angeles to complete her clinical rotations in the field. In early 2020, she and her classmates heard rumblings of the COVID-19 virus. As it began to take over the news, Read remembered those around her feeling confident that, like past viral outbreaks, it wouldnt reach American shores. Then, outbreaks began on the West Coast and immediately started spreading and shut down much of the country. Read faced the virus head-on while working in medical clinics in high-poverty areas of downtown L.A. that were COVID-19 hotspots and where PPE was scarce. It was a little scary, but the biggest motivator for me was being able to help people, she said. I kind of put (COVID-19) out of my mind and was just trying to stay focused on patients. Finally, by mid-March, the school shut down in-person classes and clinicals and Read returned home to Old Forge, grateful to be close to her family during this trying time. Though she earned her medical degree in her final months of school, she missed out on a lot of milestones aspiring doctors look forward to. However, on Match Day the day future doctors learn where theyll take the next step of their medical education as residents Read matched with SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, where she will start her residency in general surgery later this month. While shes been through a lot to get to where she is, Read knows it only made her a better doctor. Starting off my med school experience the way I did and seeing what I have during the pandemic was very eye-opening and honestly life-changing, she said. I learned a lot, inside the classroom and out of it, and I know now Im more committed to being a doctor than ever. I love the program I matched with. Its about being called to help patients, and I know that this is what Im supposed to be doing. The modular home industry has experienced increased growth as customers are looking for more convenient, cost-efficient options to building a new house. The market is very, very strong this year, said Dave Boniello, vice president of Simplex Homes in Scranton. Weve seen a dramatic increase in our single-family business. Single-family homes have always been an active part of our business, but there has been a significant increase and its continuing on a very good pace. He projects the company is up at least 75% over last years single-family sales. The pandemic has definitely pushed people back into the suburbs who didnt consider that way of living before, Boniello said. A quicker turnaround in construction time is another perk of purchasing a modular home. Modular construction can speed up construction by as much as 50% and cut costs by 20%, according to a 2019 report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which estimated that modular construction could grow to a $130 billion industry in the United States and Europe by 2030. Some of the conventional builders are telling customers theyre not going to be in their home for over a year, said John Colucci, president of the Modular Home Builders Association. In the modular business, I have a pretty good handle on exactly when I can deliver somebody a home. It only takes us six days to build a 3,000-square-foot Colonial in our factory. Boniello also credits the continued scarcity of building supplies for the added demand for modulars. The popularity of our product has been gaining ground over the years, but particularly now with the labor and materials shortage I think people are seeing us as a resource for pricing that is going to be more stable and reliable, he said. Were buying materials in volume, so we have a little bit of ability to control some pricing, although its challenging. Colucci added labor shortages have also benefitted modular home companies. One of the biggest reasons why factory built is growing at a rapid pace is the pure lack of labor out there, he said. Guys that are stick building houses are having a very difficult time trying to get the labor. Its created delays and higher costs to the homebuyers. In addition, Colucci believes more education about the variety of home designs available to customers has spurred interest in modular homes. A lot of people in the past have always felt factory built was very cookie cutter and you couldnt make changes, he said. Our industry has evolved into a much more custom-oriented type manufacturing process. Cathie Shorten, co-owner of Shorten Homes in Dickson City, has also seen a big jump in business. Id say this year were doubling our sales from last year, she said. Shorten thinks the ability for customers to actively interact within the homes makes them an appealing option. People can come in and touch and feel them, and walk through them, she said. Its not just intangible like theyre seeing a floor plan on a piece of paper. Shorten also believes people are opting for modular homes instead of high monthly apartment payments. Rent prices have skyrocketed, she said. From customers Ive talked to, its kind of shocking to me what theyre paying for rent. Stephen Hannon, owner of Susquehanna Modular Homes in Wyoming, said while there is a lot of interest, sales have been somewhat tempered. Demand is up, but material costs are causing a situation of caution, he said. Lumber costs have increased by upwards of 200% and some people are putting their plans on hold. Im getting a lot of calls, but I could be busier if costs were even 5% or 10% lower and product was more readily available. Fidelity Bank The bank announced 13 bankers have been promoted to new corporate officer positions. The distinguished group of bankers exemplifies the vision and core values of the bank. New corporate officers include: Delbert Bert James Jr. has been promoted to senior vice president. James serves as the banks security officer. He has managed more than 4,500 fraud incidents with total exposure of over $63 million, and over $4.5 million in funds that left the bank. His diligence resulted in a recovery rate of 85%. In addition, his implementation of ongoing branch training for counterfeit checks significantly reduced losses. An expert in his field, James also has vast experience with Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) issues. He provides constant support to the banks BSA officer, contributing to the banks strong BSA rating, and sharing his expertise in bank security with branch administration and deposit operations. A resident of Scranton, James joined the staff in 2008. Sharon Mullaney has been named senior vice president. Mullaney serves as business services solutions manager and has been with the bank since 2015. A resident of Lake Ariel, she has earned a reputation as one of the finest treasury management bankers in the region. A trusted adviser, Mullaney provides exceptional service to her clients. With a deep understanding of business needs and cash flow cycles, Mullaney provides unique, customized solutions to clients and prospects. She has served on the board of directors for Griffin Pond Animal Shelter since 2018, and currently serves as secretary. She is also a 2000 graduate of Leadership Lackawanna, and completed the PA Bankers Association Advanced School of Banking in 2019. John Pash has been promoted to senior vice president. A trusted financial adviser, Pash joined the banks team in 2015 and serves as financial analyst in the finance division. Pash has considerable experience in accounting and financial reporting, with expertise in transparent, best-in-class, fully integrated financial reporting processes. Pash is a resident of Jermyn. Todd Saab has been named senior vice president. As a business relationship manager in the Lehigh Valley, Saab joined the banks team in 2018. He is a trusted adviser and a leading commercial lender in the region. He provides customized solutions to clients and prospects based on his expertise in business cash flow cycles. Saab is a resident of Lower Macungie. Rose Coyne, CPA, has been appointed vice president. A resident of Scranton, Coyne serves as financial reporting specialist. She joined the banks team in 2012, earning a reputation as a banker who is proactive, action-oriented and committed to ensuring accuracy in all financial reports. George Czajkowski has been named vice president. Serving as facilities manager, Czajkowski plays a vital role in optimizing operations and safety of all bank properties. He has earned a reputation as a dedicated and proactive professional in his field. William J. Fennie III, CFA, has been appointed vice president. A resident of Scranton, Fennie serves as trust investment officer in Fidelity Banks Wealth Management Division. Since joining the bank in 2018, he has developed strong relationships with the banks wealth management clients and internal business partners. Specializing in investment management, Fennie is the chairman of the banks Wealth Managements Investment Strategy Committee. He embraces a client-centric approach tailoring portfolios and financial plans to fit each clients goals and objectives. Robert RJ Riley has been named vice president. Riley joined the staff in 2017 as business relationship manager. A natural leader in his profession, Riley specializes in business operations and possesses an innate ability to quickly assess client needs to develop customized solutions. Riley is a resident of Kingston. Patricia Curley has been appointed assistant vice president. She has served as retail branch manager in Pittston since 2011. She has a proven track record of success in providing an exceptional experience to her community, clients, bankers and business partners. Curley is a resident of Yatesville. JoAnn Fuller-Lawless has been named assistant vice president, project manager. Since joining the bank in 2019, Fuller-Lawless quickly established herself as a resource for all areas of the bank. Her expertise in project management and bank operations has helped to streamline branch and retail services, and deposit and loan operations. Fuller-Lawless is a resident of Beach Lake. Chris OBrien has been appointed assistant vice president. A resident of Shavertown, OBrien joined the banks team in 2016, as merchant services specialist. Embracing a philosophy of relationship banking, OBrien is an industry leader with exceptional sales skills. He has been recognized by the banks merchant services provider, Elavon, on numerous occasions as a top sales performer for new accounts activated, processing volume and revenue produced for the bank. Matthew Stroney has been named assistant vice president, credit administrator. An indispensable member of the banks credit administration team, Stroney was nominated as Outstanding Service Partner by his peers during the 2020 Fidelity Honors Gala. Among his many achievements was mastery of the CARES Act financial assistance programs, including accounting, PPP lending, CARES Act forbearance and CECL during the pandemic. A resident of Dalton, Stroney joined the banks team in 2017. Lauren Luongo has been granted officer status. A member of the bank team since 2012, Luongo is a business relationship manager in Lackawanna County. Providing exceptional service to internal and external partners and clients, Luongo embraces relationship banking to provide exceptional client services. Luongo is a resident of Roaring Brook Twp. Munley Law Six of the firms lawyers have been included in the 2021 edition of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers. Marion K. Munley, Robert W. Munley III, Daniel W. Munley, James Christopher Munley and John M. Mulcahey all received the designation, which recognizes only 5% of attorneys in the United States. Marion Munley was also named a Top 50 Women Pennsylvania Super Lawyer. In addition, Katie Nealon was named to the 2021 list of Pennsylvanias Rising Stars, which acknowledges just 2.5% of American lawyers who have been practicing for less than 10 years. To be included in Super Lawyers, an attorney must be nominated by his/her peers or identified by the Super Lawyers research department; lawyers cannot nominate themselves nor can they pay to be recognized on the list. Nominated attorneys are subjected to a thorough evaluation and selection process. Rosenn Jenkins & Greenwald LLP Attorneys Lee S. Piatt and Paul T. Rushton were reappointed as members of the Business Law Section council of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. The council governs the bars Business Law Section, which is interested in the development and practical applications of state and national laws concerning finance, corporations and partnerships. The section also works on laws surrounding transactions, bankruptcy, insolvency, receiverships and business regulation. Piatt and Rushton previously served as council members, and they are active in the sections closely-held business committee, of which Rushton serves as chairman. They are members of the sections Title 15 committee and contribute to the sections newsletter. Wayne Bank Bonnie Rutledge has been promoted to assistant vice president and trust officer. Rutledge has been with the bank since 2012 as a member of the wealth management department. She earned her paralegal certification through Penn State University, as well as several certifications in trust and wealth management through the American Bankers Association, while working toward her CTFA designation. She is very active in the community, volunteering her time with many local organizations including a perinatal bereavement support and resource organization. Rutledge resides in Honesdale. At an age when some people are starting to think about winding down a career, Karen Giacobbe is passionate about finishing a long-delayed degree and fulfilling her dream of starting one as a nurse. All the jobs that I have had have entailed taking care of people, Giacobbe, 55, of Dunmore, said. It was just in my heart to do that always. The mother of three is one of three Lackawanna College nursing students selected to be the first recipients of the Allied Services Nursing Scholarship, a partnership announced earlier this year to help promote nursing education and bolster the nursing workforce in Northeast Pennsylvania. Like Giacobbe, the other two recipients Donna Griffith, 46, and Megan Chestnut, 35, both of Scranton are nontraditional students who have taken roundabout journeys to the place where they are. But they share a common destination: an associate degree in nursing as part of what will be the first class to graduate from the Lackawanna program around this time in 2022. Giacobbe, a Wilkes-Barre native, went to what was then Wilkes College after graduating from high school, intent on becoming an elementary education teacher. Then life took her in a different direction in the form of marriage and children, and she never graduated. Although she loves children, she said she came to realize she is more of a caretaker-type of individual. In 2008, she enrolled in the nursing program at Penn State, but left school again three semesters short of finishing her degree to take care of her ailing mother. Through the years, she continued to work in several areas of health and became a certified nurse assistant. As an aide, she gained experience working with the elderly and hospice patients. I love the elderly, Giacobbe said. They just seem to be a forgotten group of individuals in society, and I have a heart for them. She didnt give up her quest for a degree. She enrolled in the nursing program at Marywood University, where she took courses for a year before being accepted into the new program at Lackawanna last June. For Griffith, a nursing degree from Lackawanna will bring her full circle. She earned an associate degree in accounting from the school 25 years ago when it was still located in South Scranton and known as Lackawanna Junior College. She worked in business for about 17 years before deciding she needed another challenge and a change of career. The nursing field beckoned. I felt there would be more opportunities and I could make a difference in other peoples lives, Griffith said. She started chipping away at her degree about five years ago, working as a CNA at Allieds rehabilitation center in Wilkes-Barre while taking classes in her free time. Although fixed on wrapping up her studies at Lackawanna and becoming a registered nurse, she said her business background could be useful in the future, whether its in nursing home administration or another field. It may come back to me again, Griffith said. Chestnut, who has worked in the health care field for 12 years, most of that as a licensed practical nurse, said her original plan was to continue her education after becoming an LPN. But life happened, and my kids have always been my focal point, the mother of three said. Like Griffith, she continued to work while going to school part-time, finishing up her prerequisites, before deciding to take the plunge when Lackawanna launched its nursing program. Her children, two teenage boys and a 3-year-old girl, have been supportive even though its been demanding. They are very good with it, actually, Chestnut said. Theyre understanding. The Allied Services scholarships cover tuition, fees and textbooks. Under the scholarship guidelines, recipients have the opportunity to work at Allied while in school and are guaranteed a full-time position upon graduation and licensure as a registered nurse. Allied is committed to supporting the scholarship program, which is open to second-year students, for three years, meaning a total of nine students will benefit. Across its system, Allied employs about 200 RNs and 150 LPNs, said Judy Oprisko, vice president of human resources. Its support of the scholarship program is a recognition of the need to invest in nursing education to help students achieve their goals and ensure a robust nursing workforce into the future, she said. Its about getting those nurses into the workforce and helping them as much as we can to be successful, Oprisko said. Giacobbe said she thinks she has had a drive since she was young to be a nurse. With her degree now almost within reach, its coming into clearer focus. I never realized how much of a nurse I am without having a degree, she said. But to be able to work in that capacity, I need to complete the degree. SCRANTON Local Girl Scout Norah Kelly turned her love of art into gold. The 18-year-old South Side Scout enlisted 13 other local artists to paint artworks and motivational messages on paved parts of the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail in the city. Kelly was among several Gold Award recipients from throughout Northeast Pennsylvania honored Saturday during a ceremony held at Nay Aug Park by the Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania organization. Kellys project, Giving Local Artists a Voice, promoted them and enlivened high-traffic areas of the popular trail. She approved designs, secured donations of paint from local businesses and created a collage of the artworks for social media so the artists could get recognition. Ive been taking art classes since I was in kindergarten, so I felt like it (the trail art project) was something I could be passionate about. I got 13 local artists involved, Kelly said. Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania serves more than 13,500 Girl Scouts across 30 counties in Central and Northeast Pennsylvania. The GSHPAs Gold Award class of 2021 includes 59 Scouts, of whom 13 live in Northeast Pennsylvania. The other Gold Award recipients from NEPA included: Lucia Bonk, Vicky Smulowitz, Samantha Sutton and Ella Urosevich, all of Luzerne County; Emma Thompson and Nicole Shafer, both of Monroe County; Sarah Deckinger, Zoe Elaro and Abigail Schroder, all from Pike County; and Bailey Allen, Briana Boswell and Genevieve Larkin, all of Susquehanna County. Allen, Bonk, Elaro, Smulowitz and Sutton attended the ceremony in Scranton. Bonk, of Laurel Run, created walking paths for elderly residents in her great aunts Bear Creek Village neighborhood. I made little paths for them to walk in the woods. I made them safe, so they could just travel from yard to yard, Bonk said of her project. Sutton, of Dallas, created a cookbook and recipe library for a food pantry in the Noxen area. I wanted it to really promote healthy eating and budgeting for healthy eating, Sutton said. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed doing this project. I would definitely recommend the Gold Award project for any younger Girl Scout to do. The Gold Award is the highest Girl Scout accolade, and only 5.4% of eligible girls earn it, according to the GSHPA. Each girl uses her own values and skills to identify a community issue and then determines the topic and audience for her project. Each Scout must devote a minimum of 80 hours toward completing a project. All projects have to be sustainable and have a national or global link and be something that the girls are really passionate about doing, said Rebekah Stefl, one of the GSHPAs managers of the award. Similar awards ceremonies were held Friday in Cumberland County and Saturday in Centre County, and the final two ceremonies will be held today in York and Lancaster counties. Gold Award recipients are recognized individually. Each receives a gold Girl Scout symbol pinned to a green ribbon thats placed around their neck, certificates from GSHPA and NASA, citations from their local public officials and a congratulatory Gold Award honoree lawn sign. The GSHPA mission and long-term goal is to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. An individual Gold Award project shows colleges, employers and communities that a Girl Scout is out there changing the world, according to GSHPA. For more information on GSHPA, visit www.gshpa.org. From the start, Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in the Peckville section of Blakely made history. The church, originally located at Main and Brook streets, was the boroughs first Catholic house of worship a mission church of St. Marys Assumption Church in Jessup. More than 1,000 people packed the sanctuary when it was dedicated on June 28, 1942. Then-Bishop William J. Hafey presided over the dedication of the brick structure that boasted a kitchen, auditorium and stage in the basement. The site was acquired from John Galuardi and his wife that spring. Crews broke ground on the site in February 1942. But the church most people are familiar with today wasnt built until 1969 and it made history, too. The first segmental almost round church in Eastern Pennsylvania is expected to be built this spring in Peckville for the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, The Scranton Times reported on Feb. 9, 1969. Cost of the structure will be between $350,000 and $400,000. The uniquely shaped church required a move to Willow Street in the Mott Haven neighborhood of Peckville. The church already had a presence in that neighborhood, building a playground in the same section of the borough in 1947. The new, single-story church increased the seating capacity from about 300 to 700, The Scranton Times reported, with the main altar in the center of the church and the choir area in the back of the sanctuary. Ground was broken for the new church in late April 1969, and dedication took place in September 1970 by then-Bishop J. Carroll McCormick. By the time the church was finished, the costs had ballooned to about $500,000. The church held a pledge campaign to raise most of the money, according to Scranton Times articles. Medal of Honor winner Gino Merli headed up the dedication committee, according to an Aug. 23, 1970, Scranton Times story. In addition to a High Mass, dedication festivities included a dedication dinner at the Weldwood Lounge on Business Route 6 in Dickson City. A decade later, the church gave the community a Christmas present: a sophisticated Maas-Rowe Carillon program system that played Westminster Chimes several times a day, The Scranton Times reported on Dec. 28, 1980. The system could also be programmed to play bells for weddings, funerals and other occasions. Appropriate hymns will play on Sunday, a wide variety of music was presented for Christmas and special occasions such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Mothers Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, the article said. The carillon was presented to the church by the Altar and Rosary Society, the same article reported. In February 1984, the church held a Mass of Rededication to celebrate a 25- by 13-foot mosaic of Jesus Christ constructed in Italy. The Rev. William F. Purcell, the pastor at Sacred Heart, said the mosaic was constructed by world-renowned Italian artists, piece by piece in a hangar-type building from a drawing by Raymond Lorenzoni from the Diocesan Guild Studios in Scranton. Once complete, the mosaic was cut up into more than 300 numbered segments and flown to the United States, the Feb. 5, 1984, Scranton Times read. Father Purcell said the mosaic then was reconstructed on the wall of the sanctuary, much like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Made from Venetian smalti and marble, Christs figure is blue, white and flesh-colored on a field of blue and rays of gold, the newspaper article said. The mosaic remains behind the altar today. The church also celebrated a new altar, lecterns and a baptismal font made of travertine marble from Carrara, Italy, at the rededication Mass. The entire sanctuary was recarpeted as well. The special Mass featured music performed by 60 people, including a choir and violinists, guitar, trumpet, oboe and flute players. A dinner at Fiorellis immediately followed; some 700 people attended, including then-Sen. Robert Mellow, the newspaper article reported. Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin It takes two to tango. It takes three to put a corrupt councilman in a felonious foxtrot with the FBI. When The Times-Tribune reported Thursday that former Old Forge Borough Council President Robert Semenza Jr. will plead guilty this week to shaking down a junkyard dog, it was old news in the Pizza Capital of the World. Old Forge is a quintessential small town where everyone knows everybodys business. The short shelf life of secrets shrinks precipitously anytime two or more townsfolk gossip over a tray of red. Did you hear about Semenza? Yeah. Didnt surprise me, especially after I heard (redacted) was the bagman. As a professional gossip who lives about a mile away from Semenza, I am 99.9% sure I know the identity of the bagman investigators say delivered bribes to the crooked councilman. As a responsible journalist, I cant name the bagman until I have 100% confirmation that hes the mysterious co-conspirator described as Individual No. 3 in Semenzas arrest papers. What I believe I know isnt always what I can prove and publish. The Feds allege that between January 2019 and February 2020, Semenza and the bagman demanded and accepted cash from Individual No. 2 in exchange for Semenza using his power as council president in clandestine service to Individual No. 2, whom The Times-Tribune identified as Walter Stocki Jr., owner of Scrap Enterprises, an apt name for a junk business. Council sued Stocki over zoning violations and Lackawanna County Judge Tom Munley issued an injunction ordering Stocki to clean up the property and stop doing business in violation of zoning restrictions. Stocki was never going to win this fight. Nevertheless, Semenza and the bagman apparently convinced Stocki that Semenzas one vote on a seven-member council and presumably supernatural powers of persuasion could sway borough officials and a county judge to lay off Stocki. Let me know what you need ... Ill do whatever you need, Semenza told Stocki in a January 2019 conversation, the Feds allege. Semenza took the money but like a bad contractor, he took on a complicated job he couldnt complete and left Stocki holding the junkyard. The inclusion of quoted conversations in the arrest affidavit suggests that at least one of the two Individuals who conspired with Semenza was wearing a wire. My money is on Stocki, who the Feds say paid Semenza between $6,500 and $15,000. Imagine that phone call. Hello? FBI tipline? I want to report a bribe. I paid a politician to fix a problem for me and he didnt get it done! I dont think he even really tried. I called the consumer complaint hotline and they said I should call you. Please call me back at ... Semenza, 47, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, according to his plea agreement. He agreed to resign from council and not to seek or accept public office or a public position for at least 10 years. If hes not in prison in 2031, count on Semenzas return to borough council. Back to the bagman, who did everything Semenza did and so far has not been charged or officially identified. The Feds say the bagman demanded thousands of dollars from Stocki and called Semenza and told him he would stop by his house with a little bit of green. Before bringing the bribe money to Semenzas home, the bagman called the councilman to relate incriminating information in a conversation they could have had privately face-to-face. The bagman said Stocki was being honorable in what he said hes going to do ... you have to really perform now. Semenza replied, OK, according to prosecutors. Does anyone else hear the echo of former Lackawanna County commissioner and ex-federal inmate Bob Cordaro screaming, AL! DONT TALK ABOUT THIS ON THE PHONE! or is it just me? Semenza performed by passing along a proposal to resolve the Stocki situation to his colleagues on council and the borough solicitor. The bagman emailed the proposal to Semenza, creating yet another piece of hard evidence for prosecutors. Its like hitting reply all to the Department of Justice. In a DOJ press release, usually whisper-quiet acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler said the Feds are devoted to rooting out and prosecuting public corruption in the target-rich environment of the Middle District. When public officials use their office to line their pockets rather than serve the public it not only constitutes a serious crime but also breeds cynicism and undermines the electorates faith in government ... , Brandler said. Brandler is right, but you know what else undermines the electorates faith in government? Bagmen who arent charged or identified. Criminals who are free to walk the streets of small towns like Old Forge, where everyone knows everybodys business and the bagman enjoying the double crust white at the next table got away with arranging and delivering bribes from a junkyard dog to an elected official. Its so disgusting, I cant finish my eighth cut of red. Weve seen this movie many times. Clarks Summit-based Highland Associates paid the administration of the aforementioned Cordaro and former Commissioner A.J. Munchak for public contracts, but executives cooperated with federal prosecutors. The company wasnt identified in the indictments. This newspaper did that public service. Former Scranton Mayor Bill Courtright is in federal prison for public corruption crimes. He didnt bribe himself. When he shook down vendors, some paid up to get public contracts. Some cooperated with investigators. All committed crimes. Ask any vendor who wasnt in Courtrights pay-to-play loop. Courtright called the tune, but everyone who danced to it should face the music in a court of law or the court of public opinion. Brandler and every other prosecutor should know how demoralizing it is for everyday, honest, hardworking, law-abiding citizens to see criminals go uncharged and unidentified because they gave up a bigger fish. Smaller fish add up over time. So far, state Attorney General Josh Shapiros glacial fishing expedition into the sulfurous bog of the Scranton School District has netted a guppy mechanic and a shameless whale who was allowed to get away with a $79,000-a-year taxpayer-funded pension for his cooperation. Two years and a global pandemic since he strolled out of court a free man, former district business manager Gregg Sundays plea deal seems like a snipe hunt for the ages. On Friday, Times-Tribune education reporter Sarah Hofius Hall broke the news that Shapiros office will waive a preliminary hearing on charges against former Superintendent Alexis Kirijan, Ed.D., former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Brazil and former daytime maintenance foreman Joseph Slack. All are charged with felonies for their roles in failing to fix asbestos and lead contamination in district schools. Their attorneys are scheduled to appear in court Monday morning. Word on the street is that the public is in for another demoralizing disappointment. Ill be there. So will cynicism. Ill save a seat for faith, but I hear she left town. CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, can keep a secret until its publishable. Read his award-winning blog at timestribuneblogs.com/kelly. Among the many costs of the COVID-19 pandemic is the year or so of lost schooling suffered by students. Yes, hobbled together, remote learning has provided a modicum of instruction. But to suggest that the nations school children advance at the same rate sitting in front of a computer, isolated from a physical teacher and fellow students, is not tenable. Most American students feel much more comfortable in a classroom environment with peers and with a skilled teacher who knows the subject and how to impart it. Breaking down the extent of the problem makes it even more apparent. Two Stanford University economists, Eric Hanushek and Margaret Raymond, estimated the amount of study/school time children have lost during the pandemic. They examined 18 states and Washington, D.C., and concluded that on average, children lost a total of 116 days of reading time and 215 days of math work. This time will be hard to make up for individual students and it will have an impact on society. In 1966 and 1967 the German government temporarily shortened the academic year. Hanushek and Raymond looked at the longitudinal data and found that as a result the cohort of students who missed that time in school resulted in a 5% loss of income over their lifetimes. There are 56 million K-12 students in the United States, so the loss of 5% of their income over their collective lifetimes is hardly insignificant. The impact is felt in other ways as well. Because economic growth is mostly a function of innovation, and innovation is in turn dependent on applied sciences, entrepreneurial talent and innovation stimulated by well-educated people working together to solve problems, the impact of that lost year of school will be magnified many times. To further complicate the matter, economic cycles, caused by external forces such as a pandemic, can change the national economy for many years. Economists call this phenomena hysteresis; a term economics has borrowed from the physics of magnetism. If a large enough magnetic force is applied to a metal object, the object is permanently transformed. In economics hysteresis refers to the fact that the impact of an event, such as 56 million students missing a year of school, will continue to have an effect long after the event is over. Hysteresis occurs during recessions. When people are laid off for long periods of time, they do not tend to return to work in the same numbers as before the recession. Economists Larry Summer and Olivier Blanchard looked at this phenomenon and determined that it occurred because of structural problems. For instance, employers are reluctant to hire again because of problems, legal, personal and otherwise, that occurred when employees were let go. Employers do not want to go through those problems again. Labor unions are eager to get their members back on the job but do little, if anything, to help them maintain their skills during idle months of unemployment. For these reasons and others, the employment situation in a factory or office building may look significantly different after a recession than it did before. The same phenomena will occur when children return to school. Most school curricula are sequential. They build from semester to semester in a spiraling effect that depends upon previously gained understanding as steppingstones to new knowledge. If students do not grasp multiplication in third grade, how will they comprehend simple algebra in seventh grade? Missing a year of constant and in-person instruction in the elementary grades has a cascading effect on students and on the economy for years to come. What is to be done? Of course, getting kids back in school is essential, but getting them back into the same-old-same-old as if nothing has happened will not suffice. School curriculum must be prioritized. Teachers need to focus upon lost essential content above all else. It may mean that an educators favorite topics are not touched upon. It may mean that arbitrary school district and teacher union rules need to be jettisoned in the interest of, not only making up for lost time, but enabling students to reenter the learning process rapidly and quickly advance from there. Politically attractive subterfuge often envelops state policy that emerges from the Legislature. So its not surprising that a mere 11% of the $6.23 billion in state education funding for 2019-2020 was distributed under the fair-funding formula that lawmakers passed in 2016. Part of the result is the financial catastrophe that has befallen the Scranton School District, which the state underfunds by nearly $40 million a year, compared to what it would receive if the government distributed all education funding according to the fair-funding formula. The law establishing the fair formula held that only new education funding money appropriated after the 2016 baseline year rather than the entire education budget could be distributed under the formula. Thats why only 11% of the state education budget was distributed according to the allegedly fair formula in 2019-2020. Scranton is among school districts that have sued for truly fair funding, and they have a strong case. In the meantime, Gov. Tom Wolf has challenged lawmakers to end the subterfuge by establishing truly fair education funding. His proposed education budget would distribute all state education money under the fair funding formula. It would not cut funding to districts that receive more than their fair share under the formula, at the expense of poorer districts. But it would cover the increased cost through a major change in state tax policy. The governor would increase education funding by $1.15 billion, paying for it by switching from the flat-rate personal income tax of 3.07% to what, in effect, would be a progressive income tax with a rate of 4.49% that would be paid by the top third of high earners. In effect, the failure to establish fair state funding has created a regressive tax the much higher property taxes in mostly working-class communities like Scranton to cover the absence of fair funding. Even if it does so, Pennsylvania still would rank 47th among the states in the percentage of public education funding covered by the state government. Anger over property tax increases almost always is directed at local school boards, when its clear that much more of it should be directed at the state Capitol. Brenda Darlene (Burnett, Witt, Bollmer) Curtin, 52, of Cincinnati, Ohio passed away June 21, 2021. She was born November 13, 1968, in Cincinnati, Ohio to the late Gladys (Jones) Napier and the late Wilburn Burnett. Brenda was preceded in death by a daughter, Jennifer Witt and sisters Alta Ru Westerly, RI (02891) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.. Tonight Cloudy with periods of rain. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit Here As things head toward a new normal, lawmakers and insurers, including Medicare, are debating how to proceed with telehealth visits the biggest question being whether to continue reimbursing providers at the same payment rate as for in-person coverage once the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. People wait in line to get the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination center at the beach in South Beach, Florida, on May 9. The Times News has teamed up with area clergy to share Words of Comfort daily in our print edition and online at TimesNews.Net. Any member of the clergy whod like to get involved can contact Carmen Musick at cmusick@timesnews.net. This story is part of "A City Divided," a series examining how Albany became divided along racial lines. The renter came into Virginia Rawlins' office, sat down and waited to be convinced that the dream of owning a home was within reach. You can do this, Rawlins recalled telling one woman who wanted to buy a house but found herself fixated on the systemic barriers that made it difficult. "It's possible." Rawlins, the founder of the real estate company Building Blocks, has told many other renters of color the same thing. For some Black residents in Albany wanting to buy a home, there exists a justified fear of failure. No one Rawlins has worked with has received a loan from a bank. Many struggle to even get a grant sometimes because the application process is too difficult, Rawlins said, and other times because it can be discriminatory. Rawlins' clients have ample reasons to be pessimistic: In Albany, 69 percent of white residents own homes but only 20 percent of Black residents do. It's one of the ways in which people of color are impeded from building wealth over generations. Besides the mental obstacles, theres the systemic issues, like redlining and the segregation that ensued, and the decades of inaction on the part of our government, Rawlins said. Redlining began in the 1930s as part of a Depression-era federal survey of American cities to determine the relative risk of real estate investment in certain neighborhoods. Those deemed "hazardous" for such investment were shaded in red. The Albany neighborhoods redlined in 1938 maps were West Hill, Arbor Hill and the South End areas that at the time were dominated by lower-income white European immigrants but later became home to the city's highest concentrations of Black residents. Redlining codified the biases of bankers and the real estate industry and had the practical effect of establishing borders that keep the city racially divided and economically unequal. As white residents departed for the suburbs in the second half of the century, Black residents saw redlining evolve into systemic racism and financial inequities. How can nearly a century of damage be remedied? While there is no cure-all, one answer was resounding among real estate professionals, real estate lawyers, city officials and others: boosting Black homeownership through grants and anti-racist lending practices. Will Waldron/Albany Times Union Youre not addressing the issue if you're not creating homeownership, Rawlins said. Serena Joyce White-Lake, an attorney and licensed real estate broker who teaches classes on racially discriminatory housing practices at Albany Law School, said passing policies that will help Black people buy their homes is the best way out of this problem. No individual would be able to change this, White-Lake said, emphasizing that the federal government has a moral obligation to remedy the racist policies of the past. We need to fund housing invest in Black-owned businesses and find ways to support African Americans who are trying to be entrepreneurs and ... creatives" as well as supporting better educational opportunities in science, technology, education and math the STEM subjects that prepare students for higher-income careers. White-Lake also said that all citizens need to support neighborhood integration by urging officials to pass policies such as expanded housing grants that will make the city more equitable. As a Black man in the real estate business, Irvin Ackerman said hes seen and heard stories of Black homebuyers being steered away from the suburbs. Some white realtors will basically say, Oh, you wont like it over there, he said. One major way municipalities miss the mark, many said, is by focusing too much on low-income housing, which is in fact low-income renting that never allows people to build equity. For the longest time, there hasnt been enough emphasis on creating affordable homeownership opportunities, said Charles Touhey, chairman of the Albany County Land Bank, which works to renovate blighted buildings and put them back on the market. Touhey has worked as an affordable homeownership developer in the city for five decades. Elaine Frazier, who chairs the board of the Capital Area Urban League, said that city leaders confronted with Albany's lack of homeownership opportunities for Black residents tend to defend the status quo by saying they are looking for people who are economically viable. Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union Role of governments Well, one of the ways you can make somebody economically viable is to sell property to them at a below-market rate, help them improve it and then oh my goodness! they have economic sustainability, Frazier said. That is not the path the city chose. Former Mayor Jerry Jennings, for example, helped develop more subsidized public housing, such as North Albany Homes, but he never made increasing homeownership among communities of color a priority, Touhey and other real estate developers said. (Jennings did not respond to a request for an interview.) His predecessor, Thomas Whalen, focused on renovating public housing complexes like the South End's Steamboat Square and creating low-income rentals. And Erastus Corning II, Albanys longest-serving mayor, allied himself with Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to pursue policies that exacerbated segregation by class and race by constructing the Empire State Plaza, which displaced at least 7,000 residents. While Albany politics certainly played a role in sustaining and worsening segregation, though, Mayor Kathy Sheehan points to the federal government as the driving force behind the level of racial divisions that exist in the community today. I do think that asking cities to fix a problem that was created by the federal government, by banks, by racist decisions in institutions that continue to have disproportionate impacts today is almost like blaming the victim, said Sheehan, who in recent years moved to a rehabbed home in Arbor Hill. When people hear me advocating for federal solutions to these problems, it's because the federal government has the ability to deficit-spend, which cities do not have. But the city is also historically complicit in failing to address economic disparities, Sheehan acknowledged. That's why a question that gets repeated often in her office is What do we have control over? "We have control over the streets that we pave, the sidewalks that we repair, in addition to our parks," she said. "The city didn't create redlining, but the (historic) lack of investment in our city infrastructure follows the pattern of redlining." She ticked off elements of the city's focus on equity: Instead of repaving the same number of streets in each ward, it's placing more resources into repairing more severely damaged roads that tend to be in the redlined areas, as well as the asphalt sidewalks in West Hill. The city is also upgrading playgrounds in West Hill, Arbor Hill and the South End. This focus was also seen in last months rollout of the citys plan to promote more bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, a blueprint that emphasized the need to make a community where people without cars can commute or exercise safely. Its a plan that depends on significant state and federal investment. Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union The Albany County Land Bank is trying to increase homeownership rates by either tearing down or renovating dilapidated buildings that it acquires through foreclosures, and then selling them cheaply to residents and developers who promise to create or become responsible homeowners. But some residents said the land bank needs to improve its selection methods and do a better job of selling more properties to Black residents. And while different grants may be available to support aspiring homeowners in the Albany area, some say it's the systems and policies at play such as subpar or predatory loans that need to be transformed to grow long-term equity and wealth for Black residents. "At the end of the day, there are still Black families paying more in terms of homeownership than their white neighbors for the same exact house ... yet theyre also receiving appraisals at a much lower amount once they purchase it," said Alfredo Medina, vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and college diversity officer at Vermont's Bennington College. "Until you address these systems and policies that really go against Black homeownership, all youre doing is creating what I consider to be sort of substandard homeownership that is going to force many of those Black families to eventually have to leave those communities because they cant afford it long-term." Treating the symptoms But if residential segregation is the primary disease, quality-of-life deficiencies in formerly redlined areas are symptoms with varying degrees of lethality. Many community leaders say that treating those symptoms is a necessary part achieving meaningful and lasting integration. The contrast in available resources and opportunities among Albanys neighborhoods is impossible to ignore for some from the city particularly those who grew up in underserved areas. Education is widely recognized as being a key for social mobility. Yet school districts in the predominantly white suburbs are notorious for being more desirable than those in urban areas which are predominantly Black meaning many students of color don't have access to that higher-quality education. "This comes down to the powers within systems and policies, because they are designed in a way to basically promote those (suburban) school districts because of the higher taxes that are being paid, and we penalize those that are paying a lot lower in school taxes," Medina said. "This is just another way of ensuring that segregation exists. Because if we really wanted to, we could change those policies and systems that keep disproportionality between schools in the City of Albany and schools in (the suburbs)." The lack of resources and opportunity crop up in other aspects of daily life, as well. When Carolyn McLaughlin was growing up in the South End, there were several organizations and gathering places for her and her peers: Trinity Alliance, a boys club and the South End Teen Center to name a few. But while Trinity is still going strong as it approaches its 109th birthday next month, other organizations and community centers have disappeared over the years. "Kids had nowhere to go," the Albany County legislator and former city councilwoman said. "You tore down the only teen center that was in the South End over 20 years ago. You didn't replace it with anything. And in that time, don't tell me you couldn't have come up with $1 million a year to put up another building. Come on." McLaughlin says consistent, sustained investment in communities whether that be in community centers or a grocery store aided by funding from federal, state and local sources is what needs to be done to alleviate these drastic socioeconomic inequities. "The problem here is the effort is not being placed in the proper space to make the changes that are necessary," she said. "You can't be a one-and-done; you have to be consistent. One project is not going to change a whole community." The city of Albany is slated to receive $85 million from the federal government for COVID-19 relief, which many residents are pointing to as an opportunity to increase investment in projects that will level inequities. During a recent mayoral debate, Sheehan did not reveal her own plans for the funding, but said she plans to do participatory budgeting with residents to determine where it should go. (Albany County is also receiving nearly $60 million.) "How do we use this once-in-a-generation money to create that generational wealth? Can we take care of the city's blight while creating jobs or contractors, local businesses, training programs for Black and brown youth to rehab these vacant apartments?" said Lauren Manning, assistant director of Albany's Center for Law and Justice, in a recent meeting of the South End Community Collaborative. "It can all be a cycle of creating generational wealth; it's just (a question of) do we have the will to use this once-in-a-generation money to promote that?" Paul Collins-Hackett, executive director of the Red Bookshelf and secretary of the Community Police Review Board, is one of those who grew up in Albany and has always understood its segregationist borders. For Collins-Hackett, a tangible, immediate move the city could make to address such disparities is partnering with organizations such as Building Blocks that aim to increase homeownership rates for Black residents. While rectifying segregation is no easy feat, though, he believes achieving economic racial equity is still attainable. For me, its the idea of one brick: Focus on placing one brick absolutely perfectly, Collins-Hackett said. It takes incremental progress at times. It takes every bit of effort," he continued. "Because at the end of the day, anything positive were doing thats a step in the right direction, it cannot be taken away. ALBANY The HBO production of the five-part Watergate series, "The White House Plumbers," is coming to Albany this week. New photos: Albany's Capitol surrounded by classic cars as HBO shoot begins The Tuesday and Wednesday shoot in downtown Albany will make it a busy several days for the streaming service in the Capital Region, as an HBO production crew just wrapped up a month-long residence in Troy for the 10-part series "The Gilded Age." That series shut down parts of the Collar City's downtown to transform it into 19th century New York City. Albany police had announced that parts of Albany will be getting the same treatment during day and night shoots Tuesday and Wednesday. Academy Park across from the state Capitol will be used for filming, as well as buildings as backdrops on State Street and Broadway. Streets in what is considered the "parking lot" district around the city's bus station are also slated for closure. Earlier this year, Albany extras were being sought for the HBO limited series The White House Plumbers, which tells the story of the Watergate masterminds and features an all-star cast including Woody Harrelson as E. Howard Hunt and Justin Theroux portraying G. Gordon Liddy. Domhnall Gleeson and Kathleen Turner are also in the cast. Liddy is a former Dutchess County assistant district attorney. When the Times Union reported on the series earlier this spring, it was expected filming would take place here in late summer or early fall. The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that Harrelson was in Newburgh in May - and delighted a vegan chef in nearby Beacon with a visit. Although a source in Albany joked "I don't know if Woody Harrelson will be here this week." Drivers should be aware that main streets in downtown Albany may be closed on and off, including parts of Washington Avenue around Academy Park, as well as State Street and Broadway, on Tuesday. There will also be parking restrictions around Academy Park and on State Street and Broadway from the early morning hours Tuesday to late Wednesday night. The City of Albany has been host many times to movie and television productions. Most recently in September, the Amazon series "Modern Love," was shot in Washington Park. HBO has also used downtown Albany before, when the series "Succession" shot in 2019 at the state's Legislative Office Building. However, considering the Albany shoot centers around the early 1970s, the scene setting will likely not be as dramatic as what Troy just experienced. Troy's Monument Square and other locations downtown were transformed back to the turn of the century with signage, dirt in the streets, and horse-drawn carriages. "The Gilded Age," a 10-part dramatic series, created by Julian Fellowes, is a historical fiction about the elite in 1882 Manhattan set before Fellowes monster success Downton Abbey, which took place in the 1910s and 1920s, according to Executive Producer David Crockett and Production Designer Bob Shaw. Here are the following parking restrictions and possible street closures that Albany will experience Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Albany police. Parking restrictions 3 a.m. Tuesday until 1 p.m. Wednesday 1. Washington Avenue, both north and south sides, from Eagle Street to South Swan Street 2. North Hawk Street, both east and west sides, from Washington Avenue to Elk Street 3. Elk Street, south side, from Hawk Street to Swan Street 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday 1. State Street, both north and south sides, from Pearl Street to Broadway 2. Green Street, east side, from State Street to Beaver Street 3. Broadway, both east and west sides, from Hudson Avenue to Pine Street Wednesday (no specific times provided) 1. Washington Avenue, both north and south sides, from South Swan Street to Eagle Street 2. North Hawk Street, both east and west sides, from Washington Avenue to Elk Street 3. Elk Street, south side, from Hawk Street to South Swan Street 3 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday 4. South Swan Street, both east and west sides from Washington Avenue to Elk Street 5. Eagle Street, both east and west sides, from State Street to Columbia Street 6. Elk Street, north side, from Eagle Street to South Swan Street, and south side from Eagle Street to North Hawk Street 7. Pine Street, both north and south sides, from Eagle Street east five spaces on each side of the road Intermittent road closures: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday 1. Washington Avenue, from City Hall west to South Swan Street 2. North Hawk Street, from Washington Avenue to Elk Street 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday 1. State Street, from Pearl Street to Broadway 2. Broadway, from Hudson Avenue to Pine Street 3. Green Street, from State Street to Beaver Street 4. James Street, from Pine Street to State Street 5. Maiden Lane, from North Pearl Street to James Street 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday 1. Washington Avenue, from Lark Street to Eagle Street 2. Eagle Street, from State Street to Columbia Street 3. Elk Street, from Eagle Street to South Swan Street 4. North Hawk Street, from Washington Avenue to Elk Street 5. South Swan Street, from Washington Avenue to Elk Street 3 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday 1. State Street, both north and south sides, from South Swan Street to Eagle Street 2. Park Street, both east and west sides, from Lancaster Street to State Street 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesday 1. Pruyn Street, both north and south sides, from Broadway to Liberty Street 2. Liberty Street, both sides, from Dallius Street to Hamilton Street 3. Green Street, both sides, from Hamilton Street to Dallius Street/Liberty Street 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday 1. State Street, from South Swan Street to Eagle Street 2. Park Street, from Lancaster Street to State Street 3. Lancaster Street, from Eagle Street to the entrance to P2 North at the Empire State Plaza 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Wednesday 1. Pruyn Street, from Broadway to Liberty Street 2. Liberty Street, from Green Street/Dallius Street to Hamilton Street 3. Dallius Street, from Green Street to Hamilton Street 4. Green Street, from Hamilton Street to Madison Avenue Jewish Family Services of Northeastern New York, in partnership with Daughters of Sarah Community for Seniors, Temple Israel and the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York, is delighted to bring Rabbi Amiel Monson (who prefers Rabbi Ami) to the Capital Region. Rabbi Ami will provide spiritual connection and support for residents in independent and long-term care facilities, and pastoral care and bereavement support for the community at large. He follows generations of family rabbis, including his father, and maternal grandfather, who served at Temple Beth El in Troy in the 1940s, and great-grandfather. Monson is stepping into a job held by Rabbi Beverly Magidson for more than two decades. I am excited to join the Capital Region community as the new Community Chaplain, and I am honored to continue the program whose foundation was created by Rabbi Bev. I have deep respect for her mentorship as I become familiar with the role. I thank Jewish Family Services, Daughters of Sarah, the Jewish Federation, and Temple Israel for helping ensure this incredible program continues and that I am able to provide services, support, and pastoral care to residents of the greater Albany Jewish community, said Monson. Originally from Philadelphia, Monson spent the last seven years on the West Coast in a range of positions, including spiritual support and counseling for elder residents at the Los Angeles Jewish Home and The Nest (also in LA) and youth director at Valley Beth Shalom (Encino, CA). He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in comparative religion and certificate in Jewish studies. He went on to earn three masters degrees from Gratz College (Elkins Park, PA) -- in Jewish education, Jewish communal service, and Jewish studies. He graduated from the Academy for Jewish Religion in California and was recently ordained. Jane Ginsburg, President & CEO of Jewish Family Services, said in a statement, When I learned that Rabbi Ami was looking for a fulfilling opportunity, I was delighted. Ami and I met in college and connected through Hillel Ami was the guy that everyone knew and liked, and most importantly, he liked everyone back. Though we were only in touch via Facebook, it was clear that he not only hadnt changed, but also expanded his networks and used his special gift of making someone feel seen and heard daily. Im thrilled he saw the value in this role and had the faith in us to move his young family across the country to join us as JFS and at Daughters. Rob Kovach, President & CEO of Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York thanked Magidson for her essential nurturing and healing pastoral care to our seniors living in nursing and assisted living facilities in a statemen Jewish residents of independent and long-term care facilities whether they are skilled nursing or assisted living facilities, may be the only Jewish resident or part of a very small group, Magidson said. They may be isolated by unit or floor. Chaplaincy Services brings Jewish cultural and religious practices to residents, with familiar foods, music, or prayers. The program also sends regular newsletters to help activities directors infuse Yiddishkeit to the programs and in honor of the Jewish holidays. Through the chaplains outreach residents know that their community cares about them. We are thrilled to have Rabbi Ami join the Daughters of Sarah Community for Seniors. Our chaplaincy services form a critical element of our mission to provide to the aged members of our community excellent health care and social service care Jewishly, Guided and informed by our exceptional Jewish heritage, we expect that Ami will continue to strengthen that Jewish operational focus -- a focus the remains unique to Daughters of Sarah, said Mark Koblenz Chief Executive Officer for Daughters. This chaplaincy program under JFS is provided in partnership with Daughters of Sarah Community for Seniors, Temple Israel, Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York, Bnai Brith Gideon Foundation, and the Theodore Strauss Fund. In addition to working in long-term care facilities, Monson will provide grief and loss support as needed throughout the community and will be a key asset to the JFS team to ground the agencys activities in the Jewish values of its foundation. Temple Israel is proud to stand with our community partners to help bring Rabbi Ami to the community. We know that Rabbi Ami will be a true asset for the entire Albany Jewish Community, and we are proud to step up and help ensure our community and region benefit from his experience and pastoral care, said Gary Ginsburg, President at Temple Israel. JFS of Northeastern New York has been continuously providing support, services and resources for individuals and families of all ages since 1854. JFS is proud to serve people of all backgrounds. Our programs and services range from counseling to guidance for those aging in place to assistance for those facing food or financial insecurity. In the past year, when the pandemic shut everything down, JFS stepped up providing virtual counseling and support and helping seniors register for vaccine appointments. JFS volunteers have delivered over 12,000 kosher meals across Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties. Volunteers have shopped and delivered groceries nearly 500 times, and in partnership with the Shalom Food Pantry have delivered 750 bags of fresh food and essentials to families and individuals in need. Vivian Tan is Jewish Family Services Northeastern New York marketing director. Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union It seems that President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan to improve our roads, bridges, highways and transit systems is being railroaded by the Republican Party. Are we surprised? Meanwhile, the wealthiest Americans including Jeff Bezos and others have paid no income tax some years. Therein lies what is wrong in this country under GOP-infused policies that have furthered the great divide between the rich and poor. To fund the infrastructure bill, the GOP refuses to raise taxes especially on the wealthy. May I remind you that Mitch McConnell's net worth is about $25 million?The modern-day GOP continues to prove how despicable they are for what they believe. Meanwhile, China is investing for the 21st Century, has a growing middle-class, has modern cities, has a modern transit system, and has a plan to build the future. As for America, we might as well start digging the grave of our collapse as a world power, thanks to the Republicans and their disastrous attitude and policies. Ron Carlson Albany Voters line up to cast their ballots Nov. 8, 2016, in the 2016 general election in Mount Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Des Moines Register. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.). A judge dismissed the most serious charge against a man accused of shooting a civil rights activist during a confrontation in rural Pennsylvania with a group of marchers on their way to Washington D For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Grand Island Independent. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Telegraph Herald. NASHVILLE, Tenn. After a disaster, scam artists, identity thieves and other criminals may attempt to take advantage of disaster survivors. Federal and Tennessee emergency management officials urge residents to watch for and report any suspicious activity. When a disaster strikes, unscrupulous people and scam artists may try to take advantage of survivors by posing as FEMA representatives or other official disaster aid workers. They may even pose as relatives just trying to help survivors complete their applications when they are only interested in using a survivor for their own benefit. Some so-called contractors make promises they dont keep and do shoddy work or no work at all while pocketing a survivors money. Residents of Davidson, Williamson and Wilson counties are eligible to apply for assistance from FEMA to help with their costs for damage and losses caused by storms, tornadoes and flooding that occurred March 25 through April 3. What follows are some typical criminal activities to be aware of after disaster strikes. People claiming to represent FEMA You may receive phone calls or unexpected visits to your home from people claiming to be FEMA housing inspectors or people claiming they work for FEMA. The person might ask for your Social Security number and income or banking information. FEMA representatives will have a laminated badge and your FEMA registration number. Protect the privacy of your nine-digit FEMA case/registration number. Legitimate FEMA housing inspectors will NOT ask for this information. Dont give your banking information to a person claiming to be a FEMA housing inspector. FEMA inspectors are never authorized to collect your personal financial information. Fake offers of local or federal aid Dont trust anyone who asks for money to help you obtain assistance. Federal and local disaster workers do not ask for or accept money. FEMA and U.S. Small Business Administration representatives never charge applicants for disaster assistance, inspections or help in filling out applications. Dont believe anyone who promises a disaster grant in return for a large cash deposit or other payments in full. Fraudulent building contractors Use licensed or verified local contractors with reliable references. To find licensed, certified Tennessee contractors, check the Department of Commerce & Insurance Administration License Roster Search (tn.gov). Dont pay more than half the costs of repairs in advance. Demand that contractors detail the job you expect them to do and ask them to give you a written estimate. Fraudulent charitable solicitations. Criminals exploit survivors by sending fake communications through email or social media and by creating phony websites designed to solicit contributions. For a list of reputable charities that are approved by the Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance, go to Give.org. The Alliance advises do not respond to unsolicited emails, watch out for pushy telemarketers and look out for fake charities that sound real by using similar names. For more information about avoiding charitable giving scams, visit the Federal Trade Commissions website at www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/scam-alerts. Report the Scam. Reporting helps protect others. While agencies cant always track down the scammer, they can use the information gathered to record patterns of abuse. And those patterns may lead to action being taken against a company or industry. Based on the type of scam you may see, contact the appropriate agency. If you believe you or a loved one has become a victim of a scam or identity theft, report it immediately to your local police or sheriffs department, or contact the office of the Tennessee Attorney General. Local Law Enforcement: You are encouraged to report scams to your local police department or sheriffs office, especially if you lost money or property or believe someone stole your identity. If you suspect fraud of any kind related to disaster assistance or have knowledge of fraud, waste or abuse, you can report these tips - 24 hours a day, seven days a week - to the FEMA Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721. Or, email disaster@leo.gov. Or, email disaster@leo.gov. If someone is using your personal information to open new accounts, make purchase or get a tax refund, report it at IdentityTheft.gov. You can file a complaint with Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs if you have been scammed or have a dispute with a business regarding a transaction. Reporting to the Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker can help others become aware of scams in your local area. For more information on Tennessees disaster recovery, visit www.tn.gov/tema.html and www.fema.gov/disaster/4601. You may also follow FEMA on www.facebook.com/fema and Twitter @FEMARegion4. Kansas City counts another tragic homicide and woman killed as local violence continues to trend upward amid rising temperatures. Here's the word from KCPD . . . Around 10 AM this morning, officers were dispatched to the 4300 block of East Linwood in regard to a shooting. Upon arrival officers found an adult female deceased inside of a residence. Detectives and crime scene investigators are actively working the scene. We do not have any suspect information at this time If anyone saw anything or has any information they are asked to call the Homicide Unit directly at 234-5043 or the tips hotline anonymously at 474-TIPS. There is a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest in this case. And so . . . THE KANSAS CITY CEASEFIRE DECLARED BY LOCAL CLERGY DIDN'T EVEN LAST A DAY!!! Ministers boldly announced the "ceasefire" after a week of gunfire and spate of recent murders include a teen shot dead in Ruskin Heights. However, as we predicted, this latest murder confirms that faith leaders have little sway or influence within their own community. Kansas City-area clergy members asking for 21 days of no violence KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Clergy members in the Kansas City, Missouri, are asking for three weeks of no violence, starting on Sunday. "It is time for our community to declare that we are no longer sitting back," Pastor Cassandra Wainright, with the Concerned Clergy Coalition said. So far this is 67th homicide in KCMO so far in 2021 compared to 81 at this time last year . . . However, the pace of local killing is quickly picking up after the February arctic chill cooled tempers and the count. Moreover, and local news is missing this angle, in the past two months at least half a dozen women have died violently in Kansas City revealing a lasting deadly trend that escalated amid pandemic lock down. Check the links . . . KCPD investigating after woman is fatally shot on Sunday morning KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- The Kansas City Police Department is investigating another homicide. Police say it happened around 10 a.m. the 4300 block of E. Linwood Blvd. Officers responded to a call about a shooting and arrived to find a woman dead inside a residence there. Female shot and killed on Linwood Blvd. KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A woman was shot and killed in the 4300 block of Linwood Boulevard early Sunday morning. Police were called to a shooting just before 10:00. Family members reportedly told a nearby neighbor that a man shot a woman. Police arrived and found a woman dead at the scene. KCPD responds to homicide near Spruce Ave. & Linwood Blvd. Kansas City, Mo police are investigating a homicide that took place Sunday morning.Officers responded to the 4300 block of E. Linwood Blvd. Police haven't released any suspect or victim information at this time.KMBC 9 will send updates as they become available. Kansas City, Mo police are investigating a homicide that took place Sunday morning. Developing . . . Ongoing panty angel hotness on this steamy day inspires our peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines. Check-it . . . EPIC Stache Shares Life Lesson A Kansas City Band Traveled Across The Country To Find Their Place In Americana Music Making Movies is as big a success story as you'll find in Kansas City's music scene. The high-energy, genre-defying rock band, with songs in both Spanish and English, has been nominated for a Latin Grammy. They've shared stages with indie darlings like Arcade Fire and big-name acts like Los Lobos. Survivor Story Debuts In Kansas City Auschwitz exhibit opens up on Monday KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A new exhibit is opening at Union Station on Monday. It's called "Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away." According to the Union Station website, it says "An International Exhibition of Unprecedented Importance. A Story to Shake the Conscience of the World." Tragic Traffic Crash Report One person killed in early morning head-on crash on 152 Highway in the Northland by: Brian Dulle Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One person is dead and another has minor injuries following a two-vehicle crash early Sunday morning in the Northland. The crash was reported just after 3 a.m. on eastbound U.S. 152 Highway and Green Hills Road. PANTIES UPLIFTED!!! Victoria's Secret is finally raising its prices after years of extreme deals on inexpensive lingerie Victoria's Secret is cutting back on discounts and raising prices, according to a UBS report. The firm has been criticized for its constant promotions, which are thought to erode profit margins. Less discounting and higher prices are crucial for its turnaround effort, analysts say. See more stories on Insider's business page. Holy Land Leader Lashes Out Netanyahu uses last speech as prime minister to attack Biden on Iran Hours before a vote to oust him, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused President Biden of endangering Israel's security by taking a soft line on Iran, and claimed the man who is about to replace him, Naftali Bennett, would be too weak to stand up to Washington. Veep Pride Disputed Kamala Harris' Secret Service agent 'clearly not happy' about VP's Pride walk: Twitter users react Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at the Pride event in Washington on Saturday but it was one of her protectors who drew the attention of many Twitter users. Any time a president or vice president mingles with the public becomes a challenge for those charged with guarding them - simply because the situation is less under security 's control. GOP Ramps Up Push Back GOP ramps up misleading attack on Democrats' policing policy DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - When Minnesota Republican Tyler Kistner announced his candidacy for the U.S. House in April, he asked voters to ponder two questions: "What America will we leave for our children?" and "Will they be taught to hate their police?" Speaker Still Blames Former Prez Trump Pelosi says Trump DOJ's targeting of political enemies 'goes even beyond Richard Nixon' The Trump-era Justice Department's decision to secretly seize data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee went even beyond the nefarious actions of former President Richard Nixon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday. Baller Back To The Fam A-Rod Reunites With 'World Class' Ex Cynthia Scurtis After J. Lo Split He's friendly with his exes too! Alex Rodriguez spent time reconnecting with his ex-wife, Cynthia Scurtis , as Jennifer Lopez moves on in the wake of their split. The former New York Yankees player, 45, was joined by Scurtis, 48, during a workout on Saturday, June 12, and shared snaps of the sweat sesh on his Instagram Story. Serving American Dream An Immigrant and Her Family's Persistence: Why the Pandemic Didn't Shake the Spirits of These Lee's Summit Restaurateurs Sitting in fear was quickly off the menu for Fanny Ruiz de Chavez - told less than two months after her Lee's Summit restaurant's 2020 grand opening that she'd need to close down because of COVID-19 restrictions, she recalled. "I remember being sad, scared for less than an hour. Royals Confound Kansas City Lesky's Notes: We should just stop trying to figure this team out The season is barely two months old (though it is now officially longer than 2020) and the Royals have had a 16-9 stretch. An 0-11 stretch, a 13-6 stretch and now have lost five of their last six games. Sunday Hotness Sunny and Hot Sunday Hide Transcript Show Transcript PETE: NEXT TIME MAYBE. WE'RE GOINGOV HER AROUND THE 90-DEGREE MARK. SHOULDN'T BE A SURPRISE. MID-JUNE, RIGHT? THE WEEKEND TEMPERARETU MAY BE DROPPING A LITTLE T.BI CLEAR SES LOOKING GOOD FOR EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. OUR DEW POINT IS 48. ACTUALLY. Even better . . . CHECK A QUICK SUNDAY TKC COMMUNIQUE UPDATE FOR EVEN MORE WORTHWHILE NEWS LINKS!!! Before TKC was hatched but still worth a peek . . . Midnight Special-Doobie Brothers "Jesus Is Just Alright/Listen To The Music" 1973 is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. Without even showing up Eric Greitens dominated a Republican weekend event held in Kansas City. Or rather . . . Fear of worsening party divisions and a death of excitement caused a great deal of concern. Moreover . . . It seems the Eric Greitens skipping Lincoln Days in Kansas City was an impressive flex that stirred up more attention than attending the party and earning a few snubs from the puffy donor class. Juxtaposition . . . Nobody (important) is going to vote for the lawyer who brandished a gun against BLM. The little dude is repellent and really nothing more than a joke interview that helps Fox news sell more senior medical supplies. However . . . MSM pushing the Missouri GOP fear narrative works in this instance because there really is a lack of excitement amongst Republicans for the current crop of senate candidates so far. Again, to be fair, we should note that the Missouri GOP is working on another STATEWIDE SWEEP IN 2022 with very little if any credible resistance from hapless Missouri Democrats. Still . . . Are Republican divisions after the defeat of Prez Trump enough for a disgraced politico with extreme right wing support to slip back into power??? You decide . . . 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. Sponsored By: Dorsett Automotive Let me correct some misinformation above: Celebrity cruise Line's Millennium did a seven day Caribbean cruise from St. Maarten. The first cruise departed on Saturday, June 5, 2021. 100% of the crew is vaccinated. They say 100% of the passengers are vaccinated, but there are several (no more than 8) children on board who are not old enough to be vaccinated. I think the age limit is 12 years old. So only 99% of the passengers are vaccinated. All of the passengers had two clean Covid tests before boarding. Possibly any St. Maarten residents who were passengers [if there were any] only needed one clean test before boarding. The test immediately before passengers boarded the ship was demanded by the government of Barbados. The government of Barbados mandated that only passengers taking cruise-ship shore excursions would be allowed off the ship. Those passengers were escorted to their tour buses, and were carefully supervised during their entire excursions. They were then escorted back onto the ship. There was no wandering around, no private tours, no self-exploration. No shopping either. No restaurants. No mingling with the locals. No bar hopping. At beaches, the excursion guests were isolated from the public. The other two ports of call were Aruba and Curacao. These two islands did not require the "bubble" and passengers were free to (1) take a ship excursion, (2) take a private tour, (3) wander around, (4) self-explore, (5) grab a taxi to their beach of preference. The Millennium has a lot of Covid Testing being done. Every passenger needed to be tested on board in the last two days (yesterday and today) for St. Maarten's return protocols, and there were two positive test results -- a very small percentage, and those two passengers are asymptomatic. So, the vaccines are working, no one got sick! But those two passengers are quarantined in their cabin and will presumably be quarantined in St. Maarten at the conclusion of the cruise (tomorrow). The Millennium is doing "contact tracing" to make sure that none of the other passengers or crew (all of whom have been vaccinated) now test positive. As of a few hours ago, all of the other passengers still tested clean. I have not heard anything about the Millennium's June 12 cruise. I personally think the first cruise was a huge success, but that tiny percentage of positive test results (2 out of 600, or 0.33 percent) might cause some mathematically challenged people to get upset and hysterical. Now, to get to your question, will Alaska an/or the CDC impose a "bubble" like Barbados did? Unknown, but it is certainly a possibility. A bubble tour could still be wonderful. Helicopter to the glacier can be done without exposure to many people. Kayaking on Glacier Bay is doable. Dog sledding, might require contact with multiple handlers, so that might be problematic. Hop-On Hop Off Bus in Juneau, no way! If you go, enjoy! You'll still have the wonderful scenery! Register for a FREE account to keep reading! Register now for a FREE account to keep reading. No cost and no credit card required! Access up to 5 articles per month when you register, or get unlimited access to all of our content online starting at $1.99 now! Already registered? Click the log in link below Whats Working, a series exploring solutions for New Hampshires workforce needs, is sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and is funded by Eversource, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the New Hampshire College & University Council, Northeast Delta Dental and the New Hampshire Coalition for Business and Education. Contact reporter Michael Cousineau at mcousineau@unionleader.com. To read stories in the series, visit unionleader.com/whatsworking. THE OTHER DAY I mentioned to a guy I know that some Buddhist monks in Nepal are fans of my song Slow Days of Summer, according to their ESL teacher Jennifer who stopped me on the street to tell me, and I said (which is the truth) that I felt enormously honored, whereupon the guy said that The Greater Manchesters Boys and Girls Club kicked off its summer fun activities at Camp Foster in Bedford this week. We wonder how many of the kids enjoying it know how much they (and their parents) owe to one of the individuals who did so much to make it happen. OVER THE past couple of weeks, New Hampshire Democrats have made wildly histrionic claims about the state budget recently passed by both chambers of the General Court, which Gov. Chris Sununu has said he will sign. We need only to look to the recent past to see how far off the mark the Democ ABU DHABi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 13th Jun, 2021) The Supreme Committee for the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Programme for Excellence and Societal Intelligence has held its second meeting, chaired by H.H. Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court and Chairman of the Programmes Supreme Committee. The meeting discussed the programmes important role in enhancing society, based on the directives of H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF), and the "Mother of the Nation". These directives emphasise focusing on societal intelligence to address social issues and challenges to turn them into opportunities for a better future, as well as managing changes that impact society through investment in creative solutions that positively contribute to the quality of life and wellbeing of all communities. During the meeting, Sheikh Theyab launched the first-of-its-kind interactive e-training platform, which will be supervised by the Programme. The platform aims to consolidate the concept of societal intelligence by enabling participants to turn social challenges into opportunities for development and a better future. The platform offers training in Arabic at three levels. Registration is via www.hhsfbmawards.ae. He praised the efforts of the members of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Programme for Excellence and Societal Intelligence, highlighting that it targets creative and innovative talent from across the world, which also contributes to the emirates diverse and inclusive society. The meeting was attended by Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Chairman of the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi, Deputy Chairman of the Programme's Supreme Committee; Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education; Hessa Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development; Jaber Mohammed Ghanem Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi; Major General Maktoum Ali Al Sharifi, Director-General of Abu Dhabi Police; Abdullah Abdul Ali Al Humaidan, Secretary-General of the Zayed Higher Organisation for People of Determination (ZHO); Maryam Eid Al Mheiri, Director-General of Abu Dhabi Government Media Office; Maryam Mohammed Al Rumaithi, FDF Director-General; and Ousha Salem Al Suwaidi, Senior Developer, Corporation Awards, FDF. Dr. Al Khaili said, "The Programme for Excellence and Societal Intelligence is an exceptional one reflecting Sheikha Fatima bint Mubaraks keenness to activate the roles of all community members and engage them to create innovative and sustainable solutions for all challenges facing the community. It also reflects Sheikha Fatima's keenness to enhance the principles of leadership, innovation and social cohesion and responsibility to contribute to change, locally and internationally, by leveraging the abilities of creative individuals, and to recognise their achievements and contribution and to support them for the benefit of their countries, and to enhance loyalty to their communities. "Social innovation is the future for us to address top social challenges, and a chance to develop futuristic solutions and community empowerment." Al Hammadi said, "The Programme seeks to achieve its goals through the achievements of creative individuals and corporations, and to support and recongise their contributions. It also embodies the UAEs vision and humanitarian dimension." He added, "The Programme looks to promote the principles of societal intelligence and social leadership local and globally, to build effective partnerships, and to have standard references to measure the impact of social innovation. It seeks to draw local and international competition for impactful societal works." Buhumaid said, "The e-training platform of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Programme for Excellence and Societal Intelligence aims to respond to all impactful changes in society through the creative investment for all available capabilities, to develop impactful solutions that contribute to enhancing quality of life and wellbeing of communities, by providing easy access to training materials for the public, while maintaining its knowledge value." Jaber Al Suwaidi said, "The e-training platform will contribute to increasing awareness and knowledge, and strengthen the culture, of social innovation and leadership. The platform will also provide training materials that contribute to enhancing the level of societal intelligence, develop individuals professional skills, and enhance social responsibility, while motivating volunteerism. "It also advances the governments directive to empower the community and to enhance quality of life through training courses suitable for all age groups." Major General Al Sharifi said, "The UAE is full of energy, hands on giving, and thoughtful and creative individuals; the Programme seeks to open the way for them to produce, innovate and contribute to changing our life for the better." He lauded Sheikha Fatima's efforts to support pioneering institutions working to enhance social cohesion and stability, and quality of life. He added, "The Programme has become a humanitarian milestone that builds on existing capabilities and opens opportunities to exert more effort and to continue to innovate, in order to contribute to a competitive community environment. This aims to enhance liveability across societies, and thats why the reward becomes a platform for creativity that brings together everyone to better serve their communities." The ZHO Secretary-General commented, "The Programme covers all community groups, investing in their talents and ideas in addressing social challenges, and raises awareness of the importance of achieving multifaceted humanitarian, developmental and multicultural outcomes that will contribute to mobilising the community across all sectors. "The Programme also strengthens the roles of entities supporting People of Determination by honouring the organisations that take the initiative to support, care for and encourage People of Determination, and to develop the capabilities of all community members, including families, youth and People of Determination in various fields, and supports them locally, regionally and internationally." For her part, Al Mheiri said, "The mission of the Programme is based on excellence, creativity, innovation, social intelligence, and national responsibility. These values underline the goal of the Programme to contribute to achieving noble milestones that enhance social progress in a way that encourages members of society to participate and take responsibility in the process, while simultaneously contributing to their self-improvement, based on willingness to give and to direct their potential and tireless efforts to serving the nation. "This is being achieved through offering community members the opportunity to become a source of inspiration to others by contributing with an initiative, a new idea, or creative work that makes a real change in society." She added, "The Programme relies on building effective collaborations that support social innovation globally, and amplify a solid social ecosystem that contributes to enhancing happiness and cultivates the value of social responsibility within individuals and families for a better future for their societies and nations." Al Rumaithi said, "Abu Dhabi Family Forum, which is organised by the Family Development Foundation and the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Programme for Excellence and Societal Intelligence, celebrates a number of the winning entries. The forum seeks to strengthen the values of societal intelligence, invest in the communitys potential, and enhance social cohesion. It also introduces newly developed government services for family members and the community, facilitates access to them, and helps to build relationships based on trust, respect and credibility between family members and organisations that provide various community services. It also highlights the abilities of People of Determination, and to make use of the experience and expertise of senior citizens to serve the community, and to highlight social values." The FDF Director-General reiterated that the forum also aims to enhance Abu Dhabis social protection system and its sustainability by supporting the capabilities of families, and rehabilitating them to play an effective role in managing social risks. "It will also support creative winners of the awards of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Programme for Excellence and Societal Intelligence, as well as to discover creative entrepreneurs from within society," she continued. Al Rumaithi added, "The forums participants included a number of government entities and non-government organisations that support the capabilities of families and are concerned with youth and childhood, and other community groups. The forum aims to empower them to be active partners in building a stable society, and enhancing families quality of life." Ousha Al Suwaidi said, "The Programme includes three areas, individual excellence, team work, and supporting entities. This is to cater for diversity in the nature of the social development sector, to meet the Programmes goals, and to achieve leadership in social development." She added, "The individual excellence section is divided into seven categories of excellence: culture, arts and media; future science and technology; social responsibility; community builders; mother/father, grandfather/grandmother; the supporter; and entrepreneurs." "The team work section is to motivate all community members, especially the 15-35 age group, to work in organised work groups to provide innovative projects and impactful practical solutions that make a tangible societal impact in culture, arts and media, future science and technology, and social responsibility, in addition to the excellent family that cares for People of Determination, the excellent volunteering family, and the extended family." "The section for supporting entities is to honour the organisations and people within them who support, care for and encourage all groups of the community, including families, youth and People of Determination in various fields, and to support them locally, regionally and internationally, and increasing awareness of community issues among public and private organisations." "An honourary award honours the people who support community issues. They will be selected by Sheikha Fatima, and will be honoured with the Mother of the Nation Medal in recognition of their pioneering role and community service," she said, in conclusion. Jerusalem, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jun, 2021 ) :It was Sunday, May 30, and Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on television looking flushed, grasping for words and losing his temper. The Israeli premier's ex-protege, Naftali Bennett, had just announced he would join the "change" coalition aimed at felling Netanyahu after 12 straight years in power. In less than half an hour, the political strongman dubbed "King Bibi" by his Likud party supporters would see his kingdom start to crumble. The change was swift, said Ben Caspit, a political commentator who wrote the biography "The Netanyahu Years". "For decades, he's nurtured his image with a lot of class. He's really an Ivy League politician, with the language, with the manners, with the looks, with the professionalism, with being the magician of television, with all this charisma," Caspit said. But now "he's screaming and shouting, he blames all these rivals -- absolutely lunatic accusations". Just days before the announcement of the bloc of rivals united against him, Netanyahu was playing his favourite role of wartime leader. Following a Gaza ceasefire, he was making the rounds, from a phone call with US President Joe Biden to a meeting with his security cabinet. But from May 30, a new battle began, with Netanyahu suddenly fighting for his political life. Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jun, 2021 ) :US President Joe Biden on Sunday offered incoming Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett his "warm congratulations" in telephone talks, the White House said, after an alliance of parties ousted Benjamin Netanyahu and formed a new government. "I congratulate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, and all the members of the new Israeli cabinet," Biden said in a statement issued shortly before the call. "Israel has no better friend than the United States." Bennett responded not long afterwards on Twitter, saying: "Thank you Mr. President! I look forward to working with you to strengthen the ties between our two nations." In the telephone talks, Biden "highlighted his decades of steadfast support for the US-Israel relationship and his unwavering commitment to Israel's security," the White House said. "The president also conveyed that his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on efforts to advance peace, security, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians," it added. "The leaders agreed that they and their teams would consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran," the White House noted. Bennett said he considers Biden "a great friend of the State of Israel," according to a readout from his team. A right-wing Jewish nationalist and former tech millionaire, Bennett is taking over at the helm of an Israeli government pieced together by an eight-party coalition, united only by their shared disdain for the hawkish right-wing Netanyahu. In a Knesset speech before the vote, the 49-year-old Bennett promised the new government, a coalition of ideologically divergent parties, "represents all of Israel."Separately, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin congratulated Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz, who will remain in his post in the new government. Austin said he "looks forward to continuing the important cooperation and dialogue with Minister Gantz to deepen the US-Israel strategic partnership," adding: "The US commitment to Israel's security remains ironclad." Yangon, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jun, 2021 ) :Anti-junta protesters flooded Myanmar's social media with pictures of themselves wearing black Sunday in a show of solidarity for the Rohingya, a minority group that is among the most persecuted in the country. Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a February 1 coup, an anti-junta movement demanding a return to democracy has grown to include fighting for ethnic minority rights. The mostly Muslim Rohingya -- long viewed as interlopers from Bangladesh by many in Myanmar -- have for decades been denied citizenship, rights, access to services and freedom of movement. Activists and civilians took to social media on Sunday to post pictures of themselves wearing black and flashing a three-finger salute of resistance, in posts tagged "#Black4Rohingya". "Justice must (be) served for each of you and each of us in Myanmar," said prominent rights activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi on Twitter. Local media also showed a small protest in Myanmar's commercial hub Yangon, with black-clad demonstrators holding signs in Burmese that said they were "protesting for the oppressed Rohingya". By afternoon, the #Black4Rohingya hashtag was trending on Twitter in Myanmar, with more than 180,000 mentions. Sunday's show of support from the mostly Buddhist, ethnic Bamar-majority population is a far cry from previous years, when even using the term "Rohingya" was a lightning rod for controversy. In 2017, a bloody military campaign in Myanmar's west sent some 740,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border into Bangladesh carrying accounts of rape, mass killings and arson. The military has long claimed the crackdown was justified to root out insurgents, and Suu Kyi also defended the army's conduct by travelling to the Hague to rebut charges of genocide at the UN's top court. The Myanmar public was largely unsympathetic to the Rohingya's plight, while activists and journalists reporting on the issues faced vitriolic abuse online. Prominent Europe-based Rohingya activist Ro Nay San Lwin told AFP the online campaign is a yearly effort to raise awareness -- but Sunday was "the first time" he had seen it go viral in Myanmar. "I am so happy to see those inside Myanmar joined this campaign. I am more hopeful to have a stronger solidarity from them," he said. A recent announcement from the shadow "National Unity Government" -- made up of ousted lawmakers working to topple the junta -- has also extended an olive branch to the minority group, inviting them to "join hands... to participate in this Spring Revolution". The NUG has been branded as "terrorists" by the military regime, while junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has dismissed the word "Rohingya" as "an imaginary term". SariSolenzara, France, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Jun, 2021 ) :Fears two oil slicks would pollute eastern Corsica's holiday beaches eased Saturday after French officials prepared for the worst and naval boats armed with clean-up equipment arrived off the Mediterranean island. "We are more reassured now because the pollution is drifting away from the coast," maritime prefecture spokesperson Christine Ribbe told AFP. "The pollution is breaking up and now about 10 kilometres (six miles) or so offshore. But we have to remain very careful because the situation can change with the currents." The authorities had voiced concern the oil would pollute the coast from Aleria to Ventiseri on Saturday and closed beaches along the 40-kilometre stretch and banned fishing. Two naval ships, equipped with "anti-pollution material and specialised staff" were already picking up oil from the surface of the sea. Some 80 members of the security forces and rescue services were also being drafted in to aid with any clean-up. The heavy-grade oil, which local authorities said appears to have come from a ship cleaning out fuel tanks, was first detected around midday Friday during an aerial surveillance operation. By Saturday, officials had detected two large slicks stretching over 19 nautical miles (35 kilometres), one 800 metres offshore, the other 3.5 kilometres. Francis Giudici, mayor of Ghisonaccia, where the beach was closed, told AFP: "We are hoping we'll avoid the pollution, but it will be complicated. "There's also been a lot of anger," he said. "We really don't need this at the start of the (holiday) season." France's Minister for the Sea Annick Girardin told reporters: "We have come here determined to find those who" caused the oil spill. "They are thugs and should be treated as thugs."Prosecutor Dominique Laurens said France's maritime gendarmerie had opened an investigation and the polluting vessel would be identified. Beirut, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jun, 2021 ) :Shelling of the rebel-held city of Afrin in northern Syria killed at least 16 people Saturday, many of them when a hospital was struck, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a doctor, three hospital staff, three women and a child died at Al-Shifaa hospital in the city. The artillery fire originated from northern Aleppo province where Syrian regime and Kurdish forces are both deployed, the Britain-based group said. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement denying any involvement in the shelling. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jun, 2021 ) :Tens of thousands of people across France on Saturday marched against "attacks on freedoms" and what organisers said was a growing influence of far-right ideas ahead of next year's presidential elections. Members of more than 100 left-leaning organisations participated in the "Liberty March" in cities and towns across the country. The protests were the first opportunity for a divided left to take to the streets after a year and a half of Covid-19 restrictions. Organisers reported 70,000 participants in Paris and 150,000 around the nation, while the Paris police and interior ministry put the numbers at 9,000 in the capital and 37,000 nationwide. The interior ministry said 119 rallies had taken place. In Nantes, western France, around 900 people rallied, according to the local prefecture, including scores of far-left militants who clashed with police. In the Mediterranean port of Marseilles, more than a thousand demonstrators marched behind a CGT union banner that called for "unity to break down the capitalism that leads to fascism". Protesters vented against issues ranging from recent legislation they say chips away at liberties, such as a law that could see prosecutions for publishing images of police officers in action, to what they charge is a creep of far-right ideas into the mainstream ahead of next year's elections. In the southern city of Toulouse, a 54-year-old teacher and union activist, who gave his name as Gauthier, remarked that students had begun to challenge him and warned that "extreme right ideas are gaining ground". Far-right ideas "are no longer the monopoly of far-right parties and ... have now largely penetrated the political class," said Benoit Hamon, the Socialist presidential candidate in 2017. In Paris, far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon had flour thrown in his face as he spoke to reporters. A suspect arrested later in the day claimed to be a "sovereigntist" who social network specialists said broadcast far-right commentary on YouTube. The move against Melenchon, who has been accused of fuelling conspiracy theories ahead of the presidential election, came days after President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face while shaking hands with people on a regional visit. Other events that have caused concern in France recently are allegations of ties between far-left figures including Melenchon and Islamists, a YouTube video that simulated the execution of a militant from his France Unbowed party, and university gatherings at which Caucasian participants were allegedly not allowed to speak. Jordan Bardella, vice president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, dismissed the demonstrations on Saturday as a bid to deflect attention from Melenchon's remarks on terrorism and the 2022 presidential election. Groups that took part included Socialists, Communists, ecologists and trade unions. (@FahadShabbir) New York, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Jun, 2021 ) :It sounds like a real-life take on "Pinocchio" -- a US lobster fisherman says he was scooped into the mouth of a humpback whale Friday and yet lived to tell the story. "I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out," Michael Packard wrote on Facebook hours after his brush with the depths. "A humpback whale tried to eat me," he added. "I am very bruised up but have no broken bones." Packard's beyond-belief big fish yarn began, he told local paper Cape Cod Times, when he was diving for lobster off the coast of the northeastern state of Massachusetts. "All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black," he said after being released from the hospital. He was about 35 feet down (10 meters) and his first thought was that he had been attacked by a shark, but the lack of teeth and obvious wounds made him reconsider. Packard said he began to struggle -- but unlike in the classic children's tale "Pinocchio" there was no need to build a fire to secure his escape. "I saw light, and he started throwing his head side-to-side and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water)," Packard told the paper. The story says Packard's fishing mate Josiah Mayo "saw the explosion of water as the whale surfaced and Packard was ejected," but doesn't include any quotes attributed to him. Jooke Robbins, director of humpback whale studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said she had no reason to doubt the account. "I didn't think it was a hoax because I knew the people involved... So I have every reason to believe that what they say is true," she told AFP. Robbins said she had never heard of an "accident" of this type, but "it may be that he (Packard) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." "When they (whales) fish... they rush forward, open their mouth and engulf the fish and the water very quickly," she said, adding they have large mouths, but throats so narrow they wouldn't be able to swallow a human. The whale, which according to Mayo's description was on the young side, "may not be able to detect quickly enough that something is in the way."Even if all the details weren't yet known, one thing was clear for Robbins: "It is important for people to be quite aware... And when they see a whale, keep a good distance. It's really important to give whales their space." The United Nations warns that with thousands of displaced people cut off from food, water and medicine in Kayah state, mass deaths could result from starvation, disease and exposure. By Robin Gomes The Catholic Bishops of Myanmar have appealed for a humanitarian corridor" for thousands of displaced people trapped and starving in conflict zones. They have also appealed for respect for places of worship and other neutral sites where many innocent civilians have sought shelter. As our country goes through her challenging times this appeal is made on humanitarian grounds, said a message by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM). We are not politicians, we are faith leaders, accompanying our people in their journey towards human dignity, the CBCM said in the message released at the end of its plenary assembly in Yangon, June 8-11. Coup protest and ethnic conflicts The impoverished south-east Asian nation has been plunged into chaos since the Feb. 1 military coup that ousted the elected government and detained its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Protests and strikes against the coup have paralyzed parts of the economy. The crisis has also re-ignited Myanmars old conflicts between the military and some of the armed ethnic organizations. Areas occupied by the Kachin, Chin, Karen and Kayah ethnic groups, who have been facing oppression and persecution at the hands of the military for decades, are largely Christian. An estimated one-third of Myanmars territory mostly the border regions is currently controlled by 20-odd armed rebel outfits. The military has stepped up its offensive against ethnic guerrillas and anti-coup resistance groups by deploying fighter jets and heavy artillery. Many civilians caught up in these clashes have fled their homes and villages and sought shelter in places of worship or gone into jungles where they lack food and other basic needs. Christians are a minority in the predominantly Buddhist country, accounting for 6.2 percent of its 54 million population. Myanmar Catholics represent about 1.5 percent of the population. Threat of starvation The message signed by the 13 CBCM members has four appeals. Firstly, they noted, Thousands of our people, especially the old and the children are starving in the jungles. Starvation of the innocent people is the most heart wrenching experience. These are our citizens and they have basic right to food and safety. Hence, We plead with all to kindly allow the humanitarian corridor to reach out to the starving masses wherever they are. Places of worship under attack Secondly, the bishops noted that in the recent conflict, thousands have sought safety in the churches. Four churches in Loikaw Diocese in Kayah state have come under military artillery fire and thousands sheltering there fled elsewhere or into the jungle. The bishops called for observing international norms in times of war regarding sanctuaries. Churches, pagodas, monasteries, mosques and temples, including schools and hospitals, are recognized as neutral places of refuge during conflicts and should not be targeted. We appeal that these places are not to be attacked and the people who seek refuge should be protected, the bishops said. Spiritual campaign The bishops also made an appeal to all the dioceses of the country to intensify their spiritual campaign. Our destiny is in God's hands, who must change the hearts of all, bringing peace to this nation. As a nation we have suffered a lot and this should end, they said, inviting each diocese to a period of intense prayer, seeking compassion in the hearts of all and peace to this nation. They thus appealed to all dioceses to offer daily Mass for peace and reconciliation of the country, to recite the prayer of the CBCM after Mass, to observe an hour of daily adoration alone or in a group, and to pray the rosary, asking the maternal protection of Mary, Mother of help. This is in continuation of what CBCM president Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon had urged ahead of the Marian month of May. Striving for lasting peace Lastly, the bishops of Myanmar urged all parties to work for lasting peace. They noted that the last 7 decades that their country has been in conflict, have caused only tears and crushed innocent people. However, the nation needs to invest in peace. Because nobody has won a war in this country the bishops wrote, it is our duty to work towards peace. This country deserves to join the community of nations, putting its past to history and investing in peace. Human dignity is given by God and no amount of violence can negate people's aspiration for human dignity, the bishops stressed, adding history has proved that this can be achieved by peaceful means. Peace is still possible. Peace is the way they added. UN - Kayah critical The United Nations on Wednesday warned that the situation has grown critical in Kayah. Militias of the People's Defence Forces have clashed with Myanmar's well-equipped army, which has responded with artillery and airstrikes, triggering an exodus of civilians into nearby forests. Thomas Andrews, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar warned that the state could suffer a "massive" loss of life beyond anything seen since the military seized power, with more than 100,000 people fleeing their homes to escape the conflict. "The junta's brutal, indiscriminate attacks are threatening the lives of many thousands of men, women and children in Kayah State," Andrews, said in a statement. "Let me blunt. Mass deaths from starvation, disease, and exposure, on a scale we have not yet seen since the February 1 coup, could occur in Kayah State absent immediate action," he warned. Loikaw Diocese Father Celso Ba Shwe, the apostolic administrator of Loikaw Diocese said that as fighting escalates in Kayah and in the neighbouring state of Shan, churches, convents and monasteries have opened their doors to fleeing civilians, regardless of religion and ethnicity, especially the elderly, children, women, the sick and the disabled. As of June 7, he said, 23 camps for internally displaced persons have been set up and about 45,000 displaced persons are under the care of the Catholic Church of Loikaw. But after the attacks on churches, they are scattered again. He appealed to both sides of the conflict in Kayah to refrain from targeting places of worship. With food, goods and gasoline prevented from reaching Kayah, Father Shwe warned of an imminent famine. Pekhon Diocese A source in Pekhon Diocese, in neighbouring Shan state, told the Vaticans Fides news agency that the military has destroyed tons of rice stored to feed the internally displaced people in the village of Loi Ying Taungche, near the city of Moebye. The source noted that army is following the "policy of the four cuts": cutting off all access to food, communications, transport and finances, to squash every resistance and protest. According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 175.000 people have been displaced in Kachin, Karen, Chin, Kayah and Shan states since the Feb. 1 coup. A Vietinbank employee talking to a customer. The bank shares led the market's trend yesterday, hitting the maximum daily gain of 7 per cent. - Photo vietinbank.vn The market benchmark VN-Index surged 28.16 points, or 2.13 per cent, to end the week at 1,351 points. The market's breadth was positive as 293 stocks increased while 104 edged lower. However the liquidity was lower than the day before with over 565.7 million shares traded on the southern bourse, worth nearly VND17.9 trillion (US$778.2 million). The index rebounded on the back of strong buying force across every sector. The VN30-Index, tracking the 30 biggest stocks in market capitalisation on HoSE, climbed 36.43 points, or 2.51 per cent, to 1,487.61 points. Of which, 26 stocks in the VN30 basket rose while only four declined. Stocks posted good performance on Friday, led by banking, real estate and materials sectors. Vietinbank (CTG) rose the most, hitting the biggest daily per cent gain of 7 per cent. It was followed by Techcombank (TCB), Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Vinhomes JSC (VHM) and JSC Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV, BID). Besides Vinhomes (up 1.83 per cent), the other stocks posted gains of more than 2 per cent. PetroVietnam GAS JSC (GAS), Vietjet Aviation JSC (VJC), FPT Corporation (FPT), Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) and many other big stocks also witnessed good results on Friday, up more than 1 per cent. The benchmark will continue to receive support from the territory of 1,285 - 1,300 points in the near future, said Tran Xuan Bach, senior stock analyst of Bao Viet Securities Company. On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index also inched higher on Friday, boosted by gains in most stocks. The index climbed 1.72 per cent to 316.69 points with the HNX30-Index gaining 2.67 per cent to close the last trading session of the week at 494.16 points. During the session, local investors poured nearly VND3 trillion (US$125.7 million) into HNX, equivalent to a trading volume of nearly 127 million shares. Meanwhile, foreign investors continued to net buy on the market with a value of VND618.86 billion (US$27 million). Of which, they net bought a value of VND610.09 billion (US$26.57 million) on HoSE and a value of VND8.77 billion (US$381,955). With its proposed grand opening in September 2021 in partnership with Sun Group, one of the largest real estate developers in Vietnam, True North School Kindergarten is nestled in Sun Grand City Ancora Residences at Luong Yen street in Hanois Hai Ba Trung district. As a member of REP (Reggio Emilia Approach Excellence Preschools Programme), TNS cultivates creative thinking and curiosity and fosters the transformation for students aged 18 months to 5 years old, True North School Kindergarten aims to develop childrens integrity and resilience so they can become confident, self-directed learners for an ever-changing world. The proposed design of True North School Kindergarten True North School Kindergarten is nestled in Sun Grand City Ancora Residences at Luong Yen street, Hai Ba Trung district TNS leads the development of K12 learning platforms. Using international benchmarks, each child will be an active learner in his or her development and growth. In order to deliver the future of education, TNS has an experienced and creative group of passionate educators from abroad and Vietnam. Through performing arts and a progressive curriculum rich in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education, the classroom design serves as a source of inspiration and encourages students to dive deeper into their interests and learn independently based on their own understandings and perceptions. In order to deliver the future of education, TNS has an experienced and creative group of passionate educators from abroad and Vietnam. The management team has a collective experience of 60-years operating K12 schools and education businesses ranging from the US, China, South Korea, and Thailand to Vietnam. Through ongoing research and development, TNS pioneers and refines educational techniques such as strong language immersion classes, advanced faculty instructional programs, and innovative facility design. The management team of True North School TNS inspires students to Discover Your True North by encouraging and equipping them with the tools for lifelong success. Vietnam has more than 5.1 million sq.m of built social housing, accounting for only about 41.4 percent of the country's target by 2020 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi - Vietnam has less than half of the low-income houses it targeted for in 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Construction (MoC). According to the statistics, the total area of more than 5.1 million sq.m of built social housing accounted for only 41.4 percent of the target of 12.5 million sq.m of proposed housing in the National Housing Development Strategy by 2020. According to realty insiders, the supply of low-priced apartments was still very scarce. The affordable segment, which was more expensive than the low-income segment, was also not easy to find while the need to improve the accommodation for people with limited income was growing. The MoC said since 2016 there have been about 1,040 projects to build social housing for low-income people in urban areas and industrial park workers, including 507 independent housing projects and 533 social housing projects built on 20 percent of the land fund of commercial housing and urban development projects. Up to now, only 248 projects have been completed with a construction scale of more than 103,500 apartments in a total area of more than 5.1 million sq.m. Another 264 projects with a construction scale of about 216,500 apartments and total area of about 10.8 million sq.m were being built. While the segment of low-priced apartments dominated in terms of total number of transactions on the market, the supply will not be further improved until the end of 2022. A representative of the MoC said: The tightening of administrative procedures in project construction and development limited the new supply of real estate projects. The MoCs latest report on the real estate market showed that affordable apartments are priced below 25 million VND per sq.m in big cities while prices for each sq.m of a low-income house far from the centre was below 25 million VND. The report also said as there was little supply of low-income houses, the prices increased from less than 20 million VND to less than 25 million VND per sq.m. Professor Dang Hung Vo told local media: The State's affordable housing developers can only meet 15 percent of the housing supply for immigrants and the rest of them have to take care of themselves. Vo added: These people are in need of cheap commercial housing, ranging from 700 million VND to 1 billion VND each. He calculated the supply of cheap houses was nowhere near the demand. Due to the lack of supply, according to most insiders, social housing has never experienced a crisis in transactions and the liquidity was always the most stable in the market. The latest data and reports from realty research firm Savills Vietnam said household size in HCM City has tended to decrease over the past ten years. The household size was 3.5 people per household in 2019, much lower than the rate of 3.9 people per household in 2009. The firm also said 66 percent of households have from two to four members, and there is a trend of separating households, which led to an increase in housing demand. According to Savills Vietnam, the number of apartments offered for sale on the market with a value of 2 billion VND each or less accounted for about 10 percent of the total number. Many investors and developers are following the trend of reducing the area to fit the needs of small families and make the value suitable for buyers. However, the number of apartments of less than 2 billion VND, from 50 to 60sq.m, was not many. Vo Thi Khanh Trang, deputy director of Savills Research Department in Ho Chi Minh City, said as the land fund was limited and the price of construction materials was increasing, the prices of houses would increase. Trang said in order to increase the supply for the low-price and affordable housing segment, "it is necessary to have co-operation from local authorities with policies to support businesses to quickly solve administrative procedures and businesses which build such projects." On April 15, the MoC representatives met with Korean housing experts in HCM City to share experience in social housing development of the Republic of Korea (RoK) as part of a project on the building of a master policy on Vietnam's social housing development for the 2021-30 period, carried out using non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) from the RoK government via the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Director of Korea Housing and Land Research Institute (LHI) Moon Hyogon said in the current economic growth context, relying on government support alone cannot provide enough housing to meet people's needs, especially in the low-income segments. Moon Hyogon said using money from the private sector in housing provision should be a solution, saying: As more Vietnamese businesses can earn profits from low-income household building, they should put a certain amount of the revenues to increase development funds for developing low-income housing. The Korean expert said the formation of such a fund was expected to carry out the unified, systematic management of many aspects including financial resources, thereby achieving successful results for Vietnam. International Albinism Awareness Day on June 13 has been observed in Cameroon, with albinos asking for more government and community care and protection. Those living with this hereditary genetic condition that reduces melanin pigment in skin, hair and eyes, say stigma, violence, superstition and killing have greatly lessened, but abuses have not been eliminated. One hundred and sixty albinos and their family members assembled at the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos office in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, to mark International Albinism Awareness Day. Among them is 16-year-old albino Ronald Essi, who said he was abandoned because of his condition. Essi said he wants to become a police officer to defend his country Cameroon and punish civilians who abuse albinos' rights. He said his mother abandoned him when he was two years old. He said his grandmother resisted family pressure to kill him. He said he has been living in the streets since 2015, when his grandmother died. Essi said a Catholic priest rescued him from the street and sent him to a school in Yaounde. Essi is one of the about 2,200 albinos the government says live in Cameroon. This year Cameroon reported that prejudice and discrimination against albinos in employment and social life had lowered drastically. The government said hunting down albinos for their body parts has been eliminated from many communities. Witch doctors who claim that albinos bring wealth and good luck to people who have access to their body parts are disappearing. In many communities, albino babies are no longer considered signs of misfortune and buried alive or starved until they die. Jean-Jacques Ndoudoumou, the founding president of the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos, says albinos are gradually being accepted by communities. He said the association he leads is happy, as people are increasingly accepting albinos as normal human beings. He said many albinos have graduated from universities and are using the knowledge they acquire to contribute to developing Cameroon. He said complaints of stigma and violence on albinos have greatly declined and there are now marriages between albinos and people without the condition. Ndoudoumou said his association has instructed all its members to continue teaching people albinos are normal human beings who need special assistance. Gregoire Amindeh is member of The Association for the Promotion of the Rights of Albinos. Amindeh said that although Cameroons government has done a lot, albinos still urgently need special reading glasses and handheld magnifiers to stop their high school dropout rate from low vision. He said they need subsidies to be treated in hospitals since their skin is extremely sensitive to the sun and can develop cancer. He said skin cancers remain a major cause of death in African albinos. Pauline Irene Nguene, Cameroon's minister of social affairs, says albinos are placed in the group of people with special protection needs. She said Cameroon ensures the socio-economic integration and protection of albinos, and immediately intervenes to protect albinos whenever cases of abuse are reported. She said in 2020, staff of her ministry visited more than a hundred villages where abuses of the rights of albinos were reported. She said civilians in the villages were taught in their local languages to respect the health, education and social rights of albinos. She said the government has continued to lobby for private enterprises, schools and outside organizations not to reject albinos looking for positions in their institutions. Nguene said 60 government offices created in Cameroons administrative units receive complaints and immediately help albinos in need. International Albinism Awareness Day is observed by the United Nations on June 13 every year. This year's theme, Strength Beyond All Odds, according to the U.N. highlights the achievements of people with albinism all over the world. U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife Jill had tea with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on Sunday at the end of a G-7 summit and as he wraps up the British leg of his first international trip since taking office. The 95-year-old British monarch, wearing a bright pink floral outfit, greeted the Bidens in the Quadrangle of the castle, home to the royal family for nearly 1,000 years and where she has spent much of her time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Giving the U.S. president and first lady a taste of British pomp on their arrival, a Guard of Honour formed of The Queens Company First Battalion Grenadier Guards gave a Royal Salute, and the U.S. National Anthem was played. The president and queen looked relaxed and chatted before they headed inside the castle for a private meeting. The queen had already met the Bidens on their visit to Britain. She hosted a reception for leaders of the Group of Seven rich nations and their spouses on Friday night in the southwestern English county of Cornwall where the three-day summit was held. "Joe and I are both looking forward to meeting the queen," Jill Biden said after they arrived in Britain on Thursday. "Thats an exciting part of the visit for us." Joe Biden and his wife will become the fourth president and first lady the queen has received at Windsor, following the Trumps in 2018, the Obamas in 2016, President George W. Bush and his wife in 2008 and the Reagans in 1982. During her 69 years on the British throne, the longest reign of any English monarch, there have been 14 U.S. presidents, of which Elizabeth has met all bar Lyndon Johnson. Despite the loss in April of Prince Philip, her 99-year-old husband of more than 70 years, and her age, the queen has shown her determination to carry on with her official duties as head of state during the high-profile G7 gathering. After hosting the leaders on Friday where she cracked a joke during the official photocall, she provoked more laughter at another official engagement for a local project immediately afterwards when she cut a cake with a long ceremonial sword. On Saturday, she was back in Windsor for a military parade to mark her official birthday, the first one she has marked without Philip. After leaving Windsor, Biden will head off to a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday, a U.S.-EU summit on Tuesday and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva the following day. By Columbus Mavhunga Zimbabwes government on Monday is reintroducing a lockdown as a way to contain rising coronavirus cases in the southern African nation. Announcing the 12-hour curfew Saturday night on national television, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said complacency had resulted in a recent spike in cases of the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 disease. Our vaccination against in COVID-19 is going on very well," he said. "The country is however experiencing a surge in cases. The last seven days has seen 596 new cases and 26 deaths, as compared to the same period in May last year where we had 132 cases and six deaths. Chiwenga, who doubles as Zimbabwes health minister, said all gatherings except for funerals would be banned come Monday. Only 30 people would be allowed at funerals. He did not indicate when the new measures would be reviewed. Itai Rusike, head of nonprofit Community Working Group on Health in Zimbabwe, commended the government for tightening the lockdown to avoid a pending third wave disaster. Yes, this may look a bit draconian, but the measures are still necessary if we are to save lives. It is important that the people of Zimbabwe should embrace these measures. It is also important for Zimbabweans that are eligible for vaccination to come forward and willingly get vaccinated if the country is to move forward towards achieving herd immunity of vaccinating at least 60% of the population which translates to about 10 million Zimbabweans, he said. Zimbabwes vaccination effort against the infection has recently been hit by shortages of the shots. But officials say the country still has stocks of the 1.7 million vaccines it has received from China, Russia and India since February. Last week, Zimbabwe received 25,000 Sputnik V doses from Russia. That was a few days after it rejected Johnson & Johnson vaccines from the African Union, financed by the African Export-Import Bank. Zimbabwe has 39,852 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,632 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which tracks the global outbreak. G-7 leaders have wrapped up their summit in Carbis Bay, England, pledging more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer nations and calling out China on several issues. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters the doses would come both directly and through COVAX, the U.N.-backed program delivering vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. A communique issued at the end of the summit said G-7 leaders will promote our values, including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration," the G-7 said. Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang as well as committing abuses in Hong Kong. For years, Beijing has come under strong international criticism from the West and many Muslims for its treatment of Uyghurs, which includes widespread government surveillance and abuses including forced birth control. Human rights groups say China has sent more than a million Uyghurs to detention camps. China says the compounds are "vocational education centers" intended to stop the spread of religious extremism and terrorist attacks. Additionally, Beijing has urged the West to stop interfering in what it terms the internal affairs of Hong Kong. A national security law took effect in Hong Kong in June 2020 following pro-democracy protests in 2019. G-7 leaders also called for more investigations regarding the origins of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. "We also call for a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based WHO-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study including, as recommended by the experts report, in China," the G-7 said. Some information in this report was provided by AP and Reuters. VOA's Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. U.S. President Joe Biden has declared that the G-7 summit was an extraordinarily collaborative and productive meeting that made progress on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, reviving the global economy and calling out China by name for its bad behavior. Speaking to reporters Sunday at the end of the gathering in Carbis Bay, England, Biden also praised agreements on tackling corruption, fighting ransomware and ending public finance for coal projects (but with no timeline agreement). Leaders of the G-7 on Sunday signed the Carbis Bay Declaration, vowing to end the pandemic and prepare for our futures, as well as to reinvigorate our economies with $12 trillion of support put in place during the pandemic. Other leaders, including host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, echoed Bidens language to build back better. The concluding statement, named for the location of the G-7 Summit in the seaside town of Cornwall, England, recognizes the need to tackle the roots of the pandemic on a global level. The aim is to slash the time needed to respond to a pandemic, including to develop vaccines, to under 100 days. There was a clear consensus among all our colleagues at the G-7 that this wasnt the end, Biden said of the battle against the coronavirus. We were going to stay at it until were able to provide for the needs of the whole world. Heads of Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan a grouping of the worlds wealthiest democracies known as the Group of Seven were joined in their discussions on global health by leaders of South Korea, South Africa and Australia. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined virtually. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and leaders of other international organizations were also present. The conference demonstrated to his fellow G-7 leaders and the people of their countries that America is back at the table, said Biden, after the four years of the Donald Trump administration. I think we've made some progress in reestablishing American credibility among our closest friends. The lack of participation in the past and full engagement was noticed significantly not only by leaders of those countries, but by the people in the G-7 countries, added Biden during a news conference at Cornwall Airport Newquay. 1 billion vaccines G-7 leaders announced one billion doses of vaccines for the world, half of them from the United States. They committed to a series of actions to end the pandemic, and how to prevent a future one, including increasing global manufacturing capacity and improving early warning systems. G-7 Leaders Pledge More than 1 Billion COVID Vaccines Doses to Poorer Nations Leaders also called on China for several issues The World Health Organization has said as many as 11 billion doses are needed. The result of this uninspiring summit will be a prolonged pandemic that costs more lives and livelihoods, not only across the world but in the G-7 countries themselves, said Tom Hart, acting chief executive officer of the ONE Campaign, a global anti-poverty and health organization. I think there's a possibility over 2022, going into 2023 that we would be able to be in a position to provide another billion [doses] from the United States, said Biden. Vaccine patent waiver The G-7 has been under pressure from humanitarian organizations and around 100 World Trade Organization member countries including the United States, to waive intellectual property protections of vaccine technology the so-called WTO TRIPS waiver. The group, however, opted not to do so. Instead, it will support manufacturing in low-income countries through voluntary licensing and technology transfer to increase the global supply. We will engage constructively with discussions at the World Trade Organization on the role of intellectual property, according to the leaders statement. This G7 summit will live on in infamy. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times, said Max Lawson, head of Inequality Policy at the Oxfam charity. Johnson and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel are insisting on defending the monopolies of pharmaceutical companies over peoples lives, which is completely inexcusable." G-7 leaders pledged to "explore all options" to ensure that lowest income countries have access to vaccines, including "non-profit production, tiered and transparent pricing" and asking manufacturers to share ten percent of the doses produced with COVAX, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism. G-7 and China Biden said he was pleased with the G-7 taking China to task. The last time the G-7 met there was no mention of China, noted the U.S. president. But this time there is mention of China. The G-7 explicitly agreed to call out human rights abuses, and Xinjiang and Hong Kong. China has harshly cracked down on mainly Muslim-minority Uyghurs in Xinjiang and repressed Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. The communique says the G-7 will continue to consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. It also calls on Beijing to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. Biden, at the news conference, said China has to start to act more responsibly in terms of international norms on human rights, and transparency. The group announced a new infrastructure financing mechanism for low- and middle-income countries, called "Build Back Better World," or B3W, designed to rival China's Belt and Road Initiativethe global infrastructure development investment strategy central to Beijings foreign policy. The scope and source of the financing are still unclear. On Sunday China hit back, by saying that the days when global decisions were dictated by a "small group" of countries are long gone. Biden and Putin American reporters asked Biden several questions about this weeks scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting sanctions on Moscow have not changed the Russian leaders behavior. Autocrats have enormous power and they don't have to answer to a public, responded Biden. And the fact is that it may very well if I respond in kind, which I will, that it doesn't dissuade him, he wants to keep going. Biden said he agreed with Putins assessment that relations between their two countries are at a low point. One area of possible agreement with Russia, however, according to the U.S. president would be mutual extraditions of cyber criminals who have targeted their respective nations something Putin has said he favors. Shortcoming on climate action A failure by the G-7 to agree to firm deadlines for actions to combat climate change is being criticized by environmental organizations. Johnson rejects that assessment, telling reporters shortly before Biden spoke that much was actually achieved in this arena, adding, I think it has been a highly productive few days, noting the nations agreed to raise their contributions to meet an overdue annual spending pledge of $100 billion a year to assist poorer countries in reducing carbon emissions and coping with global warming. We had hoped that the leaders of the worlds richest nations would come away from this week having put their money their mouth is, said Catherine Pettengell, director at Climate Action Network, an umbrella group for advocacy organizations. Biden on Sunday evening headed to Brussels for two days of meetings in the days ahead with NATO and EU leaders before his much-anticipated talks with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. 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! Antigua, Guatemala (76 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Brief shaking, windows and roof rattling like a large truck was passing by. | 4 users found this interesting. Guatemala city (96.5 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s : For about 15 seconds duration Moves my bed from east to west movement lika side to side | One user found this interesting. Guatemala (98.3 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : A bit long | One user found this interesting. 100.5 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Felt long | One user found this interesting. San Salvador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s : I was laying down in my living room watching tv when I felt the apartment start shaking, looked over and could tell some items moving. Guatemala City (90.3 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s Rare, many days without an earthquake, 5.7 degrees at the national Institute of seismology | One user found this interesting. (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s Guatemala / Weak shaking (MMI III) : IT was a little scary | One user found this interesting. Ciudad de Guatemala (98.2 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s : Se movio la cama unos segundos | One user found this interesting. 72.6 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 10-15 s (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 10-15 s 100.6 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Guatemala City (99.9 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s zona 8 mixco san cristobal (90.2 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 1-2 minutes Antigua, Guatemala (74.8 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 20-30 s : Many rumples, ripples and waves for about 30 seconds. The clothes in my closet were swaying. 97.7 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / 2-5 s 153.6 km N of epicenter [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 30-60 s Guatemala (97.7 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s santa tecla El Salvador (220.1 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : just felt the bed move 73 km N of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s Tapachula (142.2 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 30-60 s Antigua / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 30-60 s Antigua, Guatemala / Moderate shaking (MMI V) panajachel / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Guatemala City / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : An Lomas de Portugal, Mixco, Guatemala (92.4 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s san lucas / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 10-15 s San Carlos Sija Quetzaltenango (104 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s : The house and roof shook for about a minute. Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (90.1 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 10-15 s Santa Cruz La Laguna / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 1-2 minutes : Intense sound and shaking inside of the house Antigua Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s Over Guatemala City / not felt : I was in a United Airlines flight booked to land around 8:50 PM. Instead of landing on time we started meandering around the skies above Guatemala City. This was a bit troubling and there were no announcements from the cockpit. Now on the morning after I realize the flight crew was probably warned off landing till people at the airport could check for damage. San Miguel Duenas / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s Mazatenago (55.8 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s 96.2 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) Pastores, Sacatepequez / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : 8 to 10 seconds quite strong vibrating for first 5 seconds and then 3ish seconds of waning vibrating Antigua Guatemala / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s Guatemala City / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : An Antigua, Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s 87.6 km ENE of epicenter [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 30-60 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 30-60 s Guatemala City, Hotel Holiday In / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : Es war ein leichtes Schutteln Malacatan / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s 96.9 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s In bed / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Guatemala san juan de dios / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s Guatemala city (101.9 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s Guatemala City, zone 16 / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 20-30 s Solola, Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s San Salvador, El Salvador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s : It felt like a quick strong bump followed by a swaying motion Antigua, Guatemala / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 30-60 s San Pedro La Laguna / Light shaking (MMI IV) Antigua Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 10-15 s : started with a light ratling and vibrating so that the kids stopped running around, intensified after about 7 seconds to a up and down shaking with one or two bit stronger bumps 121.7 km NW of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 2-5 s 87.8 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s Guatemala City / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s El boqueron (217.3 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s Colonia Montemaria zona 12 / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s 71.8 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 15-20 s Guatemala City (99.9 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s ciudad de guatemala / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s Guatemala city / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Antigua / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s Guatemala City / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Guatemala / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 1-2 s Mixco (91.8 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s San Salvador / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : My glass of wine was shacking Zona 8 Mixco / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : None Lago Atitlan (72.4 km N of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Strong sound and noticeable movements Guatemala / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Villa Nueva, Guatemala (81.3 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 10-15 s Lago Atitlan / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Strong sound and noticeable movements 96.9 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s : Bed shake on my hotel Barcelona Biltmore Hotel / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s San marcos la laguna Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) Jocotenango sacatepequez guatemala (76.3 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 20-30 s Suchitepequez / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / complex motion difficult to describe / 10-15 s Guatemala / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s : Intense Villa Canales (93.5 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s 73.8 km N of epicenter [ Map ] / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / rattling, vibrating / 30-60 s Guatemala city / Light shaking (MMI IV) / complex motion difficult to describe Guatemala / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / single lateral shake / 30-60 s Villa canales, guatemala (92.6 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico (140.2 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s : Heard rattling of the window for a short period, and then felt the floor move for shorter time. Guatemala, Guatemala / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s 56.3 km ENE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s Antigua Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s Pastores, Sacatepequez / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : 8 to 10 seconds quite strong vibrating for first 5 seconds and then 3ish seconds of waning vibrating Retalhuleu (66.3 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s : Se empezo a mover la cama San Cristobal, Mixco Guatemala / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s San Pedro la laguna / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Shaking San Miguel Petapa / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s : Guatemala san Miguel petapa Mazatenango / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s Amatitlan / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s : I Guatemala City / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Guatemala City / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s 96.2 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump Salcaja / Weak shaking (MMI III) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 10-15 s Guatemala (97.3 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Vibrating Palin Escuintla (70.8 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s Guatemala City zona 14 / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s San Carlos la laguna, lake Atitlan Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 2-5 s San Bartolome milpas altas sacatepequez Guatemala (84.7 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s 86.7 km ENE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) San Miguel Petapa, Guatemala, Leve (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) Panajachel / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 5-10 s Jocotenango / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s Sacatepequez / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s : Scared CIUDAD DE GUATEMALA / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Fue muy fuerte, y fue en casi todo el Pais Palin escuiltla / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s 912.2 km ESE of epicenter [ Map ] / not felt I live in Costa Rica (reported through (reported through our app / not felt 90.8 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Guatemala city / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : I was laying on my bed San Antonio Aguas Calientes Guatemala / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Shaking 98.5 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s Nuevo Progreso, San Marcos, Guatemala (106.2 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Guatemala (93.3 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s SALVADOR / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Santa Cruz Naranjo, Santa Rosa, Guatemala (100.5 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s : Se sintio por 3 o 5 segundos aproximadamente Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s Chimaltenango, Guatemala / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s 95.7 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s Villa Canales (93.4 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 10-15 s Estaba acostado y los muebles empezaron a tronar (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 10-15 s 81.9 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 10-15 s San Jose Vill Nueva / Light shaking (MMI IV) / complex motion difficult to describe / 30-60 s Guatemala City (106.2 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s Antigua Guatemala (75.6 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Mixco / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 10-15 s Guatemala City / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / very short 74.2 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s Chimaltenango / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / 10-15 s : Like 4... ciudad de guatemala / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Barberena, Santa Rosa, Guatemala / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s Guatemala / Moderate shaking (MMI V) Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Guatemala city / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / complex rolling (tilting in multiple directions) / 5-10 s : East/west sway with jolting. Creaking and outside noise. Guatemala / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s Guatemala city / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s 84.8 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s 127.6 km ESE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 30-60 s . (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 30-60 s 90.4 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s Ciudad de Guatemala / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s : Listo Villa Nueva Guatemala (83.5 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s 97.5 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s 161.8 km E of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s Antigua / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s : Windows and frames on the wall shaking. Floor vibrating. Guatemala City / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s 97.6 km NE of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s : Swinging. Sensation Guatemala / Strong shaking (MMI VI) Santa Catarina Pinula (98.5 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) As of Saturday, 1.7 million Alabamians, close to 35%, have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. That's far short of President Biden's July 4th goal, to have 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated. Smith receives the COVID-19 vaccine from the Lincoln County Health Department. Smith receives the COVID-19 vaccine from the Lincoln County Health Department. WAAY-31 tells you why Alabama will not be making that deadline, now just three weeks away. Dr. Karen Landers works with the Department of Public Health and she told us only a third of our population is vaccinated and we just can't make it to 70%. But, she says the main thing is, they're still vaccinating people every single day. "Some of our counties have persons at least receiving one vaccine and in a range of high 30% and some are very close to 40%," said Landers. Dr. Karen Landers is the assistant public health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health. She told us it's not a bad thing Alabama won't make President Biden's vaccination plan because the goal is to keep vaccinating no matter what. "We absolutely must continue to make the ability to receive vaccines very convenient for people. We pretty much have vaccines in every corner of Alabama, there are a lot of providers of different kinds," she said. Right now, you can get vaccines at hospitals, drug stores, grocery stores, and even at some non-profits and churches. Dr. Landers says they are giving out the COVID vaccine every day and the priority right now is to keep getting people to roll their sleeves up. "We are not through this pandemic yet and we literally have the opportunity, right now, to get this behind us with more vaccines," she said. Dr. Landers says we've come a long way and we can't let our guard down just yet. She says if you're eligible to look into the vaccine to help in the fight. Decatur, IL (62521) Today A clear sky. Low near 55F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A clear sky. Low near 55F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Among dozens of other Black artists to feature prominently this summer are the photographer Dawoud Bey and the late folk artist Joseph Yoakum. The Bey exhibition, An American Project, through Oct. 3 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which I reviewed in April, reveals an American master at work. Yoakum, meanwhile, is the subject of a show, What I Saw, at the Art Institute of Chicago through Oct. 18. Yoakum gave various accounts of his life he claimed at different times to be African American and Native American. Born into poverty, he led a peripatetic life, which included a stint in the circus. He didnt have his first solo show until his late 70s, only six years after taking up art, but became an instant star. The Chicago show, which will travel to New York and then Houston, is focused on his vibrant colored-pencil drawings of fantasy landscapes, which are full of rhythm and spiritual yearning. I dont crave for people to watch this and leave educated about Native people, Sayet says. Thats not the goal. What I really want is for people to watch this and be able to ask themselves these questions about belonging and about place, and about the systems that we inhabit, and about what language is of value. Thats what I want people to go away with and interrogate for themselves. She had not seen or heard from her then-9-year-old since February, when they lost each other at the Rio Grande while attempting to cross from Mexico into the United States after fleeing Honduras. Her husband had taken their two daughters to the Texas riverbank first and was returning to help Rubi, who was pregnant with their third child, cross when they were attacked. The viral numbers in the region have fallen significantly from the highs seen during peaks in the pandemic, such as around the winter holidays. The seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 on Saturday fell to 1.69 in Maryland and 1.82 in Virginia, rates not seen since the start of the pandemic. The number was 1.84 in D.C. as of Friday, last seen in March 2020. As pointed out by several experts, such as Rob J. Gruiters, university lecturer at the faculty of education at the University of Cambridge, the China ranking is a sham. The 2018 PISA tests were given to 15-year-olds only in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, four of the most urbanized and affluent areas of the country. All 79 nations and political entities participating in PISA are asked to submit results that accurately represent their schools. China has not done that, but the people running PISA do little about it. It turned out, though, that the real subject of the podcast wasnt the murder, but the making of the podcast. The host kept telling us what he was about to do who he was going to talk to and why and then he would talk to them, and then he would tell us what talking to them was like. Mr. Huron, who worked for the Justice Departments civil rights division early in his career, argued many times before federal courts on behalf of workers who believed they had been subjected to bias in one form or another. He rarely spoke to the media about his cases, but he appeared at legal conferences around the country, and his trial briefs are studied in law schools. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Bagby, who heads the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said he is particularly excited about the potential for increasing the diversity of the General Assembly. In two of Tuesdays primary contests, White Democratic incumbents were unseated by Black challengers: Michelle Maldonado over Lee J. Carter in Manassas and Nadarius Clark over Stephen E. Heretick in Portsmouth. If both hold on to those seats and other incumbents win, they could expand the Black Caucus which covers both House and Senate from 23 to 25. Turkey has refused NATO demands that it give up the system, which the United States charges would transmit secrets of the F-35s stealth and other capabilities to the Russians and the alliance says is incompatible with the rest of NATOs weaponry and thus of no use to a mutual defense pact. U.S. diplomatic and military officials last week firmly shot down any suggestion of compromise that involved Turkey keeping possession of the S-400. Its likely that the president will confirm at the NATO summit that the Americans will keep their embassy [in Kabul] with all the trimmings that requires, the official said. But we need to know whos going to run the hospital and how comprehensive it will be. Whos going to look after the airport? What sort of arrangements in the international zone . . . are available to other embassies besides the Americans? We need to know how to get in and out of Kabul [and] what the plan is in broad terms for the peace process. The Texas election law that was temporarily derailed by a Democratic legislators walkout May 31 but which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to put back on track creates 14 scenarios under which election officials could find themselves in legal jeopardy. The language is so expansive and unclear that it could effectively freeze every local election official or worker in their tracks when faced with any need to adapt their practices to local circumstances or to emergency situations, the Protect Democracy report notes. The first is the idea of superlative citizenship, a deliberate strategy serving as an explicit counterargument to the racist tropes that have been used to justify why Black people have always experienced a lesser version of America than many others. Superlative citizenship requires taking on all the responsibilities required of citizens military service, voting, paying taxes, risking your own security and freedoms by exercising First Amendment rights even when the nation does not deliver on its obligations. The opposite, in other words, of the all-too-prevalent self-interested citizenship that treats America like a prize to be wrested from others instead of shared for our mutual benefit. This has the power to expose the nation as being more wedded to the appearance of holding certain truths as self-evident than to a steadfast commitment to ensure that we all enjoy them. A Salvation Army EMS vehicle is set up as a cooling station as people line up to get into a splash park while trying to beat the heat in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press/AP) Authorities in the region are investigating the recent deaths, but have all indicated that they are due to the heat dome that has trapped hot air in the normally temperate area. Apple told McGahn that the subpoena for his data was issued in February 2018, the person familiar with the matter said. The month before, the New York Times and The Post had reported on a conversation in which Trump sought the firing of Mueller in a conversation with McGahn. McGahn, according to The Posts report, contemplated resigning over the matter, though he did not convey his threat to do so directly to the president. McGahn testified about his dealings with Trump and Mueller earlier this month at a closed-door session of the House Judiciary Committee. Still, Beijing has chafed at the groups new focus on the country. The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said Sunday. We always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries. Meetings between the U.S. and Russian presidents are always a source of anxiety and fear in Ukraine, said Alyona Getmanchuk, director of the New Europe Center think tank in Kyiv. It reflects a clear understanding what Putin wants from such summits with the U.S. a sort of Yalta-II grand deal with Ukraine fixated in Russian sphere of influence. In the midst of surging hostilities, Bennett said in recent interviews that his government will not seek to change policy on hot-button issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank, state benefits granted to ultra-Orthodox families or peace with Palestinians. He and Lapid, as they take turns in the role of prime minister, will effectively have veto power over each others major initiatives, which will in theory limit the government to consensus actions. They have pledged to approve a budget within 140 days. Shes extremely gracious. Thats not surprising, but we had a great talk, he told reporters on the tarmac at Londons Heathrow Airport before departing for Brussels for a NATO summit. She wanted to know what the two leaders that I the one Im about to meet with, Mr. Putin, and she wanted to know about Xi Jinping, and we had a long talk. Washington, IN (47501) Today Mostly clear. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low around 55F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low around 55F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Author Bruce Pascoe says its not a bad thing that academics are engaging with and debating his wildly successful but controversial book Dark Emu, following damning accusations his work was littered with unsourced material. In their book Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate, anthropologist Professor Peter Sutton and archeologist Dr Keryn Walshe claimed Professor Pascoes work used selective quotes and exaggerated weak evidence, including his claim farming practices were used before colonisation. The academics criticism was detailed in a Good Weekend feature article on Saturday, published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Professor Pascoe was forewarned about the storys publication and was sent it, but said on Saturday he had not yet read it. The criticism could be put down to differences of opinion about the facts, he said, and that was OK. WAs most senior health bureaucrat has written to the federal government advocating for a four-year-old asylum seeker seriously ill at Perth Childrens Hospital to have her family brought to her side. Tharnicaa Murugappan had been detained with her family on Christmas Island since August 2019, after unsuccessful asylum claims for sister Kopica, mother Priya and father Nadesalingam (Nades) led to their removal from the Queensland town of Biloela, near Gladstone. Tharnicaa and her sister Kopika in hospital on Christmas Island on Sunday, June 6. On Monday, she was flown to Perth from Christmas Island with her mother Priya, who for two weeks had requested medical attention as Tharni was dizzy, vomiting and running high temperatures, but was given only Panadol. The little girl then developed sepsis as a result of untreated pneumonia. WA Health Director General David Russell-Weisz has now written to the federal Department of Home Affairs saying the little girl, who turned four on Saturday, needed her father and older sister by her side. When the news broke on Friday morning that Victoria had zero new COVID cases, Ed Cook didnt waste a minute. He took his chances and booked a flight to Melbourne for midday the next day. I was like its now or never, says the 23-year-old from Surry Hills. Ive got friends saying no, dont come, youre going to get stuck. Every time you book a trip there is that risk. Ed Cook. Credit:Rhett Wyman Mr Cook, who works in project management, received his second Pfizer dose last week and is now part of the small but growing group of Australians who are fully vaccinated. There are many reasons people under 40 may have received early access to the vaccine, such as a medical condition, working in health or related fields, or living with someone who does. Each of the curriculum wars has its own particular slant. In maths the debate is over whether to instil knowledge through repetition or encourage a problem-solving approach. Greg Ashman, head of Mathematics and head of research at Ballarat Clarendon College in Victoria, arcs up at the term rote learning. Ashman is one of a group of maths professors and teachers who penned an open letter to curriculum authority chief executive David de Carvalho expressing profound concerns with the emphasis in the current draft curriculum on open-ended enquiry, without the systematic building of coherent knowledge. The letter laments that learning the basics is delayed and devalued. The content of the mathematics curriculum, even for the lower years, is the result of millennia of human endeavour across cultures around the world, the letter writers argue, It is neither fair nor realistic to expect students to retrace this journey with a few pointers and inquiries in a few hours per week. In the middle of the last century, many of the old ways of teaching were swept aside because they were suspected of being authoritarian, perhaps even causing authoritarian tendencies. As US academic Miles Simpson argued in his 1972 paper , education will reduce authoritarianism only when the educational system emphasises cognitive rather than rote learning or is manned by non-authoritarian teachers. Children forced to chant their times tables and Latin declensions were out; investigative learning was in. The anti-authoritarians characterised memorisation as rote-learning, devoid of understanding. One side argues that the way we used to teach, emphasising memory and mastery, was more effective, while the other contends that new ways of teaching will leave students better equipped to deal with the modern world. These arguments go back at least a century actually much longer and have become intertwined with ideology. The letter points out that Singapore, a country praised by the Australian authority for its emphasis on problem solving, has an early focus on basics. In my personal experience, Australia is unusual in not expecting children to memorise the foundations. Many years ago I was moved from Year 2 in an Australian school to Year 2 in a German school, where the children all had their times tables up to 12 off by heart already. I taught my son counting by leaps and made a game of times tables as soon as he could count, but a society which relies on parents to teach the basics cant rely on equitable outcomes. The maths wars are still in their infancy, while the reading wars are almost concluded. Parents notice reading failure and start to engage professionals, says Ashman, In contrast, we dont place such a premium on maths. Its socially acceptable to say I was never very good at maths in a way that few would casually remark I was never very good at reading. But evidence didnt prevail in the reading wars overnight. The dispute here revolves around whether small children should learn to break words down into chunks in order to be able to sound out unfamiliar words the phonic approach or whether they should learn sight-recognition of whole words. According to Dr Jennifer Buckingham, now researcher and director of strategy at Multilit, the evidence has long been in. She has been working on the problem since 2000 intensively since 2013. After all those years, phonics checks are finally becoming part of the curriculum and there is a widespread acceptance that the evidence overwhelmingly points to the use of phonics. Meanwhile, untold numbers of children will have fallen through the cracks. I know of two girls who struggled to learn to read until they were finally put into the Multilit program in years 3 and 4 respectively. Imagine the education they have missed out on in the interim. They may never make up for that lost time. Loading The history wars have been framed as a debate over recognising the Indigenous experience of colonisation, but historian Greg Melleuish is more concerned that focusing on a right and a wrong version of history will leave students unequipped to encounter the world. What you learn if you study history is that people are flawed they set out to do one thing and end up with another result. History should tell you something about the complexity of human nature. Melluish is concerned that the way history is now taught is encouraging authoritarianism. Studies indicate that the more educated a person is, the more dogmatic they are. You need to teach history properly to counter dogmatism. Copyright 2021 AccuWeather. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. If President Joe Biden has any private words with Russias Vladimir Putin at their meeting next week, U.S. interpreters and diplomats will be standing by to document their high-stakes encounter. 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. Weatherford, TX (76086) Today A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%. BRIDGEPORT Law enforcement officers seized drugs, a gun, ammunition and nearly $2,000 during a raid at the Stylz barbershop on Wednesday, police officials announced Friday. Anthony Sanchez, 42, of Bridgeport, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of a controlled substance within 1,500-feet of a school, operation of a drug factory and failure to keep narcotics in original container. Capt. Kevin Gilleran said the Narcotics and Vice Division served search-and-seizure warrants at Stylz, 1156 State St., around 8 p.m. Wednesday. FBI Safe Streets Task Force and the Connecticut State Police Gang Unit were also on scene. Investigators seized crack cocaine, powdered cocaine, heroin with fentanyl, ecstasy, Xanax, marijuana, digital scales, a .38 caliber handgun, several rounds of ammunition and $1,914, Gilleran said. Sanchez was taken into custody and brought to police headquarters to be processed on the charges. Gilleran said he was held on a $500,000 bond. Court records show bond was lowered to $300,000 and he was released from custody. There was no attorney listed for him on online judicial branch documents. The 42-year-old is next expected in court for the case on Aug. 4, when hes expected to enter pleas on the offenses. The State Street barbershop was previously the epicenter of police attention on Dec. 24, 2015, when 14-year-old Luis Colon was shot and killed outside the shop in a crossfire of bullets between other individuals who were shooting at each other. Garth Minto was eventually charged and sentenced to 20 years in prison on a first-degree manslaughter charge. Michael Smitty Majors was sentenced to 30 years on the same offense and a possession of a pistol without a permit charge. 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. Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives has won election as the next president of the U.N. General Assembly. He pledged to push for equal access to COVID-19 vaccines, a stronger and greener economic recovery, and stepped up efforts to tackle climate change. Shahid defeated Afghanistans former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul 143-48 in a secret ballot vote Monday. Turkeys Volkan Bozkir, the current assembly president, said Shahid brings to the job extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy, serving his Indian Ocean island nation twice as foreign minister. Shahid will take over the presidency for a year in September. Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori says she trusts she will not be sent back to prison after a judge reviews her freedom in a money laundering case and insists that fraud was committed by her rival in a recent election she narrowly trails Have any questions? Please give us a call at 701-572-2165 Click here to read the full article. Chicago rap star Polo G was arrested in Miami, Fla. Saturday morning, Variety has confirmed. The 22-year-old, born Taurus Bartlett, was booked at 8 a.m. at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for five charges totaling $19,500, according to jail records obtained by the Miami Herald. The charges include battery on a police officer, criminal mischief and resisting arrest with violence. On Saturday morning, the Miami Police Department tweeted that they are aware of the incident involving Mr. Taurus Bartlett, also known as Polo G, and another male juvenile. We will provide updates as they become available. No other updates have been made as of this morning. The Miami Police Department is aware of the incident involving Mr. Taurus Bartlett, also known as Polo G, and another male juvenile. We will provide updates as they become available. Miami PD (@MiamiPD) June 12, 2021 Polo G was pulled over around 1 a.m. on June 12, according to the police report obtained by the Miami Herald, which Variety could not access because their public records department is not open on weekends, according to a Miami PD spokesperson. The rapper was in a hired car as a passenger, which Polo Gs mother and manager, Stacia Mac, made clear on Twitter. Polo G has now been released on bond, according to the Associated Press. None of these charges would be possible if the POLICE did not make contact with my son Polo G!!! He was NOT the driver. He was a PASSENGER in a professionally licensed vehicle with security. He was moving smart and correctly. What more could he have done. None of these charges would be possible if the POLICE did not make contact with my son Polo G!!! He was NOT the driver. He was a PASSENGER in a professionally licensed vehicle with security. He was moving smart and correctly. What more could he have done. https://t.co/pXSgxP0ukz Stacia.mac (@StaciaMac1) June 12, 2021 It is not clear that the police had lawful cause to pull Polo G over. The Herald reported that Officer Brandon Carrero allegedly got into a struggle with the rapper, according to officer Joseph Acuna, who was at the scene. The report described Polo G striking Carrero multiple times in the head, forehead and cheek while Carrero was trying to handcuff him and shouting, I will kill you, I swear I will use these fists to beat the shit out of you and knock your ass out, while in custody. In an Instagram video posted by the Shade Room, Mac said the police pulled over her son and his younger brother while they were riding in a car with security following an album release party. She described the police as making it difficult for her to check on her children, one of which is a minor. The video can no longer be found on Macs account. They stopped them because they were driving while Black, Mac said in the video. When I go and approach them to ask about my children, namely my minor son whos 16, they tell us that if we dont leave that they gon lock us up. Representatives for Polo G did not immediately respond to Varietys request for comment. Polo Gs third album, Hall of Fame, dropped Friday. He performed his hit song, Rapstar, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday, in what is assumed to be a pre-recorded performance. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. WILTON Early this month, Francesca Costa pulled back into her Chicken Street home after accomplishing a milestone she had been eyeing for six months shed delivered the first batches of her baked goods to locals who had ordered the sweet treats straight from her newly-minted website. And although these high-quality pastries were baked by Costa, a professional pastry chef who earned her chops in the kitchens of both high-merit bakeries and restaurants in Manhattan, they were not prepared in an expensive commercial kitchen. Rather, the opposite is true. Upon moving to Wilton in December 2020, Costa brainstormed ways to continue pursuing her childhood passion of baking to make it the one thing she woke up excited to do everyday. Realizing she had everything she needed to start her own direct-to-consumer pastry delivery box business, which she calls Double Turn, she began whipping up plans and pastries to deliver to her newfound neighbors. Her website, Doubleturn.co, has already sold out of the pastry boxes in the first two weeks. The first week was a bit of a soft launch, Costa said. I went around the streets by my house, I distributed fliers to get the word out. I found that this has also been such a great way to start to get to know people (in Wilton). The relatively new Wilton resident said she is excited to plant her roots in the quaint suburban town. But the road the pastry chef has taken to get to both Wilton and Double Turn started in the north of Italy. I am from Northern Italy, in a small town right between Milan and Venice, Costa explained. I moved to the U.S. nine years ago, but it is a little bit of a crazy story. The Italian native reminisced over desiring to backpack through the United States just after graduating university with a degree in Italian literature. Her first stop was Chicago. I just picked it as my starting point, she said. And while in the very first city of her backpacking tour across the country, she found her now-husband, William Dague, then a University of Chicago student. I backpacked a lot less than I had planned after I met him. I spent a lot of time in Chicago, she recalled with a chuckle. She returned home to Italy, only to come back and marry Dague in 2012. Costa and Dague, a native of Enfield, moved around to different areas of the region, living at points in Connecticut, and at other points in Manhattan and Long Island City, N.Y. All the while, Costa was trying to find her niche. Majoring in Italian literature didn't do much for me, she said, adding that she worked multiple jobs that didnt challenge her creatively. I wanted to find my calling. She said she reflected on what made her happy. Growing up, she admitted, it was baking. Raised cooking traditional northern Italian dishes and experimenting with desserts, Costa found a passion for crafting her culinary creations from the oven. It was something that connected her to her familial upbringing and brought out the creative passion in her. She finally then decided to enroll herself in the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York in 2018. Initially, she didnt quit her day job. After a few months, she was sure it was the direction she wanted to move in her life. She said she finally found her calling and quit her job to focus on baking. From there, Costa went on to work at Levain Bakery in the Upper West Side. I loved the mentality of (the industry), she said. That's when my journey in this industry started. Then wishing to move over into gaining restaurant kitchen experience, she joined the pastry team at Manhatta in the Financial District. Finally, Costa was hired to be a member of the pastry team at Eleven Madison Park, a world-renowned restaurant that has earned three Michelin stars. That was a huge challenge for me, but it was worth every second. I learned some super cool techniques from a team of immensely talented professionals. It was an invaluable time for me, Costa said. I stayed there until March 2020. I lost my job when the restaurant closed. When the pandemic forced the closure of the restaurant, Costa said she took the time to learn a lot about herself. Understanding that the food service industry was likely to undergo some rough months ahead, she admitted she began experiencing unsettling feelings. The most important lesson she took from those few months after, though, came from reflecting on how far she had come in a relatively short culinary career. She said those lessons were to trust her gifts and talents and to continue following her passion. All the while, Costa and Dague were looking to move out of New York City. After months of house hunting, they found Wilton and were instantly smitten. They moved in on Dec. 15 of last year. Shortly thereafter, Costa said she decided that she was no longer going to wait to make a move back into the pastry world. Much like the rest of the world, Costa took her rolling pins and measuring cups and decided she, too, would work from home. I started researching, by law, what I could bake from my kitchen and then sell. There is a limitation on what you can offer, she said, referencing Connecticut Cottage Food Laws, which dictate strict regulations be placed around temperature-controlled items being sold from a home kitchen. Once I nailed down what my vision was, I began researching packaging, marketing, making business cards and even building a website, which was a huge accomplishment for me. From there, cookies, cakes and scones, among other pastries, became Costas business model. Double Turn Pastries is Costas first business and is a love letter to the traditional home baking that she had done growing up in Northern Italy bolstered by the newfound high-level skills she earned cutting her teeth in sought-after pastry kitchens in Manhattan. Now she spends her weekdays prepping in her home kitchen to fill the orders placed on her website that have sold out in both of the small businesss opening weeks. She delivers the $25 boxes herself on Fridays and Saturdays. Currently, the inaugural box available contains sable sandwich cookies, mini pear gateau breton, chocolate chip mini scones and Baci di Dama. She said that she will continue to switch up the pastry variations every three to four weeks to give enough of a chance for customers to try the current selection. As Costas full-time gig now, she clearly hopes it is successful. But beyond the sales numbers, she said she is really just focused on bringing happiness to her neighbors via something she created through her passion of baking, and that is enough. I wanted a job that really gives me joy. I wanted to wake up and do that job, and do it everyday, Costa said. Even if it is so simple to others, just bringing the pastry boxes to (those who ordered them) has already given me a lot back. The few people I met in my deliveries last week, their smiles, that makes me very happy. I just hope people will be able to feel that. Winchester, VA (22601) Today Rain likely. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Rain likely. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. BERLIN (AP) Opposition parties accused the German government Friday of hampering the work of a parliamentary investigation into a 2016 truck attack in which an Islamist extremist killed 12 people and injured dozens more at Christmas market in Berlin. FILE _ In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo the trailer of a truck stands beside destroyed Christmas market huts in Berlin, Germany. Opposition parties on Friday accused the German government of hampering the work of a parliamentary investigation into the 2016 truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. Twelve people were killed and dozens more were injured in the attack carried out by Islamist extremist Anis Amri. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file) BERLIN (AP) Opposition parties accused the German government Friday of hampering the work of a parliamentary investigation into a 2016 truck attack in which an Islamist extremist killed 12 people and injured dozens more at Christmas market in Berlin. A cross-party panel is due to deliver its final report on the attack soon. But lawmakers from the Greens, the Free Democrats and the Left party alleged that witnesses dodged questions on what intelligence agencies knew about the attacker, Anis Amri. Security officials portrayed him as a lone culprit although the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. Benjamin Strasser, a lawmaker for the centrist Free Democrats, accused Germany's governing parties of trying to put a lid on this case and asserted that the government had repeatedly withheld important files from parliament. The opposition lawmakers said evidence showed that Amri, a failed asylum-seeker, had been part of a "network" of extremists in Germany and abroad who provided training, logistical and financial support. Irene Mihalic, a Green party representative on the investigative panel, said lawmakers were unable during three years of hearings to get answers about Amri's meeting shortly before the attack with two other known Islamists, one of whom was later spotted at the scene. DNA found in the driver's cabin of the hijacked truck used in the attack so far hasn't been linked to anyone, while the source of a gun Amri used to kill the truck's driver remains unclear, Mihalic said. Amri managed to flee Germany but was killed in a shootout with Italian police days after the attack. Mihalic noted that Amri had a large sum of cash on him when he died, the source of which also hasn't been determined. Martina Renner of the Left party said the case showed that important information wasn't shared between various state and federal security agencies, while key decisions by police and intelligence officials weren't documented. A separate inquiry in 2017 concluded that security agencies may have missed an opportunity to arrest Amri months before the attack. The three opposition parties called for Germany to recognize March 11 as the official day of remembrance for victims of terrorism. The European Union adopted such an observance day on the anniversary of the 2004 bombings by Islamic extremists in Madrid that killed 191 people. OTTAWA - Canada paid a premium to get more than 250,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine delivered last December, weeks earlier than planned. Syringes are readied at a COVID-19 mobile vaccination clinic for members of First Nations and their partners, Friday, April 30, 2021 in Montreal. Most of the federal contracts for COVID-19 vaccines allow for Canada to donate some of its doses to other countries or international aid organizations and in at least three cases, for the doses to be resold.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz OTTAWA - Canada paid a premium to get more than 250,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine delivered last December, weeks earlier than planned. The detail is contained in heavily redacted contracts released to the House of Commons health committee late Friday, but any specifics on what price was paid or how the delivery schedule was amended were deleted before the contract was published. Canada reached a deal with Pfizer in July 2020 to buy at least 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine it was developing with German-based BioNTech. The first contract was signed on Oct. 26. Pfizer Canada CEO Cole Pinnow told The Canadian Press in February that Canada's negotiations were based on an expectation the first vaccines wouldn't be authorized for use until late January at the earliest, and deliveries were planned to start after that. But within a month of the contract being signed, Health Canada's chief medical adviser, Dr. Supriya Sharma, was signalling that her department was about two weeks away from giving the vaccine the green light. That appears to have sent Canada racing back to Pfizer to see if its contract could be amended to get some doses delivered early. On Dec. 4, Canada and Pfizer signed an amendment allowing for that, but at a cost. "Whereas (the) purchaser has requested, and Pfizer has agreed .... to amend the delivery schedule so that a certain number of contracted doses are delivered prior to Jan. 1, 2021 and in consideration thereof the parties have agreed to increase the price contracted doses which are delivered prior to Jan. 1, 2021," the contract says. Every detail in the contract related to the price paid for dose was deleted before the documents were made public. The contract with Pfizer stipulated nothing would be shipped until Health Canada had authorized the vaccine, which happened on Dec. 9. The first shipment of 30,000 doses was on a plane to Canada within days and the first Canadian was vaccinated on Dec. 14. Ultimately, Pfizer shipped 255,450 doses before Jan. 1. It has since delivered more than 22.5 million shots, and its vaccine has become the main component of Canada's effort to get all 38 million residents immunized against COVID-19. The specifics of what Canada paid for the 250 million doses of vaccine it pre-purchased have been hard to come by. The 2021 budget released in April said the total was somewhere around $9 billion. The only cost per dose revealed so far was released by accident when the price for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was accidentally left in an email included in a package of documents released to the health committee. That email said Canada would pay $8.18 per dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca, which would amount to $163 million for the 20 million doses ordered. The Pfizer contract was one of eight quietly shared with the health committee Friday, which is studying Canada's COVID-19 response and has requested numerous documents from the government as a result. It is the first time Canada has provided any details of its contracts, but there are a lot of blank pages and deleted details, including all information related to price or delivery schedules. Procurement Minister Anita Anand has repeatedly said the contracts contained confidentiality clauses that prevented her from releasing them, adding she wasn't going to violate those clauses and risk jeopardizing Canada's vaccine supply. NDP health critic Don Davies said he's frustrated that the committee's order for unredacted documents was ignored. "After months of dogged work the opposition finally got Canadas vaccine contracts," he said on Twitter. "Predictably, Liberals released them late on a Friday with barely a week left in the session. Predictably, they redacted them in violation of the House Order." The contracts do contain some previously unknown details, including the premium for early doses of Pfizer, and the fact that Canada is allowed to donate doses from five of the suppliers to other countries or international aid organizations such as the World Health Organization or the COVAX vaccine alliance. There is no mention of donating doses from Pfizer or Moderna, but it is allowed for AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Medicago and Sanofi. The contracts also suggest Canada can resell or ask the company to find other buyers for doses from J&J, Novavax and Medicago. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to make an announcement at the G7 leaders' summit in England on Sunday saying Canada will donate up to 100 million doses of vaccine to other countries, but it's not clear yet how many of those would come from supplies initially destined for Canada. Canada will have almost 50 million excess doses of the four vaccines it has approved, and potentially 124 million more from Sanofi, Medicago and Novavax if they complete their Phase 3 clinical trials successfully. Almost two-thirds of all Canadians are now partly vaccinated, and more than one in 10 are fully vaccinated. Canada is expecting enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian fully by the end of September. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2021. CARBIS BAY, United Kingdom - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged 13 million surplus vaccines to help the world get immunized against COVID-19 as he and other G7 leaders wrapped up a weekend summit in Britain dominated by the pandemic, climate change and China. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participates in a plenary session at the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, England on Friday June 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld CARBIS BAY, United Kingdom - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged 13 million surplus vaccines to help the world get immunized against COVID-19 as he and other G7 leaders wrapped up a weekend summit in Britain dominated by the pandemic, climate change and China. Canada previously said it would offer up to 100 million vaccine doses to help poorer countries beat back the global pandemic, but was the only country from the G7 to not say how many of those would be actual shots rather than money. Trudeau on Sunday said in addition to the 13 million shots it deemed as surplus, Canada paid for the purchase and distribution of 87 million doses through money already sent to the ACT-Accelerator, a global program to make sure the entire world has access to COVID-19 testing, treatments and vaccines. The prime minister told reporters during a closing news conference that some of the promised jabs are already on their way to countries lagging wealthy nations in the worldwide immunization effort. But he stopped short of saying when the rest would arrive. "A number of these doses are on their way as we speak, more will come in the coming months," Trudeau said. "We're going to be able to share around the world as we see Canadians getting vaccinated to higher and higher levels, and we simply do not need those doses." The Prime Minister's Office later provided a breakdown showing more than seven million of the doses being donated are from pharmaceutical firm Novavax, whose vaccine remains in clinical trials and has yet to be approved for use in Canada. Last month, the company said it expected to start delivering doses in the third quarter of 2021. The remainder are Oxford-AstraZeneca doses and shots from Johnson & Johnson that Canada bought through COVAX, an international vaccine sharing initiative. Canada has been criticized for being the only G7 country to take and use shots from COVAX. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seen during a news conference at Tregenna Castle following the G7 Summit in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, on Sunday, June 13, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld U.S. President Joe Biden started the summit by announcing a commitment to share 500 million coronavirus vaccine doses with the world. All told, G7 leaders confirmed their intent to donate more than one billion doses to low-income countries in the next year. But the commitment falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the world's population and truly end the pandemic. Trudeau emphasized that the donation would not affect Canada's own vaccination efforts, which have ramped up in recent months with the delivery of shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and, to a lesser degree, Moderna. He said on top of sending vaccines, Canada has already spent $2.5 billion on international aide for COVID-19. COVID-19 was not only a point of policy discussion for the G7 leaders, it also meant a new way of holding an international gathering. Elbow bumps took the place of traditional handshakes, while signs reminded those gathered behind closed doors to try and keep them open. Masks were only donned on occasion. Trudeau wore his publicly while bumping elbows with another leader, but then went maskless when seated or standing further apart. During one group photo taken on a beach, Trudeau was the only leader who put on a mask while greeting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife, and then folded it away when their elbows dropped. Pictures from a reception with the Queen and Prince Charles showed a bearded Trudeau without a mask in close conversation. While the pandemic figured prominently in the G7 leaders' discussions and Canada's post-summit pledges, the thorny issue of how to handle increasing competition and aggression from China was also top of mind throughout the weekend. G7 leaders presented an infrastructure plan called "Build Back Better for the World," calling for spending hundreds of billions of dollars alongside the private sector while adhering to climate standards and labour practices. It is designed to compete with China's "Belt and Road Initiative," which launched a network of projects in large parts of the world, primarily Asia and Africa. Critics say China's projects often create massive debt and expose nations to undue influence by Beijing. Trudeau did not explicitly mention the new initiative or China's treatment of ethnic minorities such as Uyghur Muslims, topics touched on during the summit, but did thank fellow G7 leaders for supporting Canada's calls for the immediate release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The official post-summit communique from all leaders condemned the practice of arbitrary detentions in China, but made no specific mention of the Canadians. "What has happened to the two Michaels should not have happened, and indeed could happen in any country in the world," Trudeau said. "The use of arbitrary detention and coercive diplomacy by China is a concern to us all." Beijing detained the two Canadians days after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport on an extradition request from the United States. Biden, attending his first G7 summit as president, fought for the leaders' joint statement to include specific language criticizing China's use of forced labor and other human rights abuses as he worked to cast the rivalry with Beijing as the defining competition for the 21st century. The final communique called for another investigation by the World Health Organization into the origins of COVID-19, urged China to respect human rights in Xinjiang and democracy in Hong Kong, and expressed concern about Chinese aggression in the South and East China Seas. Canada, the United Kingdom and France largely endorsed the Biden administration's position, while Germany, Italy and European showed hesitancy, according to an administration official who observed some of the talks and briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. When asked if he would describe China as an adversary, Trudeau emphasized the need to both work with the country on global challenges like climate change while recognizing it as a competitor on trade and a source of concern when it comes to human rights. The leaders of the world's richest countries also agreed to endorse a global minimum tax of at least 15 per cent on multinational corporations. The decision had been widely anticipated after finance ministers earlier this month embraced the plan to stop corporations from using havens to avoid taxes and thus deprive some countries of much-needed revenue. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2021. with files from The Associated Press. CARBIS BAY, England (AP) Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations staked their claim Sunday to leading the world out of the coronavirus pandemic and crisis, pledging more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations, vowing to help developing countries grow while fighting climate change and backing a minimum tax on multinational firms. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with his wife Carrie during arrivals for the G7 meeting at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Leaders of the G7 gather for a second day of meetings on Saturday, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool) CARBIS BAY, England (AP) Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations staked their claim Sunday to leading the world out of the coronavirus pandemic and crisis, pledging more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations, vowing to help developing countries grow while fighting climate change and backing a minimum tax on multinational firms. At the group's first face-to-face meeting in two years, the leaders dangled promises of support for global health, green energy, infrastructure and education all to demonstrate that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. During their three-day summit in southwest England, the G-7 leaders wanted to convey that the club of wealthy democracies Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. This isnt about imposing our values on the rest of the world, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters at the end of the seaside summit on the rugged Cornwall coast. What we as the G-7 need to do is demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to the rest of the world. U.S. President Joe Biden, who was making his first foreign trip as leader, said it was an extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting" that showed "Americas back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values. Activists march through the streets in during a demonstration around the meeting of the G7 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Leaders of the G7 gather for a second day of meetings on Saturday, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) But health and environmental campaigners were distinctly unimpressed by the details in the leaders' final communique. This G-7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at the international aid group Oxfam. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Despite Johnson's call to "vaccinate the world" by the end of 2022, the promise of 1 billion doses for vaccine-hungry countries coming both directly and through donations to the international COVAX program falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie greet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, left, during arrivals for the G7 meeting in Carbis Bay, St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Leaders of the G7 gathered for a second day of meetings on Saturday, in which they will discuss COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP) Half of the billion-dose pledge is coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain. Canada said it also would give 100 million doses, and France pledged 60 million. Altogether, the leaders said they pledged 870 million doses directly over the next year," with further contributions taking the total to the equivalent of over 1 billion doses. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the lack of a more ambitious vaccination plan was an unforgivable moral failure. But Biden said the leaders were clear that the commitments they made to donate doses wouldnt be the end. The U.S. president said getting shots into arms around the world was a gigantic, logistical effort and the goal might not be accomplished until 2023. Workers on a platform set up flowers decoration with a map showing the United States in Beijing, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the world's largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan on Saturday for the developing world to compete with China's global initiatives, but they were searching for a consensus on how to forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) The G-7 also backed a minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes, a move championed by the United States. Biden also wanted to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing and strongly call out Chinas nonmarket policies and human rights abuses. The language on China in the G-7 leaders' communique from the meeting was more muted than the United States has used, but Biden said he was satisfied. On China's economic behavior, the group said it would "consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, sits with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, ahead of a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, southern England, Sunday June 13, 2021. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP) The leaders also said they would promote their values by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. Not every European power has viewed China in as harsh a light as Biden, who has painted the rivalry with the techno-security state as the defining competition of the 21st century. The G-7 is not a club hostile to China," French President Emmanuel Macron said. Its an ensemble of democracies that (would) work with China on all world topics that China is ready to work on with us. U.S. President Joe Biden, centre, arrives for Mass at Sacred Heart and St. Ia Catholic Church, in St. Ives, southern England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Biden is in England to attend the G-7 summit. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Johnson, the summit's host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a Global Britain, his government's push to give the midsized country, newly detached from the European Union, outsized global influence. Yet Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland. But overall, the mood was positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. Climate activists pose next to a G7 sign as they demonstrate on a beach outside the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the G7 wrap up three days of meetings in Carbis Bay Sunday, in which they discussed such topics as COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Jon Super) The prime ministers and presidents also mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception, ate steak and lobster at a beach barbecue and watched an aeronautic display by the Royal Air Force Red Arrows during their stay by the sea. Americas allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player after the America First policy of the Trump administration. Johnson called Biden a breath of fresh air. Italian Premier Mario Draghi said the president wanted to rebuild what were the traditional alliances of the United States after the period of Trump, during which these alliances were seriously cracked. Protestors wear giant heads portraying the leaders of the G7 as they play with bubbles during a demonstration on a beach outside the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the G7 wrap up three days of meetings in Carbis Bay Sunday, in which they discussed such topics as COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. Leaders portrayed from left, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Biden flew from the summit in Carbis Bay to have tea with the queen at Windsor Castle. He is scheduled to attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday and to hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday. The G-7 also made ambitious declarations during their meetings about girls education, preventing future pandemics and financing greener infrastructure globally On climate change, the Build Back Better for the World plan promises to offer financing for infrastructure from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia to help speed up the global shift to renewable energy. The plan is a response to Chinas belt and road initiative, which has increased Beijings worldwide influence. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too little, too late. Naturalist David Attenborough addressed the leaders by video Sunday, warning that humanity is "on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet. If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history, the veteran documentary filmmaker said. As the leaders met behind fences and barbed wire, thousands of environmental protesters gathered throughout the weekend outside the ring of steel to accuse the G-7 of missing a chance to prevent climate catastrophe. Members of the Extinction Rebellion climate activism group blocked the main road of the town of St. Ives on Sunday, banging drums and sitting on the road. Elsewhere, hundreds of surfers and kayakers paddled out to sea to urge better protection for the world's oceans. G-7 is all greenwashing, protesters sang during one march. Were drowning in promises, nows the time to act. Lawless, Kirka and Hui reported from Falmouth, England. Nicole Winfield in Rome and Kirsten Grieshaber and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed. Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) President Joe Biden and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have known each other for years, but their meeting Monday will be their first as heads of state. And it comes at a particularly tense moment for relations between their two countries. FILE - In this April 25, 2021, file photo, Turkish flags and banners depicting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, decorate a street outside the United States embassy in Ankara, Turkey. President Joe Biden and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have known each other for years, but their meeting Monday, June 14, 2021, will be their first as heads of state. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File) ANKARA, Turkey (AP) President Joe Biden and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have known each other for years, but their meeting Monday will be their first as heads of state. And it comes at a particularly tense moment for relations between their two countries. The list of disagreements is unusually long for the two NATO allies: There's U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, as well as Turkeys purchase of a Russian weapons system. And in April, Biden infuriated Ankara by declaring that the Ottoman-era mass killing and deportations of Armenians was genocide. Previous U.S. presidents had avoided using the term out of concern that it would complicate ties with Turkey, which is fiercely proud of its Ottoman history and insists that those killed in the early 20th century were victims of civil war and unrest. However, besides blasting the decision in speeches, Erdogan didn't immediately hit back at Washington. The muted response suggests he wants a good relationship with Biden, said Rachel Ellehuus, an analyst at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Not least because he needs that economic relationship with the U.S. and the appearance of a cooperative relationship in order to retain his base, which is very much built on a functioning Turkish economy that is tethered into the West," Ellehuus said. However, before leaving Sunday for the NATO summit in Brussels where he will meet Biden, Erdogan described the presidents comments on the killings of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire as very negative and an approach (that) has seriously upset us. FILE - In this April 26, 2021, file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, backdropped by a painting depicting modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, chairs his government's cabinet in Ankara, Turkey. President Joe Biden and Turkish counterpart Erdogan have known each other for years, but their meeting Monday, June 14, 2021, will be their first as heads of state. And it comes at a particularly tense moment for relations between their two countries. (Turkish Presidency via AP, File) Erdogan, in power for 18 years as prime minister and then president, also one-on-one meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lined up during Mondays summit. He told reporters he plans to underline the importance we attach to the alliance with our allies. One name apparently not on his list: Italian Premier Mario Draghi, who called Erdogan a dictator" earlier this year, touching off a diplomatic row. Draghi chuckled nervously Sunday when asked about seeing Erdogan for the first time since but insisted on Turkey's very important" role in NATO. Erdogan has dialed down his anti-Western rhetoric as his government grapples with an economic downturn made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. His ruling AKP party has recently been hit by a series of corruption allegations, including drug trafficking and arms smuggling, made by a fugitive mafia boss who has been releasing tell-all videos on social media, without evidence. The most important thing for the Turkish leader at this time is to give a veneer of positive relations with the U.S. in terms of Turkeys image, said Merve Tahiroglu, Turkey program coordinator at the Project on Middle East Democracy. He seems to understand that to get any kind of international investment to Turkey, he will need to project an image of positive relations with the U.S. Biden has often touted the personal relationships hes developed with world leaders over nearly 50 years as a factor that makes him uniquely equipped to revitalize the reputation of the United States following the presidency of Donald Trump. In recent days, hes mentioned to aides that hes developed a strong rapport with Erdogan over the years, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Biden still fondly recalls making a house call to Erdogan in 2011 when he was in Turkey to speak at the Global Entrepreneurs Summit, according to the official. Erdogan did not attend because he was recovering from major surgery, but Biden stopped by to check in on him. Their conversation was supposed to be brief but lasted over two hours. FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a news conference in the East Room of the White House, in Washington. President Joe Biden has often touted the personal relationships hes developed with world leaders over nearly 50 years in national politics as a factor that makes him uniquely equipped to revitalize the reputation of the United States following the presidency of Trump. Hes mentioned to aides that hes developed a strong rapport with Erdogan over the years, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File) Still, the relationship has been complicated at times. In 2014, while vice president, Biden apologized to Erdogan after suggesting in a speech that Turkey helped facilitate the rise of the Islamic State militant group by allowing foreign fighters to cross Turkeys border with Syria. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden drew ire from Turkish officials after an interview with The New York Times in which he called Erdogan an autocrat. Erdogan enjoyed collegial relations with Trump, who didn't give him a hard time about Turkey's human rights record and agreed to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria in 2019, paving the way for a Turkish military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters who had fought alongside U.S. forces against IS militants. Biden was strongly critical of that decision, accusing Trump of selling out U.S. allies. Erdogan waited several days before congratulating Biden on his election victory as Trump challenged the results. At the same time, Erdogan sent a message to Trump thanking him for his warm friendship. After taking office, Biden waited three months before giving Erdogan a call, which was widely seen in Turkey as a snub. The first time they spoke after the election was when Biden called to tell Erdogan about the Armenian genocide announcement. In an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT on June 1, Erdogan noted he had cordial relations with previous U.S. presidents, particularly Trump, and that he would ask Biden on the sidelines of the NATO meeting why Turkey-U.S. relations are in such a state of tension. There have been many rumors... we need to leave them behind and talk about what we can do and what we will do, he said of U.S.-Turkey relations before departing from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport for Brussels on Sunday. Biden and Erdogan are expected to take up Turkeys purchase of the S-400 advanced Russian defense systems, a procurement that angered Washington and resulted in Ankara being kicked out of the U.S. F-35 fighter aircraft production program, sanctions on senior Turkish defense industry officials, and bans on military export licenses. Washington says the Russian system is a threat to NATO security and insists that sanctions cannot be lifted until Turkey gets rid of the system, which has cost the country $2.5 billion. Turkey repeatedly has called for dialogue to resolve the issue. Turkish media reports say Turkey is set to propose the deployment of the S-400s at Incirlik air base, which is home to a U.S. Air Force wing, where they would be watched by U.S. military officials. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters the S-400s would be 100% under (Turkish) control and that no Russian military official would be in Turkey. Erdogan said Sunday that talks with Biden would be very broad but he focused on F-35 issue, accusing the U.S. of not fulfilling its promise, not complying with the contract although Turkey has fulfilled its promise and reiterating that Ankara was forced to purchase the S-400 system after Washington declined to provide U.S. Patriot missiles. Erdogan is also expected to raise the issue of U.S. military support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, who Ankara argues are inextricably linked to a decades-long Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden and Erdogan will discuss Syria and Iran as well as what role Turkey can play on Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal. Also on the agenda is how Washington and Ankara "deal with some of our significant differences on values and human rights and other issues, Sullivan said. The unsettled security situation in Libya, as well as overlapping concerns on China and Russia will also be on the agenda. Sullivan added that Biden knows Erdogan very well. The two men have spent a good amount of time together, and they are both, I think, looking forward to the opportunity to really have a business-like opportunity to review the full breadth of their relationship, Sullivan said. __ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington and Andrew Wilks in Istanbul contributed. TORONTO - Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week: A worker handles lumber on a construction project in Vancouver, Tuesday, Apr. 23, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward TORONTO - Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week: Spectrum auction begins: Innovation, Science and Industry Canada will host an auction of 3,500 MHz spectrum licences for use in 5G wireless networks on Tuesday. Shaw Communications Inc. will not participate due to its planned acquisition by Rogers Communications. Independent internet provider TekSavvy Solutions also said it would opt out due to a recent CRTC decision on wholesale internet rates. May real estate numbers: The Canadian Real Estate Association is expected to release national home sales figures for May on Tuesday. The association previously reported that the furious pace of home sales that kicked off the year began to slow in April as the number of homes sold that month fell by 12.5 per cent compared with the all-time record high set in March. CBSA strike votes begin: Canadian Border Service Agency worker strike votes begin on Wednesday. The workers have been without a contract for nearly three years and are seeking better protections for staff that the Public Service Alliance of Canada union argues would bring them in line with other law enforcement personnel across Canada. DavidsTea AGM: DavidsTea holds its annual meeting of shareholders on Thursday. The insolvent beverage company said on June 11 that creditors had approved its plan of arrangement to distribute about $18 million to them in Canada and the U.S. Carney speech: Mark Carney will speak at an event hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations about international finance as a key to fighting climate change on Friday. The former Bank of Canada governor told Davos World Economic Forum attendees in January that politicians can help markets finance the transition to zero-emission economies by setting credible forward commitments. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2021. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) When Minnesota Republican Tyler Kistner announced his candidacy for the U.S. House in April, he asked voters to ponder two questions: What America will we leave for our children?" and "Will they be taught to hate their police? FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2020 photo, Baltimore Police Academy cadets listen to an instructor during an on the field class session learning to direct traffic, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020, in Baltimore. As rising murder rates gain attention in U.S. cities, Republicans have ramped up misleading attacks by casting Democrats as anti-police. It's a message they believe helped them stave off greater Democratic gains and one with renewed potency particularly in cities that cut police department budgets amid calls to overhaul policing last year. It's not clear whether the GOP strategy, with roots back to President Nixon's law-and-order message, will be a success for a party that has little support in American cities. But Republicans hope to stem their decline in suburbs with by attacking Democrats' on domestic safety. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) When Minnesota Republican Tyler Kistner announced his candidacy for the U.S. House in April, he asked voters to ponder two questions: What America will we leave for our children?" and "Will they be taught to hate their police? Across the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District aired a digital ad this spring to demand that their Democratic congressman stand up to attacks on law enforcement. And in Iowa, a Republican governor who had promised additional checks on police conduct after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer plans to sign a law making it harder for police to be sued on the job. As rising murder rates gain attention in American cities, Republicans have ramped up a misleading campaign to cast Democrats as anti-police and lax on public safety. It's a message they believe helped them stave off greater Democratic gains in last year's elections and one with renewed potency as cities consider cuts to department budgets as part of an effort to revamp policing. It's not at all clear that the GOP strategy, which stretches back to President Richard Nixon and was used by President Donald Trump, is a winning one. But it may be prominent as Republicans search for ways to gain ground in suburban areas critical to winning control of the U.S. House next year. A recent special election in New Mexico wasn't a good sign for the strategy. GOP candidate Mark Moore used Albuquerque's rising crime and city officials' decision to create an alternative public safety department to hit Democrat Melanie Stansbury. But Stansbury won easily, with a larger share of the district's votes than President Joe Biden garnered last year. Stansbury's district is overwhelmingly Democratic, making it an imperfect test case. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's House campaign arm, believes the issue will have a larger impact in swing districts, where the party plans to tie moderate Democratic incumbents to their more liberal colleagues who have supported the defund the police movement. That term is used to describe diverting money from police budgets to other social services, such as mental health support and drug addiction mitigation. The GOP focus is on places such as Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, where 13-term Democratic incumbent Ron Kind is being cast as insufficiently supportive of law enforcement, though he does not support defunding police departments. It also includes Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, who beat Kistner in 2020 and represents the Minneapolis and St. Paul suburbs where rioting broke out last year after Floyd's death. Since then, several cities have struggled with the police funding debate, while experiencing rising gun violence. The NRCC chair, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, said he believes the message will resonate with voters because crime is rising in America, yet Democrats still support the dangerous idea of defunding the police. Neither statement is fully accurate. It's true that violent crime has risen. The FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System recorded 25% more homicides in 2020 than in 2019, and 12% more violent assaults. But the increase in homicides is nationwide, including in some cities that increased police spending and in some cities led by Republicans. Other crimes such as burglaries, drug offenses and other categories, however, have decreased. It also is not accurate to describe Democrats as uniformly supportive of defund the police efforts. The Democratic-controlled House passed a sweeping police overhaul bill in March that did not include a provision to allow diverting money away from police departments. Kind was one of only two Democrats to oppose the bill. He said it did not include sufficient protections for police. Craig voted for the measure. The bill has stalled in the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans oppose it. Like Emmer, U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tried to preemptively blame Democrats in this case, Biden for what McCarthy claimed is widespread rising crime caused by cuts to police budgets. We are concerned about whether the Biden Administration is prepared to address the surge of violent crime in American cities, McCarthy wrote in a letter Friday to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. It's a noticeable shift in tone from a year ago, when many Republicans across GOP-led states briefly joined with Democrats to ban specific physical restraints and require tighter scrutiny on police in the tumultuous aftermath of Floyd's death. In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said last June while signing a bill banning chokeholds: This is not the end of our work. It is just a beginning. A year later, Reynolds' proposed racial profiling ban quietly died in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Lawmakers passed a crime bill giving police greater protection from lawsuits and cracking down on protesters. Reynolds plans to sign the measure Thursday. Republicans in other states have made it harder for cities to cut police budgets. The Republican-led legislature in Missouri made it easier this year for cities to be sued for approving deep cuts in police budgets. Similar laws were adopted in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The change from a year ago reflects the general unpopularity of cutting police spending, especially in pivotal suburban areas, North Carolina-based Republican pollster Paul Shumaker said. Though most racial justice demonstrations were peaceful, some scenes of violence and property damage left a lasting image and were highlighted in Republican campaign ads. A majority of Americans support progressive criminal justice proposals such as programs to help people released from prison transition into society and changes in sentencing laws to allow probation or shorter prison sentences for some first-time convictions, according to a May poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll also found that about 6 in 10 Americans oppose reducing funding for law enforcement agencies. The Democrats' policing bill passed the U.S. House without a single GOP vote. It would ban chokeholds and end qualified immunity from lawsuits against police officers, while creating national policing standards in an effort to bolster accountability. The bill does not back defunding police departments, and Democrats didn't even debate the idea, in part because swing-district representatives such as U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who opposes defunding police, raised concerns about the political backlash. Shumaker found the issue brought some independents who were unhappy with Trump's pandemic response and had fallen away from supporting Republicans back into the GOP's ranks last fall in parts of suburban North Carolina, including outside Charlotte and Raleigh. The defund the police movement gave Republicans a foundation to go back and repair some of the erosion with those suburban voters that was created by the coronavirus, Shumaker said. It's not clear how crime will figure in the mix of issues in next fall's elections. The nation is now just emerging from a year of political battles over COVID-19, recovering from the economic fallout and getting a handle on Biden's agenda to rebuild the economy. In an interview outside Richmond, Virginia, this past week, Spanberger said the message on crime can help Republicans unless Democrats speak up. Its always going to be difficult when a simple message is easy to gin up anxiety," Spanberger said. "It becomes difficult to counter that. But it takes a lot of effort." AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson in Washington and Associated Press writer Steven Sloan in Maidens, Virginia, contributed to this report. BERLIN (AP) Dozens of workers gathered outside of one of Berlin's most-celebrated startups, the grocery delivery company Gorillas, to protest the firing hours earlier of a colleague. Workers block the entrance of a depot for German startup Gorillas, a grocery delivery company, to protest the firing of a colleague in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 10, 2021. Founded just last year, Gorillas benefited from surging demand for quick grocery deliveries during the pandemic. The company operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) BERLIN (AP) Dozens of workers gathered outside of one of Berlin's most-celebrated startups, the grocery delivery company Gorillas, to protest the firing hours earlier of a colleague. We want Santiago back! the young riders chanted last week, threatening to blockade one of the company's inner-city warehouses with their bikes unless he was reinstated. The wildcat strike on a balmy June evening was unusual even by Germany's strong tradition of labor rights, highlighting growing tensions in the capital's freewheeling startup scene. We came here to show our solidarity, to support our friend, said Zeynep, a Gorillas rider who declined to give her last name for fear of facing repercussions from the company. "We want this decision to be reversed as soon as possible. The riders said their colleague had been fired without warning after turning up late for his shift. In a statement, the company said he his contract was terminated for serious misconduct but declined to provide details, citing confidentiality. Founded just last year, Gorillas has benefited from surging demand for quick grocery deliveries during the pandemic. In March, the company raised about $290 million from investors, becoming Germanys fastest 'unicorn a startup with a total valuation of $1 billion or more. Gorillas now operates in dozens of cities across Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain, and has already set its sights on New York, where it faces U.S. incumbents such as Gopuff. But strikes like those in Berlin show trouble is brewing in its home market. The rowdy but peaceful protest late Wednesday drew support from employees of rival delivery services, some of whom downed their colorful courier bags to join the picket. Eventually Gorillas agreed to close the depot for the night, drawing cheers from the protesters. The next day, riders blockaded another warehouse, making clear their gripes go beyond the firing of a single colleague. In the last six months, that Ive been here Ive noticed so many ways that the company is doing things in an unjustified way, said rider Huseyin Camalan. Were here to stand against that. Its part of a larger thing. Camalan said many riders suffer from back pain and other health problems due to the heavy bags they have to carry. Faulty bikes, a limited say in their shifts and lack of administrative support are also a problem, he said. When riders send emails asking for help, they rarely get a reply, Camalan said, adding "They ignore us. Last week four rivals Delivery Hero, Bolt, Glovo and Wolt announced a joint effort to develop a code of conduct in what appeared to be an effort to head off a regulatory crackdown by the European Union. We want to establish better governance of working conditions, labor practices and social rights for all workers, regardless of their employment status, Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Spain-based delivery company Glovo said. According to experts, many delivery firms in Germany operate on the edge of legality in their rush to expand before they run out of cash. Gorillas says it doesn't consider itself part of the gig economy, having chosen to employ its riders and warehouse staff. But hourly wages are low at 11.50 euros (less than $14) after tips and the probationary period is six months the longest allowed by law. Riders at the protest complained that the company doesn't issue them with phones they need for work, that salaries are often short and weight limits on bags aren't respected. The working conditions are at the minimum end of whats normal in Germany, said Sebastian Riesner, who heads the Berlin chapter of the hospitality workers union NGG. Some of the contracts are pretty outlandish. "There seems to be a strategy of relying on people who don't know the rules in this country." Angry Gorillas riders recently banded together and, with the help of NGG, began the process of electing a works council. Under German law, members of the council get a say on working conditions and firings. Falling in line with Germany's established labor practices could make it harder for businesses like Gorillas to turn a profit. I dont think these companies are earning any money at the moment, said Werner Reinartz, a retail expert at the University of Cologne. German business monthly Manager Magazin cited internal documents suggesting that Gorillas loses 1.50 euros ($1.82) on every order. At the same time, foreign rivals such as Getir from Turkey and Britain-based Weezy are eyeing a launch in Europe's biggest economy, where they will compete for the same limited pool of riders already dwindling as other parts of the economy wake up from the pandemic lockdown. The strikes show that the current model is difficult to carry forward, said Reinartz. You need people who want to do this job." The company's chief executive, Kagan Sumer, said in a message to staff that he was deeply troubled by the events of the past days, but insisting that the firing of the rider had been a difficult but necessary decision. Sumer didn't address the protesters' broader complaints, but instead announced plans to cycle to every city where the company operates, to meet staff and ride through the cities with them. The Left party's candidate in September's mayoral election, Klaus Lederer, expressed his support for the striking Gorillas workers. If these companies want to have a future in Berlin, then they need to immediately respect the minimum standards of treating their employees fairly, he said. Riders such as Camalan insist they can force a change from below. We live in Germany." he said. We don't live in some random country that doesn't have any labor laws. Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wirereporter TORONTO - Restaurant owners say food delivery apps have taken too big a bite out of their revenues for too long. TORONTO - Restaurant owners say food delivery apps have taken too big a bite out of their revenues for too long. Food delivery apps were forced to implement lower fees when dine-in service was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and restaurants say the change should be made permanent if they are to recover from the crisis. Sharon Bond, the owner of Kekuli Cafe in Westbank, B.C., hopes food delivery apps will keep their commissions low after caps provinces enacted during the pandemic expire. Bond is pictured in a handout photo with Elijah Mack-Stirling, who owns a Kekuli location in Merritt, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Kekuli Cafe MANDATORY CREDIT "I really hope they do keep the lower fees because it does help a lot," said Sharon Bond, the owner of Westbank, B.C.'s Kekuli Cafe. "Costs have gone up tremendously. "We're in a pandemic so (everyone's saying), 'let's charge triple for everything.'" Her remarks come as caps on the fees charged by delivery apps have been lifted or are edging toward summer end dates in several provinces. Food delivery companies typically charge restaurants a commission for every delivery, sometimes as much as 30 per cent of the order cost. Fee caps were added by five provinces after dining rooms were forced to close for months during the pandemic, increasing their reliance on meal delivery apps to pay the bills since many were offering takeout for the first time and didn't have the mechanism to offer delivery themselves. Ontario, B.C., Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Quebec temporarily capped commissions between 10 and 20 per cent for as long as stay-at-home orders or restaurant closures were in place. Asked whether they will consider extending their caps, the provinces said the measures were meant to be temporary, though spokespeople noted additional measures like patio allowances continue. When the pandemic struck, Bond had little choice but to use third-party apps for the first time to deliver bannockwiches and tacos to customers of her Indigenous restaurants. She wants B.C.'s 15 per cent cap to stay because it helped the restaurant survive and prevent staff layoffs, but she said it will be months until they're serving a full dining room again. Kevin Edwards, the chief executive of SkipTheDishes, wants to see restaurants rebound from the pandemic, but called the prospect of a permanent cap "scary." "There's no chance we're going to be able to maintain our platforms with these commission caps," he said. SkipTheDishes charged restaurants a 25 per cent commission on meals prior to the pandemic, but when the crisis began, it used a rebate to ensure local, independent restaurants pay less than 20 per cent in commission while dining in is suspended. New restaurants joining the platform during the restrictions were not charged any commission for 30 days and those using their own staff for deliveries paid a 10.5 per cent commission. Meanwhile, Uber, which typically charges a 30 per cent commission, dropped fees on pickup to zero, online ordering to 7.5 per cent and 15 per cent for restaurants doing their own delivery. When asked about caps, the company said in an email that it operates at a "negative margin" and fees don't provide profit for Uber, and the company needs to be able to cover operating costs. Provincial caps, Edwards said, were enacted with little consultation or notice and didn't consider existing relief programs or the more pressing needs of small businesses. For example, he said many of the caps didn't zero in on independent restaurants alone, so national chains and other successful brands accounted for between 50 and 60 per cent of the rebates Skip gave out. If caps continue, he imagines it will get harder for delivery services to expand to new markets and manage costs. "The customer is going to have to bear the burden" he said. "You can't not be viable." But the higher fees weigh on restaurants, especially as they try to recover from a crisis, said Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses. The organization, which represents at least 110,000 small businesses, said in an email that it trusts major food delivery apps will keep their fee structures at current or even lower levels. If fees return to previous levels, the group said governments should consider how to ensure prices are reasonable. Toronto restaurateur Chieff Bosompra believes the sweet spot for fees is between 10 and 15 per cent, but admits even 20 per cent is acceptable. Given how many people are affected by the fees, he would like to see an industry working group giving app companies, restaurants, couriers and cities a venue discuss how fees and policies can be fair to all. "It's like a gift and a curse," he said, of delivery apps. "We need them and they know we need them, so they're really squeezing us." He first encountered delivery app commissions months into the pandemic, when he opened Aunty Lucy's, a burger joint named after his late Ghanaian grandmother, who died on opening day. As a Black entrepreneur getting into business after the death of George Floyd, his restaurant was given prime spots on some apps, but simultaneously charged high commissions. He increased prices because of his high fees and the rising costs of beef, chicken and lettuce. "But there's only so much you can really charge for food and the profit margins are pretty slim," he said. "Things are becoming more expensive and then when you have to pay 20 or 30 per cent it just makes things really tight." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13,2021. GENEVA (AP) Exit polls on Sunday indicated that Swiss voters appear to have narrowly rejected a proposed carbon dioxide law that would have hiked fees and taxes on fuels that produce greenhouse gases. FILE - In this July 21, 2020 file photo, Swiss photographer David Carlier takes photographs of the Swiss Aletsch glacier, the longest glacier in Europe, in Fieschertal, Switzerland. Swiss voters are casting ballots Sunday June 13, 2021, in a referendum on a proposed carbon dioxide law that would hike fees and taxes on fuels that produce greenhouse gases, as their Alpine country experiences an outsized impact from the fallout of climate change.(Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File) GENEVA (AP) Exit polls on Sunday indicated that Swiss voters appear to have narrowly rejected a proposed carbon dioxide law that would have hiked fees and taxes on fuels that produce greenhouse gases. The Alpine country has been experiencing an outsized impact from climate change. Switzerland has faced a rise in temperatures that is twice as fast as the global average, the government says. Greenhouse gases notably carbon dioxide are seen as the primary culprit. The proposal would have revised and strengthened an existing law that was aimed at reducing CO2 emissions by 2030. It would have enacted new taxes on CO2-generating fuel and natural gas, as well as on airline tickets. The proposal was rejected by 51% of the vote, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported. However, local media said not all votes had been counted and the final result was not expected before late Sunday or Monday. The climate proposal was one of several measures that Swiss voters cast their ballots nationwide on Sunday. Critics of the proposal called it ineffective since Switzerlands carbon-dioxide emissions amount to a mere 0.1% of the global tally. Among other issues on the nationwide ballot was a referendum on the governments COVID-19 law, which was accepted. It will generate a surge in state spending. Another initiative to improve the quality of drinking water in Switzerland was rejected it would have made it harder for farmers to get state subsidies if they use some types of pesticides and antibiotics. A ban on the use of pesticides was also rejected. A majority of Swiss voters supported an initiative to grant police enhanced surveillance powers and take preventative actions to help fight terrorism. Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate. The Latest on the Group of Seven nations meeting being held in England: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, with US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, right, during the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, Saturday June 12, 2021. (Leon Neal/Pool via AP) The Latest on the Group of Seven nations meeting being held in England: BRUSSELS President Joe Biden has arrived in the capital of Belgium for the upcoming NATO summit, wearing a mask because of the coronavirus as an honor guard and trumpeters greeted him. The U.S. president wrapped up a three-day meeting for the Group of Seven nations on Sunday and after a tea with Queen Elizabeth II flew to Brussels for the NATO meeting scheduled to begin Monday. Biden says that a strong NATO partnership is vital for maintaining U.S. national security for the remainder of the century. Cyber defense and climate change are among the topics being discussed at the summit. Biden will also meet Tuesday with European Union leaders as well as visit Belgian King Phillipe. The president will finish the eight-day trip Wednesday by meeting in Geneva with Russian President Vladimir Putin. WINDSOR, England - U.S. President Joe Biden says he has invited Queen Elizabeth II to stay at the White House. Biden and his wife, Jill, had tea with the 95 year-old queen at Windsor Castle on Sunday. The 78 year-old president says he felt a maternal warmth from the monarch, who now has met 13 U.S. presidents. Biden said: I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother. The president says the queen asked him about Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Biden has a summit with on Wednesday, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The queen also inquired about living at the White House. Biden says he told her, We could fit the White House in the courtyard of the castle. Asked if he invited Elizabeth to come to the White House, Biden replied, Yes. NEWQUAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron stressed his appreciation for the return of the United States to the world stage and what he said was the boost President Joe Biden has given to the European Union, in particular. His remarks were in part a dig on the distance former President Donald Trump created with trans-Atlantic partners. With Biden, we found once again a real common vision and, above all, a way to work together. That means a conviction that the leadership is stronger through partnership, Macron said at a news conference at the close of the G-7 summit hosted by Britain no longer part of the EU. Macron had his first meeting with Biden at the summit. He had tried hard to win over Trump, making him the guest of honor at a Bastille Day military parade, but the former president turned his back, notably pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. Biden returned the United States to the accord. Signs are set out on a hillside by protestors representing various causes during a demonstration outside the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the G7 wrap up three days of meetings in Carbis Bay Sunday, in which they discussed such topics as COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Jon Super) WINDSOR, England -- U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are greeting the United Kingdoms Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. The Bidens emerged from a Land Rover on Sunday to meet the awaiting queen, who stood on a dais dressed in a pink hat and floral dress. The U.S. president wore his aviator sunmark glasses as he joined the monarch, only to remove them as he inspected the red-uniformed and bearskin-capped Guard of Honor assembled on the castle grounds. The queen and the U.S. first lady stayed on the dais as Biden walked along the guard. During President Donald Trumps 2018 visit, Trump broke royal protocol by walking ahead of Queen Elizabeth II during the inspection. Once Sundays inspection was completed, the queen and the Bidens went into the castle for tea. CARBIS BAY, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain wants further investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the end of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, Johnson says that while it doesnt look as if this particular disease came from a lab, the world needs to keep an open mind. Though the notion was once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab is now under a new U.S. investigation ordered by President Joe Biden. The G-7 leaders endorsed calls for a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based further investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. Many scientists still believe the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans. NEWQUAY, England Italian Premier Mario Draghi says the dominant theme of the Group of Seven summit was how to respond to China and other autocratic governments. Draghi said Sunday that China has the right to a great economy but that practices like coercive detention and using forced labor were out of step with the vision of the worlds democracies. He said the position taken wasnt particularly tough, but was rather realistic, in view of the necessity to cooperate on climate change, rebuilding the world after the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. He also said his Cabinet would be reviewing the controversial 2019 trade and infrastructure deal Italys previous government signed with Beijing. Over U.S. and other objections, Italy in 2019 became the first G7 country to sign onto Chinas Belt and Road initiative, Beijings global investment project that envisions overland and maritime routes connecting China with Europe. NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden is hinting that he could make a change to the steel and aluminum tariffs originally imposed during the Trump administration. Asked Sunday at a news conference how Biden justified the tariffs to European allies now that Trump is out of office, Biden suggested that future action could be taken without specifying what that would be. 120 days, says Biden, who technically became the U.S. president 144 days ago. Give me a break. Need time. NEWQUAY, England -- President Joe Biden says helping the world battle the COVID-19 pandemic will be a constant project for a long time. Protestors, demonstrating for various causes, hold signs on a hillside outside the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the G7 wrap up three days of meetings in Carbis Bay Sunday, in which they discussed such topics as COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Biden spoke Sunday of a clear consensus among the other leaders attending the Group of Seven summit that commitments they made to donate vaccines wouldnt be the end. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit host, announced on Sunday that G-7 leaders had pledged over 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer nations. Biden is responsible for about half of that donation, or about 500 million doses. He says the U.S. may be able to contribute 1 billion more doses. The U.S. president says its a gigantic, logistical effort to get shots in arms around the world, a the goal he said may not be achieved until 2023. NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden is taking a series of subtle jabs at Donald Trump at the end of the Group of Seven summit, suggesting there was a genuine sense of enthusiasm among foreign leaders that the United States was engaged on world issues. The president is highlighting very fundamental differences with Trump over climate change and national security at a news conference Sunday. Biden says that he does not view NATO as a protection racket. Thats a contrast to Trump who said that foreign countries should pay for the presence of the U.S. military abroad. Biden is following the G-7 by attending a NATO summit Monday. Biden says that climate change is the existential threat facing humanity, stressing that Trump did not recognize it as a problem. NEWQUAY, England President Joe Biden has closed his first Group of Seven leaders summit, saying it was an extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting. Biden on Sunday praised agreements to help the world combat COVID-19 and to set a global minimum tax for corporations everywhere. He spoke at a news conference in Newquay, England, after the conclusion of a three-day summit in nearby Carbis Bay of leaders of the worlds largest economies. Biden is on the first overseas trip of his nearly 5-month-old presidency. His next stop is London and Sunday afternoon tea with Queen Elizabeth II, joined by first lady Jill Biden. Afterward, Biden flies to Brussels to attend a NATO summit. The trip ends Wednesday in Geneva, where Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet. CARBIS BAY, England The leaders of the worlds richest countries have agreed to endorse a global minimum tax on multinational corporations. The decision had been widely anticipated after finance ministers earlier this month embraced placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes and thus robbing some countries of much-needed revenue. The minimum rate was championed by the United States and dovetails with the aim of U.S. President Joe Biden to focus the three-day G-7 summit in England on ways the democracies can support a more fair global economy by working together. The summit ended Sunday with broad agreements for cooperation on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, challenging China's economic and human rights policies and other issues. CARBIS BAY, England Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are calling on China to respect human rights in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong and in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur minority lives. U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to attend a plenary session, during the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, England, Sunday June 13, 2021. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP) The group also lashed out at China's economic policies in a statement published Sunday. The group said it would continue to "consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy. The G7 summit aimed to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. CARBIS BAY, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the Group of Seven wealthy nations will pledge over 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses for poorer nations. Speaking at the end of a G-7 leaders summit in southwest England on Sunday, Johnson said the doses would come both directly and through the international COVAX program. The commitment falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population and truly end the pandemic. FALMOUTH, ENGLAND The International Monetary Fund managing director says there's a moral imperative for the worlds richest countries to back programs to end the COVID-19 pandemic but the donation of excess vaccines is only the first step. Kristalina Georgievas comments in a virtual press conference at the Group of Seven summit Sunday came after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped G-7 leaders would agree to provide at least 1 billion vaccine doses for poorer countries. Humanitarian groups have welcomed the donations, but are calling for money, increased production and logistical support to help developing countries where the virus is still raging. Georgieva said the donations are a good step but more needs to be done to overcome the hurdles needed to deliver shots into arms. This is a moral imperative, but it is a necessity for the economic recovery to stick, because we cant have the world split into two tracks without negative consequences, Georgieva said. While almost half of the combined population of the G-7 nations has received at least one dose of vaccine, the worldwide figure is less than 13%. In Africa, its just 2.2%. The war is not yet won, she said. FALMOUTH, England Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office has defended coronavirus arrangements at Saturday nights G-7 beach barbeque after criticism that the event did not comply with England's COVID-19 social distancing requirements. World leaders and their partners were seen mingling on the beach as they were treated to a barbeque dinner including steak, grilled fish and lobster after a second day of talks in a seaside resort in Cornwall, southwest England. Johnsons spokesman Max Blain said there were fewer than 30 guests at the barbeque in accordance with the U.K.s restrictions. It was done in an entirely COVID-secure way within the existing rules, he said. You can see it was a relaxed atmosphere and gave the leaders a chance to discuss outside of a formal setting. Many in the U.K. are concerned about a resurgence of coronavirus infections in the country, driven by the Delta variant. Johnson is widely expected to announce a delay in the next stage of Englands roadmap out of lockdown restrictions. FALMOUTH, England Churchgoers in a seaside resort in England say they have been left gobsmacked when U.S. President Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden dropped in for a Sunday service. Protestors take part in a die-in during a demonstration on a beach outside the G7 meeting in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Leaders of the G7 wrap up three days of meetings in Carbis Bay Sunday, in which they discussed such topics as COVID-19, climate, foreign policy and the economy. (AP Photo/Jon Super) The Bidens are in Cornwall, southwest England, where the U.S. president is attending a Group of Seven wealthy democracies summit. On Sunday morning, ahead of the summits conclusion, they were seen attending mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in St. Ives. I think gobsmacked is probably a very true word, said Annie Fitzpatrick, 58. Its quite amazing, we went into the church and they took some details from us and I thought this is a bit unusual. About 10 minutes into the service the doors opened up and President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden walked in and just sat in the pew just across from me. The president quietly got on with his prayer like everyone was doing, she said, adding: He looked around and said peace be with you, and I was one of them so Im delighted. Im not sure I will ever get over this moment completely. Gayle Wood, 63, said Biden appeared to make a very generous donation to the church before leaving. FALMOUTH, England Britain is accusing European Union of holding the offensive view that Northern Ireland is not fully part of the United Kingdom, as Brexit continues to cast a shadow over the Group of Seven summit. Britain and the EU are in a spat over post-Brexit trade arrangements that could see British sausages banned from entering Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that borders the 27-nation bloc. The dispute is raising political tensions in Northern Ireland, where some people identify as British and some as Irish. British media are reporting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked French President Emmanuel Macron when they met at the summit in Carbis Bay, England, how he would feel if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. They said Macron replied the comparison did not work because Paris and Tolouse were part of the same country. The French presidency did not deny Macron had made the comments. It said he meant that Toulouse and Paris were on a geographical unity of territory, Northern Ireland is on an island. The president wanted to stress that the situation was quite different and that its not appropriate to hold that kind of comparison. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the idea Northern Ireland was not an integral part of the U.K. was not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, great consternation. FALMOUTH, England Group of Seven leaders are talking about climate change on the final day of their summit in England, with naturalist David Attenborough warning they must take urgent action to avoid human-based environmental catastrophe. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too late. The leaders also plan to announce new green-financing plans to help poorer countries reduce carbon emissions. Attenborough, who is due to address the leaders on Sunday by video, said global warning and loss of biodiversity are beyond doubt, as is the fact that our societies and nations are unequal. He said the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet? If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations are the most important in human history, Attenborough said in comments released by summit organizers. FALMOUTH, England The head of the World Health Organization has welcomed the vaccine-sharing announcements coming out of the Group of Seven summit but says we need more, and we need them faster. The challenge, I said to the G-7 leaders, was that to truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the worlds population by the time the G-7 meets again in Germany next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday at the summit in southwest England. To do that, we need 11 billion doses, Tedros said, adding that it was essential for countries to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit's host, has said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that number coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain over the next year. Tedros reiterated his target of vaccinating 30% of the population of every country by the end of 2021. He said that reaching the goal requires 100 million doses in June and July, and 250 million more by September. FALMOUTH, England British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie, have welcomed leaders from South Korea, Australia and South Africa, as well as the secretary-general of the United Nations, to the Group of Seven summit taking place on the coast of southwestern England. The leaders elbow-bumped and posed for photos Saturday on a pristine beach in Cornwall. The G-7 nations are the U.K., the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. The British government said the guest nations were invited to take part in the summit as part of Johnsons Global Britain agenda and that the expanded group can help the G-7 intensify cooperation between the worlds democratic and technologically advanced nations. India was also invited, but its delegation is not attending in person because of the severe coronavirus outbreak in the country. The leaders, whose 3-day summit is scheduled to end on Sunday, are expected to commit to a new plan, called the Carbis Bay Declaration, to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days. CARBIS BAY, England French President Emmanuel Macron says its good that U.S. President Joe Biden is able to lead through cooperation, adding that the United States is definitely back as Europe's partner. Biden and Macron met Saturday as part of the Group of Seven summit in southwest England, where they and other leaders of the world's wealthy democracies are discussing the coronavirus pandemic, the environment, national security, relations with China and economic issues. Former U.S. President Donald Trump took an adversarial approach with NATO allies, but Macron said Biden has shown that leadership is partnership. The desire for cooperation cuts both ways. Biden described the European Union as incredibly strong and vibrant, which he said not only helps with tackling economic challenges but also provides a backbone for NATO. BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Joe Biden have met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in England. A spokesman for the German chancellor tweeted two pictures of the leaders sitting at a table in Carbis Bay on Saturday. At noontime on the second day of the G7 summit the chancellor talked to U.S. President Biden in between the work meetings," read the caption accompanying the photos. Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert didnt give any details about what the two discussed. Merkel, who is leaving office later this year, plans to visit Biden in Washington next month. The president invited her to the White House earlier this week. FALMOUTH, England Hundreds of environmental protesters took to the Cornish seaside Saturday morning in a bid to draw the attention of world leaders and the international media outlets that have descended on southwest England for the G-7 summit. Some protesters paddled out to sea, while others sunbathed on the beach wearing masks of leaders' faces. A crowd of surfers, kayakers and swimmers gathered Saturday on a beach in Falmouth for a mass paddle out protest organized by the group Surfers Against Sewage, which is campaigning for more action to protect oceans. U.S. President Joe Biden and fellow leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies are meeting near the town of St. Ives for talks focusing on the pandemic and climate change. Earlier, activists from Oxfam assembled on Falmouth beach to protest climate change and put on masks depicting the leaders attending the G-7 summit. Max Lawson, Oxfams head of policy, said activists want the G-7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the United States - to commit to bigger reductions in carbon emissions and to financing to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. WOLSELEY, Sask. - A province mourned the loss of a slain RCMP officer on Sunday, remembering the Mountie as a compassionate fixture of his rural Saskatchewan community. A makeshift memorial is laid out beside the Indian Head RCMP detachment in Indian Head, Sask., on Sunday, June 13, 2021. The memorial is laid out for for Const. Shelby Patton who was killed while on duty in Wolseley, Sask. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kayle Neis WOLSELEY, Sask. - A province mourned the loss of a slain RCMP officer on Sunday, remembering the Mountie as a compassionate fixture of his rural Saskatchewan community. Const. Shelby Patton, 26, died Saturday morning after he stopped a suspected stolen truck in the small town of Wolseley, Sask., east of Regina. He was hit by the truck while outside of his police vehicle, RCMP said. The truck took off and Patton died at the scene. Two hours later a man and a woman were arrested in a field outside the small town of Francis, Sask. In a release issued late Sunday night RCMP said 41-year-old Alphonse Stanley Traverse and 42-year-old Marlene Velma Louise Pagee, both from Winnipeg, have been charged with manslaughter as well as a number of other offences. The two remain in custody and are scheduled to appear at the Regina Provincial Court on Monday at 9:30 a.m. local time. The other charges they face include failure to stop after an accident resulting in death, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property over $5,000 and breach of undertaking. Pagee is also charged with possession of a controlled substance. Meanwhile, flags at RCMP stations across Saskatchewan have been lowered to half-mast, while a growing memorial of flowers, notes and stuffed animals has taken shape outside the Indian Head detachment where Patton was posted. Those who knew him said he was tailor-made for the Mounties. "It's a fine line between being a kind person and being authoritative and in control, which sounds bad, but I mean that in a nice way," said Brennan Risling, a drama teacher at Patton's high school in Yorkton, Sask. The young Patton wanted to be backstage, so Risling made him the stage manager for a play. "He was organized. He knew when people had to be on stage and he knew what they had to do. But he was also kind in a way that wouldn't make people feel bad, which in drama might seem like a small thing, but it's not," his former teacher said. He also praised Patton's backstage ingenuity, recalling the time the student was tasked with reproducing the sound of a 1930s-era car. Patton solved the problem by rigging up an old fan inside a bucket. "What I appreciated was how original he could be," Risling said. "... He was able to think outside the box and use what we had in the school to make it feel effective." Risling left the school in Patton's hometown in 2013 and hadn't heard that his former student had joined the Mounties. "Finding out he was an RCMP officer makes a lot of sense," he said, adding his heart broke when he heard Patton was dead. "He was a great person." Patton was similarly liked and respected by those who knew him in adulthood. Gillian Solomon, who works at the Ace Hardware store across the street from the Indian Head RCMP detachment, said Patton was a regular customer. "He was really nice," she said. "An awful lot of the time, you run into RCMP officers in their private lives and theyre cautious, (but) he was a really pleasant, nice guy." In his six years of service in Indian Head, Solomon said Patton touched many lives in town. She described him as compassionate and caring, and said he will be missed. "A lot of people are really devastated by what happened to him, whether they knew him or not," she said. "And of course, theres the fact that he was just too freaking young." In Wolseley, Varinder Ghotra, who works at the town's lone hotel, said he heard the building's alarm go off around 8 a.m. on Saturday. The doors were still locked when he checked them, so he reset the alarm and went back to sleep. Only later would he learn that Patton had died on the street in front of the hotel at around that time, and the people in the truck that struck him had driven away. Fredrick Runs, a hotel guest, saw an RCMP patrol vehicle parked at the end of the street just across from the railway tracks that morning. He believes it must have belonged to Patton. "Things like this don't happen in little towns," he said. A Facebook post from Kaela Patton said she doesn't know what to do now that her brave big brother is gone. "I'm so proud of how brave you were, you were a darn good officer and an even better brother," the post read. RCMP said Patton had been a Mountie for six years and four months, almost all of which he spent at Indian Head. He was briefly assigned to Parliament Hill in 2015. Saskatchewan RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore has said Patton was known as a hard-working, dedicated police officer and his colleagues have been traumatized by his death. She said it's a close-knit team with a "family-like environment," and there will be supports in place to help them through their grief. Messages of support have poured in from politicians, including Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. "Our grief is only matched by our tremendous gratitude to Constable Patton for his service, and to every police officer who serves and protects us every day," he tweeted on Saturday night. "My deepest condolences to Constable Pattons wife, family, friends and colleagues." In the release police issued Sunday night they said Pattons family had informed Saskatchewan RCMP that a fraudulent Go-Fund-Me page had been created in the fallen officer's name. They said they have advised Go-Fund-Me that the account is fraudulent, and asked people not to give money "to this account in the name of Sam Joseph or promote this accounts activities." Back at the memorial outside the Indian Head detachment, a poster in what appeared to be a child's handwriting had a message of comfort for the officers family "He is a hero and always will be," it said. "Thank you for your service. P.S. We love you." With files from Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton and Nicole Thompson in Toronto. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2021. About 100-200 people gathered at The Forks Saturday afternoon to protest ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, despite the absence of Peoples Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, the rallys organizer. About 100-200 people gathered at The Forks Saturday afternoon to protest ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, despite the absence of Peoples Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, the rallys organizer. Bernier was arrested Friday after speaking at another rally near St. Pierre-Jolys, part of a series of events the party dubbed the "Mad Max Manitoba Tour." According to his party, Bernier was released late Friday evening on the condition that he paid a cash bail of $1,000 and promised not to break Manitoba law. Bernier posted on Twitter that he had left the province Saturday morning. "The arrest of Canadians for gathering outdoors to protest in an exercise of their constitutional freedoms is not something that governments ought to be arresting anybody for," said Berniers lawyer, Jay Cameron. An RCMP spokesperson said Friday Bernier was taken into custody "to prevent the continuation of an offence" and for assembling at an outdoor public place and failing to self-isolate as mandated under public health guidelines. Cameron acknowledged that governments are able to enact limits in view of public health, but said that current restrictions are too broad and that they must be "demonstrably justified." The rally at The Forks featured a smattering of signs sporting Berniers face, party posters, Canadian flags and a few handmade signs in the crowd, some of which likened public health orders to Nazi rule. The event began with a religious tone, with multiple pastors mixing prayer with political commentary. The prayers admonished Dr. Roussin and Brian Pallister as leading an "ungodly government." Speakers said the public health orders and Berniers arrest violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. One speaker voiced his support for Tobias Tissen, minister at the Church of God (Restoration) in the RM of Hanover. Police have issued a warrant for Tissen's arrest for violating public health orders. One speaker denounced the creation of vaccine passports and the lottery for vaccinated people recently announced by the province, saying, "Why are you using carrots and sticks if you have truth on your side?" The speaker said he doesnt believe testing results are accurate and downplayed the potential danger of COVID-19. At one point, two counter protesters walked through the front of the crowd. One of them used a megaphone siren and tossed what appeared to be glitter on the crowd and toward the speaker. A group of people from the crowd then amassed behind the counter protesters, yelling at them and one person pushing the woman to the ground. Another man from the crowd then followed the counter protesters to their car and took a photograph with his phone, afterward telling someone that he got their licence plate number. A speaker later called them "confused" and told the crowd to get close to the counter protesters if they returned, in order to scare them off, but not to "engage with them" if they come back because "we dont want a fist fight." He did not comment on the person who had pushed her to the ground. The Peoples Party of Canada has been mired in controversy, with some calling the party far-right. A speaker on Saturday denied the charge outright. On Friday provincial spokeswoman said they wouldnt be able to clarify if there are plans to monitor rallies this weekend, but issued a warning to those who might attend them. "We continue to take action against those who violate public health orders and remind Manitobans that enforcement officials will be out in full force this weekend," she said. No enforcement officials were visible at the Saturday rally. with files from Malak Abas cody.sellar@freepress.mb.ca Writer Brenda Suderman and photographer Mike Deal continue to explore the attics and corners of the citys community-run museums while they remain closed due to public health orders. Today they take you to the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia, 3180 Portage Ave., which features three buildings relevant to the history of West Winnipeg: the 1911 municipal office building, a log house from 1852, once the home of William Brown and Charlotte Omand and their six children, and the exhibit space constructed about 50 years ago. Check out the virtual programs at here. Writer Brenda Suderman and photographer Mike Deal continue to explore the attics and corners of the citys community-run museums while they remain closed due to public health orders. Today they take you to the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia, 3180 Portage Ave., which features three buildings relevant to the history of West Winnipeg: the 1911 municipal office building, a log house from 1852, once the home of William Brown and Charlotte Omand and their six children, and the exhibit space constructed about 50 years ago. Check out the virtual programs at here. The biggest hidden asset of this west Winnipeg museum might just be the one nobody has ever seen. But plenty of folks have heard the whistles and footsteps, witnessed books flying off shelves or furniture flipped up in the air, or experienced the frustration of computer glitches and dead phones, said Bonita Hunter-Eastwood, curator and executive director of the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia. "We call him Charlie. We think its the old caretaker who took care of the municipal hall," she speculated. One of the many displays that hold several objects that were commonly used by locals of the St. James area. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "He loves it when Im here, loves when theres activities, loves the ladies." Along with other staff and volunteers, Hunter-Eastwood has heard loud footsteps from the second former council chambers of the two-storey brick building when she knew she was alone on the premises, experienced repeated computer problems and buzzy telephone lines technicians cant explain or diagnose or felt goosebumps that she attributes to the presence of Charlie. He has an affinity for hanging about when the museum is bursting with school children, but he also makes himself known when theres only one person in the museum, said Hunter-Eastwood. The Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia at 3180 Portage Ave. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "The (front) door opened and there was no one there," she said of one of her experiences with Charlie. Dedicated to preserving the history of St. James, the historic district of Assiniboia, west Winnipeg, Headingley and St. Francois Xavier, the doors are closed due to public health restrictions, but Winnipeggers can join two upcoming Saturday events virtually: the teepee workshop on June 19 and Pioneer Heritage Day on June 26, which marks the centennial of the RM of St. James. During shutdown, visitors can still walk outside the two city-owned historic buildings at the centre of the museum. Head to the back of the two-storey brick former municipal office, constructed in 1911 for $12,000, to see the unique enclosed slide fire escape, installed when the upper floor was rented out for a high school classroom. Executive director and managing curator Bonita Hunter-Eastwood (right) and Anna Lysack, program co-ordinator. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) The adjacent Red River frame construction log home was originally a one-room cabin, but owner William Brown dismantled it at its original location near St. Johns Anglican Cathedral and moved it to Headingley by ox cart in 1856. Later the prosperous farmer and his second wife Charlotte Omand expanded the home to include a sitting room, kitchen and three second-floor bedrooms. But without seeing the inside of the whitewashed log home, moved to the museum in 1973, visitors cant really get a sense of what life was like for the Browns, parents of six children, said Hunter-Eastwood. "The house itself would just be a structure without the living culture," she said. The Brown House. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "We are a general living history museum." Filled with furniture and artifacts of the era, the home is spare but luxurious for its time, boasting upholstered furniture and wide wood trim on windows and doors, showing Brown had the money and desire to decorate his home. Some surprises lurk inside the municipal building, which now holds artifacts on the main floor, and features a large fire safe and basement jail cell. The second floor once housed a local art club, and member Leo Mol used the room to make sketches for his human sculptures. The St. James Armstrong Memorial Loyal Orange Lodge 2160 banner, circa 1901. The banner is a rare example of the material history of the Orange Lodge in Manitoba. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) Included in the collection are a few unmentionables, such as two girdles and a modest brassiere, items of clothing that dont often see the light of day but demonstrate a little bit of life in the post-Second World War era. Donated by St. James resident Judy Delange, these items were manufactured by the Spirella Corset Co. of Niagara Falls and are representative of those worn by women across Canada, said Hunter-Eastwood. "In St. James (Historical Museum), we talk not just about pioneer history, but the development of St. James-Assiniboia," said Hunter-Eastwood. First organ in the St. James Anglican Church from 1858. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "We talk about business and commerce and everyday history." Tucked into the same closet is a sleeveless bronze satin silk dress hot off the 1953 Paris runway, purchased for $40 after a designer trunk show at The Bay downtown. The original owner had the satisfaction of wearing a Paris original to Winnipeg society events, confident in the knowledge no one else in the city had one like it, said Hunter-Eastwood. "What (HBC) couldnt do was display it with all the labels, so they had to remove all the labels," she said of the size 2 dress by an unknown designer. A log cabin quilt from the 1880s. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) A chrome school bell bears witness to the former Britannia School No. 1517 at 361 Hampton St., which educated seven decades-worth of elementary school students. Designed by city architect E.D. Tuttle. The stately brick and stone school was enlarged several times after its original opening in 1911. It closed in 1979 and the building was destroyed by fire three years later. Not yet on public display, this new acquisition by the museum has more than one St. James story attached to it. "It was retrieved by a fireman (from St. James) who gave it to his son and his son gave it to us," said Hunter-Eastwood of the pass-down provenance of the fire bell on a bright red box and mounted on the original oak board. "It was the only thing that was saved from Britannia School in the fire." The Slater Brown family bible from 1904 that had a photo of Alice Taylor, daughter of the Honourable John Taylor and Francis Jane Brown from 1874. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) A much bigger artifact also speaks to the history of St. James and the beliefs of its founders. The two-metre high banner of Armstrong Memorial Loyal Orange Lodge 2160 was proudly carried by local Orangemen in their annual July 12 parade, but Hunter-Eastman admitted current Winnipeggers might be offended by the beliefs behind the banner. "When we had antique shows we had people ask why are we showing it and others thanked us for showing it," she said of the mixed reactions to an organization which promoted the English language and British institutions in Canada. But since early residents of St. James, including William Brown and his sons, and provincial cabinet minister John Taylor, were members of the Protestant political organization founded in 1795, the banner represents an aspect of local history, said Hunter-Eastwood. In the Brown House a pig would be used to warm up beds or keep feet warm while sitting in a upholstered chair. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) Restored by professional conservators, the banner has two sides, one with a deep red background displaying a hand painted rendering of Upper Fort Garry below a painting of King Edward VII flanked by cupids. The reverse blue side depicting King William III on horseback, wielding a sword, has not been on public view since it was displayed at the Manitoba Museum nearly two decades ago. "It stands as a rare artifact on the time and period in Winnipeg, though the parade was outlawed in the late 1930s in Manitoba and Winnipeg," said Hunter-Eastwood. "There are still staunch Orangemen who believe in the tenets of the Orange Lodge." Ladies foundation garments made in Niagara Falls, Ont., from the 1950s. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) The Orange Order was established in Ireland in 1795 to honour William of Orange, the Dutch prince who became King of England. Members are devoutly Protestant, oppose Irish unification and Scottish independence and, according to news reports, may have ties to white supremacy. Along with objects of everyday life through from the last century or so, such as a large illustrated Bible from the Brown family, the St. James museum has a responsibility to portray all aspects of the regions history, said Hunter-Eastman. She said the museum must provide context and information about artifacts so visitors can understand the difficult and unpleasant aspects associated with them. "That history has to be told, because if we dont tell it, we may be doomed to repeat it." brenda@suderman.com JERUSALEM (AP) Israels parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition. An Israeli protester wears pink during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 12, 2021. If all goes according to plan, Israel will swear in a new government on Sunday, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12-year rule and a political crisis that inflicted four elections on the country in less than two years. Hebrew reads: "You failed"," Israel free" and "Leave". (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) JERUSALEM (AP) Israels parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences. But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country, he said. Israeli protesters dance and cheer during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, June 12, 2021. If all goes according to plan, Israel will swear in a new government on Sunday, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12-year rule and a political crisis that inflicted four elections on the country in less than two years. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) The vote, capping a stormy parliamentary session, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four deadlocked elections. Those votes focused largely on Netanyahus divisive rule and his fitness to remain in office while on trial for corruption charges. To his supporters, Netanyahu is a global statesman uniquely capable of leading the country through its many security challenges. But to his critics, he has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents. Outside the Knesset, hundreds of protesters watching the vote on a large screen erupted into applause when the new government was approved. Thousands of people, many waving Israeli flags, celebrated in central Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. Israel's designated new prime minister, Naftali Bennett speaks during a Knesset session in Jerusalem Sunday, June 13, 2021. Bennett is expected later Sunday to be sworn in as the country's new prime minister, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Ariel Schali22 President Joe Biden quickly congratulated the new government. I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations, he said in a statement. He said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government "to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region. Bennett's office said he later spoke by phone with Biden, thanking him for his warm wishes and longstanding commitment to Israel's security. The leaders agreed to consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran, the White House said, adding that Biden said his administration intends to work closely with the Israeli government on advancing peace, security and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli politician Gideon Saar of the New Hope party kisses his wife Geula Even-Saar during a Knesset session in Jerusalem Sunday, June 13, 2021. Naftali Bennett is expected later Sunday to be sworn in as the country's new prime minister, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Much of the Israeli opposition to Netanyahu was personal. Three of the eight parties in the new government, including Bennetts Yamina, are headed by former Netanyahu allies who share his hard-line ideology but had deep personal disputes with him. Bennett, 49, is a former chief of staff to Netanyahu whose small party is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers. As he addressed the raucous debate, he was repeatedly heckled and shouted down by Netanyahus supporters. Some were removed from the chamber. Bennett, an observant Jew, noted the Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting. This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility, he said. To continue on in this way -- more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook -- is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss. Israel's outgoing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Knesset session in Jerusalem Sunday, June 13, 2021. Bennett is expected later Sunday to be sworn in as the country's new prime minister, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Ariel Schali22 The new Cabinet met briefly, and Bennett recited a prayer for new beginnings and said it was time to mend rifts. Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us, Bennett said. The millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur faces a tough test maintaining an unwieldy coalition from the political right, left and center. The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. We will forge forward on that which we agree -- and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side, Bennett said. He also promised a new page in relations with Israel's Arab sector. Israelis celebrate the swearing in of the new government in Jerusalem, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Israel's parliament has voted in favor of a new coalition government, formally ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic 12-year rule. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, became the new prime minister. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner) Israels Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections. Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. He also vowed, like Netanyahu, to oppose U.S.-led efforts to restore the international nuclear accord with Iran. Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, he said. Israel is not party to the agreement and will maintain full freedom to act. But he also thanked Biden for his support of Israel. He promised to take a different approach than Netanyahu, who has alienated much of the Democratic Party through his antagonistic relationship with then-President Barack Obama and close ties with former President Donald Trump. Israelis celebrate the swearing in of the new government in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Israel's parliament has voted in favor of a new coalition government, formally ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic 12-year rule. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu became the new prime minister. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) My government will make an effort to deepen and nurture relations with our friends in both parties -- bipartisan, Bennett said. If there are disputes, we will manage them with fundamental trust and mutual respect. While Bennetts speech was conciliatory, Netanyahus was confrontational. He boasted of his achievements, including diplomatic treaties with four Arab states and a successful coronavirus vaccination drive, before belittling the man who is replacing him. He accused Bennett of abandoning Israels right-wing electorate and joining weak leftists to become prime minister. He said Bennett did not have the backbone to stand up to Iran or pressure from the U.S. to make concessions to the Palestinians. I will lead you in the daily struggle against this evil and dangerous leftist government in order to topple it, he said. God willing, it will happen a lot faster than what you think. Israelis celebrate the swearing in of the new government in Jerusalem, Sunday, June 13, 2021. Israel's parliament has voted in favor of a new coalition government, formally ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic 12-year rule. Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, became the new prime minister. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner) In the opposition, Netanyahu remains head of the largest party in parliament. The new coalition is a patchwork of small and midsize parties that could collapse if any of its members decide to bolt. Bennett's party, for instance, holds just six seats in the 120-seat parliament. Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears. Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver. For that, they need time and achievements, he said. Still, Netanyahu will continue to cast a shadow, Plesner said. The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years in a rotation agreement with Bennett, if the government lasts. Lapid called off a planned speech, saying he was ashamed his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents. I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why its time to replace you, he said. Netanyahus place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years more than any other, including the countrys founding father, David Ben-Gurion. But his reputation as a political magician has faded -- particularly since he was indicted in 2019 for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign. Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu had hoped to form. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The teenager who pulled out her cellphone and began recording when she saw George Floyd being pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer was given a special citation by the Pulitzer Prizes on Friday for her video that helped to launch a global movement to protest racial injustice. Darnella Frazier was cited for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality, around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice," the Pulitzer Prizes said. Frazier was not giving interviews to the media, her publicist said Friday. Frazier was 17 when she recorded the arrest and death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, on May 25, 2020. She testified at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin that she was walking to a corner grocery store to get snacks with her then-9-year-old cousin when she saw a man being pinned to the pavement, terrified, scared, begging for his life. FRANKFORT, NY - You know the old saying. "One man's trash is another man's treasure". Well, there was plenty of treasure to be found at the Herkimer County Fairgrounds Saturday. After a one-year hiatus due to the coronavirus, the world's largest yard sale returned to Herkimer County. Hundreds of vendors set up shop hoping to entice the thousands of people who passed through the gates looking for bargains. There was everything from homemade crafts, to antiques, record albums to old VHS movies. Pretty much something for everyone. "It's been great to be able to hold an event after covid, said Karen Carey of Town Square Media which held the event. We had an immediate response from vendors who wanted to participate. We can tell just by the attendance that people just want to get out and do things in the community. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) Folks gathered at the Grant Street hill in West Lafayette over the weekend for the Greater Lafayette Soap Box Derby. Kids from seven years old all the way to nineteen were able to take part in the races. The derby not only serves as a fun and competitive day for the kids but also helps with vital life skills. Through the event, kids get the chance to learn the value of hard work and sportsmanship. They're able to get a car kit and learn how the vehicle works inside and out. They then deck it out and gear up for race day. McCutcheon Junior Chris Verissimo took part for the first time this year. "If you haven't done it now, I would suggest you do it at least one time in your life," Verissimo told News 18. "It's probably the coolest thing I've ever experienced so far throughout this whole year." Stock and Super Stock winners from this weekend's races will be eligible to compete at the 83rd First Energy All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio Trevor Basin plan will breathe life into a vacant site Plans have been lodged with Wrexham Council for a new trip boat premises at the north west of Trevor Basin. If they get the go ahead a new set of buildings will mean 154 square metres of extra space, intended to help re-introduce boating activity to this part of Trevor Basin. A range of illustrative views have been made public as part of the planning process to inform the public and councillors of the proposals. The planning documents explain: It is proposed to use the site as the base location for a hire boat operator. The hire boat business is an established operator, which currently occupies a central location within Trevor Basin to the south side of Scotch Hall Bridge. This proposal utilises a more suitable location for the hire boat business as it is located at the rear of Trevor Basin, which will ultimately reduce boat, pedestrian, and vehicular congestion within the main basin area, having a positive impact on manoeuvrability across the site. As part of the proposed use, the site will similarly be the start and finish point from where the boats will leave and return to, which will also include services such as re-fuelling, water points, refuse and sewage disposal. The documents also explain that the applicants believe the proposal will breathe life into a vacant site through investment and regeneration which will ultimately reduce boat, pedestrian and vehicular congestion within the main basin area having a positive impact on manoeuvrability across the site The high-quality development will allow for the boating business to transition into a different location within the destination, enabling them to continue to generate boating activity and experiences for people currently wishing to visit the area and explore the waterways. You can review all the documents on the new planning portal website here. The plans will be approved for consideration at a later date. *Picture: Planning document NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Loved ones of a local victim want answers Kerry Willerton was shot in a road rage incident. Julia Waters, the victims girlfriend, spent Saturday afternoon passing out flyers with information about the suspects. Were going to go into the stores and see if theres been anything talked aboutjust trying to get some answers, said Waters. Waters says ever since this tragedy each day emotionally has been a whirlwind. Every day is different. Its been a roller coaster of emotions for me and his family, said Waters. Saturday afternoon Waters passed out flyers with information on the suspects vehicle, the victims vehicle, and a synopsis of what took place that day hoping someone will help police connect the dots. On June 1, 2021 Kerry Willerton was driving on I-65 North between the Trinity Lane exit and the I-24 split. After Kerry was rear-ended, Waters said her boyfriend went to confront the other driver. He told her thats when he was shot and the driver took off. Waters says her boyfriend did not get treated for the injury but choose to treat himself at home thinking he was shot by an airsoft gun. He died days later at the hospital. It seems like there's been a lot more road rage lately and dealing with it firsthand its been tragic. I just think that more people when theyre in the heat of the moment trying to rush and sometimes trying to get nowhere should just try to cool down and just realize it could ruin everyone elses life and relationship with loved ones that are taken too soon, said Water. Hendersonville man dies after road rage shooting; believed the shooter had only used an airsoft gun The Metro Nashville Police Department announced a man was shot during an apparent road rage incident that occurred Tuesday afternoon on I-65 north near the Trinity Lane exit. Police say the suspects vehicle is described as a white Chevrolet truck with four doors, tinted windows, a winch on the front bumper, and specialty license plate has an American flag emblem. Julia shares her pain with whoever is responsible. He doesnt realize how bad he screwed up and it wont give us total peace but were going to be hurting forever because Kerry did not deserve to go out this way especially so early in his life. I hope that some justice will be served, said Waters. Waters says she will continue to pass out flyers seeking any information on this case. If you have any information youre encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 615-862-7400. Historian Victoria Bynum, author of The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), The Free State of Jones: Mississippis Longest Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) and Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South (University of North Carolina Press, 1992), issued the following statement demanding the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) repudiate and apologize for the leaderships coordinated celebration of the assassination of Leon Trotsky and discipline those responsible. On May 18, the WSWS posted a report detailing the highly coordinated character of this campaign. On May 22, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North issued an open letter to DSA National Director Maria Svart demanding the organization repudiate this campaign. The open letter has not been answered. * * * Dear Maria Svart, In hopes of seeing class issues addressed on Twitter, I began following both the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) some time ago. In truth, it now seems, the DSA merely provides cynical cover for the decrepit Democratic Party. Nothing made that clearer than a number of its members recent jokes about the brutal murder of socialist leader, Leon Trotsky, a true revolutionary advocate for the working class. How could the leaders of your organization tolerate such behavior from within? At the very least, those members should be punished, and an apology rendered to readers who have a right to expect better from an organization that calls itself Socialist. Sincerely, Vikki Bynum Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) workers picketing the coffee producers plant in Banbury last Thursday spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about their fight against fire and rehire contracts aimed at gutting their pay, terms and conditions. The workers were issued with termination notices on June 2, with workers recognising that their fight has reached a critical turning point. Many expressed unease over Unites strategy of seeking a negotiated settlement with the company and its refusal to mobilise industrial action by JDE workers across Europe and internationally in the face of the companys aggressive tactics. One worker told WSWS reporters, I have read your articles about our struggles, and I tend to agree with you about the union. They said that they were going to escalate our struggle against fire and rehire. What we now see is de-escalation. We had hundreds of people on the picket line a couple of weeks ago. We were planning to do two single 24-hour strikes on a weekday and weekend, each week in June. But currently only four days of strikes have been planned. JDE workers speaking to WSWS reporters (credit: WSWS media) Unite told us to wait until they have discussions tomorrow with a different and much more favoured member of the JDE management team, with the hope of some reconciliation. But I have no illusions and we need to prepare to escalate industrial action. I am sure we will have to be on the picket line Monday. JDE management has already given us dismissal notices unless we sign the fire and rehire contracts. Our pensions have already been massively reduced. I think Unite knew it and they didnt tell us. As you explained they are waiting till our opposition wears down. I agree that they will take the first opportunity to sell-out our struggle. Another JDE worker said there was support from sister plants in Europe, but he conceded that international solidarity action promised by Unite via the European Works Councila corporatist body uniting the unions and managementhad not materialised, Were seeing it on paper, but not in action. What I heard, and thats all, is that in France they were going to do some sort of demonstration, but Ive never seen the outcome of it. JDE's plant in Banbury, England (credit: WSWS media) The worker described this as, A very small step! Not a big enough step to make a noiselike a small pussycat meowing, when youve got a tiger roaring. You want the roar coming out. Weve all got to unite together. One individual cant make that noise. Somebody has to throw the pebble in the pond. Here in the UK, because of the pandemic fire and rehire is becoming so widespread. It will have to get outlawed, full stop. They should be unifying all the workers, and all the factories together, and organising a national, worldwide demonstration to show were not having this, its not right. Its morally not right. I could totally understand if the companys losing money, but youre not losing money! Youre not in a difficult situation, youre not facing financial hardship. Youre making billions. The worker explained the extent of the cuts being demanded by JDE, If you add all the nitty-gritty bits from the terms and conditions, it works out to about a 20,000 cut. Thats a big hit. A couple of grand, okay, Ill bite my teethtwenty-grand? Thats another persons salary, a years salary! Its not just the Banbury site, globally theyre making billions. Theyre not losing money, so why should I be? Youre taking twenty grand off me, one person, and wheres that going? In your pocket! You times that by a hundred people. Another worker said, They issued us with a dismissal notice for fire and rehire on June 2, just basically given us 12 weeks notice. They keep on telling us that our union won't talk to them. We're prepared to talk to them, but we're only prepared to talk to them if they take the Section 188 [fire and rehire proposal] off the table, which they've replied No, we're not going to take that off the table. I've been here 27 years and I feel like they disregard all that service that I've given them. Basically, I'm just a number now. That's all we are. They've got no affinity towards anyone in the factory. They've got loads of people from outside the company. They're ruthless. Telling people, if you're struggling with the new terms and conditions you might want to think about downsizing your home, and things like that. It's not a reasonable request in my view. I'm having to restructure my whole life now. I was looking at retiring at about 60, so that's still 11 years away. Now it's looking like I could have 18 years left, which I didn't really want. I've based my life around that. I've given the company a lot of my life, my working life. I've made sacrifices to come here. I came here for the benefits, for the working conditions and they're taking that all away. We're not just doing it for us. Once this management gets away with it here, it's like a virus going through the whole of the workforce. So, we're standing up for our rights. We've never really struck at this factory. It's the first time. This is massive for us. As far as we're concerned, we're doing it to try and prevent it from going any further. The worker joined others on the picket in condemning JDEs sacking of a member of the union committee in retribution for a social media post: I think it's disgusting. The guy is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. There's not a bad bone in his body. He bends over backwards for anyone. He'd help anyone. And it's just disgusting the way he's been treated. His whole family has been put in turmoil for that. Workers at Banbury have been angered this month over the gutting of their pension scheme, signed off on by Unite. One worker said, We've all had our letters saying that the pension scheme's finished and I think it's from the 8th of July next month. It's just greed. Sheer greed. The final salary scheme ended this month and they've gone onto a defined benefit [scheme], which is a rubbish one. Our old one, you didn't have to put in they paid your pension and your salary. But this one you're forced to put in a percentage of your pay. So, if theyve already taken 9,000 off you [because of salary cuts], and you can't afford to lose 9,000 a year, how are you meant to pay for your pension every week or month? The worker agreed on the need for global action against JDEs fire and rehire measures, If we accept this here, then it's going to snowball and you're going to have it in France, Germany, Russia and everywhere. And I think they're all in solidarity with us. Dismissal notices were issued by Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) against its Banbury workforce on June 2. But just as the company is escalating its pressure on the workers to accept inferior conditions or be fired, Unite the union is doing its utmost to bring the dispute to a close. A fresh strike takes place today, following action last Thursday in a series of limited one-day protests. Behind the scenes, Unites strategy is to block the necessary European-wide and global fight against the companys diktats and seek a new agreement that would preserve and deepen its corporatist partnership with the company. The first steps towards this deal were taken last week, when JDE and Unite reached an agreement to gut workers pensions, ending the defined benefits scheme and replacing it with a defined contribution scheme paying much smaller dividends. This takes place under conditions where workers are also threatened with pay cuts, which would force them to pay less into their pensions fund. Strikers on the JDE picket line on June 10 credit WSWS media Managements demands include cutting traditional Christmas and bank holiday pay rates, introducing unpaid breaks, and limiting them to 30 minutes. It is estimated that workers could lose 3,500 a year in pay, with the Unite union stating that some members could lose between 7,00012,000-a-year. The impetus behind these attacks on workers conditions is a new global wave of corporate restructuring as companies seek to eliminate costs and establish market dominance. Last month, both Moodys and S&P Global Ratings agencies assigned an investment grade rating to parent company JDE Peets, giving the go-ahead for further leveraging. This decision was based on the expectation that JDE will continue to maintain a positive cash flow, maintain financial discipline and simplify its capital structure. This translates to squeezing more profit out of its workforce by every means at its disposal, from wage cuts to limiting time off. This is how the market dictates the brutal restructuring agenda of firms such as JDE Peets that is sparking a new upsurge of the international class struggle as shown by current strikes at Volvo, General Mills and by miners in the US, Latin America and Ukraine. While JDE is proceeding with its plans, giving workers who refused to sign the new contracts 12-weeks notice of termination, Unite is promoting the illusion that a negotiated settlement can be reached based on an appeal to recognise the loyal service of the companys UK workforce. It has most recently asked workers to pin their hopes on the return of a former manager to JDE, who will allegedly be more amenable to workers interests. Talks were due to take place on Friday, despite the company making clear it has no intention of retreating. Highlighting the unions role in imposing managements attacks on the workers, Chris Moon, a Unite convener at JDE Banbury, told WSWS reporters, We've been waiting to sit down with management since 24 May where we'd left it. Since then they've issued the Section 188 [dismissal notices] and we're waiting for them to come back and give us some information or proposal to put forward. Chris Moon (credit: WSWS media) There is broad dissatisfaction among workers with these attacks and the role of Unite. A worker on the picket told reporters from the WSWS on Thursday, I have read your articles about our struggles, and I tend to agree with you about the union. They said that they were going to escalate our struggle against fire and rehire. What we now see is de-escalation Our pensions have already been massively reduced. I think Unite knew it and they didnt tell us. As you explained they are waiting till our opposition wears down. I agree that they will take the first opportunity to sellout our struggle. Many workers understand that a successful struggle against JDE can only be waged in a united offensive with the companys global workforce. But the unions claim to be leading a struggle to win support at other European plants amounts to nothing real. The struggle against fire and rehire at Banbury has now entered its seventh week, but the only outcome of the solidarity action promised by Unite from the European Works Council (EWC) are letters of solidarity and vague promises for selective overtime bans. Unite has also praised the EWC, presenting it as an example of international collaboration between workers. However, the EWCs, established by a directive of the European Commission, are merely a structure through which management could inform and consult employees on significant transnational projects and changes to the company structure or activities. It offers no mechanism for workers to oppose any attacks by management. Rather it gives an opportunity for the unions to express their views and voice their suggestions on the matter(s) at hand through their representatives on the council. It is a just another example of union-management collaboration against the workers. The primary purpose of these corporatist bodies established under EU law is to prevent unified action by the workers from below. Throughout the dispute Unite has worked to shackle workers determined stand against fire and rehire to their own corporatist pitch to management, pleading to the company for a continuation of its decades-long partnership with the union. Year after year this partnership has only brought steadily worsening conditions and spells disaster. A new strategy is needed to win. This begins with the understanding that workers face a battle on two fronts, against a company determined to force through restructuring on behalf of shareholders and investors, and a union that is beholden to these very same forces. At todays strike and picket outside JDEs factory in Banbury, Unite is featuring the appearance of Labour MP Barry Gardiner, part of an agenda aimed at subordinating workers to false friendsin this case Sir Keir Starmers Labour Party whose pro-business programme and defence of the profit interests of the major corporations are not in doubt. The only realistic strategy for workers is one that relies on their own strength as an international class, opposed to that of JDE and the pro-company Unite union, and which reaches out for support from the working class, both in the UK and across JDEs operations globally. To take forward a genuine fight, workers must take the struggle out of the hands of Unite, elect a rank-and-file committee, and draft an appeal to workers at JDEs plants in France, the Netherlands, Russia and beyond. WEST TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Who doesn't love an old car show? That is what some Wabash Valley people got to get out and enjoy Saturday afternoon. The Emmanuel United Methodist Church at 6076 on U.S. Highway 150 in West Terre Haute hosted a car show. "I think a lot of people have kind just been isolated and feeling lonely and cut off from people and so, it's just a way to help people connect with each other and there is still people in the community that want to get to know each other." explains Emmanuel Methodist Church Pastor, Clark Cowden. Cowden tells News 10 that he really hoped this event helped bring people closer together and helped open the door for those living with mental health. If you want to see more fun community events like the car show, you can expect another event in August. You can find more information on events hosted by the church by going to its Facebook page. WABASH VALLEY (WTHI) - Blue-Green Algae concerns are on the rise across the Wabash Valley and health officials are urging those who swim in area lakes and rivers to stay cautious. Blue-Green Algae or Cyanobacteria are microscopic bacteria that grow in warm water. These bacteria blooms usually occur during the hot summer and fall months. They tend to grow during hot weather and form quickly after heavy rain. This is because run-off from rainwater can supply more nutrients to the bacteria. Direct skin contact and accidental inhalation of water droplets are the most common ways humans come in contact with the bacteria. Symptoms can range from a rash on the skin to vomiting and coughing. News 10 reached out to Peter Coppinger, a Biologist at Rose-Hulman to find out how to spot these blue-green algae blooms in the water. Often it almost looks like an oil slick. It looks like someone poured oil or sometimes paint, green or blueish paint, on the surface of the water. And you can see streaking it almost looks like something is kind of flowing on the surface. Pets can also become very sick if they ingest the algae. Officials say you should call your doctor if you think you become sick. For more information about blue-green algae, you can visit Indiana DNR's website or click here. WABASH VALLEY, Ind. (WTHI) - Thousands of dollars in scholarship money and two prestigious pageant titles are up for grabs this coming week in Indiana - and the Wabash Valley is well represented. It's the return of Miss Indiana and Miss Indiana's Outstanding Teen. Sixty-nine young women from all across the state will gather in Zionsville to compete. This will be the first time in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The women will compete for more than $60,000 in scholarship money. The two Wabash Valley candidates for Miss Indiana include: Diamond Coleman Miss Crossroads to America is Diamond Coleman, 24, of Terre Haute. A graduate of Indiana State University, Diamonds talent is vocal performance and her social impact initiative is, Mental MonsterZ: Mental Health Awareness. Olivia Dillion Miss Indiana State University is Olivia Dillion, 21, of Terre Haute. A graduate of Indiana State University and a grad student at Indiana University, Olivias talent is tap dance and her social impact initiative is, CASA: "A Powerful Voice in a Child's Life. The local candidate for Miss Indiana's Outstanding teen is Alexandra Baker. Miss Northwest Territory's Outstanding Teen is Alexandra Baker, 18, of Sullivan. A student at Sullivan High School, Alexandras talent is lyrical dance and her social impact initiative is, Choose Love. The competition There will be three nights of preliminary competition starting on Wednesday. The final competition will take place on Saturday, June 19. The new titleholders will then go to compete for the titles of Miss America and Miss America's Outstanding Teen. COVID-19 protocols have limited the number of people allowed to attend. A live stream of the event will be available. Learn how you can buy virtual tickets to watch online here. A Cape Cod lobster diver is safe Friday, following a fluke encounter with a humpback whale that nearly made him the leviathan's lunch. Michael Packard was diving off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, Friday, when the capital cetacean caught him unawares. "I got down to about 45 feet of water, and all of a sudden I just felt this huge bump, and everything went dark," Packard told CNN affiliate WBZ. "And I could sense that I was moving, and I was like, '"Oh, my God, did I just get bit by a shark?'" "Then I felt around, and I realized there was no teeth and I had felt, really, no great pain," Packard said. "And then I realized, 'Oh, my God, I'm in a whale's mouth. I'm in a whale's mouth, and he's trying to swallow me.'" Packard, an experienced diver, told WBZ that he still had his breathing apparatus on in the whale's mouth. "One of the things that went through my mind was just, 'Oh, my God, what if he does swallow me, and here I am, I'm breathing air, and I'm going to breathe in this whale's mouth until my air runs out?'" he said. "I thought to myself, 'OK, this is it. I'm going to die.' And I thought about my kids and my wife," he said. "There was no getting out of there." After what Packard estimated to be about 30 seconds in the mammal's mandibles, he said the whale surfaced quickly and spit him out. "All of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head," Packard said. "I just got thrown in the air, and landed in the water and I was free and I just floated there." "I couldn't believe it," he added. "I couldn't believe I got out of that. And I'm here to tell it." 'A surprise to all involved' Packard was pulled out of the water by a crewmate, rushed ashore, and taken to a nearby hospital. In the end, Packard said, he was "all bruised up," but whole. Biologist Jooke Robbins, the director of Humpback Whale Studies at Provincetown's Center for Coastal Studies, said the unusual encounter was most likely an accident. "We don't really see humpback whales doing anything like this normally," Robbins told CNN. "I think it was a surprise to all involved." Robbins said that Humpbacks often engage in so-called "lunge feeding," in which a fast moving whale tries to gather a large volume of food in its mouth quickly. "When they do that, they don't necessarily see everything," she said. She added that Packard was unlikely to have been swallowed, as, despite their massive mouths, their throats aren't large enough for a person to fit through. Charles Mayo, also a marine biologist at the Center for Coastal Studies, agreed. "It's a little like sitting down to a really nice meal, and into your mouth flies a fly," he told CNN. Mayo said his son, Josiah, is the captain on Packard's boat, responsible for tracking the diver's movements by his air bubbles. Mayo told CNN he was there when his son brought Packard ashore, and emergency services immobilized him and brought him to the hospital. Mayo, like Robbins, could not recall a similar situation in which a diver ended up in a humpback's mouth. Packard was in real danger, Mayo said, if not from the whale's gullet, then from the air pressure in his own lungs as the whale surfaced to spit him out. "If you come up to atmospheric pressure, and you've held your breath, you could develop an embolism," Mayo said. "He must have kept his cool," Mayo said. "To get out of a situation like that you have to be a top pro." "The reason he's still around is because he's smart," Mayo said of Packard. "He's a smart guy, he's a tough guy, and he's a lucky guy." Rebecca Harriett retired as superintendent of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Booker T. Washington National Monument after 38 years of service with the National Park Service. She is a member of the Executive Council of the Coalition to Protect Americas National Parks. Charleston, WV (25311) Today Cloudy skies during the evening with areas of fog developing after midnight. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 62F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy skies during the evening with areas of fog developing after midnight. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Clarksburg, WV (26301) Today Occasional rain tapering to a few showers late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Occasional rain tapering to a few showers late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Watch Dogs: Legion Title Update 4.0 and New DLC Character Available Now A U-Haul in Des Moines, Iowa in 2006. Charlie Neibergall/AP The Hawaii Tourism Authority says it "doesn't condone visitors renting moving [vehicles] for leisure purposes." A rental car shortage has been afflicting US tourist hotspots like Hawaii, pushing visitors to rent U-Hauls instead. The tourism agency now recommends reserving a rental car before booking the rest of the trip. See more stories on Insider's business page. Rental cars have become increasingly expensive and difficult to book in hot tourist destinations like Hawaii. As a result, tourists have turned to booking U-Haul vehicles instead of rental cars. But now, the Aloha State is asking its tourists to stop renting moving vehicles: "[we] do not condone visitors renting moving trucks and vans for leisure purposes," the Hawaii Tourism Authority wrote under the "rental car shortage" section of its website, as first reported by Madison Blancaflor for the Points Guy. According to the agency, the state's fleet of rental vehicles dropped by over 40% during COVID-19. But Hawaii isn't the only tourist destination with a shrunken rental-car fleet. Earlier on in the pandemic, rental-car companies like Hertz and Avis sold a number of their vehicles to save cash. And now, these companies are struggling to regrow fleets due to abnormally high used car prices and a decreased number of new cars as a result of the global computer chip shortage. But as rental-car companies race to rebuild fleet sizes, tourists are beginning to travel again, which is only compounding the rental-vehicle shortage in destinations Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, Puerto Rico, and of course, the Aloha State. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average car rental in Hawaii carried a cost of about $50 daily. Now, some vehicles are renting at over $500 a day, Jonathan Weinberg, the founder and CEO of AutoSlash, told Insider in April. Some daily rental prices have even hit highs of $700 a day, which is over double 2019's prices, Chris Woronka, a senior hotel-and-leisure analyst at Deutsche Bank, told Insider in April. Story continues To combat this issue, Hawaii's tourism agency recommends what other experts have been advising as well: plan ahead. "Rental cars are in high demand, so please plan ahead to secure a reservation first before making the rest of your travel arrangements," the agency wrote on its website. U-Haul did not have a comment regarding the tourism authority's advice against tourists renting moving vehicles. Read the original article on Business Insider A suspect was in custody and another was being sought Saturday after an early morning mass shooting in a busy entertainment district in downtown Austin, Texas, police said. The suspect's identity was not released. "We continue to work on this case and follow up on leads to apprehend the remaining suspect," the Austin Police Department said in a statement, adding that the U.S. Marshals helped with the arrest. Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon described the violence as historic. "This is one of the most significant incidents that we've ever had happen in our city," he said at a news conference. The first call about the shooting came in around 1:24 a.m., Chacon said, and multiple 911 calls followed. "I'm happy to report no one has died," Chacon told reporters overnight near the area of 400 E. 6th Street, a popular spot filled with bars and restaurants. Police respond to the scene of a shooting in Austin, Texas, on Saturday. (Reuters) Two people were in critical condition and 12 others were stable, he said. Most of the victims appear to be innocent bystanders. Chacon said police had identified two suspects, and investigators believed a dispute between them prompted the shooting. "Our officers responded very quickly," Chacon said. "They were able to immediately begin lifesaving measures for many of these patients, including applications of tourniquets, applications of chest seals." Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Austin Mayor Steve Adler thanked "law enforcement, firefighters, and EMS personnel for a quick response on Sixth Street" in a statement, while alluding to a rise in gun violence in the area. "The uptick in gun violence locally is part of a disturbing rise in gun violence across the country as we exit the pandemic," Adler said. Austin police and the City Council are implementing new violence prevention efforts in response to the trend, he added. Image: Shooting at an apartment complex in Dallas (KXAS) Hours earlier, authorities responded to a shooting in Dallas, about 195 miles northeast of Austin, where four adults and a 4-year-old suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. Police said they still don't know what or who caused the disturbance, but they released photos of the alleged suspect's vehicle, a black Kia Optima with paper dealer tags that was being driven by a woman, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. Jared Goyette NEW RICHMOND, Wisconsin At just over seven months since Donald Trump lost the presidential election, just how strong is the siren song of stop the steal conspiracy theories within the Republican base? An answer of sorts could be found in the thousands of people wearing Trump-themed patriot gear who streamed into a grass field on Saturday to attend a free speech festival organized by one of the leading lights of election fraud misinformation: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. While Trump was scheduled to address the predominantly white crowd via Jumbotron, Lindell, who dubbed the event a free speech Woodstock, inexplicably threatened to end an interview with The Daily Beast when asked if the rally could be seen as a show of strength of the Trump movement generally. Im the one who paid for this whole rally, Im the one who put this on. I paid for everything out of my pocket, Lindell said. You asked me what it means? Every single person in this country, Democrats, Republican, everybody that has been canceled, just people in general, that have been canceled out. You cant talk about machines, you cant talk about election fraud, you cant talk about vaccines you cant talk about anything or they cancel you out. But Trump was clearly on the mind, shirts, hats and signs of the attendees. There was a distinctive festival-like feel, with a line leading to a patriotic face paint tent (lots of reds, white and blues, with some fireworks), just down the way from a corn dog stand, itself located next to a parade float with large letters spelling out Trump 2021. Jared Goyette A 13-year-old boy from Chicago came dressed in a mini Mike Lindell costume, complete with an oversized fake mustache and Make America Great Again hat. The boy walked past Bikers for Trump, who mingled in the crowd in their leather vests and patches. When Lindell spoke, four World War II era planes with Pilots for Trump did a low fly-by in a tight formation, white smoke trailing behind them. Story continues MyPillow Guys Bizarre New Lawsuit Invokes Sci-Fi and RICO Most attendees estimated that the crowd numbered about 10,000, less than the 20,000 Lindell had predicted the day before. (Organizers put the number much higher, at about 18,000, though they did not have an official count.) But Emily Hartigan-Stein, 36, a conservative activist from Shoreview, Minnesota, said the showing still represented a return to the large, conservative rallies last seen regularly when Trump was still running for office. Hartigan-Stein said she was encouraged by the showing. In Minnesota, she said, Stop the Steal rallies following the election were hampered by bitterly cold temperatures and were sparsely attended. She said she had just returned from a Trump themed flotilla in Florida last week, and was uplifted by the attendance there and the field of full chairs at Saturdays rally. Jared Goyette Its encouraging to see people get involved again. Now people are finally starting to get it and get on board, she said. Another attendee, Pam Putzier, said she had no illusions that the election would be overturned, and she admitted that the crowd made up a small minority. But she is hopeful that a military coup will lead to the arrest of members of Congress and the reinstatement of Trump. Kick them all out. Surround the place and put them all in jail I cant even imagine it, but Ill tell you whatI pray every night, she said. Intertwined election fraud and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories were common themes in speeches by conservative A listers like Charlie Kirk, Chris Cox, and Dinesh D'Souza. They addressed the crowd while standing on a stage featuring a large Jumbotron where Trump was set to appear We have the biggest Jumbotron I think Ive ever seen, Lindell exclaimed with two smaller Jumbotrons on either side and a gigantic American flag hanging from a pair of construction cranes on stage right. Were going to have the American flag, the biggest flag that I know of, he said. The lineup included three Black speakersthe duo Diamond and Silk, who used to appear regularly on Fox News until they began promoting anti-vax theories, and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, the firebrand conservative known for his inflammatory rhetoric against Black Lives Matter and the mistreatment of inmates at the county jail until he resigned from office in 2017. The three focused mostly on fanning the flames of the critical race theory panic that has become a rallying cry on the right, with Diamond and Silk repeating a refrain of Keep your hands off our children and labelling education about race a conspiracy theory. Clarke most directly addressed the murder of George Floyd. I dont know about you, but Im tired of hearing about George Floyd, he said to applause. Later, he added: The sooner we can put George Floyd in our collective rear view mirror, the better. Anti-media sentiment was also rampant, though most of the ire was directed at Fox Newswith whom Lindell had a spectacular falling out after the network opted to steer clear of him and his bonkers election fraud claims. MyPillow Guy Says He Probably Inspired Trumps Idea of an August Restoration In April, Lindell told a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon that he had hired private investigators to find out why Fox News had stopped booking him. Where is Fox News? Shame on you Fox News! Lindell yelled into the mic at the beginning of his speech, calling it disgusting what theyve done to our country. The direct sun, with little shade available, took a toll on the audience, with the energy in the crowd dipping until Lindell introduced Donald Trumpwho he described as the real presidenton the Jumbotron, prompting a loud cheer. The crowd jumped to their feet, and collectively moved closer to the stage. Groups of people that had been off to the sides came toward the center to hear the former president return to two of his favorite themes: his baseless claim the election was stolen from him and his demonization of immigrants at the border. They want to silence us because of the election, Trump said from the enormous screen. They know the results. They know what really happened. He touched on what he argued was his administrations great success with the COVID-19 vaccines, before returning to the kind of anti-immigrant rhetoric that is his hallmark: They are killers, they are thugs, there are people being released from the jails of other countries, he said, repeating the familiar talking points that he has used countless times since his 2016 campaign. Lindell spoke last, returning to his particular brand of election conspiracy theory. Since his infamous meeting with Trump just days before the inauguration of Joe Biden, when a photographer snapped a photo of him carrying notes calling for the implementation of martial law, Lindell has alleged that he has evidence proving China conducted cyberattacks on Dominion voting machines to swing the election in Bidens favor. The evidence he has provided so far has been thoroughly debunked, and hes been hit with two massive defamation lawsuits for repeatedly peddling conspiracy theories about Dominion and Smartmatic. In his mind, however, the lawsuits amount to cancel culture and a conspiracy to suppress free speech and extort silence. On Saturday, he repeated those claims before going a step further and vowing to hold a mock election that he said would prove his hack theory. He ended by flogging his new social media site, frankspeech.com, which has been riddled with glitches even though he said he spent more than a million dollars on it. He asked the crowd to share videos on the site, despite the fact that posting features have yet to be enabled. By then, the crowd, which had begun to filter out after Trumps speech ended, had already significantly dissipated. 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. Count this in the bucket of surprises coming during the college football offseason. According to the Springfield News-Sun, former Ohio State quarterbacks Braxton Miller and Troy Smith are interested in starting a prep school similar to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. The site the two are interested in is the Old Urbana University site that was closed in 2020 by Franklin University used it as a satellite school prior to the pandemic hitting. Before that, Urbana University fielded numerous collegiate teams across various sports before it was sold in 2014. Now, it looks like there could be another purpose for the land if the two Buckeye legends have anything to do with it. My Uncle Paul reached out to me about the acquisition with the campus shutting down, Braxton Miller told the News-Sun. It was a great opportunity to make my dream come true to have a school in the Midwest, do something big in the Midwest, to bring sports to the Midwest in that format. Covering more than 50,000 square acres, the old Urbana campus has 22 buildings including dormitories, a theater, and unused land that could be perfect for the needs of a sports academy. Having something like this that already has all the facilities that we need, it was a great idea, a great opportunity for us to jump on it and try to attack the process of creating our own school, Braxton Miller said. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. IMG Academy started in 1978 but as only a tennis academy. Since then, it has grown to one of the top training grounds for some of the top athletes in the country across multiple sports. Some of the best prospects come from all over the country to attend IMG Academy and college recruiters flock to the campus often to recruit and sign some of the best prep talent anywhere. Theres still a lot of work to do, but having something similar to that in Ohio could be a boon for Ohio State and other Midwestern schools who often have to head down to Florida to cherry-pick some exceptional talent that often likes to stay in the southeast. Story continues Its not all the way up to par yet, but were in the process of making it happen, Miller said according to the report. Theres a lot of things in between with the acquisition of the campus, and were taking our time with that. Were crossing our Ts, dotting our Is and making the right decisions as far as acquiring something like this to create our own prep school. Well keep our eyes on this as more details emerge, but for now, file this away into the peaked interest column. Related Braxton Miller and Troy Smith team for Champaign County youth football camp Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Facing the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon took a no-hitter in the seventh inning. Going for his second no-hitter in the 2021 season, Rodon's attempt at a historic mark only five pitchers have thrown two no-hitters in a single MLB regular season was spoiled by Tigers hometown slugger Eric Haase. Haase doubled to left field with one out in the seventh inning, just past the outstretched glove of Andrew Vaughn. "He was executing, and he was on today," Haase said. "Just to be able to grind out that at-bat. I think it was eight pitches before he finally threw something over the plate. Even then, it was a one-hand, hit it where they aren't kind of deal. Obviously, happy that it fell." Still, the Tigers (26-39) lost 4-1 to the White Sox in Sunday's series finale at Comerica Park. Detroit has dropped 17 of its past 19 games in the matchup, dating back to last season. The most recent loss wraps up a three-game sweep for the White Sox, in first place in the American League Central with a 41-24 record. The Tigers have not been no-hit since Sept. 29, 2013, when Henderson Alvarez pitched his gem at Marlins Park in Miami. There hasn't been a no-hitter at Comerica Park since Justin Verlander did so against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 12, 2007. TRADE DEADLINE: Will Al Avila buy or sell at the trade deadline? He's got an open mind RULE 5 DRAFT: Why Tigers rookie Akil Baddoo 'could be here to stay for a long time' Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Carlos Rodon pitches in the second inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, June 13, 2021. The Tigers relied on six relievers in the loss: Kyle Funkhouser (2 innings), Tyler Alexander (2 innings), Buck Farmer (one inning), Joe Jimenez (one inning), Bryan Garcia (one inning) and Gregory Soto (one inning). It was a bullpen-only game to provide starters Matthew Boyd, Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal extra rest before they face the Kansas City Royals. But Rodon owned the pitcher's mound. Before Haase's double, the only Detroit batters to reach base were Isaac Paredes in the second inning and Robbie Grossman in the sixth inning. Both players drew walks. Paredes got to second base on a force out. Grossman, who took his walk with two outs, didn't reach scoring position. Story continues Before Haase's double, the hardest balls in play against Rodon came from Harold Castro's bat. He logged a 94.8 mph exit velocity for his fly out in the third inning and a 94.6 mph exit velocity for his ground out in the sixth. Rodon completed seven innings, giving up one run on one hit and two walks. He struck out nine batters and threw 70 of 103 pitches for strikes. He recorded 22 swings and misses, including 15 with his four-seam fastball and six with his slider. "He was really good," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. "Probably as good of a left-handed starting pitcher as we've seen all year. He's been dominant across the league, but especially today. He was overpowering. We couldn't really get anything started against him. He dominated us." The Tigers scored their lone run from Niko Goodrum's sacrifice fly after Haase advanced to third base because of a wild pitch. Chicago's bullpen, featuring Evan Marshall and Liam Hendriks, pitched perfect eighth and ninth innings. Starting with Funk Funkhouser walked Brian Goodwin with one out in the first inning, but responded by getting grounders from Yoan Moncada and Jose Abreu. He stranded Goodwin at second base. Then, he retired all three batters he faced in the second. Funkhouser threw strikes, something he has mastered this season after struggling in 2020, which featured his MLB debut and a 7.27 ERA across 17 innings. This was Funkhouser's first start in his big-league career, which spans 27 appearances. "I tried to make it as much of a relief appearance as possible," Funkhouser said. "I went to the bullpen at like 12:40 (p.m.) and did my routine. I got up right before the anthem, got loose and threw about 15-20 pitches. Juan (Nieves, assistant pitching coach) was like, 'Hey, you're throwing the ninth inning, and it's tied 0-0.' I played it like that." Chicago White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada dives safely at home ahead of the throw to Detroit Tigers catcher Jake Rogers in the fourth inning at Comerica Park, June 13, 2021. In the third, Zack Collins singled on a fastball from Funkhouser and Danny Mendick struck out swinging at a 96 mph fastball. Funkhouser got Leury Garcia to ground into a force out to complete two of three outs. That's when manager AJ Hinch summoned Alexander from the bullpen. Funkhouser fired 22 of 33 pitches for strikes. "He gave us as much as he could," Hinch said. "I could have left him out a little longer, but I'm trying to manage for the next series." NEW POSITION: Jake Rogers teases AJ Hinch after pitching debut: 'Let me get that ERA down' The rest of the 'pen After Funkhouser and Alexander, the Tigers didn't have many options available in the bullpen. In Saturday's 15-2 loss to the White Sox, Hinch was forced to send five pitchers and two position players to the mound. This time, the relievers were much better. Detroit Tigers' Tyler Alexander pitches in the fourth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park, June 13, 2021. Still, the results weren't enough to win. The White Sox scored first on a single from Abreu in the fourth inning, just after Alexander allowed a leadoff double to Moncada. In the fifth, a Mendick single and Garcia double gave Chicago a 2-0 lead. Alexander allowed two runs on four hits. He struck out three and did not concede a walk. Farmer struggled with his command. The White Sox took a 4-0 lead in the sixth inning because he hit two batters. His second hit-by-pitch came with the bases loaded, then he walked Garcia with the bases loaded. Called up from Triple-A Toledo on Sunday morning, Farmer allowed two runs on two hits and one walk, with two strikeouts. Jimenez pitched a scoreless seventh, working around Abreu's one-out double to center. "He had a hard time controlling the inning," Hinch said about Farmer. "A couple of free passes that created an inning for himself and had to pitch out of a mess. I thought he competed well. Getting him right in there today was the plan. That's why we called him up, and we needed the arm. "I wanted him to go maybe one-plus (innings), but he used up a lot of pitches trying to get out of the bases-loaded jam that he created. His stuff has a little life to it, which was encouraging. Wasn't a clean inning, which is what we were hoping for." NOTEBOOK: As Wilson Ramos rehabs, the Tigers face a dilemma with their catchers Garcia avoided damage, despite two singles, in the eighth inning. Soto allowed a walk and a single in his scoreless ninth. Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers get one hit vs. Carlos Rodon, lose to Chicago White Sox Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast In some pockets of the United States, if you squint hard enough, the coronavirus pandemic might feel like its almost over. Larry Brilliant would beg to disagree. With U.S. COVID-19 deaths soon to surpass the domestic toll from the great influenza of a century ago even as widely available vaccines have worked wonders, Brilliant, the epidemiologist who worked with the WHO to help eradicate smallpox and was the science adviser for the eerily prescient film Contagion, thinks theres still plenty left to worry aboutbut also lots of good news to appreciate. In an hour-long interview thats been edited for length and clarity, I asked him about why he thinks its too late to hope for herd immunity, and what he thinks we need to be doing now in what looks to be a long fight against a Forever Virus. We also ended up talking about MERS, SARS, Ebola, the Spanish flu, anti-maskers, biological warfare and Yogi Berra. Harry Siegel: Lets start with the big question: Why is it that you think COVID-19 isnt going away, and does that mean the U.S. is in a bubble right now, as vaccines are being widely distributed here? Larry Brilliant: Boy, I wish we could reach herd immunity. But theres a number of reasons why we cant. First and foremost, a virus that infects multiple species, animals and humans, and a virus that has multiple new variants, each one having the potential to reinfect people, is sort of disqualified from being a candidate to be eradicated. Because in both cases, the denominator keeps changing, of how many people could be exposed to the disease. If youre exposed to or get vaccinated against the disease and then a new variant comes in that can still infect you, the concept of herd immunity no longer really applies. And if animalsand weve got 12 different species whove been infected with COVID-19, usually from humansif they can harbor it, and then infect humans, then you cant eradicate the disease like weve been unable to eradicate yellow fever, because monkeys get it and they just dont like to put their arms out to get vaccinated, and its really tough to get them to stand in line. Story continues How should Americans whove been vaccinated and are feeling a sense of relief and maybe going inside restaurants again or sending their kids under 12 to camp for the summer be thinking about all this and their behaviors? If theyre like me, theyll feel grateful. After an abysmal start in 2020where America was part of the problem, as China was part of the problem, instead of being part of the solutionwere getting there. President Biden at the G7 announced that we will supply 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines to the rest of the world that needs it the most, and Im very proud of that. And we should be very proud of the mRNA vaccines. When I was at Google, we used to say that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and the mRNA vaccines and the speed with which they were made are, in many ways, magic. We shouldnt forget that the scientists working on mRNA vaccines had been working on them for 10 years, and almost had an mRNA vaccine against MERS [the Middle Eastern Repository Syndrome that was first identified in 2012]. And thats what helped us to get off of the starting line so quickly. Is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) the Next SARS? Just think about this: It took us well over 200 years after we had a vaccine before we could eradicate smallpox, 70 years after we had a vaccine against polio before we could have a global polio program. And by January, really, a year from the day that COVID-19 began, we already got the start of a global vaccination program. Its astonishing, and we should feel really grateful. Those of us whove been vaccinated, I think many would share the feeling I had when I had my second dose, and just felt like a load was off my shoulders. Beachgoers flock to Clearwater Beach during spring break, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, in Clearwater, Florida, U.S. March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Octavio Jones But while feeling grateful, we shouldnt misunderstand the situation were in. Its a Dickensian moment. Its the best of times, because weve got the vaccines, and its the worst of times, because of the people who dont have the vaccine. You cant help but look at the funeral pyres burning in India and Nepal and contrast that to Americans, joyfully ripping off our masks and going to the beach for a summer holiday, without understanding that its a tale not of two cities but of two worlds, and two lived experiences. The body of someone who died from COVID-19 lies on a funeral pyre during a mass cremation, at a crematorium in New Delhi, India May 1, 2021. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi Could that second world, the one consumed with illness and suffering right now, return to America with the mutations? I mean, youre writing about variants that could be more transmissible, or could be vaccine resistant, or could even be able to evade the tests we have now. Theyre already back. I mean, all the variantsthe alpha, beta, gamma and delta variantsare all back in the United States. In my county, Marin County in California, when I looked a couple of weeks ago, 30 percent of all the cases here were the British variant, the B.1.1.7, and thats the alpha variant, but we also had the beta and gamma and delta, the others that we call variants of concern. Its likely that if a super-variant, a variant of high consequences, as WHO calls it, emerges anywhere in the worldincluding, you know, in Canton, Ohio, it doesnt have to arise from an exotic place far awayit will be everywhere. It is the nature of a new variant. What makes a new variant succeed is that it outpaces all the prior variants, all the ancestral strains, and then infects all the people we have in our community who havent been vaccinated. Even many, perhaps, whove had the disease before. What we fear the most is that kind of a variant that will infect people whove already been vaccinated, and that the vaccines will turn out to not be effective against it. And we have a reason for concern: that we already have one vaccine that, when matched against one variant, becomes 90 percent ineffective. And thats the AstraZeneca vaccine matched against the beta variant, the South African variant. In trials, its effectiveness is reduced to 10 or 20 percent. Its perfectly effective against other variants, but just not against that one. This should be a big red light blinking for us, that one variant has rendered one vaccine ineffective. We have a reason to be concerned that it could happen again with a new variant, and that new version could in fact render all vaccines we have to date ineffective. I dont think thats a very high riskits not a 50 percent risk, but its a non-zero risk, and Harry, if I told you that there was a 5 percent risk that if you drove from wherever you are to the closest Starbucks, that youd be killed in that car, you wouldnt go. Youd walk! And theres a non-zero risk that well have a super-variant like that. I dont want to exaggerate it. I dont want it to be the thing that everybody thinks about all the time, but epidemiologists have to think about it sometimes. So, in a war, theres a national mobilization; with the virus, outside of the medical world, there were shutdowns. Now, as things are reopening here, and with these concerns youre talking about looming, what can we be doing to brace for what could be coming with a variant or the next pandemic? We should realize that if 30 percent of Americans are not vaccinated, thats 120 million people. And thats plenty for the virusthe ancestral virus, let alone a novel virus, let alone a super-variantto come in and create another wave, and a large one at that. So we need to have a defensive capability, a system of cluster-busters. Thats the term Im borrowing from the Japanese, who use it to define teams that are mobile, that have highly computerized systems to have a situational report like a battlefield commander would have or like a CEO would have, and can see where every variant is. We can find out where every variant is. We can find asymptomatics. We need to be doing sewage sampling, environmental sampling. Columbia University does this for all of their dorms. Its very inexpensive once its set up. We need this to find out which countries are infected. We're Fighting Polio With Sewage Surveillance Weve done that in the polio programthis is not new! In the polio program, when we found out that Syria, which was supposedly free of polio, had causative viruses in the sewage, we sequenced the viruses to find out which polio variant it was. We did this 15 or 20 years agothis is not science fiction. We should, all over the United States, have sewage sampling now. Because this virus is going to be with us for years or decades, and the variants are likely to return, and there will be new pandemic viruses. Why not? Why not have sewage sampling everywhere, especially in the cities, and be able to do virus sequencing to know what the variant is? And we should be using exposure notification systems. I know there was a big article in The New York Times a few weeks ago about how bad they are. Theyre not bad, theyre wonderful. We learned from scientists at Cambridge and in the U.K. that exposure notification systems, when compared to human contact-tracing systems, found two times as many contacts for people who are exposed (four, compared to two) and found them two days earlier. Well, thats a lifetime for an epidemiologist. Then well know who to test, who to isolate, and who to vaccinate. Theres a whole host of electronic symptom-surveillance systems, we call them syndromic-surveillance systems, and Ill name a few of them: Outbreaks Near Me, Flu Near You, How We Feeland GPHIN, the first of these digital disease-detection systems, which was how we found the original SARS. These are opt-in, voluntary systems where if somebody reports that theyve got a fever or the symptoms of COVID-19, you can send them an email or text: When did you get sick? Do you know about the doctor here? Can I tell you about a vaccine there? Adding in testing, tracing, and isolation on top of situational awareness, a good digital disease detection, a good surveillance system, we can do it differently than we did before because of the COVID stimulus package. This is all doable. Weve done every one of these things in part. What we have to do now is put it together. And the worst part, and the hardest part, is weve got to put it together at a time when everyone is feeling like were through with this disease, were over it, we can go to the beach. And then the testing that we do is so much better now. In addition to PCR testing, weve got rapid PCRs and viral sequencing. So a baseline of surveillance, and then containment of the outbreak. And the containment will include better isolation and just-in-time vaccinationbut vaccination with a vaccine that matches the variant. Larry Brilliant, President, Skoll Urgent Threats Fund; Philanthropic Adviser to Jeff Skoll and Google.org, speaks during "The Swine Flu Epidemic: How Serious Is the Threat?" panel at the 2009 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California April 28, 2009. REUTERS/Phil McCarten One of the big issues last year internationally and within the United States was coordination between different governments and levels of government. In your Foreign Policy piece, you call for a single database for anonymized demographic epidemiological and sequencing data. But in New York City, where I am, the governor and the mayor cant even agree on the most basic data, like the daily death count. And obviously some nationsChina comes to mind herehave been much more secretive about their data. Is the answer here technologies or apps that route around governments, or what is the answer in a time of rising nationalism and suspicion of international or collaborative bodies? If its any consolation, in every pandemic, almost every country has been secretive about whether they were infected or not. I give you as evidence the Spanish flu, which started in Kansas. You dont call it the Kansas flu or the French flu or the British flu, even though those countries also had it, because all those countries were fighting in World War I, and they had military censorship. They were forbidden to tell other countries that their armed forces might be weakened by having a disease. But poor Spain was neutral, they had no reason to lie. So when a member of the royal family got it, they just kind of innocently did the right thing and I guess no good deed goes unpunished, so it got labeled the Spanish flu. Its always the case that people hide diseases in a pandemic, and especially in wartime. Donald Didn't Know People Died from the Flu, Which Killed His Grandfather Frederick When SARS hit China, if it werent for that digital disease surveillance system, GPHIN, which by the way is a Canadian system, we never would have found it as quickly as we didthe original SARS. So what youre describing is not new. I think Trump took it to an entirely new level when hethe most reliable data is hospitalization data. Its very difficult to get accurate death data, its very difficult to get accurate case data, especially when theyre asymptomatics. Hospitalization data is easier to get, and is more reliable, so what Trump did was he stopped letting anybody get that data. If you remember, he rerouted that data from CDC to Palantir. I cant even imagine what was behind that story, but why did he want to do that? Recall, when that cruise ship docked in Oakland, with Americans who had COVID-19 on it, Trump said I dont want it to touch American territory because if it docks and touches American territory, theyll be counted against my score. I mean, what world are we living in? Dont count, dont find Americans who are sick from COVID-19, because it will be counted against my score? But this is not new, and Trump is not the first person to do this. Half the reason were having this explosion of cases in India compared to what we had before is that India didnt do a very good job of reporting the cases. Surprise. China under-reported cases. This is not new. So we need to find ways to aggregate data, because were really in this for the long haul. I wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal about a decade ago called The Age of Pandemics, and we now live in the age of pandemics, whether we like it or not, and we need to protect ourselves. Yes, we should be celebrating that we have this amazing mRNA technology and these vaccines. But you are never going to have a vaccine on the day that a novel virus leaps out from a chimpanzee or a mink to a human. On that day, the only thing you have is early detection and rapid response and isolation. If youre lucky, you have an antiviral if its a virus thats been hanging around on a shelf from some other disease, but youre probably not going to be lucky. The future is going to beanimals and humans are living in each others territory now, in a way that we havent done. I just heard the other day that 60 percent of the animals that we had 40, 50 years ago are gone, because humans are eating animals, including monkeys and rodents, bushmeat. And 30 years ago in China, the number of pigs and cows that were available for food was a fraction of what it is right now. But to get there, weve had to cut down the rainforests and build up soy plantations, and by cutting down the forest, were living right next to animals. We tried to portray this in a movie that I was science adviser on, called Contagion. And if you remember the last scene, that Steven Soderbergh put in as the genius that he is, it is exactly that, its cutting the forest and a bat, losing its habitat, flying to a barn and eating an apple and a pig eating the apple that the bat dropped. Thats transmission. In that case, the pig would have been the animal that were searching for in COVID-19, but because we live in the world in which humans and animals are getting closer and closer togethertheres actually a whole branch now called One Health, which is a kind of big deal, with scientists who are convinced that animal health, human health, and environmental health all have to be looked at as one piece. Thats important for looking at the future of disease transmission. Every year, two to five novel viruses jump from animals to humans. And these are viruses that could infect humans, and might become transmissible. Every year, were facing the drip, drip, drip of the risk of another pandemic. We might as well use this one to get good at it, because this risk is not going away. The last I looked, we havent changed our living practices to reduce the overlap between humans and animals. Is summer travel likely to cause significant problems again this year? Summer travel last year caused the explosion that we saw in the fall. If a third of the population, 30 percent, is not vaccinated, not wearing masks, and weve already got the variants in the United Stateswhat do you thinks going to happen? Remember, what drives a virus is not how good weve been at vaccinating 60 percent. Its the 120 million Americans who are not vaccinated, not wearing masks, not practicing social distancing, and who are congregating. And it only takes one little virus, and its everywhere, because theyre just not protected. Of those who arent vaccinated but had the virus, a high percentage have already lost their immunity or have waning immunitytheres much less and much less durable immunity from getting the disease than from getting the vaccine. How worried should we be about the big discrepancy in the U.S. between vaccination in the northern and southern states, a year out from the big surge in the south? You know, Yogi Berra said its very difficult to make predictions, particularly about the future. However, I am extremely worried that the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year cadence will bring about another wave this year. I look at Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippithe states that have been tepid about wearing masks, anti-vax, late to close, and early to open. Thats a formula for creating risk. And its true that if we dont have any viruses anywhere in the country, those states will get the derivative benefit of the prudence of other states, but I wouldnt want to bet on it. What countries are you concerned may be next in line to be hit hard now, or is that back in Yogi territory? We have to worry about the parts of Africa that are densely populated. South Africa is an example of a country that became an explosive outbreak almost overnight. It had a new variant. By the way, Im pretty optimistic that were going to get a handle on this disease, that were going to have booster shots, and were going to shame or convince the world to help build vaccine manufacturing plants all over the world. America just charitably promised 500 million doses, which is a wonderful thing, but far better would be that we help build vaccine manufacturing facilities all over Africa, all over Latin America, all over Asia, where they dont have it. That would be better. We want to be able to manufacture them all over the world. Thats the way you deal with a global pandemic. But you mentioned earlier, because of nationalism, because of people focused on their own community, we misunderestimate this virus. We dont understand that were all just meat, and it travels everywhere. How far have we come since 1918? H1N1, the virus that caused the great influenza, went around the world four times in one year. And you know what there was not then? Commercial airplanes. You know, you dont want to underestimate your adversary. National Archives Im not sure if its a West Coast thing, but I know San Francisco and L.A. both closed their schools in 1918, and New York City, where the Department of Health was led by Royal Copeland, a homeopath, kept the schools open on the argument that the kids were actually safer there because they could be effectively monitored and surveilled, and otherwise you have lots of kids who are coming from tenements with bad circulation. Copeland ended up becoming a senator and fought very hard to get air conditioning into the Senate chamber which didnt have it and apparently was unbearably hot. Forgive me, thats random information as Im processing here. No, no, Ill give you a random one back which is, you know, I worked so hard on smallpox and my colleagues, we worked very hard, and the last case of Variola major in nature was Bhola Island, October of 1975, a little girl named Rahima Banu. And when her scabs fell off and her coughs stopped, that was the end of an unbroken chain of transmission of Variola major going back to the pharaohs. And we celebrated. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Variola major was the disease that killed off the Native Americans. In New England, when you get to an old cemetery from the 1700 or 1800s, youll see right near it an annex thats called Pox Acres. Thats mostly where the Indians were buried who picked up blankets from Jeffrey Amherst, after whom the city and the college are named, and who was the first bioterrorist in American history. Back to 1975, we worked so hard and we declared smallpox eliminated, and we began the clock ticking. We werent going to declare it eradicated until two years would have passed after the last case. And, well, before the two-year clock had ticked, we had our last case. And our last death was in Birmingham, England, and it was a young woman who was a photographer, and her photographic studio was located above a lab, a smallpox lab, and the virus somehow got into the air conditioning system and floated up through the smallpox lab and infected her and she died. Birmingham Archive That was the last case of smallpox, and whenever Im asked about Wuhan, I say, if we were so careless that the last death of smallpox was a lab accident, it could be anywhere, a lab accident, we just dont know. But thats another air conditioning response to your anecdote. I mean, this world of diseases is so filled with stories. You know, Conquistadors probably killed one out of every two Aztecs, just huge numbers that we cant even count, because theyve got smallpox. We should never underestimate these diseases that we sort of lost familiarity with because modernity has given us cleanliness and hygiene and vaccines. That said, theres happy news. Seven years ago it took us six months to find Ebola as the cause of that novel outbreak. And on average, it took six months to find any virus with pandemic potential that spilled over from animals. Today, it takes two or three weeks. Thats huge. It gives you the appearance of more outbreaks, but it gives you time to respond to bird flu or swine flu or a coronavirus or whatever the next pandemic is going to be. Weve already got a global program. It may be uncoordinated, it may not have leadership, weve got all those problems, but we do have a global program, and we have a vaccine. Lots of good news. I remember Trump, in the midst of Ebola and before he was president, tweeting his fears about this in real time and blasting Obama. I also remember (then New Jersey Gov. Chris) Christie quarantining a returning nurse who had no symptoms at all. Ebola is one of the diseases that I worry the least about. Its a bloodborne disease, or its a disease spread by sharing vital fluids, and theres no asymptomatics, and it kills a lot of people who get it. So if you were a virus and choosing the attributes that you wanted, smallpox would be ideal, because it spreads like wildfire and is to some extent more contagious than the original COVID-19, and it kills one out of three. COVID-19 made good choices, seeing from its perspective, trying to perpetuate its life. By having asymptomatics and a very short incubation periodit can be two to 14 days, average is six. Just as an aside, one of my happiest days in epidemiology was in training Kate Winslet how to stand at that blackboard (in Contagion) and explain what R naught means. R naught is really critical. Its the definition of the number of secondary cases that come from a primary case, which tells you, because this virus is going to spread at exponential speed, it tells you whats the exponent. In the case of measles, one case gives rise to 10 to 12 others. In the case of influenza or Ebola, one case gives rise to about 1.2 or 1.3. These are laggards. Measles is the most transmissible. Smallpox was 3.5 to 4.5 and COVID-19, initially was thought to be 2 or 3. I think in retrospect, now that we know we were missing all these asymptomatics, it was originally 5 or 6. And each variant increases that. So this is a bit wonky, but the formula for herd immunity is one minus one divided by R naught. So if R naught is 10, as it is for measles, herd immunity is one minus one over 10, or 90 percent of people have got to be immunized. If R naught is two, then its one minus one over two or 50 percent of the population. The theory is that what drives an epidemic is the density of susceptibles, it isnt the number of people who are vaccinated. So if a disease transmits very slowly, it doesnt infect very many people, then you dont have to vaccinate that many people to stop it. But if it transmits incredibly quickly, then you have to vaccinate a huge number of people to stop it because you have to reduce the number of people who are susceptible to it. Early on in the epidemic, when the first report out of Wuhan was that the R naught was 2 or 3, people were saying how we could get to herd immunity with only 50 or 67 percent of the population vaccinated. It was always ludicrous to think that we could do what Sweden was proposing, to just let the virus run through and infect everybody. I mean, we already have 600,000 deaths. Were about to pass the number of deaths that the United States had from the 1918 great influenza [the CDC says the Spanish flu killed 675,000 Americans; while COVID-19 has killed about 600,000]. Yes, the population has tripled from what it was then. But that doesnt matterthere are as many grieving families with COVID-19 as there were with the great influenza. And were just starting with COVID-19. What is it Churchill said? This is not the end. Its not the beginning of the end. But its the end of the beginning. 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. Allen 'Cuatro' Nelson IV, part of an ultraconservative populist uprising of pastors within the Southern Baptist Convention, in his office at the Perryville Second Baptist Church in Perryville, Ark., June 8, 2021. (Terra Fondriest/The New York Times) Allen Nelson IV walked to the front of his small church in central Arkansas, stopped in front of the communion table with three large crosses behind him, and unfurled a giant black flag with a white skull and crossed swords. For several years, the pastor and father of five had felt that too many of his fellow Christians were drifting unmistakably leftward on issues of race, gender and the strict authority of the Bible. The flag was a gift from a friend, energized like Nelson by the idea of heroically reclaiming the faith. It was time, he believed, to take the ship. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Were fighting for the very heart of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nelson said in an interview. For a long time what I thought a good Southern Baptist pastor should do was to send money and trust the system. We cant do that anymore. Nelson is not alone. He is part of an ultraconservative populist uprising of pastors from Louisiana to California threatening to overtake the countrys largest Protestant denomination. Next week more than 16,000 Southern Baptist pastors and leaders will descend on Nashville, Tennessee, for their first annual meeting of the post-Trump era. It is their most high-profile gathering in years, with attendance more than double the most recent meeting in 2019, after a pandemic cancellation last year. It caps months of vicious infighting over every cultural and political division facing the country, particularly after the murder of George Floyd. The outcome has the potential to permanently split an already divided evangelical America. Like the Trump movement within the Republican Party, a populist groundswell within the already conservative evangelical denomination is trying to install an anti-establishment leader who could wrench the church even further to the right, while opponents contend that the church must broaden its reach to preserve its strength. For three days, thousands of delegates known as messengers most of them white men will fight over race, sex and ultimately the future of evangelical power in the United States. Story continues The large increase in attendance this year is not an influx of the woke, said Tom Buck, a pastor in Texas and a leader of the upstart conservative wing, who has been fundraising for like-minded pastors to get to Nashville to vote. Its an influx of the awakened to what the woke have been advancing. An event that has historically been compared to a family reunion may look more like a brawl. In the past several weeks, Baptists have pored over leaked bombshell letters and whistleblower recordings, and traded accusations of racism, apostasy and sexual abuse cover-ups. Leaders have taken barbed potshots at each other. Others have headed for the door. Russell Moore, the denominations influential head of ethics and public policy, left on June 1. Popular author and speaker Beth Moore, who is not related to Russell Moore, announced in March that she is no longer a Southern Baptist, citing the staggering disorientation of seeing the denominations leaders support Donald Trump, and lamenting its treatment of women. Some conservatives triumphantly celebrated both departures. Messengers will confront a series of measures likely including the propriety of women delivering sermons, the handling of sexual abuse and a denunciation of critical race theory, the concept that historical patterns of racism remain ingrained in modern American society and institutions. Those hoping to take the ship maintain that piracy is nothing more than a cheeky metaphor for a dry, democratic process. Still, the swashbuckling imagery has taken hold. There are Take the Ship T-shirts and pirate car flags, GIFs and memes; many supporters attach a pirate flag emoji to their Twitter handles. In Alaska, pastor Nathaniel Jolly posted photographs to Twitter of a pirate-themed frozen yogurt shop he used to own with his wife. Now, for the SBC! he wrote, appending a flag emoji to the message. Jolly, who will attend his first annual meeting, watched with alarm as public schools in his area have begun to teach what he describes as critical race theory. And he was shocked when high-profile leaders in his own denomination endorsed aspects of the sprawling racial protest movement last summer. I think CRT is one of these destructive heresies that have snuck in, he said, referring to a passage in the New Testament book of 2 Peter about false teachers who bring swift destruction on themselves. The rebellion in the Southern Baptist Convention both reflects and forecasts what is going on in broader society and the Republican Party, said Jemar Tisby, assistant director of narrative and advocacy at the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. In the wake of the racial justice protests and the ongoing disinformation about the election, there has been a sifting going on in the church over race and justice in particular, he said. The annual meeting is an opportunity for denominational leaders either to sensitively address the concerns and racism that Black people have experienced or to side with the status quo which favors white people, particularly men, he said. The denomination has about 14.5 million members but has been steadily shrinking for the past decade. In 2014, about 85% of Southern Baptists were white, 6% were Black and 3% were Latino, according to the Pew Research Center. Southern Baptists split from their northern counterparts in 1845 in support of slavery. After the denomination repudiated its role in slavery in the 1990s, a portion of its national leaders have attempted to diversify its churches and seminaries. At its 2019 meeting, the convention affirmed that critical race theory could be an analytical tool useful to faithful Christians, a move that many conservatives describe as alarming. Its current president, J.D. Greear, urged Southern Baptists last summer to declare that Black lives matter. Some high-profile Southern Baptists have also pushed back on some strictures against female church leadership. One of the denominations largest congregations, Saddleback Church in Southern California, quietly ordained three women as staff pastors in May, a move that outraged conservatives. Conservatives have spent months drumming up turnout. The Conservative Baptist Network, an increasingly influential group founded last year, released a recent video urging Baptists to stop the drift by coming to Nashville. Some Baptists planned to gather at rallying sites before the big event. Outside Dallas, 1,600 people registered for Wokeness and the Gospel, a conference that warned of the perils of what organizers call the new moralism. The most high-profile vote at the meeting will be the election of a new president, a race whose leading candidates are Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor who is the favorite of many conservatives, including Nelson and Jolly; Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor who has largely avoided culture war battles and has the support of the denominations first Black president; and Albert Mohler Jr., a lion of the denomination who helped usher in a conservative revolution decades ago and is now in the awkward position of being labeled a moderate compromise candidate. Stone, a onetime underdog, is considered a serious contender. No matter which side emerges triumphant from the meeting next week, a schism looms. A lot of us will know if this convention is for us once it is over, said Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, who has been leading anti-racism efforts in the denomination. If Mohler or Stone wins the presidency, or if resolutions are passed that affirm racism, in his view, he will leave. Several other Black pastors have announced their departures within the past year. Hostility over critical race theory among the Southern Baptists, which came to the foreground after Thanksgiving when seminary presidents denounced it, is interwoven with its weaponization by the GOP, he said. The litmus test now for being a Baptist is you have to denounce CRT as they do? he said. We would be completely off our rockers to submit, give that kind of power to a white denomination, particularly on the subject of race. The convention has historically reflected divisions in the country. The most recent meeting, two years ago in Birmingham, Alabama, focused on sexual abuse in evangelical churches. The year before, tensions were political. Mike Pence, then the countrys vice president, gave a keynote address to rally evangelical support for Trump before the midterm elections. The denomination vowed at its convention two years ago to address sexual abuse in its congregations, but many victims advocates have warned that little has changed. Southern Baptist leaders have also not publicly addressed an allegation of abuse at one of its most prominent megachurches, the Village Church in Texas. In one of two fiery letters that leaked after his departure, Moore accused leaders including Stone of impeding the denominations attempts to root out abusers, and of bullying and intimidation toward survivors of sexual abuse. (Stone responded in a video statement, calling the letter as inflammatory as it is inaccurate.) Later, an ally of Moore released audio recordings of meetings that included Moore, Stone and others debating how to handle abuse, with another high-placed leader, Ronnie Floyd, saying his priority was not to worry about survivor reactions but rather to preserve the base. (In a statement, Floyd apologized and said his remarks were mischaracterized.) Opponents of the conservative campaign are not as centrally organized, with a less targeted voter turnout operation. Last month, their preferred candidate, Litton, held question-and-answer sessions for about 30 pastors in West Virginia over takeout Chick-fil-A, and another for a similar group in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. No matter what happens in Nashville, the conservatives are pressing on to strengthen their institutional and cultural power. Tom Ascol, who leads Founders Ministries, an influential conservative group, has been hosting regular calls with fellow pastors who are newly engaged in the fight. Next year Founders will host a conference called Militant and Triumphant, whose website makes its ambitions plain: We indeed do not wage war against flesh and blood, but we do wage war. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company Conroe wished a World War II veteran happy 100th birthday from the sky on Saturday. The Army Air Corps Veteran George Truman Waters stood in his front yard with a large smile on his face as a silver T6/SNJ advanced trainer and blue Navy JRB transport made a turn above his home. It just brings back memories that chances are that I would never have had had it not been for reliving the old T6, Waters said before reflecting on training movements and target practice. At the age of 100, his mind remains sharp. He had just turned 21 years old and had been working at an aircraft repair shop in Alabama when he was drafted into the war. He would participate in trainings and tests in various locations , including in Las Vegas. Thats where he went up in the T6/SNJ advanced trainer the first plane he ever left the ground in. When the plane revved up and was fixing to take off, it had run down the runway aways, and I began to wonder can this thing really leave the ground? Waters said. It got in the air, and this just seemed like it was natural. Everything was in place, the power under me, and I felt pretty good about that. But when it got into the spin, I wasnt fond of everything going on I didnt know it was a spin until we got to the ground and the pilot was shook up, he continued. Some of my buddies, when I got on the ground said, George, you look like you are about to get sick. You dont look right, and I thought, I dont feel right. The trouble would follow him to the war where he served as a B-17 gunner. After flying 14 missions in 22 days, he would be shot down on February 22, 1944. His book, No Thought for Tomorrow, details his experiences, including when he had to bail from the B-17 as it fell apart and crashed during combat. The floor was cluttered and slick with blood, bodies and debris, Waters wrote. I reached the waist door, pulled the handle that released the hinge pins, and the door went flying into space. I put my left hand over the middle of the chute, my right hand in the ripcord handle and jumped backwards from the plane. I never saw the Little Chum again, he continued. I was too busy. I pulled the ripcord. The pilot chute came out, pulling the main chute behind it, all neatly folded. Its not going to open, I thought. While he survived the crash with a front-loader parachute that he put on right before the flight, he would ultimately spend 15 months as a prisoner of war in Germany where he was interrogated and walked over 600 miles across the Nazi-controlled country. It gives you a whole new appreciation,said Garrett Brag, who flies with a B-17 group and visited with Waters during the centennial celebration. When you see an aircraft like this out flying, you realize it is an old aircraft and you realize there is history behind it, but when youve talked to somebody who has flown the missions then you get into and visually see this man and realize what he went through. Sitting next to the aircraft that George flew in it was just incredible. Its realizing that this man spent a good chuck of his important memory and life there and this is something that our generation needs to remember, he continued. We read about it in books, we see it on movies, and see it in video games but it is not until you come talk to these guys in person that you realize how real history is. Today, Waters who also nearly died as a child from scarlet fever believes ignorance is bliss and that the secret to living a long life is to not dig too much, and when you find yourself in a hole to stop digging. He sat surrounded by family and friends, including his wife, Mavis, 101, who he married the week before the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. Its just something that I never dreamed of, just to have this kind of gathering, and no death involved, Waters said. The family was ecstatic to see him honored. We have been waiting for this, and daddy has been anticipating the 100th birthday for years, we are thrilled, daughter Rebecca Waters Shaddix said. Its so amazing that they have been married for 79.5 years, what theyve been through together, what theyve meant, sticking together always interested in whats over the hill, what they can see, and new adventures. Len Root, a wing leader at Gulf Coast Wing, flew the T6/SNJ advanced trainer, which thousands of Texas airmen learned to fly for combat, over Waters house on Saturday. He was followed by Gulf Coast Wing pilot Chris Jersey in the blue Navy JRB transport. The aircraft continued their 2021 flying season at Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport with a one-day opportunity for public flights. The event was presented by the Commemorative Air Forces Gulf Coast Wing, Conroes own B-17 Flying Fortress Texas Raiders and the two warbirds. It is sponsored in part by General Aviation Services. On board Jerseys aircraft was the Conroe Mayor Jody Czajkoski, WWII veteran aviator and B-17 Flight Engineer Teddy Kirkpatrick, and an active duty USAF Captain who flies a B-52 bomber at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport. It was a true honor to have all them on board and to have together a current USAF pilot with me while we flew a WWII veteran was a dream come true, Jersey said. Czajkoski also appreciated the experience. What a beautiful way to celebrate WWII veteran George Waters 100th birthday, Czajkoski stated. It was a great experience getting to fly over with Ted Kirkpatrick, spending time with him sharing stories and hearing about how they defended the freedom in our country. We are blessed to live in this country and I am so grateful for these veterans. Kirkpatrick, 98, of Spring, also served in the Army Air Corps during the war. Most people only know what Hollywood shows them, Kirkpatrick said. I try to tell them exactly what all the problems were and what we went through I watched a lot of planes blow up. I flew 37 missions. I have a lot of stories. I try to tell people what we went through... he continued. Most people dont understand what it was like up there The Conroe airport is the home of the 20-foot-tall, 74-foot-long B-17 Flying Fortress Texas Raiders. Mounted guns and radio communications equipment are still inside the aircraft, which has a 104-foot-long wingspan. The bomber was relocated to Conroe in March 2017. The B-17s next public appearance locally will be on Fathers Day weekend on June 19-20 at Ellington Field. I think it was pretty cool, Conroe resident Al Barber, 78, said after attending Saturdays event at the Conroe airport. I was in the Air Force so that is why I am interested in it. We looked at the B-17 out here and we are going to go down to the one in Ellington and book our flight on it. I was a radio operator so I am going to see about getting on board that. Completed in 1945, Texas Raiders is one of the last 20 B-17's ever built. While World War II combat ended before Texas Raiders flew overseas, the warplane served during the Korean War. The aircraft's military career included scouting, search and rescue, and weather reconnaissance. After the war, the B-17 now in Conroe went on to become a seismic survey aircraft. It was acquired in 1967 by the CAF to be restored to its military configuration. Of the 12,731 B-17 aircraft that saw combat, only about nine B-17 bombers still fly, according to information from CAF in a previous Courier article. mellsworth@hcnonline.com Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. Royal Enfield has come up with a range of new motorcycles in India and the company has further plans in FY22 to launch a maximum number of bikes. Royal Enfield CEO Vinod Dasari has recently said, "We have a very exciting (product) pipeline. This year will probably see the highest number of new models that are seen from Royal Enfield in a year. And that is just the beginning of the pipeline." However, there are no exact details of the launches of the new bikes, the company gave hints on some 'very big models coming in this year. "We will continue to have one new model every quarter. Because there is a delay due to COVID right now, I don't think we will squeeze everything in but there are some very big models coming in. We are very excited about it. We will have to do all the marketing and market preparedness for that," Dasari added. Check out the upcoming Royal Enfield bikes: 2021 Royal Enfield Classic 350: The Classic 350 will be unveiled very soon and the bike has been spotted being tested on many occasions. Royal Enfield Hunter 350: Royal Enfield has been testing a 350 cc, scrambler-oriented bike but its official name hasnt been revealed yet. Royal Enfield Shotgun: Royal Enfield may also launch Shotgun in the Indian market by late-2021 or early next year. The company is also testing a mid-displacement parallel-twin laid-back cruiser which may be named Shotgun 650. The official name is yet to be revealed. Other upcoming Royal Enfield bikes: Besides these, Royal Enfield has finally registered some more nameplates such as Sherpa, Roadster, and more recently - Scram. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke on two sessions at the G7 outreach summit, the initiative is seen as a potential jolt to Chinese President Xi Jinping`s pet project Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). India said that it will study US President Joe Biden`s global infrastructure initiative proposal 'Build Back Better' which was announced at the G7 summit as an alternative to China`s BRI. Senior official of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) P Harish said, "On the specific question of joining `Build back better for the world`, I can confirm that relevant agencies of the government of India would study them and would engage with them probably at the later stage." Under this plan financial and technological help will be provided to bridge the over $40 trillion-infrastructure need, mainly in the developing world which has been worsened by COVID-19. It is also expected to create local employment. At the session of "Open Societies and Open Economies", PM Modi was the lead speaker, and a joint statement on "open societies" with leaders India, South Africa, South Korea, and Australia, and G7 was released. He highlighted India's "civilisational commitment" to democracy and called for collective action when it comes to the issue of climate change. "As the worlds largest democracy, India is a natural ally for the G7 and Guest Countries to defend these shared values from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism and violent extremism, disinformation and infodemics and economic coercion", MEA's Additional Secretary(ER) P. Harish said at a virtual presser. On climate change, PM Modi pointed out India's achievements and that it is the only G20 country on track to meet its Paris Commitments. He called on G7 grouping to meet the "unfulfilled promise" of $100 billion annually in climate finance as "this challenge cannot be addressed in silos". Also participated in the @G7 session on Climate and reiterated India's strong commitment to climate action. India is the only G20 country on track to meet its Paris Commitments. And Indian Railways is committed to "Net Zero" by 2030. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 13, 2021 This is the second time PM Modi has participated at the G7, the last was in 2019 under the French chairmanship. India was invited last year by US President Donald Trump for the G7 but the meet was suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis. PM Modi listed India's leadership on climate change via International Solar Alliance and CDRI or Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. The India-led initiatives have seen an increase in global membership. He also pointed out the "revolutionary impact of digital technologies" on "social inclusion and empowerment in India" via Aadhaar, DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), and JAM (Jan Dhan- Aadhaar- Mobile) trinity. On Saturday he had addressed the session on health proposing the mantra of One Earth, One Health. He sought the support G7 nations for India and South Africa COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver at the WTO. Last week, the consensus was achieved on the issue with New Delhi calling for early conclusion of text-based negotiation for the practical implementation of the proposal. PM's engagement saw resonance as well, with Chancellor Angela Merkel backing his mantra on health, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Australian PM Scott Morrison extending support for covid vaccine patent waiver, and French President Macron called for on India to lend its expertise as an important hub of vaccines globally. As part of growing engagement with the grouping, this time India was engaged at the ministerial and working levels also. Live TV New Delhi: Attending the G7 summit virtually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (June 13) underlined India's commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty. He stressed the need for open and democratic societies to work together and strengthen each other, the ministry of external affairs said in a statement. At G7 summit, Modi underscored vulnerability inherent in open societies and called on tech firms to ensure safe cyber environment, P Harish, Additional Secretary (Economic Relations) MEA, said. The prime minister also spoke on the issue of climate change, asserting that India is on track to meet its Paris commitments. PM Modi today spoke in 2 sessions on climate change and open societies. On climate change, PM called for collective action, recognizing that this challenge can't be addressed in silos. He shared that India is the only G20 country on track to meet its Paris commitments, Harish said. Calling on the G7 to demonstrate leadership, PM Modi sought their strong support for India and South Africa's proposal for a TRIPS waiver at WTO. The UK PM Boris Johnson expressed his disappointment at not being able to welcome PM Modi in person at the summit. The theme selected by the UK for this year's summit was "Build back better" in reference to the devastating impact of the pandemic over the past 18 months & the need for policy-driven ambitious and targeted recovery measures. The three broad tracks of discussion over the past two days focused on vaccines and recovery from COVID-19, environment and climate change, open societies, and open economies. This is for the first time that India has been engaged in ministerial and working-level tracks as a guest country, MEA said. Our engagement was fruitful, productive and we hope to take forward our engagement in various initiatives including in the run up to COP26, the ministry added. Live TV Lucknow: Shriram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai was on Sunday (June 13) accused by two opposition leaders of buying a piece of land worth Rs 2 crore at an inflated price of Rs 18.5 crore for the Ram temple premises. The allegation, strongly refuted by Rai, was made by two opposition leaders -- AAP's Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh and a former minister in the Samajwadi Party government, Pawan Pandey. Terming it a case of money laundering, Singh and Pandey both sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. Both the leaders alleged that Rai purchased the land, measuring 1.208 hectares and located in Bag Bjaisi village under Sadar tehsil of Ayodhya district, for a price of Rs 18.50 crore on March 18 this year from the first purchaser, who had bought it minutes earlier from its original owners for a sum of Rs 2 crores. (Inputs from PTI) Live TV Chennai: In an interaction with business leaders, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Founder of Isha Foundation urged businesses to go where the people are, rather than people having to go in search of businesses. He said it in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the long-term challenges of increasing migration towards cities, that results in more urban poor and slum dwellers. Addressing participants at Human is Not a Resource virtual event at Isha, Sadhguru said that a large share of global investment had been focussed in 25-30 major cities around the world. Referring to this trend, he said that over 1.6 billion people world over would have to migrate to cities in search of opportunities. As a solution to this, he suggested that businesses in India capitalize on the potential in rural talent. It is critical that businesses spread in rural India. Your company will have a lot of room for innovation. Wherever the people are, thats where businesses should go, he said adding that organizations should invest at least 10% to 15% of their operations in rural areas. Urging industries to establish skill development centres to upskill the youth according to industry needs, Sadhguru said that this is a chance for industries to nurture the seed of human potential. He said it was important to attach humanity to all human activity, in order to bring out the best in people. Regarding the pandemic, he said that in the battle between saving lives and pre-pandemic lifestyle, life has to win. He added that over 3.7 million lives were lost globally due to COVID-19, but said that every generation had faced its own challenges, only to rise back stronger. Our HR department is called Human Possibilities. We look at each human as a possibility. Feedback is not outcome-centred but on creating an atmosphere of nurture and inspiration for volunteers to give their 100%, Maa Gnana, in-charge of Human Possibilities department, told over 150 participants from 11 countries on the final day of HINAR program. Maa Gnana, who joined Isha 17 years ago from Lebanon, says that the complete alignment with organisational priorities allows us to see beyond departmental boundaries, moving people vertically or horizontally as per the requirements of the time. The three-day event also witnessed sessions by Lt. Gen. Alok Kler, Former General Officer Commanding In Chief, South Western Command, Raj Raghavan, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, IndiGo among others. Human is NOT a Resource (HINAR) is an annual leadership program organized by Isha Leadership Academy. The proceeds from this program will go to Isha COVID Action, an initiative to provide critical assistance to vulnerable groups affected by COVID-19. Live TV New Delhi: The Chandigarh authorities decided to impose a complete corona curfew for two days in the Union Territory in view of the COVID-19 situation. The corona curfew will be imposed in the city from 5 am on June 13 till 5 am on June 14. The authorities, while making the announcement on Friday (June 11, 2021), also announced that the shops dealing with essential goods such as milk, bread, vegetable, and fruits will be allowed to open till 2 pm on Sunday, whereas on other days, shops are allowed to remain open till 6 pm. Here's whats allowed and whats not: - Movement of people involved in essential services is allowed, but they need to present a valid identity card. - Shops dealing with essential services are allowed to remain open till 2 pm - Manufacturing units and industries are allowed to remain open. - Movement of employees involved in industrial work is permitted with valid ID card. - No curbs on inter-state movements. - ATMs, hospitals, medical establishments are allowed to remain open. - Restaurants and eateries may remain open till 10 pm for home deliveries. Many other economic activities have been allowed in the Union Territory to continue as part of its unlock process. The decision by the Chandigarh administration to gradually unlock the city comes in view of declining COVID-19 infections and positovity rate. As the COVID-induced restrictions restrictions ease in the city, the authorities on Tuesday allowed restaurants, bars, gyms and spas to operate at 50 percent capacity. The Chandigarh administration alos added that night curfew will remain in force in the region but the hours will be cut short. Meanwhile, Chandigarh on Saturday registered 58 cases, taking the infection tally to 61,056, said medical bulletin from the Union Territory. Three more people succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll to 786. With 79 patients being discharged after they recovered from the infection, the number of cured persons reached 59,727, the bulletin added. Live TV Chennai: With the number of new COVID-19 cases declining, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday (June 13) announced a spate of relaxations in restrictions across 27 districts including Chennai, which will come into effect from June 14. The curbs will, however, continue in 11 districts including seven in western and four in Cauvery delta regions respectively. After a gap of 35 days, salons, parks and state-run liquor outlets in the districts would reopen. As part of the unlock process, the chief minister said that tea shops will be allowed to function from 6 AM to 5 PM. The tea stalls that also sell snacks and other items were ordered to be closed from May 10. Stalin appealed to people to use vessels and avoid using plastic bags to take home hot beverages. Sweet and savoury shops are also permitted to be open from 8 AM till 2 PM and only parcel services are allowed, the CM ordered. Restaurants and bakeries were already allowed to function. As per the new guidelines, offices of building construction firms will be allowed to work with a 50 per cent workforce. However, the places of worship and tourist locations will continue to remain closed and there would be no public or private bus services during the extended spell of lockdown. Live TV New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government on Sunday (June 13, 2021) further relaxed the lockdown restrictions in the national capital. As part of the phased unlock plan in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that all market activities will be allowed from Monday, but with certain restrictions. After 5 am tomorrow, all activities will be allowed except some activities that will be prohibited and some activities that will be done in a restricted manner. A detailed order will be issued, said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. After 5 am tomorrow, all activities will be allowed except some activities that will be prohibited and some activities that will be done in a restricted manner. A detailed order will be issued: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/BLZS7Yly7D ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2021 Delhi Chief Minister announced that starting from 5 am on Monday following activities will be allowed in the national capital: - All malls, markets and market complexes (except weekly markets) can open between 10 AM to 8 PM. The odd-even formula has been lifed for the next week. - Transportation by Delhi Metro and bus services shall be allowed up to 50% of the seating capacity. The metros will run as per the normal time schedule. - In autos, e-rickshaws, or taxis, not more than 2 passengers allowed to ensure social distancing. - Restaurants will be allowed to open at 50% seating capacity. - All Government offices of NCT of Delhi, Autonomous bodies, PSUs, Corporations, Local Bodies can function with officers of the level of Grade-I /equivalent and above to the extent of 100% strength. The remaining staff will attend up to 50% as per the requirement to be assessed by the HOD concerned (the remaining 50% of the staff will work from home). - Offices involved in essential services can function without any restrictions (ie at 100% strength). - All private offices in Delhi can function to the extent of 50% strength of their staff between 9 AM to 5 PM on the production of a valid authority letter and valid I card issued by their employer, firm or company. - Private offices are also advised to follow the practice of work from home, as far as possible. ALSO READ: Delhi Unlock: Schools, cinema halls, gyms to remain shut, check complete guidelines here - Religious places to be opened but no visitors allowed. - Weekly market will be allowed but only 1 market per zone. - Weddings are not allowed in public places like banquet halls or hotels, but only at court or homes with not more than 20 people. - Only 20 people allowed at funerals We will observe this for one week, if cases increase, stricter restrictions to be imposed, otherwise, it will be continued, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Live TV New Delhi: With the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the second phase of the pandemic, the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration had imposed various restrictions on gatherings. This, however, did not stop some youngsters from partying. On Sunday (June 13) morning, Noida police arrested 13 students for violating COVID norms. In the evening, the police raided a farmhouse in Yamuna Khadar area, where around 60 youths including 45 men and 15 women were arrested for having a party. A huge quantity of liquor and other intoxicants were recovered from the farmhouse. The police acted on the information of a drug party going on during the night curfew at the farmhouse in Sector 135 of Kotwali Expressway area. In the past week, the Kotwali Expressway police have busted three drug parties and arrested several in the area. Further investigation is on into the incidents. Live TV Srinagar: The foundation stone for the Lord Venkateswara temple of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) was laid here on Sunday (June 13) and the ceremony was attended by Union ministers G Kishen Reddy and Jitendra Singh, as well as Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. The Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple and its allied infrastructure will be built on a 62.06-acre piece of land at Majeen village near Jammu. The temple's administration will under the TTD that also manages the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala-Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. TTD Trust Board chairman Y V Subba Reddy along with other board members, including legislators, attended the ceremony. Many local political leaders, civil and police officers and heads of urban local bodies and Panchayati raj institutions were also part of the event. The Jammu and Kashmir administrative council, headed by Lt Governor Sinha, on April 1 had approved a proposal to allot land to the TTD for building the temple and its allied infrastructure on a lease basis for a period of 40 years. Subsequently, 62.02 acres of land at Majeen was given to the TTD for building the temple, amenities for pilgrims, a Veda Patashala, a spiritual and meditation centre, an office, residential quarters and parking. The arrival of the TTD in Jammu and Kashmir will tap the tourism potential, particularly pilgrim tourism in Jammu, besides enhancing economic activities, an official spokesman said. "Once developed, the TTD infrastructure will be an attraction for pilgrims and tourists in addition to the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine and Amarnathji Shrine," he said, adding that this development will contribute to the economic growth of the region. Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina, who was those who attended the event, said, "Jammu is a city of temples and the addition of the most revered Balaji temple in the city would benefit the people." He said the construction of the Balaji temple is a blessing for the Union Territory and its adjoining states as people will get an opportunity to pray here instead of travelling to Andhra Pradesh. Raina said the allied infrastructure, including educational institutions and hospitals, would benefit people and generate economic activities. "It will be an addition in the circuit of various important religious places, including the Vaishno Devi shrine, Bawe Wali Mata, Raghunath temple and Amarnath shrine," he said. National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana expressed hope that the local people would be provided jobs and ample opportunities in the construction activities of the temple. "We are hopeful that it will become a major attraction for the people of northern India and will give a boost to religious tourism," he said. (Inputs from agency) Live TV New Delhi: Gangster Mukhtar Ansari will appear virtually in Uttar Pradeshs Barabanki Court on June 14. Police teams have arrived at Mau district in search of two persons including Mukhtar's representative who is absconding and is allegedly related to the ambulance case. Police are in search of MLA representatives Mohammad Suhaib Mujahid, Anand Yadav and Shahid. The Barabanki police team are also on the lookout for the trio at all possible locations in the vicinity and surrounding regions. The police believe that after the arrest of the trio, there may be several major revelations about Mukhtar's network in Barabanki. Mukhtar's henchmen registered an ambulance in Barabanki ARTO in 2013 on the basis of forged documents. The police had registered a case of forgery against Dr. Alka Rai, director of Sanjeevani Hospital in Mau, in the same case on April 1. In the deliberations of the case, Alka Rai's aide Dr. Sheshnath Rai, Mujahid, was also made an accused person in the conspiracy, After Mukhtar's henchman Rajnath Yadav, Dr Alka and Shesh Nath Rai have also been arrested and sent to jail. Hyderabad: The generosity of nearly 65,000 people has helped a three-year-old boy here get a life saving drug, billed as the world's costliest at Rs 16 crore, for treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a rare genetic disease. Zolgensma, labelled as the "world's most expensive drug" and is a single dose intravenous injection, was imported from the US and administered to Ayaansh Gupta on Wednesday at a private hospital here. The treatment has given a new lease of life to the child, who was diagnosed with SMA when he was just one year old. "This is an extremely rare condition which causes muscle weakness...The child will be unable to move his hands or legs, sit, stand or even walk. In fact, eating food is also difficult," said the boy's father Yogesh Gupta, working in a private firm here. The condition is also life threatening and the doctors said that my child's life expectancy was three to four years," It was therefore important to treat him right on time", he told PTI. At first, it seemed impossible for the parents to raise Rs 16 crore for one dose. But then the couple decided to do it through appeals on social media. In February this year, they started a crowd funding campaign to save their son's life and family friends also extended their support. In three months, they managed to raise enough money to pay for the treatment. Many celebrities, including Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgn and several from the TV industry came forward to help the couple. "Around 65,000 people donated. It was made possible on May 22," Gupta said. A family friend reached out to an MP, who raised the issue of cost of the medicine in Parliament, following which the central government gave Rs six crore tax exemption. With the medicine being administered, Gupta expressed hope that his child's condition would improve in the coming months. The child has been discharged from hospital and follow-up treatment would continue, he said. Yogesh Gupta thanked all the 65,000 donors who helped them mobilise funds for the expensive treatment. Meanwhile, Rainbow Children's Hospital,where Ayyansh Gupta was treated, said he was administered Zolgensma on June 9. Spinal Muscular Atrophy is a progressive neuromuscular disease caused due to a defect in SMN1 gene. The affected children develop muscle weakness involving upper and lower limbs initially, but over time develop breathing difficulty and swallowing difficulty, the release said. SMA affects 1 in 10,000 children generally and there are nearly 800 children suffering from SMA in the country currently, it said, adding thrice as many children die before they even reach their second birthday. Zolgensma is a single dose intravenous injection gene therapy, in which the defective SMN1 gene is replaced through adenoviral vector, it said. Ayaansh's ImpactGuru.Com fundraiser raised Rs 14.84 crore, cumulatively contributed from over 62,450 donors. "The single highest donation received on the crowd funding campaign was Rs 56 lakh and in USD, was $7,000," Piyush Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, ImpactGuru.Com, said in the release. He said this is their third successful fundraiser for a SMA Type 1 case in the last four months and hoped that more families would come forward to utilize their healthcare financing platform in their time of need to get the best available treatment for critical illnesses. Live TV New Delhi: A 45-year-old villager in Madhya Pradeshs Morena was allegedly shot dead by forest officials for trying to save an illegal sand mining operation. The state police launched an investigation into the death of Mahaveer Singh Tomar following the incident and have so far booked nine forest officials. The deceaseds 19-year-old son Rahul Tomar filed a police complaint alleging that his father was beaten up and shot dead by the officials. Mahaveers son Rahul Tomar, 19, filed a complaint with the police and said after abusing his father, forest officials Pramod and Raghvendra shot him dead with their service gun while others used the butt of their guns to assault him. Rahul and two other villagers are claiming to be the eyewitnesses, Morenas superintendent of police Lalit Shakyawar was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. The police have registered a case under Section 302 (murder), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 294 (using abusive language) of the IPC against the nine forest officials. The forest department, however, refuted the allegations saying that Tomar was shot down while protecting the illegal sand mining mafia. Mahaveer and others were trying to snatch the guns from forest officials when a bullet was fired accidentally which hit Mahaveer in his chest. We are sending a report on the whole incident to the police, divisional forest officer (DFO) Amit Nikam said. The security of the area surrounding the forest department was tightened after villagers staged a demonstration. Also Read: Boxer murder in Rohtak: Youth brutally stabbed to death after he stopped eve-teasing Live TV New Delhi: India has filed impleadment applications before the Dominican High Court, seeking to join the case against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi. The impleadment petitions have been filed in the Dominican High Court by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). As per the ANI report, CBI will focus on the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case to establish the fugitive status of absconding businessman Mehul Choksi and MEA will focus on his Indian citizenship status. India has approached the Dominica High Court seeking to be impleaded as a party in the case filed by lawyers of absconding businessman Mehul Choksi whose bail was rejected by the High Court after a five-hour-long hearing, sources said here. The CBI and External Affairs Ministry have sought to implead in the Habeas Corpus matter, which seeks return of Mehul Choksi to Antigua and Barbuda, by filing two affidavits in Dominica High Court, officials said here. CBI is likely to focus on establishing criminal culpability of Mehul Choksi, his fugitive status, pending warrants against him, Red Notice and charge sheets while the External Affairs Ministry will argue that Choksi continues to be an Indian citizen, they said. India files impleadment applications in Dominica court- one by CBI & another by MEA. CBI to focus on PNB case to establish fugitive status of Mehul Choksi &MEA to focus on his Indian citizenship status. If applications are allowed,Harish Salve to represent both CBI & MEA: Sources ANI (@ANI) June 12, 2021 Meanwhile, on Friday, Dominica High Court had denied bail to Mehul Choksi, in a separate matter, calling him a flight risk. Dominica government's legal team led by the acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Sherma Dalrymple cited pending Interpol Red Notice, extradition proceedings in the Antiguan court as reasons which could see Choksi fleeing the island nation. Meanwhile, Mehul Choksi is wanted in a Rs 13,500 crore PNB fraud case in India and had mysteriously gone missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying as a citizen since 2018. He was detained in the neighbouring island country of Dominica for illegal entry, after a possible romantic escapade with his rumored girlfriend. Choksi's lawyers alleged that he was abducted from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian, and brought to Dominica on a boat. Additionally, last week, Choksi's lawyer Polak said Choksi was removed from Antigua and Barbuda, where as a citizen he enjoys right to approach the British Privy Council as the last resort in cases on his citizenship and extradition, to Dominica where these rights are not available to him. "The aim was to remove him from Antigua to Dominica was to diminish his protection under the law. Choksi has ongoing proceedings in Antigua in regards to attempts by the prime minister to remove his citizenship, the only citizenship that he possesses, and to extradite him to India," he had said. (With Agency inputs) Live TV Aizawl: The patriarch of the world's largest family, Zionghaka aka Zion-a, died at a hospital here on Sunday, sources at the medical establishment said. He was 76 and is survived by 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren. "Zion-a was suffering from diabetes and hypertension. He was undergoing treatment at his residence in Baktawng village for three days. But his condition deteriorated and he was rushed to the hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead," Hospital Director Dr Lalrintluanga Zahau told PTI. Zion-a was the leader of Chana Pawl or Chhuanthar, a sect formed by his grandfather Khuangtuaha after he was expelled from Hmawngkawn village in 1942. Since then, his family lives in Baktawng village, around 55 km from Aizawl. Khuangtuaha was succeeded by his son Chana, who was the father of Zion-a. Around 400 families are members of the sect that allows polygamy for its male members. Zion-a's four-storey mansion at Baktawng is a major tourist attraction. The family has been featured twice by 'Ripley's Believe it or not' in 2011 and 2013. Chief Minister Zoramthanga, state Congress chief Lal Thanhawla and Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) leader Lalduhoma have condoled Zion-a's death. "With heavy heart, Mizoram bid farewell to Mr Zion-a (76), believed to head the world's largest family...Rest in Peace Sir," the chief minister tweeted. New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department on Saturday (june 12, 2021) predicted that the monsoon will enter the Uttar Pradesh border in the next 24 hours or Sunday (June 13, 2021) The weather department said that heavy rainfall is expected in the districts that border Bihar. As per the update, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, and Sonbhadra will be the first to receive the rainfall, followed by the entire state in 2-3 days. Head of the Meteorological Centre in Lucknow, JP Gupta said that the monsoons movement is regular and rainfall is expected in various districts of Purvanchal on Sunday. The monsoon rain may take two to three days to reach Lucknow. Its severity will be determined by how long the monsoon stays in western Uttar Pradesh. Its speed appears to be normal at the moment, Gupta added. Additionally, monsoon arrived in Bihar on Saturday. Director of the Meteorological Department in Patna, Vivek Sinha, said the monsoons effect has now reached Darbhanga. Vivek Sinha has also stated that the monsoon could take up to 24 hours to reach the UP border from Darbhanga. The weather department also added that this time monsoon has arrived a day ahead of schedule in Bihar. IMD has also issued heavy rain alert in the state for the next 48 hours. This years monsoon is 3-4 days ahead of schedule, as a result of cyclonic storm that formed in the Bay of Bengal. Live TV Nagpur: Personnel at the Nandanvan police station in Nagpur in Maharashtra were left shocked when a young man walked into the premises with a bag which he said contained a "bomb" he had found abandoned near a college. However, a brief questioning on Saturday evening revealed that the 25-year-old, identified as Rahul Pagade, had himself prepared the explosive using a petrol bottle and a battery by watching online tutorials, officials said on Sunday. An officer ruled out any terror angle and said Pagade had no intention to plant the explosive or to harm anybody. Pagade works in a salon and lives alone in a rented house in Saibaba Nagar in the city. His parents had died. All his three sisters are married. "Pagade told us that he learned bomb-making after watching tutorials and decided to do it himself. He extracted flash powder from firecrackers and used a mobile battery and a petrol bottle to make the makeshift bomb. He connected the wires from the battery to the petrol bottle," the officer said. However, he developed cold feet and decided to get rid of the explosive. He disconnected wires and walked up to the police station where he handed over the bag to the police at 5 pm on Saturday. "He told the police that he found the bag containing the bomb abandoned near KDK college. However, the police suspected his statement and interrogated him. Finally, he confessed to making the explosive himself. Pagade said as he panicked and didn't understand what to do with the explosive, he walked to the police station with the hope to defuse the bomb," the officer said. A case was registered against Pagade under the Arms Act and section 123 of the Mumbai Police Act. Live TV New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday (June 12, 2021) revealed that no heatwave is expected in the country over the next five days. The statement comes as a huge relief for people in large part of India who are reeling under the heat and humidity. "No Heat Wave Conditions likely over any part of the country during next five days," the weather agency said in a bulletin on Saturday. No heatwave conditions are expected over the country during the next 5 days: IMD ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2021 Additionally, the weather department recorded the highest maximum temperature of 44.2 degree Celsius in Ganganagar in west Rajasthan on Saturday. The maximum temperatures of more than 40 degree Celsius were recorded at most places over west Rajasthan, at many places over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, at a few places over and at isolated places over east Rajasthan, Punjab, west Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, the IMD said. Meanwhile, several regions of the country are witnessing a good spell of rainfall. The weather department had earlier said that the Southwest Monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of Northwest Bay of Bengal some more parts of Odisha, most parts of West Bengal and some parts of Jharkhand and Bihar. "Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of Madhya Pradesh, remaining parts Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar and some parts of east Uttar Pradesh during next 24 hours," the IMD said. Live TV Ahmedabad: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday (June 13) decided to confirm his visit to Gujarat with a statement on Twitter declaring that now Gujarat will change. CM Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is eyeing to contest the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls, will be visiting the state on Monday, a spokesperson of the party had said. "Now Gujarat will change. Tomorrow I am coming to Gujarat, and will meet all the brothers and sisters of Gujarat," Kejriwal said in a tweet posted in Gujarati. During his visit, Kejriwal is scheduled to inaugurate the party's Gujarat state office in Ahmedabad. This will be Kejriwal's second visit to Gujarat. He had last visited Surat in February after the party emerged as the main opposition after the civic body elections there in its maiden fight there. His visit assumes significance as the AAP is eyeing to contest the December 2022 Gujarat Assembly election and is aggressively preparing for it. In a release, the state unit of the AAP said, As per Kejriwal's day-long itinerary of his Monday visit, he will arrive at Ahmedabad airport at 10.20 am, from where he will go to the circuit house. At 11.40 am, he will hold a press conference at the city's Vallabh Sadan after taking the blessings of Lord Krishna. He will then leave to inaugurate the party's new state office located on Ashram Road. Kejriwal will leave for Delhi on the same day, party's spokesperson Tuli Banerjee said. Live TV Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Saturday (June 12) ordered a probe into the alleged circulation of 'fake' COVID-19 medicines, officials said. The government also decided to initiate legal action against those responsible for supplying "spurious COVID-19 medicines" seized in the last two days, they said. Health and Family Welfare Department's Additional Chief Secretary PK Mohapatra issued a direction to the Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd and the police to launch a joint inquiry into the seizure of alleged spurious drugs and submit a report. "Prosecution cases will be started in the specially designated courts under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act," he said. The authorities had seized a large quantity of "spurious" Favipiravir tablets in Cuttack on June 10. They also recovered "fake" drugs in other places, including Bhubaneswar, on Friday (June 10). "Seizures were made in Bolangir, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Bhubaneswar on June 11," the officials said. Acting on a tip-off from the Food and Drugs Administration, Maharashtra on spurious Favipiravir tablets allegedly manufactured by a company in In Himachal Pradesh, the authorities in Odisha initiated actions. These medicines were purchased by a company in Cuttack, they said. "A raid was conducted on the premises of the buyer firm by the Cuttack drugs inspectors," an official said. The inspectors also found the manufacturer of the medicine was a non-existing entity, he said, adding that during the raid, it was noted that the Cuttack-based company had purchased 58,000 "Favimax-400" tablets from an entity located at Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. Of the purchased quantity, the Cuttack-based buyer supplied 40,600 tablets to another entity in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Of the available stock of 17,400 tablets, 400 were taken for statutory testing and the remaining ones were seized under the provision of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and Rules, the official said. The supply details of "Favimax-400" tablets to Gwalior have been communicated to the Food and Drugs Administration, Madhya Pradesh. Nine other drugs allegedly manufactured by the same entity have also been purchased by the Cuttack-based firm. To ascertain the authenticity of these drugs and assess their quality, statutory samples of these nine drugs were taken and balance stocks were seized, another official said. Meanwhile, the Utkal Chemist and Druggist Association secretary Prasant Mohapatra said anyone found guilty of circulating spurious medicines during the pandemic should be punished. ALSO READ: Monsoon to reach Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha by June 15, predicts IMD Live TV New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved budgetary support of nearly Rs 499 crore for research and innovation in the defence sector for the next five years. The Defence Ministry on Sunday said the funds will be used to provide financial support to nearly 300 start-ups, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and individual innovators with a larger goal of ensuring self-reliance in the defence sector. The scheme is in sync with the government's push to cut imports of military hardware and weapons and make India a hub for defence manufacturing. "Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the budgetary support of Rs 498.8 crore to Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX)-Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) for the next five years," the ministry said in a statement. It said the iDEX?DIO has the primary objective of self-reliance and indigenisation in the defence and aerospace sector. The ministry said the setting up of the iDEX framework and establishment of the DIO by the Department of Defence Production (DDP) is aimed at creating an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in the defence and aerospace sector. "The scheme, with budgetary support of Rs 498.8 crore for the next five years, is aimed at providing financial support to nearly 300 start-ups/MSMEs/individual innovators and 20 partner incubators under the DIO framework," the ministry said. It said the DIO will enable the creation of channels for innovators to engage and interact with the Indian defence production industry. "The scheme aims to facilitate rapid development of new, indigenised and innovative technologies for the Indian defence and aerospace sector to meet their needs in shorter timelines," it said. In the last couple of years, the government has unveiled a series of reform measures and initiatives to make India a hub of defence manufacturing. Last August, Defence Minister Singh had announced that India will stop the import of 101 weapons and military platforms like transport aircraft, light combat helicopters, conventional submarines, cruise missiles and sonar systems by 2024. A second negative list, putting import restrictions on 108 military weapons and systems such as next-generation corvettes, airborne early warning systems, tank engines and radars, was issued this week. In May last, the government announced increasing the FDI limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent under the automatic route in the defence sector. India is one of the largest importers of arms globally. The government now wants to reduce dependence on imported military platforms and has decided to support domestic defence manufacturing. The ministry has set a goal of a turnover of USD 25 billion (Rs 1.75 lakh crore) in defence manufacturing in the next five years that included an export target of USD 5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) worth of military hardware. New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday (June 12, 2021) approved the policy on archiving and declassification of war and operations histories. As per the policy, records should ordinarily be declassified in 25 years and records older than 25 years should be appraised by archival experts and transferred to the National Archives of India once the war and operations histories have been compiled. According to the Ministry of Defence, the policy envisages that each organisation under the Ministry of Defence such as Services, Integrated Defence Staff, Assam Rifles and Indian Coast Guard, will transfer the records, including war diaries, letters of proceedings & operational record books, etc, to the History Division of Ministry of Defence (MoD) for proper upkeep, archival and writing the histories. "The History Division will be responsible for coordination with various departments while compiling, seeking approval and publishing of war/operations histories," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. It also stated that the policy mandates constitution of a committee headed by Joint Secretary, MoD and comprising of representatives of the Services, MEA, MHA and other organisations and prominent military historians (if required), for compilation of war and operations histories. "The policy also set clear timelines with regard to compilation and publication of war/operations histories. The above-mentioned Committee should be formed within two years of completion of war/operations. Thereafter, collection of records and compilation should be completed in three years and disseminated to all concerned," the official statement further added. The Ministry of Defence informed that the requirement of having war histories written with a clear cut policy on declassification of war records was recommended by Kargil Review Committee headed by K Subrahmanyam as well as NN Vohra Committee in order to analyse lessons learnt and prevent future mistakes. "Timely publication of war histories would give people accurate account of the events, provide authentic material for academic research and counter the unfounded rumours," the MoD said. Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut alleged that the Bharatiya Janta Party-led previous government in Maharashtra, with whom they were in alliance with from 2014 to 2019, treated his party like 'slaves'. Raut made these remarks while addressing Sena workers in Jalgaon in north Maharashtra on Saturday. "The Shiv Sena had a secondary status in the previous government and was (treated) like slaves. Attempts were also made to finish off our party by misusing the very power which was enjoyed because of our support," he was quoted as saying by PTI. Further, Raut claimed that Shiv Sainiks can be proud that the state's leadership is now in the hands of their party. "The Maha Vikas Aghadi government was formed with this sentiment (in November 2019)," he said. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance led by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis crumbled in 2019 over the issue of chief ministership. The Sena, which was one of the oldest allies of the BJP, later formed an unlikely alliance with the NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. Raut's remarks came days after Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi separately, setting off political speculations in the state. Live TV Ferozepur: The family of slain gangster Jaipal Singh Bhullar, who was killed during an encounter with the police in Kolkata, on Sunday refused to cremate his body. Bhullar's family alleged that he was brutally thrashed before being gunned down and that his post-mortem should be conducted again. Bhullar and another gangster Jaspreet Singh, involved in killing two policemen recently in Ludhiana, were gunned down by Kolkata police team in a shootout on June 9. Bhullar and Jaspreet were shot dead by a Special Task Force team of the Kolkata police on ?pin-pointed? information provided by the Punjab Police about the gangsters' hideout in a housing society in the New Town area of the city. The mortal remains of Bhullar reached his hometown here Saturday night and all the arrangements were made for his cremation on Sunday. His younger brother Amritpal Singh, lodged in Central Jail Bathinda, was brought here amid tight security for performing the last rites of his brother. However, Bhullar's father Bhupinder Singh, who is a retired Punjab police inspector, alleged that after seeing the condition of the body during the last rituals, their family members observed some suspicious marks. "It is certain that my son was brutally beaten before the encounter. Being an inspector myself, I am aware of all facts. When I had reached Kolkata to receive the body, even at that time I was not allowed to see the body of my son," Bhupinder said. Later, the family members also met Deputy Commissioner Gurpal Singh Chahal and submitted an application demanding the second post-mortem following which the former asked Assistant Commissioner Ravinder Singh Arora to enquire into the matter. SDM Amit Gupta along with some senior police officials also met the family members of Bhullar regarding the gangster's cremation. However, the family members did not agree. When contacted, Chahal said since the incident did not take place here and the matter was pertaining out of his jurisdiction, he has sought a report from the police. The sub divisional magistrate said they had made all arrangements for the cremation, but the family members repeatedly asked for the post-mortem which is beyond their authority as the encounter had taken place in Kolkata. New Delhi: The conditions are favourable for the advancement of southwest monsoon into more regions of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and some parts of east Uttar Pradesh in the coming 24 hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted on Saturday (June 12). Maharashtra witnessed the onset of monsoon on June 9 and has since then been receiving heavy showers, especially in Mumbai. The weather department said widespread rainfall activity with heavy to very heavy rainfalls over coastal and adjoining Ghats districts of Maharashtra and Goa and Karnataka during the next 5 days is expected, ANI reported. "Isolated extremely heavy falls over Konkan and Goa during June 12 to 15 and over Madhya Maharashtra on June 14 and 15, 2021 and isolated heavy rainfall over Kerala during June 12 to 15, ANI quoted IMD said. For Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, the weather agency has predicted moderate to severe thunderstorms accompanied by frequent cloud to ground lightning and strong gusty winds during the next 4-5 days. Due to the southwesterly winds, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity with isolated heavy to very heavy falls has been predicted over Odisha, Chhattisgarh, East Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Telangana during the next 3-4 days. As per IMD, the southwest monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Northwest Bay of Bengal, some more parts of Odisha, most parts of West Bengal as well as some parts of Jharkhand and Bihar. Coming as a relief to people, IMD has forecast no heatwave in the country over the next five days. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Hyderabad-based Asian Institute of Gastroenterology is carrying out one of the largest studies to find out if the single-dose drug cocktail of monoclonal antibodies threapy is effective against the highly infectious Delta variant or not. As many as 40 COVID-19 patients were given a single-dose drug cocktail of monoclonal antibodies at Asian Institute of Gastroenterology in Hyderabad. In 24 hours, they recovered from clinical symptoms like fever, malaise etc, chairperson of the hospital, Dr Nageshwar Reddy told english news channel. Studies from the US have shown that this is effective against the British variant, Brazilian and South African variants also. No one has tested it against the Delta variant we have here. So what we are doing is that we are parallelly testing whether it is effective against the mutant virus. Results that we have now in 40 patients who we analysed after one week. almost in 100 per cent (cases), the virus disappeared when we did RT-PCR(sic), said Dr Reddy. The monoclonal antibody therapy, which was also given to former US president Donald Trump, is said to reduce the severity of the infection in patients with mild to moderate symptoms. The threapy gained attention of heath reasercher worldwide after it was given to former US president Donald Trump when he tested positive for COVID-19 last year. The single-dose drug cocktail of monoclonal antibodies therapy uses two medicines, namely Casirivimab and Indevimab. According to the report, the therapy cost around Rs 70,000 or 1000 US dollars in India. The demand of this therapy is increaing in the country depite its high cost, however, health experts and doctors warn against overuse of this therapy. We should not misuse (the therapy). Has to be given only under specific indication as authorised by the ministry of health under EUA because if it is overused, more mutant viruses can come. It has to be carefully used in selective populations, Dr Reddy told english news channel. The health professionals also added that the patients who have undergone monoclonal antibody therapy should get vaccinated after three months due to the presence of high levels of antibodies after the procedure. Live TV Hyderabad: The Congress party has demanded that the 12 Congress MLAs who defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) should resign from their posts. Senior Congress leader and ex-MP Ponnam Prabhakar on Sunday (June 13) while speaking to ANI demanded the resignation of 12 Congress MLAs who defected to the ruling TRS party. "The 12 Congress leaders who defected to the ruling TRS party must resign from the MLA position like the way the former health minister of Telangana and the MLA of Huzurabad, Etela Rajender did before joining the BJP," the Congress leader told ANI. He said that if these 12 MLAs are not ready to resign from their positions, then the Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao, who speaks about credibility and about the saving democracy, must make sure that these MLA resign from their MLA seats. He further mentioned that by resigning from his Assembly seat as MLA before joining BJP, Etela Rajender has become like a role model and these 12 MLAs must also do the same. Reacting to former Health Minister Etela Rajender joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party leader NV Subhash on Saturday said that the downfall of the K Chandrashekar Rao regime has started in Telangana."Quitting of Telangana Former Health Minister Etela Rajender from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party is a testimony to the anarchic rule of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao," Subhash said. Rajender had on Monday submitted his resignation as MLA to the Speaker of Telangana Assembly Pocharam Srinivas Reddy. Former Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender resigned from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party on June 4 following differences with the party. On May 2, Etela Rajender was sacked from the state Council of Ministers following allegations of land encroachments. This was done on the advice of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who had ordered a probe against Rajender over the allegations of land grabbing and had taken the charge of the health ministry. (Inputs from ANI) Live TV New Delhi: AIIMS Nurses Union has requested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to provide COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers' family members, belonging to the age group 18 to 45 years, on a priority basis. In a letter to the Delhi CM, nurses union's president Harish Kumar Kajla and general secretary Fameer CK said that though most of the AIIMS healthcare workers have received both the doses of Covaxin, most of their family members aged 18 to 45 years are facing difficulties in finding a slot, PTI reported. "Many frontliners have expressed their concerns about the delay in vaccinating their near ones as poor vaccination may end up in exacerbation of infection as the threat of the third wave of virus crisis looms ahead," AIIMS Nurses Union said in the letter. Further, they added that this is a matter of concern as almost all healthcare workers stay with their families. "We request you to kindly take immediate measures to provide vaccines for the family members of HCWs (belongs to the age group of 18-45 years) at the earliest on a high priority basis," the letter read. It is to be noted that the vaccination for the 18-44 age category commenced on May 1. The COVID-19 inoculation drive began for healthcare workers on January 16. Meanwhile, AAP MLA Atishi on Saturday (June 12) while releasing the national capitals daily vaccination figures said that vaccinating 30 per cent of the population is a big achievement but they have a long way to go. A total of 59,90,485 people have received anti-Covid jabs in Delhi, out of which more than 14 lakh have got both doses, she added. Atishi informed that for the 18-44 age group, a total of 1,00,000 doses of vaccines are available including 33,000 Covaxin and 67,000 Covishield jabs. For the 45+ age group, 9,000 Covaxin jabs and 4,96,000 Covishield doses are available in the national capital. (With inputs from agencies) Live TV New Delhi: The Centre has allocated a whopping Rs 10,870 crore to Uttar Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission for 2021-22, the highest allocation so far to any state, the Ministry of Jal Shakti said on Saturday (June 12). The amount is more than four times what was allocated to the poll-bound state last year. The northern state will go to the polls in 2022. Uttar Pradesh has assured to achieve the goal of providing water to every rural household by 2024, the ministry said. "The Union government has increased the Central allocation for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission to Uttar Pradesh to Rs. 10,870.50 crore. In 2019-20, the Centre allocated Rs 1,206 crore, which was increased to Rs 2,571 crore in 2020-21. Thus, this year, the central allocation for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in Uttar Pradesh has increased four-fold," the ministry said. The ministry had last week announced Rs 6,998.97 crore to West Bengal, the second-highest allocation to a state under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have been allocated Rs 3,410 crore and Rs 5,117 crore, respectively. The northeastern states have been allocated a total of Rs 9,262 crore. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, Maharashtra has been allocated to Rs 7,064.41 crore, while Chhattisgarh got Rs 1,908.96 crore. The Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide tap water connections to all rural households by 2024. The Union budget for 2021-22 has earmarked Rs 50,000 crore for this ambitious scheme. Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, during his last meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, had assured to provide all assistance to the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Adityanath had also assured that his government would ensure tap water connection to every rural home by 2024 as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the announcement of the scheme on August 15, 2019. In Uttar Pradesh, there are 2.63 crore households in 97,000 villages, out of which, now 30.04 lakh (11.3 per cent) households have tap water supply. Only 5.16 lakh (1.96 per cent) households had tap water supply before the scheme. In the last 21 months, under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the state has provided a tap water supply to 24.89 lakh (9.45 per cent) households. Despite this, there are about 2.33 crore households without tap water supply in Uttar Pradesh, officials said. (Inputs from PTI) Live TV New Delhi: With an eye on the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is all set to visit Ahmedabad on Monday (June 14) to inaugurate the state office of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). "A detailed itinerary of Kejriwal's visit will be issued on Sunday," PTI quoted AAPs Gujarat spokesperson Tuli Banerjee as saying. Kejriwal was invited by the state AAP unit to visit Ahmedabad to inaugurate the party's office located in the city's Navrangpura locality, and he has consented to it, Banerjee said. After its satisfactory performance in Surat municipal corporation elections in February this year, AAP seems to now aim 2022 Assembly elections in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled Gujarat. AAP had emerged as the main opposition to the BJP when it grabbed 27 seats in the 120-member Surat Municipal Corporation. AAP is looking forward to making inroads in the BJP bastion and emerge as an alternative to Congress. The BJP won the Gujarat assembly election in 1995 and has been in power since. (With PTI inputs) Live TV New Delhi: The Centre on Saturday (June 12, 2021) responded to a report which claimed that India has suffered five to seven times 'excess deaths' than the official number of COVID-19 fatalities. The Centre said that the article is 'without any basis' and 'seems to be misinformed'. "The unsound analysis of the said article is based on extrapolation of data without any epidemiological evidence," the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a press statement. It also said that the studies which are used by the magazine as an estimate of excess mortality are not 'validated tools' for determining the mortality rate of any country or region. "It's a well-known fact that there shall always be a difference in mortality recorded during a profound and prolonged public health crisis such as COVID pandemic and well-conducted research studies on excess mortalities, usually done after the event when data on mortalities are available from reliable sources," the Centre said. The statement also read that the Union Government has been transparent in its approach to COVID data management. "As early as May 2020, to avoid inconsistency in the number of deaths being reported, Indian Council of Medical Research has issued 'Guidance for appropriate recording of COVID-19 related deaths in India' for correct recording of all deaths as per ICD-10 codes recommended by WHO for mortality coding," it said. It further added that the States and UTs have been urged through formal communications, multiple video conferences and through the deployment of Central teams for correct recording of deaths in accordance with laid down guidelines. The Union Health Ministry said that it has also regularly emphasized the need for a robust reporting mechanism for monitoring district wise cases and deaths on a daily basis. "States consistently reporting a lower number of daily deaths were told to re-check their data," it stated. Earlier on Friday, the Centre has also given a clarification on a sudden hike in the number of daily deaths on June 10. "This spike in deaths was on account of 3971 deaths reported by Bihar on that date is on account of reconciliation done by the State," it had said. India, notably, has so far recorded a total of 2.93 crore coronavirus cases, of which, more than 3.6 lakh people have succumbed to the virus. Live TV Madikeri: Eight policemen in Karnataka's Madikeri were suspended following an inquiry into an incident of a 50-year-old man allegedly being beaten to death. The policemen had beaten the purportedly not of sound mental health last week for violating the lockdown rule. A preliminary inquiry led to their suspension. The Deputy SP of Virajpet Praveen Madhukar Pawar has furnished a report against eight the policemen, who have been suspended. There is an inquiry going on by the sub-divisional magistrate. "As per the NHRC guidelines, we are handing over case to the CID," he said. A complaint was filed by the deceased's brother. As per reports, Roy D'Souza was picked up from Virajpeth in Kodegu District on Wednesday after he was seen roaming around the city in defiance of the lockdown. The police later summoned his family to take him from the police station. D'Souza's family members alleged that he had run away from his house late at night on June 8. It is reporetd that the policemen found him wandering about, questioned him for violating the lockdown norms and thrashed him which led to his death. On Friday, the Karnataka government had announced that COVID-19 restrictions in the state will be eased further in the 19 districts, including Bengaluru Urban from June 14. The relaxations will be in force till June 21 after which revised guidelines may be issued depending on the COVID-19 situation in these districts. Meanwhile, the state reported 7,810 new infections and 125 fatalities, taking the caseload to 27,65,134 lakh and toll to 32,913 on Sunday. Live TV Bengaluru: Karnataka will begin the unlock process from Monday as COVID-19 cases started showing a declining trend in the state, except for 11 districts. The state government had imposed stringent restrictions on April 27 to contain the spread of coronavirus cases. According to a government order, the restrictions have been relaxed from 6 am to 2 pm in 19 districts instead of existing 6 am to 10 am. However, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Davangere, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Bengaluru Rural, Mandya, Belagavi and Kodagu the restrictions will be relaxed from 6 am to 10 am only as the cases are still on the higher side. Even after easing restrictions, only shops selling essential commodities will be allowed to operate, the government has clarified. Besides, industries can function with 50 per cent workforce by strictly adhering to COVID protocol. Production units, establishments and industries engaged in garment manufacturing are permitted to function with 30 per cent of their staff strength. Autos and taxis are allowed to ply with maximum two passengers. The daily COVID curfew from 7 pm to 5 am and weekend curfew from 7 pm on Friday to 5 am on Monday will continue. Construction activities are permitted in the state while shops dealing with construction material, especially cement and steel, outside the containment zone can do business. Parks will be open from 5 am to 10 am for walkers and joggers. Hotels and restaurants will be closed for dine-in and only takeaways and door delivery will be allowed. With the government announcing relaxing the restrictions, several people who had gone to their hometowns and villages started returning in huge numbers to the state capital. Meanwhile, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa told reporters here that he will direct the officials concerned to test all those returning to Bengaluru for COVID-19. Live TV New Delhi: The IPO market is getting back on track after a lull of two months, with four companies launching their initial share sales next week to raise Rs 9,123 crore collectively. The last initial public offering (IPO) was that of Macrotech Developers (erstwhile Lodha Developers), which opened during April 7-9. Shyam Metalics and Energy Ltd and Sona BLW Precision Forgings (Sona Comstar) will launch their IPOs on Monday, while Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences and Dodla Dairy will be open for public subscription on Wednesday, information with exchanges showed. In addition, Clean Science & Technology expects to hit the primary markets in the first week of July 2021 with an IPO size of Rs 1,500 crore, while India Pesticides is likely to come out with its public issue this month or July, Yash Gupta, Equity Research Associate at Angel Broking, said. "The equity markets are flushed with liquidity and retail participation is at an all-time high. It is difficult to imagine a better time frame for small and mid-cap companies to raise public money. So, it is quite natural for companies to tap the IPO market," Naveen Kulkarni, Chief Investment Officer, Axis Securities, said. The companies are raising funds to retire their debt, funding capital expenditure requirement and for general corporate purposes. Auto component maker Sona Comstar's Rs 5,550-crore IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares amounting to Rs 300 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) aggregating up to Rs 5,250 crore by selling shareholder Singapore VII Topco III Pte Ltd, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group Inc. The issue, with a price band of Rs 285-291 a share, will open on June 14 and close on June 16. The Rs 909-crore IPO of Shyam Metalics and Energy Ltd, a leading integrated metal producing company, consists of fresh issuance of equity shares worth up to Rs 657 crore and an OFS to the tune of Rs 252 crore by existing shareholders. The price band has been fixed at Rs 303-306 per share for the IPO, which will open for public subscription during June 14-16. Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences' IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares aggregating up to Rs 200 crore and an OFS of up to 2,35,60,538 equity shares from promoters and existing shareholders. Those offering shares in the OFS include General Atlantic Singapore KH Pte Ltd, Dr Bhaskara Rao Bollineni, Rajyasri Bollineni and Bollineni Ramanaiah Memorial Hospitals. The company has set a price band of Rs 815-825 a share for its three-day initial share sale, which will conclude on June 18. At the upper end of the price band, the IPO is expected to fetch Rs 2,144 crore. The IPO of Dodla Dairy comprises fresh issuance of shares worth up to Rs 50 crore besides an OFS of up to 1,09,85,444 equity shares by TPG Dodla Dairy Holdings Pte Ltd, Dodla Sunil Reddy, Dodla Deepa Reddy and Dodla Family Trust. The leading dairy company in South India has fixed a price of a band of Rs 421-428 a share for its initial share sale, which will open for public subscription on June 16 and conclude on June 18. At the upper end of the issue price, the IPO is expected to garner Rs 520 crore. Shares of these companies will be listed on BSE and NSE. According to Angel Broking's Gupta, this will be a very good opportunity for retail investors to make money due to listing gains in a very short time period. So far this year, 17 firms have come out with IPOs to raise Rs 17,503 crore. Also Read: Good news! THIS bank is offering free ration to COVID affected, low-income customers Apart from this, companies including Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, Glenmark Life Sciences, Rolex Rings and Seven Islands Shipping have received Sebi's go-ahead to float the IPO. Moreover, around 26 companies are awaiting Sebi's approval to launch the initial share-sale, data with Sebi showed. Sandeep Bhardwaj, CEO, Retail at IIFL Securities said that the great IPO story of FY21 will continue well into FY22. There is enough liquidity in the system and a robust investor appetite for primary issues. "Also the pandemic has reset businesses across industries and many rising sectors will look to tap the markets," he added. Also Read: Bonanza for UP government employees! Here's what's being offered New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a Shiv Sena MLA from Mumbai's Chandivali made a contractor sit on a waterlogged road and asked workers to dump garbage on him. The incident reportedly took place on Saturday (June 12, 2021) as heavy rains lashed the financial capital. When asked, Shiv Sena leader Dilip Lande said, "I did this as the contractor didn't do his job properly." "I had been calling up the contractor for the last 15 days, requesting him to clear the road. He never did that. Shiv Sena people were themselves working on it. When he came to know, he rushed there. I told him that it's his responsibility and he should do it," Lande added. Watch: #WATCH | Mumbai: Shiv Sena MLA from Chandivali, Dilip Lande makes a contractor sit on water logged road & asks workers to dump garbage on him after a road was waterlogged due to improper drainage cleaning He says, "I did this as the contractor didn't do his job properly" (12.6) pic.twitter.com/XjhACTC6PI ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2021 Earlier on Saturday, the suburban train services between Dadar and Kurla stations on the main line were suspended for some time after the water rose above the track level. The suburban services on the Harbour line had also slowed down due to water-logging near Chunabhatti station. Several BEST buses had also been diverted due to waterlogging at some points. Waterlogging was also witnessed at several locations in Bandra east, Hindmata, King's Circle, Kurla Kamani and Wadala. Meanwhile, the Met department has issued an 'orange alert' of heavy or very heavy rain in Mumbai. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Actor Rajesh Khatter has had a rough year. The actor tested positive for COVID-19 in April and was also hospitalised for the same. In the same month he lost his father Krishna Khattar to a cardiac arrest. However, Rajesh Khatter is upset with the claims of his bankruptcy. I have been fending calls from friends who have been asking me whether I have hit a rough patch financially. Initially, I was amused by these reports, but they soon started affecting me, the actor told ETimes. The reports of the actor going bankrupt first started doing rounds when his wife and actress Vandana Sajnani shared in an interview that due to the lockdown and constant visits to the hospital, the couple has exhausted their savings. Its not that I havent suffered a financial setback, but hasnt that happened with almost everyone because of the slowing down of work during the pandemic? Right from Vandanas pregnancy to now, we have been doing the rounds of hospitals for the past two-and-a-half years. In fact, she was in the hospital even during the lockdown owing to postpartum depression, says Rajesh. The actor is particularly upset that Shahid Kapoor (step son) and Ishaan Khatter (son) were also made part of this controversy. That was in bad taste. They dragged them into it. We actors are accustomed to the occupational hazards of such baseless rumours circulating, but this was a bit much. God forbid, if I ever reach that stage, I have my family to support me. Everyone is going through a difficult time and being sensitive is the need of the hour, said the actor. New Delhi: IDFC FIRST Bank has launched a GharGhar Ration scheme to provide daily ration to its low-income customers who are unable to earn a living due to the ongoing pandemic. The programme is funded by the employees of the bank. Besides the noble initiative, IDFC FIRST Bank has also rolled out several other initiatives for its employees. Under the GharGhar Ration programme, employees of IDFC Bank have donated from their personal income to establishing a fund to look after 50,000 low-income customers affected by the wrath of the pandemic. For the Customer COVID Care Fund, IDFC Bank employees have donated their one months salary to provide a financial cushion to thousands of customers unable to meet their daily needs. Ration kits which include 10 kg rice/ flour, 2 kg lentils, 1 kg sugar and salt, 1 kg cooking oil, 5 packets of assorted spices, tea and biscuits, among other daily essential items are being procured by the employees to support the families in need for approximately a month. Also Read: The ration kits are delivered to the customers home. The deliveries are made by bank employees in rural areas while pre-paid cards worth Rs 1800 are being provided to low-income customers in urban cities. Customers can use the card to buy groceries. Customers in need of groceries can directly contact their nearby branch to avail the benefits of the scheme. So far, over 1000 ration kits in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana have been delivered successfully by bank customers. V Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank, said, While we cannot solve all problems considering the magnitude of the crisis, we want to support our customers to the extent we can, and hence our GharGhar Ration program. Also Read: PF advance needed? Heres how to check account balance via missed call or SMS New Delhi: China's first-ever rover to land on another planet, the Zhurong rover is celebrating its first month on Mars and China National Space Administration (CNSA) released a selfie. In the image shared by Chinese spact agency, Zhurong can be seen with its landing platform in the background sporting the Chinese flag, from which the rover rolled off at the end of May to begin its exploration. (Image shared by China National Space Administration (CNSA) June 11, 2021) The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said, Zhurong successfully touched down on Utopia Planitia, a vast northern lava plain on the Red Planet, on May 15, after it spent about three months orbiting the planet. The Chinese rover is surveying Utopia Planitia for signs of water or ice that could lend clues as to whether Mars ever sustained life. It is the second rover to land and operate a spacecraft on Mars, after the US Perseverance rover. (Image shared by China National Space Administration (CNSA) June 11, 2021.) Zhurong blasted off from Earth in July 2020, tucked in the belly of China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft, which entered Martian orbit in February. Meanwhile, the US spcae agency NASA expects its rover to collect its first rock samples in July for return to Earth as early as 2031, as part of an ambitious, multi-stage mission. Notably, China has now sent astronauts into space, powered probes to the Moon and returned the first moon samples to Earth in more than 45 years. New Delhi: A person won the bid to fly alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother by shelling out $28 million for booking a seat on Blue Origins spacecraft that is set to go into space next month. Blue Origin said that 7,500 people from 159 countries registered to bid. The top bid on Friday had reached $4.8 million. The bidding war was set on fire after Bezos announced early this week that his brother would be onboard New Shepard's first crew flight. Bezos-owned Blue Origin, however, hasnt officially revealed the name of the winner after the live auction. The space tech company is expected to disclose the name of the winner in a couple of weeks. The flight to space will take off from West Texas on July 20, which marks the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic moon landing that changed the meaning of space exploration for humans. This is the first time Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket will go into space with real humans on board. Bezos taking the risk to become the first of the persons to go into space on the companys rocket can also be seen as a popularity stunt that might kick off his space tourism business. Previously, fifteen test flights of the reusable rocket and capsule since 2015 have been conducting successfully. The short hops lasted about 10 minutes. The money coming from the bid will be used for Blue Origin's Club for the Future. Notably, Blue Origin's Club for the Future is an educational effort to promote science and tech among young people. New Delhi: Khatron Ke Khiladi 11 participant and television actor Arjun Bijlani remembers late actor Sushant Singh Rajput ahead of his first death anniversary on June 14. The two actors were both friends and neighbours - until Sushant relocated to Bandra from Malad in 2016. In an exclusive to a news daily, Arjun calls Sushant a happy go lucky guy. Sushant was a happy-go-lucky guy. He was a good friend, because we stayed in the same building and discussed our projects regularly. In fact, I remember spending quality time with him either in his balcony or mine, discussing work and our aspirations, shares Arjun to ETimes. Talking about the late actor's determination to make a mark for himself, Arjun added, He would always tell me that trivial things never bothered him and that he would fight all odds to achieve his dreams. I remember the time when he had bagged the role in Kai Po Che!, and was all set to move from television to films. He was very excited. Arjun also recalls the mutual love that the two shared for bikes. We both were very fond of bikes. One day, he surprised me by saying, Arjun, come down, I want to show you something. When I went downstairs, I saw him on a fancy bike that he had bought. We both went for a ride after that. Those days were fun, since we were all living so close and sharing our lives. He would often play with my son Ayaan. The actor says that he will remember Sushant as a happy and determined person. I cant recall when I met him last, but I do remember thinking of him on May 29 last year and messaging him, because I felt that he had disappeared and wanted to know about him. I sent him a text to connect, but never received any reply... I remember him as a very emotional and determined guy. A happy and talented guy like Sushant just disappeared from our lives. I pray that wherever he is, he is happy. We miss him a lot, concludes Arjun. Last year on June 14, actor Sushant Singh Rapjut was found dead in his Bandra apartment. While some believe it to be a case of death by suicide others feel there is more to the story and it could be a case of abetment to suicide. Investigations are still underway for his death case. New Delhi: Former Bigg Boss 14 contestant Nikki Tamboli lost her elder brother Jatin Tamboli, 29, to COVID-19 on May 4. The actress soon after left for Cape Town, South Africa to participate in the Rohit Shetty hosted, adventure reality show - Khatron Ke Khiladi 11. The actress now opens up on putting a brave front and still not being able to share her grief. Mujhe koi mila nahi hai jiske saath mai baith k (I haven't got anybody with whom I can sit and talk), baat kar sakun. I haven't even spoken to my mom-dad. I am still in Cape Town, I cannot talk to them, Nikki told Hindustan Times. She further added, I cannot talk to them about what happened to my brother. (It is because) I know if I become weak in front of them, if I cry in front of them, I do not know what they will feel. I am just trying to accept what happened. I am just letting it go and moving ahead. Nikki had earlier shared a long note about how she constantly misses her brother. The actress also shut down the trolls for questioning her decision to participate in Khatron ke Khiladi. The actress revealed that her brother was excited about her participating in the show and her family too would want her to go after her dreams. She however said that her family will always be her priority. A million times we will miss you A million times we will cry If love alone could have saved you, you never would have died We will meet again someday I thank God he made you our brother while you were here on earth, wrote the actress in a long message that posted announcing her brother's death. New Delhi: In a movie-like scenario, a US lobster fisherman said he was swallowed by a humpback whale and has survived to tell the dreadful tale. Michael Packard, a 56-year-old veteran lobster diver, claimed that he was swallowed whole by a humpback whale, Cape Cod Times reported. All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black, Packard said recalling his chilling experience. The incident occurred when he was diving for lobster off the coast of the northeastern state of Massachusetts. I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth, he added. Packard said it was completely dark and he was sure he would be dead, adding that the only thought in his mind was of his kids. However, in an almost unbelievable twist, Packard, who was in his scuba gear, was released by the whale. He believes he was inside the whale for around 30 to 40 seconds before it spit him out. I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water), he told Cape Cod Times. Crewman Josiah Mayo picked Packard up after he surfaced and rushed to the Provincetown pier. A Provincetown Fire Department ambulance took him to Cape Cod Hospital, the report quoted Packards sister Cynthia Packard as saying. New Delhi: A giant terrifying crocodile named Osama Bin Laden has not only frightening for children but also for adults for decades. Osama, the Nile crocodile who is said to be 75 years old, resides in Uganda's Lake Victoria. This giant reptile is 16ft-long and it wiped out nearly one-tenth of the population in the small village of Luganga between 1991 and 2005. The reports suggest that till now, Osama has eaten over 80 locals in the village. According to the Daily Star reports, this horrifying animal used to snatch children as they came to take some water at the shore of the lake or swim beneath fishing boats and purposefully capsize them. At one point, Osama started to jump into fishermen's wooden vessels before carrying off people to kill them. Terrifying incidents: As per reports, the tattered clothing of a local fisherman was discovered floating on the water who one of the victims of Osama's attacks. Another man witnessed and survived an attack by the fearsome reptile, but his brother was not so lucky. Paul Kyewalyanga told Sydney Morning Herald that he was rowing in the back of his boat as his brother Peter fished from the front when Osama leapt in and snatched him. Paul Kyewalyanga said, Osama just emerged from the water vertically and flopped into the boat. The back of the boat where I was sitting was submerged. He tried helping but the crocodile had latched onto Peters leg with his giant jaws and began to pull at him, trying to get him into the water. Paul added, Peter was clutching the side screaming. They fought for about five minutes until I heard a tearing sound. Peter shouted, Hes broken my leg. Then he let go and was dragged into the lake. A few days later we found his head and his arm. In 2005, the Villagers started asking for help and the humongous crocodile was captured with the help of 50 local men and wildlife officials. Some people wanted to kill the reptile, but wildlife officials told villagers they could not kill the beast "with impunity". So, the reptile was given to the owners of Uganda Crocs to be used in their breeding program. ALSO READ: Is COVID vaccine turning you magnetic? Man makes bizarre claim. Check here to know the truth! Live TV On Sunday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) took to Twitter to dismiss rumours surrounding the safety of the AstraZeneca jab. This was after it was reported in the media that the head of the EU drug regulator's COVID-19 task force had said that countries should avoid giving the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people over 60, in addition to younger age groups amid fears over rare blood clotting and the fact that alternative vaccines are now available. The EMA has however always maintained that AstraZeneca shot is safe and can be used for all age groups over 18. In an interview to an Italian newspaper, Marco Cavaleri, head of the COVID Task Force of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), had apparently spoken about the risks associated with the vaccine. However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in a tweet, reinforced the fact the vaccine is safe. The tweet read: Misinformation is making the rounds today. This is the situation: Benefit/risk balance of AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine is positive and it remains authorised for all populations. EU Medicines Agency (@EMA_News) June 13, 2021 It should be noted that several European Union member states have stopped administering this vaccine to people below a certain age, restricting its use to the older population, due to the rare cases of blood clotting, mainly among young people. "In a pandemic context, our position was and is that the risk-benefit ratio remains favourable for all age groups," Cavaleri told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. However, as the number of COVID-19 cases is falling and taking into account the fact that the younger population is less exposed to COVID-19 related risks, Cavaleri said it would be better to give them COVID-19 vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, such as Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. Asked whether health authorities should avoid giving the Astrazeneca vaccine to people aged over 60, Cavaleri said, "Yes, and many countries, such as France and Germany, are considering it in the light of greater availability of mRNA vaccines." - With Agency inputs Live TV Washington: China has lambasted the United States over the latter`s plans to deploy missiles and defensive systems in neighbouring countries. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments in an address to the UN-backed Conference on Disarmament, wherein he also called for fresh efforts to advance nuclear talks with Iran and criticised Washington`s "unilateral bullying", South China Morning Post reported. Wang`s remarks come days after US President Joe Biden-led administration lifted some of its sanctions on Iran before a new round of talks in Vienna on Saturday (June 12). It also came ahead of next week`s summit between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva. "The comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue is an important multilateral diplomatic achievement endorsed by the UN Security Council in its resolutions and is a key pillar of international nuclear non-proliferation and peace and stability in the Middle East," Wang said, according to a transcript published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. It is to mention that tensions between the US and China have escalated sharply over a slew of issues. "The unilateral bullying behaviour by the US is the root cause of the Iranian nuclear issue. And lifting the sanctions against Iran is the right logic for returning to the comprehensive agreement," Wang added. China has threatened in the past to take countermeasures if the US deploys intermediate-range missiles in Asia. Beijing has not disclosed how many warheads it has, but an assessment by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute put the number at 320, which is far fewer than Russia`s 54,000 or the 70,000 US warheads. The United States has pushed to include China in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia. Beijing has so far rejected the proposal. ALSO READ: Herd of 14 elephants leaves one behind while trekking across China, know more Beijing: At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 others injured after a gas explosion tore through a residential community in central China on Sunday, official media reported. The blast took place at about 6:30 am local time in the Zhangwan district of Shiyan city in Hubei province, trapping a large number of people. The explosion left 12 people dead. Authorities have rescued nearly 150 people from the area, including 39 with serious injuries, and rushed them to hospitals, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Images and video footages circulating on social media platform Weibo show showed rescue workers working through the wreckage of flattened houses. The exact number of casualties is still being verified as the search and rescue is underway, the report said. Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s 12-year hold on power was set to end on Sunday (June 13) when parliament votes on a new government of improbable allies in a nation bitterly divided over his departure. The schism was evident at a raucous session of the legislature ahead of the vote. Netanyahu loyalists, shouting "shame" and "liar", frequently interrupted the man set to replace him, nationalist Naftali Bennett, as he spelled out the new coalition`s policies. Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, had failed to form a government after a March 23 election, the fourth in two years. Bennett, a hawkish hi-tech millionaire, is set to head a new administration that includes left-wing, centrist and Arab legislators, which he cobbled together with opposition leader Yair Lapid. It will likely be fragile, with a razor-thin majority. Parliament convened at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) to approve the government in a confidence vote that will follow speeches and a debate that could take about four hours. After its ratification, the new cabinet will be sworn in. Bennett, a 49-year-old Orthodox Jew, will serve as premier for two years before Lapid, 57, a former TV host, takes over. "Thank you Benjamin Netanyahu for your lengthy and achievement-filled service on behalf of the State of Israel," Bennett said, pledging to be prime minister for "all Israelis". His government, including for the first time a party that represents Israel`s 21% Arab minority, plans largely to avoid sweeping moves on hot-button international issues such as policy toward the Palestinians, and to focus on domestic reforms. Bennett said his government would promote economic steps toward the Palestinians but any violence by Palestinians would be met by a strong response. With little to no prospect of progress toward resolving the decades-long conflict with Israel, many Palestinians will be unmoved by the change of administration, predicting that Bennett will pursue the same right-wing agenda as Netanyahu. This does seem likely regarding Israel`s top security concern, Iran - and possible friction with U.S. President Joe Biden`s administration over the 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers. Biden predecessor Donald Trump left the deal, but Biden wants to return to it. "Renewal of the nuclear agreement with Iran is a mistake, an error that would again grant legitimisation to one of the darkest and violent regimes in the world," Bennett said. "Israel will not allow Iran to equip itself with nuclear weapons." Thanking Biden for his "years of commitment to Israel`s security", and for "standing by Israel" during fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza last month, Bennett said his government would pursue good relations with U.S. Democrats and Republicans."The government will make an effort to deepen and enhance our relations with both parties - bipartisan," Bennett said. In his address to parliament, a combative Netanyahu said: "If we are destined to go into the opposition, we will do so with our heads held high until we can topple it." Bennett doesn`t have the international standing, credibility or capability to "truly object" to the nuclear deal with Iran, Netanyahu said. BYE BYE BIBI? On the international stage, with his polished English and booming baritone voice, the telegenic Netanyahu has become the face of Israel. Serving in his first term as prime minister in the 1990s and winning four more terms in succession since 2009, he has been a polarising figure, both abroad and at home. Often referred to by his nickname Bibi, Netanyahu is loved by his supporters and loathed by critics. His ongoing corruption trial - on charges he denies - has only deepened the rift. His opponents have long reviled what they see as Netanyahu`s divisive rhetoric, underhand political tactics and subjection of state interests to his own political survival. Some have dubbed him "Crime Minister" and have accused him of mishandling the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout. Bennett has drawn anger from within the right-wing camp for breaking a campaign pledge by joining forces with Lapid - and an allegation from Netanyahu that he defrauded the electorate. Bennett has said another election - a likely outcome if no government were formed - would have been a disaster for Israel. Both Bennett and Lapid, who also addressed parliament, have said they want to bridge political divides and unite Israelis under a government that will work hard for all its citizens. They drew some cheers and applause during the session amid non-stop heckling from their opponents. Their cabinet faces huge foreign, security and financial challenges: Iran, a fragile ceasefire with Palestinian militants in Gaza, a war crimes probe by the International Criminal Court, and economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic. Bennett listed as priorities reforms in education, health, cutting red tape to grow businesses and lower housing costs. Coalition leaders have said it would pass a two-year budget to help stabilise the country`s finances and maintain a "status quo" on issues of religion and state. Live TV Auckland: New Zealand and Australia will now routinely offer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to women at any stage of pregnancy, following an update of vaccination advice. This comes as a University of Auckland's research suggests the risk of severe outcomes from infection is significantly higher for pregnant women compared to the general population. At the same time, data from pregnant women who have already been vaccinated around the world have shown no safety concerns associated with COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccination during pregnancy may also protect the baby. Research has identified antibodies in cord blood and breast milk, suggesting temporary protection (passive immunity) for babies before and after birth. This is similar to influenza and whooping cough vaccines given during pregnancy to protect pepi. There are no safety concerns for breastfeeding women receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and women trying to become pregnant do not need to delay vaccination or avoid becoming pregnant after vaccination. Prioritising pregnant women When the New Zealand government announced its vaccine rollout plan in March, pregnant women were designated as a priority in the third group, which includes 1.7 million people who are at higher risk if they catch COVID-19. This decision reflected the available information at the time from international research showing pregnant women with COVID-19 were more likely to be hospitalised and admitted to intensive care, compared to the rest of the population. The higher risk of hospitalisation is similar to other priority populations, including people aged 65 and over, and those with underlying health conditions or disabilities. People in these groups are also more likely to get very sick if they get COVID-19. New Zealand's decision was part of a principled strategy that aims to provide fair and equitable care based on scientific evidence, acknowledging research that places pregnant women in a high-risk group if they were to be infected. Changing advice to pregnant women Initial advice from the Immunisation Advisory Centre was that women could receive the vaccine at any time during pregnancy, but for those at low risk of exposure, they recommended delaying vaccination until after birth. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) published similar early advice, stating that women could choose to have the vaccine at any stage of pregnancy, particularly if they were in a high-risk population. But they did not recommend routine universal vaccination if levels of community transmission were low. So what has changed since March? It became urgent to review the early advice as local vaccination centres have started vaccinating people in the third group of the rollout. Also, travel bubbles with Australia and the Cook Islands meant people were possibly more exposed to transmission. The early advice in New Zealand and Australia was also diverging from other countries, such as Canada. And more research is coming out about the risks of COVID-19 infection in pregnancy, while international experience with mRNA-based vaccines (such as Pfizer-BioNTech) in pregnant women is growing. Pregnant women were not included in the original clinical trials to test COVID-19 vaccines for safety. But there is no evidence of any harm associated with the vaccine during pregnancy. Vaccine trials in the US are now actively recruiting pregnant women. We can expect research results by the end of this year. In the meantime, we can be reassured by registries, which are studies that track women who have had the vaccine during pregnancy and have given consent to have information collected about them and their babies. Researchers in the US found women who received the vaccine during pregnancy had outcomes similar to background rates for the mother (regarding rates of miscarriage, diabetes, high blood pressure) and the baby. Side effects from receiving the vaccine were also the same in pregnant and non-pregnant women, and it is safe to take paracetamol as needed to manage these. Other countries, including the UK, have published decision aids to help with this important decision. Research supports routinely offering the vaccine to pregnant women, and it is up to individuals to decide whether to receive it or not, as part of a shared decision-making process with their midwife or doctor. Washington: The United States has called on China to cease its pressure against Taiwan and resolve the cross-strait issues `peacefully`. This was conveyed during a phone call between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Member and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi on Friday (June 10). During the phone call, Blinken underscored US concern over the deterioration of democratic norms in Hong Kong and the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. "He also called on Beijing to cease its pressure campaign against Taiwan and peacefully resolve cross-Strait issues," read a State Department statement on the issue. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades. Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are escalating. China ramped up political pressure and military threats against Taiwan, with almost daily incursions into Taipei`s air defence identification zone. Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing. China has threatened that "Taiwan`s independence" means war. The Taiwan Strait is a 180-kilometer-wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. It is one of the most heavily policed strips of water in the world, patrolled by both Chinese and Taiwanese navy and coast guard vessels. During the phone call, the US State Secretary raised several cases of US and Canadian citizens subject to arbitrary detention and exit bans in China and called for the immediate release of those wrongfully detained. Meanwhile, Jiechi urged the US to adhere to the one-China principle, and take concrete actions to maintain the overall situation of China-US ties as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. According to Xinhua news agency, Yang also called on the US to keep to its promise and cherish its credibility, and handle issues related to Taiwan in a prudent and proper manner. Back in March this year, a heated exchange was witnessed between US and Chinese diplomats at Anchorage, Alaska. China's top diplomat, Jiechi, had delivered a 16-minute rant during the meeting with Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, accusing them of condescension and hypocrisy. ALSO READ: G7 outreach summit: PM Narendra Modi gives one earth, one health mantra, seeks support on vaccine patent waiver